Chapter 1 An Opening

The tunnel, filled with endless flowing light, seemed to traverse time itself. Senses became hazy and blurred, as if the mind had sunk into old dreams deep within memory.

How long had passed, no one knew. Suddenly, the view opened up, and consciousness returned to clarity.

Han Xiao's vision cleared. He glanced around and found himself in a boundless, white world, filled with countless floating orbs of light. He remembered this scene vividly.

"Whew, I'm in."

Han Xiao relaxed his mind and turned to look at the collapsing tunnel, reaching out to grasp it with an empty hand.

A surge of energy erupted from within his body, transforming into a mark on his palm. The Sanctuary's passage immediately stabilized.

He withdrew his hand, examining the mark. It consisted of eight patterns, signifying his Lv8 First Sanctuary authority.

"Need to hurry..."

Han Xiao steeled himself and immediately began to act. This was his second time entering a Sanctuary, so he was already familiar with the process.

The longer he stayed inside, the more time passed in the outside world. Last time, he had entered the Third Sanctuary and wasted a lot of time testing its functions. This time, he had a specific purpose and didn't need to linger.

Han Xiao took out a variety of mediums and called upon the Sanctuary's revival, which immediately elicited a response.

Beams of light converged, condensing in the air before him into a Sanctuary Revival Imprint, suspended silently.

He reached out and touched it. The imprint merged into his palm, transforming into a tattoo-like mark.

After checking the revival targets within the imprint, Han Xiao nodded. Without delay, he began to touch the various information-state light spheres, collecting different data.

The First Sanctuary stored data closely related to mechanical technology, containing countless high-level blueprints researched by iterative civilizations. Many were universe treasures specifically for the Mechanic class. This data was far more valuable to Han Xiao than the Third Sanctuary's had been last time.

Han Xiao's First Sanctuary authority level was higher than his Third Sanctuary authority, meaning his memory capacity was greater. He could take away more technical data at once. Naturally, there was no reason to pass up such an opportunity. He plundered technology on a grand scale.

The technology of various iterative Ultimate Civilizations entered Han Xiao's mind one after another, slowly reaching the memory capacity limit of his authority level.

"Finally saturated. The memory capacity of level eight authority is quite a bit higher."

Han Xiao stopped his looting operation in a timely manner, feeling quite excited.

This wave of plundering was a huge boost to his technical foundation. Obtaining the trump card technologies of multiple iterative Ultimate Civilizations would be enough to research for a long time, greatly increasing the number of blueprints in his inventory.

The ultimate technologies of these iterative civilizations were not simple. Their functions were complex. The strategic value of some was not much less than that of the Glorious Federation's High-Dimensional Apocalypse Transporter. Bringing these valuable technologies out this time was equivalent to gaining a new set of trump cards to fight against the World Tree Civilization, increasing the war capital of the interstellar society.

After being happy for a while, Han Xiao suppressed his emotions. With these two things done, his goal of opening the Sanctuary had been achieved.

Looking around, Han Xiao suddenly remembered something. He used his Sanctuary authority to summon the Iterative Civilization Message Board.

Last time he entered the Third Sanctuary, a considerable amount of content on the message board was blank due to his authority level. This time, with higher authority in the First Sanctuary, he should be able to see more content. Han Xiao planned to take a look before leaving.

The Sanctuary authority imprint bloomed with threads of light, quickly weaving into a light screen-like message board, suspended in front of Han Xiao.

Han Xiao carefully browsed it, cross-referencing it with the content he remembered from the Third Sanctuary. As expected, many of the blank areas from last time had now become visible.

He read down the lines, his gaze pausing on the record of the All-Stars Alliance in the fifth section from the bottom. Then, he looked at the last four sections, which had the most missing content. Compared to his experience in the Third Sanctuary, most of the content in the last four sections was still obscured, but some new information had been revealed.

The fourth section from the bottom displayed the most content. Amidst a large area of blank space, several pieces of information emerged:

[...According to the research results of the United Observatory, the Great Reboot will occur after ███. We have learned from the lessons of the previous iteration and formulated the "Information-State Stripping Plan", hoping that this long relay race can end in our hands... Our civilization is called ███. If subsequent iterative civilizations ███ us ███... then it will prove that our plan ███. Please change to a new route...]

"Is this the next iteration of the All-Stars Alliance..."

Han Xiao pondered. It seemed to be another civilization's message that failed to survive the Great Reboot.

Although his authority was insufficient to display the name of this civilization, preventing him from searching for their information-state light sphere, he did learn that their plan to survive the Great Reboot was called the Information-State Stripping Plan.

"Information-State Stripping... sounds interesting."

Han Xiao rubbed his chin and muttered.

Besides this, the other information that emerged in the last four sections consisted of fragmented words and phrases, with little value. Level eight authority was not enough to fully view this content.

After rereading everything, memorizing the various messages, Han Xiao closed the message board, no longer lingering, and turned to fly toward the Sanctuary's passage.

...

The second day after Han Xiao entered the Sanctuary.

At the interception circle's main base, many Super-As were on standby. When there were no combat missions, they did their own things.

In a dedicated activity room, some Super-As were resting or entertaining themselves, chatting idly.

Kexiu'e was playing cards with Mi Zhu, surrounded by a group of onlookers.

"Black Star has lost contact. I wonder how many troublesome guys he'll bring back this time..."

The finger-sized Sun Hunter stood on the card table, arms crossed, speaking in a muffled voice.

Kexiu'e threw out a "Kexiu'e," and said with a helpless smile:

"It is indeed troublesome. After all, some historical Super-As have complex relationships with us."

The first two batches of revived Super-As didn't have too much contact with the contemporary Super-As, but this time the revival targets were different. Many of them were "acquaintances."

"Cough, to be honest, I'm not ready to meet my ancestors yet." Mili'zaus said with a headache.

He was the patriarch of the Astral Spirit Dragon Race, and the Astral Spirit Dragons were a branch of bloodline left behind by a Super-A grade Magic Blue Dragon, considered his ancestor.

Mili'zaus was not the only one who had such an encounter. Many of the Super-As that Black Star was preparing to revive had similar relationships with those present.

If that were all, it would be fine, but many of them had feuds with each other. The thought that their enemies were about to be revived made many people uneasy.

Originally, death should have ended everything, and hatred should have been put down, but now that their enemies were collectively rising from the dead, should the old grudges be pursued?!

In particular, the victims of the Peak of Thanes represented by Di'erlong felt that they would definitely not let it go.

"When this group of people is revived by Black Star's Sanctuary, it will be good enough if they don't fight." Kang De shook his head.

Hela, who was resting with her eyes closed in the corner, didn't even open her eyes, coldly saying:

"What's there to be afraid of? Black Star can revive them, and he can also put them back in their graves. If they cause trouble, I'll be happy to send them to the Underworld."

Hearing this, everyone turned to look at her, somewhat speechless.

The logic was sound, but saying it in front of them felt like a warning to them as well...

Everyone curled their lips and turned their gazes away.

Hmph, although they were sisters, Aurora was still cuter!

"Hela isn't wrong. At this time, we can't waste a single soldier." Kexiu'e said with a chuckle.

After Han Xiao entered the Sanctuary, Kexiu'e and Hela had become the mainstays of the association. The former was already the vice president, and Hela didn't have enough prestige, but Han Xiao had handed over the intelligence channels of the Son of Destiny to her, so Hela temporarily enjoyed a detached status.

"Speaking of which, although Black Star is shameless and cunning, he is very hardworking and conscientious in fighting for the interests of the Super-A class and maintaining the safety of the interstellar society. It's almost like he's not the same person." Sun Hunter smacked his lips and said.

"That's because you don't understand him. Cunning is just a means. I've always thought that Black Star is an idealist with foresight for the peace of the universe, harboring noble pursuits that transcend reality." Bai Ge'er's tone was solemn. He was an old bootlicker.

"Cut the crap. Black Star is purely an opportunist, but his common interests are the same as ours. Our people are our people, but don't put gold on his face." Hebo'er snorted.

A group of people began a heated discussion about what kind of person Black Star was. Anyway, Han Xiao wasn't here. They usually didn't feel comfortable complaining in front of him, but now they could say whatever they wanted, and they were having a great time.

On the other side, Mai Ni Xun stayed alone in the main base's observation deck, silently gazing at the starry sky.

He was playing with a Rubik's Cube-like polyhedron in his hand. It seemed to be some kind of mechanism. The complex mechanical structure kept sliding, making clicking sounds.

This was an enlightenment toy for young Mechanical Race, used to cultivate their mechanical sense from a young age.

"The ancestor may be coming back..."

Mai Ni Xun muttered to himself, feeling somewhat complicated.

He was the second Super-A grade to be born in the Mechanical Race. He also had a distant ancestor. Although he became an independent species after advancing to Super-A grade, this relationship could still be counted.

In particular, Mai Ni Xun was now the sole leader of the Mechanical Race, regarding the Mechanical Race as his important capital. If the Mechanical Race's ancestor returned and wanted to become the leader of the Mechanical Race again, who should the Mechanical Race listen to? Two tigers couldn't share a mountain. Would his status be affected by this?

Unfortunately, the revival targets in the Sanctuary were decided by Black Star. As long as he found the medium, he could freely choose the revival targets.

Mai Ni Xun couldn't control Han Xiao's thoughts. He even suspected that Black Star was doing it on purpose.

Leaving aside old Mai's thoughts, Keloudi and Ou Lu were also struggling at the moment.

The two of them were standing at the base's airport terminal, watching giant starships sail into the port along the orbit.

Ou Lu lit a cigarette and exhaled a puff of light blue smoke, slowly saying, "The former direct descendants are about to be revived. Are you nervous?"

"Why should I be nervous?" Keloudi said expressionlessly.

"Hey, don't tell me you don't have any psychological shadows of them." Ou Lu chuckled.

Keloudi didn't speak.

Now he was the highest-ranking direct descendant of the Empire, but he was still just a junior in front of the previous generation.

Keloudi hadn't been a Pillar of the Empire as soon as he advanced to Super-A grade. Before he grew up, the previous generation of Pillars of the Empire had supported the Empire's prestige.

At the same time, direct descendants had a inheritance relationship. Due to the strength of his Esper Ability, Keloudi was a key object of cultivation for the Empire. The previous generation of Pillars of the Empire was his special training instructor, considered half a teacher, leaving him with some indelible impressions.

If Gaode hadn't died, he would also have received his special training, with the old leading the new, being passed down from generation to generation like this.

"Although Black Star's starting point is for the overall situation of the war..." Ou Lu took another puff of smoke and shook his head, "But this behavior will probably put many people in unforeseen circumstances."

Keloudi shook his head.

Faced with the many seniors who were about to be revived, the entire Super-A grade group inevitably had their own thoughts.