Chapter 574

Chapter 574: Preparing to Head to the Super Star Cluster

“Did the sixteen tribes fully surrender?”

In the vast blood pool, Duke Farah’s face turned an extreme shade of disappointment upon receiving the news.

The sixteen tribes had surrendered in their entirety, and it was a surrender with minimal damage.

Just like the conquest of the Spirit Heart Tribe and the Swift Tribe, the Great Flame Empire had forced the sixteen tribes to surrender without suffering many casualties in this battle.

In fact, the Alliance of the Sixteen Tribes did not take significant losses either.

This meant that after conquering the sixteen tribes, as long as the Great Flame Empire refrained from plundering their resources and treasures, they would surely gain the allegiance of the armies of the sixteen tribes.

Their strength would thus increase by several times.

This outcome was completely contrary to his expectations.

His original plan was to wait until the Great Flame Empire and the armies of the sixteen tribes determined their victor before making new plans and deployments.

He had considered several possibilities.

The Great Flame Empire might win, or it could be the Alliance of the Sixteen Tribes. Both scenarios were in his thoughts.

However, he never anticipated that the Great Flame Empire would win within just a few days.

Moreover, they managed to force the sixteen tribes into surrender without significant losses on either side.

He had always believed that this battle would take at least a decade to result in a clear victor.

Regardless of which side emerged victorious, he expected both would have to pay a substantial price, perhaps resulting in both parties suffering significant losses.

Such an unforeseen situation left him completely unsure of how to deploy and plan his actions.

Sending troops to suppress the Great Flame Empire was simply unrealistic.

Even if he could resolve the threat posed by the Empire’s assassination teams, given their current strength and military power, they would not be able to suppress it in the short term; it would certainly develop into a prolonged tug-of-war.

If that happened, the various races in the Tianling Star Cluster would undoubtedly take the opportunity to speed up their alliances, possibly launching counterattacks against the life planets controlled by the Undying Race.

Not to mention, he still had not figured out how to deal with the Great Flame Empire’s assassination teams.

But if he chose not to suppress the Great Flame Empire, the various tribes would be stimulated by its rapid expansion and rise, resulting in numerous expansions and alliances burgeoning like bamboo shoots after spring rain.

Given enough time, suppression would still be impossible.

“How did it escalate to this in just a few short years?”

A feeling of helplessness washed over Duke Farah, making his expression gloomy and his mind chaotic.

From any perspective, he reluctantly realized that, with the forces under his control now, he lacked the ability to suppress the situation in the Tianling Star Cluster.

His only hope lay with the assassination teams led by Marquises Hippo, who had to find an opportunity to strike at the top-tier combat power of the Great Flame Empire, continually eliminating their high-ranking leaders, causing the entire Empire to collapse from within.

But this possibility was extremely slim.

Although the top-tier combat power of the Great Flame Empire was not as formidable as that of the Undying Race’s assassination teams, the Empire also possessed elusive assassination teams of their own.

To ensure his safety, Marquises Hippo could only proceed cautiously, unable to dismantle the upper echelons of the Great Flame Empire in a short period.

“I hope internal strife ends quickly…”

Duke Farah felt helpless and could only hope that the internal war between the Undying King and Duke Bolai would end quickly.

Only then could the Undying Race send their armies to support him and fully suppress the various tribes, regaining control over the entire Tianling Star Cluster.

…

As news of the complete surrender of the sixteen tribes spread, the entire Tianling Star Cluster was thrown into shock and turmoil.

The various tribes were all brewing and planning for self-defense and finding a way out.

On the side of the Great Flame Empire, there was a deep silence.

Having successfully conquered the sixteen tribes, the next task for the Great Flame Empire was to gradually assimilate the territories of the sixteen tribes, reorganize their elite army, and elevate the strength of the Empire to a higher level.

Once the reorganization was complete, it would be time for the Great Flame Empire to reopen the path of expansion and implement the next phase of their battle plan.

However, before that, the expansion of the Great Flame Empire was not completely on hold.

Under the orders from the Military, strong individuals from various tribes were continually heading to neighboring races, carrying vast amounts of resources and treasures, preparing for the next round of conflict.

Blood-colored planet, outer space.

Inside the flying treasure.

Yi Chen stopped his training after successfully breaking through to the seventh level of the Heaven Fairy Stage.

Although the time required to break through each small realm was significantly increasing with his rising level, after experiencing a sixfold increase in his talent bonus, he could break through from the seventh level of the Heaven Fairy Stage to a higher major realm in just about two months.

Even with the Space Jump System of large battleships, it would still take about two months to reach the super star cluster.

Bound by the not-so-profound laws of heaven in this star cluster, even if he reached the peak of the ninth level, he would still be unable to progress further; it was time to head to the super star cluster.

He took out the communication stone and contacted Bai Ruo Xin first, asking her to inform the large battleship to prepare.

Then he contacted the Shadow King.

“Your Majesty, are you preparing to head to the super star cluster?”

The Shadow King quickly connected the call.

“Yes, how are things with Morris and the federal High-ranking Leaders?”

Yi Chen asked.

“Morris is still waiting for news about Mares; that is his only hope at the moment,” the Shadow King explained. “As for the federal High-ranking Leaders, to avoid offending Morris, they can only slow down their invasion of the Angelic Galaxy. They have dispatched numerous battleships across this star cluster to search for Mares’ whereabouts.”

“However, the federal High-ranking Leaders don’t have much hope. After their previous experience of collecting the second interest, they are now hoping that Your Majesty would take the initiative to propose collecting the third interest. In doing so, they aim to strengthen their relationship with Your Majesty and even offer better terms to reach an understanding with you.”

Yi Chen smiled faintly.

Whether it was Morris or the federal High-ranking Leaders, their ideas were good, but they would inevitably be disappointed.

As for Morris, Mares had already surrendered to him and could no longer use tracking and searching techniques to assist Morris in finding him and the Shadow King.

The final outcome was destined to be despair.

As for the federal High-ranking Leaders, it was quite similar.

At this point, Yi Chen had little interest in the resources of the human federation.

The only thing that still piqued his interest was the large number of young children in the human federation.

But regarding this, he would not put forth conditions to the human federation; instead, he planned to quietly arrange for the Revival Army to slowly organize and implement their strategy.

When the Great Flame Empire could ignore the pressures from the Tree-Dwelling Tribe, that would be the day the human federation realized how powerful the Great Flame Empire truly was and fell into despair.

“How are things with the Soul Clan?”

Yi Chen asked once more.

The Demon Emperor explained, “The Soul Clan has completely grasped control over the Tree-Dwelling Tribe. Now, they are contemplating which star system to use as a breakthrough point to formally join the competition in this star cluster.”

“The Soul Clan is getting a bit carried away; they aren’t afraid of the threat posed by the Tree-Dwelling Tribe?”

Yi Chen was somewhat surprised.

But upon reflection, he understood. Under his covert operations and arrangements, the seemingly powerful Tree-Dwelling Tribe was essentially a financial boon for the Soul Clan, continuously providing them with numerous bodies from the Tree-Dwelling Tribe, greatly enhancing the Soul Clan’s top-tier combat power.

Anyone would likely underestimate the terrifying strength of the Tree-Dwelling Tribe because of this.

After years of silence, the Soul Clan could no longer sit idle; wanting to compete in this star cluster was inevitable.

Regardless of which star system the Soul Clan chose to rise from, as long as they did not target the young children of the human federation, it would not affect Yi Chen’s interests.

As long as it did not impact Yi Chen’s interests, there was no need to pay attention to how they stirred things up.