There was no time to be surprised by the Nameless Apostasy-er's identity. Once everything had settled down, Xi Yan connected to the Exploration and Expansion Department's database again, trying to dig up some of the unusual events recorded there.
Most of the data concerned the movements of celestial bodies in various star systems or simple anomalies that were not worth studying. Xi Yan racked his brains before finally finding a memory that matched one of the records.
As everyone knew, the universe was vast. Tens of thousands of civilizations had existed over its countless years of history, and since the technology tree in Stellaris was largely standardized, traces of other civilizations could often be found in space.
After the Great Khan crisis ended, a new peace came to the Sea of Stars. Under Xi Yan's direction, the Sea of Stars Community drew up a large number of trade agreements, allowing the various nations' trading systems to complement one another economically.
For a time, trade flourished across the universe. Naturally, piracy also became more rampant.
Xi Yan absolutely refused to admit that he had instructed Captain Nais to do this. As for those anonymous transfers from abroad that arrived every month from who knew where, he knew nothing about them either.
Meanwhile, the various nations were renting his fleets to suppress the pirates, earning Xi Yan another hefty sum.
As piracy increased, wrecked ships became a common sight. According to the Exploration and Expansion Department's records, they had discovered a shipwreck in a star system on the fringes of explored space.
Shipwrecks were everywhere. There was nothing worth paying attention to.
Caravaner transport ships did occasionally end up wrecked, though. Whenever Xi Yan found one, he sent people to salvage it, and he had dug up quite a few Caravaner technologies