Chapter 1309: A Gamble

The three Universal Civilizations' sudden retreat right before the warning period ended completely shocked the entire galactic civilization. Everyone was lost.

The comments supporting the war on the quantum network disappeared, and all kinds of sarcastic comments started to appear instead.

"Yo, weren't the three Universal Civilizations unshakably firm? What happened?"

"Tsk, looks like that's what the three Universal Civilizations are. Their dominance is only an act."

"Y'all still supporting the war? Why don't you take a look at how much the three Universal Civilizations care about you people?"

Public opinion shifted once again. Looking at these sarcastic comments, the tons of galactic residents were frustrated but had nothing to say.

These sarcastic comments came not just from some Supers who could finally vent their emotions but also from some organizations that were secretly inciting the public opinion. The Super Star Cluster Alliance had always been keeping a low profile, and once they saw the chance, they immediately jumped out to display their traditional skill, sh*t-stirring.

Compared to the galactic residents, the players were even more dumbfounded.

"Is that it?"

"I watched ten days of cutscenes, and now you're saying there won't be a war?"

"What happened to full-out war? Coward!"

Under the fearful sights of the other crews, the many army players yelled, shouted, stomped the floor, and bashed their chests, hating the fact that a war did not break out.

The three Universal Civilizations' joint fleet turned into closely packed streams of hyperdrive lights and retreated hastily. Seeing this, Manison flew out from the fleet, stood beside Han Xiao, and watched the three Universal Civilizations leave.

"That's weird. They just left without saying anything?" Manison was confused.

Han Xiao caressed his chin and mumbled, "There's definitely something wrong with this. The three Universal Civilizations did not bring this many forces here just to put up a show to intimidate us. It's absolutely certain they were really prepared to start a war. However, they are now retreating even when it means they're going back on their word, knowing this will cause their reputation to plummet. Something huge must have happened."

"Hmm... or maybe they really got scared?" Manison said, the shook his head, knowing clearly that the possibility of that was extremely low. "Maybe the three Universal Civilizations thought it through and believe that having an all-out war with the association has more cons than pros? So, they changed their mind... Does that mean the strategic goal of leaking the virus technology worked out?"

"No idea. The three Universal Civilizations should give a response to the galactic society, so let's just see what they have to say. I'll try to find out some inside information too... or maybe the three Universal Civilizations will actively contact me after some time."

Han Xiao's eyes flashed.

Hearing this, Manison turned to look at him.

"Do you know something?"

"Just some guesses that can't be confirmed without enough information."

Han Xiao shook his head.

At this time, the communicator rang. It was from the communication channel of the Beyond Grade A Association. "Black Star, what's going on over there? Do the three Universal Civilizations not want to fight anymore?" "What do they mean by this?"

"Are we going to continue our plan?"

As soon as the call was picked up, the many Beyond Grade As started questioning continuously.

The many association members were confused too. They were all mentally prepared for a bloody war, yet their opponents fled at the last second. It felt like they had bought a sports car and were just about to test it when they saw a cop car beside them, leaving them no choice but to suppress their urges.

"Standby for now. We'll have to see what the three Universal Civilizations are going to do next. But don't let your guard down. It might be a trick. If they really are going to attack, they might use the Multi-Dimensional Sky Opening Transportation Device to launch surprise attacks on key strategic locations directly..."

Han Xiao said a few words, telling the association members to stay on alert, and then hung up the call.

The three Universal Civilizations surrounding the Mechanical Race territory was only a signal; attacking this place was actually not useful at all except for declaring war. He still could not find out what the three Universal Civilizations were planning at this point... Retreating on the surface but charging back later using the Multi-Dimensional Sky Opening Transportation Device was possible, so he had to consider it.

Seeing that Han Xiao had finished the call, Manison said, "What now? The three Universal Civilizations retreated, so should we dismiss the troops here?"

Han Xiao thought about it but shook his head. "Don't dismiss them. Shrink the defense circle, and continue to guard the Mechanical Race territory. Only dismiss the troops when the three Universal Civilizations' joint fleet is confirmed to have left this Star Cluster. I need to make a trip back."

Manison nodded, flew back to the main ship, and sent down the orders.

Han Xiao changed into the King and disappeared.

Swoosh!

The next second, he returned to a secret army base. This was a hideout for some officers who were not participating in battles.

Some army officers and the many members of the Floating Dragon sat in the room, including Ames who was there in case of anything. They were all watching the news broadcast.

Seeing Han Xiao suddenly appearing, the sights of the various officers all focused on him. The admiration and respect in their eyes were not just a little bit stronger than before; it was as if they were looking at a god.

Ames crossed her legs, leaned slightly forward, and pressed her elbows on her knees and her hands under her chin. She tilted her head slightly, letting her soft hair down, and said with a faint smile and a joking tone, "You've been very manly the past few days." "Don't you know best how manly I am?" Han Xiao raised his brow.

Ames smiled and said, "You should have a lot of things to deal with. What are you doing here?"

"Just came to take a look and make sure everything's okay here."

Han Xiao casually made up an excuse, looked around at the officers, and accurately stopped at Feidin. He immediately smiled, took a few big steps forward, and rubbed him.

With a speechless face, Feidin did not resist at all.

Seeing this, Aesop coughed and said, "You defeated all the three Universal Civilizations' direct members, and even Wuornos could not defeat you. So, they definitely gave up fighting you with individual strength. I don't know if this is part of the reason the three Universal Civilizations retreated, but they don't seem to want to start a war anymore. What are you going to do next?"

Hearing this, Han Xiao said with a serious tone, "I'll first have to figure out what happened. Anyway, don't celebrate yet. If I guessed correctly, things might get even worse from now on."

The ten-day confrontation between the three Universal Civilizations and the association attracted the attention of the entire universe, but not many expected it to end as it did. After the joint fleet retreated, the three Universal Civilizations went completely silent. Not only did they pull back some of the armies they had sent earlier, but they did not even publicly explain the reason for their retreat yet. The public opinions got more and more intense; all kinds of speculations surfaced one after another.

Originally, they all thought this would be the fuse of an all-out war. However, the three Universal Civilizations extinguished this war at the last second, so this confrontation elevated Black Star's reputation. He was now firmly recognized as the strongest Beyond Grade A. If one had to define who the winner was, only Black Star could be considered.

Some were glad that a war did not break out; some furiously condemned the three Universal Civilizations for being cowards; some laughed at the galactic residents for thinking their opinions actually mattered. There were all kinds of opinions, but they all shared one thing in common. They were all curious as to what made the three Universal Civilizations choose to take a step back.

Due to the three Universal Civilizations' silence, no one knew the answer to this question. Even the Beyond Grade A Association did not make an announcement; they were watching silently too. Countless people were intrigued.

The three Universal Civilizations' Joint Conference Room...

"... We've already checked the authenticity of this report multiple times. Through the wormhole detection needles, we did indeed discover signs of activity of an unknown civilization. The data itself is completely legit. Only the conclusion is not fully definitive."

The remote projection of the dynasty's upper echelon in charge of the scientific research stood in front of the three leaders and reported with a serious tone.

"So, we can't confirm that this unknown civilization is a Universal Civilization for the time being?" Marbruce confirmed.

"That... is right. However, they definitely are an advanced civilization. The extensive data collected by the multifunctional spacetime detection needles we have been frequently sending over proves their advanced technology level."

"... Got it. Continue to collect data while keeping yourselves hidden. I need to know the details of this civilization."

After a few more words, Marbruce ended the communication. The other two civilizations' leaders and him were the only ones left in the room.

"Looks like our decision to retreat back then was correct," the pope said with a deep voice.

"Hmm, or we'd be beleaguered by now. This report came way too timely," Louis added, a little relieved.

On the last day of the confrontation, they were originally going to strike as planned, but this wormhole report from the dynasty's Science Institute had shaken their decision.

The three Universal Civilizations had always been exploring the unknown areas of the universe; this wormhole report claimed to have discovered an unknown Universal Civilization, which would be an enormous threat if true.

In this respect, the three Universal Civilizations were very experienced. Once an outside enemy appeared, they had to carefully deal with internal conflicts. This was clearly not a good time to deal with the unbalance of individual strength.

Back then, there was not a lot of time for the three of them to discuss matters. In the end, they decided not to take the risk. They stopped their plan and chose to step back from the association. In turn, they spent tons of resources authenticating this wormhole report. They knew their priorities.

This set of wormhole data was one of the things EsGod had left behind. As EsGod had been sealed for many years, it had become an unimportant project long ago. However, with this astonishing discovery, it became a top-priority project. Its progress was directly monitored by the three Universal Civilizations' leaders.

The final results were, although the conclusion of this wormhole report was slightly exaggerated, the data was completely legit. An unknown advanced civilization was indeed discovered, only it was not confirmed to be a Universal Civilization.

If it was true... this would be a priceless 'exaggerated' conclusion. Marbruce knocked the table and slowly said, "The priority now is to collect information about this unknown civilization and confirm their strength, societal structure, attitude toward outsiders, and so on. Everything else can be put aside for now."

Louis and the pope nodded.

The three Universal Civilizations had a strategic plan for this kind of situation. No way were they going to directly make contact or start a war. Once they discovered an advanced civilization in the unexplored universe, their top priority was to carefully collect intelligence without exposing their presence. Afterward, only then would they choose different approaches depending on the strength, culture, and many other factors of this civilization.

Although the explored universe had entered the galactic society era, from the entire unexplored universe's perspective, it was still in the 'exploration era'. Discovering the enemy before being discovered was an enormous advantage, so of course, they were going to use it to its fullest potential. "Don't forget to carry out measures against all possible scenarios before exploring further," the pope said.

"I know." Marbruce nodded.

The measures the three of them were speaking of were mainly preparing for war, as well as preparing to send strategic annihilation weapons toward this unknown civilization's territory through the wormhole. In extreme situations, they would not mind directly destroying its territory, turning it into a desolate universe belt, wiping out all lives of this unknown civilization, not showing any mercy at all.

"This matter is extremely important. If a war really breaks out, the Beyond Grade A Association will be a powerful force too. Should we tell them about it now?"

Louis brought up this sensitive question and asked the two of them for their opinions.

Though the existence of Beyond Grade As threatened their rule, they were also a powerful force against outside enemies. Since the situation had changed, their mindset changed too. There was no such thing as an eternal enemy in their eyes.

The pope pondered for a moment, waved, and expressed his opinion.

"Let's just be cautious. We haven't figured out the state of this unknown civilization; there's no need to tell it to the association now. Think about it. If we can coexist with this unknown civilization that happens to be a Universal Civilization, once they take in the galactic society system, the association will have another choice of becoming allies with them, which will impact the structure of the galaxy... We can't guarantee the association's loyalty, so we should keep it a secret for the time being."

"Make sense." Marbruce nodded. "Let's not announce this publicly for now. We'll secretly investigate the situation, then consider whether or not to publicize it depending on the situation. It won't be too late to tell the association about it when we need their help."

From the way the three of them looked at it, there was clearly no need to immediately tell the other organizations about this for now. They were all unstable factors, and who knew what trouble they would cause?

"Since that's the case, let's put aside our conflict with the association first," Louis suggested. "Calm these Beyond Grade As down, don't let them cause any trouble, and make peace with them temporarily... This is their goal too. Find a reason to agree with their goal, relay our intention of stopping the conflict, and make the association think we decided to compromise."

The other two nodded in agreement. Although they could not deal with the association, as long as the Beyond Grade As did not cause troubles, it was enough for them.

At this time, Marbruce suddenly thought of something

If I remember correctly, Black Star has this set of wormhole data left behind by EsGod too. I seem to recall he even specifically asked the dynasty about our progress of studying this set of data...

Now that I think about it, does Black Star know something?

As this thought flashed past his mind, Marbruce shook his head.

He felt the possibility of this was very limited. Compared to asking Black Star, it was better to obtain intelligence through investigating themselves.

Furthermore, they had just agreed not to leak this secret to the outside world. Therefore, even if Black Star might know something about it, he did not plan to ask him. After all, Black Star was the leader of the organization opposing the three Universal Civilizations for now, so they were no longer allies.

In a certain Black Star Army base, an enormous star map hovered in the room. On it were marks of the movements of the three Universal Civilizations' various armies, drawing out many arrows.

Han Xiao stood before the star map and carefully looked at it.

Quite some days had already passed since the three Universal Civilizations retreated from the Mechanical Race territory. In the past few days, the three Universal Civilizations' armies' movements had been very abnormal. Originally, they were stationed at the various Star Fields, prepared to deal with the Beyond Grade A Association at any time. However, now, they were all recalled back to the Central Galaxy, as if they had no intention of starting a war at all.

If that was all, he would not be so troubled. The weirdest part was that the three Universal Civilizations had remained silent all this time, neither making any announcement nor contacting him to relay their intentions. It was extremely odd, as if they had no time to deal with him.

He had been trying to find out what was going on behind the curtains. However, the three Universal Civilizations kept their secret extremely well hidden this time, and he did not discover anything at all. "Did I really guess right?" Han Xiao murmured.

What could make the three Universal Civilizations change their decision last minute?

At this point in time, there were not many possible scenarios. However, the butterfly effects he caused had changed countless things. One of them was that EsGod had given the dynasty the key toward the World Tree Civilization's territory long ago, which was an unstable factor.

From his perspective, the most likely situation was that the three Universal Civilizations had discovered the World Tree Civilization. Due to the existence of an external enemy, the three Universal Civilizations retreated so quickly without any warning.

"If that's really the case, the three Universal Civilizations will definitely investigate the wormhole thoroughly. They might tell me about it, but they might also keep it a secret... Given the three Universal Civilizations' way of doing things and my current position, the latter is more likely."

Han Xiao frowned, bit his nails, and did not feel good about this.

If the three Universal Civilizations chose to keep it a secret and secretly explored further, given how ignorant they were about the World Tree Civilization, the risk of them being exposed was extremely high. If making contact was already unavoidably brought forward, him continuing to hide the information about the World Tree would increase the risks. Now might be the best time to share what he knew.

However, he might have guessed wrong. If the three Universal Civilizations retreated not because they discovered the World Tree Civilization, it would be horrible.

"So, this is a gamble. It all depends on whether I'm willing to take the risk..."

Han Xiao's expression changed rapidly.

Di di di...

At this time, his communicator rang.

He took it out. It was surprisingly a call from a dynasty emissary.

"Greetings, Your Excellency Black Star."

As soon as the communication was picked up, the dynasty emissary nodded in a friendly way, looking quite respectful.

Han Xiao sized him up and cut to the chase. "Finally decided to explain what you guys did?"

"That's humorous of you. I'm here to negotiate with you on behalf of the three Universal Civilizations this time. We are willing to accept the association's proposal. We will allow you to restrain the Virtual Mutiny Virus technology on your own..."

The dynasty emissary said a ton of things. At its core, what he meant was that the three Universal Civilizations were willing to take a step back. They no longer required Manison to submit the virus technology and trusted the association's integrity, allowing it to control this kind of high-risk technology. In short, they would no longer interfere.

"Oh?" Han Xiao raised his brows. "Since you guys have accepted that the association's promise is effective, you're recognizing the association's correctness. What about the trade laws against the association?"

"They won't be removed for the time being, but it can be discussed." The dynasty emissary smiled.

Looking at his emotionless smile, Han Xiao acutely sensed the strange attitude of the three Universal Civilizations. He was filled with conflict.

His intuition felt stronger. He felt he might really have guessed the truth.

After a few seconds of silence, Han Xiao took a deep breath.

I'll take the bet!

As he made up his mind, Han Xiao narrowed his eyes and slowly said, "I've received your message. Please relay this message to Marbruce."

"What is it?"

"... From how strangely you guys are acting, it looks like you guys have finally deciphered the wormhole data left by EsGod, right?"