Chapter 1164 - Lockdown and One Step Ahead (1/2)
Chapter 1164 Lockdown and One Step Ahead
“Message from the frontline. They’ve lost contact with Aesop. He’s possibly been captured by Black Star.” As this report was read by a Modo Civilization upper echelon, the conference room was filled with dead silence.
After quite some time, a top military officer finally said, “The plan must’ve failed. The situation is now dire. Do you guys have any ideas?”
“I thought the Mechanic Emperor would have definitely completed the mission. I didn’t expect him to be this useless and unreliable,” someone said.
“Could he have deliberately divulged the information to Black Star, using that to fix his relationship with Black Star?”
“He wouldn’t do that. You don’t have to doubt him.” The Modo Three Kings shook their heads.
“It’s not his style to fawn upon Black Star, and his hatred with Black Star won’t be resolved this easily, nor would the three Universal Civilizations stop being cautious toward him… You guys should think about how to deal with the impact of the mission failing.” They knew that the Mechanic Emperor was not to be blamed for this. Even the Mechanic Emperor, whom they had high hopes for, could not transport Aesop out, not to mention their own forces. Even so, the upper echelons present still unavoidably felt disappointed with the Mechanic Emperor. “There are souls of our soldiers inside Aesop’s body. Black Star will be able to get our plans from them. Never mind if he knows about our plan, I’m only worried about him knowing about the Soul Swapper,” another upper echelon said.
The Modo Civilization had already considered the consequences of failing while they came up with the plan. They looked like they did not want to be discovered, but it was actually only because it was required for the framing. Modo was not afraid of Black Star finding out that this was their doing.
After all, they were enemies. The Black Star Army would not stop attacking them even without this conspiracy, so they were not afraid of enraging Black Star.
Even if the three Universal Civilizations knew about it, Modo had nothing to fear either. They were already at war with the three Universal Civilizations anyway. All the Modo Civilization really worried about was that Black Star might find out about the Soul Swapper after the plan failed.
However, since they had chosen to use the Soul Swapper for the mission, this was a risk they had to take.
Moreover, the Soul Swapper was not in their hands now and had been taken away by the Soul Swap Twins, which meant there were even more uncertainties.
“Speaking of which, why haven’t the Soul Swap Twins contacted us yet? The mind trap should’ve triggered long ago,” someone wondered.
“That’s right. It’s been almost a month. Have their sub-personalities still not awakened?”
“Could there have been an accident and the Soul Swap Twins have suppressed the awakening of the sub-personalities? But how is that possible? They’re Grade Bs at most, or is this the Soul Swapper’s ability too?”
“No matter what, we have to prepare for the worst,” one of the Modo Three Kings said with a deep voice.
From their perspective, mind traps set by a Beyond Grade A on Grade Bs should be completely safe. However, even the ones in charge of the Marwell plan did not know everything about the Soul Swapper. The Soul Swap Twins were the only ones they knew that could use the Soul Swapper, and only the two of them knew about all its functions.
“We have to do something. How about we get our Beyond Grade A to look for them in the Shattered Star Ring?” someone suggested.
“No, a Beyond Grade A is too conspicuous. If his identity as our direct member is exposed, he won’t be able to return. Black Star won’t mind adding another item to his collection.” Most of the people present did not agree with sending a Beyond Grade A to find the Soul Swapper, since that Beyond Grade A might not be able to come back. Should that happen, not only would they have not found the Soul Swapper, but they would also lose a Beyond Grade A!
The Modo Civilization had very complicated feelings about the Soul Swapper. On the one hand, they placed great importance on its functions, but on the other, they used it very cautiously. Throughout the years, they had tested trillions of people, and only the Soul Swap Twins could use it. Without the two of them, this Space Wonder would be like a piece of junk. Furthermore, they only used it to execute conspiracies and plots most of the time, such as turning important people into their men. However, when it got discovered and the souls of the people they swapped in got interrogated, Modo’s involvement would be discovered too and bring them trouble. Therefore, they hardly ever used the Soul Swapper. It mostly collected dust in storage.
Hence, although the upper echelons present really wanted to retrieve it, they were not willing to pay too high a price. They felt it was not very worth it.
Bang! A top military officer slammed the table and interrupted the discussion. He clenched his teeth and said, “Damn it, we’re so restricted in someone else’s territory. We could’ve toyed with Black Star all we wanted if this happened in our territory.”
Everyone felt powerless.
It was what it was. Black Star had way too few weaknesses, and they were out of ideas.
About ten days later, inside the main ship office of the Black Star fleet, Han Xiao received the summarized data from Phillip and scanned it through.
“Is all the information here?”
“Yes, hum… This is all the information we’ve collected about the Soul Swapper.”
In the past ten days, the Black Star Army had started a large-scale search around the clues acquired from Aesop.
Firstly, they captured the tracking team that had their souls swapped and got some new information about the transport team from back then.
Originally, according to the plan, these spies would be swapped away again after the mission was complete, making it look like an accidental death, not leaving any clues behind.
However, the Soul Swap Twins’ escape caused them to be trapped inside the bodies of the Black Star Army soldiers. They did not dare contact Modo’s men because Black Star was monitoring the quantum network, nor did they know about the Soul Swap Twins escaping. They thought that they had to continue hiding and were caught red handed.
After acquiring information from these people, Han Xiao once again used the power of Destiny’s Child, and with some luck, they captured quite a few Modo Civilization battleships that had yet to leave the Shattered Star Ring. From these people, he found out that the Soul Swap Twins had escaped.
However, the leads stopped there. Modo’s men had no idea where the Soul Swap Twins were.
Han Xiao looked at the information collected, slightly shook his head, and sighed.
“The Soul Swap Twins can keep changing bodies. It won’t be easy to find them.”
He was not an expert in the soul area, but he did know someone who was—the leader of the Holy Accord organization, Oathkeeper, the current master of the Soul Flame.
This guy might have a way to find the Soul Swap Twins quickly. After all, no matter how many times they changed bodies, their souls would remain the same.
However, when Han Xiao tried contacting Oathkeeper, he was told that Oathkeeper had entered the Sanctum and had yet to return, so this method was out of the question.
“The current methods are only virtual technology, Bold Explorer, and luck, which are not very efficient…” Han Xiao pondered. “The Mechanic Emperor should be looking for the Soul Swapper, too. I can keep a close eye on him.”
When searching for Modo’s troops, Han Xiao had found out that some other spaceships of the transport fleet were also missing.
However, these spaceships were not in his hands. With some investigation, he discovered that it was related to the Mechanic Emperor’s subsidiary organizations, which basically proved that the Mechanic Emperor was looking for the Soul Swapper. Since he framed the Mechanic Emperor more than half a month ago, the three Universal Civilizations had already taken action. A part of the subsidiary organizations under the Mechanic Emperor that were disguised as legal organizations were temporarily seized.