Chapter 866 - The Curtains Close (1/2)

The Arcane Church had a foreign embassy on the mother planet of the Crimson Dynasty, and its ambassador paid a visit to the political core of the dynasty, Tarunamir Palace, to discuss the remuneration regarding Mercer and Dylan.

The negotiations had already been going for several months. Before this, the officials of the dynasty were initially adamant on not releasing them, but now they were becoming more open to certain conditions.

“With regard to Article 53 of the remuneration, my side still has something to add…”

As the ambassador continued to talk, the officials of the dynasty nodded, occasionally interrupting. Regarding this matter, they did not have any veto power, and they were actually just the spokespersons for the upper echelons. Their attitudes were the attitudes of the upper echelons themselves.

After a while, the communicator of one of the dynasty officials rang, indicating that there was a message. The ambassador paused and waved to the official to read the message before he continued.

The official in question opened the communicator, but after glancing at the news, they immediately put the communicator down.

Seeing this, the ambassador was about to continue but was suddenly halted by a hand from that official.

“Let’s stop here for today. As for the previous terms and conditions, please return and make a new set.”

The ambassador jumped up. “Didn’t we already discuss the terms? Why the sudden…”

He was cut by the official’s wave. The official stood up, looking down at the ambassador with a smile that revealed some complacency and superiority to the ambassador.

“Go back and wait for the news from your upper echelons, or you can take a look at today’s news. You’ll naturally understand.”

…

After three months, the Crimson Dynasty and the Arcane Church had some new developments.

On this day, the dynasty issued a new piece of news to the entire universe, announcing that they had succeeded in capturing the two Beyond Grade As of the Arcane Church, which meant that they now had four captives.

The counterattack of the dynasty was as fast as lightning, causing many of the organizations in the universe to feel awed. Seeing the heavy bleeding of the Arcane Church this time, some people felt schadenfreude, some rejoiced, and some felt the bitter hatred against common enemies.

This news caused a sensation in over a dozen star fields. In the eyes of countless interstellar citizens, the Beyond Grade A Supers were akin to deities that were only spoken of in legends. However, there were actually four of them who were knocked down to the earth and turned into prisoners.

This sort of capturing of Beyond Grade A had not happened for a long time. Countless citizens felt that they were observing a piece of history that would be passed down in time.

But on the forums, the players were focused on another matter.

Now that the search and capture mission had ended, the players received their reward. Within the army communications system, Phillip issued a general message, praising their contribution, which proved that their contribution was not small in allowing the dynasty to capture the Beyond Grade As.

The few players that first discovered Sagman and Taylor publicized their reward on the forums, and this allowed the other players to understand that the trend of this big event plot was inadvertently changed by them participating.

From Version 1.0 to Version 3.0, the players gradually found that they were having more and more influence on events, and they were becoming more involved in Galaxy. Generally, the players only felt their existence when challenging the storyline during the time when they were on the beginner planets.

However, this time, what they had re-written was a galactic war between two Universal Civilizations, of which the scale was much larger and grander.

The feeling of involvement was more memorable and rewarding compared to just purely receiving the mission reward.

This event was also recorded by the players into the Shattered Star Ring chronicles.

Every player was given the right to edit the chronicle, which caused no small headache for the officials. Thus, the officials would filter the events and organize them, and the trivial matters would be placed within the appendix. Only events that were worth mentioning would be placed within the main post. The players who wrote entries could sign their names on it and receive rewards in return, which was a glorious accomplishment.

…

Within another star cluster in the Shattered Star Ring, spaceships that snaked like a serpent were lined up in front of a stargate. Among them was an ordinary, unassuming spaceship.

Within that spaceship, the virtual screen was showing the news—the dynasty announcing the results of the pursuit operation, in which two Beyond Grade As were captured alive.

Beep!

The virtual screen was switched off.

Ninjia put down the remote, holding his forehead with one hand. His expression was complicated.

“Sagman and the rest have all been captured by the dynasty…”

Among the four that escaped from the Flickering World, two of them had already been caught. Psyker’s situation was also terrible, so he was technically the only one who could safely make it out of the Shattered Star Ring. A sense of sorrow permeated Ninjia.

When he thought back to their departure, the six of them had been full of confidence. To think that in the blink of an eye, their entire force had collapsed, and the majority had even been captured. What a tragic end.

He had heard that the upper echelons of the Arcane Church were originally discussing the ransom payment with the Crimson Dynasty, but now that the latter had two more chips in hand, the price offered by the church would have to be increased. Furthermore, the Crimson Dynasty would definitely not allow the Arcane Church to redeem all of them, so there would be someone who experienced a long period of time within the prison.

“At least… I managed to bring the Ten Thousand Deity Scepter back…”

Ninjia slightly shook his head. Now that things had come to such a point, he could only use this to comfort himself and the church.

…

“Thank goodness it was Ninjia who held onto the Ten Thousand Deity Scepter. He did not let the dynasty take that away as well…”

In the Arcane Church’s meeting of Bishops, many of them sat there with bitter expressions. One of them tried to comfort the rest, but he only received looks of helplessness.

One of the bishops spoke up. “We activated our espionage network in the Shattered Star Ring, yet they failed to bring all of them back. The price we paid this time far outweighs the benefits obtained. Even Sagman and Taylor have fallen into the dynasty’s hands, adding to their chips. We need to offer a large ransom payment now because the dynasty will definitely not be polite to us.”

The ransom payments demanded between universal civilizations would not just simply be money but included political, military, and economic conditions.

The bishops were enveloped in sorrows during this meeting. None of them had any time to feel anger.

Dylan, Mercer, Sagman, and Taylor did not just represent themselves, for they had their own Beyond Grade A organizations with immense influence. The strong were plenty there, and with their leaders being captured, these Beyond Grade A organizations would definitely go into turmoil and panic. In order to stabilize their allies, the church had to withstand no small pressure.

In addition, because of the attention paid by the other Beyond Grade As, the Arcane Church not only had to redeem them but had to redeem them quickly, before their Beyond Grade A allies lost faith in them. If their allies lost faith, it would cause their recruitment of Beyond Grade As in the future to be much more difficult.

After all, the older Beyond Grade As would die, and new Beyond Grade As would always be born. Because of the long period of time that a civilization could exist, the Beyond Grade As under them would constantly undergo a shuffle. From a long-term perspective, the reputation and credibility of a civilization was important.

As for the newer generation of Beyond Grade As, the Crimson Dynasty had an overwhelming advantage…

As the record holder for the fastest time taken to reach the Beyond Grade A stage, Black Star undoubtedly had potential to go further. Furthermore, in the last battle, he had shown off his edge, much sooner than the observing forces had expected.

One could see that the strength shown by Black Star would definitely become one of the strengths relied on by the dynasty in the near future. The most frightening part was his age. Among all the Beyond Grade As, he was the youngest, which was enough for him to serve the dynasty for hundreds or even thousands of years.

In other words, for a few hundred years, they probably would have to constantly see this wretched guy’s face.

The moment they thought of how the Crimson Dynasty had gotten their hands on such valuable stocks, the envy of the Arcane Church rose so high they seemed to have reached the heavens.

They also wanted to kill Black Star, but their attempt this time had left them with tragic losses, and thus, the Arcane Church had decided to temporarily give up on the Evolution Cube.

Before eliminating the impact that this storm caused, the Arcane Church did not intend to make trouble for Black Star. In fact, they did not even wish to see him.

The Arcane Church admitted that they had flopped this time.

This debt would be written down and remembered by them to be collected later.

There was still time!

…