“What is that?” Yang Hao’s eyes widened in shock. Before him stretched a military force that was absolutely larger than the imperial fleet he had encountered previously at Saint Bear Star. The number of warships was certainly in the tens of thousands. Such a massive assembly hadn’t been heard of in nearly a century. An army of this scale would inspire terror even with the cosmic winds generated merely by its departure, let alone engaging in battle.
Even more terrifying was the sight of new warships continuously launching from within the triangular star cluster. Those three planets seemed like a giant machine churning out spaceships, war machines flowing out in an endless stream as if produced on an assembly line. One couldn’t help but wonder whether, after some time, the sheer number of warships might actually crush the entire universe.
“What is that?” Yang Hao, dazed, asked again, “What on earth is it?”
“That is the army of the Anti-Empire Alliance—the entire army,” Ming Huanghou’s voice was like a warm breeze brushing against Yang Hao’s ear. “They have set sail for you.”
Yang Hao felt as if he had heard the most thrilling thunder in the world. He suddenly looked up, staring into Ming Huanghou’s eyes, “For whom?”
“For you,” Ming Huanghou nodded, smiling along with others. “Yang Hao, they are all for you.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yang Hao felt as if he were in a dream. In this dream, he was sometimes a prisoner at someone else’s mercy, his life hanging in the hands of strangers; sometimes he was the man fighting desperately for the life of his master’s daughter; other times he couldn’t even recognize his own face, only knowing he stood at the very forefront of the universe. An innumerable number of warships followed him, charging toward one blazing star after another.
It wasn’t until Yang Hao was brought into the conference room of the space station that he realized this wasn’t entirely a dream.
The room was entirely made of glass, completely transparent. More frighteningly, the entire chamber floated within the hollow interior of the space station, making one constantly worry about falling down and shattering into pieces.
About thirty people had gathered here, all seated around a circular table, indicating that there was no hierarchy among them. Naturally, Yang Hao sat down beside Hurd and Ming Huanghou. He glanced around at the unfamiliar faces. Judging from their attire or military ranks, they were all either extremely wealthy or high-ranking officials. Some even carried scepters, possibly marking them as system-level prime ministers.
The tall man whom Yang Hao had beaten up finally took off his bizarre pointed hat, revealing a muscular middle-aged appearance. Like Yang Hao, he was also an Earth human, but judging from his manner of speaking, he didn’t seem to be a long-time colonist from Earth.
“My name is Steve, I’m the Governor of the Crystal Sea System,” the tall man introduced himself while swallowing several red pills. Amazingly, as soon as the pills went down, all the injuries on his body rapidly disappeared. Within seconds, there was no trace left of his recent brawl.
“Wow, those pills are something else,” Hun Yuanzi exclaimed in astonishment. “This guy is no less than a master from our Dan Ding Sect.”
Yang Hao was also stunned, but not because of the pills Steve had swallowed. Rather, it was the title that shocked him—Governor of the Crystal Sea System. Instinctively, Yang Hao’s palms became sweaty. He couldn’t have imagined in his wildest dreams that the person he had just beaten up was such a big shot.
A big shot beyond imagination.
The Crystal Sea System wasn’t a vast system nor did it have any particularly strategic location. In fact, it was far away from the Galactic Empire’s central Milky Way System. In short, the Crystal Sea System was located on the Empire’s remote periphery.
Yet, anyone who mentioned the Crystal Sea System in the universe would instantly know its significance because it was indeed an extremely important place.
Everyone knew that the Galactic Empire had conquered the entire universe in a short time by relying on its immense technological power—in other words, the strongest force in the universe today was technological might. As is well known, there were two major technological cores in the universe. The first, of course, was the Milky Way, where the Galactic Empire, originating from ancient Earth, grew and rapidly swept across the universe. The other technological core, rivaling the Milky Way, was the Crystal Sea System.
This story needs to go back more than a hundred years. During the Galactic Empire’s conquests, it wasn’t always smooth sailing. Especially a hundred years ago, the Empire’s warships weren’t as advanced as they are now. Both the breadth of military operations and the logistics of supply couldn’t extend beyond the Empire’s core borders.
Therefore, at that time, the Emperor could only expand the territory to the still-primitive Crystal Sea System but could not advance any further. The Empire’s bloody conquests seemed to be halted by its own limitations.
Yet how could a heart that seeks domination ever give up?
When a new Emperor ascended the throne, he was determined to change everything, striving to expand the combat radius of the Galactic Empire’s military. However, technological advancement wasn’t easy. For a full ten years, the Emperor made no progress.
However, soon, a suggestion from the Senate caught the Emperor’s attention. It turned out that during the Senate envoys’ travels, they discovered the Crystal Sea System was a peculiar place.
This system was composed of three stars, each with natural passageways that made the entire system a cluster of planets. The envoys found that the highest intelligent beings inhabiting these three stars were the Crystal Sea People. These beings had three heads, long limbs, and thin bodies, making them appear extremely terrifying. However, they possessed an innate manufacturing ability. Whatever they saw on a blueprint, they could replicate perfectly, with speed and precision even surpassing the Empire’s high-performance robots.
More importantly, the envoys were thrilled to discover that the soil composition of the stars in the Crystal Sea System was entirely silicon-based. Whether in the past or future, silicon was an indispensable basic material for manufacturing high-tech equipment and forging the most advanced warships. The silicon reserves in this system exceeded the total reserves across the entire territory of the Empire.
This tremendous discovery completely changed the fate of the Crystal Sea System. The Emperor considered it a treasure and immediately established a national policy to develop the Crystal Sea System into the Empire’s second military base for external warfare. From then on, countless spaceships carrying supplies and colonists headed for the Crystal Sea. Within just one year, nearly one hundred million people were transported there, most of whom were pure scientists and scholars. With the efforts of these scientists and the forced labor of the Crystal Sea People, the entire system rapidly became the second-largest spaceport and second technological center in the universe within ten years.
From that point onward, the Galactic Empire’s spaceships could be replenished and equipped in the Crystal Sea System. The Empire’s military could expand boundlessly, gradually conquering the previously untamed star systems, including naturally, the Saint Bear System and the Raymon System.
Now, a hundred years later, the Galactic Empire’s technological strength has further advanced. Today, their fleets can travel directly from Earth to any corner of the universe. However, the importance of the Crystal Sea System has not diminished. With its large number of scientists, continuous resources, and the manufacturing capabilities of the Crystal Sea People, this system has developed an independent technological path, surpassing even the Milky Way itself in many aspects.
Yang Hao sat there, stunned for a long time. Finally, he understood the mystery. All his previous confusion suddenly made sense. Why a broken spaceship could destroy an entire imperial fleet, why there was a massive artificial intelligence, why large bubbles were used for rescue after the shipwreck. All these things became easy to understand when supported by the technological power of the Crystal Sea System.
“You must be wondering why we are here,” Steve looked at Yang Hao, who was still in a daze, very kindly, showing no resentment at all for the earlier rudeness. “The people sitting here today are the top participants of the Anti-Empire Alliance.”
“Raymon Star, Ming Huanghou.”
“Saint Bear Star, Hurd.”
“Luoyuan Star, Cherris Threemiu.”
“Swift Wind System, Tinti.”
“Outer Mongolia Third Column, Lei.”…
One by one, the seated individuals stood up to introduce themselves. Some Yang Hao had never heard of, while others were already famous. They were either the most wanted criminals on the Empire’s top list or leaders governing entire planets or even star systems. Yang Hao also noticed that the majority of these leaders were from the outer regions of the Galactic Empire; not a single person came from the core systems.
“You… umm,” he hesitated, a bit nervous, “this seems… difficult.”
His words caused everyone to look at each other in silence. Just from their glances, it was clear that although everyone here shared the same goal, their determination wasn’t entirely aligned.
“Of course it’s difficult. Over the past decade, we’ve sacrificed tens of thousands of lives, yet progress has been minimal,” said the column commander named Lei. He was dressed in full battle gear, with a particle gun slung over his back, clearly having come straight from the battlefield. “Since the Battle of Outer Mongolia’s Left Spiral Arm, the Anti-Empire Alliance has already been established. The struggle against the Empire has never ceased.”
“Wait, wait, wait…” Yang Hao hastily stood up to stop him. “I just wanted to ask first—why are you resisting the Empire? Did the Emperor steal your wives or something?”
All eyes in the room immediately turned to Yang Hao, looking at him as if he were an idiot. Some even shot him mocking glances.
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