998 Storm Rises and Falls
“My current combat style is perfect, not only tanky but with powerful burst strength and lots of crowd control skills. The size of my mechanical army is huge, and it can carry out tactical cooperation with hundreds of thousands of troops. There are also high levelled machines such as the mechanical host as well as Apostle Weapons, and my mental resistance is also high. I have Virtual Paramount as a spiritual attack, and my void bloodline also gives me unique skills...”
Analyzing his current cards, Han Xiao felt that he was getting quite overpowered, having developed a comprehensive spiritual and physical enhancement.
Among the five big Super systems, the Espers had the highest battle power in the beginning, but in the endgame, the Mechanics and Mages would shine. Compared to the other three systems, Mechanics and Mages utilized knowledge as the source of their power and had very comprehensive abilities, leaving few shortcomings. For Mechanics, their low HP and mental resistance would be considered their more prominent weaknesses.
However, in Han Xiao’s dictionary, there was no ‘Low HP’ or ‘Weak Mental Resistance’. Having compensated for them, there were no weaknesses, and he was basically an all-rounder.
But now, he had the skill [Charge—Endless potential]. This sort of super high-explosive single target skill would make the fighting method more perfect because when they were fighting, Han Xiao’s main body or his avatar would usually be roaming around and would not immediately step forward to engage in a melee entanglement. With his potential accumulation skill, the distance he travelled could be converted into damage, which gave him more strategic options.
He gleefully admired this ability for a while longer before turning off the interface.
Returning to his room, he suppressed his joy, taking out his communicator. After a few deep breaths, he dialed the private line of the Dynasty Ruler to find out her stand.
After a few rings, Urranrell’s delicate face appeared on the screen. It seemed that she had expected Han Xiao to contact her.
“Black Star, you’re here.”
“Your Excellency Ruler.” Han Xiao went straight to the point. “Do you know about Bekorodi’s matter?”
“Hmm.” Urranrell nodded.
Glancing at her calm expression, Han Xiao confirmed his suspicion that the dynasty’s decision makers wanted him to turn the cube in, and even the Ruler was standing on their side.
Han Xiao paused for a moment before saying, “Do you have any suggestions?”
“I also hope that you can hand over the Evolution Cube. This concerns an important strategy of the Dynasty.”
“Is the important strategy to sell the totems publicly? If I pass over the cube to you, what I’m losing is a huge amount of profit.” Han Xiao tested the waters.
Urranrell shook her head, slowly explaining, “The dynasty has no intention at the moment to sell the totems to the public. This decision was based on our consideration of risk. For you, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. The federation and church are increasing their pressure, and while the dynasty is holding the majority back, as long as you hold onto the Evolution Cube, it’s hard to guarantee that they will not take the risk again to launch a new sneak attack.
“I believe that you understand this too. In your hands, the Evolution Cube is a hot potato. Dealing with you is much easier than forcing the dynasty to compromise. If the cube is handed over to the dynasty for custody, the enemy will face no chance.”
“You seem to have very little confidence in me.” Han Xiao raised a brow. “I thought you were always optimistic about me.”
“I indeed am optimistic about your future, but you’re still one person,” Urranrell replied. “After their last lesson, if the federation and church act, they will definitely bring out the likes of Manison and Kasuyi, peak Beyond Grade As. As of now, you’re still not an opponent for the Mechanic Emperor himself, and if the other peak Beyond Grade As are added, the risk is too big.”
“This makes sense, but since they chose not to act over the past few years, it’s hard to say so in the future too.” Han Xiao was still undecided.
“The situation is now different. Beyond Grade As are generally distributed in different Star Fields, so when mobilized, we can receive warnings and prepare in advance. However, when the Flickering World opens, it will be an excellent opportunity for the federation and the church. The entire universe’s Beyond Grade As will rush to the Shattered Star Ring, and with so many people gathering, it will be easy to gather high levelled combatants to quickly attack your base camp. Because they have a legitimate reason to gather them, it will be difficult for us to be on guard.”
Han Xiao stroked his chin. Indeed, due to the news of the Flickering World about to open, all sorts of organizations had begun to gather within the Shattered Star Ring. This naturally included many Beyond Grade As from the other Star Fields.
In the past, all these Beyond Grade As were distributed in various Star Fields, so it was difficult to gather them to deal with him. However, with the opportunity, the situation would naturally turn more dangerous.
It could be foreseen that during this period, the originally chaotic Shattered Star Ring would become much worse. Whether or not he as the local tyrant could withdraw the chaos, it was really hard to say.
Seeing that Han Xiao did not speak, Urranrell continued in her attempts to persuade him. “Black Star, although the future profit of the Evolution Cube is huge and it is disadvantageous to trade it, it’s still better than losing it.”
“Let me think about this.” Han Xiao nodded. For the time being, he decided not to burn all his bridges.
“There’s no need to give me an answer soon.” Urranrell suddenly changed the topic. “I have something I need you to do as well.”
“What?”
“Right now, the dynasty is building an Inter-Star Field Stargate to link the Shattered Star Ring and the Flickering World. Before we officially open it, a large number of organizations within the entire universe will flock over, which will impact this Star Field. I need you to maintain law and order, suppressing all foreign organizations and Beyond Grade A to prevent chaos.”
Han Xiao was quite interested in this. “But I remember that the Shattered Star Ring belongs to the federation in name.”
“That’s right. However, our dynasty is stronger in the region, and maintaining stability is beneficial to us. I don’t want any incidents to happen and affect the opening of the Flickering World.”
“You could actually speak to Heber for this.”
“The Tyrant doesn’t have your prestige, and only you have the qualification to suppress all the incoming Beyond Grade As.”
Hearing this, Han Xiao could not help but laugh.
To think that the dynasty Ruler, who sat above all others, would be so well versed at bootlicking.
His interface released a notification, which was displayed as an additional faction mission regarding the Main Storyline of the Flickering World arc. The requirement was to maintain the stability of the Shattered Star Ring before the opening, and the reward was quite satisfactory, giving him experience, contribution points, Enas, and resources from the dynasty.
“Alright, I’ll take helm in the Shattered Star Ring, and I hope that the other Beyond Grade As will show me some face.”
Even without the mission, he would still do the same. The Shattered Star Ring was where his army was currently camped, and stabilizing his backyard was compulsory. He would not allow any outsiders to run rampant in his leek field.
This was especially so for those newly minted Beyond Grade As. During this time, they would need to perform great deeds that would cement their influence and prestige.
After hanging up, Han Xiao breathed out and activated [Lord’s Descent], sending his consciousness to his machinery civilization’s planet.
Since he was going back to hold the fort, the troops remaining in his headquarters were not enough, and a new wave of reinforcements was needed.
It was just nice that the machinery civilization had already developed for over twenty years stably and was walking on the correct track. He was going to pull the group of Apostle Weapons back.
The scene in front of his eyes changed again, and he was now inside a mechanical palace, with the mechanical host sitting on the throne of the palace.
Han Xiao had left a mechanical host in the machinery civilization to facilitate himself coming over to take a look now and then. Thus, Psionic Prime and the rest had built a palace hall that resembled a Sky Reaching Pagoda, tens of thousands meters in height, and had enshrined his mechanical host within.
Manipulating his avatar, Han Xiao walked out of the palace and stood there overlooking the entire planet. He saw an endless line-up of mechanical cities, and countless mechanical life forms were flying in the sky.
This was the main planet of the machinery civilization, Planet Apostle, which was much better than a decade ago.
After more than twenty years of constant development, the machinery civilization had completely transformed this planet, building countless facilities on the surface and underground. With their strong productivity, they had even started to develop the planets nearby.
At the same time, like tree branches growing leaves, their population swelled up. This would be the future source of Han Xiao’s mechanical army.
Speaking from the scale of a civilization’s progress, the machinery civilization’s speed of development was akin to travelling using a hyperdrive spaceship. However, compared with the Black Spirit Race, the latter’s development was not slow either.
After years of study, batch after batch of scholars and researchers had appeared within the Black Spirit Race, and they had begun to integrate the knowledge from various fields taught by the army. Due to the special characteristics of the Black Spirit Race, once someone had learned a piece of knowledge, they could quickly spread it out.
With the resources and equipment generously provided by the army, the Black Spirit Race did not need to accumulate their production efficiency and could directly apply any acquired knowledge. Thus, in just two decades, they had directly entered the electrical age from the tribal age, completing a triple jump. The horrifying talent of the race had begun to emerge.
In his view, if the Black Spirit Race had started at the same point together with the federation and the church, it might have been the fourth Universal Civilization.
The talents of the Black Spirit Race were almost entirely focused on learning and education. To slightly exaggerate, this was a race that was qualified to use the prosperous saying of ‘everyone can be a dragon’.
As for the Kunde Race, they were still undergoing their cultural transformation, but Han Xiao had also allowed people to give them something good.
At this moment, the inner circle of the Kunde Race had already shown signs of people worshipping the Machinery Faith. Although their tragic battle a decade ago had left behind some wounds and they had not fully converted to this religion, the roots had already taken hold.
As Han Xiao gazed around the planet, in a short time, more than ten black dots appeared from afar, heading over.
Behind those black dots, which were his Apostle Weapons, there was a huge mountain-like shadow slowly approaching. This was the Giant King Kong, famous for his size, and his height was exactly parallel to the gate of the Sky Reaching Pagoda where Han Xiao was located.
“We greet our Lord.”
Psionic Prime led the Apostle Weapons and flew into the gate, stopping in front of Han Xiao and saluting.
In the recent years, Han Xiao had utilized all his Apostle Weapon slots, expanding the team. Because of [Perfect Mechanical Sense] as well as a series of talents and abilities that increase the upper limit of his skills, his Apostle Weapons numbered more than twelve now.
Gazing at them, he discovered that the Apostle Weapons now had better weapons and armor than they had twenty years ago. At the same time, their source energy had also grown.
All Mechanical life forms could grow as they could upgrade themselves. This was especially so for the first generation of mechanical life forms, which contained the purest Mechanical Life Tinder.
“Psionic Prime, Silver Flash, Mad Sky Hunter, Scarlet Flame, Gold Sovereign, Formless Ghost, Heaven-Suppressing Banner, and Purple Sky Spirit... Bring your troops with you and return to the headquarters in the Shattered Star Ring. I might require you guys to fight.” Han Xiao passed down the command.
“Understood,” Psionic Prime responded. To him, Han Xiao’s words were akin to divine doctrine.
...
At a stargate border of the Shattered Star Ring, a fleet with the symbol of the Arcane Church slowly exited the stargate.
Nowadays, Beyond Grade As everywhere were flocking to the Shattered Star Ring. This fleet was dedicated to escorting a new Beyond Grade A who had joined the Arcane Church a few years prior.
‘Red Devil’ Tolaen, once a wanted criminal from Silver Arm, had reached the Beyond Grade A a few years back. He was then recruited by the Arcane Church, and his previous deeds were wiped clean. With the support of the Arcane Church, his Silver Arm had a place in the universe.
In the conference room of the flagship, a portion of the Beyond Grade As of the Arcane Church were within the room, but only Tolaen was there with his main body.
“Haha, it seems like I’m the first to arrive. When will you all get here?” Tolaen laughed.
“Soon. You and Psyker had better wait there quietly for us.” Sun Hunter had a small stature, but his voice was mighty like a booming cannon.
“Hmm, what’s the use in just waiting?” Tolaen’s eyes gleamed. “Since there’s nothing to do, I’ll find someone to spar.”
He had just entered the Beyond Grade A realm not too long ago. As a newcomer, he did not have any outstanding battle records, so upon reaching the Shattered Star Ring, he felt the urge to prove himself.
“Don’t try to do anything funny in the Shattered Star Ring,” Kasuyi coldly interjected, his voice wispy. “It’s his territory. Show him some face.”
The Shattered Star Ring of the past only had Heber, Austin, Ames, and Psyker, which made it a remote and weak place, not enough for a peak Beyond Grade A like Kasuyi to notice.
But things were different now. With Black Star rising vigorously, he had become the representative of the Shattered Star Ring, holding the fort in the name of the dynasty.
There was a certain level of prestige given toward a peak Beyond Grade A, and the other Beyond Grade As were willing to show Black Star some face and behave themselves in the Shattered Star Ring. Even as fellow peak Beyond Grade As, none of them wanted to rile Black Star up for nothing.
The moment Black Star was mentioned, a few of the Beyond Grade As present showed uneasy expressions. They were the participants of the Planet Lighthouse battle and had eaten a loss when facing Han Xiao.
The feeling of being trapped in Spacetime Amber was not a good one. That was especially so for Dylan, who let out an involuntary shudder upon hearing Han Xiao’s name.
“Haha, you’ve only been defeated once, but you’re already afraid to this point? Your Excellency Kasuyi, it can’t be that even you are afraid of him, can it?”
Tolaen knew about this matter and could not help but laugh sarcastically. As a wanted criminal in the past, he was not someone to lie low.
As soon as this remark came out, quite a number of Beyond Grade As looked a little embarrassed, coldly snorting.
“I’m not afraid of him,” Kasuyi calmly stated. “But now isn’t the time for us to fight. I advise you not to provoke him.”
“I’m not that foolish.” Tolaen waved his hands. “Relax, I’m not so arrogant as to choose Black Star as the target.”
“Then, who do you want to spar with?”
“Heh, I can’t defeat Black Star, and Heber belongs to the Dynasty, which is also troublesome to provoke. Psyker is weak, but he’s still one of us, so that only leaves the other two.”
Tolaen’s eyes flashed in excitement.
“Austin always hides in his Palace of Hidden Spells, and I should not be able to defeat him, but as for Ames... Hehe, she should be easy to deal with. I’ll use her as my stepping stone and let her become my Beyond Grade A battle record!”