While Xi Yan carefully taught Little Gray how to become an excellent governor, major news kept arriving from the empire's exploration efforts.
The head of the Colonial Expansion Department immediately sought out Xi Yan for help.
The universe was vast. Exploration and expansion did not lead only to unclaimed systems; they also brought encounters with countless alien organisms, pre-faster-than-light civilizations, anomalies, and special systems.
Xi Yan required his citizens to maintain a healthy respect for the universe.
That respect manifested as caution in their actions. When faced with the unknown universe, the Department of Science conducted research first. Only after safety had been confirmed were Science Ships or Construction Ships allowed to continue their work.
This greatly reduced the efficiency of expansion, but vastly improved safety.
Major anomalies that could not be resolved directly could only be reported up through the ranks and handed over to the almighty Supreme King.
After giving Miss Gray Tempest her daily lesson, Xi Yan connected to the Science Ship on the frontier to see exactly what had happened.
The exploration and expansion department had discovered a system called "Refuge" in the southern star region.
The all-knowing, all-powerful Xi Yan immediately knew what it was.
An unclaimed Ring World suspected of having ties to both Lost Empires, Machine Dad and the Enigmatic Observers. It fell under the category of special systems.
Every game had a chance of spawning certain special systems, which came with unique events and decent resources.
Refuge, translated as "Sanctuary" in ancient versions, was one such special system. It contained an unclaimed Ring World protected by Lost Empire defense platforms with roughly 15K combat power.
This Ring World had once served as a nature preserve for cultivating primitive life. The entire Ring World had been preserved intact, and each segment housed a