Chapter 861 Changes and Spies
A Universal Civilization that wanted to make use of public opinion as their weapon had sufficient rights to borrow the galactic media groups to spread their voice. The influence of a Universal Civilization covered the various Star Fields, and their influence could not be matched by the Star Cluster civilizations, which were restricted to their own region.
Ruler Urranrell then described the entire process in detail before releasing an official document that recorded the entire event in detail to the public.
The document emphasized how the Arcane Church was blinded by their greed for the Evolution Cube and ignored the fact that the Flickering World was under the control of the dynasty. They had even worked together with the infamous Fallen Ark and ambushed the dynasty’s troops, which caused massive losses to the dynasty. The dynasty strongly criticized such an action and reserved the right to pursue the matter. They announced that they were going to stop all activities with the Arcane Church and enter war-time alert.
The dynasty’s announcement was extremely solemn and strict, making the galactic residents feel that the dynasty had suffered astronomical loss. But after viewing the document and understanding the exact process of the matter, they were shocked to realize that the dynasty did not suffer too much of a loss but managed to repel the enemy instead. They had even captured two of the enemy’s Beyond Grade As in the Flickering World.
Black Star’s contributions were greatly emphasized within the document, and his battle results were being promoted. The dynasty wanted to help Han Xiao raise his prestige and deal a heavy blow to the Arcane Church. The Arcane Church was the background for Black Star’s contributions, and Black Star was obtaining his prestige by standing on top of the Arcane Church. The greater the spread of this incident, the heavier the blow dealt to the Arcane Church.
News of Black Star capturing Dylan created a huge commotion after spreading out. Han Xiao was a new Beyond Grade A who had created a sensation just a while back, and most of the galactic residents were somewhat familiar with him.
Who would have thought that in less than a year, the newly ascended Black Star would be able to capture an expert of the same level as him?
Killing or capturing a Beyond Grade A alive had significant meaning in the universe. The Beyond Grade A level was already the peak, and if an individual was capable of subduing this peak, their fame would be propelled up to the next level.
Han Xiao had previously fought Psyker and Heber, and the result of the battle was only a draw. Although it could be considered a Beyond Grade A incident, it was not too shocking.
But this time, he had personally defeated a combatant at his level, and it could be said that Han Xiao’s status in the universe had stabilized after this battle.
The document also pointed out that Heber had captured a Beyond Grade A Super, but before Black Star’s merits, it seemed extremely ordinary. After all, the galactic residents were able to understand the difference. One managed to capture the enemy while being at the absolute disadvantage while the other fought the enemy in a one-on-one battle when the enemy was surrounded. The two events could not be compared.
Apart from the shock of the event, many were worried about the influence of this matter. If the Crimson Dynasty and Arcane Church broke out into open war, the situation in the galaxy would become tense again.
For the past ten years, the Crimson Dynasty and the Federation of Light had been at a standoff. Now that the Federation of Light had become low profile, the Arcane Church decided to walk up the stage.
Ever since the Flickering World was discovered, the galaxy had been unstable.
Regardless of how slow witted the galactic residents were, they were able to see that the three Universal Civilizations were having conflicts around this new Star Field.
...
After the dynasty made their announcement, the various Super Star Cluster and Star Cluster Civilizations immediately activated their intelligence net to gather information.
Black Star had become the focus of all these organizations, and many organizations became wary of him.
The Beyond Grade A allies of the three Universal Civilizations had always been the target for research of the various organizations. However, Han Xiao was different from the other Beyond Grade As that had joined for a few decades. He had joined the dynasty less than a year prior, and information was limited. However, many organizations had no choice but to adjust his threat to the level of the three pillars of the dynasty and label him as a target to pay close attention to.
The Arcane Church then revealed the various methods that Han Xiao had displayed in the battle through their various hidden intelligence agencies, and all the organizations now knew that Black Star had two Universal Treasures in his hands. There was no need to talk about the Evolution Cube since it was the reason for the battle.
However, the other Universal Treasure was actually able to block the Ten Thousand Deity Scepter and seal a Beyond Grade A. With such methods up his sleeves, Black Star had a special strategic position and could not be considered an ordinary Beyond Grade A combatant.
There were naturally those with greed as well. The Arcane Church intentionally revealed such information so that many organizations would eye the Universal Treasure in Han Xiao’s hands. They had indeed succeeded, but the other organizations did not dare to take any reckless actions since even the Arcane Church had failed.
Black Star’s battle merits were a true deterrent to many organizations.
...
A few days later, the dynasty began their counterattack, and Arcane Church’s stargate located in the Shattered Star Ring suffered from an ambush. An intense battle broke out, and it was said that the energy reactions of the battle could be felt from a Star Zone away.
After Sagman’s ambush failed, the Arcane Church had guessed that the Crimson Dynasty would attempt to destroy their stargate located in the Shattered Star Ring. Thus, they had already begun mobilizing their reinforcements and had even mobilized other Beyond Grade A combatants.
However, in order to secretly send out six Beyond Grade As, the Arcane Church had gotten their other Beyond Grade As to attract the attention of the public in various locations. As such, it would require some time to mobilize them, and the dynasty managed to seize that window.
Ames was the only Beyond Grade A present in the Shattered Star Ring, and she participated in the attack before the Arcane Church’s reinforcements could arrive. Her Force Field was a sharp weapon in galactic warfare and could easily disrupt and penetrate the formation of the army stationed at the stargate. Furthermore, she was also able to use her Force Field to destroy the stargate and cut off the enemy’s route of retreat.
Following which, the dynasty began monitoring all the public stargates and sent out their spies to monitor the Arcane Church’s movements.
However, as a Universal Civilization, the Arcane Church had many other ways to deal with that.
...
Old Medal Bar was located in the seventh junkyard of some galactic transit station in the Shattered Star Ring. Although it seemed like a public bar that was a little tattered on the surface, it was actually the gathering point of a black-market merchant with the nickname of ‘Night Bat’.
There was no absolute order in the universe, and there would always be shadows when light existed. The galactic black market was the biggest shadow in the galactic society.
There would always be needs when there were people, and there would always be smugglers when there were needs. Every region in the universe had their own black markets. Some were businesses that the government chose to look away from, and others were gray regions that were not controlled by any civilizations.
In the black markets of the Shattered Star Ring, Night Bat was not a bigshot. On the contrary, he was an unknown character who mainly collected scrap. He made use of such a disguise to smuggle some military machines.
There was no need for him to behave sneakily. Almost all the locals knew that Old Medal Bar was his black market gathering point, but because of its small size and the items being sold being relatively safe, no organization paid close attention to him. In this galactic transit station, there were hundreds of such black merchants.
Today, a freight captain arrived at the Old Medal Bar, and this captain had been working together with Night Bat for a long time. He would sell some scraps to Night Bat with some smuggled goods hidden within the scraps. Night Bat personally invited him to the underground chamber under his bar to be a guest today.
Only Night Bat and this freight captain were left in the office.
The freight captain then lit a cigarette and blew out a mouthful of smoke. He took out a sheet of paper and pushed it toward Night Bat.
“This is the list of scraps.”
“Thanks.”
Night Bat was a skinny man with a fawning smile on his face. Everyone would think that he was a crafty merchant upon seeing his face.
“The goods have been delivered. I’ll make a move now.” The freight captain stood up.
“Aren’t you going to have some fun? I heard that Red Widow on Gray Shed Street has some new mixed-blood elves...”
“Mixed blood elves... forget it. Have you heard? The Crimson Dynasty and Arcane Church have begun fighting in the Shattered Star Ring. The situation in the outside world is far too unstable. I will return home after this trip and wait for them to finish their battle before coming out to do business.”
The freight captain seemed a little tempted but decided otherwise and left the room.
Night Bat followed behind him and called for his subordinates to shift the scraps on the cargo ship.
With everyone being busy, no one would notice subtle changes. No one noticed that Night Bat had suddenly grown a few centimeters taller with his body shape changing slightly. One of the workers of the freight captain had also experienced such a subtle change.
After half a day, the goods were finally unloaded, and the cargo ship left the planet.
The cargo ship was set to autopilot, and the captain received news of iron eating bugs being spotted in the warehouse.
This was an extremely common bug that would destroy the internal structure of a spaceship. It had to be cleaned up immediately the moment it was spotted.
The captain went to the warehouse, and more than thirty workers had flamethrowers in their hands to burn the ten or so centimeters bugs into ashes.
“Captain, we have already stabilized the situation and are checking the damage. Some goods show signs of being bitten,” a worker reported.
Upon hearing that, the freight captain became anxious. All the goods in the warehouse were his customers’ orders, and he would have to pay for them if they were damaged.
He was only an ordinary individual in the universe and was not able to afford such goods.
“Bring me to take a look!”
They entered the depths of the warehouse.
Right at that moment, the worker suddenly took out a silenced handgun and aimed it at the captain’s head.
“You...” The captain was shocked.
The worker then opened fire decisively
Pap pap pap!
Three bullets shot through the skull of the freight captain. This was definitely a fatal injury to an ordinary individual.
The freight captain landed on the ground with blood flowing out from his body.
This worker wiped his face and took off a mask-like item to reveal Night Bat’s appearance.
Night Bat had a cold expression on his face without any trace of his ‘cunning merchant’ aura.
He took out the access card and communicator from the captain’s body and carried the captain’s body back to the region where they had been burning bugs.
When Night Bat walked out from the darkness, the situation was already completely different. Only five of the thirty plus workers were left, and they all had silenced handguns in their hands. There were more than twenty corpses on the ground, and they had all been shot dead.
They looked toward Night Bat and greeted him. “Captain.”
They were all spies trained by the Arcane Church. Night Bat had disguised himself as a black market merchant for many years to manage an insignificant smuggling business. A portion of his team had been disguised as workers and worked for this freight captain.
After smuggling for so many years, they had secretly gathered sufficient parts to build a new stargate. These workers had secretly loaded up the stargate equipment onto these spaceships when they were unloading the goods previously.
After remaining hidden for such a long time, they had always been waiting for their organization to summon them. The Arcane Church activated these spies at such a moment, and their mission was to obtain an insignificant looking spaceship and meet up with the Beyond Grade As to help them escape with the stargate equipment.
Night Bat’s team was not the only one with such a mission; similar scenes were playing out all around the Shattered Star Ring.
These usually insignificant characters had begun to take action.
Beyond Grade A was the peak of individual strength, but no one would be able to call themselves the protagonist of the universe. The universe was far too big, and every character had their own role to play. Even an insignificant individual could influence the bigger picture.