by <unknown>
Bang, bang, bang! The silvery-white cannons shot out colorful beams of light, each beam representing a Primal Esper Ability Entity, which was submerged into the dark planet.
Thousand Shadows’ abilities was the base behind the synthesis. Through its own ability mechanism, it began to compress and fuse the many Primal Esper Ability Entities. The dark planet changed in an instant, the energy of different entities shuttling and flowing in the black sea on the surface of the planet, as though painting on the canvas.
Various energies of a different nature reacted fiercely, and the color of the dark planet turned brighter, gradually transforming into an incandescent ball, like a super large light bulb.
The force field covering it shuddered violently as it withstood the impact. It flickered uncertainly, trembling as though it would be disintegrated at any time. At this moment, the information form template came into play. It was as if an invisible big hand began to knead the ball of light, changing its shape and shrinking its original volume. Under everyone’s eyes, it slowly decreased from a huge planet to a circle not past a hundred meters in diameter. However, the energy density was untold times higher in that slowly spinning circle, so dazzling that it could hardly be seen directly. “Success!”
Seeing this scene, the members of the Holy Accord cheered.
Oathkeeper suppressed the excitement in his heart, loudly saying, “Put in the other keys and open The Third Sanctum!”
The troops acted again, taking out the ‘keys’ they had gathered before and putting them into the center of this white ball through the traction field. It seemed that there was a special force present within, holding up these objects and making them rotate around the light circle.
When the last ‘key’ was thrown in, the circle suddenly emitted a bright light, projecting a picture in the cosmic space not far away, like the reflection of the world in a mirror.
Within the picture, there were six vague doors of light, which were also slowly rotating. They did not look far away, but they appeared untouchable, just like a mirage, as though they were in another world.
This scene only lasted for a moment, and five of the light doors suddenly disappeared, the remaining one growing rapidly as though turning from illusory to reality. The edge of the doorway was still shaking slightly and seemed quite unstable. There was only the radiance of the door within the passage, and nothing could be seen on the other end.
“This is the portal to The Third Sanctum. According to the information handed down, the time flow inside is strange. It’s not long to the agreed date, and I’ve to go in early now…” This thought passed Oathkeeper’s mind, and he took a deep breath, prepared to fly across the door of light.
At this moment, the white halo that was transformed from the dark planet suddenly trembled violently, and the black mist separated itself, turning into a face. Its mouth opened and let out an unwilling roar, which exploded in everyone’s mind.
Buzz!
The sudden changes made the passage of The Third Sanctum turn fuzzy and illusory again, as though it was about to disintegrate any time.
“Thousand Shadows!”
Oathkeeper snapped his head around, his eyes spraying raging Soul Flames that instantly hit Thousand Shadows, burning the mist into nothingness.
This blow completely killed off the remaining consciousness of Thousand Shadows, and now, it was truly dead.
“He indeed counterattacked at the last moment…” Oathkeeper was not surprised and secretly sighed.
The Holy Accord initially wanted to wait until Thousand Shadows’ consciousness was completely swallowed up before performing the ceremony, but the agreed date was pushed forward, so they had no time to wait.
While Oathkeeper could have easily destroyed Thousand Shadows’ consciousness before, under normal circumstances, Thousand Shadows and its ability were one, unable to be forcibly separated. If he killed it, then even the ability itself would be wiped out, removing this Primal Esper Ability Entity forever from this world.
The synthesis ritual was able to eliminate anything superfluous to them, so Thousand Shadows had taken this chance to counterattack. It was only then that it briefly separated, giving Oathkeeper a chance to kill it.
It was just that even though Oathkeeper reduced the influence of the Thousand Shadows to the minimum, it still had a negative impact. Everyone saw that the portal to The Third Sanctum was turning unstable.
Without any delay, Oathkeeper rushed into the passage of The Third Sanctum, only leaving behind a sentence. “Before I’m back, Law and Fay will be the temporary leaders. Keep a low profile until I bring the rest back.”
The next moment, the passage toward The Third Sanctum collapsed, and the many keys disintegrated.
Other than the Primal Esper Ability Entities, the other keys were basically a one-time use, and what the Holy Accord had spent many years gathering all disappeared into smoke.
As Oathkeeper disappeared, the locators that he specially carried on his body all became invalid, as if they no longer existed in this world.
A little more than a month later. In an asteroid belt somewhere within the Flickering World, two figures, one black and one red, shuttled through it, fighting fiercely.
“Torrent-Getta Hadoken!”
A bright blue ray was emitted, and the asteroids that were along the ray’s path were instantly vaporized and annihilated, leaving behind a blank path.
The red figure teleported to avoid the attack before backhandedly fanning out a red energy wave to retaliate.
The space around them flickered as the two of them continuously exchanged blows. They were Han Xiao and Hila, who were enjoying a routine spar.
The two of them fought against each other many times, so they knew each other’s bottom line. Following Han Xiao’s hit to Hila’s abdomen with a heavy knee drop, he smashed her down so she could not stand up before landing a heavy neck chop with his palm, ending the battle.
“Cough cough cough…” Hila kneeled on a small star as she grabbed her neck and coughed. She said in a muffled tone, “I lost
again.”
“There’s no need to be discouraged. Your progress is already fast enough. The Underworld is really a good thing.” Han Xiao felt a little jealous.
Since acquiring the Underworld secondary dimension, Hila’s growth rate also began to skyrocket. The faster the Underworld recovered, the stronger her Esper Ability would get.
Thus, in Han Xiao’s recent battles with Hila, he had gone as heavy as he could. If he relaxed, Hila would complain that he was going easy on her.
“My improvement is not as fast as yours.” Hila stood up, pointing at the floating device beside Han Xiao. “Your new machinery is not bad. Even I cannot eat a few shots of this thing.”
“I’m after all a Mechanic. Our systems are different.”
Han Xiao smiled as he stowed the Getta Hadoken away.
In the past two months, he had succeeded in creating all four new Gold Grade items from the blueprints. With (100 Million Mechanic Empire-Manison), the success rate and efficiency of creating Universal Treasures had been greatly improved, which greatly saved costs.
The Evolutionary Totem could easily be mass produced, but it was difficult for the Psionic Obelisk. However, Han Xiao managed to produce a batch of finished products, which had been installed in many of the army bases, while the Mechanical Territory was only provided to his Machinery civilization.
The scope of application for the Titan Spinal Center was limited to the Mechanical Deity. Only the Getta Hadoken was the most practical. It was not only adapted to a variety of fighting environments but could also combine various tricks and utilize weapon-like combos, winning the favoritism of the Great Mechanic Han.
The attack strength of the Getta Hadoken depended on the Power Output of the energy core as well as the strength of his own input. It would have an attack enhancement effect, which would increase one’s original attack power by a set percentage. Its lethality was impressive-other
than concentrated firepower, the Mechanic usually did not have any other methods that could dish out high damage, and the Getta Hadoken made up for this gap to a certain extent.
Every time Han Xiao used this weapon, he could not resist shouting out the name, as though this would increase the strength further.
The two Primal Esper Ability Entities were also dealt with. The Natural Spirit Power found its host, namely Emerald Grass, the director of the Pharmaceutical Research Institute in the Logistics Department. Her abilities were extremely compatible with it, and she succeeded in adapting to the Entity. As for Frost Authority, it did not manage to find a host, so Han Xiao allowed it to remain as a Mysterious Energy Host for the time being.
After cleaning up the battlefield, Han Xiao casually said, “After a while, the joint award ceremony of the three Universal Civilizations for the Intelligent Plague will be held. Do you want to attend?”
“I didn’t participate in clearing the Intelligent Plague. Why would I go?” Hila shook her head. “In fact, you’re the one who’s going up to receive the award. Are you prepared?”.
“There’s nothing much to prepare. Isn’t it just some ceremonial words? I’ll make some up.” “Whatever.” Hila rolled her eyes. She was normally dignified and grave, almost never engaging with her subordinates in idle chatter. She would only talk more when she was with Han Xiao. “Speaking of which, it seems like the free competition zone is a little weird nowadays.” “Why?”
“The fourth exploration phase is estimated to be around eighty percent complete at the moment, and the expansion of the Super Star Cluster Alliance is growing bigger, no longer just content with exploration but also starting to invade and seize the other territories of the surrounding organizations on a large scale. They not only encompass the central zone of the free competition zone and multiple resource rich planets—they’ve also established a stargate transportation system, connecting multiple borders, obviously with strategic intentions.”
Han Xiao did not find that weird as he replied, “It’s normal. The Super Star Cluster Alliance is now in preparation. It’s estimated that the three Universal Civilizations will soon have a formal conflict with them. They wish to obtain a piece of land to act freely in the Flickering World, and the three Universal Civilizations are unwilling to allow the Super Star Cluster Alliance to do so. With the excuse of free competition and anti-monopoly, the contradictions between the two parties cannot be reconciled.”
“Oh… there’s also some strange movements of other organizations, including many non-legal Immortal organizations. It seems like they’re preparing to move as well.”
“Alright, I’ll pay more attention to this.” Han Xiao nodded. The World Server war was imminent, with the Super Star Clusters seen in the shadows of this event.
Both of them chatted a little more before returning to their respective fleets. Hila returned to the free competition zone, while Han Xiao’s destination was toward the planet where the three Universal Civilizations would hold the award ceremony, located in the Dawn Star Cluster, which was the gateway to the Flickering World.
After arriving and announcing his identity, the fleet, led by the Dynasty Guards, took the VIP channel, skipping past the other guests, and docked at the port.
As soon as Han Xiao disembarked, he saw Tarrokov waiting for him.
Both of them walked closer, reaching out for a strong handshake.“Have you been waiting for long?”
“Not at all, Your Excellency Black Star. You came early.”
“Hehe, I have a good sense of time.” After a few greetings, Tarrokov lowered his voice. “Because of secrecy, I could not inform you earlier, but I can now say that the leaders of the three Universal Civilizations are attending this meeting, so you have to be prepared.”
Han Xiao’s brows jumped up. “You mean…”
“That’s right. They’ll appear in person this time, personally giving you the award.”
Han Xiao felt surprised.
I thought that I would just be here to parade around once. To think that it would be such a huge event.
It seems that the three Universal Civilizations have set their hearts on pushing up my fame!
Chapter 1146. Presenting Honors and Difficulties |
After waiting for several days on the planet, Han Xiao witnessed the increase in the planetary security levels. A regular military force arrived, taking over the responsibility of protecting the planet, sealing the line defense, and making it nigh impenetrable.
Around half of the planet had entered martial law, and various advanced defense measures had also been arranged to prevent long-range strikes from threatening the celebratory planet.
While the Intelligent Plague broke out in the Ancient Star Desert, and it was more reasonable for the ceremony to be held there, the three Universal Civilizations took into account the fact that many of the Beyond Grade As were currently in the Flickering World and changed the venue, quoting symbolic significance. After all, this was another major exploration result of the galactic civilization after so many years. The leaders of the three Universal Civilizations attended the ceremony together, which was a rare scene. Due to their sensitive identities, such an event would generally be held in the Central Galaxy rather than other Star Fields. Even with careful security, life was unpredictable, so leaving the Central Galaxy was undoubtedly a risky move.
Han Xiao was sure that there would be some organizations with ulterior motives moving around. While the three Universal Civilizations had a mature operating system, such that their government would not be disturbed much even if their leaders were assassinated, there would still be some temporary chaos, which could be what these people were looking for.
Of course, if an organization really dared do this, then they would no longer have a place in the explored universe, as they would be hunted until every last one of them was dead. The relationship with the faction would forever be at ‘Hatred’. Moreover, with so many armies and Beyond Grade As gathered in a place, the success rate of an assassination was negligible.
But well, this does not hinder them from scheming some deliberate framing.
Han Xiao suspected that the three Universal Civilizations might engage in a self-directed act, pretending to have some outsiders assassinate them during the ceremony, before using this to put blame on their targets to get an excuse for a crusade.
This method seems familiar, as though I’ve seen it somewhere before…
Could it be that I’m the one that inspired them?
Han Xiao had experienced a ‘back stab’ not too long ago, so his memory was still fresh. At this moment, his thoughts could not help but be biased toward this aspect, and his imagination was running wild.
With his understanding of the three Universal Civilizations, it was not impossible that they would do such a thing. The chances of it happening was probably around twenty percent, and he could not ask Urranrell for verification just like that.
During the few days he stayed on the planet, he did not contact the head of the three Universal Civilizations but rather sat in the officially arranged guest house just like everyone else, waiting silently.
On the day the ceremony was held, Han Xiao and the guests were all transported to the ceremony site in official vehicles. The venue was a large hall decorated in the style of the dynasty. One could see countless invited guests lining up to enter the venue, but no loud noises were heard, only the rustling of quiet conversations. The entire atmosphere was quite serious.
Han Xiao’s seat was arranged at the front table, with Kasuyi, Kant, and the other peak Beyond Grade As.
After greeting, Han Xiao sat down next to Kasuyi, glancing at the people, before whispering, “Mechanic Emperor didn’t come?”
“He’s here, but it’s just his avatar.” Kasuyi gestured toward the back.
A steel lump was sat at the edge of the venue, but even if it was covered in a layer of iron, Han Xiao could smell Manison’s aura on it.
“He won’t cause
trouble during the ceremony, right?” Han Xiao blinked.
“Manison is not that crazy yet,” Kant replied.
Today, Kant appeared as a handsome middle-aged galactic human, with a tall nose, deep eyes, and sharp facial features.
Han Xiao glanced at the security personnel at the edge of the venue before whispering, “I keep thinking that this won’t go so smoothly. Maybe there might be an assassination.”
“With so many of us Beyond Grade As here, who’d have such big guts?” Sun Hunter said.
“It might be a self-directed act…” Han Xiao winked.
Secret Master could not help but roll his eyes at Han Xiao as he coldly snorted, “Enough with that. You think the three Universal Civilizations are like you, to perform such a lowly act?” “So what if it’s lowly? What matters is that it’s useful.” Han Xiao clicked his tongue. “Wanna bet?”
“You dare bet!” Secret Master was stunned.
Aren’t you clear what sort of luck you have?
If one were to liken my luck to a flawless gemstone, then yours would be like the moldy green moss along the wall of a stinking ditch. How dare you bet with me, a master of luck? Are you feeling that charitable?
“Alright, then what are you going to give me?”
“I’ll bet Sun Hunter. If I lose, then I’ll give him to you. How about that?” Han Xiao reached out his thumb and finger, pinching the tiny guy’s head and pulling him up. “Huh?”
Sun Hunter, who was being dangled in midair, had the expression of the confused Nick Young meme.
What the f*ck does it have to do with me? Watch out before I blast your ass.
Secret Master was speechless, immediately patting Han Xiao to put Sun Hunter down. He apologized before whispering angrily to Han Xiao, “Who uses another person as a gambling stake? His Excellency Sun Hunter might be a little pocket-sized, but how can you make fun of his size.”
“We have a good relationship, don’t worry.”