Chapter 507 Departure
The name was indeed on the table in Congress during the uproar over the Polk Declaration.
I even spent a lot of effort to investigate.
But later, for some unknown reason, this organization seemed to have disappeared.
Later, with the emergence of clues about the Star of Eternal Silence and the Holy Castle, and the decline of the House of Lords, internal and external troubles increased, and no one mentioned the Pioneers anymore.
Heckler didn't expect to hear this name again from his own men.
"What's wrong with this organization? Why are they suddenly targeting me?" Heckler said angrily.
"The intelligence department speculates that our people have been overactive recently, which has attracted their attention." Yohn whispered, "In the eyes of the pioneers, we and the Empire should be one and the same."
Heckler's expression turned even uglier. "Then why don't they interfere with Adam's plan?"
Jon was silent.
Heckler's expression subsided. He pondered for a moment, then said coldly, "I remember that some people suspected that Qinglong was this pioneer's man?"
"There was such a speculation. It seemed that a certain Grand Duke had raised it, but it was never brought to light," Jörgen whispered.
"Is Qinglong blocking me?" Heckler's face changed.
How could it be a coincidence that this pioneer disappeared for such a long time and suddenly appeared inexplicably recently, specifically targeting his people?
Since Qinglong kept Robin by his side, he must know about the Holy Castle.
Ivan's capture has exposed his target.
Qinglong probably already knew that he was also looking for the Holy Castle. The two were in a competitive relationship, so it was natural for him to interfere with his actions.
"Qinglong..." Heckler's eyes flashed with murderous intent. "Very good, since you are so presumptuous, don't blame me for making bigger moves."
"Your Highness!" John was startled and gave a subtle reminder, "You told me that Qinglong is very involved and direct action is not a good option."
"Who said I was going to attack Qinglong?" Heckler sneered, "I want to see who is more important to him, Saint Castle or Li Ming."
"Li Ming?" John's mind moved slightly when he heard this, and he understood Heckler's idea.
The conflict is becoming more and more intense.
John realized one thing. When Heckler learned that Ivan had taken action, he had called him a fool.
Although only Li Ming is being targeted now, it also marks the beginning of escalation of the situation.
Jon gritted his teeth and reminded, "Your Highness, there is no evidence yet whether Qinglong is a pioneer. If he is not, then we are..."
"Whether it's true or not, I'm going to take action against Li Ming and trade that Robin." Heckler's answer surprised John. He didn't know why His Royal Highness had become so impulsive.
"There are reasons you don't know about, so don't ask." Heckler shook his head.
What made him feel a sense of urgency was naturally the corpse.
They were firmly under Adam's control, and in the recent confrontation, he had only managed to squeeze in a few people.
But he has no guarantee of knowing where the research will be conducted next or how the research progress will be.
Therefore, the Holy Castle also needs to speed up the progress. Once he succeeds, he will be able to take over the matter of the corpse.
"I understand. I'll come up with a feasible plan." John lowered his head. Heckler glanced at him and said, "No need. I've already arranged it. Someone will take care of it."
John was surprised, but he couldn't help but feel relieved. It seemed that His Royal Highness the Prince was not acting on impulse.
"What's the news from the Star of Eternal Silence?" Heckler asked again.
"Not yet. The deep dimensional world is too dangerous. It's full of the Holy Emperor's people, and no information can be transmitted out." John said helplessly.
Hearing this, Heckler restrained his expression and remained silent for a long time, muttering to himself: "Adam, Adam, can you really restore the glory of the Holy Emperor..."
…
In the interstellar world, all kinds of eye-catching news happen all the time.
As time passed, the popularity of the Machinists Association quickly faded.
However, just because the heat has dissipated doesn't mean the intensity has decreased.
On the contrary, a clear-cut situation has almost been formed. On the Empire and Federation side, the Mechanics Association operates smoothly and has gradually been incorporated into the Interstellar Alliance.
New rules and new supervisory bodies are being implemented in an orderly manner.
However, some civilizations, led by the Star Alliance, almost "destroyed" the Mechanics and did not recognize the status of the Mechanics Association in the Star Alliance.
There is nothing much fun to watch in these games, most of them are happening under the surface.
More and more people began to pay attention to another thing - the dusk banquet.
This super large banquet, which had been dormant for a long time, was held again.
All the participants are powerful figures, and some are advanced evolved beings who have lived for thousands of years.
For a long time in the past, the existence of advanced evolved beings was rarely publicized in the interstellar space.
But since the establishment of the United Organization of Higher Life Forms, this trend has been broken.
As a result, news bloggers who review the life stories of higher evolutionary beings are emerging in large numbers.
As the Dusk Banquet dominated the headlines, even some lists of participants were leaked.
More and more people are beginning to become curious and pay attention to these higher life forms that they have never heard of.
"Wow, every living being involved has the power to destroy a planet?" After someone gradually understood, they exclaimed in shock.
"Destroy a planet? These people can crush a planet with normal life into powder with just two fingers. By destroying stars, they can easily destroy an entire galaxy."
"How could anyone still be unaware of the destructive power of these life forms, considering it's only been a few years since the Imperial Prince Massacre?"
"It's normal. There are many people around me who don't know about this..."
More and more information is released in various discussions.
This evening banquet will be different from previous secret meetings. Many major interstellar media outlets will be invited to attend and provide on-site news reports.
Amidst the turbulent times, more than three months passed in a flash.
On this day, in the Mechanical Royal Court, in the main base spaceship dock.
Ulrich was reporting to Li Ming. "Through the channels of the Mechanics Association, we have begun to infiltrate the Order Civilizations. We have chosen civilizations that are relatively far away from the Empire and the Federation and whose political leanings are not obvious."
"The situation in an orderly civilization is different from the chaotic galaxy. It's basically impossible to thrive in a wild way. Be mentally prepared."
Another voice sounded beside Li Ming, with a calm face. It was Ford, whom he had not seen for a long time.
Li Ming also knew that Chaos Star Gap and Order Civilization were two different ways of playing.
In the chaotic star gap, the bigger the fist, the more power there is. Relying on Anduin, they can occupy the market without any scruples.
But orderly civilization is different. Every civilization has its own laws and various supervisory agencies.
He planned to let Ford take charge of this part of the situation. It was for this reason that he sent him to the Sea of Stars for training.
Ulrich glanced at Ford and said nothing.
"I have plenty of time. Letting you go with me this time is also a good opportunity to expand our business." Li Ming said.
The dusk banquet is not just a meal at a certain time, but a large banquet that lasts for more than three months or even longer.
It is also an excellent place for trade, so he brought Ford with him.
It's not just Ford, there's also a group of special liaison personnel to deal with things like signing contracts on the spot.
And of course, there's Robin, to avoid any unexpected situations.
He guessed that after Ivan was captured, Heckler would not dare to send people to the royal court easily, but he was always prepared for the worst.
While a few people were chatting, the spaceship was already prepared. There were quite a few people going this time, so a large spaceship was used.
A group of accompanying personnel have already entered the ship, and soon, Li Ming and others also entered.
As the engine started, the thruster array at the tail of the spacecraft spewed out a fiery stream of light, and the plasma torrent condensed into glowing tentacles in the vacuum, wrapping around the hull and extending backward.
It suddenly turned into a stream of light, tore through the air, entered space, and then connected to the star gate orbit.
"…The location has been changed to an independent planet near the Desolate Channel. The voyage time is twenty days, a few days longer than the original time."
In the cockpit, Li Ming asked Suzaku to anchor the coordinates and calculate the distance.
Anatoly's active area is the Federation, and the Dusk Banquet is also held there.
The distance in space is farther than the Red River Star Stream, but the actual voyage is not that long.
That's not some cosmic wasteland, the star gate can open directly to your doorstep.
It was because of the change in coordinates that the banquet was held on an independent planet, so the journey took an extra five days.
Otherwise, it will arrive in half a month.
"So many big names..." Robin said, flipping through the smart terminal, "Quite a few X-level life forms, I've never even heard of them."
It is not known whether it was intentional or unintentional, but a lot of names of names were leaked at the Dusk Banquet. Various news media organizations made special reports on these lists and exaggerated them in various ways.
However, there is no information about Gustav and others, and the confidentiality level seems to be higher.
"These people are all local giants, entrenched in a certain star cluster, coexisting with civilization." Ford knew quite a bit about this.
He was also looking through the data to determine the locations of the civilizations and family businesses of the participating X-class life forms in order to find target points for cooperation.
"Alas, it's all about exploiting ordinary life forms." Robin watched for a while, then became bored and sighed. He grew up from the bottom and had a deep understanding of this.
"You are now also an A-level life form." Ford glanced at him.
"I haven't exploited you." Robin said dissatisfiedly.
"Your existence itself is a form of exploitation." Ford shook his head.
"You..." Robin bared his teeth. "Don't try to be so mysterious. If I had the ability, I would definitely kill all these people."
"Be realistic." Ford shook his head. "Even if you're the Holy Emperor of the Empire, the President of the Federation, or the Chairman of the Star Alliance, you can't do it."
"They can't do it either?" Robin was stunned and asked suspiciously, "Are you kidding me?"
Ford didn't say anything. Robin looked at Li Ming again, but found that he had already taken half a step out of the command room. In a moment of distraction, he disappeared.
During this trip, Li Ming followed the usual practice of hiding his identity and passing through various star gate nodes.
The Black Hole Network's fake identity is naturally impeccable.
In ten days, they had jumped through hundreds of star gate nodes and were gradually approaching the federal territory.
"Ding—hello, fellow passengers, welcome to the Streamer Stargate node. According to the Antaros Temporary Security Law, all passengers are required to disembark and undergo identity verification and search..."
The Streamer Star Gate Node, belonging to the Antaros civilization, is an extra-large node.
The three star gate rings are arranged in a geometric pattern, with rainbow-colored space-time turbulence flowing in each ring. The star gate technology used is different from that used by Anduin.
The trajectories of spacecraft leave glowing trails in the vacuum, interweaving into a complex topological network.
The surrounding star ports are densely packed, almost covering the entire star field. They look disorganized, but they maintain a high degree of coordination under the operation of the management system.
"Disembark and inspect?" Robin couldn't help but be surprised. "What happened here? I remember that we didn't have to disembark and inspect when we came here before."
Ford found some information and said, "Well, the Antaros civilization is currently at war with a large group of predators. There have been a number of terrorist attacks within the country, so the inspections at various stargate nodes have become more stringent."
Robin shrugged and looked at Li Ming who walked into the command room, "They said they wanted to get off the ship..."
"Then get off the boat." Li Ming didn't mind this, he just gave an order, asking his men not to reveal their identities.
After arriving at a star port, the entourage filed down. There were already staff members waiting there. They apologized and took them to the free lounge.
"This star gate node didn't take the opportunity to make money." Robin said in surprise.
"Given the scale of this stargate node, it's not that serious yet." Ford shook his head.
The environment in the free lounge is naturally not very good. As soon as you enter, you can feel the heat wave hitting you.
What followed was a low, noisy sound that buzzed in the ears, and then a strange smell that was a mixture of various body odors.
"This smell..." Robin couldn't help but feel disgusted. Ford grinned, "Who said I was pampered before?"
Robin's face darkened, but he quickly counterattacked: "There's nothing I can do. The sense of smell of A-level life forms is too keen."
Ford's face suddenly became expressionless.
Li Ming has found a place to sit down. According to the display of the smart terminal, the work efficiency here is very high and the inspection can be completed in half a day at most.
Taking advantage of his free time, he casually scanned the news, but his eyes gradually became distracted and his thoughts drifted to the corpse again.
Three months later, the dispute between the Empire and the Federation has come to an end, and the site has been selected.
But they were not told the specific coordinates. After the laboratory is completed, someone will naturally take them there.
This is for confidentiality, but Li Ming is already preparing to upgrade the positioning control device to one that can ignore interference, just in case.
While he was thinking, his peripheral vision flashed and he activated his [Intelligent Assistance] ability.
The 360-degree, all-around vision fell on a figure that had just come in from a distance. It was an interstellar human, with his head lowered, wearing a black coat.
This guy went along with them all the way.
"Ambush? But why is it just an S-level life form..." Li Ming murmured in his heart.
He is not bragging. If an enemy knows him a little bit, they will at least send an X-level life form to attack him.
It was just an S-level life form, which made him suspicious.
(End of this chapter)
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