Chapter 1161 - Finding a Needle in a Haystack Is Where We Excel (1/2)
Chapter 1161 Finding a Needle in a Haystack Is Where We Excel
The universe was extremely enormous. Even if one had extraordinary individual strength, without a force large enough, one would not be able to achieve much in the galactic society.
The Black Star Army was among the top armed forces in the Galaxy. They had manpower, resources, money, ships, and everything. As soon as Han Xiao’s highest order was given out, the Black Star Army’s men in the Shattered Star Ring started executing the order immediately. They searched through one Star System after another and locked down all kinds of transportation hubs to find Aesop’s whereabouts. The Floating Dragon Island’s troops were also mostly dispatched.
Clearly, such a big movement could not stay hidden. It quickly attracted the attention of the entire galactic society. With just a little research, they knew that Dragon Emperor’s elder had gone missing. To search for just one person, the movements of the Black Star Army indirectly affected dozens of Star Systems.
Such a deep search impacted the operation of some public facilities, which some galactic residents had slight problems with. However, given that it was from the Black Star Army and even the local civilizations did not do anything about it, of course, the ordinary residents did not dare do anything too. Other than dispatching troops everywhere, the Black Star Army also issued a bounty for Aesop through the local media channels, making use of the power of the people.
A large monetary reward would be given to anyone who could provide any real leads to Aesop, such as witness reports, transit records, and many more. If anyone could capture Aesop alive and give him to the army, the reward would be an outrageous 135 million Enas. Ordinary galactic residents would not be able to even spend all this money in their lifetime. It was also humongous for some medium to small armed organizations.
As the saying went, with a high enough reward, people would step up sooner or later. Some medium to small organizations joined the search team, and a ton of free mercenaries started looking too. Even some galactic pirates and scavengers were searching secretly, hoping to acquire the reward and clean their ledgers. The local galactic residents of the Shattered Star Ring also kept an eye out.
For the time being, Aesop had become the focus of countless organizations in the Shattered Star Ring.
In the past, Han Xiao was on his own and hardly had any forces; being able to capture Aesop was mainly thanks to Feidin’s luck. Decades later, his army had grown into a giant. There was no need to play hide and seek with Aesop like he used to; he just had to make use of his resources, and it would become extremely difficult for Aesop to go anywhere.
Even though Aesop’s foresight ability was very powerful, all he could do was move with extreme caution and stealth in this kind of situation, not daring to appear in front of ordinary people.
Of course, these were just the basics. Han Xiao’s core method of finding him was Rody’s prophecy, alongside Ames, Feidin, Nero, and Harrison’s luck, on top of his own Virtual Technology continuously calculating the possible coordinates Aesop might head to so that he could narrow down the search area.
Dark red sandstorm shrouded the sky like a red piece of cloth placed over the entire planet.
Through the low visibility sandstorm, a man in a heavy protective suit was walking alone on the red desert. The raging storm drummed his body like hammers.
This man walked a few hours like this when, suddenly, a meteor-like spark of light penetrated the sandstorm and plummeted toward this man. He stopped and looked up, an approaching small spaceship reflected on the ally mask of his protective suit. Hu!
The spaceship slowly landed before this person and released an air force field with a fifty-meter diameter, blocking the sandstorm and creating a clean area.
The hatch opened. This person stepped onto the spaceship without hesitation, dusted off the sand all over his body, and took off the heavy protective helmet. An old face appeared. It was Aesop.
“You’re the ones here to fetch me?” Aesop patted the helmet.
“Yes, we’ll be responsible for getting you out of the Shattered Star Ring.” The captain approached him. “Don’t worry, we’re professionals, certainly reliable.” Aesop nodded with approval and said, “The single person space cabin that sent me here has yet to be destroyed. Go destroy it on while you’re at it. If it lands in Black Star’s hands, it’ll be a prophecy medium. Don’t leave any clues like that.”
Due to the Black Star Army’s lockdown over the Shattered Star Ring, he could hardly go anywhere. He was barely able to find a space cabin and landed on this desolate planet and waited for quite a long time before this spaceship arrived to pick him up.
“No problem.” The captain nodded.
The spaceship took off, came to a desolate desert area not far away, and discovered the metal space cabin that was half buried in the sand.
Bang!
Two explosive light beams shot out of the spaceship and destroyed the spaceship. The flame only lasted for an instant before being extinguished by the raging wind, leaving only metal fragments shattered around that were gradually buried by the sand. After completing this task, the spaceship turned around, rose up, and took off into space.
At the same time, Manison, who was in the Primeval Star River, received the message. He opened the surveillance footage, and it showed Aesop in this spaceship.
“They finally picked him up…”
Manison looked at the screen.
For confidentiality purposes, this spaceship that had gone to receive Aesop had hidden its organization symbol. It actually belonged to an organization called ‘Milder Armed Transport’, one of the secret organizations Manison had planted in the Shattered Star Ring.
Not long ago, the Modo Civilization had officially pulled him into the plan, shared some information with him, and asked him to help.
Modo Civilization only did so because of the lack of a better choice. The lockdown of the Black Star Army was too tight, so they could not make any moves in the Shattered Star Ring and could not secretly transport Aesop out at all. They were almost discovered multiple times. Hence, they decided to borrow the Mechanic Emperor’s men and have him take over the ‘delivery’.
“Modo must have used the Soul Swapper on Aesop and made him escape deliberately.”
Of course, in the information the Modo Civilization provided, the existence of the Soul Swapper was not mentioned. They only said that they controlled Aesop using some kind of mind control method and did not explain further. However, they did not know that Manison had known about the Soul Swapper since long ago, so he understood what was used on Aesop instantly.
Manison had no plan of stopping Modo’s mission. He even planned to cooperate with it fully.
Although Aesop was one of the Ancient Ones, he had quit the organization long ago. The Ancient Ones were mainly Eternals. Beyond Grade As were a part of it, but not all members were Beyond Grade As. There were quite a number of unique members with special abilities but weak combat capabilities just like Aesop.
Although Manison did know Aesop, they were not friends, so he did not mind Aesop dying.
On this matter, his interests aligned with Modo. There was a chance using Aesop’s death to plot against Black Star would force him to disobey the Peace Treaty of the advanced civilizations. This way, Black Star’s reputation would be severely damaged, and the great image the three Universal Civilizations had been building for him would collapse. That was exactly what Manison hoped to see, so he was willing to cooperate.
However, all of this was just the cherry on top. Manison’s main goal was still the Soul Swapper.
“Aesop is now in my hands. He’s definitely come into contact with the Soul Swapper at a relatively close range. Through searching his past whereabouts, the rough search area can be determined. Through cross-referencing the records, the Modo Civilization’s secret fleet that transported the Soul Swapper can be found. The person who’s now controlling Aesop’s body should be one of the Modo Civilization’s men. Maybe I can hypnotize him and question him.”
He did not know that the Soul Swap Twins had already escaped. He thought that the Soul Swapper was now being transported back by the Modo Civilization, so his search direction was already inaccurate.
Not long after the spaceship transporting Aesop left, another fleet visited this dark red desolate island. The Black Star symbol was engraved on their exterior armor.