The Star Alliance evidently lacked the energy to accomplish many tasks, otherwise exploration outside the Local Interstellar Cloud would have been completed long ago.
If the overall development and the quality of citizens within the Star Alliance were on par with Iridium Star, even without so many warships, dealing with the Teizene civilization would have been much easier. However, the current situation in the Star Alliance was that they possessed powerful technology, but the majority of its citizens were simply coping with a new civilizational model, Bai Zhongqi, despite having billions of people, could not swiftly transform them into a force for the Star Alliance.
After just over a week, Bai Zhongqi received intelligence from the Tianshui Escort Ship operating beyond the Danlu Interstellar Cloud—approximately nine light-years away in a galaxy, they discovered an interstellar civilization.
This was a Primate Clan civilization, self-identified as the Lvzhao Civilization, with a civilization level of about 14. The stellar Frost River Star in the Frost River Galaxy, where the Lvzhao Civilization resided, was a luminous main-sequence star, and Lvzhao star was quite distant from it. However, the brightness here was still significantly more intense than on Earth. The people of Lvzhao seemingly did not differ much from Earthlings, but their vision was actually very poor. Their pupils were quite small, allowing just enough light for sight but preventing any damage to the eyes.
The Frost River Galaxy was not particularly rich in resources, featuring only four planets, with Lvzhao star being the only habitable one. The Lvzhao Civilization existed in three nearby galaxies but had not established any significant colonies on any planets other than Lvzhao star. The colonies on other planets were low-level, lacking a holistic ecosystem and only possessing small ecological chambers providing fresh food for the Lvzhao people.
When Tianshui entered the Frost River Galaxy, it made contact with the Lvzhao Civilization. The Lvzhao Civilization sent an envoy spacecraft, and the overall atmosphere was quite positive, with no conflicts arising.
After mutual language understanding was achieved, Earthlings learned that the Lvzhao Civilization was the only existing interstellar civilization within nearly fifty light-years, and it was a member of the Galactic High Governance Council. This did not mean that the Lvzhao Civilization had any power or seat in the council, but merely that it claimed membership within it.
Upon hearing about the Lvzhao Civilization, Bai Zhongqi instantly thought of forming an alliance. Although the Lvzhao Civilization was not particularly strong, with a population smaller than a major continent on Earth and essentially only one administrative star, the Lvzhao Civilization still possessed a Universe Navy Fleet with hundreds of warships. If they cooperated with the Star Alliance, there might be hope of confronting the Teizene.
Furthermore, Bai Zhongqi believed that when the Teizene reached the periphery of the Danlu Interstellar Cloud, they would inevitably pose a threat to the nearby Frost River Galaxy, making it natural for the Lvzhao Civilization to defend itself against the Teizene.
With this in mind, Bai Zhongqi once again boarded the Sacred Falcon, bringing along two escort ships and several merchant ships, and headed towards the Frost River Galaxy.
The spaceship didn't take long to reach its destination, and Zero, with a grin, said, "Now I have completely become your errand ship. As a battleship that inwardly yearns for a thrilling battle, I still feel a bit sad."
Bai Zhongqi rolled his eyes at her and responded, "You have already detached from this warship; you just still have control over its permissions. It doesn't matter if I use the Sacred Falcon for traveling since Linyin's breakthrough in the star energy engine is imminent, and I'll soon have many ships capable of reaching 3000 times the speed of light."
Zero still grinned and pointed at the window as the Lvzhao Civilization's spaceship approached them, and said, "Your Majesty, this ally you want to secure doesn't seem very reliable. Although a 14-level civilization, they are considerably weak. They don't even have any warp detection devices. I bet they can't even distinguish how many times the speed of light the Sacred Falcon's warp speed is."
Bai Zhongqi also felt a touch of worry about this. A level 14 civilization seemed quite high, nearing the Teizene's level 17 civilization, but the actual differences were vast. Despite the Iridium Star folks always joking about the High Governance Council's civilization ranking system, it had its benefits.
In the old age, Earth was on the verge of crossing into a level 1 civilization, having attained some capability for space travel, primarily using chemical energy and nearly achieving industrialization. By level 5 civilization, interstellar civilizations controlled medium to high nuclear fusion energy technologies, with activities primarily within the planetary system, and maximum travel speed not exceeding 20 kilometers per second.
By level 10 civilization, energy technology diversified, energy consumption scaled up, more cosmic weapons were explored, and they were able to travel at half the speed of light. An important marker of level 12 civilization was mastering at least one method of superluminal travel. Only by level 15 civilization would they possess signature technologies like energy shields.
So, despite the Lvzhao Civilization having hundreds of interstellar warships, none was equipped with an energy shield.
Zero critically assessed, "The reason the Lvzhao Civilization could develop to a 14 level civilization with such weak force is because in the Orion spur, where interstellar bubbles are scattered, matter is thin, naturally birthing few civilizations, and for other civilizations, there isn't much of value in the sparsely material Orion spur, either. Traveling thousands of light-years in this area, it might be tough to find any habitable or resource-rich planets, making interplanetary traffic not cost-effective, which allowed those higher-level civilizations to discover the Lvzhao Civilization but casually offered them a membership, leaving them to fend for themselves here."
Bai Zhongqi knew Zero's assessment was essentially accurate. The Galaxy had many fertile star sectors, but the Orion spur clearly wasn't one of them. It was filled with several interstellar material voids, where matter density was much lower than the Galaxy's average. The Danlu Interstellar Cloud was relatively material-rich among these bubbles, while regions like the Frost River Galaxy had hardly any significant planets or even slightly valuable asteroids.
Nonetheless, Bai Zhongqi still wanted to make contact with this neighbor, the Iridium Star-Earth civilization. Clearly, the Lvzhao Civilization was resource-deficient, so upon communicating with the Earth civilization's ships, they immediately proposed friendly relations and establishing trade connections. Carrying a spirit of mutual benefit, Bai Zhongqi also brought some merchant ships to explore potential business opportunities.