Military Meeting

Military Headquarters.

Inside the Meeting Room.

Marshal Tie Xue, two Eight-Star Generals, and twelve Seven-Star Generals were holding a virtual video conference.

He tossed a stack of documents onto the conference table.

Tie Xue's gaze swept across the virtual projections of the fourteen Federal Military leaders.

"Here is the latest list of Serious Criminals being sent to the Exile Planet."

"Over the previous eight years, there had only been a total of 6,523 Serious Criminals. Yet in just a few months, this list has surged to more than 17,000."

"These past two days, the Spirit Stone incident has caused an enormous uproar, and the number of Serious Criminals has suddenly skyrocketed as well, increasing by over a thousand in only two days."

Bang!

A hot-tempered Seven-Star General could not help slamming his fist onto the conference table before him.

The sound was transmitted through the video feed to the ears of the other Military leaders as well.

"Those damned Council members—what the hell are they thinking? To balance the various powers, they accepted benefits from those top tycoons and disregarded Yi Chen's safety, allowing those tycoons to hire elite hackers to break into the Large Warship and alter its data and systems. That was bad enough."

"They actually did not investigate the identities of these Serious Criminals at all, accepting anyone who came."

"Do they understand that there are definitely Myriad Races spies among these Serious Criminals? And those spies will undoubtedly want to kill Yi Chen."

"Yi Chen's safety, and whether he knows of the Human Federation's existence, concern the fate of all humanity!"

A Seven-Star General with a gloomy expression gave a sinister laugh. "Don't get so worked up. According to the Research Institute's findings, our human cultivation talent falls far short of that of the Myriad Races. We will soon encounter bottlenecks and limits."

"Even if Yi Chen's upper limit in cultivation speed is still far away, the limits of his ability to create cultivation methods will appear just as soon. Perhaps once he breaks through to the next realm, it will become difficult for him to create cultivation methods suited to that same realm."

"His safety is not as important as the public imagines. If the Human Race wants to continue down the path of cultivation, we must still rely—as we do with technological advancement—on the imagination of generation after generation of future geniuses to keep making breakthroughs and improvements, passing things down and strengthening them bit by bit."

The hot-tempered Seven-Star General snorted. "Why the sarcastic tone? Isn't it just because Yi Tenglong slaughtered your entire clan back then?"

"Yi Tenglong is Yi Tenglong, and Yi Chen is Yi Chen. He has made immense contributions to the Human Race. That alone means his safety must be guaranteed. Not to mention that if anything truly happens to him, the public, who do not know the truth, will definitely erupt into violent unrest."

The gloomy-faced Seven-Star General was not angered by the mockery in the slightest. Calm and unruffled, he said,

"Do not forget, I was not the one who proposed this plan. In truth, I am also surprised by what the Federal Parliament is thinking."

"Yi Chen has indeed made immense contributions to humanity, but in the Council's eyes, no contribution is more important than future benefits."

"On the contrary, given Yi Chen's contributions, if he leaves the Exile Planet in the future and chooses to enter politics, his personality and prestige will make him a rival to many factions."

"After squeezing out every last ounce of value that can be used, making him disappear would instead be an excellent thing for the Council's upper ranks."

"But normally, the Federal Parliament should have maximized the benefits of this matter. Through those Serious Criminals, they should have found out how many forces cultivated by the Myriad Races are hidden within the Human Race, then sought a way to eradicate them completely."

"Yet according to our Military intelligence, the Federal Parliament's intelligence agencies have not investigated this matter in detail at all."

"That is the most abnormal part. No matter what, even if there are people among the Federal Parliament's upper ranks who are friendly with the Myriad Races, they should not have become spies for the Myriad Races, ignoring the Human Federation's interests for the sake of the Myriad Races."

"If that were really the case, the Human Race would have long since collapsed like a mountain crumbling and the earth splitting apart after that disastrous defeat a century ago."

The Military higher-ups could not help showing thoughtful expressions.

That was precisely what had left them baffled.

"The Council is different from our Military. It is full of old foxes. They must be plotting some plan we cannot see through."

The only female Seven-Star General pondered for a moment. "When people like us dislike someone, we draw our guns and shoot at each other. We are fine at formulating battle plans, but when it comes to schemes and tricks, we are far inferior to those old foxes in the Council, who can embrace the man who murdered their father like a brother."

"Rather than guessing at their plans, we might as well ignore them and proceed according to ours. Mobilize all personnel from the intelligence agencies and use those Serious Criminals to thoroughly investigate the Myriad Races' spies."

"If the Council believes we are hindering their plan, they will naturally contact the Marshal. We can decide what to do when the time comes."

Once those words were spoken, although the generals felt somewhat dejected, they could not help nodding.

In the past, although the Military was under the Federal Parliament, it had its own independent system. The Federal Parliament had not dared interfere with the Military's action plans.

On the contrary, it had even needed to make way for the Military's plans.

Unfortunately, that defeat a century ago—the greatest defeat in the Human Race's history—not only dealt the Military devastating losses, but also reduced its prestige to rock bottom.

As a result, after the Council made such a bizarre decision, the Military had to convene a high-level meeting to discuss it.

In the past, who would have cared what decisions the Council made? The Military only needed to discuss what decisions it itself should make.

"That will be all. This meeting is adjourned!"

After pondering for a moment, Marshal Tie Xue decisively announced the end of the meeting.

The two Eight-Star Generals and twelve Seven-Star Generals, who held military power and guarded the entire Milky Way, also promptly shut off their video communications.

Their holographic projections vanished.

Yet Marshal Tie Xue did not rise from his seat at the conference table.

A trace of inscrutable contemplation appeared on his resolute face.

"Longer lifespans, immense financial gains, the threat posed by Myriad Races spies, the complicated relationships among the races surrounding the Milky Way..."

"From every angle, this decision contains conflicting interests that contradict one another. What exactly is the Council plotting?"

Days passed one after another.

The public was immersed in the joy of having their cultivation speed doubled through Spirit Stones.

The various factions, meanwhile, hid within bottomless darkness, quietly waiting for their respective plans and arrangements to slowly come to fruition.

Exile Planet.

Aside from occasionally taking Little Golden Ball to help the Four Routes Army deal with Ferocious Beasts they could not handle,

Yi Chen spent every day quietly testing and creating Meridian Cultivation Charts for sword techniques, combining them with the Sword Intent he had comprehended.

At last, the day arrived for the new batch of Serious Criminals to be sent to the Exile Planet.

The attention of all humanity converged upon it.

Even the upper echelons of the surrounding Various Races focused all their gazes there.

Furthermore, nearly everyone believed that Yi Chen had gone astray in the direction of his New Cultivation Method, so no one cared about the sword technique he was also about to create.