Chapter 1655: Chapter 641: The Hundred Emperors’ "Conspiracy

If Ren Zhong knew what the Hundred Emperors were thinking right now, he’d probably just say, "Great minds think alike."

Of course, the Hundred Emperors might also have realized it was being played. With the Red Blade Clan’s current technology, under normal circumstances there’s no way a Furry-Whisker could still smuggle in private goods.

That tiny drop of Alien Ore was sent over quietly by the Red Blade Science Academy, aimed precisely at the fact that this loyal-to-the-Ascenders spy in the enemy camp would never be able to resist the temptation.

The behavioral logic of the Hundred Emperors isn’t complicated. As long as you grasp its instincts, you can easily predict what it’s going to do. You don’t even need precognition—just using your toes to think, you can figure out what the Hundred Emperors will do once it gets Alien Ore.

It will definitely secretly skim off some Alien Ore for itself and then stash it away.

Then the gene-level instincts of an intelligence operative will drive it to analyze and research this stuff.

Once it gets exposed, the situation of the Hundred Emperors will become more complicated. Driven by the survival instinct, it will want to preserve its identity as a frontline undercover agent and can’t afford to fall out with Ren Zhong.

So the Hundred Emperors will willingly become a collaborator.

As for the risk that Alien Ore Alloy might be stolen and this little scheme might turn into aiding the enemy?

That won’t happen.

Because the "Alien Ore" Ren Zhong gave the Hundred Emperors isn’t the real deal at all, but another kind of waste material that has similar properties to Alien Ore yet is actually completely useless.

What Ren Zhong wants is only the technical principle of how this top-tier Mother Empress uses biological synthesis methods to bypass conventional physical and chemical approaches, solving problems that originally couldn’t be solved.

Once this principle is obtained, the subsequent technical conversion will follow naturally.

Time passed by another few decades, and the "Artificial Synthesis Method for Alien Mineral Life" was officially cracked.

Now the Red Blade Army no longer needs to survey Planet Systems and dig for treasure. They can just stay put in this patch of cosmic vacuum and slowly consume the Planet Ship resources hauled out from the Seventh Star Cluster to manufacture Alien Ore.

This can in turn greatly boost the performance of the Red Blade Army’s Warships.

Of the eight major key topics initially chosen as the developmental baseline, now only "Pre-subatomic-level Artificial Synthesis Technology for Specialty Rare Materials Found within Certain Mechanical Empire Territories" remains.

With Alien Ore synthesis cracked, even this last core topic is now showing signs of hope.

Nothing unexpected happened. After roughly another fifty years, the first rare material—the laboratory-grade sample of Alra Alloy—was produced.

After that, it was as if the Materials Institute had suddenly loaded cheats. Progress surged ahead at insane speed, almost one new variety per year.

Another twenty or so years later, a comprehensive overhaul affecting all Warships in the entire Red Blade Army began.

Back when Ren Zhong was invested as the Chosen One, he had already ordered Sun Ai to empty out virtually all the technological reserves stored in the Empire’s super-brain.

Although the Red Blade Clan had already surpassed others in the field of cutting-edge theory, on the applied technology side their accumulation was not particularly deep.

Those applied research results from the Empire were still ahead.

Previously, after completing the Three Domains War, the Red Blade Army left the Empire’s territory. Rare materials were not sufficiently stocked, and they were unable to fully refit their ships.

Only now, after the artificial synthesis tech for the twenty-some missing materials has all been cracked, can they finally fully digest the Mechanical Empire’s tens of millions of years of accumulation.

The more than ten thousand solid Planet Ships from the Seventh Star Cluster are excellent raw material.

The Ascenders’ encirclement army will still need more than five hundred years to arrive.

This means the Red Peak Army still has a window of rapid development lasting as long as five hundred years.

If it were another Fleet, they probably wouldn’t be able to carry out large-scale production in a barren cosmic belt. But this is the Red Blade Army, master of the Dark Matter Capture Technology unrivaled in the Ancient Disk Star System. And this is the outer layer of the Hundred Clusters Star Domain, where the dark matter density is relatively high, providing inexhaustible energy.

The Red Blade Fleet also holds in its hands vast supplies swept up from the Seventh Star Cluster.

With energy and supplies completely abundant and no natural enemies, even a flock of sheep from Ancient Earth would be able to proliferate into an entire population here.

With the outside world completely stable, Ren Zhong was finally able to plan for a rest. He summoned Tessis Alson and, in a few concise words, laid out the developmental baseline for the next five hundred years.

First, further raise the overall quality of the population through heritage and iteration.

Second, complete a full iteration for all Warships.

Third, conserve strength and wait, and prepare for war with all-out effort.

Fourth, keep a tight watch on the Hundred Emperors: don’t let this guy run, and don’t let it self-destruct.

Afterward Ren Zhong did not go into hibernation, but simply stayed solidly in the Institute, taking over Yang Misi’s technical development work.

...

Meanwhile, the Hundred Emperors was likewise giving face-to-face instructions to Hmm-Wei-Wu.

The Hundred Emperors ordered Hmm-Wei-Wu, once back inside the Red Blade Army, to put down hatred and let the Furry-Whiskers genuinely integrate into the Red Blade Army. The Hundred Emperors’ goal was to gain access to more information.

Although the Hundred Emperors was currently located at the very center of the Legion Fleet’s formation, after the Fleet upgraded its information-protection methods, even with its intelligence-gathering capabilities, it could no longer see the internal changes of the Legion ships.

It could only tally the approximate troop strength of the Red Blade Army while remaining ignorant of its true technological level, forced to rely on the performance displayed in the battle where Long Guci was ambushed to make a rough estimate.

Of course the Hundred Emperors knew the size of the encirclement corps currently heading this way: twenty frontline War Mothers recalled from the front-line war zone, plus one hundred Star Sky Battle Beasts, as well as two ultra-computing auxiliary brains crafted by the Pilgrim and two matching Planet Level Wise Men, plus two Planet Level Divine Level demonkin.

With such a force scale, this already meets the standard for launching a Three Domains War—practically foolproof.

The Hundred Emperors judged that from Long Guci’s death to now, only a thousand years had passed. In theory, even if the Red Blade Army had improved over its previous basis, the proportion of improvement shouldn’t be too high.

For the four major human branches in the Ancient Disk Star System, time is measured in units of ten thousand years. A thousand years is far too brief, not even enough to fill the gaps between teeth.

So the Hundred Emperors felt very secure.

Maybe, probably, it should be like this, right?

Out of a sense of responsibility for its own espionage work, the Hundred Emperors also symbolically dispatched Hmm-Wei-Wu as a spy-within-a-spy-within-a-spy, doing its bit. But how far Hmm-Wei-Wu could go would be up to fate.

...

"Demon, I shall offer you my loyalty."

The cockroach-like Hmm-Wei-Wu stood before Ren Zhong, its mouthparts trembling as it did its best to imitate human speech.

Though its pronunciation was far from standard—sounding blurred and indistinct, with poor enunciation—Ren Zhong still understood it.

Ren Zhong put down the tablet he’d been using to record data and looked at Hmm-Wei-Wu with slight puzzlement. "What do you mean?"

Hmm-Wei-Wu spoke very straightforwardly. "Lord Hundred Emperors ordered me to put aside hatred and devote myself wholly to the Red Blade Clan, to give everything I have."

Ren Zhong laughed. "Can you actually do that?"

Hmm-Wei-Wu said, "This is Lord Hundred Emperors’ command; it has the highest priority. The Lord’s goal is for me to become a High Rank member within the Legion, so I can learn what the Legion’s current comprehensive strength has really reached. To help me complete the mission more effectively, Lord Hundred Emperors has further enhanced my intelligence and copied the War Mothers’ tactical thinking into an auxiliary brain, then implanted it into my body. I can guarantee you: no one understands better than me how to annihilate the Ascenders’ army more simply and quickly. I will earn merit, and I hope you will treat my people well."

Ren Zhong almost burst out laughing on the spot.

This guy—what kind of spy are you! I haven’t even started interrogating you and you’ve already confessed everything yourself!

Still, this could be worth working with.

"All right. I’ll have you start out as a basic shipboard soldier."

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