One month had passed.
At the border of the radiation range of “Blue Emperor”, the star closest to the Blue Sky Space Zone, a cluster of alloy that was as thin as paper and as smooth as silk, slowly unfolded, while the ripples on its surface flowed like veins and nerves.
It was both like some sort of liquids flowing with metal colors, and a flag fluttering in the wind, or a beautiful flower blooming slowly.
When it was stretched out into a gigantic metal plate more than ten kilometers in diameter from the highly-compressed liquid metals, the sophisticated, overlapped rune arrays on its surface were completely revealed too. Then, with the strokes of those runes as the fold lines, the metal plate was slightly creased, constituting a complicated structure. In such a way, it looked even more like a huge metal rose.
Absorbing the radiations and waves released by “Blue Emperor”, the metal rose shivered and emanated the most glamorous brilliance.
It was exactly one of the five hundred “antennae” of the super-remote communication magical equipment.
Five hundred metal roses were shivering and blossoming in space at the same time.
Li Yao, Boss Bai, the Fist King, Xiaoming, and Wenwen, on a starship, were anchored at the center of the formation made of five hundred metal roses.
When Li Yao came to the Imperium by himself, he carried a portable super-remote communication base.
However, the device was too small in size, and therefore had an unsteady performance and a low confidentiality, meaning that the information it sent out could be captured and intercepted by third parties. Also, it had been riddled with holes in the fierce battles afterward. Naturally, it had been abandoned.
Now that Boss Bai had provided sufficient resources and a steady base, and the Fist King, Xiaoming, and Wenwen could help with the design of the new super-remote communication base, it was possible for them to build a more advanced, secret, and even half-permanent base.
Although he was absolutely confident about the performance of the brand-new base, for absolute safety, Li Yao had still decided to only send information to the federation and ask the federation to not send any message back.
Keeping the one-way communication could perhaps make the federation hide longer at the edge of the cosmos, at least until the situation at the center of the cosmos was clearer.
The federation was not very powerful, and it was more suitable to perform a cutthroat attack at the most critical moment as an unexpected army than to be summoned right now.
Under the help of Xiaoming and Wenwen, Li Yao wrote most of the things he had experienced after he came to the Imperium into a report, including the current situation of the Imperium, the complicated relationships of the reformists, the four families and the Covenant Alliance, and so on, with an appendix containing the introduction to the Imperium’s armed forces, the basic structure and performance parameters of the starships of all types, the leadership of the main fleets, etc. Everything was packed and sent back to home.
He believed that the information would be of great help for the construction of the Star Glory Federation in the next step.
Of course, there was still the Pangu universe and… the Flood.
Before he sent everything over, Li Yao had already reminded his hometown that it was a one-way secret document, and that they were fine right now and in no need of reinforcements from home.
In the future, they would send a secret document home every month, announcing that they were still safe and could handle everything. Uncontrollable events had happened only if their message was not received for three months in a row.
The above was all about business.
What came next was naturally the personal issues.
Li Yao naturally did not forget to send a few words to Ding Lingdang by the way. However, he bit his fingernail for a long time, only to come up with no explanation for the existence of Xiaoming and Wenwen.
Thinking for a long time, he decided to do it in the most dutiful and silly way.
Taking a deep breath, Li Yao said in the most lighthearted tone, “Honey, before I knew it, we’ve already been separated for such a long time. I miss you so much. Did you miss me? Hahahaha! Let me tell you, everything is fine in the Imperium, and I’ve been keeping a low profile without running into any accident. Also, I’ve found a few old friends, including Long Yangjun and Boss Bai. Long Yangjun is that sissy eunuch from the Ancient Sages Sector, and you know who Boss Bai is! You should feel safe knowing that I’m with them, right?
“Right, guess who else have I also encountered? It’s certainly not what you have guessed. I’ve met Xiaoming and Wenwen, our biological children! Isn’t it a pleasant surprise? Hahahaha!
“Listen to my explanation, honey, just take a deep breath and listen to my explanation. Well, this is not what you have imagined. It is actually very serious, very magnificent, and very influential, involving all human beings and the future of our entire Pangu universe…”
With a headful of sweat, Li Yao managed to finish his speech before he launched the secret file to the infinite void with the five hundred fluctuating metal roses that were powered by the energy of “Blue Emperor”.
He looked back, only to discover that Long Yangjun was observing the outside of the starship through the window cautiously in a heavy crystal suit.
Li Yao found it odd. “What are you doing? Are you scared that an enemy might break in?”
“No, I’m scared of your wife.”
Long Yangjun said, “Based on the way you talked just now and your wife’s character, I’m under the impression that she might tear apart the void and reach the center of the cosmos the next second after she receives such a ‘pleasant surprise’.”
Well, despite Li Yao’s unrefined way of talking, the Star Glory Federation, under the leadership of Ding Lingdang, had basically learned the situation at the center of the cosmos, as well as the vaster and more unpredictable universe beyond.
As for Earth, Li Yao had shared the secret with Ding Lingdang before he left the federation. They were both doing their best, preparing themselves for the trip to Earth in the future.
The completion of the first super-remote communication also marked the conclusion of the preliminary combination of the “Coalition Fleet of Pyromaniacs”.
The new crew, new starships, and even new life forms were all understanding and melting with each other at an unexpected speed.
Of course, the company of human beings and information lives was not entirely lacking of setbacks. Even though the two parties could communicate without reserve on the surface, there was still a long way to go before they reached the real “understanding”. For example…
Chi! Chi! Bam!
The No. 9 maintenance workshop of the Blue Sky Market was the Fist King’s personal training field.
At this moment, besides the hundred busy maintenance puppets controlled by the Fist King himself, there was nobody else except Liu Li, who was wearing overalls with pockets all over her body that were all stuffed with maintenance tools and who looked like a rather professional mechanic with the oil on her pinky face.
However, Liu Li’s performance today was disproportionate to her professional style. In her absentmindedness, she used too much strength and burnt up a chip inside the head of one of the Fist King’s bodies.
“Miss Liu Li, you were distracted again. The AC control chip inside me has been burnt, and my voice has been transformed into this.”
The Fist King spoke with a high-pitched voice that sounded like a hen. “In the past seven days, the precision of your operations has dropped by 5%, and your faulty rate has increased by 11%. Your brainwaves are always in a disordered and unsteady state too. Considering that you haven’t suffered any physical injury, what caused your psychological issues? Was it Han Te?”
“No!”
Liu Li jumped like a cat whose tail was stepped on. She hurried to cover herself by saying, “No, you’re wrong, Master Fist King!”
“Your breath, your heartbeat, and the constriction of your pores are highly abnormal and match with the average changes of biophysical parameters that indicate ‘guilty’ in my database. There is a 98% chance that you are feeling guilty. So, this is truly a Han Te situation, isn’t it?”
The Fist King thought for a moment and tried to comfort Liu Li, “I don’t know what is bothering you. As far as I know, it is true that Han Te and some of the women of the Big Bai Pirate Gang, the Cultivators’ fleet, and the Blue Sky Market have shared their genetic information with each other and stimulated certain nerval synapses inside their bodies in certain special postures, resulting in shivering and cramping. But I assure you that they were all voluntary, and that there was no deception or coercion. He brought joy to himself and other people. So, what are you mad about?
“Ah, I see. Han Te brought joy to so many people but not to you. It seems that he is unwilling to exchange genetic information with you. Is that the reason for your dissatisfaction?”
“Of course not!”
Liu Li’s face was so red that blood seemed to be dripping. She gritted her teeth and stomped. “What nonsense are you talking about, Master Fist King? I-I couldn’t care less whom Han Te brought joy to or whom… with whom he exchanged the damn genetic information!
“I just feel that the friend that I’ve known for almost twenty years has changed. He has changed so much after stepping into space from our hometown that he is like a different person now!”
“A drastic change in the environment always leads to a change of character. That is growth.”
The Fist King said calmly, “You’ve also changed a lot in the past year. Just look at yourself in the mirror. Can you still see the young girl who held the Gold Barley on the Land of Sins a year ago? It is only natural that Han Te has also changed.”
“But he has become someone who is too cocky and egotistical!”
Liu Li put the maintenance tools into her pockets and declared angrily, her arms akimbo and her cheeks puffed out, “It’s not just about… what we said just now. He is also always saying weird stuff nowadays, like ‘don’t laugh at a young man when he is still poor’ or ‘Lord Han Te does not need to explain what he does to anybody else’. He is now also eccentric and extreme. A few days ago, a crew member on Stainless Mouse pissed him off, and he beat the guy’s bones into dozens of pieces ruthlessly. Dear heavens. Was he still the Han Te that I knew? How did he change into this?
“I-I truly don’t know. He is the only ‘family’ that I have after coming to such a distant place from our hometown, and we are supposed to be nice to each other. But I truly don’t like him right now, the ‘Lord Han Te’!”
“Got it. What about Li Jialing?”
The Fist King said, “You’ve been spending a lot of time with Li Jialing recently, Miss Liu Li. Do you like him? Do you want to stimulate the nerval synapses and exchange genetic information with him?”