The Klent Diplomatic Ambassador glared at Zoel and had no words.

“I’ve already told you the details,” Zoel said slowly. “The dynasty has decided not to take a stand regarding this issue. You can insist on submitting the proposal, but the chance of it being approved is very low. The Arcane Church will oppose your request. On behalf of the dynasty, I’m just suggesting that you guys give up on this proposal, not interfering with your choice. If you insist, we won’t stop you.”

“I don’t understand!” the Klent Diplomatic Ambassador said furiously. “Why is the dynasty helping Purple Crystal‽”

“The dynasty’s upper echelons have their considerations.”

“Is it because of the Evolution Cube‽ Is that why you people suddenly changed your stand‽”

“Let me emphasize again. The dynasty’s upper echelons have their considerations,” Zoel said with a heavier tone. “Plus, you’re wrong. The dynasty only upholds its own position, and this rule has never changed. The dynasty has never shown any support for your plan all along.”

The Klent Diplomatic Ambassador clenched his teeth. They did not think much when the Tyrant’s duel went south, but they had never expected it to be their turn so soon.

Klent had invested a ton of resources into the secret war. Initially, the Crimson Dynasty approved of this with silence, but now that the Crimson Dynasty had suddenly opposed it, this meant that Klent’s investments for the last decade might all go down the drain!

Of course, they were displeased with this.

No matter how the Klent Diplomatic Ambassador thought about it, he felt that this was because of the Black Star Army. Although Zoel did not explain why the Crimson Dynasty had decided to do this, it was painfully clear that this was certainly because of Black Star!

This time, Zoel changed the topic and said, “The development of the Flickering World is about to start. We hope you can dispatch your troops and make preparations as soon as possible. The exploration tasks will be rather complicated and difficult.”

The Klent Diplomatic Ambassador understood that this was most likely the Crimson Dynasty’s indirect compensation for them—allowing them to obtain more profit in the Flickering World.

After some pondering, he finally said, “Since this is what the dynasty has decided on, we will reconsider the proposal. As for the exploring of the Flickering World, we will definitely send our very best.”

Zoel smiled faintly.

After they were done with the business, they chatted for a while before the Klent Diplomatic Ambassador hastily left.

The Klent Diplomatic Ambassador walked out of the Crimson Dynasty Diplomatic Building, boarded a carrier, turned on his communicator, and contacted his superiors to report what had happened. This stirred up intense arguments.

In the end, the upper echelons came to a conclusion—there was nothing they could do to the Crimson Dynasty. No matter how displeased they were, they could only swallow it. Every Klent upper echelon felt wronged. As a civilization ruled by a Universal Civilization, they had no choice but to obey.

The person they hated most was their ‘new ally’, Black Star.

It could be said that Black Star had single-handedly shattered that decade-long plan!

…

More than seven years ago, Han Xiao had already vastly expanded his army using his fame as a Beyond Grade A Seed, which had built the fundamentals for him for the years to come. Since he had experience, this time, he used his influence as a Beyond Grade A to its fullest. Furthermore, with the Crimson Dynasty and the Purple Crystal Civilization backing him, most of his opposing forces did not dare make any moves. The expansion of the army met almost no obstacles at all and went extremely smoothly.

Countless free Supers in the Shattered Star Ring responded to the Black Star Army’s recruitment, and new members joined the army batch by batch. In just a short time, the size of the Black Star Army skyrocketed. Now there were more than three hundred million members of the Black Star Army across the various Star Systems in the Colton Star Cluster.

There were tens of millions of Grade Bs and more than forty Grade A Supers. Just in terms of high-level combatants, the Black Star Army had already surpassed most of the Star System Civilizations.

With Han Xiao’s influence as a Beyond Grade A, the Black Star Army expanded extremely quickly. With the investments from the many financial groups and the support from the Purple Crystal Civilization, Han Xiao had more than enough funds to support this quick expansion.

He threw an outrageous amount of money into the Logistics Department to build more battleships as well as new satellite bases so that he could have more divisions within the Colton Star Cluster.

While the Black Star Army was expanding at an astonishing speed, the galactic residents of the Shattered Star Ring were all paying attention to the aftermath of the duel. What they were interested in was what impact the Black Star Army becoming a Crimson Dynasty ally would have on the secret war.

The secret war had recently entered a ceasefire. After the duel, be it the Bloodshed Land or Section Zero, neither started any conflict. It was oddly quiet.

Countless galactic residents were paying attention to the secret war and saw it as a sign. According to the current situation, the next turn of events in the secret war would indirectly represent the result of the battle.

At this crucial time when everyone was expecting something to happen, a piece of news exploded from the secret war that caused a sensation in the entire Star Field!

Without any battle, without any announcement, out of nowhere, the Bloodshed Land gave up all their strongholds in West Wind, Kaya, Chaida, and the border Star Systems, voluntarily retreating out of the Colton Star Cluster!

When the information spread, all the people that were paying attention to the secret war were shocked.

The Bloodshed Land represented Klent’s stand. Retreating voluntarily meant that Klent had given up their invasion plan, given up the results of the past decade… This meant that Purple Crystal had won this war effortlessly.

The secret war, which had lasted an entire decade, had ended just like that‽

No one knew what agreement the two sides had made in secret. In the eyes of an outsider, the Black Star Army becoming the Crimson Dynasty’s ally definitely had something to do with this.

The most likely situation was that through becoming the Crimson Dynasty’s ally, the Black Star Army had somehow forced Klent to give up on the invasion, helping Purple Crystal win the secret war!

At its core, the merit all went to Black Star himself!

Advancing into Beyond Grade A, snatching the Evolution Cube away, forcing the Tyrant to retreat, becoming the Crimson Dynasty’s ally… this chain of events had flipped the entire situation!

This meant that Black Star had ended the secret war single-handedly!

This was the truth in the eyes of the people of the Star Field!

Before the aftermath of the grand duel even dissipated, the ending of the secret war stirred up a storm in the Shattered Star Ring once again!

…

_____________

Grade S Faction Mission [Secret War: Section Zero] completed.

Mission rating: Unbelievable

You have received 6,000,000,000 Experience, Random Reward * 5, +40,000 Purple Crystal Contribution Points, and +1 Legendary Point.

Star Cluster Legendary Point (Colton Star Cluster): Star of the Secret War—You have contributed tremendously to the secret war. The people of the Purple Crystal Star Cluster will remember you for what you have done.

You have received 2 Political Assets.

Political Asset (2): Purple Crystal Civilization

You are loved and admired by the people of the Purple Crystal Civilization. When trading with Purple Crystal Civilization citizens, you can buy at lower prices and sell at higher prices.

The Purple Crystal Civilization is willing to listen to your requests. You can make suggestions to the Purple Crystal Civilization’s government directly. According to the rationality of the request, there’s a slight chance that the Purple Crystal Civilization will fulfill your request.

This is a symbol of political influence. Your achievements are praised in the universe. When interacting with certain organizations or characters, +45% Favorability gain rate.

You have valuable experiences. +45% Experience gained from all sources.

Remarks: Your relationship with the Purple Crystal Civilization has to be at [Reverence] for the above effects to take place.

Dungeon Creation: [Secret War]

_____________

“Hmm? The secret war main storyline mission finally ended?”

On the closest Fixed Star from Planet Golden Gate, the burning Fixed Star energy surrounded a man.

In the free time he had during the army’s expansion, Han Xiao had been training [Heber Stellar Furnace Cultivation]. He was just taking a bath in the Fixed Star. Only when the chain of notifications popped up from the interface did he finally discover that the secret war had ended.

His mind connected to the quantum network and found the news about the Bloodshed Land retreating in an instant. Smiling, Han Xiao’s eyes sparkled.

“Looks like Zoel carried out the terms and convinced Klent. It’s much quicker than I expected…”

Klent was rather decisive in directly letting the Bloodshed Land retreat, but Han Xiao knew that Klent was certainly resentful. They would not dare be displeased with the Crimson Dynasty, so their hatred would most likely be directed toward him. This was unavoidable.

To heal Klent’s tiny little heart, the Crimson Dynasty would definitely have made a deal with them secretly, which he would have no way of knowing the details of.

Han Xiao did not care about offending Klent. Despite them being allies on paper, the hatred between them would not just disappear after they had fought for an entire decade. Klent hated him, and he did not forget about Klent’s never-ending assassinations in the past decade.

Scanning through the mission reward, Han Xiao was delighted.

A Grade S Mission’s rewards were impressive. This was worth his decade of hard work!

Even to a leek farmer like him, six billion Experience was still rather considerable. The five Random Rewards were also more than the three rewarded by [Bloodline] in the past.

One Star Cluster Legendary Point was not bad either. Including the three Star Field Legendary Points that he had obtained through his battle with the Tyrant, his Experience Reward Quota for the players had almost doubled!

The two Political Assets were the most valuable reward. Political Assets were extremely rare and only appeared in outrageously difficult missions. His Experience gain increased by forty-five percent again. With this and the thirty percent given by the Godora Political Asset, he basically had a 1.75x Experience Card activated at all times!

After becoming a Beyond Grade A Super, the Experience needed to level up was on an entirely different level. With the bonuses provided by Political Assets, his efficiency in harvesting leeks would be tremendously increased. After the ten or so months’ Experience penalty period was over, he should have a ton of Experience ready for him to level up.

The [Secret War] Dungeon was a sub-product of large main storyline missions, just like the [Six Nations and Germinal Organization] Dungeon. He could cut out some battle that he had experienced during the decade-long secret war and create Dungeon Crystals.

Han Xiao immediately thought of another use for this.

“The players only joined the secret war toward the end. The earlier part of the war was just a background introduction to them. Maybe I can show them what the Black Star Army experienced in the decade-long war through the dungeon. They can personally experience how the army rose and learn more about the army’s history. This is beneficial to strengthening the players’ sense of belonging to the faction…”

After pondering for a while, Han Xiao felt that this could work and had many thoughts along with it.

“I can even give them internal honorable titles within the army, just to those players that participated in the secret war, signifying that they witnessed the rise of the army and let the new members know they’re senior members. They can even enjoy a permanent discount in the army in the future. This will be good in keeping the players here…”

Having thought of that, Han Xiao could not help but open the player forums.

He had obtained the secret war main storyline ten years in advance, so his rating being high was certain. Furthermore, winning the secret war increased the Mission Rating—not just for him but for all the Black Star Army players!

Han Xiao wanted to see how the players on the forums would react to this.