Chapter 1628 - 617: The Disappearance of the Red Blade Clan

Chapter 1628: Chapter 617: The Disappearance of the Red Blade Clan

It has been four hundred years since the Sublimated Beings, Pilgrims, and Spirit Demon Race completely withdrew from the Jade Plate Star Domain, marking the official end of the Three Domains war.

It has been five hundred years since the Red Blade Army vanished into thin air.

The devastated Jade Plate Star Domain is still slowly rebuilding.

The original residents of this star domain have completely disappeared.

Approximately half of them died during the enemy occupation period.

It’s well-known that ever since the four human branches took divergent paths and developed distinct reproductive isolation, the other three factions, after conquering the territories of the Mechanical Empire, no longer regarded the native humans representing human ancestors as "people," but rather as tools and consumables.

Their behavior aligns with the ongoing propaganda of the Mechanical Empire, which is cold-hearted, ruthless, and irreconcilable.

Thus, half of the star domain’s population dying is quite normal.

As for the remaining half, it wasn’t due to the clearance by the three factions during their retreat.

These pitiable people, completely brainwashed and enslaved by the Spirit Demon Race, merely had their memories erased.

They don’t even remember ever being enslaved; they are just puzzled as to why some family and friends inexplicably disappeared from their lives.

Subsequently, they were not met with rescue from the Mechanical Empire but rather a thorough sweep and purge, similar to how every Tracer colonial return fleet eliminates the abandoned pitiable people before leaving.

The Mechanical Empire never accepts those who were once enslaved by the Spirit Demon Race as "brethren."

There were instances before when the Empire retained some compassion, but hidden within the "Ruled Group" were actual traitors.

Countless generations and after thousands of generations, one descendant of a traitor climbed to a high position, leaked intelligence, causing the Empire to lose two star domains at once.

The brainwashing enslavement by the Spirit Demon Race is far more complex than it appears.

The real Divine Level Demon Race can even engrave the instinct of betrayal into the genetic information of native humans, lying dormant, and suddenly erupting when a descendant on that genetic information chain meets certain conditions. These conditions could be taking on certain key scientific research, or assuming an important position, among others, but all have far-reaching consequences.

From then onwards, the Mechanical Empire no longer accepts enslaved brethren and kills without mercy.

Of course, even if all natives are cleared, rebuilding the Jade Plate Star Domain isn’t difficult; the Empire never lacks people.

The Empire is vast; after mastering planetary transformation technology, the reproduction capacity of native humans is substantial. There are always criminal civilians or destitute impoverished people, or once illustrious noble families like Han Zhixin’s, who have only a title left, needing to gamble on new virgin lands.

Some people were dispatched there, and some would go voluntarily.

But such laissez-faire reconstruction is always inefficient; even four hundred years later, new residents of the Jade Plate Star Domain still live primitively, facing continual hardships.

However, the Empire Core is completely unconcerned, as they have bigger troubles now.

Back then, the Red Blade Army dove into Fold Jump Subspace, and the great Regent King personally convened a meeting, sending an invitation to attend to Red Blade Marquis Ren Zhong.

The Regent King decided to personally meet this brilliant newly-bred Marquis and genuine Chosen One.

Even though it was just an online meeting, it was quite an honor.

The Regent King even personally drafted a Praise Order in advance and selected fifteen hundred prosperous planet systems from the Central Star Domain to gift as fiefs to the Red Blade Marquis.

However, something strange occurred.

The information flow communication applications sent out by multiple departments such as the Intelligence Directorate, Supreme Military Department, and Chosen Guard have all vanished without a trace, with no response whatsoever.

After waiting several hours more, Marquis Zhenjiang Jin Shi was also urgently awakened to handle communications with the Red Blade Marquis, but Marquis Zhenjiang Jin Shi stated she couldn’t contact the Red Blade Clan within the Three Domains war operation command system either.

This situation puzzled everyone.

Such a colossal fleet, disappeared into Fold Jump Subspace, seemingly traveling to another world.

The Royal Academy of Sciences meticulously scrutinized and repeatedly studied information flow intelligence to fathom the energy oscillation mode the Red Blade Army emitted externally when disappearing, confidently concluding that the Red Blade Army definitely headed into Fold Jump Subspace instead of entering Star Gate navigation mode.

Thus, theoretically, the Red Blade Army shouldn’t have lost contact.

Everyone understood the theory, yet the reality was that the people were missing.

Later, Duke Wenle suggested that the new passage technology used by the Red Blade Army might still have imperfections causing communication interruption, but there was no need to panic.

The Chosen One, the Red Blade Marquis, always acted confidently; it was impossible for him to perish inexplicably after successfully escaping, perhaps waiting a bit longer would bring news.

So, the wait extended, lasting five hundred years.

No one knows where that massive fleet comparable to an entire star domain army actually went.

...

At this moment, Ren Zhong, with eternal life, was sitting slightly bored in the command room of the Red Blade Star Armor.

The functions of his personal War Armor were becoming increasingly enriched, even equipped with a navigation system capable of piloting the entire army.

Now, having finally gained freedom, he stopped hiding. He openly admitted to all clan members, "I have eternal life," thus putting the top hierarchy of the clan at ease for slumber while he took on the role of on-duty Navigator.

At this moment, he was continuously inputting new coordinates, leading the fleet to slowly correct its angle with slight turns within the constantly emerging new subspace channels.

Indeed, he followed the route provided by Duke Wenle for a long distance, but then started steering the fleet along an ultra-large arc resembling a snail shell.

Now, with just a final correction in direction, the Red Blade Army could head straight toward the territory of the Sublimated Beings, the former homeland of Marquis Zhenjiang Jin Shi.

After some time, Ren Zhong exhaled deeply and murmured, "Done!"

Then, he called out softly, "Xiao Ai."

Sun Ai transformed into the true visage of Chen Hanyu, appearing before him.

Ren Zhong raised his hand immediately to shield his eyes.

Sun Ai pouted disinterestedly, adding two pieces of cool clothing to her outfit, "What do you need me for?"

Ren Zhong then lowered his hand, "Help me connect to the auxiliary brain. I want to check on how the Empire is doing."

"Oh, okay."

A flow of strange directional information streamed out from subspace, traversing a vast distance, covertly darting towards Wangjiang Star in the Far Border Star Domain, and then plunging into the control auxiliary brain of Marquis Zhenjiang Jin Shi’s frozen hibernation chamber.

This was the contingency Ren Zhong prepared earlier.

He had promised Jin Shi to find a way to cure her strange illness.

He didn’t vanish with hollow promises.

Before heading back to the Jade Plate Star Domain, he had a set of new Static Level frozen hibernation equipment sent to Jin Shi.

In this equipment, Ren Zhong embedded a set of Sun Ai’s auxiliary brain from the Red Blade Science Academy.

Thus, Sun Ai could actually establish resonance connections between herself and the auxiliary brain to secretly surveil the Mechanical Empire’s intelligence.

Of course, the immense computational power provided by Sun Ai was barely enough to coordinate the information flow resonance within the frozen hibernation chamber, slowing Jin Shi’s consciousness dissipation rate and enhancing her thought stability.

The entire Empire believes that Ren Zhong and his clan have disappeared, but Ren Zhong has merely switched to surreptitiously monitoring the Empire in an unknown manner.

Ren Zhong coined a rather stylish nickname for his actions, calling himself the "High-risk Observer," not high-dimensional, but high-risk.

Reclaiming his freedom, he’s being audaciously flamboyant, without any disguise.