Using the results of the Interstellar Youth Competition to decide the ownership of the wormhole was originally proposed by the Federation President. Unlike other empires, this time the Federation came fully prepared.
Although they clearly held the initiative and advantage, within less than two days the contestants suffered a Waterloo defeat. Li Xingqu, the Federation President’s son, was even suppressed so completely by Su Cha that he couldn’t lift his head.
“So they really prepared two plans.”
If they won, they would rightfully take control; if they lost, they had other people arranged to sabotage the competition.
Su Cha sneered coldly: “What a well-calculated plan.”
He just didn’t understand why the Shiyuan tribe cooperated with the Federation’s operation. That day also coincided with a meteorite impact.
“The impact wasn’t accidental. The meteorite’s trajectory was forcibly altered,” Cyril said calmly. “This has been planned for at least half a year.”
More than anger, Su Cha felt speechless. Originally, he had gone to Jibei Star just to watch the competition, but inexplicably ended up as a contestant. On top of that, the Federation President had automatically joined the ranks of his enemies.
He seriously asked Ji Tianjin, “Do you think I should go to a church and pray devoutly?”
The temple was out of the question—he was originally a demon and felt somewhat uneasy about that place.
Unexpectedly, Ji Tianjin’s expression suddenly flushed slightly, and he turned the air conditioning down two degrees.
Before Su Cha could ask, Ji Tianjin took the initiative to speak: “The church reminds me of…”
“Reminds you of what?”
“No matter poverty or wealth, birth or sickness and death…”
Su Cha had often used this phrase mockingly against Su Yeling and Xia Yu, but now hearing it from Ji Tianjin, his eyelids felt hot and stayed lowered.
Cyril quietly lowered the air conditioning temperature even more.
The cold made people calm. Su Cha began to appreciate the outside scenery, lingering a little longer on each passing planet, seemingly lost in thought.
Ji Tianjin calmly thought to himself: He really likes the universe; someone who loves the universe so much would certainly enjoy interstellar travel.
“Achoo—”
Su Cha suddenly sneezed.
Cyril immediately turned off the air conditioning.
Su Cha gently rubbed his nose. How come he felt a chill down his spine for no reason?
The return trip was much longer. When coming, the two had almost seamlessly entered different wormholes. Now, with a planned route, the warship steadily advanced.
Ji Tianjin handed over an eye mask: “Want to sleep for a while?”
Su Cha shook his head. Cyril read his book; Su Cha followed suit, but his mind was obviously elsewhere.
The Federation itself was a top-tier force. It wouldn’t be easy to move against the Federation President. He worried Cyril’s personality might lead directly to armed conflict, which would cause significant casualties on Fog Star.
Su Cha tried to come up with a way to resolve it without bloodshed but had no idea for a long time.
Cyril closed his book and slowly said: “I have already arranged personnel to leak some information in due time. The Federation must have learned of our return by now.”
…
The Federation President had indeed been closely monitoring Cyril.
The sudden return to Fog Star had unsettled him. Then Cyril took over a thousand ships and requested entrance into the interstellar battlefield wormhole. The Federation President guessed Cyril might be searching for Su Cha, which eased his mind.
When Cyril left, it was a grand affair. Many on the interstellar battlefield discussed: “High-ranking, yet so anxious over one child.”
“Exactly, a new wormhole is inherently unstable. Not afraid of accidents?”
Just this brief conversation gave the Federation President an idea. According to intelligence, before leaving, Cyril had a secret meeting with the ruler of the Galan Empire. Not long ago, the Galan Empire also sent warships into the wormhole.
If he could successfully destroy the wormhole when the other side returned, he could eliminate two superpowers at once. In the future, few would be able to balance the Federation’s power in the universe.
The secretary was alarmed hearing this.
“If it succeeds, that’s best. If not, the blame won’t fall on us,” the Federation President had a plan: “There’s a group of Shiyuan tribe death row prisoners, right? Have them wear invisibility suits and secretly enter the wormhole to continuously cut the space, trying to collapse the wormhole completely.”
The Federation did not completely neglect the Shiyuan tribe. Every so often, they launched extermination campaigns, capturing many prisoners. They used drugs and machines to control them.
In other words, brainwashing. Such things were common in the interstellar era and the most common method to train suicide operatives. The Federation’s brainwashing was even more powerful than organ harvesting. Even the fierce Shiyuan tribe members could be tamed like dogs after a few years.
The Federation President had often used them for political assassinations in the past, rarely failing.
“I’ll go now.”
The secretary took leave and immediately began arrangements.
After a period of silence, due to the appearance of meteor sand, the interstellar battlefield recently showed signs of returning to a meat grinder state. Various empires pulled forces from the armies guarding the wormhole to participate in the fight, leaving the rest to watch and wait.
The meteorite impact caused the nearby space to remain unstable. No one noticed subtle movements around the wormhole. Shiyuan tribe members wearing invisibility suits infiltrated like ghosts.
…
On the warship, Su Cha had wanted to ask what the Federation President could do even knowing the return time.
Before he could speak, the warship gradually slowed. Ahead were the Galan Empire’s forces. Cyril had brought spaceships this time; now they were on Ji Chong’s warship, naturally of Galan Empire style.
The warship model alone showed who had come. The troops ahead did not open fire.
Su Cha raised an eyebrow: “I thought they had already left.”
It wasn’t strange to encounter them. Sanses and company hadn’t left much earlier and were deliberately slowing down.
Then Cyril told the pilot to slow further, clearly with other plans.
“Besides Sanses, I invited other high-ranking figures from several planets,” Cyril finally explained. “But those invited later were only told to search within a 7 billion light-year radius.”
He didn’t tell them Su Cha was on a mid-low level planet, purely exchanging a large sum of benefits to have them ‘search for a needle in a haystack.’ Because it involved technology exchange, fewer people knowing was better. Before departure, these people were mixed in with the Galan Empire troops, unnoticed.
Cyril unfastened his seatbelt and walked to the opposite window: “The news that you were found has already been sent. They will return ahead of us.”
His tone was like tossing out a probe. Su Cha guessed: Could it be the Federation President wanted to secretly assassinate, and Cyril arranged other planet dignitaries to block danger ahead?
But he felt that wasn’t the whole truth.
“Several planets had contestants kidnapped. I invited them to jointly attack the Shiyuan tribe. They even tried to make exorbitant demands.”
When Cyril used the archaic “I” to refer to himself, his aura instantly darkened.
These forces didn’t care about the lives of a few contestants. The financial cost was too high, and from the start, they hadn’t planned to rescue anyone.
Moreover, with angry soldiers from Fog Star striking ahead, they actually hope Fog Star suffers greater losses—ideally, it wouldn’t recover for decades.
The rule of the interstellar era is survival of the fittest; there’s no goodwill hoping other nations do well. Most of the time, everyone is scheming how to weaken others in order to annex them.
Cyril held up a photo of the Federation President beaming with joy: “This evidence probably wasn’t sent only to me.”
Others were clearly prepared to turn a blind eye. Given how the competition went, the final winner was between Fog Star and the Galan Empire — an unexpected result wasn’t unwelcome.
Su Cha stepped closer, more curious about where the photo came from.
“Some mechanical birds delivered the message. They kept chirping on the way, saying it was your birds.”
“……”
System, you jerk.
Su Cha instantly figured it out, then tried to ask calmly, “Do we need to take a detour?”
His return experience told him wormholes could be tampered with. The system had precisely mapped and maneuvered them back, so if the Federation President wanted to plan an assassination, he’d likely use this shortcut.
Cyril shook his head upon hearing this.
Suddenly, a passage opened between the two warships, and Xie Rongjue stepped in from the other ship: “His Majesty sent me to ask, where is Ji Chong?”
Su Cha answered proactively, “Still in the original world, naming little flowers and grasses.”
Xie Yongjue remained silent, not rushing to report back. With Sanses’s spirit perception at this range, he surely could hear them.
Xie Rongjue’s second question was the same as Su Cha’s: wait or change course?
Cyril said, “I’m going to rescue people. They are ruthless; Fog Star cannot be unjust.”
“Have you been possessed by Su Cha?”
Xie Rongjue, usually the most polite, even forgot his formal address for a moment.
But with his intelligence, he quickly realized Cyril intended to use others as scouts, expecting gratitude, so Fog Star could then use them to deal with the Federation without expending troops.
“The plan is good, but only has a fifty percent chance of success,” Xie Rongjue pragmatically said. “They might just swallow their anger and use this to demand massive compensation from the Federation.”
Cyril gave him a condescending look; at the same time, Su Cha fixed Xie Rongjue with clear eyes.
“Where does this ‘fifty percent’ come from?” Su Cha spoke first. “Once they’re half dead, we strike the rescue, and then…”
Cyril took over, “Finally, control them with the gu insects.”
Xie Rongjue’s body stiffened slightly.
Before him stood this ‘father and son’ pair with silver hair — one exquisitely sculpted like a statue, the other with an angelic smile. Is this the legendary ‘the more beautiful the person, the darker their heart’?
Su Cha personally poured a cup of tea and placed it in front of him: “The gu master was personally captured by the chief. We owe you for all this. Though the methods are harsh, I truly admire your foresight.”
“……”
The plan is yours, not my business.
On the other side, Ji Tianjin patted the seat next to him, signaling Su Cha to sit. In the past, Xie Rongjue had ideas about grooming Su Cha for the Investigation Department. Even though that’s impossible now, Ji Tianjin privately didn’t want Su Cha to have too much contact with the Investigation Department.
At this moment, Cyril checked the time and prepared to depart alone.
Su Cha worriedly said, “If you encounter danger, retreat immediately. I’m selfish — I don’t want you to get hurt because of other people’s lives.”
Cyril was touched and gently patted his head, showing a rare smile.
Ji Tianjin also spoke up: “Teacher, safety first.”
At this moment, Xie Rongjue finally realized, compared to them, the Investigation Department was truly a breath of fresh air.
