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 relations.h.i.+p 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 ident.i.ty 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 s.p.a.ce 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, “d.a.m.n 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 s.h.i.+p 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 battles.h.i.+ps 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 s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps of the transport fleet were also missing.

However, these s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps 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.

Not only did this cause quite a loss for the Mechanic Emperor, more importantly, it meant that a lot of the Mechanic Emperor’s subsidiary troops were frozen, so the manpower he could use right now was tremendously reduced. This indirectly made it harder for the Mechanic Emperor to find the Soul Swapper.

However, Han Xiao felt that the Mechanic Emperor should have known about the Soul Swapper before he did. Furthermore, the Mechanic Emperor’s home was in the Primeval Star River, just like Modo, so he might know something he did not. Han Xiao felt that keeping a close eye on him might give him some surprises.

“Continue the search,” Han Xiao said.

“Report any and all situations to me. Keep an extra close eye on the Mechanic Emperor’s subsidiary organizations. Don’t let any one of them leave our sights.”

At the edge of the Shattered Star Ring, Planet Earth Ring was a transit station planet located near the inter-star field stargate that had a huge amount of traffic every day. A ton of galactic flights resupplied all kinds of resources. The management of the planet was a Star Cl.u.s.ter civilization of the Shattered Star Ring, so this was a government-controlled public transit hub.

The streets were crowded, prosperous, and filled with countless different races.

Half a month had pa.s.sed since the search for the Soul Swap Twins began. A man and a woman walked on the street, carefully observing the surrounding while conversing softly. It was the Soul Swap Twins, Jill and Warren.

“Elder bro, anything from your sub-personality these few days?”

“I just suppressed it three days ago, but my souls are running out. We’ll have to top up on some souls today.”

“Me too. This planet has a lot of people, so it’s a suitable target. This is our last stop before leaving the Shattered Star Ring. We have to absorb as many souls as possible so it can last longer,” Warren said softly.

“Don’t do anything now. Wait till we’re about to leave.” Jill kept his voice down.

Their goal was to leave the Shattered Star Ring. Through changing their bodies continuously, they had finally arrived at the edge of the Shattered Star Ring. They planned to resupply there and then escape the Star Field through the stargate.

In order to suppress their mind traps, they absorbed quite a lot of souls on the planets they pa.s.sed by, continuously ‘charging up’. Most of which were beasts, but that was not because they suddenly became kind and merciful; absorbing too many intelligent lives would attract attention, which was not beneficial for staying hidden.

Now that they were at the edge of the Star Field, they knew they would be mostly safe if they got out. Hence, they planned to go for a big one and absorb a lot of souls, hoping to find a way to completely defuse the mind traps.

This way, they would not have to commit any crimes in the other Star Fields and could hide themselves perfectly.

“We’re finally going to leave the Shattered Star Ring. We’ll soon have real freedom.” Warren’s tone was thrilled and filled with infinite hope for the future.

“This is the first step of our conquest!”

Jill clenched his fists. His eyes were gleaming with excitement. We’re finally about to take the first step of fulfilling their ambitions. Our imprisoned days have finally come to an end. As long as we have enough time to grow, given how magical the Soul Swapper is and how talented we are, we’ll certainly become a big deal in the universe!

While the two of them were dreaming about their future, a sudden change occurred, and the alarm suddenly rang throughout the city!

Woo!

The piercing alarm echoed throughout all the streets. Countless people looked up with surprise, not knowing what was going on. “What’s going on?”

“This is a planetary alarm. Has someone come to attack the planet!”

The people on the streets started panicking, including the street the Soul Swap Twins were on. “Elder bro, are they here for us?” Warren looked anxious.

“Don’t panic! No one should be able to find us, and even if someone did, they wouldn’t create such a huge commotion for it.” Jill was unsure too.

At this time, someone pointed at the sky and yelled, “Look, a fleet!” The people looked up. Battles.h.i.+ps penetrated the atmosphere and hovered in midair, and mechanical soldiers shrouded the sky. There were no organization symbols, so they did not know what organization this was. This time, the sound of s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps taking off continuously sounded. The garrison of Planet Earth Ring hastily arrived and loudly questioned what was happening in the public communication channel “This is the Planet Earth Ring Garrison Fleet Command Center. You have broken the Dock Parking Law by penetrating the planet’s atmosphere without authorization. Please identify yourselves immediately!” After a full two seconds, the voice of an old man finally sounded in the public communication channel.

“I’m Mechanic Emperor Manison. I’ll be taking over this planet temporarily.”

As he said that, countless people shockingly realized that their communicators had lost network connection. They were no longer able to send any messages out. The people were in an uproar. At this point, they clearly knew that the Mechanic Emperor had cut off the communication of the entire Planet Earth Ring with the outside world. He had locked down the quantum network of the planet! “Mechanic Emperor? What is he doing here?” Jill widened his eyes in shock. The two of them had escaped early, and Modo had partnered with the Mechanic Emperor after that. They thought that they were just innocent pa.s.sersby at this point. They were just one step away from their beautiful future, and now they got into an accident right before that. They were both shocked and enraged.

However, no matter how arrogant Jill was, in the face of the great Mechanic Emperor, he knew there was no way he could mess with him. The only thing he could do was pray for the Mechanic Emperor to quickly finish what he came for and open up the lockdown so that they could leave.

At the same time, within the main s.h.i.+p above Planet Earth Ring, Manison’s Lord’s Avatar covered in electric sparks stood before the porthole, looked at the hostile and tensed garrison fleet, and calmly said, “Lock the entire planet down. Don’t allow any life form to leave. The target is right here. Filter the life forms of the entire planet till we find them!”

Outside the window, countless mechanical soldiers descended onto the ground and controlled the panicking crowd. Countless screams of pain shot up the sky and faintly reached Manison’s ears.

He scanned through the surface. He was completely certain the Soul Swap Twins were on Planet Earth Ring.

His tracking process was not the smoothest. This was not his territory, so he could not keep such a high profile like the Black Star Army could. He secretly seized a few transport s.h.i.+ps only to discover that the Soul Swap Twins had already escaped, and his leads ended there too.

However, Manison acquired extra information from his mole in Modo and knew about the mind trap. He then searched for any place where a large number of life forms had turned into vegetables and lost their souls, and he speculated that it was the doing of the Soul Swap Twins.

Through finding similar incidents, he confirmed the escape route of the Soul Swap Twins and finally locked onto the Soul Swap Twins’ whereabouts today.

Due to the fact that his subsidiary organizations were already exposed and were being uprooted, Manison was no longer worried about getting found out, so he locked down the entire Planet Earth Ring. If not because most of his subsidiary organizations were suddenly frozen by the three Universal Civilizations, which led to him almost losing the lead mid-way and delaying him by a few days, he felt that he would have reached this point long ago. However, despite the obstacles and challenges, he still succeeded!

Manison shook his head.

Although the mind trap isn’t a highly confidential secret, none of these basic level crews know about it, so of course, Black Star doesn’t either. Hence, he can only roam around, relying on luck, which is also why he got lured away by me so easily some time ago… Tsk, it’s too early for you to fight me, Black Star.

A few days ago, he had deliberately made one of his subsidiary organizations lock down a planet very far away, acting as if he had found the whereabouts of the Soul Swapper to attract Black Star’s attention.

This successfully lured away a large batch of the Black Star Army’s fleet. From the way he looked at it, even if Black Star had already noticed this, he would not be able to reach Planet Earth Ring any time soon. However, to be safe, Manison still locked down the quantum network of Planet Earth Ring and delayed the time of the Black Star Army receiving any information.

He planned to get away as soon as he got what he came for. Afterward, even if the advanced civilizations held him responsible for it, there was no way he would throw up what he had already swallowed.