Chapter 147 Half a Month Later

Central Star Sea, Glimmering World Federation homeworld, the President's office.

Only Barder was in the room, with a remote projection floating in front of him. The projection was of a normal interstellar human, of moderate height, wearing a large white robe. His face was etched with wrinkles, giving him an aged appearance, but his spirit was vigorous. His pupils were luminous, like two miniature stars, extremely bright and dazzling, difficult for ordinary people to look directly at. His beard reached his chest, and his hair was also very long, tied up with several silver magnetic buckle hairbands. His beard and hair were all silver, with a metallic texture, like flowing liquid alloy.

This projection was none other than Manison of the Machinery Country in his true form, his expression calm, exuding an air of composure. He was currently conversing with Barder.

"My troops have already delivered the Everlasting Lord's Scepter to the research station you designated, completing the handover," Manison's voice was old and full of "magnetism"... the electrified kind.

"Thank you," Barder said with a smile, nodding his head. "The promised reward will be sent to the Machinery race."

The Machinery Country had been allied with the Glimmering World Federation for many years. Due to its own strength, influence, and past achievements, Manison held a transcendent position in the Glimmering World Federation. Barder respected the Machinery Country very much, always carefully maintaining the alliance between the two parties.

After all, before him, Manison had already assisted several Glimmering World Federation presidents... of course, this was also due to the federal system, as their leaders were replaced more frequently compared to the Crimson Empire and the Arcane Church.

Manison nodded, then changed the subject, slowly saying, "There's one more thing."

"Please speak."

"When you contact Black Star, remember to call me along."

Barder was stunned.

Why bring this up suddenly? Why do you assume we want to contact Black Star?

After this incident, Barder indeed did not dare to underestimate Han Xiao, but he was not prepared to send someone to represent the Glimmering World Federation to contact him, because there was no need. Black Star was an ally of the Empire, with a large family and a large business. A Super-A grade joining a universe-level civilization would almost certainly not defect unless there was a special reason, otherwise the Empire would not let him go. Therefore, Barder had no intention of contacting Han Xiao.

After thinking about it, Barder assumed that Manison was simply interested in Black Star himself, so he nodded and agreed. It was normal for a Super-A grade Mechanic to be eager to communicate. He was not surprised.

"If there's nothing else, I'm going offline." Manison nodded, then hung up the communication.

Seeing this, Barder waited for more than ten seconds, then turned to contact the Super-A grade virtual mechanic directly affiliated with the Empire.

"Was there anything unusual in the quantum network monitoring just now?"

"No."

Hearing this, Barder felt relieved. Although he trusted Manison, he had to be cautious. After all, Manison was not directly affiliated with the Glimmering World Federation, but an ally of the Ancient Ones, and perhaps still the most powerful virtual mechanic of this era. Therefore, every time they had a remote connection, he would have the virtual mechanic directly affiliated with the Federation monitor the network to avoid Manison opening a backdoor without him knowing.

At the same time, in the distant Shattered Star Ring, Manison opened his eyes, his consciousness withdrew from the quantum network, and a strange smile appeared on his lips.

"The material wrapping the Everlasting Lord's Scepter has already reached the level of a galactic wonder. The Glimmering World Federation... is going to have a headache this time."

When Manison accepted the mission, he knew that he would be able to come into contact with the Everlasting Lord's Scepter, so he specifically brought a lot of research equipment with him. His remote troops had simply studied the protective film outside the Everlasting Lord's Scepter on the way.

However, the Temporal Amber isolated all forms of energy, making it difficult to even detect various parameters. It appeared as a non-existent object on various detectors. Manison's remote troops discovered a clue through spatial research equipment. The only thing they analyzed was that the temporal coefficient of the Temporal Amber was strange and twisted, constant at a certain value.

He tried to crack the Temporal Amber by disrupting the temporal coefficient, but the Temporal Amber also isolated the influence of external spatial changes. This solidified time was extremely stable.

Manison still did not understand the material structure of the amber. It was both a physical object and had the characteristics of a field. Under a microscope, it appeared as the universe itself, and a region without movement.

Since there was no particle movement, time seemed to be non-existent. This seemed to be the principle of freezing.

Manison thought of the era of exploration during the war, when the three major civilizations changed the physical constants of the universe near their homeworld, forming a closed and safe area. The Temporal Amber seemed to be a similar principle, even more bizarre. If this material was assumed to be another condensed sub-space independent of the universe, then it must have unique physical constants.

He was knowledgeable and believed that this material had reached the level of a galactic wonder.

After researching it, he ruled out the possibility that the Temporal Amber was a technology—he did not think Han Xiao had such abilities, so he became interested in the cosmic treasure that created this material.

Apart from Black Star himself, it should be difficult for others to crack it.

Therefore, Manison was sure that the Glimmering World Federation would try to contact Black Star, and it would not be too long.

"At that time, it'll be a good opportunity to get to know him... hmm, he seems to have bullied my people before."

Manison narrowed his eyes, not knowing what he was thinking.

...

Glimmering World Federation military control zone, a certain research base.

Not long ago, Manison's troops delivered the Everlasting Lord's Scepter. At this time, it was fixed in a huge mechanical pod, surrounded by a pile of research instruments, and many researchers were concentrating on operating the equipment.

This was an integrated material analyzer that could analyze multiple parameters of a target without destructive testing. It was a standard product for researchers in advanced civilizations, and the ones built by the Glimmering World Federation were naturally even more useful. Basically, as long as it was a real object, they could figure out the details.

The director of the research base stood aside, staring intently at the Everlasting Lord's Scepter, extremely focused.

President Barder had given the order to crack the seal on the Everlasting Lord's Scepter. The director of the research base knew the importance of this matter, so he personally took charge of the project.

Being able to manage an important research base, the director was not an ordinary person. He was an important figure in the Glimmering World Federation's highest research institute, and had made various major scientific contributions. He held many honorary titles and had been personally awarded the Medal of Honor by the president, representing the highest scientific achievement.

"Report, Director, equipment debugging complete, material analyzer ready, shall we conduct the first analysis?"

"Begin," the director nodded.

The researcher pressed the button. The next moment, the material analyzer started operating, emitting a slight buzzing sound. Everyone stared at the screen, the data on it changing rapidly.

After a while, the auxiliary intelligence came to a conclusion that surprised everyone.

"Data error, target cannot be analyzed, target has energy insulation properties, probe rays cannot adhere, cannot penetrate."

The material analyzer was useless? The director was a little surprised. It was not that he had never seen this situation before, but it was very rare. Once it happened, it basically meant that they had encountered something tricky.

The Glimmering World Federation's research station naturally did not only have one type of detection equipment. The director tried everything, but after a few hours, the report he received was only a few thin pages—a normal substance would have at least a thousand pages of reports after going through the process, but the parameters that could be detected about the Temporal Amber were pitifully few, and they still knew nothing about it.

Manison could discover abnormal temporal coefficients, and they could also measure it. Not only that, the director tried more cracking methods, but none of them worked.

They could not even do normal detection, let alone crack it.

The director became more and more surprised, and his head also started to hurt. All conventional methods were ineffective, and he did not know where to start.

—What the hell is this?!

As a researcher, he was full of curiosity, had a mentality of challenging the unknown, and would not give up easily, but interest was interest, and he had a mission to carry out.

Thinking of Barder's request, the director's heart sank.

He had a premonition... the president's hopes might be dashed.

The difficulty of cracking this thing seemed to exceed their imagination.