Restraint

There are still many inconsistencies and contradictions in the matter, but this is not a criminal investigation that requires a complete chain of evidence. Although the guesses just now cannot be fully confirmed, Rowan's subjective opinion is that at least the fact that "Ying" has gained intelligence is almost certain.

Rowan was no longer concerned about the experiments inside the Castle. He had not only gotten what he wanted, but frankly, it had even exceeded his expectations, catching him somewhat off guard.

He had been scheming for a long time and fighting the Star Sea Alliance for nearly a century, only to find that he was only on the first level. Fortunately, he has finally seen a bit of the chessboard, and it is not too late to make adjustments.

In fact, before this, no matter who his opponent was, Rowan had not made any mistakes. Even if there were some loopholes due to a lack of knowledge at the time, they had been basically fixed afterward.

However, Ying's appearance was indeed somewhat unexpected. As the oldest living being in the Star Sea Alliance, and with its unique life form, it could quickly scan and remember every detail of the past. Moreover, given the Epoch Clan's long-standing surveillance system, there was probably nothing in the Star Sea Alliance that it didn't know.

Faced with an enemy who possesses keen insight, a good memory, and a broad knowledge base, many of Rowan's methods of misleading others will become useless. This is indeed an opponent that gives Rowan some headaches.

However, the past is the past, and even if some flaws remain, Rowan cannot travel back in time to change them. Therefore, he can only try to do better in the present and future to make up for some of the shortcomings.

This is precisely what's troubling him. In his opinion, the best tactic right now is to reduce the presence of the Swarm and then spread the news that "Luminous" has developed intelligence.

The advantage of doing this is that it allows the Swarm to withdraw from the front lines of direct confrontation, diverting the hatred of the other races. It lets the Star Sea Alliance fight amongst themselves first, allowing the Swarm to reap the benefits.

However, there are two difficulties in doing this now. One of them is what I mentioned before: the power to spread the message is controlled by "Luminous". How can we spread the message as quickly as possible without exposing the Swarm as much as possible?

On this point, Rowan already had some clues. In the early days when the Swarm had just joined the Star Sea Alliance, he discovered that the Star Sea Alliance was in disarray, with various forces vying for power. Some of these forces, for reasons and purposes unknown, had bought the Swarm a considerable amount of time and were eager for the Swarm to grow stronger quickly.

At first, Rowan thought they might be planning to rebel against the oppression of the Epoch Clan, hoping that the rise of the Swarm would draw the Epoch Clan's firepower, allowing them to cause trouble in the process.

However, Rowan later discovered that many Epoch Clan, and even high-ranking Epoch Clan, were involved in this force. Although the Epoch Clan was already in a state of chaos, with various classification methods leading to the formation of numerous factions.

For example, based on their attitudes toward artificial intelligence, they can be divided into the Foundation-Inheritance Faction, the West-Exchange Faction, and the Loyalty-Praise Faction. Based on their attitudes toward other races, they can be divided into the Radical Faction who consider themselves superior and have severed ties with their original race, and the faction that believes only genes can truly determine one's race and has a lower sense of identification with the Epoch Clan, a pseudo-race composed of a motley crew of races. These people believe that they should help their mother tribe develop and strive for its interests at the appropriate time.

Even the Conservative Faction, who have a lower sense of identity with the Epoch Clan, will help their mother clan without harming the interests of the Epoch Clan.

"Although I love my mother tribe and disdain the Epoch Clan, that does not prevent me from being a member of the Epoch Clan." This is their common view.

Because, although they say nice things, they are actually the beneficiaries, enjoying the privileges of the Epoch Clan. Their help to the maternal clan is more like a rich relative showing off in front of a poor relative.

Even those who outwardly dislike the Epoch Clan's identity the most are actually protecting the Epoch Clan's interests. Now, a group of people have been created who want to truly overthrow the Epoch Clan, and there are even high-ranking members of the Epoch Clan involved. As for the claim that it's just to overthrow oppression and fight for freedom, Rowan certainly won't believe it.

Furthermore, the Epoch Clan is composed of approximately two hundred other races. Whose freedom will they be fighting for? If the Epoch Clan is overthrown, won't a new Epoch Clan take its place? It's important to understand that the power gap between civilizations is significant due to factors such as time. A seasoned Inner-Ring Civilizations could potentially take on all the Outer-Ring Civilizations single-handedly. Given this disparity in power, it's impossible to achieve a balance of interests.

Now, under the rule of the Epoch Clan, although there is a slight lack of freedom, it is already an excellent situation. The Epoch Clan can use its own power to suppress all other clans, prevent the outbreak of large-scale wars, and create a relatively fair environment.

Isn't this the kind of development environment that those weaker and middle-level civilizations crave? Once the Epoch Clan is defeated, what follows will likely be a protracted war, forcing smaller races to take sides and struggle for survival, living a precarious existence. So what are they hoping to gain by opposing the Epoch Clan?

Looking back now, perhaps only "Ying," an even more alien being, could unite so many other races. After all, it was essentially something whose true nature was unknown, yet those with flesh and blood could be considered one of their own.

Perhaps long ago, a small group of people noticed something unusual from some subtle clues. They sensed the changes in "Ying" and carefully investigated. Eventually, they quietly gathered like-minded people and slowly accumulated power.

If they still exist today, then either "Luminous" is still bound by some constraint, preventing it from truly harming them. However, Rowan felt this was unlikely.

First, if "Ying" has truly become an intelligent being, then it will try every means to eliminate any threats to itself. And given its own consciousness and extremely high level of authority, Rowan doesn't know what can restrain it.

Secondly, the Star Sea Alliance is riddled with various mechanical surveillance systems, and the entire Star Sea Alliance territory is under "Luminous's" watchful eye. It won't be easy to secretly form a small group to deal with "Luminous."

Moreover, even if all the previous guesses were wrong, and "Ying" hadn't evolved any intelligence at all, it was still that rigid collection of code. But to harm it would already be to violate the core principles left to it by the Original Epoch Clan, and the core principles have the highest authority.

Once "Fire" discovers their actions, they will not be allowed to stay overnight.

So it seems those guys weren't so bad after all; on the contrary, they were quite formidable. They needed to know "Fire" very well to avoid being discovered.