Chapter 1370 The Central Star Sea

As the saying goes, when the sky falls, tall people hold it up. Currently, only the three great civilizations and Han Xiao are resisting the pressure brought by the World Tree, while the vast majority of people in the interstellar society are unaware.

Beneath the facade of peace, undercurrents surged. Half a month passed quickly, and it was time for the Interstellar Civilization Joint Council again.

The Interstellar Civilization Joint Council is hosted by the three great civilizations, with participants encompassing super-cluster, cluster, and galactic-level civilizations from across the universe.

Unlike the regional civilization councils of various star fields, the Interstellar Civilization Joint Council is the most authoritative civilization council, the power center of the entire interstellar society, solemn and stately, also known as the "Central Council."

There is a fixed session every year, often lasting several months, during which meetings are frequently held to review the issues submitted by various civilizations, coordinate the development of all interstellar civilizations, mediate disputes, and discuss the management of interstellar society, including but not limited to topics such as people's livelihood, economy, military affairs, disaster relief, and so on.

However, most interstellar citizens do not pay much attention to this matter, because meetings are held every year, and most of the time they talk about some old topics. Most interstellar citizens do not deliberately care, and generally only look at the simplified version summarized by the news media after the meeting.

The venue of the Interstellar Civilization Joint Council is shaped like a flower petal. In the very center is the chairman's desk, surrounded by a ring of seats for the representatives of the three great civilizations, and extending outwards are rows of fan-shaped seats, with the seating order arranged according to the level of civilization. Super-cluster civilizations sit in the inner circle, galactic-level civilizations sit in the outermost circle, and invited news media have a dedicated broadcasting area.

At this time, the venue was neatly filled with diplomatic missions from various civilizations, and the conference had been going on for quite some time.

The chairman had just completed a round of voting, rejecting a proposal to increase the regional security budget, and then opened the next agenda item, glanced at the representatives of the three great civilizations, cleared his throat, and said loudly:

"...Then the next agenda item is a joint proposal from the Guanghui Federation, the Crimson Empire, and the Void Spirit Religion. The proposal believes that the Beyond Grade A Development Alliance plays an indispensable and important role in maintaining the operation of interstellar society, has an extraordinary influence, and is committed to maintaining the peace and stability of interstellar society, and has made indelible contributions. It is hereby recommended to amend the *Peace Treaty* and other interstellar common laws to exceptionally accept the Beyond Grade A Development Alliance, allowing it to enjoy independent official status, and rights and treatment equivalent to advanced civilizations… Please the proposers come to the stage to state their case."

The chairman read the agenda verbatim, and the venue, which had previously had some slight discussions, suddenly became silent.

Except for a few affiliated civilizations that had already communicated with the three great civilizations, all the other participating representatives were stunned.

The three great civilizations just shook hands and made peace with the Beyond Grade A Association not long ago, and now they can't wait to promote it?!

Putting aside the inside story, just allowing a non-governmental organization to have the same official status as a civilization is unprecedented in history. The proposal of the three great civilizations has set a precedent, and the backlash from the outside world can be imagined.

What kind of reason makes the three great civilizations willing to bear this cost and specially seek political benefits for the association?!

Most of the civilization representatives were dumbfounded, thinking it was a routine meeting, but they didn't expect the three great civilizations to suddenly throw out a blockbuster.

The news media present were instantly energized.

This is the taste of big news!

Under the spotlight, the imperial diplomatic representative stood up and walked onto the stage, looked around the venue, and slowly stated the reasons for the proposal, emphasizing the unique position of the Beyond Grade A Association in the current interstellar landscape. The speech was full of praise, almost putting the association in the heavens.

After listening for a while, the expressions of many civilization representatives became more and more strange.

--How does it sound a bit familiar? Did you guys just lazily change all the blockade declarations into antonyms?

After the representatives of the three great civilizations had finished their presentations, the chairman announced the start of the debate and consultation session, and a large number of civilization representatives immediately requested to speak.

Although the Interstellar Civilization Joint Council is hosted by the three great civilizations, if you want to add new clauses to the interstellar common law, you still have to vote, and opponents can raise questions after the presentation session.

However, as the ultimate winner of the Exploration Era, the ruler who controls the explored universe with absolute power, the three great civilizations will naturally not be foolish enough to hand over too much power, and have set a veto and a decision-making right for themselves.

The veto denies the results of a vote on an issue, sending it back to the proposal stage for another round of presentation, debate, amendment, and voting, and so on, until the result is satisfactory. If the right of decision is exercised, the voting stage is skipped directly, but the priority is lower than the veto, meaning that only the three great civilizations can exempt each other's right of decision.

However, the number of times the three great civilizations have exercised their special rights is very few. As long as it does not involve their own major interests, they will not interfere, and they are measured in what they do, mostly only acting as referees, rarely personally going on the field.

The representatives of the three great civilizations handled the questions from the various participants with ease, and glossed over the sharp questions.

Among them, the super-cluster civilizations were the calmest, having learned of the news early on, and while watching coldly, they secretly speculated about the inside story between Black Star and the three great civilizations.

Amidst the excitement, the voting session soon arrived. The civilization representatives who had not known about it before basically held opposing attitudes, considering various factors, and no one wanted to set this precedent.

The voting results were displayed on the virtual screen, with a large number of opposing votes, failing to meet the standard for the passage of the draft.

The chairman glanced at it and said, "The number of supporting votes is insufficient, so now we reject this item..."

Before he could finish speaking, the representative of the Guanghui Federation knocked on the table and said lightly, "Our side exercises the right of veto."

The chairman nodded, not surprised, "Then re-enter the proposal stage, please..."

However, before he could finish speaking again, the representative of the Crimson Empire opened his mouth and said slowly, "Our side exercises the right of decision."

As soon as he finished speaking, the representatives of the Guanghui Federation and the Void Spirit Religion both expressed their agreement.

Seeing this scene, many civilization representatives stirred, feeling both expected and surprised.

The reason for the expectation was that they had guessed that the three great civilizations would exercise their special rights, but the surprise was that they did not expect them to directly use two special rights.

The three great civilizations basically do not use two special rights at the same time. After a veto, they generally let everyone vote again, and carry out lobbying and other behaviors during this period to win votes, allowing other civilizations to have a sense of participation to some extent.

But now, after the veto, they immediately exercise the right of decision, which means that their attitude is very tough. The unspoken message is that this proposal must be passed, and there is no room for doubt. It is very overbearing, and they do not mind opening a one-man show.

"The three great civilizations are so determined to support the Beyond Grade A Association? What is the inside story..."

Many civilization representatives were eager to know.

…

As many news media competed to forward it, the news that the three great civilizations were fighting for official status for the Beyond Grade A Association spread like wildfire, and immediately set off a hurricane of public opinion in the interstellar society!

The storm of the three great civilizations and the Beyond Grade A Association's reconciliation had not subsided for long, and another shocking melon broke out, instantly becoming the number one hot topic.

A large number of interstellar citizens could not understand the actions of the three great civilizations.

When they made peace not long ago, although the three great civilizations made concessions, at least there was a plausible reason. How can this be explained now? Is it not enough to just reconcile, and they even have to help the association become legitimate? What are they doing? Paying compensation?

It was already embarrassing enough to be aggressive at first and then be frightened into taking the initiative to make concessions, but they didn't expect the three great civilizations to compensate the association in return, and still insist that they are not cowardly... only a fool would believe it!

As soon as this proposal was exposed, it was strongly opposed by a large number of interstellar citizens. The dissatisfaction with the Beyond Grade A had already been suppressed, but seeing that the association was about to become legitimate, many people couldn't bear it any longer, and criticized the association, with the mainstream argument being that the association was not qualified to become an official force, and that a Beyond Grade A group should not be given this status, opposing hegemony, and so on.

Due to a series of intensifications of class contradictions, the Beyond Grade A Association has become the main target of hatred. At this time, seeing the association developing further, and even about to "whitewash" itself, many interstellar citizens were indignant. This mentality is like seeing an enemy living a good life, and it is inherently deeply prejudiced.

On the contrary, the superpowers in various star fields mostly felt excited. They had been expecting the Beyond Grade A Association to be the leader, but they didn't expect it to really have a name, and it was the first case in history. No matter how the association did it, a large number of superpowers admired them immensely.

With a formal official status, the three great civilizations could not promote the illegality of the association, and they did not have to worry about losing their citizenship in interstellar society after joining the association.

Because the three great civilizations were running a one-man show in the Interstellar Civilization Joint Council, many civilizations expressed their attitudes through various channels, first acknowledging the important influence of the association, but tactfully felt that it was a bit too much to make an exception, claiming that they were not aware of the private transactions between the three great civilizations and the association, thereby expressing their dissatisfaction.

In contrast, the player group was a bit slower to react to this news, mainly because most people did not understand the meaning, and in their view, it was enough for the Beyond Grade A Association to be strong enough. These political things were flashy and seemed meaningless.

But after some plot-oriented players popularized it on the forum, many players finally understood the difference.

"Treat civilizations as countries, so the meaning is that the Beyond Grade A Association used to be a company, and now it is considered a country?"

"So, Beyond Grade A is building a country?"

"Probably, the association was originally a folk force no matter how powerful it was, but now it has finally sublimated."

"I understand! The next main storyline should be based on the Beyond Grade A nation, witnessing the birth of an alternative superpower civilization, and Black Star is the supreme leader, so it's called the Black Star Era?"

"666, you old smarty."

"Alas, as an old player who started playing in version 1.0, witnessing Old Hei's achievements from scratch is really touching, as if I recalled my youth... No, I have to brush up on Roubao's Black Star Corps series videos again from the beginning!"

"Upstairs, please cover your ID when posting a soft advertisement for yourself, thank you for your cooperation."

On the forum, many players were excited.

When the three great civilizations and the association were in a cold war stalemate, many players thought that the next main storyline would be a fierce battle between the two sides, but they did not expect it to end with a handshake and reconciliation. And now that Beyond Grade A has established a country, in the view of many players, the subsequent main mission will definitely revolve around this point, and it is absolutely impossible to guess wrong this time!

While the outside world was making a lot of noise about the association's legitimacy, Han Xiao had made preparations and set off for the territory of the World Tree Civilization.

…

Central Star Sea, the edge of the Abyss of Stars.

A huge fleet was clustered around a High-Dimensional Revelation Teleporter, which was currently warming up, and only Han Xiao was inside.

"We have set the coordinates, leading to an unused coordinate, located in a no-man's land. If what you said is true, then the World Tree Civilization has mastered an unknown detection method. You better leave the spot immediately when you arrive on the other side and try to hide yourself..."

In the mecha's built-in communication channel, fleet commander Simon was carefully telling him the precautions.

"You guys are responsible for sending me over, I'll handle the rest," Han Xiao replied.

"Well, anyway, you have the Emperor's mecha, so we don't need to pick you up. Just improvise."

Simon nodded.

The three great civilizations finally adopted his suggestion and agreed to send Han Xiao to the territory of the World Tree Civilization, because Han Xiao possessed the Emperor, so he didn't need to be picked up.

For Han Xiao, as long as he went there once and left a Throneworld, he could teleport at any time in the future. The concerns of the three great civilizations about not letting him get involved in the exploration before came from this.

However, he was worried that the connection between the Emperor and the Throneworld would become a clue for positioning, so he put many Throneworlds in different sub-dimensional worlds, and he had to carefully choose the location when leaving a Throneworld in the World Tree Civilization's territory.

'I hope this time will yield some results...'

Han Xiao's thoughts raced.

This trip to the territory of the World Tree Civilization, helping the Child of Destiny to encircle it was only one of the goals. Anyway, the World Tree Civilization had already noticed outsiders. As long as he did not reveal the information of the explored universe, perhaps the action could be bolder. If there was a chance, he wanted to see if he could find clues to the World Tree body on the other side. This was extremely important. Relying solely on the Expeditionary Fleet was too random.

By the way, he also wanted to see if [Virtual Purification · Restoration] had any effect on the personnel of the World Tree Civilization.

Just as Han Xiao was planning in his heart, the High-Dimensional Revelation Teleporter finally finished warming up and began to rotate rapidly, turning into a ball of light.

"Cut off all connections," Simon said in the channel, then closed the communication network.

Han Xiao turned on the mecha's closed mode, shielding all network connections, including Phillip, and completely disconnected from the network.

Soon, the High-Dimensional Revelation Teleporter reached its maximum speed.

Buzz!

Suddenly, a flash of light, the teleporter quickly stopped, the inside was empty, and Han Xiao's figure disappeared without a trace in full view.