"But Lord Azure Dragon is still lurking in the shadows, isn’t he? To behead him, it must be at least an S-class life form, wouldn’t it? Coming rashly, aren’t they afraid of being killed by traps?" Blackbeard retorted.
The Beast Venerable fell silent, as indeed, Azure Dragon was prudent, and no one dared assume how many intriguing objects an Casting Star Mechanic might possess.
"Li Ming’s matters are too far away, let’s not worry about them for now. All things considered, having Azure Dragon join us might not be a bad thing," Ulysses then asked:
"However, have we thoroughly investigated his background? How possible is it for a Casting Star Mechanic to be without any trace."
It was not clear who was responding: "That’s the problem, there really is no trace of him, as if he just popped out from a crack in the rocks."
After a brief silence, Ulysses said: "Before we clear up his background, let’s not let him in on our core secrets, but we should still provide the assistance we are supposed to."
There was another round of discussion, and eventually, the majority agreed.
"Additionally, under our guidance, the Lower House’s dimensional exploration work has discovered the Secret Castle of the Terrax Civilization in the Deep Dimension World, and learned about the ’Eternal Silence Star’."
"Next, we’ll continue to lead them on, pushing them deeper into the mire of the dimensional war."
"However, the Star Abyss Empire has noticed something amiss. During the last Royal Council, a few councilors submitted proposals to investigate us; I suspect they are already secretly assembling an investigative team."
Voices here continued without pause, swapping various pieces of information and intelligence deemed highly confidential.
The enormous cyan hexagonal Star Gate was right before their eyes, swallowing and releasing a large number of spaceships.
The Tamberlis Star Gate Hub, a transit-type Star Gate Hub constructed by the interstellar alliance, does not belong to any single civilization and aims to provide equal services to all life forms.
Due to some civilizations’ systems, laws, and customs, many Star Gates are not open to the public.
The interstellar alliance began related work a long time ago, and many interstellar conglomerates provided support, constructing transit-type Star Gates in many places.
Due to its uniqueness, over time, a highly prosperous temporary hub has formed in its vicinity.
"Please follow the guidance, queue in order for identity checks, and if any civilization’s fugitives are present, please leave promptly..."
The small spaceship carrying Li Ming and the others was connected to the hub’s orbit, already taken over by the Star Gate Hub’s artificial intelligence. Identity information was uploaded and, after verification, they were allowed to enter, docking at Star Port 1564.
"Farewell to the Chaotic Star Gap, everyone..." Li Ming stood at the hatch door, looking at Monroe and the others with a slight smile, and leaped down.
The Coyle was too conspicuous of a target; halfway through their journey, they had already switched to a different spaceship and, with the help of the Black Hole Network’s advanced privileges, forged the necessary identities.
Everyone watched as Lord Azure Dragon’s figure merged into the crowd, eventually disappearing among the various strange shapes of life forms.
"Lord Azure Dragon is quite smart, it’s easier to work from the shadows," Dark Night couldn’t help but remark. Lord Azure Dragon was only a B-class life form with too slow physiological reaction speeds.
Facing some sudden attacks, there was no chance to don the Mecha.
But the threat while lurking in the shadows increased substantially; with Li Ming acting as the representative and Azure Dragon protecting from the shadows, it gave others great pause.
"Actually, just directly undergoing mechanical augmentation would be fine," Jesse couldn’t help but interject.
Monroe shook his head: "Not everyone can accept mechanical augmentation."
"But Lord Azure Dragon has development potential..." Jesse muttered, eliciting various expressions from the others as they guessed that Lord Azure Dragon’s age wasn’t less than five hundred years old, likely using life extension elixirs.
Yet his life level was only B-class...
"Here he comes," Ulrich suddenly said, as everyone’s attention focused, a figure squeezed out from the crowd and jumped onto their spaceship.
"Pleased to meet you all," Li Ming greeted with a smile, "I am Li Ming."
The crowd looked at him with odd expressions, being the first close encounter, they were all quite curious, and then responded to his greeting by introducing themselves.
Even Sandro, the least clever among them, did not show off in front of Li Ming, as a Level Forty-Six with potential for development sounded intimidating—he was only Level Fifteen, after all.
"I’ll head to my room first, if there’s anything, feel free to call for me," after a brief exchange of pleasantries, Li Ming headed for Azure Dragon’s room.
"Quite interesting..." Li Ming muttered to himself.
Watching Li Ming depart, Monroe and the others exchanged glances, with Sandro mumbling, "I don’t know why, but I always have this false impression that he seems like Lord Azure Dragon."
"Starting to walk with the right foot first, the average stride at 0.75 meters, the habit of patting the thigh with the right hand, breathing frequency between four to five seconds..." Monroe spat out a series of data,
"The similarity you sense is in their aura, he seems to be deliberately imitating Lord Azure Dragon in his speech and manners."
"Ha..." Sandro laughed, "If I had a Casting Star Mechanic as a teacher, I’d imitate him too."
The others were too lazy to bother with him, and did not take it seriously, each getting busy with their tasks. Anxing connected to the Star Gate Hub’s jumping system, selected the destination, paid the toll, and then underwent spatial Mark coating, ready to enter the Star Gate.
This was an advanced Star Gate, not connecting in a point-to-point manner to another Star Gate, but interfacing with more than thirty Star Gates, requiring spatial Mark coating to anchor their intended destination.
They had to jump across twenty-six Star Gates to reach the Chaotic Star Gap, and including travel time, it took nearly over a month.