Chapter 1 Long Tan

Long Tan hovered near Hailan Star, like a giant satellite celestial body. The people on the surface could look up and see a huge golden island in the sky. Countless people looked surprised and stopped, standing in the streets and looking up, discussing among themselves.

"What is that thing? It looks a little familiar..." An old man trembled as he pressed his glasses, activating the telescope function.

"Mom! I've seen it in textbooks. That's the legendary Long Tan floating island drifting in the universe, Lord Long Zuo's palace!" A child excitedly grabbed the hand of a middle-aged woman beside him, pointing at the sky and shouting.

"Oh! It's Ames." The middle-aged woman suddenly realized.

After Hailan Star broke through Godora's quantum network blockade and connected with the interstellar community, the people's level of knowledge rapidly improved within more than ten years. They knew about the environment of the universe and the famous figures of the Shattered Star Ring. Because of Han Xiao, the survivors of Hailan Star's Alienization Era were quite familiar with Ames.

The people not only knew that she used to be Black Star's superior, but also remembered that the turning point of their connection with the interstellar community came from Long Tan's protection. Ames had a special status in the hearts of the people of Hailan Star.

At this time, seeing Long Tan appear near Hailan Star, many people couldn't help but feel surprised and puzzled, calling friends and sharing the news. The news spread quickly, attracting widespread attention.

The personnel of major consortiums who stayed on Hailan Star to operate businesses also discovered Long Tan's presence. They were shocked and uncertain, and hurriedly asked the Hailan Star government, eagerly wanting to know the reason.

At the same time, Ames and others arrived at the dock on a small spaceship and met Bennett.

"Lord Long Zuo, Hailan Star welcomes your arrival." Bennett saluted, his tone solemn and full of awe.

He was very familiar with Han Xiao. They were old friends for more than twenty years, so his attitude was casual. But he wasn't so familiar with Ames. Bennett responded according to the interstellar etiquette. Even if he knew that Han Xiao and Ames had a close relationship, he didn't dare to overstep.

Ames waved her hand, signaling that he didn't need to be so polite, and said with a light smile, "Black Star told me my request. Jenny has also contacted you. The main reason I'm here to see you this time is just to go through the motions."

Bennett nodded steadily. He had received Han Xiao's notice some time ago, learning that Long Tan was going to be stationed on Hailan Star. He was greatly shocked at the time, and then greatly surprised. He realized that this was a rare opportunity, and hurriedly mobilized manpower to cooperate with Long Tan's work.

According to Ames' idea, things were kept secret until everything was finalized. It was not revealed until the situation was a *fait accompli*, the aim being to create suddenness and cause a sensation in the Star Field, which would help Long Tan break the previous inherent impression and establish a new perception of Long Tan for more interstellar citizens.

For this reason, Bennett did not notify the people of Hailan Star in advance, and only planned to announce it now.

"I will hold a press conference in the name of Hailan Star to announce that Long Tan is establishing a base here."

"How long will it take?"

"Only a few hours. Some interstellar media have personnel stationed here. It won't take long to invite them. What do you think?"

Ames hummed in agreement. Long Tan would be stationed here for a long time. She was here to attend the press conference so that others could confirm the authenticity of this matter.

"By the way, I just encountered a group of extremist elements from the Star Pupil Divine Race. They were wandering near Hailan Star, and there were dangerous psionic energy bombs in the cabin. It seemed that they wanted to attack Hailan Star. I killed them casually and seized their spaceship. There are video recordings on it. I'll leave it to you to deal with. It's none of my business."

Bennett was stunned.

The Star Pupil Divine Race… This was because of Black Star, their hatred for Black Star was transferred to Hailan Star.

"I will notify Lord Black Star."

Bennett's tone was solemn. Involving another Beyond Grade A's race, it was not easy for him, a leader who had not yet reached the Galaxy Grade Civilization, to handle it, so he prepared to ask Han Xiao for his opinion.

Although this incident was stopped in time, it could be said that Black Star implicated Hailan Star, and the fire in the city gate affected the fish in the moat, causing Hailan Star to encounter an undeserved disaster. Hailan Star had suffered similar undeserved disasters in the past. For example, Stephen, under the command of Ten Thousand Shadows, regarded Hailan Star as a weakness in order to deal with Black Star and caused a disaster.

But Bennett had no complaints. He knew very well that since he was enjoying the generous benefits brought by Black Star, he would inevitably be watched by Black Star's enemies. There was no such thing as a sure profit.

High-level struggles were like terrifying waves, and the current Hailan Star was just a small boat in the sea. If you were not careful, you would be affected and end up with the boat destroyed and the people killed. But if you were afraid of Black Star's enemies and abandoned the opportunity for civilization to rise, and turned around to break with your guardian, that was really a childish act... If the six countries had been in power, they might have considered such a choice, but Bennett would not waver.

And now, with the arrival of Long Tan, a Beyond Grade A was stationed here, and Hailan Star's safety index would be raised by several levels. No one would regard Hailan Star as Black Star's weakness anymore, and this hidden danger would be solved at once.

Bennett naturally didn't know the motivation behind Ames' coming to Hailan Star, so in his opinion, there must be Han Xiao's operation behind this, otherwise Ames would not have done him the honor. He couldn't help but admire Han Xiao's foresight.

…

Three hours later.

Many interstellar media gathered together, and reporters waited at the press conference venue in the government building for the spokesperson to arrive.

"Long Tan just appeared, and the Hailan Star government is in a hurry to hold a press conference. What they want to say should be related to Long Tan."

"Inviting us so urgently, there may be a big announcement."

"I don't think so. It stands to reason that Long Tan drifts everywhere and never stays in one place for too long. It's not something to be surprised about that it occasionally comes to Hailan Star."

Many reporters were talking to each other when they suddenly heard many government workers carrying equipment into the venue to set up broadcast devices.

Seeing this, everyone was secretly surprised.

Was this going to be broadcasted simultaneously around the world? It was usually only used for major events.

Just as everyone was guessing in their hearts, the door of the venue opened with a bang. All the reporters turned their heads to look, their eyes widened with surprise.

They saw that the person who came in was not the familiar Hailan Star government spokesperson, but the head of government, Bennett, himself. Beside him was a famous figure who shocked the hearts of all the reporters, Long Zuo Ames.

Whoa—

All the reporters were shocked. This was a press conference of the Hailan Star government, how could Ames be here?!

In a daze, they stared blankly as Bennett and Ames came to the stage.

"There is something to announce to the world and even the entire Star Field." Bennett cleared his throat, looked around at the crowd, and said in a solemn tone, "From today onwards, Long Tan will be stationed in the outer space of Hailan Star for a long time. On behalf of the Hailan Federation, I welcome our new neighbor."

Before everyone could react, Ames said lightly.

"Long Tan has been drifting for too long. I have decided to stop wandering. From today onwards, this will be Long Tan's base camp."

The venue was so quiet that a pin could be heard. Everyone was stunned.

Boom—

In the next moment, a commotion broke out. Everyone's face changed drastically, and the whole place was in an uproar!

All the reporters were so excited that they trembled all over.

They had come across big news!

…

The news that Long Tan was establishing a base camp on Hailan Star spread like wildfire, sweeping across the Shattered Star Ring. All the forces that learned of it were shocked.

Long Tan's decision to stop wandering was, in the eyes of interstellar citizens, a sign that Ames was finally no longer a salted fish and was officially starting to run a force. But this was not the most surprising thing... What shocked the entire Star Field was the location of Long Tan's base camp, which was actually on Black Star's homeworld?!

All the major forces knew that the most obvious base camp of the Black Star Army was the Legion headquarters, which was usually located on Golden Gate Star. But after Han Xiao relied on the Hailan Star civilization to obtain a seat in the Shattered Star Ring Civilization Council, many people defaulted that Hailan Star had become Black Star's second base camp, not to mention that this was his homeworld.

So what did Long Tan mean by this? Establishing its own base camp in Black Star's base camp?

Was it just that the alliance between the two Beyond Grade A forces had become closer?

No, definitely more than that!

Back when Heber issued the challenge, Black Star was on the same front as Long Zuo. It was well known in the Shattered Star Ring that the Black Star Army and Long Tan were allies. But allies were allies, and the territories of both sides were clearly defined, and the scope of business did not conflict. The Black Star Army had many branches, while Long Tan wandered everywhere and had no fixed territory.

But now, Long Tan was actually staying on Hailan Star. This was not just a branch established casually, but their own base camp!

For interstellar forces of this level, without special reasons, even allies would not allow their respective base camps to be in the same place. At most, they would establish branches in the ally's territory. Long Zuo moving her home to Black Star's homeworld was obviously not to seize territory. According to the news, Long Tan would not move easily.

This represented absolute trust!

Believing that each other would not betray, otherwise they would not hand over their backs to their allies. Among the interstellar powers, this kind of trust was extremely rare.

The relationship shown by the two sides was too close, it had exceeded the scope of ordinary allies, so close that the various forces couldn't help but think of another possibility—could these two... have a chance to merge?

Generally speaking, a Beyond Grade A would not easily become the subordinate of another Beyond Grade A, so Beyond Grade A forces were basically incompatible. But in addition to surrender, cooperation, and alliance, there was another relationship, which was very common among ordinary creatures, but rarely appeared between Beyond Grade As...

The various forces were not just thinking wildly. Based on the various deeds of Black Star and Long Zuo in the past, this was not unfounded, and some time ago, Black Star went to see the Empire's head of state and shockingly brought Ames with him, which had exceeded the position of a neutral force!

This was a dangerous signal.

If the two sides really surpassed the relationship of allies and officially merged, it would mean that a crushing non-official force would be born in the Shattered Star Ring, rewriting the pattern of forces in the Star Field.

In the beginning, many forces tried to cause the Black Star Army and Long Tan to break up, but unfortunately they failed and could only accept the facts. Now, many forces still did not want to see the relationship between Long Tan and the Black Star Army become closer.

Involving their own interests, many forces sounded the alarm internally.

…

Leaving aside the thoughts of the major forces in the Shattered Star Ring, many consortiums were excited.

The development prospects of Hailan Star were already good, but now with Long Tan stationed here, the potential had increased exponentially.

The consortiums that had already cooperated made a final decision to add a large investment, and more interstellar consortiums saw the business opportunities brought by Long Tan and sent people to Hailan Star to seek cooperation.

The people of Hailan Star naturally had no objections, only feeling surprised.

…

Flickering World, Goroth Star Cluster.

Streams of hyperdrive light streaked across the universe and stopped in the outer space of a blue-purple planet. This was Han Xiao's fleet.

Although it was the main fleet, most of the manpower had been dispersed to explore other unknown planets, so the scale of the fleet was not large at this time.

This blue-purple planet was the trade transit station in this Star Zone in Han Xiao's memory. It was the target he was preparing to explore personally. In his previous life, it was called Pangguliede Star.

Because the unexploited area had no Star Gate passage, the fleet flew for a while before arriving at its destination.

"The preset location has been reached, Legion Commander. Please issue the next instruction."

Aurora stood up straight with a snap, pretending to be serious and reporting to Han Xiao in the posture of a soldier. It looked quite realistic, but as soon as she finished speaking, she couldn't hold it in anymore and laughed. Hela glared at her from the side, and she stopped laughing.

"Engineering troops, throw a Star Gate here first. Reconnaissance ships, circle this planet in the air, draw a topographical map, and use detection equipment to sense life signals and underground resources. After the map is completed, send out a ground exploration team for a carpet-like global exploration, and then..."

Before Han Xiao could finish speaking, Philip suddenly appeared in his mind with a buzz, interrupting him.

"Master, Master, there is an urgent message from Hailan Star buzz!"

The message unfolded in the quantum network vision. It was a message from Bennett, stating that he had successfully welcomed Long Tan and also mentioned the matter of the Avitan Undying, attaching the video inside the spaceship. The video showed a group of Avitan Undying conspiring to attack Hailan Star as evidence, asking him how to deal with it.

Han Xiao immediately raised an eyebrow.

"Sisko doesn't provoke me, but some people in his race want to deal with me... Avitan Undying? It seems there is such a small organization. Aren't they hating on Hetero Gods? Even I'm being angered… Uh, wanting isn't exactly anger... Wanting to carry out a suicide attack and blow up the entire planet, is the hatred so deep? They are really daring, and where did their advanced psionic energy bombs come from..."

Han Xiao was a little helpless. This could also be regarded as one of the sequelae of occupying the Evolution Cube. He was no stranger to this kind of extremist elements. Individuals had different psychological endurance. Disaster and war had always been a good medicine for catalyzing extremist organizations. Logic was never the only way for an intelligent creature to judge things. Emotions were a stronger motivation than logic, and hatred was one of the strongest among them. As long as it wasn't a race without desires, there would always be someone who would be controlled by it.

However, the retaliatory behavior of this group of extremist elements was helping Sisko.

Han Xiao shook his head. He didn't intend to let things rest and pretend that nothing had happened.

Since Hailan Star had a seat in the Civilization Council, it was equivalent to obtaining the treatment of a Galaxy Grade Civilization, and it was also protected by the Peace Treaty. The people of Sisko's race had sent an opportunity, so he would take the opportunity to make things difficult.

He sent a message back, which contained instructions to Bennett:

"Preserve the evidence, contact the Purple Crystal Civilization in my name, and expose this matter to the Shattered Star Ring Civilization Council. Expose this matter to all civilizations, and leave the rest to me."

Although this kind of thing that hadn't happened couldn't do anything to Sisko, he could still disgust him.

A small number of people were making trouble, personally handing over the handle to his hands, and in the end, the entire Star Pupil Divine Race would have to take the blame. He didn't know if Sisko would feel tired.