In a sense, Big Cat had set Lu PingAn up.
But she had also, forcibly, staked herself on Lu PingAn.
This was her last chance. Even if the timing was still far from ideal, she no longer had the patience to wait.
She had put Lu PingAn on the rails and ushered in a future that might bring either destruction or glory.
"This is a crisis, but perhaps also an opportunity. At the very least, right now, it is my bargaining chip."
News of that day's visit did not seem to spread widely, but the fact that two major figures had visited together and then fled in panic together had been witnessed by many.
Then, word that "she had returned" began circulating within a small circle and became known among certain higher-ups.
Lu PingAn learned of it immediately, but he did not deny it.
After all, Lu PingAn was precisely the sort of person who excelled at making use of the resources in his hands, treating them as bargaining chips regardless of whether they were good or bad.
"We understand your church's situation. The escalating battlefield does indeed require greater resource investment, but to be frank, our own circumstances are far from optimistic."
Vice Minister Zhang of the External Affairs Department, seated before them, expertly used diplomatic rhetoric to waste everyone's time.
Yet what he said was also the truth. Lu PingAn's group had looked into the local situation. Mercury 42 was considered relatively fortunate; Plane Wars in many large worlds were extremely intense.
More importantly, many worlds' Plane Wars were Contention Wars involving forces directly under the Eastern Kingdom. In other words, the resources and land they seized would become state-owned. So even if they truly had abundant troops, why would they deploy them to Mercury 42 and work