High Martial Arts: Slay enemies to become stronger, forge invincibility from billions of corpses.

Song Chen entered the Star Lord's Hall.

In the center of the hall is a long banquet table, carved from a single piece of lightning-struck wood, its surface polished so that it reflects one's image.

The table was laden with special dishes of the Thunder Clan, mostly meat from various thunder-elemental beasts. The cooking methods were mainly raw consumption and slow roasting at low temperatures, and the seasonings were juices extracted from several conductive plants unique to Thunder Star.

Song Chen took a bite of the roasted Lei Peng breast meat. The meat was firm, and when it entered his mouth, a slight electric current exploded on his tongue. The tingling sensation traveled from his mouth all the way to the back of his head, which was very satisfying.

Throughout the banquet, Lei Yuan carefully observed Song Chen's expression, noting whether he was satisfied with the food and whether he was comfortable with the environment of the Star Lord's Mansion. He kept his words in a respectful yet ingratiating manner.

Song Chen didn't talk much. He would just eat and occasionally ask about the climate and customs of Leimingxing.

But Lei Yuan was clearly not used to this kind of ordinariness. The more ordinary the messenger from the Punishment Department was, the more frightening he became.

You never know when he might suddenly turn on you.

After Song Chen put down his chopsticks, Lei Yuan finally clapped his hands.

The side door of the main hall opened. A series of light footsteps approached from afar, accompanied by the faint crackling of electric arcs.

Song Chen turned his head to look over, and the hand holding the wine glass paused in mid-air.

One hundred Thunder Clan girls filed in and lined up neatly in ten rows and ten columns in front of the banquet table.

They all appeared to be between sixteen and twenty years old. The lifespan of the Thunder Clan is about three times that of humans, and this age translates to roughly the age of adulthood in human terms.

Everyone was dressed in the traditional formal attire of the Thunder Clan, a long, silver-white robe woven from silk woven from lightning-struck silkworms.

The robes were tailored to fit perfectly, outlining the silhouette of each girl's figure.

The female members of the Thunder Clan are taller than human females, averaging nearly two meters in height. They have long limbs, and their skin takes on a faint silver-blue hue due to the flow of thunderous energy, resembling a layer of glaze on the surface of porcelain under the light.

But what caught Song Chen's attention was not their appearance, but the spiritual energy fluctuations emanating from them.

Every girl is a superhuman, and not just any superhuman. The psychic energy core within their bodies naturally possesses a special auxiliary frequency that can resonate with the stellar cores of other psychic users, thereby enhancing the opponent's psychic energy recovery speed and combat skills.

"My lord," Lei Yuan stood up, bowed slightly, and his eyes, which shone with electricity, held a hint of probing amusement.

"This is a small token of my appreciation. These one hundred girls with the Resonance Physique were carefully selected by the various families of the Thunder Clan, representing the most talented group."

"They receive auxiliary training from a young age and can provide stable psionic resonance amplification for the adult's star core. If the adult doesn't mind, take them back as a gift from the Thunder Clan to the adult."

Before Song Chen could speak, Lei Yuan quickly added another sentence.

"If you think it's not enough, I have prepared another 10,000. I'm just afraid that if I bring them all up at once, you'll think I'm not being discreet enough."

Song Chen almost choked on his drink. A million times?

He put down his wine glass and looked at the hundred girls standing neatly in front of him.

They stood quietly, their expressions showing respect and nervousness, but no fear. Clearly, they had been repeatedly informed of the mission before being chosen, and each of them felt honored to be selected.

In the Thunder Clan's mind, being chosen by the Star Lord to be a handmaid of the Alliance's Punisher is not a humiliation, but an honor.

"Star Lord," Song Chen said.

"Please speak, sir."

I accept your favor.

Song Chen stood up, walked to the hundred girls, and glanced at them.

"However, I'm here to resolve your clan's internal strife, so please accept me."

Lei Yuan didn't insist and gestured for the girls to leave.

"Since you don't want it, then don't take it."

"Let's get down to business."

Song Chen nodded: "Tell me about the rebels first."

Lei Yuan spoke, his voice lower than before: "The situation on Thunder Star is probably more complicated than what you see."

"Tell me about it."

Lei Yuan picked up his wine glass, took a sip, and used the act of drinking to gather his thoughts before putting the glass down.

"Thunder Star has four continents. The place where you are standing now is the Thunder Continent, the main continent. It is the largest in area, the most populous, and the richest in spiritual energy minerals."

"There are three subcontinents: Cloud Hidden Continent in the east, Abyss Continent in the south, and Aurora Continent in the north."

"The debt agreement of the alliance states that the debt should be shared proportionally among the four continents. But in reality... the three secondary continents have paid off the debt of the main continent for 12,000 years."

"When the treaty was first signed, it was indeed divided equally among the four continents."

"But in the few thousand years after Thunder Star joined the Alliance, we knew nothing. We had to learn from scratch how to mine psionic veins. Our production efficiency was extremely low. After paying off the Alliance's debts every year, all four continents were dirt poor."

"Later, when I became the Star Lord, I realized something: if all four continents are poor, none of them can develop, and sooner or later they will not be able to pay back the interest of the Alliance."

"In order to have the ability to repay loans, and even for the Thunder Clan to one day advance to a Level 2 civilization, at least one continent must become rich first."

At this point, Lei Yuan's tone gradually shifted from respectful to serious.

"Therefore, I have decided to keep the money from the main continent for development. The money will be repaid by the secondary continent first, and then the main continent will give back to the secondary continent once it has developed."

Hearing this, Song Chen became interested: "What was the result?"

Lei Yuan pointed in the direction outside the Star Lord's Hall: "The results have indeed developed very quickly."

"When you arrived, you saw Thunder City. This city is three times larger than any other main city on any sub-continent."

"The level of psionic technology on the main continent has quadrupled in the last three thousand years, and the number of seventh-tier powerhouses exceeds the total number on the three sub-continents."

"I myself have reached the peak of the seventh rank, which can be considered as bringing honor to the Thunder Clan in the Milky Way, but..."

"But the subcontinent didn't get any feedback, right?" Song Chen replied with a grin.

Lei Yuan's lips twitched slightly.

"Yes, the plan was good, but the execution went astray."

"After the main continent developed, interest groups formed, and no one was willing to give back the money to the secondary continent."

"Every city lord, every family, and every merchant guild is thinking about how to continue to squeeze the benefits out of the subcontinent."

"Although I am the Star Lord, the Thunder Clan does not practice dictatorship. The Star Lord's power is checked by the Council of Elders and the City Council."

"Regarding the issue of redistributing the debt so that the main continent bears more of the burden, I have raised it no less than twenty times in the council of elders, and each time it has been rejected."

"The ones with the most dissenting votes are the representatives of the families who rose to power by exploiting the subcontinent."

"And then the subcontinent rebelled?"

"Hmm, it's the opposite." Lei Yuan sighed.

"Three months ago, Lei Mo of the Cloud Hidden Continent rebelled. He was originally the city lord of Lei Yan City on the Cloud Hidden Continent, with the strength of the peak of the seventh rank."

"The Cloud Hidden Continent is the most exploited. After paying off its debts to the alliance each year, the remaining resources are not even enough to sustain basic livelihoods."

"After being cooped up in this environment for thousands of years, Lei Mo broke through to the peak of the seventh rank. The first thing he did was to kill all the main continent garrisons on the Cloud Hidden Continent, publicly declare his independence from the rule of the main continent, and establish the Lei Ji Army."

"How strong is he now?" Song Chen asked.

"Its combat power is extremely strong. All of Lei Mo's combat skills are lightning-based, which are perfectly suited to the environment of Leiming Star."

"His Thunder Army has now grown to more than ten million people. The rebels currently control about forty percent of the territory in the eastern part of the Thunder Continent. The three sub-continents of Cloud Hidden, Abyss, and Aurora are completely under his control."