Border Sector 1749-C – A border area where the Constellation Corridor meets the Shining Silver Arm, where the Crimson Dynasty and the Arcane Church have maintained a heavy military presence year-round.
Using the extensive stargate network of the Empire's headquarters, Han Xiao arrived at this border region in just a few days. This was the place where the Empire and the Arcane had agreed to make their deal.
The warship hovered beside the outpost, and Han Xiao's spaceship received a communication from the outpost commander.
"Lord Black Star, the Arcane Church's escort team has arrived and is awaiting handover to us. The official handover point is a desolate planet in the strategic depth of the border between our two sides. Lord Milizaus and the outpost troops will escort you to your destination."
"Milizaus is here too?" Han Xiao raised an eyebrow.
As soon as he finished speaking, Old Dragon's voice came through the channel:
"I've been here for a while, waiting for you. The Empire sent me here only as a precaution. Although the chances are slim, we can't rule out the possibility that they might try to steal the Space-Time Amber."
"Okay, I understand." Han Xiao nodded. "Commander, let's depart now."
Heavy Imperial warships flew out from the outpost, escorting Han Xiao's fleet. Milizaus's enormous body soared through the starry sky, following beside the main ship carrying Han Xiao; the two were roughly the same size.
Instead of using warp, the fleet advanced using conventional propulsion. After traveling for some time, a barren planet came into view, gradually growing larger in their eyes.
The fleets of the Arcane Church and the Crimson Dynasty had already arrived on this planet, and the two sides were confronting each other in outer space. At the central location of the confrontation, on the surface, was a Arcane Church escort team. Dilun, sealed in the Space-Time Amber, stood there, his face still vividly displaying a mixture of shock and anger.
The Empire agreed to unseal the Beyond Grade A Dilun —the weakest often receive preferential treatment from their opponents.
Han Xiao first scanned the planet to confirm that there were no traps.
However, he was caught off guard by the High-Dimensional Apocalypse Teleporter in the battle on Lighthouse Star, and he did not let his guard down.
"We've arrived, Lord Black Star. Let's go." On the bridge of the main ship, the imperial envoy respectfully invited Han Xiao to depart together.
Han Xiao nodded and followed the special envoy to the rear cabin. He then entered an atmospheric flight vehicle, piloted it away from the main ship, and slowly descended.
The red earth drew ever closer in our sight.
Bang! The rectangular vehicle landed on the ground, the hatch slid open, and Han Xiao stepped onto the red sand-like ground.
He walked up to the Arcane escort team, glanced at them, and then turned his gaze to Amber, meeting the eyes of Dilun inside.
The imperial envoy stepped forward to negotiate with the Arcane Envoy. After a brief exchange, the imperial envoy withdrew and nodded to Han Xiao.
"Lord Black Star, please release the seal."
Upon hearing this, Han Xiao stepped forward and stood in front of Dilun. He suddenly turned his head and glanced at the Arcane Escort Team, only to see that everyone was staring at him expectantly.
Master Han raised an eyebrow, lightly stomped his foot on the ground, and a flash of lightning disappeared in an instant.
The next moment, the ground they stepped on transformed into a nano-metallic material. This silvery expanse rapidly spread, covering an area five meters in diameter and turning it into a metallic surface. Then, a ring of metal rose from the edge of the area, converging overhead and enveloping the area, blocking everyone's view.
Clearly, Black Star wasn't going to let anyone see how he broke the seal, and everyone was somewhat disappointed, so they could only wait quietly.
A full ten minutes passed before the nanometal barrier folded up and returned to Han Xiao's hand. Dilun's seal had disappeared, and he sat down on the ground, his face filled with horror and fear.
"Lord Dilun, are you alright?" The Arcane escort team rushed over to help him up.
"I'm fine."
Dilun quickly regained his senses, refused to be helped up, and stood up on his own. He stared intently at Han Xiao in front of him, his eyes revealing a mixture of anger, hostility, fear, and lingering apprehension, but mainly still feeling lingering fear.
"How have you been these past few months?" Han Xiao asked with a squinting smile.
Dilun shuddered instantly, his fear deepening, and he instinctively took a step back, not daring to approach Han Xiao.
His body was frozen in the Space-Time Amber, but his mind continued to operate. He could clearly feel his body, but he couldn't control it at all. This feeling was extremely agonizing, like sleep paralysis. During the time he was trapped, Dilun felt like every day was a year, and he almost became withdrawn.
If it weren't for his powerful Beyond Grade A mental body and unwavering will, he felt he might have been driven insane.
Although a few months of imprisonment was not enough to erase the consciousness of a Beyond Grade A, he had already sensed the trend of his soul weakening. If he continued to be trapped, his soul might eventually be annihilated!
This possibility horrified Dilun.
It can not only imprison individuals, but also erase the consciousness of prisoners. Even Beyond Grade A prisoners cannot resist it. The terror of the Space-Time Amber chilled him to the bone, and he never wanted to experience this feeling again in his life!
Han Xiao glanced around and suddenly said, "The seal is broken. Where's your ambush? You can attack now."
He always felt that the Arcane Church would deploy its troops in the nearby area, and once the transaction was completed, they would use the smashing of a cup as a signal to launch a leap attack with three hundred axemen.
"We didn't set up an ambush." Arcane messenger's lips twitched.
"Really? I thought you guys would try to take me down. This time, not only did you manage to steal the Evolution Cube, but you also got the Space-Time Amber. I didn't expect there really wasn't an ambush..."
Han Xiao shook his head and chuckled, "Looks like you guys really got scared."
The Arcane messenger's face froze, a surge of shame and anger welling up inside him.
Black Star has already proven himself with his achievements. The Arcane Church, considering the other sealed allies, has no intention of taking any more risks. Moreover, this is the border between the two sides, and the Empire is on high alert, so they cannot launch a sneak attack.
Of course... all these reasons boil down to one thing: chickening out.
Because it was true, it struck a nerve with the Arcane messenger, piercing his heart.
The Arcane messenger couldn't refute, his face stiff, and he gritted his teeth, saying, "Since the transaction is complete, we'll be leaving now. We hope to have similar transactions in the future."
Han Xiao stroked his chin. "Are you leaving just like that, Dilun? We became friends through a fight, aren't you going to stay and catch up with me?"
The Arcane messenger immediately became alert. "Lord Black Star, what are you going to do?"
The handover point was in the middle of the border. It was precisely because both sides had their concerns—the Empire feared that the Arcane would launch another sneak attack, while the Arcane feared that the Empire would go back on its word and capture Dilun again—that the Arcane Church easily misunderstood Han Xiao's words... even though he did it on purpose.
"Why are you so nervous? Are you afraid we'll snatch him away?" Han Xiao smirked.
The Arcane messenger pursed his lips and remained silent.
Dilun's expression tightened as he replied, "If I have the opportunity in the future, I will personally visit the Black Star Army!"
"Then I hope you come with good intentions." Han Xiao raised an eyebrow, "Otherwise, what I've experienced these past few months will be repeated on you."
Upon hearing this, Dilun, who had been quite assertive, recalled the feeling of being sealed, and his body shrank slightly. He stopped speaking and slowly retreated from Han Xiao, creating enough distance between them.
Whoosh! Several beams of traction light shot towards Dilun and his group, pulling them back to the warship.
Han Xiao watched as Dilun spiraled upwards into the sky, and then the Arcane Church's fleet in outer space quickly turned around and left the planet.
"The transaction is complete. Go back now."
Han Xiao patted the special envoy on the shoulder, turned and walked towards the flying vehicle, a playful look flashing across his face.
The Arcane Church will definitely ask about the feeling during the sealing, Dilun will not refuse to cooperate. Then the Arcane Church will learn that the sealed Beyond Grade A still has thought processes, and that if the sealing is prolonged, it may lead to the death of consciousness.
The Arcane Church was initially unaware of the possibility of death from the Space-Time Amber, but after receiving Dilun's report, they would definitely be filled with anxiety and would have no choice but to break the seals on the others as soon as possible.
This puts them at a greater disadvantage in negotiations with the empire, and in order to save time, they might have to compromise on even more unreasonable conditions, leaving them with no way to express their grievances.
In a word, it's terrible.
"Heh, I've tricked these charlatans again," Han Xiao thought to himself with a smile.
One's happiness is often built upon the suffering of others; Lu Xun was right.
The transaction went smoothly, and Han Xiao returned to the Imperial border outpost with his troops. Just then, he received a message from the Imperial high command, who stated that the Arcane Church would send Beyond Grade A combatants to participate in the operation to annihilate the Sorokin as agreed.
Several Imperial allies who have been confirmed to participate in the encirclement operation have already set off from various locations to the designated rendezvous point, where they will gather and then depart together to set foot on the Ancient Star Desert.
After resting for a while at the outpost, Milizaus came looking for him.
"Black Star, I'm heading straight to the rendezvous point. Do you have anything else to take care of?"
"Me too, nothing else."
"Alright, let's go together. The wound on the Scepter of All Gods hasn't fully healed yet. Do you still have any of those? Give me a few hundred needles."
"Well, I do still have some of those recovery potions, but... you know about equivalent exchange, right?"
"Tell me, how much dragon blood do you want? Do you want mine?"
"Ahem, we'll talk about it on the way, we'll talk about it on the way." Han Xiao's lips twitched.
Sure enough, once someone crosses the line, they'll do it again.
Milizaus initially refused to provide his dragon blood, but seeing that Han Xiao had collected quite a bit, he seemed to have given up. Since Han Xiao already had some, giving him a little more wouldn't be a big deal.
It sounds kind of strangely exciting...
The two did not linger at the border and set off together (https://m. hetushu. com. com).
The empire was in good order, and apart from Milizaus being a little anemic, the two of them encountered no other problems along the way. They were the first to arrive at the assembly point and waited for the other allies to arrive.
Meanwhile, in the Ancient Star Desert, in a Desolate Universe Belt.
The Fallen Ark fleet hovered above a star, its energy shield protecting it from powerful radiation.
In the main ship's large command center, Harkison stood by the porthole, observing a certain location on the ground through the zoom function. That was the location where the alien Sorokin had landed. Stellar energy formed a huge vortex storm with visible trajectories, and the Sorokin was at its center.
The accumulated stellar energy was too dazzling; even with Calamity Grade sensory abilities, it was difficult to discern the Sorokin's form. The chaotic particle flow interfered with the detection radar, and the target area was even obscured by some of the Sorokin's hidden abilities. No one could see what the Sorokin was doing on the star.
"Lord Sorokin has kept us here for two days now. What is he doing up there?" one of the crew members asked impatiently.
"I don't know." Harkison gently tugged at his tongue, a habit he had when he hesitated.
Two days ago, the Sorokin ordered them to wait in the outer space of this star, while he himself landed on the star and absorbed energy like a bottomless pit, forming an ever-expanding energy vortex on the star's surface.
At this moment, on the surface of the star, the Sorokin is spreading his arms, and a continuous stream of stellar energy is flowing into his body.
He possesses a special ability to absorb external energy, called "Special Ability: Black Hole," which he demonstrated when he fought Han Xiao.
As energy continued to flow in, figures resembling black mist peeled off the Sorokin and transformed into black crystal spheres that floated around the Sorokin, with a dark red light shining from the center of each sphere.
These black spheres are all clones created by the Sorokin through the frenzied absorption of energy.
The more powerful a person is, the greater the boost they receive from using the Evolution Cube. The Sorokin's strength increased significantly, but he could sense that his body had not yet fully transformed. A considerable portion of the Evolution Energy was deposited within his cells, like a treasure sealed in a box. The transformation of his life level was the key to unlocking that box.
The Sorokin doesn't have a panel, so it's unknown that this is an extra racial advancement opportunity obtained by a powerful player using the Evolution Cube for the first time; it only triggers when advancing to the next level.
If he completes another advancement in the future, he will undergo a complete transformation!
However, the Evolution Cube does not have the function of upgrading or advancing, so the Sorokin has not yet received this enhancement.
However, while Evolution Energy cannot allow Sorokin to break through their ranks, it indirectly liberates them from certain limitations.
For example... gene chain load!
Due to the conflict in the gene chains of supernatural abilities, the main body of the Sorokin cannot possess too many abilities simultaneously. The clones can compensate for this by distributing the supernatural abilities to the clones, while the main body cannot use them.
However, this method has a significant drawback: the creation of clones by the Sorokin is not without its burdens... because the ability to maintain the existence of clones is a supernatural power that needs to be constantly activated.
Assuming the Sorokin's main body is a computer, each superpower is a program, and the main body's genetic chain has a capacity limit of memory, then maintaining the clone is equivalent to keeping the program running continuously, always occupying its own memory.
The more powerful the clones are, and the more clones exist simultaneously, the more memory the program will occupy.
Only when there is free memory can space be reserved for using other special abilities.
This is largely why the Sorokin don't use clones much in direct combat—clones would weaken the main body's combat abilities to some extent.
However, the Evolution Cube improved this by specifically optimizing his genetic code based on his own characteristics.
Simply put, it means they increased his memory and optimized his program!
The increased load limit of the gene chain and the decreased load of each ability mean that the number of abilities that can be used at the same time has increased.
For the Sorokin, this is a fundamental enhancement!
The clone ability has thus undergone a transformation. The current gene chain load limit is sufficient to support the Sorokin in creating more clones with Beyond Grade A combat power, far exceeding the previous limit, while the main body's memory still has room for maneuver.
Quantitative change... led to qualitative change!
It can be said that the optimizations brought by the Evolution Cube have even changed the way the Sorokin fight to some extent!
The Sorokin absorbs stellar energy here to create numerous clones, preparing for the enemy's revenge!
Having angered the Arcane Church and the Crimson Dynasty, the Sorokin knew that the two would eventually launch their nth attack on him. Now that they were eager to make their move, he wouldn't just sit idly by and wait for them to come knocking on his door.
The Sorokin cherishes life because only by living can he fulfill his wishes, but he is also unafraid of danger because fighting is the path to becoming stronger. Both the cherishing of life and the love of war coexist within him.
The encirclement and suppression by a cosmic-level civilization has always been an excellent opportunity for him to test his strength. Only by fighting against Beyond Grade A being can he accurately know his own strength.
This sudden and unexpected encirclement was also seen as an opportunity by him, and one of extraordinary significance.
This is the first time he has attacked Beyond Grade A enemy since evolving!
The Sorokin was filled with anticipation.
How powerful you become by Evolution Cube —you'll only know by trying it out.