Star Sea Technology Alliance

Once the uncontested territories were divided up, leaving only contiguous and disputed lands, the civilizations on the outermost edge of the Epoch Clan's sphere of influence faced few troubles.

Because there is a much wider world waiting for them outside, there is absolutely no need to scheme and fight with those guys in the inner circle.

But some things can't be changed simply by not wanting to.

New regulations were promulgated to protect nascent civilizations. All native civilizations that have not yet left their Mother Planet are not allowed to enter the star systems around them until their technology has developed to a certain level.

In this way, once a native civilization is discovered, at least four or five star systems around it become undevelopable. While there aren't many native civilizations at any stage in this star system, they are by no means rare. This greatly limits the expansion of surrounding civilizations.

This regulation received support from most of the non-ethnic groups, since they make up the majority of the inner circle.

As a result, not only did conflicts arise between neighboring tribes, but the inner and outer circles also split into two camps.

However, the outer circle faction soon discovered that once those native civilizations grew up, they usually did not clash with the original established civilizations on the border. Instead, they would voluntarily retreat and develop a wider world on the other side.

But then they will encounter the same problems their predecessors faced. Although the world is vast, many star systems are protected, making it very troublesome to bypass them, and the costs and management are not easy.

From being the beneficiary to being restricted, the gratitude for being protected was quickly worn away by time, and resentment quietly grew.

The New Epoch Clan realized this: regardless of their faction, they shouldn't have a common enemy, and that enemy shouldn't be the New Epoch Clan.

Therefore, new rules emerged.

The new rules introduce a "mentoring" concept, which means that when a native civilization unearths Epoch Clan spaceship and develops for a period of time, a nearby established civilization will advance to "welcome the newcomer."

This may seem like a simple errand, but it actually has many benefits. Because the new rules stipulate that the points earned by the first researchers sent by the original civilization to the Epoch Clan will be split 20/80 between the new and old civilizations. In other words, the old power will take the lion's share of the money from the first sale of personnel.

The rules also modified the protection for new civilizations. Previously, there was no time limit, and protection was only lifted upon reaching a certain technological level. Now, a fixed time has been set, and once that time is up, protection will be lifted regardless of the new civilization's level. Of course, if a new civilization is exceptionally advanced and reaches the required technological level, protection may be lifted earlier.

Furthermore, although interference from older civilizations is strictly prohibited during the period when the new civilization is protected, this restriction does not apply during the invitation process, as long as it is not particularly excessive.

Thus, after continuous probing and gradually grasping the scope of "not being too excessive," the established forces treated inviting new forces as a harvest feast.

During the invitation process, they would try to weaken the new civilization's strength and potential as much as possible, such as annihilating their fleet, plundering their wealth, and forcibly taking away all qualified researchers. In order to conserve their own resources as much as possible during this process, they even invented something like "Flaming Red Lips".

This means that a normal civilization, after being invited, typically needs hundreds of years to recover even a little bit of its vitality.

While the established faction gained points and wealth, they also gained a mortal enemy.

This is an open strategy. It's highly likely that there isn't just one established power surrounding the original civilization. Although the closest established power has priority in inviting them based on distance, even if they choose to give up, they will likely still clash with this new civilization in the future due to their adjacent territories. In that case, it's better to cripple them from the start and create a weak opponent.

Of course, aside from voluntarily giving up, if an invitation fails, other established factions that are relatively far away can naturally step in. However, since the system was implemented, there has never been a case of an invitation failing.

After all, how could a civilization that had only recently unearthed the Epoch Clan's spaceship possibly be a match for an established power?

After this turn of events, the new native civilization could no longer maintain friendly relations with the established powers, and the chain of hatred among the foreign races became even more complex. They no longer had a common enemy, and even actively sought to curry favor with the New Epoch Clan in order to gain support in their friction with their sworn enemies.

As time passed, the status of the New Epoch Clan once again became transcendent, while the ranks of other races continued to expand, and the overall territory they radiated became larger and larger.

To outsiders, they could not call themselves the Epoch Clan's affiliated clan, and many civilizations were unwilling to acknowledge this title. Thus, a new name was born— the Star Sea Technology Alliance.

"A great civilization." Regardless of one's stance, the legendary history of the Epoch Clan must be acknowledged.

Through the Intellect transformed from the Duoqi Race, Rowan collected information about the background of the Star Sea Technology Alliance and, through organization, obtained the above information.

According to the memories of the Duoqi Race, although both the New Epoch Clan and the outsiders wanted to hide some of the Original Epoch Clan's history, after all, there were some things they did not want future generations to know.

However, these things are controlled by "Ying" and are categorized as belief entries in the core principles of the Epoch Inheritance, belonging to a part that cannot be modified or hidden.

When a new civilization joins the Star Sea Technology Alliance, its first points are usually not used to exchange for a specific technology, but rather to exchange for the Alliance's history and rules.

Therefore, the history of the Epoch Clan was well known to all foreign tribes. Even these generals who had not specifically studied the relevant knowledge could tell some of it.

However, Rowan still had some questions about some of the content. For example, the record stated that the last member of the Original Epoch Clan decided to pass on the name of the Epoch Clan to his successor and modified the core principles of "Ying". But Rowan felt that this was definitely not a decision made by that member of the Epoch Clan himself. Perhaps they had planned to do so a long time ago.

Moreover, how could a race devoid of emotion so precisely control people's hearts, even after their own demise, still be able to accurately mold their successors into the people they desire, thus ensuring that their name will remain standing in this star field for countless years to come?

Or rather, the current situation only arose because the modification was successful. If it hadn't succeeded, would the AI called "Fire" have restarted this star system?

Furthermore, is "Ying" a machine with extremely high computing power that only executes commands according to rules, or has it surpassed its initial design and gained life and intelligence?

Rowan couldn't explain it clearly. He originally had a pretty clear concept about this, but after reading the history of the Epoch Clan, it became somewhat blurry.