Chapter 440: Finally Taking Action Against the Machinists Association
A few days later, in a slightly narrow cabin, Li Ming sat cross-legged under the cover of the gravity field. A layer of black energy particles was slowly surging on the surface of his body, sometimes bright and sometimes dim.
Under the stimulation of the evolutionary essence, the body's cells are highly active, like a ignited flame, absorbing and spitting out energy particles, promoting the evolution within the body.
Not long after, Li Ming slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a stream of energy containing black arc particles, which he quickly absorbed back to avoid triggering an energy storm.
"Hmm..." He glanced at the control bar, and the evolution system was finally completed. The last A-level evolution essence also became S-level.
There is also an additional X-level evolution source, and the evolution blessing directly reaches 64 times. Under the promotion of [Sublimation Source Crystal], the overall evolution blessing has reached 576 times, which is nearly an increase of more than 100 times.
Development efficiency has improved a lot. He estimates that the time it takes to increase development progress by 1% should be reduced to three months.
"Hmm... if I find seven more X-level life forms and raise all the evolutionary essences to X-level, I estimate I can improve it by 1% within a month..."
Li Ming thought to himself, and the corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily. Seven X-level life forms are not so easy to find.
However, this matter is not so urgent. There are not many people who can threaten his life now, unless an X-level life form that has embarked on the ultimate path launches a sneak attack.
But there is Qinglong standing above them. Qinglong is so arrogant that almost no one will deal with him directly. The Holy Mother Church is a special case.
Thinking about it, Li Ming sighed again, "Unfortunately, the Sublimation Source Crystal is a special type of control object and cannot be upgraded through normal means."
In the past six months, he had tried many things to increase development efficiency, but the evolutionary essence was the most suitable control object.
Shaking his head, Li Ming closed his eyes and continued to develop the gene seeds. It would take at least ten days to reach the nearest star gate.
Two or three days later, a communication request from the Black Hole Network interrupted his development process.
"Holy Mother Church?"
The contact name was just a series of code names, and there was no such note in his address book. He took a quick look and found that the Holy Mother Church had approved his friend request at some point.
"Tsk... They should have discovered it." Li Ming couldn't help feeling a little strange. According to the original situation, he should have been taken to the lair of the radicals.
I don’t know what these two guys are thinking now.
According to conservative sources, both the Virgin and the Prophet are better than the Oath Keeper.
If he was really brought to the lair of the radicals, it would not be smooth sailing. With the control objects in his hands, he could sneak away without any intention, but it would not be so easy to wipe out the radicals.
All I can say is that things in this world are unpredictable. Li Ming thought in his heart and chose to connect. A dark virtual screen popped up with only a white sound wave line.
It was not a video call, but just an audio connection. Neither party spoke at first. Li Ming was not in a hurry and waited leisurely.
A moment later, the thin sound wave line on the screen trembled, and then the prophet's voice came, "Sir Qinglong, I wonder if you have any important information to trade?"
Li Ming smiled silently. These guys were really good at pretending to be ignorant while knowing the truth. Now they were bringing up important news.
He had previously lacked the Terrax Stone, so he contacted the Holy Mother Church, but now he has cleared out the conservatives' lair, and the more than twenty Terrax Stones are enough for him to use for a long time.
"The base of your other faction was wiped out. Do you think this is important news?" Li Ming asked directly.
The prophet fell silent, as if he didn't expect Qinglong to be so direct.
Li Ming pretended to be solemn and said, "The previous transactions were all consensual, and we both got what we wanted. Why did you suddenly come up with this idea and plan to attack my students again?"
The prophet didn't want to mention the previous cooperation, so he said, "I am contacting you about this matter. There may be some misunderstanding between us."
"Misunderstanding?" Li Ming said calmly, "What misunderstanding?"
"We have been separated from the conservatives for many years and have been at odds with each other for a long time. This plan was not ours." The prophet explained. Li Ming was speechless after hearing it. Is this a trick for fools?
"We promise that such a thing will never happen again," the prophet added. "Also, to thank you for helping us eliminate the conservatives, we are willing to give you two Terrax Stones."
Li Ming's heart moved slightly. Is this money spent to buy peace?
This was an unexpected gain. It was indeed a good idea to leave those bodies behind. It seemed that they were quite frightened.
Li Ming muttered to himself, thinking that his family knew his own business, and it would be difficult for him to find the Holy Mother Church's lair in a short period of time, let alone knock on their door.
At the same time, I also don't want to be watched by this perverted organization all the time. Leaving the body behind is just a form of intimidation.
If the other party really doesn't dare to have any thoughts about him anymore, that would be great. It won't be too late to attack him when he has the strength.
"It seems like this is really a misunderstanding." Li Ming thought thoughtfully, "However, I don't need the Terrax Stone. If you really want to thank me, please replace it with metal material."
Metal materials... no shortage of Terrax Stones? It seems Azure Dragon has gained a lot from this cleanup, the prophet thought.
Regardless, it was great that Qinglong was willing to let this matter go for now. "No problem. We will provide a ton of Hibernil Marrow Alloy and send it to the Mechanical King's Court."
"One ton of star marrow alloy?" Li Ming secretly estimated that this was a high-end material, estimated to be worth no less than 20 billion star coins.
After all, it's free, which is pretty good.
After confirming that this was a misunderstanding, the atmosphere between the two men eased considerably. The prophet even said, "Your Excellency Qinglong, the Holy Mother Church split the conservative faction and took away many important items. If you find them, we are willing to pay a large sum of money to redeem them."
"Important items?" Li Ming's heart moved slightly, "What important items?"
"I have pictures here..." said the prophet, sending over a few pictures.
Li Ming flipped through the books and found some strange looking things, like oval flesh growths, black busts...
He had never seen any of them except...
Li Ming's eyes were fixed on a picture. The black circular symbol stone was almost exactly the same as the one in Tan Wei's hand.
I had a hunch that the prophet's fundamental purpose in going through such a long circle was to do so because of this stone.
"Hmm...what are the functions of these things?" Li Ming asked casually.
"This..." the prophet hesitated, "It's a matter of organizational secrets, so it's hard to say, but we are willing to pay a price that will satisfy you."
Then, she added, euphemistically, "Many of these things are difficult to use without special methods, so they are just decorations in your hands."
"You have a point." Li Ming nodded and changed the subject, "However, I didn't find anything you mentioned."
The prophet was silent for a moment, his tone calm, "Really? Then the Oath Keeper might be hiding somewhere else."
After a few perfunctory words, the two ended their conversation. The prophet turned to look at the Virgin Mary beside him, "He should have calmed down for now. He is not planning to go to war with us."
"But... he pretended to be ignorant of the Oath-Keeping Stone."
"Our coordinates are top secret. It will take a lot of effort for him to find them. Temporary reconciliation is the best option." The Reverend Mother frowned. "As for the Oath Keeper Stone, unless he kills the Oath Keeper, he will definitely find it."
Her eyes flickered slightly. "However, even if he passes the test of the Kaleidoscope World, he will not be recognized. If not handled properly, perhaps the Oath Keeper Stone will help us eliminate this enemy."
………
"What on earth is this thing?"
After the communication ended, Li Ming also became interested and walked to Tan Wei in the corner.
It holds a black stone in its metal palm. Currently, the black symbol has spread to its entire palm, but has not caused any damage.
Li Ming's heart moved slightly, and he placed his palm on the metal shell of Tanwei and attempted to possess it again.
However, this time, he had a completely different feeling. His entire palm had an indescribable feeling, as if it did not belong to him.
With a gentle squeeze, black symbols surged. Suddenly, the possessed Li Ming felt his mind tighten and his vision suddenly blurred, as if he had fallen into a kaleidoscope, with all kinds of colors passing before his eyes.
He had experienced similar scenes many times, so he was not panicked. After a while, everything in front of him suddenly became clear.
"This is..." Li Ming frowned and looked around, not knowing where he was.
Everywhere you look, you can see lush and sturdy ancient trees, dense and overgrown low shrubs, and even black translucent grass stems and wild flowers.
But they are all made of black translucent crystal, and the entire crystal jungle is filled with crystal clear inky black.
Even the ground beneath your feet is covered with fine sand that feels like soil but has the texture of crystal.
He was extremely alert and checked his physical condition. He was still wearing the tank uniform.
Then, he immediately sensed the control system and found that it still existed, which made him feel a little relieved.
But in such a beautiful environment, what fills the air is the omnipresent hostility and sense of oppression.
Li Ming didn't know where the feeling of oppression came from. He stayed there for a long time before trying to move forward. As he took a step, the world changed in an instant.
The black plants disappeared, replaced by a vast and chaotic sky, as dim as dusk. The surroundings were covered by layers of strange black shadows, and a dark purple mist floated in the air.
The sense of oppression all around was stronger, but it could not cause any harm to the tank guard.
"One step, one world?" Li Ming frowned and tried to take another step forward. The surroundings changed again, as if it had turned into a fragmented world. Gray fragments were floating around, and the spiral staircase was entangled in front of his eyes, and then disappeared into a place he could not see.
"What on earth is this place?" Li Ming looked around and walked forward. The endless interstellar battlefield, the drifting Gobi desert, and even the underwater scene that was who knows how many meters deep all appeared.
The pressure was getting stronger and stronger. I didn't know how long I had been walking, but in the end, the pressure from all sides was so great that even Tanwei could hardly bear it.
A voice suddenly appeared in Li Ming's mind, "Mechanical bodies cannot be inherited..."
The sound came for no reason and Li Ming didn't know what happened.
But the next moment, he returned to the cabin, and at the same time, Tan Wei's metal palm wrapped in black symbols returned to its original state.
It was as if nothing had happened, but the black round stone began to emit slight fluctuations, very slight.
"Inherit? Inherit what? Inherit the identity of the Oath Keeper?" Li Ming could only speculate based on the existing clues.
"Mechanical bodies are not allowed. It seems that only living beings are qualified."
He looked at the black stone and was sure he wouldn't take any risks himself.
But I don't know if it was stimulated by this thing, it has been emitting energy fluctuations, which is very strange, as if it is some kind of wave frequency.
Li Ming took out the only detection equipment he had, but did not find any clues or signals.
"Weird..." He hesitated. This thing obviously had a secret, but he didn't know what it was.
Unable to figure it out for now, he could only leave it alone. On the way back, nothing changed. It remained calm, only emitting energy fluctuations in a peculiar pattern at intervals of 1.58 seconds.
And a piece of news arrived at the star gate almost at the same time as him -
[The Empire announces the establishment of an internal review body within the Machinists Association to investigate mechanics within the country. Any violations of Imperial law will be dealt with severely and severely!]
It finally came, Li Ming looked at the statement.
The moment the Empire’s announcement came out, it caused an uproar across the galaxy.
"The wording is quite harsh..." Li Ming pondered. As the saying goes, one cannot blame the masses. The group of mechanics is quite large, and the benefits of unity are even greater.
If we really want to deal with it strictly and severely, not to mention small civilizations, even advanced civilizations and even star cluster-level civilizations will suffer serious damage.
But the Empire had severed ties with the Mechanics Association two years ago because of the Hammersmith incident, and had already gone through the first round of purges.
It didn't cause much of a stir at all. Mechanics from other civilizations all looked over with concern, not knowing what was going on.
But three days later, the situation changed. As if they had agreed on it, the Cluster Republican Alliance and the Yongyao Federation quoted the Imperial Announcement and also announced a joint review of the mechanics in their territory.
Many mechanics were still confused. Wasn't the Empire conducting an internal self-inspection? Why did they suddenly agree?
What frightened them even more was that just one day later, countless interstellar civilizations responded, announcing that they would conduct investigations and deal with the case severely and strictly.
If a civilization does this, it will inevitably cause strong resistance. Even low-level mechanics have considerable power in the local civilization, and their network of contacts is even more complicated.
These people are basically the backbone of civilization, providing considerable tax revenue, GDP, and jobs. Attacking them is equivalent to killing one thousand enemies and injuring eight hundred of your own people.
But this situation where almost the entire galaxy is united to exert pressure is terrifying, and no one is not afraid.
Even the most notorious plunderers and terrorist organizations in the interstellar space have never experienced such a situation of being "condemned by everyone".
More life forms cheered loudly, saying that these mechanics had monopolized a lot of resources and were like local tyrants in many small civilizations.
For a moment, there was a feeling that "the Interstellar Mechanics Association has suffered for a long time."
(End of this chapter)
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