Chapter 1 Shock

Inside the Di Huan Star command center, the planetary administrator was startled by the name of the Machinery Country. It took him more than ten seconds to speak again on the wide-area channel, his tone becoming cautious:

"Your Excellency from the Machinery Country, Di Huan Star is under the jurisdiction of the Reithro Civilization. Your sudden blockade of the planet violates the Planetary Security Management Law established by the Shattered Star Ring Civilization Alliance. We hope you can provide a reasonable explanation."

"I'm tracking a fugitive. I'll leave once I'm done. You'd better withdraw and not interfere," came Manison's calm voice on the wide-area channel.

"...No, we must stay. According to the regulations, we must report to the civilization's higher-ups afterward."

"Suit yourself."

With a light reply, Manison hung up the communication.

The Di Huan Star administrator was furious but dared not speak out. Suppressing his anger, he ordered the defense fleet to form a defensive posture and stand by, but did not stop the Machinery Country's actions.

Although the Reithro Civilization was one of the star cluster-level civilizations in the Shattered Star Ring, with external communications blocked, their planet's defense fleet alone could not resist the Machinery Country.

The administrator was unwilling to sacrifice his troops needlessly, so he chose to observe cautiously. This violated his duty, but at this moment, he could only be pragmatic and handle things flexibly.

With the defense fleet not interfering, the Machinery Country's mechanical troops began to organize the masses for inspection on a large scale. Whether on the streets or in hotels, anyone who could breathe was not spared. They were all driven to the streets and forced to line up in neat queues.

The Machinery Country's reputation was formidable. Even the most unruly Beyond Grade A became ostriches at this moment, obediently allowing the Machinery Country's mechanical soldiers to control them.

Of course, there were some civilians who didn't know their place. The mechanical soldiers' fists showed no mercy. After beating down thousands of tourists who vented their dissatisfaction, the rest all fell silent.

As the mechanical soldiers pushed the crowd, Gyll and Warren were swept into a queue by the flow of people. Their eyes darted around, revealing alertness and panic.

Seeing the formation set up by the Machinery Country, the two were slightly flustered and secretly activated their soul transposer, communicating through their souls.

"Brother, do you think the Machinery Country is here to catch us?" Warren asked worriedly.

"Impossible, didn't he say he was here to catch a fugitive? We're not fugitives," Gyll comforted.

"But even if he's not looking for us, we risk being exposed with this carpet search."

"That is a problem..."

Gyll's face was gloomy, and his mood was terrible. On the one hand, he was worried about his own situation, and on the other hand, he had just noticed someone forcefully grabbing his butt.

He glared back fiercely, only to see a red-skinned orc who looked like a mercenary grinning and withdrawing his hand, flexing his arms to show off his muscles, and even throwing a smug look... Only a low-level orc with strong desires would be thinking about mating at this time.

Gyll felt a chill and subconsciously tightened his clothes.

"Why don't we find a chance to transfer to someone who has already been screened?" Warren suggested.

"Let's see how it goes. We'll wait and see for now. If things go wrong, I can transfer you into my body and temporarily share a body... No, I'll transfer into your body instead."

Gyll's mouth twitched, secretly regretting choosing a rather attractive body.

...

The screening was proceeding batch by batch, and Manison was monitoring the overall situation from the main ship.

"Let's see how long you can endure."

Manison's tone was calm.

The soul transposer was very concealed, and normal detection methods were useless. Moreover, the target could transfer to other bodies at any time, making repeated screening troublesome.

He planned to send batches of screened personnel to different spaceships, away from the range of the soul transposer's abilities, for isolation.

In this way, as the number of people decreased, the Soul Transfer Twins would eventually become restless and activate their abilities, likely transferring to screened personnel. However, they didn't know that he would conduct multiple re-screenings after isolation, perhaps narrowing the scope for capture.

Another goal of isolation was to take everyone on the planet away, even the planet's defense fleet, to gain ample time to hide and slowly screen.

At the same time, if the Soul Transfer Twins activated their abilities, the soulless shells would likely fall to the ground unconscious, which was also a clue. Even if the Soul Transfer Twins could create a false impression by using multiple transfers to change the identity of the fallen shells, as long as this sign appeared, it would be evidence of their ability activation. Moreover, doing so would inevitably swap more people's souls, causing chaos and strange behavior.

Manison had prepared many search plans, the most extreme of which was even planet-slaughtering, killing off batches of souled beings to force the Soul Transfer Twins to reveal themselves and silence them. However, the aftereffects were too severe, and he would not adopt this plan unless absolutely necessary.

"In about two hours, we'll be able to send everyone on the planet onto the ships for separate isolation. The efficiency is average, but it's enough, and there's still plenty of time..."

Manison was secretly calculating the time when he suddenly sensed something and abruptly turned his head to look behind him.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

The spaceship radar simultaneously issued an alarm, only to see streaks of hyperdrive light shooting from the distant starry sky, stopping not far away. The dazzling blue light dissipated, revealing a fleet entirely painted in black, its outer armor engraved with a faction emblem that Manison could never forget: the Black Star Army!

"They actually found us?"

Manison was taken aback.

Strange, this troop had clearly shaken off the trackers. How did the Black Star Army follow? Could it be divination? But the spaceship's information cloaking device was still working. With Izo's ability, he shouldn't be able to predict the exact location. Could there be an even more powerful diviner?

This was a bit troublesome. The Black Star had discovered what was happening here, changing the plan. He had to speed up the process and pack everyone onto the ship.

"...Fortunately, it's just an ordinary search fleet, only thirty or so battleships."

Manison reacted immediately. With a wave of his hand, a large number of standby mechanical troops immediately turned and charged towards the arriving Black Star Army fleet.

He planned to eliminate the Black Star's forces first to prevent them from interfering.

However, in the next moment, three powerful energy fluctuations suddenly erupted from the Black Star Army fleet!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

The spaceship's energy detection radar readings instantly exceeded the limit, and the alarm blared!

Manison was stunned.

"Three Beyond Grade As?!"

Under his gaze, three figures flew out from the Black Star Army fleet, confronting his mechanical troops from afar. It was Black Star, Ames, and Hela, all with their true bodies present!

Han Xiao glanced at the situation on Di Huan Star, a playful smile curling on his lips. He connected to the wide-area channel and said jokingly,

"Yo, looks like I almost arrived late."

"What are you doing here?" Manison was too lazy to exchange pleasantries with Han Xiao.

"Oh, you mean why wasn't I lured away by your bait?" Han Xiao curled his lip. "The Shattered Star Ring is my territory. If I were so easily tricked by you, would I still be the overlord of this Star Field?"

In fact, the bait that Manison had set up in the opposite direction some time ago had almost deceived him. Manison's current troop had also shaken off its original trackers.

However, as a peak Beyond Grade A Virtual Mechanic and fighting on his home turf, Han Xiao also used big data searches to analyze what the common points were in the action routes of all of Manison's troops. He discovered multiple cases of vegetative state on multiple planets, and after calculating with a statistical model, it happened to coincide with the action route of one of Manison's troops.

Although Grand Technician Han didn't know the intelligence of the mental trap, it didn't prevent him from guessing that this was the clue Manison was pursuing.

So, like the Machinery Country, Han Xiao locked onto the Soul Transfer Twins' escape route based on the vegetative state incidents and specifically dispatched a fleet to come directly to Di Huan Star.

So this legion fleet wasn't following, but just happened to encounter the Machinery Country, confirming that he had found the right place.

The three were originally not in the fleet, but Han Xiao had the fleet bring a "throne." The moment he discovered the Machinery Country, he received the message and directly used the Emperor's Mechanical Suit to teleport all three over, resulting in the current scene.

While the two were passionately confronting each other, the Di Huan Star administrator was overjoyed and hurriedly opened the wide-area channel to shout.

"Your Excellency Black Star! I am the administrator of Di Huan Star. The Machinery Country forcibly took over the planet, and we were powerless to resist. Fortunately, you have arrived. We hope you will stand up for us. The Reithro Civilization will surely reward you afterward!"

The Di Huan Star administrator could only be impotently furious, but now that he saw Black Star had arrived, he immediately felt like he had found his backbone and decisively asked for help.

As everyone knew, the Shattered Star Ring was now under Black Star's protection, and he was the leader of the Star Field's Beyond Grade As. In the administrator's eyes, Black Star was one of his own and could uphold justice for them.

Han Xiao casually waved his hand. "Well, withdraw your troops from the planet. Leave the rest to me."

"Alright!"

The Di Huan Star administrator didn't hesitate and took the defense fleet to the side to watch.

When the Machinery Country asked him to leave, he refused, but when Black Star spoke, he decisively left. In the Shattered Star Ring, Han Xiao's words were more effective than Manison's.

Seeing this, Han Xiao retracted his gaze and looked at the Machinery Country's flagship, humming.

"I'm already here. Aren't you coming out to meet me?"

As soon as he finished speaking, after more than ten seconds, Manison's Overlord Avatar flew out, confronting him from afar.

"Black Star, you're here to ruin my plans again."

Manison spoke indifferently. Although it was an emotionless electronic voice, the intonation vaguely revealed a hint of annoyance.

"Hehe, Machinery Country, I won't beat around the bush with you. Our goals should be the same. The thing is on Di Huan Star. Whoever is stronger will get it."

Han Xiao crossed his arms, adopting a posture of not giving in.

In fact, he was almost laughing in his heart. He originally had no excuse to pick a fight, but now that he had encountered Manison, he looked at the old Manison as if he were looking at a moving specialty library.

Manison glanced at the three and said lightly,

"Three against one. Do you think you can win for sure?"

"Ha, you misunderstand." Han Xiao curled his lip. "I can handle you alone. Those two won't interfere."

Hearing this, Ames and Hela couldn't help but turn their heads and quietly watch him.

Seeing this, Han Xiao coughed and said in a low voice, "Cough, you two are responsible for searching the planet and finding the target. Hela, you have some attainments in the soul aspect, so you're suitable for finding people. Ames' force field is convenient for catching people."

"You promised to let me help with the battle..." Ames frowned.

"We'll talk about that when we fight Modo. I'll leave the Machinery Country to me. I want to duel with him."

"You think I'm holding you back?" Ames narrowed her eyes.

"...A little," Han Xiao said very honestly at this time, not bothering to make excuses.

Ames' eyes twitched. After thinking about it, she couldn't refute it.

She wasn't an unreasonable person. She glared at Han Xiao unhappily and turned to fly towards Di Huan Star.

On the other side, Hela tilted her head and thought for a while, raising three fingers.

"Three times."

"What three times?" Han Xiao asked puzzled.

"I missed the opportunity to fight a strong opponent like the Machinery Country, so you have to spar with me properly three times afterward. Whenever I want, you can't refuse."

"Alright, alright, not to mention three times, thirty times is fine with me," Han Xiao said helplessly.

"Okay, then it's thirty times. It's a deal!"

Hela nodded in satisfaction and immediately took the fleet to follow Ames without saying a word.

Han Xiao's eyelids twitched, extremely speechless.

This mad woman's battle mania was getting more and more exaggerated, and he didn't know when she learned to drive a hard bargain. He strongly condemned this kind of opportunistic behavior.

He sent away Ames and Hela to try to trigger a Beyond Grade A challenge mission. Otherwise, with Han Xiao's thick skin and prudence, he wouldn't be so idle as to duel. He would have already swarmed up and carried out a righteous gang fight.

Suppressing the desire to complain in his heart, Han Xiao looked at the old Manison again and said in a deep voice,

"Alright, now no one is disturbing us. It's a rare opportunity. Since we happened to meet today, we have to get to know each other well."

Manison watched Ames and Hela land on Di Huan Star without interfering.

He knew that as long as he didn't defeat Black Star, stopping them would be futile.

Seeing Han Xiao staying alone, Manison slowly said,

"If the three of you attacked together, you might be able to cause me some trouble, but you actually want to duel with me. You've really grown."

"Yo, it's not like I lost to you last time. How do I remember that we drew?"

Manison smiled emotionlessly twice.

"Black Star, you should know better than me how much of your 'record' is fake. Without a dozen people helping you this time, do you really think you can still draw with me?"

"Draw? No, no, no, I don't think so." Han Xiao narrowed his eyes. "I'm here with my true body today. My goal today is to smash your Overlord Avatar. It's time to refresh my record."

"Heh, I admit, your special technique of burning potential can indeed stalemate me temporarily, but that's all. Defeat me? Train for another hundred years! Besides, how much potential can you squander? If that's your confidence, I estimate you'll be very embarrassed today."

"How would you know without trying?"

Han Xiao narrowed his eyes, his body shook, mechanical force flickered, and the energy concentration soared, quickly entering a battle state.

Seeing this, Manison shook his head, mechanical force shot out, and his aura also began to rise steadily, the golden mechanical force seemingly plating the Overlord Avatar's metal body in gold.

"It seems I'm lucky today and can have a surprising unexpected gain. Since you dare to face me with your true body, I'll accept that Temporal Amber as a gift from you."