Before long, a group of Beyond Grade A beings arrived outside the Psionic Energy Restriction Belt and chose an uninhabited area as their battlefield.
Han Xiao and Silver Shadow stepped out from the crowd and faced each other from a distance on the battlefield. The other Beyond Grade A spectators stayed on the periphery of the battlefield, where Swordsman Fu set up a mental chat group to watch the show.
"Silver Shadow actually chose Black Star as his opponent; I wonder how long he can last." Viru shook his head.
Swordswoman Fu said calmly, "Even if we beat Kohler, our influence will only be second to last. It's better to choose Black Star. As long as we can cause him some trouble, even if we lose, the effect will be better than choosing Kohler."
Kohler: "..."
It's the truth, but you'll have no friends if you're so blunt, sis!
Ravenlaude pondered, "Silver Shadow seems quite confident, as if he's really sure of himself. Perhaps he has some special ability."
"I heard he's a martial artist? He looks more like a superhuman."
"I looked into his exploits. He's incredibly fast, supposedly possessing special flight techniques that allow him to continuously accelerate, even artificially reaching mid-level warp speeds. He also seems to have a portion of Void bloodline," Maxiler pointed to the distant Silver Shadow. "Furthermore, use your microscopic vision to examine his body. His seemingly smooth silver shell is covered in extremely fine forbidden magic circuits; it must have been enhanced by Beyond Grade A mage from the Sea of Star Spirits."
Upon hearing this, many Beyond Grade A cultivators adjusted their vision and entered a microscopic state, discovering that Silver Shadow's body did indeed have densely packed energy circuits, like semi-invisible tattoos.
"There are several Beyond Grade A mages in the Sea of Star Spirits. This unrestrained circuit drawing style must belong to [Secret Master] of the elderly idol group. Although this guy is one of the behind-the-scenes controllers of the Interstellar Black Market and is semi-neutral, his fees are not cheap. It seems that Silver Shadow has spared no expense."
Ravenlaude was unhappy. "What do you mean by 'old people's idol group'? That's called 'Ancient Ones '!"
Swordswoman Fu focused on another point, narrowing her eyes, "He has too many enchantments on him. To withstand such a powerful load, his body seems excessively resilient."
"Hmm, that's true," Beoni said helplessly. "But no matter how strong one's body is, can it be as strong as Black Star's?"
"... That's true."
With Han Xiao's example set before them, everyone is now used to all sorts of tanky characters.
"Speaking of which, Black Star hasn't fought against Beyond Grade A opponent for almost twenty years since the battle with the Mechanic Emperor. At that level, even he can't maintain his once terrifying growth rate anymore." Viru shook his head.
Clottey, who rarely spoke, interjected casually, "Approaching the known limit of individual power, going any higher would break the limits of the entire Explored Universe. Countless Beyond Grade A beings in history have failed to create new levels; it's not that easy to do."
As everyone chatted, Han Xiao and Silver Shadow had already set up their battle formation.
The Dominion's avatar, leading a small mechanical force, hovered in space. The force was small, and wisps of blue-gold Mechanical Force electricity swirled around their black armor.
He, a mechanic, stood still, while the Silver Shadow on the opposite side took the initiative to create distance.
This situation is rare. Among the many Beyond Grade A onlookers, they exchanged knowing smiles and glances. It is estimated that only Black Star, the mechanic, could prevent a martial arts opponent from charging at him.
The Silver Shadow circled Han Xiao from afar, searching for weaknesses and opportunities, but hesitated to attack.
Han Xiao stood there watching him spin around, but after a long time there was no sign of him attacking, he couldn't help but speak:
"When are you going to transfer? Come here!"
The Silver Shadow did not answer, but continued to circle, gradually accelerating. Its flight speed increased, and its figure gradually blurred, like a silver comet, leaving a series of silver afterimages, like the fiery tail of a meteor.
Through the Void Vision, Han Xiao could clearly see that the Silver Shadow's speed was not just fast; the space around him was distorted, constantly squeezing behind him, forming Tide phenomenon that allowed him to glide on the waves, providing additional acceleration.
At the same time, the familiar void energy emanating from Silver Shadow's body proved that the other party also possessed a portion of the Void Gene.
Han Xiao had a general understanding of Silver Shadow's abilities. Among the Beyond Grade A, Silver Shadow had several well-known characteristics: First, he was fast and could maintain warp drive for a long time. Moreover, at his peak, he could reach the high warp drive level.
Secondly, its body is extremely tough, almost indestructible.
Third, their species possesses rare endowments.
Fourthly, there are buses.
Silver Shadow's health isn't high, but his defense is incredibly powerful, surpassing even Heber's. This is related to his attributes as a mutated Universal Treasure.
Due to his various special abilities, although Silver Shadow is currently a newly promoted Beyond Grade A and a Book, his actual combat strength should be above that of Kohler and Beoni, on par with Viru and Heber, and slightly weaker than Maxiler, Ravenlaude and Swordsman Fu, placing him in the middle tier. His mental strength is also Silver Shadow's weakness.
As one of the top-ranking members of the Empire's Beyond Grade A combat force, Han Xiao remained calm and didn't mind letting Silver Shadow unleash all her abilities. After all, Yin Ying was Beyond Grade A with special abilities, and it was worth befriending her to let her show her skills and gain influence in the circle, thus doing a good deed for others.
It wasn't that Han Xiao was arrogant, but rather that he knew himself and his enemy well. He had calculated the possibilities of the battle time and again in his mind, and the conclusion he had reached was:
With my current strength, I can completely control the battle. I don't need any fancy maneuvers to deal with Silver Shadow; I can just use F2A to get there and be done with it.
With the dragon charging in, we can't lose.
No matter how flashy your swordplay is, I'll just raise my hand and shoot you down with a single shot.
Han Xiao patiently waited for Silver Shadow to accelerate, only occasionally allowing the mechanical troops to fire from a distance.
Finally, Silver Shadow felt he had finished warming up, turned around abruptly, and launched a fierce charge. Like a beam of light, he covered a great distance in the blink of an eye and rushed towards Han Xiao's mechanical troops.
With Han Xiao's permission, the combat AI Sparta reacted immediately, activating the space solidification device and the spacetime stabilization anchor.
The stability of the surrounding space suddenly increased. Part of the Silver Shadow's speed came from the spatial distortion, and its speed slowed down considerably at this moment, but it was still very fast. Even Calamity Grade being could not see its figure clearly at this moment, and could only see a thin silver line.
Relying on its high speed, Silver Shadow engaged in fierce combat with the mechanical forces. The Psionic Energy cannons often missed their mark, while the silver martial arts fluctuations continuously struck the matrix-style Psionic Energy combined shield deployed by the mechanical forces, unable to penetrate it.
After probing for a while, Silver Shadow turned and charged towards the Psionic Energy shield of the mechanical troops, like a silver comet.
Just as it was about to collide, the silver comet suddenly mutated, splitting apart like a cluster of warheads into hundreds of tiny silver meteors. In an instant, they scattered in all directions, rapidly circling around the surface of the Psionic Energy shield, and turning around from the unprotected side to rush into the formation of the mechanical troops.
Each of its sub-bodies was a mass of silvery, liquid metallic substance, all of which had been reduced to miniature versions of the Silver Shadow, and were all part of his body.
This is Silver Shadow's innate species talent. The metamorphosis in the star core brought him a mutation, allowing his body to achieve nanoscale splitting and change shape, all under his own control.
Moreover, the split offspring also possess considerable combat power. Since the total strength remains unchanged, the combat power of the offspring depends on the proportion of energy allocated by Silver Shadow and their size. The Void Bloodline allows him to remotely power the offspring using the Void Dimension, and the offspring's blood volume is also determined by its volume ratio.
Silver Shadow's Universal Treasure attributes grant him terrifying defensive power, which is not evenly distributed. Therefore, even if each of his sub-bodies is not strong in combat, they are almost indestructible, which is his advantage.
Because of this special ability, Silver Shadow is considered a rare "high-value man" among struggling martial artists, as he doesn't need to do everything himself.
Some of the sub-units charged through the mechanical troops at high speed, but due to the dispersed power, although the attack frequency was fast, they could not destroy the mechanical soldiers that had been strengthened for countless generations and had also received the Mechanical Force enhancement from Han Xiao. They could only leave shallow marks on the outer armor of these soldiers.
Meanwhile, the remaining sub-units merged again, transforming into a smaller Silver Shadow that rushed straight towards Han Xiao, arriving in front of him in the blink of an eye.
The Dominion's clone remained motionless, its eyes emitting arcs of ghostly blue light. [Supreme Virtual] delivered a single, devastating blow!
The next moment, Silver Shadow lost control of his body, crashed at high speed, and fell over!
The scattered sub-units also lost control and were easily captured by the mechanical forces.
Han Xiao slightly turned his body to the side, and the Silver Shadow rolled past him. He accurately reached out, grabbed the Silver Shadow's ankle, and pulled the Silver Shadow back.
Silver Shadow's weakness lies in its mental aspect, while [Supreme Virtual] is not only a mental attack but also possesses the difficulty of breaking through virtual technology. With Han Xiao's virtual technology and level suppression, it will take a long time for Silver Shadow's consciousness to break free, giving him enough time to manipulate Silver Shadow into all sorts of positions.
Nanomechanical tentacles extended from the back of the Dominion's clone, binding Silver Shadow tightly in layers. At the same time, the tentacles carried electromagnetic, spatial, and other control devices, while disc-shaped miniature Psionic Energy floating cannons popped out from the clone's shoulders, hovering around Silver Shadow's head.
The mechanical troops in the distance also scattered and rushed over, turning their guns to aim at the controlled Silver Shadow, and at the same time releasing a reverse Psionic Energy shield, trapping Han Xiao and Silver Shadow inside. In this way, the only way for Silver Shadow to escape was to break through the shield, taking away his space for acceleration.
At this moment, Silver Shadow finally broke free from the Supreme Virtual, but his spirit was severely damaged and he entered a variety of negative states. As soon as his consciousness returned, he found himself firmly controlled.
"Shall we continue?" Han Xiao asked with a smile in the chat group.
"... This kind of situation can't hurt me." Silver Shadow struggled for a moment, but found it difficult to break free. So it simply pulled its head out, abandoning most of its body, thus escaping control. Its head turned into a small person, standing on the smooth silver cross-section of its neck.
"I know you have extraordinary resilience, and my troops might not be able to inflict much damage on you." Han Xiao nodded and smiled. "However, you can't gain the upper hand over me based on that... Trust me, I'm experienced in this area."
In reality, he is the natural enemy of Silver Shadow. If the Space-Time Amber were here, things would be much easier. The Silver Shadow's split offspring are very small, which makes it easier for the Space-Time Amber to take shape and easily seal the offspring, continuously weakening Silver Shadow. However, this is only a Dominion, Space-Time Amber is in the main body.
Silver Shadow pondered for a moment, then withdrew his arrogance and nodded. "You won."
He originally intended to catch Han Xiao off guard by relying on high speed, sub-body splitting, and a strong body, mainly to gain a temporary advantage. He was not confident in defeating Black Star, not even a Dominion clone.
The long-planned offensive was easily neutralized by Han Xiao, falling directly into the enemy's control. This made him clearly feel the overwhelming gap in strength, and the battle was completely under Black Star's control.
With most of his body in Han Xiao's hands, continuing the fight would only make him more pathetic. Moreover, Black Star had kindly let him go, allowing him to display his combat power. Silver Shadow appreciated this gesture and decided to stop short of a protracted fight. Although he challenged a strong opponent, he wasn't looking for a beating.
Upon hearing this, Han Xiao released the restriction, restoring the Silver Shadow to its original state, and laughed, "Now you owe me a request."
"What do you want me to do?" Silver Shadow asked.
"Hmm, I'll owe you for now, and I'll contact you later if I think of anything else." Han Xiao thought for a moment but didn't bring it up immediately.
He wanted to study Silver Shadow's body to uncover the hidden properties of the Universal Treasure, but their relationship wasn't close enough yet, and Silver Shadow might not be willing to share his body for research—that would be very risky for Beyond Grade A.
Therefore, it's better to do some networking before making this request. After all, this isn't a one-off deal, and it's important to maintain a good relationship so that Silver Shadow will be more willing to use his services regularly in the future.
In his past life Carrot was a close friend of Silver Shadow, which is why he was able to enjoy so many free private services.
Speaking of which, Carrot should have joined the Imperial military by now, but he's still a long way from being fully formed. I wonder if his experiences have changed under my interference...
"Okay, I'll remember that." Silver Shadow nodded.
"You can come find me in the Shattered Star Ring or the Shattered World when you have time. You can also ask me for help if you encounter any problems." Han Xiao laughed.
Silver Shadow nodded silently. He appreciated Black Star's friendliness and acted like an older brother, almost as if he was saying, "I'll protect you."
He felt a pang of emotion:
--While other Beyond Grade A individuals make things difficult for newcomers, Black Star is different. This is the demeanor that a future pillar of the empire should have.
Seeing that the battle was over, the Beyond Grade A spectators gathered around.
The result was not unexpected, but Black Star's steady performance still amazed many. After twenty years, Black Star no longer seemed to be using unorthodox methods, but rather a straightforward and forceful crushing attack, and he did so with ease.
Although they hadn't actually fought, everyone had a good idea of what would happen if they faced Silver Shadow, based on his abilities. They secretly predicted what would happen if they were to fight him. The conclusion was that although Silver Shadow was a newcomer, his fighting power was quite impressive, and neither Kohler nor Beoni were confident they could win.
Kohler, in particular, secretly rejoiced that Silver Shadow hadn't accepted his sparring invitation; otherwise, he would have truly embarrassed himself.
Black Star dealt with this Silver Shadow so easily; their levels are truly different.
Aside from Clottey, the Beyond Grade A members present felt an even deeper sense of awe towards Han Xiao.
Back on the spaceship, setting off to return to Crimson Ring Star, Han Xiao exchanged feelings with Silver Shadow while opening the panel and glancing at Silver Shadow's Beyond Grade A challenge mission, which already showed as "completed".
He didn't settle the reward immediately; he planned to settle it after his consciousness returned to his body, to have a good time with Fording —this important step couldn't be ignored.
Back on Crimson Ring Star, after exchanging communication methods, Silver Shadow bid farewell to everyone and headed to his residence to rest for a while.
Just as Han Xiao was about to dispel the Dominion clone, an Imperial official approached him.
"Lord Black Star, Mr. Bekorodi invites you to meet."
"Bekorodi?" Han Xiao knew this was an important leader of the Empire's hardliners, someone he wasn't on the same side as and didn't interact with much, so he couldn't help but be curious. "What does he want with me?"
He wants to talk to you about the Evolution Cube.
Han Xiao's heart skipped a beat. Over the past ten years, due to the continued suppression by Glory and Arcane, some of the Empire's high-ranking officials still insisted on the ownership of the Evolution Cube. Bekorodi seemed to be a staunch supporter, and he had heard about this.
What did he want to talk to me about?
Han Xiao, somewhat curious, nodded. "Alright, lead the way."
"Plz follow me."
Imperial personnel led the way, and the two arrived at a government building. After passing through layers of security barriers, they reached a private conference room.
As soon as Han Xiao entered, he saw an elderly but dignified imperial officer sitting in the main seat. His face was taut, his wrinkles were deep, his nose was a bit large, his thin lips were pressed tightly together, and his eyes were deep-set. He looked like a rather tough person.
"Hello Black Star, I'm Bekorodi. This isn't our first meeting." Bekorodi forced a smile.
"However, this is the first time we've met privately," Han Xiao replied, shaking his head as he sat down at the other end of the table.
He had only seen this person before at a high-level meeting of the entire empire, and had not had much interaction with him.
"I'm not one for small talk, so let's get straight to the point." Bekorodi, hands on the table, sat up straight and said in a deep voice, "The Empire wants to exchange some things for the Evolution Cube. Name your terms."
"Want to trade for my Evolution Cube?" Han Xiao's eyes flickered.
In fact, there had been signs of this for some time, and he had used many underhanded tactics, but it was only today that the imperial high command truly revealed it to him.
"This isn't just your idea, is it?" Han Xiao asked with a half-smile.
"Indeed, I hope you understand that this is not a personal grudge. We wouldn't have done this before, and it wouldn't have mattered if the Evolution Cube were in your possession. However, the legacy of the Sorokin brought the Evolutionary Totem and more technologies from the Evolutionary Civilization. The Evolution Cube has become the core of these technologies, and its significance has changed. The Empire hopes to master this strategic Universal Treasure, but it has been delayed until now due to His Excellency's support for you."
Han Xiao nodded. He could understand this point. As a civilized regime, there were many concerns. Only by holding onto something of such strategic significance could they feel at ease. Interests were one aspect, but another was that a qualified civilization could never completely rely on individuals and allies.
Let alone the Crimson Dynasty, whether in the Glory or the Arcane, as long as the Evolutionary Totem and its accompanying technologies appear, they will make the same choice, or even worse.
If he were Beyond Grade A from a direct descendant of an advanced civilization, they might just make him hand it over directly, instead of letting him make demands at will.
Since they are external allies, the Empire cannot force them to transfer their private property to the public, otherwise it would have a very bad impact. That is why they chose the method of exchange.
For advanced civilizations, Beyond Grade A are merely tools for conflict; the civilization itself is the protagonist of the universe.
However, among the Beyond Grade A individuals, very few are genuinely dedicated to serving civilization; it's all about mutual benefit and exploitation.
"Letting me name my terms is quite generous..." Han Xiao chuckled. "There must be a limit, right? Why don't you name your price?"
"Alright." Bekorodi nodded. "The Empire is willing to exchange Universal Treasure for your Evolution Cube."
Han Xiao shook his head. "You just said it yourself, the Evolution Cube have different meanings. Trading one for another, do you think I'm losing out?"
You've misunderstood; it's not about replacing one with another.
Bekorodi smiled faintly and said slowly:
"Three Universal Treasure in exchange for one Evolution Cube! This is the Empire's sincerity, what do you think?"