Chapter 1161 Finding a Needle in a Haystack Is Where We Excel
The universe was extremely enormous. Even if one had extraordinary individual strength, without a force large enough, one would not be able to achieve much in the galactic society.
The Black Star Army was among the top armed forces in the Galaxy. They had manpower, resources, money, s.h.i.+ps, and everything. As soon as Han Xiao’s highest order was given out, the Black Star Army’s men in the Shattered Star Ring started executing the order immediately. They searched through one Star System after another and locked down all kinds of transportation hubs to find Aesop’s whereabouts. The Floating Dragon Island’s troops were also mostly dispatched.
Clearly, such a big movement could not stay hidden. It quickly attracted the attention of the entire galactic society. With just a little research, they knew that Dragon Emperor’s elder had gone missing. To search for just one person, the movements of the Black Star Army indirectly affected dozens of Star Systems.
Such a deep search impacted the operation of some public facilities, which some galactic residents had slight problems with. However, given that it was from the Black Star Army and even the local civilizations did not do anything about it, of course, the ordinary residents did not dare do anything too. Other than dispatching troops everywhere, the Black Star Army also issued a bounty for Aesop through the local media channels, making use of the power of the people.
A large monetary reward would be given to anyone who could provide any real leads to Aesop, such as witness reports, transit records, and many more. If anyone could capture Aesop alive and give him to the army, the reward would be an outrageous 135 million Enas. Ordinary galactic residents would not be able to even spend all this money in their lifetime. It was also humongous for some medium to small armed organizations.
As the saying went, with a high enough reward, people would step up sooner or later. Some medium to small organizations joined the search team, and a ton of free mercenaries started looking too. Even some galactic pirates and scavengers were searching secretly, hoping to acquire the reward and clean their ledgers. The local galactic residents of the Shattered Star Ring also kept an eye out.
For the time being, Aesop had become the focus of countless organizations in the Shattered Star Ring.
In the past, Han Xiao was on his own and hardly had any forces; being able to capture Aesop was mainly thanks to Feidin’s luck. Decades later, his army had grown into a giant. There was no need to play hide and seek with Aesop like he used to; he just had to make use of his resources, and it would become extremely difficult for Aesop to go anywhere.
Even though Aesop’s foresight ability was very powerful, all he could do was move with extreme caution and stealth in this kind of situation, not daring to appear in front of ordinary people.
Of course, these were just the basics. Han Xiao’s core method of finding him was Rody’s prophecy, alongside Ames, Feidin, Nero, and Harrison’s luck, on top of his own Virtual Technology continuously calculating the possible coordinates Aesop might head to so that he could narrow down the search area.
Dark red sandstorm shrouded the sky like a red piece of cloth placed over the entire planet.
Through the low visibility sandstorm, a man in a heavy protective suit was walking alone on the red desert. The raging storm drummed his body like hammers.
This man walked a few hours like this when, suddenly, a meteor-like spark of light penetrated the sandstorm and plummeted toward this man. He stopped and looked up, an approaching small s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p reflected on the ally mask of his protective suit. Hu!
The s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p slowly landed before this person and released an air force field with a fifty-meter diameter, blocking the sandstorm and creating a clean area.
The hatch opened. This person stepped onto the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p without hesitation, dusted off the sand all over his body, and took off the heavy protective helmet. An old face appeared. It was Aesop.
“You’re the ones here to fetch me?” Aesop patted the helmet.
“Yes, we’ll be responsible for getting you out of the Shattered Star Ring.” The captain approached him. “Don’t worry, we’re professionals, certainly reliable.” Aesop nodded with approval and said, “The single person s.p.a.ce cabin that sent me here has yet to be destroyed. Go destroy it on while you’re at it. If it lands in Black Star’s hands, it’ll be a prophecy medium. Don’t leave any clues like that.”
Due to the Black Star Army’s lockdown over the Shattered Star Ring, he could hardly go anywhere. He was barely able to find a s.p.a.ce cabin and landed on this desolate planet and waited for quite a long time before this s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p arrived to pick him up.
“No problem.” The captain nodded.
The s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p took off, came to a desolate desert area not far away, and discovered the metal s.p.a.ce cabin that was half buried in the sand.
Bang!
Two explosive light beams shot out of the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p and destroyed the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. The flame only lasted for an instant before being extinguished by the raging wind, leaving only metal fragments shattered around that were gradually buried by the sand. After completing this task, the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p turned around, rose up, and took off into s.p.a.ce.
At the same time, Manison, who was in the Primeval Star River, received the message. He opened the surveillance footage, and it showed Aesop in this s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p.
“They finally picked him up…”
Manison looked at the screen.
For confidentiality purposes, this s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p that had gone to receive Aesop had hidden its organization symbol. It actually belonged to an organization called ‘Milder Armed Transport’, one of the secret organizations Manison had planted in the Shattered Star Ring.
Not long ago, the Modo Civilization had officially pulled him into the plan, shared some information with him, and asked him to help.
Modo Civilization only did so because of the lack of a better choice. The lockdown of the Black Star Army was too tight, so they could not make any moves in the Shattered Star Ring and could not secretly transport Aesop out at all. They were almost discovered multiple times. Hence, they decided to borrow the Mechanic Emperor’s men and have him take over the ‘delivery’.
“Modo must have used the Soul Swapper on Aesop and made him escape deliberately.”
Of course, in the information the Modo Civilization provided, the existence of the Soul Swapper was not mentioned. They only said that they controlled Aesop using some kind of mind control method and did not explain further. However, they did not know that Manison had known about the Soul Swapper since long ago, so he understood what was used on Aesop instantly.
Manison had no plan of stopping Modo’s mission. He even planned to cooperate with it fully.
Although Aesop was one of the Ancient Ones, he had quit the organization long ago. The Ancient Ones were mainly Eternals. Beyond Grade As were a part of it, but not all members were Beyond Grade As. There were quite a number of unique members with special abilities but weak combat capabilities just like Aesop.
Although Manison did know Aesop, they were not friends, so he did not mind Aesop dying.
On this matter, his interests aligned with Modo. There was a chance using Aesop’s death to plot against Black Star would force him to disobey the Peace Treaty of the advanced civilizations. This way, Black Star’s reputation would be severely damaged, and the great image the three Universal Civilizations had been building for him would collapse. That was exactly what Manison hoped to see, so he was willing to cooperate.
However, all of this was just the cherry on top. Manison’s main goal was still the Soul Swapper.
“Aesop is now in my hands. He’s definitely come into contact with the Soul Swapper at a relatively close range. Through searching his past whereabouts, the rough search area can be determined. Through cross-referencing the records, the Modo Civilization’s secret fleet that transported the Soul Swapper can be found. The person who’s now controlling Aesop’s body should be one of the Modo Civilization’s men. Maybe I can hypnotize him and question him.”
He did not know that the Soul Swap Twins had already escaped. He thought that the Soul Swapper was now being transported back by the Modo Civilization, so his search direction was already inaccurate.
Not long after the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p transporting Aesop left, another fleet visited this dark red desolate island. The Black Star symbol was engraved on their exterior armor.
Inside the command room of the main s.h.i.+p, Han Xiao, Ames, Feidin, and the rest gathered. This was a fleet commanded by Han Xiao personally.
“Hmm, this is the planet, exactly the same as it is in the prophecy. It’s also one of the locations that overlapped between the areas chosen by Feidin, Harrison, and Nero.”
Han Xiao looked down at the planet’s surface.
Rody’s prophecy did not work all the time, but any information that he gave was crucial, and Feidin and the others had the help of the Advanced Luck Glow. Under Han Xiao’s instructions, they randomly selected some coordinates in the various search areas, and Han Xiao focused the investigation on the places where their choices overlapped.
Although they had yet to get any leads, Han Xiao was still confident in this method.
What he did not know was that he had only just missed Aesop multiple times. This method was indeed very effective. In a way, luck was truly invincible.
“Scan this planet. Report any abnormalities to me.”
As Han Xiao gave the order, s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps departed from the fleet one after another and circled the planet using all kinds of detection devices to scan the planet without missing a spot.
Normal readings showed on the screen before Han Xiao. There did not seem to be any abnormalities. However, after quite some time, some exciting news finally came from one of the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps. “Sir, we have discovered an extremely weak radiation signal in the desert. The sources of it are scattered and buried a few meters under the ground. Do we dig?” “Dig!”
The image on the screen quickly changed into the view from this battles.h.i.+p. The suction device at the bottom of the s.h.i.+p sucked out plates of burnt black metal fragments that looked like parts of a destroyed machine.
“Report, radiation source found. a.n.a.lyzing… a.n.a.lysis complete. This should be the wreckage of a type of s.p.a.ce cabin that was destroyed by an explosive energy cannon. Affected by the energy, a certain amount of radiation was left in the wreckage that’s gradually weakening. The radiation will completely disappear in a few days.”
“Looks like we’re not too late.” Han Xiao’s eyes sparkled.
If they had arrived a few days later and the radiation had disappeared, they would not have been able to find this wreckage. With this, not only could it act as a medium for Rody’s prophecy, it could also be used with [Bold Explorer). One could see the future, and one could see the past. Very soon, this pile of s.p.a.ce cabin fragments was transported to Han Xiao. Han Xiao picked one fragment up, looked at the burn marks on it, and said, “It doesn’t look like an attack, more like a deliberate attempt to destroy evidence, probably not wanting to leave any clues to us… Unfortunately for them, we’re lucky.” Han Xiao grabbed the fragment in his hand and activated (Bold Explorer).
Ripples appeared in his vision, and his vision instantly changed. He saw a s.p.a.ce cabin falling down from the sky and landing on the surface of this planet. The hatch opened. A man wearing a heavy protection suit walked out from it and slowly walked away.
Although he could not see this person’s appearance, he felt it was most likely Aesop.
Like time had been shortened, not long after, a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p appeared above the s.p.a.ce cabin, launched two explosive light beams, and shattered it into pieces. The images stopped abruptly here, and Han Xiao’s sights returned to normal.
This footage was short but quite informative. “This is indeed a s.p.a.ce cabin left by Aesop. A s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p appeared after to destroy the clue, which means it was here to fetch him…”
Han Xiao recalled the appearance of the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p in the footage. It was not a common model but a high-speed s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p known for its hyperdrive speed. It was expensive to build, and not just anyone could afford it.
“Phillip!”
“I’m here, hum… Please give the order, master.”
“Search all the people and organizations in the Shattered Star Ring who possess the Featherlight Grade s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. Don’t leave anyone out, and focus on any organization that has a stronghold near this area.” “Ah?” Phillip batted his large eyes and made a pitiful expression. “That’s a lot of data, hum… It’ll occupy a lot of computing power, hum…”
Han Xiao gave him a stare and said, “Then hurry up!”
Phillip reluctantly took out a progress bar from his pants, placed it upright beside him, and created a large box filled with paper. He then jumped in and started searching. The progress bar started moving at the same time.
After quite some time, the progress bar finally finished. Phillip’s head extended out from the box. He spewed the pieces of paper out from his mouth with an illuminated piece of paper in his hand. He then filled his mouth with air and angrily said, “Humph! Found it, hum! Take it, take it!”
“A lot of tricks you have.”
Han Xiao rolled his eyes, switched into quantum network vision, and retrieved the search results.
A large amount of data instantly flew into his head like a tsunami, blocked by the dam built by Han Xiao’s brain capacity and computing power that did not even shake in the slightest. He quickly started browsing through it.
“A total of thirty-seven million and thirty-one matches… Hmm, let me take a look.”
Han Xiao quickly filtered in his brain, browsing through all of the records in less than two seconds and memorizing all of it. Only Virtual Mechanics would be able to use this ‘dumb method’ to lock onto suspicious targets… When he had the ability to filter the entire haystack, finding a needle would not be that difficult anymore.
Most of it was data with no value, but one organization that was emphasized had attracted Han Xiao’s attention.
“Milder Armed Transport… I seem to have an impression of this name.”
Han Xiao narrowed his eyes. He searched through the mind palace inside his brain, and the memories came up. … I got it! This organization is one of the Mechanic Emperor’s subsidiary organizations that was exposed in my previous life.
Han Xiao’s expression became solemn.
Although he had no final confirmation, his intuition told him that this was most likely the organization that transported Aesop away.
Doesn’t this mean that old b*stard Manison is involved in this too?
Han Xiao was not planning to question the Mechanic Emperor. It would be a waste of time anyway as he definitely would not admit it.
All kinds of thoughts flashed past his mind. Han Xiao turned to the others and said with a low voice, “Have people monitor the Milder Armed Transport closely… No, monitor all the organizations I’m going to name. I want to know their recent movements, but don’t startle them. Monitor them extra closely, and don’t make any moves without my order!”
Han Xiao had always known some of the organizations that the Mechanic Emperor had secretly planted in the Shattered Star Ring. Originally, he did not want to let the Mechanic Emperor know this, but now that he seemed involved in this matter, Han Xiao decided to take measures and monitor all of the subsidiary organizations that the Mechanic Emperor had in the Shattered Star Ring!