The entire Fleet of the Ninety-Fifth Legion was annihilated!
Xiao Yu, who had the Supreme Command, was the first to receive this news. As a leader of exemplary civilization within the Galactic High Governance Council and a dominant figure over the Lower Orion's Arm, Xiao Yu was now curled up within the narrow space of a wardrobe, holding a small smart device in his hands, repeatedly playing a snippet of audio.
"Lai Zhicun, it's time to settle debts."
"It's time to settle the debts."
"It's time to settle the debts"
He listened to this sentence over and over. Initially, his whole body trembled violently in the cramped space, but as he continued listening, the trembling stopped, and a cold expression appeared on his face, almost disdainful.
Xiao Yu was not a man of great courage; he feared many things. Having been bullied by other family members since childhood, his scholarship was not the best, nor was his combat, strategy, or even his appearance. His timid nature often led him to hide in the wardrobe in his room after being bullied by his brothers. The narrower the space, the safer he felt.
Even now, he could not change this habit. No matter where he was, he needed a wardrobe. When he felt fear, he would sit inside the wardrobe, and when he emerged, he was still the deeply authoritarian Chancellor.
"Why didn't you die?" Xiao Yu's expression was flat, but his speech slightly breathless.
"Could it really be that you are destined by fate? No, all of this is false! Only what is seized by one's own hand is truly one's own. Now, the Star Alliance is in my hands, and you are nothing!" Xiao Yu spoke rapidly, like a machine gun.
But after speaking, his face returned to being as placid as an ancient well.
He opened the wardrobe and stepped out from the place of safety.
"It seems that all the contingencies I neurotically put in place over the years were not pointless, huh? You return with overwhelming momentum, seeking revenge; how could I easily relinquish the throne and make your path of revenge all too boring?" Xiao Yu spoke indifferently.
After all, as a man who had controlled the Star Alliance for eighteen years, dominating the Lower Orion's Arm, the current momentum of the Star Alliance was not something ordinary high-level civilizations could match, and its military power was so strong it had no equals. Even if Bai Zhongqi returned, how many warships could he bring? How much of a threat could he pose to the Star Alliance?
Xiao Yu sat down to watch the footage of the aerial destruction of the Ninety-Fifth Legion. Regarding the death of Lai Zhicun, Xiao Yu felt no emotional fluctuation. It was merely one of his dogs, as it had always been, still the same now. Previously, the death of a dog was inconvenient for Xiao Yu, but now, the death of a dog left him feeling nothing, because the current Xiao Yu had many dogs.
"Hmm, it's a fleet completely different in configuration from Iridium Star, and it's divided into five types; could it be from five entirely different civilizations? The cooperation is quite sharp. It seems this person is not as incompetent as previously thought, possessing some military talent after all. These five civilizations, the least advanced being close to a 23-24 level civilization, and the most powerful probably similar to the Star Alliance. However, if it is indeed five civilizations, then there is much more room for discord to be sown," Xiao Yu thought at that moment.
Bai Zhongqi had defeated the fleet of the 95th Legion, which admittedly was somewhat troublesome to him. However, the annihilation of over two hundred warships of the 95th Legion hardly affected Xiao Yu, who didn't even regard the Legion's loss as significant, amounting to less than one-fifth of its forces; it wasn't even considered a major blow. Xiao Yu controlled hundreds of similar legion-level troops.
He had too many cards up his sleeve, and he was fully confident that he could bury this man, who had crawled out from the grave, back into it again.
At that moment, a notification on his smart device sounded.
"Chancellor, the Star Alliance's representative at the High Council attended an emergency closed-door meeting organized by the High Council. The High Council shared intelligence about a mysterious disappearance event on the Hunting Planet provided by the Trade Alliance, stating that the second galactic disaster threatening all civilizations across the Galaxy may have already arrived. The High Council hopes that all civilizations stay fully vigilant and prepare for the disaster," his AI assistant typed out.
Xiao Yu was someone who disliked genuine interactions with others, so his AI assistant wasn't even an A-level artificial intelligence but a lower-tier C-level AI, devoid of emotional fluctuations, merely handling his various affairs rigidly.
Xiao Yu reviewed the materials regarding the incident on the Hunting Planet, unaware of the event before and surprised it was linked to the Swarm disaster. Xiao Yu wasn't profoundly terrified of the Swarm disaster since disasters were rare in the First Universe, but for many civilizations that had existed for thousands of years, disasters often spelled the doom of civilizations. One of the High Council's most critical roles at its inception was to unite the forces of the Galaxy to counteract these disasters.
"Isn't the timing a bit too coincidental? That one returns, and a galactic disaster strikes the Galaxy?" Xiao Yu thought he might have caught onto something but then mocked himself for perhaps being a bit too paranoid.
Due to the difference in perspective, while other civilizations might place disasters at the forefront, Xiao Yu didn't care much about the appearance of the new generation of the Swarm Empress. Bai Zhongqi posed a more immediate threat to him.
"The minor Wilds of the Galaxy, just a stomp away," Xiao Yu planned to say.
Nevertheless, he wouldn't act rashly; he needed more intelligence to ascertain just what kind of serendipitous fortune Bai Zhongqi had encountered, how much capital and backing he possessed. Before fully understanding the situation, he would not send tens of thousands of warships to the Wilds of the Galaxy.
Stepping out of the palace, Xiao Yu, dressed in a thin garment, stood atop a cliff overlooking the turbulent South Sea. Long ago, that one person also probably stood watching the ocean, feeling liberated and at ease.
"Such a beautiful scene, if it were gone, I wonder how much pain you would feel. Heh, now on Earth, a population of ten billion, you've been busy for so many years, even designing a civilization grafting route, to preserve what you call the origin of cultures. Everything you hold dear, I despise. You say they are my subjects, but I disdain them. If it pains you, blowing it up is also an option," Xiao Yu's thoughts fluctuated.
Inside this seemingly prosperous and magnificent planet, he had long embedded numerous weapons of destruction, not only on Earth but inside most planets of the Star Alliance. Once triggered, these planets, the homelands upon which the people of the Star Alliance depended, would be reduced to ashes.
When Xiao Yu initially undertook this task, he was unsure of his motives.
Looking back now, it was clear.
"Possessions snatched could always be snatched back, so might as well destroy them. If I can't have them, neither can you."