After successfully persuading Karlot, Han Xiao got his subordinates to take him down to rest. He then left the room with satisfaction in his heart.

When he poked the other party, he had seen Karlot’s attributes. Karlot had now obtained his core talent, [Everlasting Martial Path]. It was an overpowered growth-type talent.

To put it simply, [Everlasting Martial Path] could evolve once every grade with the requirement being a new realization of the martial path. Before the evolution of the talent, the user’s leveling speed would be lowered by ninety percent. After the evolution, the user’s leveling speed would follow an inverted parabolic arc with the peak being at a thousand percent. It also provided an all-rounded boost to the user’s combat capability.

Ordinarily speaking, the stronger an individual, the greater the number of bottlenecks. However, Karlot was different. All of his bottlenecks would be during his pre-growth phase, and he would face fewer and fewer bottlenecks the stronger he grew. Past a certain point, his combat strength would snowball until he reached the peak of the grade. If he entered a new grade, he would have to restart the entire process again.

Karlot’s growth after every evolution in grade would be excruciatingly slow, and this also resulted in a firm foundation. In Han Xiao’s previous life, Karlot was an extremely famous Pugilist. His status within the Pugilist world was like the Mechanic Emperor’s status within the Mechanic world.

This little brat’s nickname in his previous life was the one and only ‘Martial Deity’!

Furthermore, [Everlasting Martial Path] could also strengthen all of Karlot’s Pugilist skills. It did not only increase the level of his skills but also adjusted his skills in a subtle manner as though the skills were tailor made for him. [Everlasting Martial Path] was a one-of-a-kind talent that could meld all kinds of Pugilist theories and school of thoughts together into one.

Han Xiao had never seen this talent in any other Pugilist before. If not for the lack of a suffix, Han Xiao would have thought that it was a talent unique to Karlot.

However, although the talent was extremely overpowered, it was useless to Han Xiao since he was not a proper Pugilist.

“I still need to find a teacher for him. Although there are plenty of Pugilists in the army, they are all of the Calamity Grade and a little too weak…” A few figures flashed through his head. “It’d be best if I find a Beyond Grade A to teach Karlot. Of all the people I know, the most suitable one should be Silver Shadow. These two individuals were good friends in my previous life and should have pretty good chemistry with each other. Silver Shadow should be a good teacher for him.”

Han Xiao stroked his chin.

After thinking for a while, he realized that he still had a few other backup choices. For example, he could hire some Pugilist teachers from the Underworld or let Gorutan out temporarily to teach Karlot.

With his current strength, Gorutan would not be too much of a threat to him. Furthermore, he should also let Gorutan out for fresh air once in a while, lest Gorutan ended up dying in the Spacetime Amber.

Karlot was the first individual who he poached from the three Universal Civilizations, and he would not be the last. Although the others did not have as much potential as Karlot, Han Xiao would not let go of them either.

He pondered while walking back to the office. After reaching the office, Han Xiao temporarily placed the matter aside and summoned Phillip to settle the affairs of the army.

He needed to arrange the posts of these Beyond Grade A seeds. There was another large group of Supers joining the army, and the HR department was currently filtering through the applicants.

After settling all these matters, Han Xiao took out his communicator to surf the net and let out a soft snort.

“There are definitely some high-grade Civilizations fanning the flames, hoping that the entire world will fall into chaos.”

There were rumors on the net that the Beyond Grade A Association would eventually unite the Super community and become the fourth ruler of the universe apart from the three Universal Civilizations. These rumors were intentionally created to push the association to the peak before finding an opportunity to kick them down back into the ravine.

Although the method was old fashioned, the effect was pretty good. As long as they could mislead the general public, this simple method would be extremely effective.

The current rumors surrounding the association were not a good sign for them. Being in the spotlight would put them on the opposite side of the three Universal Civilizations. Together with words like ‘the fourth ruler of the universe’, it was akin to grilling them over fire.

With the heated discussion on the net, it was not an appropriate time for Han Xiao to make a stand. Furthermore, even if the mastermind continued to fan the flames, the galactic residents would have a limited attention span toward a single event and be attracted by something else eventually.

Han Xiao knocked on the desk and pondered.

“The Beyond Grade A seeds have already entered the association and the high-grade civilizations gave up on the plan to cleanse the universe. The status quo should be maintained for the time being… I need some time to reorganize the association and collect keys. The three Universal Civilizations also need time to study the Sanctum Revival method and probably won’t do anything in the short run. Furthermore, they also have to prevent the Super Star Cluster Civilizations from creating trouble. Everyone needs time and will thus choose to maintain the current peace…”

Before having sufficient confidence, the three Universal Civilizations would not adopt extreme measures against the association and would only deal with Beyond Grade A seeds. The way Han Xiao saw it, the universe would still be peaceful for a while.

This peace would probably be maintained until the players returned.

“It has already been fifty years, and Version 5.0 is about to be activated. Because of my influence, the current situation is different from the Calamity of the Supers in my previous life. I wonder what the players will do.”

Han Xiao stroked his chin and fell into thought.

…

In the Central Galaxy, within the Crimson Dynasty Science Institute’s Wormhole Position Project Office, the research team leader walked into the conference room, where the researchers were waiting for him.

Compared to a couple of decades ago, most of the researchers had either retired or been transferred out. Thus, it was a set of new faces.

The team leader then looked around slowly and said, “The dynasty has issued an internal document to push forward technological research and provide information to the Sanctum Revival team. Every department will be receiving a large increase in funds.”

Upon hearing that, all the researchers were excited.

Research was extremely capital intensive, and the wormhole project was not as important as the other research projects. Ever since the start of the Flickering War, this project had been trying to sustain itself on a low budget.

When the cooperation between Han Xiao and the dynasty was in the honeymoon phase, the dynasty listened to Han Xiao’s suggestion and stopped the research on the wormhole coordinates to focus on dealing with the Super Star Cluster Alliance.

After the war, the wormhole project should have been back on track, but something went wrong along the way.

After the war, the dynasty was busy tying up loose ends, and the upper echelons did not continue the project. Perhaps because they forgot or wanted to be on the safe side, the project was never continued after that. After all, the location of the wormhole was only a small matter to the dynasty. Apart from the officials and researchers in charge of the project, there was almost no one who paid any attention to the project.

It was extremely normal for subordinates to follow the attitude of their superiors. With the attitude of the upper echelons being unclear, the researchers had plenty of apprehensions and did not dare take a risk. As such, they would rather play it safe. They did not ease up on the wormhole project, which resulted in a large amount of data that was still at the approval phase.

Such a situation had continued for a few years because of the ambiguous attitude from the upper echelons.

After a few decades, most of the original research staff had been transferred to other departments with the new research staff being inexperienced newcomers.

Throughout the Science Institute, the wormhole project was not the only team facing such a situation. There were projects being cancelled every year and also new projects being set up.

It was not uncommon for there to be factions within the Science Institute, relying on connections to obtain funding. As an organization grew larger, such occurrences were common, and the three Universal Civilizations were no exception.

The research team leader then gave out some instructions before leaving, leaving behind a room of excited researchers.

“We finally don’t have to be a team on the periphery.”

“Hurry up and report all the backlog data. We can finally make some proper progress in our research.”

“We have not submitted our equipment procurement list for this year yet. Quickly change it and purchase more long-distance space detection needles.”

…

Just as what Han Xiao had predicted, after failing to ambush the Beyond Grade A seeds, the three Universal Civilizations and Super Star Cluster Alliance showed some restraint. At Han Xiao’s orders, the association also did not openly announce the truth behind the Beyond Grade A seeds affair. It was as though they intentionally forgot about it.

Apart from fanning the flames on the web, the three parties maintained their current equilibrium and did not engage in open conflict. They were currently accumulating their strength and preparing various different means to deal with their enemies.

Perhaps the Super Star Cluster Alliance had thought about creating trouble but was not able to find the appropriate opportunity.

Although both parties had not erupted in open hostility, in the eyes of the public, the three Universal Civilizations and the association were on opposite sides with the thick smell of gunpowder ready to be ignited at any time.

Although the Super Star Cluster Alliance was frequently on the losing end, they were pretty professional at fanning flames. This was just like the saying of a prolonged illness making the patient a good doctor.

Under the calm silence of the universe was the raging undercurrent. The three Universal Civilizations gradually stopped their cooperation with the various Beyond Grade A organizations and also came up with some business strategies to suppress the association. Under Han Xiao’s reorganization, the association also gradually became more independent.

With the Super Star Cluster Civilizations fanning the flames from the background, practically the entire universe knew that the conflict between the three Universal Civilizations and association would not be settled peacefully.

A year slowly passed.

On Galaxy Calendar Year 782, Version 5.0 was activated again, and the players were back online!