Chapter 866 - The Curtains Close (2/2)

“Sagman and the rest were caught.”

In a dimly lit room, the Beyond Grade As of the Arcane Church were gathered through remote projection. Around the table were six empty spots.

Because of the matter this time, the Beyond Grade As of the Arcane Church had gathered to discuss the resultant waves caused by the news.

“Initially, when the Arcane Church came to me to take on this task, they only saw the disparity of combat power and thought that it was impossible to fail. However, I felt that there was some danger, so I rejected it, and they had Mercer take my place. Now that I look at it, it was good I did not accept the mission.” One of them could not help but attempt to be wise after the incident.

“It’s a pity that I’m being watched by too many organizations and am unable to even move in secret. If I had taken part in this mission, the results would not have been the same,” another said blandly.

The Arcane Church also had Beyond Grade As on the level of the three pillars of the Crimson Dynasty, but their strongest Supers did not participate in the operation this time. Because they were too strong, the surveillance on them was naturally higher, and any movement from them would have attracted the attention of many eyes. Furthermore, the Arcane Church had thought that the Ten Thousand Deity Scepter would be enough to handle them and only approached Sagman and rest, whose strength was lower compared to the strongest few.

“However, no matter how we put it, Sagman had the numerical advantage, yet they were still unable to snatch the Evolution Cube. Black Star’s ability could be considered an unexpected factor this time, and it seems like we have yet another strong opponent.”

“Hmm… in another decade or so, the three pillars of the dynasty might just turn into the four pillars…”

With his allies in the same camp having suffered at Black Star’s hands, the impressions of the Beyond Grade As present toward Black Star had become even stronger than before.

“How about it? What ideas do we have? Are we going to wait for the Arcane Church to redeem them, or do we try to save them?”

“Let’s maintain silence and wait. If the Arcane Church can solve the problem, there’s no need for us to complicate matters. Furthermore, from the intelligence provided by the Arcane Church, Black Star seems to be able to seal up Beyond Grade As. Although I don’t know what sort of Universal Treasure that is, it is something that cannot be broken so easily.”

Everyone nodded. They were still feeling trepidation toward Han Xiao’s second mysterious Universal Treasure.

Based on normal procedures, the dynasty would bring the four captives back, and to save them, the most important thing would be coordination.

However, intelligence from Arcane Church said that Black Star was able to seal up Beyond Grade As. With the intelligence capabilities of the church, this would not be an unfounded rumor.

Without coordination to break out the prisoners from both inside and outside, the operation would become a lot more difficult.

While the Beyond Grade As were friends with Sagman and the rest, they were not so close that they would willingly brave hell and high seas for them.

…

A pale blue vortex appeared, and a huge fleet of spaceships slowly appeared from within the vortex, emblazoned with the logo of the dynasty. They slowly left the stargate, leaving behind traces of flames from their tail as they flew, and within them, there was a battleship shaped like a huge dragon.

The light from the stargate illuminated the bodies of the battleships, leaving mottled spots of light and shadow on their angular hulls. They revealed a series of armor cracks and depressions, as well as varying degrees of damage to the outer armor.

Several spaceships from the Black Star Army were suspended near the stargate and slowly faced the heavily armed main flagship of the fleet. The damage suffered by the main flagship was particularly terrible, with a large portion of its armored plates torn out. The holes filled with nano-repair materials showcased the intensity of the battle.

The spaceships docked with the main flagship, and the mechanical structures around their doors locked with each other to complete the link.

Whoosh!

The cabin door slid open, and Han Xiao walked into the flagship. Escorted by the dynasty soldiers, he arrived at the heavily guarded imprisonment zone, where two restraint cabins were placed.

The inner wall of the restraint cabin was made up of an extremely tough alloy, which made it difficult to escape from the inside. The internal structure also automatically adjusted to the prisoner’s body shape before fixing in that position. In the middle layer were devices to provide high voltage and electromagnetic fields to restrain the captive and weaken transmission of energy. Right now, they were holding Sagman and Taylor.

While the restraint cabin could not totally restrict the Beyond Grade As, the duo were suffering from heavy injuries and had no strength to struggle free. Furthermore, Heber and Beyoni were on watch.

Han Xiao went there in person because he wanted to utilize the Spacetime Amber, sealing both parties up.

“Lord.” The Apostle Weapons walked over.

“You did well.” Han Xiao nodded before recalling the mechanical host.

Because he had utilized [Lord’s Descent] on the mechanical host to engage Sagman and Taylor, it had suffered quite a bit of damage and would require some degree of repair.

The duo had nowhere to run and gave it their all. This was especially so for Sagman, as the destruction he wrought while going all out dealt some degree of damage to almost everyone there. He was eventually pinned down by the Beyond Grade A Supers of the dynasty.

Tarrokov’s long distance projection came up and greeted him. “You’ve come. We were waiting.”

“Let them out.” Han Xiao commanded the dynasty soldiers to unlock the restraint cabin, and taking out the Spacetime Amber, he sealed Sagman and Taylor.

“This is a lot safer, with no risk of getting into trouble.” Tarrokov tapped the amber ball in satisfaction.

Ravenlaude could not help but look at Han Xiao. He realized that the Spacetime Amber was effective, and his expression sank in envy.

Tarrokov then commanded the two soldiers to take the amber balls away while he led Han Xiao and the rest to the conference room.

After they had taken their seats, he looked toward Han Xiao. “Her Excellency is extremely pleased with our progress. Upon learning of Black Star’s accomplishments this time round, she arranged a special award.”

Han Xiao nodded. He had spent quite the bit of effort during this pursuit operation and provided a lot of intelligence. After capturing the two, he had received a notification saying that he had obtained 4,500 Dynasty Contribution Points.

It did not end there. Tarrokov had told him in private that his accomplishments would allow the dynasty to be biased toward him when dividing the territory of the Flickering World, allowing him to claim bigger swathes of land.

This emergency was not only neutralized but turned from danger into an opportunity, so the upper echelons had an extremely good impression of Han Xiao.

“The operation has ended, and the spies of the Arcane Church will also be hunted down, but this job will be taken over by the Intelligence Bureau as the dynasty has another task for you,” Tarrokov said. “Next, the dynasty requires all of you to escort the four captives back to the Constellation Corridor, to prevent the Arcane Church from intercepting them along the way.”

Everyone nodded. They had to be cautious and not lose these chips because of their carelessness.

“However, that does not include Black Star and the Tyrant.”

Everyone turned over, and even Han Xiao and Heber looked surprised.

“What do you need us for?” Heber asked in a deep voice.

Tarrokov opened the star map, magnifying it, before stopping at the territory of the Star Pupil Holy Race.

“I need you two to take a portion of the dynasty fleet and head toward the Star Pupil Holy Race.”

“Capture Psyker?” Heber frowned.

“No, you guys are going there to demonstrate dominance and pressure them.” Tarrokov shook his head in response. “Psyker’s situation is different because he is the leader of a civilization, and his camp is based in the Shattered Star Ring. Initially, the dynasty planned to deal with him, but now that we’ve caught Sagman and Taylor, the Ruler cancelled this plan. Just treat it as leaving some face for them.”

“Oh, that’s not too bad,” Maximiler said. “We already have four captives, and Psyker has nowhere to run. If we continue to hammer at them, this might backfire on the dynasty.”

The rest of the Beyond Grade As captured did not have any roots in the Shattered Star Ring, so they could only blame their bad luck. But Psyker could run but not hide since his base was in that area. If the dynasty forcefully tried to drag away a civilization’s leader, this would result in a backfire, and the Arcane Church would also not watch blindly as that happened, or else they would lose the trust of their allies.

The dynasty was originally not afraid of such a consequence, but now that they had new captives, there was no need to poke the hornet’s nest. Thus, they decided to wrap up while the going was good.

Of course, not capturing Psyker did not mean that they would condone his actions. There was still a need to suppress the development of the Star Pupil Holy Race, and if they could even chase this Arcane Church allied force out of the Star Field, that would be best.

The Crimson Dynasty had mobilized millions of battleships to pioneer the Flickering World, and now they were transferring part of its fleet to the Shattered Star Ring. The armed forces available in this Shattered Star Ring long exceed that of the other two universal civilizations, and even if the Federation of Light was the nominal ruling power here, all was useless before strength.

A pity. Han Xiao’s brows furrowed. He felt it a regret not to be able to capture the other party, as he was interested in Psyker’s body structure. However, every time he saw Psyker, he just wanted to poke the guy’s eyes.

However, since he had taken away the national treasure of the Star Pupil Holy Race, both parties were like fire and water. Now that he still had to go over to the other party’s territory and swagger, this attitude seemed to be bordering on arrogance.

Seems like I’d better bring more people, in case I get beaten up…