Chapter 1098 - there must be a traitor

Chapter 1098 – there must be a traitor

How does Black Star know my identity‽

Oathkeeper originally wanted to show off his Beyond Grade A strength, attracting Black Star’s attention before negotiating a deal. He did not expect that the moment he appeared, he would be exposed without any preparation. Thus, his act of being mysterious failed.

Seeing Black Star recognize him at a glance, Oathkeeper went through a storm of emotions at once.

Where did he receive intelligence about me? What has been leaked within the organization, to the point that he even knows of my name‽

A series of question marks popped up in his mind, and Oathkeeper’s mood suddenly turned heavy.

The Holy Accord had always been hidden in the dark as they had too many secrets. Now that Black Star could call out his identity, how much exactly did he know about the Holy Accord? Did he also learn of their ultimate mission?

As this thought flashed through his mind, he suddenly felt killing intent, wanting to silence the other party.

However, this murderous intent was forcibly suppressed by him.

There was no other reason than the fact that Black Star was too strong.

This sort of meat-shield like pinnacle Beyond Grade A could not easily be killed. The use of force should be a final resort, and negotiations should take priority.

This was the good point in having great strength, as it would make people more reasonable toward them.

I’ll first test how much Black Star knows. If he understands the basics of the Holy Accord, then I’ll have to calculate and plan accordingly. After so many years of planning, I cannot take any risks…

Suppressing his inner shock, Oathkeeper adjusted his emotions. He did not proceed with negotiations; the most important thing to him now was to test Black Star.

Oathkeeper slowly sat down opposite Han Xiao, whispering, “Do you understand a lot about the Holy Accord?”

“Not much, just the slightest bit.”

Han Xiao made a gesture, leaving the slightest gap between his thumb and forefinger, his smile full of meaning. He had on an expression that seemed to say, “I have seen through everything.”

In reality, the Great Mechanic Han really only knew a little about the Holy Accord. He only knew that they resurrected a great number of the Primordial Ones in the later versions but not the inside story. It could be said that he only knew what the Holy Accord’s behavior would be but not their intentions.

He only recognized Oathkeeper because Oathkeeper was still the leader of the Holy Accord even in the later versions, and he had received great attention during the World Tree Civilization War. Han Xiao did not know of his origin either.

Thus, Han Xiao only put on this posture of ‘I know it in my heart’ just to fool the other party, not allowing Oathkeeper to figure out his bottom line.

Seeing this, Oathkeeper was uncertain in his heart, but on the surface, he remained expressionless, softly asking, “I’m curious, but how did you recognize me? Have we met before?”

“That’s right.”

“Is it…” Oathkeeper got a shock, immediately racking his brains to try and remember when he had dealings with Black Star. But no matter how hard he thought, he could not discover anything.

At this moment, Han Xiao spoke with a straight face. “We met before in our dreams.”

Oathkeeper did not know how to respond.

Are you talking about your mom?

Black Star was obviously making a joke, but in the eyes of Oathkeeper, his attitude meant that Black Star knew a lot more than he let on, thus his mood got more solemn, causing him to over-imagine.

“Let’s not talk about this for now.” Han Xiao waved his hand, squinting. “You just said you wish to make a deal with me. Let me first hear what it is.”

Oathkeeper sorted out his mood, temporarily putting aside his thought of testing him. “I wish to make an exchange for a part of the Holy Light Particle.”

“Oh?” Han Xiao glanced at him. “What can you offer me then?”

“It depends on what you want. We’re willing to use other Primal Energy Entities to trade for your Holy Light Particle.”

So, it turns out that the Holy Accord wished to obtain the Holy Light Particle through negotiations. This should be how they cooperated with the EsGod in my previous life. My plan of luring the snake out of its hole really worked, Han Xiao secretly thought.

By publicly stating that the Holy Light Particles were in his own hands, he wanted to lure the Holy Accord into making contact with him. According to his judgement, after the last sneak attack, they would either attack him again or perform a trade in exchange for the Holy Light Particle. Either way, the Holy Accord would be fished out.

If the Holy Accord remained in the dark, Han Xiao would not be able to find them, and it was detrimental to him. Now that there was an opportunity for dialogue, there would be room for manipulation.

Han Xiao pretended to ponder for a while before tapping on the table with his finger, suddenly changing the topic.

“If I remember correctly, you guys just snatched the pp… cough, I mean, a portion of the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy from my hands a while ago.”

Indeed, Black Star knows that the people who attacked him before belonged to the Holy Accord…

Oathkeeper suddenly realized a crucial factor.

Did Black Star only learn of their organization after being attacked, or did he already know of their existence even before he was attacked?

There was a difference!

“Are you sure that the people who attacked you the last time belonged to the Holy Accord?” Oathkeeper tested him.

“Huh, want to deny it? Did you think I wouldn’t recognize you if you only sent your peripheral members?” Han Xiao stroked his chin and spoke in a playful tone. “Dimensional Exile Bullets, Formatted Viruses, High-Level Life Form Energy Disorder Shockwave—all these are things that your Holy Accord is famed for. Did you think I was unaware?”

Under his hood, Oathkeeper’s face turned gloomy.

The facts had proven that what Black Star knew exceeded his own imagination, and he had long known of the existence of the Holy Accord!

The Holy Accord had obtained that technology as a result of researching the Primal Esper Ability Entities. They were all their killing moves that they rarely used. For Black Star to even call out the names of these techniques, there was only one possibility left…

There was a traitor in the organization!

Furthermore, it was someone in the upper echelons!

The faces of the various officers flashed through Oathkeeper’s mind in anger.

Who was it that broke through the limits of the Soul Flame, betraying their organization‽

Even Black Star knew about this, so how much intelligence had been leaked? Could it be that, within the vaults of the advanced civilizations, there were already a multitude of files and folders on their Holy Accord?

If that was the case, then the Holy Accord that prided itself on keeping its secrets for so many years had basically turned into the laughingstock of the entire universe!

Oathkeeper’s mentality exploded in an instant.

He was someone who remained mostly stoic and calm, but the mental stress he had suffered that day was just overwhelming, causing him to lose control of his emotions.

Feeling the unstable mental fluctuations of Oathkeeper, Han Xiao hesitated.

It seemed like he had gone overboard with his acting and scared the other party quite terribly.

Han Xiao sighed empathetically.

Alas, these brainiacs focused heavily on their intelligence, so they were naturally suspicious all the time. A little detail would cause them to constantly focus on it. It was not because he had gone overboard but rather because the other party was just too sensitive.

In fact, Han Xiao objectively viewed the Holy Accord quite neutrally. He had no good feelings or grievances toward them. In his previous life, the Holy Accord Organization was not a villainous organization that created trouble, nor did they produce any pests. The only well-known incident that involved them was the revival of the Beyond Grade As and Primordial Ones from history, which involved some unknown method during the World Tree War.

While the Holy Accord’s participation in the war was mainly due to them being next in line if the Universal Civilizations fell, they contributed a lot to the World Tree War and brought about a wave of important reinforcements. Credit still had to be awarded where due.

In this regard, Han Xiao stood on the same side as them. The revival of the Beyond Grade As in history would instantly enhance the combat power of the Beyond Grade As in the explored universe, such that there would be more bargaining chips against the World Tree. He would not stop the Holy Accord from achieving its goals.

That being said, the Holy Accord attacked him without being provoked, so Han Xiao had already made a mental note of this. Let them hit him for free, how could there be such a good thing in this world? Without settling the score, he would not let them go.

As for whether or not the revival of the Primordial Ones was related to the Holy Accord, Han Xiao could not be sure, but he wholly suspected that their excuse of surviving in the life-sustaining cabins was fake news.

In fact, he could understand why the revival of the Primordial Ones would be an important fuse leading to the Calamity of the Supers. Just think about it from the perspective of the three Universal Civilizations…

F*ck me, you guys that were supposed to be dead have revived‽ Then, does that mean every Beyond Grade A that died will also be eligible for revival? If the number of people revived grows to the certain point that can overthrow our rule, what are we supposed to do‽

The advanced civilizations had always attempted to control the ratio of individual might to collective strength. To suddenly discover that the individual might could now be resurrected and that they were no longer in control of the situation, their mentality would definitely burst.

Thus, regardless of whether the Primordial Ones were awakened from cryostasis or resurrected, they would have to say to the outside that they had been lying within the life sustaining capsules, otherwise the problem would only get worse, and there was no knowing what the three Universal Civilizations would end up doing.

As both of them were engrossed in their thoughts, it took a while before they realized they were still in a conversation.

Oathkeeper calmed himself down before solemnly speaking.

“I can provide compensation as a form of apology. I hope that you can forgive the negligence of my subordinates.”

“How are you going to compensate me for my mental loss?”

“What do you want?”

“Hmm, let me think about it…” Han Xiao held his head. “With the long history of the Holy Accord, there should be a lot of things in your vaults. If you hand me eight to ten Universal Treasures or blueprints, I’ll forgive them.”

Why don’t you go and rob… oh, no, you are indeed robbing me right now.

Oathkeeper immediately shook his head.

“That’s too many. We don’t have that much in stock.”

“How could this be?” Han Xiao chuckled. “There are so many of your members who are descendants of Beyond Grade As, so how could their ancestors not leave behind any heirlooms?”

You even know of this‽

Just how much intelligence was leaked!

Oathkeeper secretly gritted his teeth. His only thought was digging up the traitor and beating him to death.

“… In any case, we really don’t have that many Universal Treasures. We only have two sets of blueprints that we’ve accumulated, and we can compensate you with those.”

“Two sets…” Han Xiao pursed his lips. “Seems a little lacking. How about you pass me a set of your Esper Ability Technology well?”

“Not possible!” Oathkeeper spat out with a steely tone. He would not compromise at all on this matter.

Forget it, two sets then. At least I got something out of this.

Taking the pp of the Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy and exchanging it for two sets of Gold Grade blueprints, this was akin to giving up one… no, giving up nothing in exchange for a plethora of benefits.

Han Xiao then clicked his tongue as his expression got serious. Placing his hands on the desk, he slowly said, “We can proceed with this deal, but the portion of Primal Chaos Mysterious Energy that you guys stole must be included in the terms, treated as though I’m also selling it to you. This means that you have to offer me two portions of separate Primal Esper Ability Entities in exchange for a portion of the Holy Light Particle.”

Since his [Primal Esper Ability Collector] mission only required another two Primal Esper Ability Entities, then he could utilize the Holy Light Particle to complete it. This would net him a milestone halo geared toward fighting Espers, as well as a skill fragment of [The Third Sanctum].

“Deal.” Oathkeeper decisively nodded.

The Holy Accord organization had already amassed a large number of Primal Esper Ability Entities, and cutting a few pieces of them to put for sale was not a problem.

While such a style was quite perverted, none of them were actually good people, so there was no need to be worried about such a thing.

With the Black Star Army now dominating a part of the universe, Oathkeeper could only settle for the bare minimum. While he was not afraid of Black Star, it was still better to settle things peacefully where possible.

At this moment, Oathkeeper’s eyes flashed as he probed, “Black Star, what do you think about the purpose of our Holy Accord?”

While a lot of intelligence had been leaked, Oathkeeper still held on to the last embers of hope. It might seem that Black Star knew everything about the organization, but there was still a small chance that he was unaware of their primary objective.

“Purpose? Aren’t you just an organization that researches about Primal Esper Ability Technology? What, you still have other schemes in mind?” Han Xiao raised a brow.

Oathkeeper closely peered at Han Xiao’s expression, but he could not read anything. He did not know if Han Xiao truly was unaware or was merely pretending.

But no matter what, he could not help but breathe a sigh of relief upon hearing this answer.

Black Star was unaware of their primary objective, which meant that the external variables were still within their scope of control. This meant that the traitor in their organization was just at the officer level, not part of the core.

“There are no conspiracies nor schemes. The purpose of our organization is to believe that Esper Abilities have infinite possibilities, which can bring about technological breakthroughs to the universe…” Oathkeeper began to spew some nonsense, which was the same information they told their peripheral members as camouflage.

After a few more idle sentences, they set a time for the transaction, before Oathkeeper left, full of thoughts of weeding out the ‘traitor’ in his organization.

Han Xiao leaned back with an expression of deep thought.

He did not provoke the other party’s intention to revive the Beyond Grade As in history. This was because he did not know what the other party was using to do so or what their objective was. Revealing this fact too early might cause him to be targeted instead.

Thus, he pretended and fooled around for a bit, but if he went overboard, he might have no way to retreat in the end.

At least before he obtained the blueprints and the other two Primal Esper Ability Entities, he had no desire to rip off all pretenses with the Holy Accord.

Moreover, Han Xiao did not mind the revival of the Beyond Grade As. Compared to the World Tree, the impact of this on the universe was just a small matter. Every bit of extra strength was good.

In my previous life, the Holy Accord worked with EsGod, but now I have replaced EsGod as their partner and became the driving force behind the scenes. Under my influence, the plot line is changing more and more. There are even the coordinates that lead to the World Tree. The logistics department has been unsuccessful in deriving them, and I don’t know how far the dynasty’s research has gone…

Han Xiao was lost in thought before he recalled something.

That’s right, the Holy Accord has such a long history. Maybe they have intelligence about the existence of the Sanctums. I should find a chance to ask them next time.

…

Somewhere in the Ancient Star Desert, the galactic pirates’ fleet was stopped by three small battleships with the Federation of Light insignia. After a fierce battle, the pirates were captured.

On the deck of the pirates’ flagship, the carbonized corpse of the leader fell on the ground, while all the other members squatted on the ground with the hands on their heads, covered in cuts and bruises. They were surrounded by a group of soldiers in brilliant Federation of Light uniforms.

The leader of the soldiers was wearing a high-tech uniform, with a badge on his chest, representing his position as a universe inspector.

This universe inspector was part of a special department set up by the advanced civilizations. They patrolled different Star Systems, and their official position was higher than that of an ordinary patrol officer, specializing in detection of abnormal conditions.

The Federation of Light Inspector paced in front of the group of pirates, slowly taking off his bloodied black gloves. He slowly said, “Five days ago, there were signs of cosmic energy surges coming from your spaceship. The energy fluctuations spread along as you travelled, alarming many advanced civilizations, including the three Universal Civilizations. This fluctuation has never been seen before, and no one knows what it is…”

Pa!

He suddenly walked up to one of the pirates, slapping him before forcing his gaze to meet his. “Can you tell me what exactly happened?”

“It… it was a disposable safe…” The pirate stammered before revealing everything.

“An ancient safe that was sold at an auction?”

The Federation of Light inspector called up the information that they had obtained from the pirates, and Harrison’s team information appeared on his screen.

“A group of scavengers. Not sure if they’re lucky or unlucky…”

Narrowing his eyes, he pushed the pirate aside before giving his command.

“Move out. Find these people!”