Chao Hui was quite surprised. In the blink of an eye, Tai Yu had gotten mixed up with the two Han Guang Mercenaries again.
Once could be an accident, but could twice still count as one? The facts proved that Old Bai Jiao's arrangements had been remarkably farsighted. This truly was a problem that needed to be addressed seriously.
Following Old Bai Jiao's instructions, he investigated the two mercenaries' backgrounds. The result was simple: mercenaries from the Han Guang Autonomous Territory.
Even in the New Century, that star system shrouded by the "Styx" remained exceptionally mysterious.
Nominally, the Han Guang Autonomous Territory belonged to the Star Alliance's administrative region, but people arriving from there had always held "Visitor" clearance. Their specific rights were assessed individually, region by region, making them essentially foreigners. Most people who came out of there worked as mercenaries, because they could not gain a foothold in other fields—the "Visitor" clearance, coupled with the Sky Abyss Remnants Disposal Act, locked them out completely.
Outsiders only knew that resources there were scarce, people lived in hardship, and the economy struggled to improve. At most, they added that the lingering effects of Karmic Poison Contamination had yet to be fully eradicated. Even when controlled, it often left later generations deformed and short-lived.
In a sense, the Red Silicon Star System could also be considered distantly related to that place, but the relationship was rather awkward.
It seemed that when the Sky Abyss Empire completely collapsed, the choice made by the renowned Great Lord Lu Ande—and, by extension, the status of the troops under his command—had been highly delicate. Only in recent years, with the continuous wars against Extraterritorial Species and the arrival of large numbers of mercenaries who supported one another, had things eased somewhat.
Chao Hui did his