The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

Chapter 2703 The Seal of the Jedi

2703, The Seal of the Jedi
In the Kingdom of Dawn, sensing the dark side of the Force is not new. Tang Xiao, the leader of the Kingdom of Dawn, is himself an extremely powerful user of the dark side of the Force, a Sith Lord, so it is quite common for him to have a large number of people sensitive to the dark side of the Force under his command.

In fact, Cal Castis could often sense faint traces of the dark side, but by his standards from his time with the Jedi Order, these traces were completely inadequate. These must be the legendary Force Sensors; there are many of them, all hidden in the shadows, undoubtedly from the military or intelligence agencies.

In contrast, Force-sensitive individuals are less common, but not entirely unheard of. As far as Karl Castis knows, there's at least one Dark Side Force-sensitive individual who frequently appears in the capital of Anagi. However, this individual often lurks near the city hall, and Karl has never actually seen him.

During his many years living in the Kingdom of Dawn, Karl-Castis often secretly meditated and honed his skills on his own. He believed his ability to conceal his Force aura was quite competent. In any case, he had never been caught so far.

However, now, the aura of the dark side has appeared in the office space of Xiangyang Recycling Company.

Karl-Castis frowned, hesitant to approach. However, after waiting a while, he discovered that the aura emanating from this dark side was extremely weak, and it remained motionless, as if dead…

No…it’s not dead! This aura is still alive! Although it’s not moving and is extremely weak, it’s not the aura of an object!

Cal Castis had cold sweat trickling down his forehead, but since this thing had already come, he might as well fight it out. There was no way to escape now.

He steeled his resolve and stepped into the small building.

Due to limited funds, their building didn't have an elevator, so Carl had to climb the stairs. After reaching the third floor, he arrived at the maintenance platform, a relatively spacious area equipped with various lifting and dismantling equipment.

At the end of the platform is a docking corridor, where the docking compartment of one of their company's two recovered spacecraft, "Winter," is currently being connected.

Seeing Carl approach, an elderly man, about 60 years old, somewhat overweight, and wearing large black-rimmed glasses, walked over and said with a smile, "Come here, Carl! This is it! Let me tell you, we've struck it rich! Hahahaha!"

This is Zhang Guomin, the owner of Xiangyang Recycling Company. A very traditional, very old-fashioned, even somewhat outdated person…

It is said that although he was once a materials science expert, he was immediately dumbfounded when he saw the dazzling array of materials he had never heard of before. He struggled to navigate the sea of ​​materials for two or three years, but he couldn't take it anymore, so he submitted a report saying that he couldn't keep up with the times and chose to retire.

Zhang Guomin is a very talkative and mercenary person. He has many complaints about the current state of the Dawn Kingdom, but he always stands firmly on the side of the government when discussing many international affairs.

Sometimes Zhang Guomin would talk to Carl Castis about first-generation hibernation immigrants like himself. He once said that almost all of the first-generation hibernation immigrants of the Fourth Civilization were experts and leaders in their respective fields. These people played a very crucial role in the construction of the Fourth Civilization, especially in the early days when the country was poor and destitute.

However, many first-generation hibernating immigrants were unable to make a difference. Upon awakening, they discovered that the galaxy was completely different from what they had learned—almost a radical departure. Some of them, being exceptionally gifted or with a strong foundation, were able to quickly absorb this new knowledge and apply it to new situations. But many others couldn't grasp it and ultimately faded into obscurity.

Zhang Guomin was one of the latter. However, the government of the Dawn Kingdom did not treat him unfairly, giving him a considerable resettlement allowance so that he could make a living on his own.

Now Karl-Castis has also gotten used to the way people who have lived here for a long time address each other. For example, he used to have a hard time understanding the difference between the Dawn Kingdom and the Fourth Civilization, but now he knows that the Dawn Kingdom is a political term that refers to the entire territory currently ruled by Tang Xiao.

The term "Fourth Civilization" is a designation based on ideology. Only the sphere that accepts the values ​​of the immigrants of unknown origin, led by Tang Xiao, and uses them as its life goals and spiritual pillars can be called the Fourth Civilization. This sphere is much smaller than the territory ruled by the Dawn Kingdom.

However, the values ​​and goals of the Fourth Civilization are highly consistent, and can be said to be one with it. Therefore, the Fourth Civilization can often accurately describe the goals of the core power of this country.

At this point, Zhang Guomin began to ramble on about how he obtained the item. He said that he had previously received information through his connections that the Dawn Kingdom's escort fleet had captured a smuggling fleet in the star system near the planet Terminus, and that the fleet had been completely destroyed by the escort fleet.

The situation on the planet Terminus is very complicated. The main reason is that this planet is where the Hutt Oruba Gorensla started his career. With the support of the Kingdom of Dawn, he developed and grew strong on this planet, and eventually returned to the Hutt space to become the Hutt Grand Commander.

Terminus was once an outpost for the Dawn Kingdom's attack on Eriadu, but after Eriadu was captured, this outer ring star system's strategic value plummeted, so the planet was later handed over to Oruba-Gorensla for management.

Therefore, this planet is actually quite sensitive, and there are no official salvage teams nearby. It's not worth using military force for such a small smuggling ring. Fortunately, Zhang Guomin had some connections with one of Ni Yongxiao's men, so he used this connection to obtain the salvage rights for the smuggling fleet's wreckage.

Generally, these small-scale smuggling gangs don't make much money; they mostly deal with illegally modified civilian boats, crudely made and of little value. But this time, during the dismantling and salvage operation, they discovered a computer core with an unusual shape!

Based on the labels on the external operating platform, this is actually the main unit installed on the Dawn Kingdom Navy's Sentinel-class electronic warfare frigate—the S-0833-GW/7 tactical computer!
This is an advanced computer capable of supporting electronic interference! And I don't know what kind of incredible luck this smuggling group had to obtain this thing, and instead of selling it, they installed it on their own spaceship.

This is such a waste! But it also gave Zhang Guomin a chance to reclaim it.

The military of the Dawn Kingdom is currently completely unaware of this, and Zhang Guomin understands that his chance to make a fortune has arrived. Simply disassemble the computer and sell it on the black market, and that means a profit of at least 2 million No. 4 coins!
“Oh, this is really great.” Karl-Castis replied absentmindedly, glancing around but not seeing the person exuding the aura of darkness.

Finally, his gaze fell upon the cylindrical, sealed device over two meters tall before him—the core of the mainframe that Zhang Guomin had found. Carl-Castis raised his hand and gently stroked the cold outer shell.

Suddenly, a terrifying image flashed into his mind! It was as if a hideous, horrifying face was silently roaring in the void…

Karl Castis couldn't help but take several steps back. He hadn't been sure before, but now he understood that the aura of the dark side came from inside this mainframe!
"What's wrong, little Karl?" Zhang Guomin noticed Karl-Cestis's unusual behavior, stopped his rambling, and came over to ask.

Carl Castis frowned, looking the sealed mainframe core up and down. He shook his head and said, "It's nothing. This thing... is very precise. It's good that you didn't try to disassemble it yourself." "Of course, everyone knows you're the chief engineer of our company!" Zhang Guomin said with a smile.

"A chief engineer who only has about thirty people, including the cleaning robots?" Carl Castis shrugged and gave a wry smile.

"Hahaha, there are about thirty people here!" Zhang Guomin patted Carl Castis on the shoulder. "Come on, it's your turn. Open this thing. I'll give you a bonus this month after you're done."

Karl Castis nodded, also curious about what was emanating the aura of darkness from inside the mainframe. Was it a person? Or a corpse? Or an animal possessing the Force?

No... animals lack intelligence and are generally unable to actively use the Force.

"Get to work, BD-1. You cut this shell open, wait a minute... I'll send you some operation code." Carl Castis raised his wrist, opened his all-purpose tool, and quickly began operating on the photon interface.

BD-1 immediately jumped up from behind him, stood on top of the cylindrical mainframe capsule, and fired a thin laser beam from below his head, beginning to cut the outer shell bit by bit.

Carl Castis was very careful. He pressed his hand against the outer shell, which allowed him to discreetly use his Force senses to probe the inside of the sealed chamber, while constantly adjusting BD-1's direction of operation to avoid damaging the delicate computer mainframe inside.

This is the main engine core used in the Sentinel-class electronic warfare frigate. These frigates are designed to house a large number of electronic warfare devices, making their interiors very compact. Naturally, the core engine controlling all of this is of paramount importance and is fully protected.

It took Carl Castis a full hour to direct BD-1 to open the not-so-large, two-meter-tall sealed compartment.

When the countless sophisticated instruments and equipment were displayed intact from the sealed chamber, Zhang Guomin let out a small, soft cheer.

Cal-Castis crouched down and carefully examined the instruments and equipment. Although he didn't know the structure of this core host, he could use the Force to probe and search for what he wanted.

There was no one inside, no corpses, and no small animals. Finally, Karl-Castis found a palm-sized storage device inside; the aura of the dark side emanated from this device.

Could it be a personal item of some former Sith Lord? Karl-Castis frowned and picked up the memory device.

"What is this?" Zhang Guomin also noticed the memory, which was completely different from the core host.

“A memory, and the contents are encrypted,” Carl Castis said.

"Won't it affect the core host?" Zhang Guomin was still preoccupied with his get-rich-quick dream.

“This isn’t part of the core host. I just checked it briefly, and the host is fine. You’d better get a computer expert to take a look.” Carl Castis stood up and said, “I’ll take this back and see if I can decrypt it.”

"Alright, go ahead. I'll give you a couple of days off to thoroughly investigate what's inside this memory. If it's a technical blueprint, then we'll be set for life! Hahahaha! Once I've dealt with this, I'll give you a bonus! Double! Hahahaha!" Zhang Guomin laughed heartily, as if he could already see two million in his pocket.

He hurriedly picked up his communicator and started contacting an old friend to arrange for a computer expert to come over.

……

Back in his simple apartment, Carl Castis placed the gray storage device on the table and examined it closely.

The moment he saw the memory, he knew it was encrypted by the Jedi and could only be opened by a Jedi.

But why do Jedi's encrypted items exude an aura of darkness?
What's even stranger is that this thing doesn't have the aura of an object, but rather the aura of a person... How could a person's aura appear in this palm-sized storage device?
Holding the sophisticated memory, Cal Castis carefully used the Force to scan the memory's inner casing, searching for the hidden switch—a common encryption method used by Jedi Knights, placing the lock inside so that it could never be opened from the outside without the Force.

However, after searching for a while, he couldn't find the switch at all, which could only mean that the encryption of this memory was more complicated than he had imagined.

But at that moment, a strange aura suddenly wafted over!

Carl Castis instinctively jumped up, leaping backward to stand on the headboard, maintaining a wary crouching position with his hands already on a piece of floorboards under the bed.

"Not bad, very alert, kid." A faint voice came from behind him; it was a man's voice.

"Who...are you?" Karl Castis asked in a low voice.

"You don't need to know who I am, but all you need to know is that this thing in your hand belongs to me," the voice said calmly. "However, it's not convenient for me to carry this thing with me, so I entrusted a few friends in the underworld to transfer it. But... it seems they've been arrested."

“What is this thing? You… are you a Sith?” Karl Castis asked warily.