This is not mechanical ascension...

Chapter 394 The whole story is a coincidence
"Ryan? Blood sacrifice?" Li Ming frowned. This word was strange yet familiar.

What surprised him even more was Prince Ryan's idea of ​​sacrificing the entire Corona Borealis ring. This would be a massacre that would shock the interstellar space.

What method is used? What is the purpose?
In an instant, a lot of thoughts intertwined in his mind.

"Don't be anxious, tell me everything you know." Li Ming's calmness calmed Ford's emotions to some extent.

He still felt a lingering fear when he mentioned it now. He took a breath and said, "More than half a month ago, Archduke Xavier suddenly approached Asmara and said that he was ready to intervene in our war with the Inquisitor."

Li Ming's expression flickered, and after a moment he matched the name to the target person, who was Asmara's fiancé, Nicholas' eldest son, who has now inherited the throne of Grand Duke.

Li Ming thought of Old Wu again, and as his thoughts wandered, he couldn't help but ask, "Are they not married yet?"

Ford, who was still in shock, couldn't help but pause when he heard Li Ming asking this gossip question. He was a little speechless, but he still explained:
"Logically, they should have gotten married half a year ago, but at that time the news of Grand Duke Nicholas' death came, and Asmara used this as an excuse to delay."

"I was also weird at that time. Nicholas died, and Xavier succeeded him as the Grand Duke. This must be a good thing for Asmara." Ford's expression became more and more relaxed, and he said more and more:

"Later I found out that it was because Nicolael's brothers had almost completely divided up his inheritance. Xavier had almost nothing except the title of Grand Duke. He couldn't even intervene in the war between us and the Inquisitor."

"Asmara is so realistic. If they get married, they will just help Xavier fight in the palace."

Li Ming suddenly realized and motioned Ford to continue. After finishing this gossip, Ford was already quite calm. With a bit of sarcasm, he continued:

"That's Xavier. He still thinks Asmara is one of his own. He has no idea that the truth about Gabriel's death was covered up by his fiancée."

"At that time, we were fighting fiercely with the Judge. Grand Duke Thornblood died and no one helped us. Grand Duke Gu Ya had completely recovered, and we were losing ground."

"It was at this time that Xavier arrived in person, found Asmara, and brought a few mysterious people with him, declaring that he would help us win."

"He told Asmara part of the story..." Ford said here, his eyes unfocused, and he vaguely remembered the afternoon when Asmara hurriedly found him.

He rarely saw that kind of flustered expression on the woman he could call aunt.

"Xavier asked Asmara to help them spread something called 'blood seed' to every life planet in the Corona Borealis ring."

Ford said in a heavy tone: "Asmara told me that once that thing is activated, it will devour the life of the entire planet."

"Blood species?" Li Ming thought in his heart. He searched in his mind but did not find any relevant information. He looked Ford up and down and said, "Do you mind drawing a tube of blood?"

He did not believe it at first, and even doubted whether this person was Ford.

"It's okay." Ford sighed helplessly. He had already anticipated Li Ming's character and rolled up his sleeves.

Li Ming casually drew a tube of blood and asked his robot to do the test. He then asked, "Why did you fake your death?"

Ford explained in detail: "Asmara told me this so that I could find a way to inform you."

"This matter involves too many people. I don't even dare to contact you through the black hole network. We, the core members, are all being watched very closely and there is almost no chance for us to leave."

Dare not use the black hole network... Li Ming was silent, shook his head and said: "In fact, there is no need to go through so much trouble, the black hole network can be trusted."

Can you trust me? Ford paused, vaguely in a trance.

Li Ming did not explain too much. He had done a lot in the past six months and had also conducted in-depth research on the black hole network.

After all, he has done a lot of things using the black hole network, but in the past, his abilities were weak and what he did was not a big deal.

But now it’s different, we have to figure out whether this thing is really safe.

He is now in contact with quite a few major interstellar forces in the universe, but the black hole network is always as solidly hidden as an underwater iceberg.

It touched upon many people, including Austin, even Abel, and the pioneers.

It was found that although many bigwigs have privately built their own communication networks through the Star Network, they still maintain a high degree of trust in the Black Hole Network.

Because the controller of the black hole network does not seem to be an individual, through various clues, he speculates that it should be an intelligent entity with autonomous consciousness.

The emergence of the Black Hole Network originated from the artificial intelligence crisis that originated in the Federation.

Before this crisis, StarNet had its dark side, but it was minor.

The Omnic Crisis caused the interstellar network to be disconnected for a hundred years. Not long after it was reconnected a few years later, the Black Hole Network came into being and grew rapidly at an incredible speed.

Although it is highly intelligent and autonomous, the black hole network still acts according to the rules and has never violated them.

The interstellar leaders all know this information to a greater or lesser extent, so they have more trust in the black hole network. However, ordinary life forms who do not know this information have discussed many conspiracy theories.

This includes but is not limited to the fact that the black hole network is jointly controlled by the three major civilizations in order to know in advance the people and forces that are destructive to civilization.

There were also reports that someone placed an order on the Black Hole Network in the morning and was taken away in the afternoon.

Asmara and others encountered such a major event that was enough to shock the interstellar space, so they dared not transmit information to the outside world through the black hole network. After all, if they were not careful, they would be shattered to pieces.

"Then why did Asmara ask you to come to me?" Li Ming asked again: "Even if this is true, why should I help you?"

Qinglong killed Nicholas, which was basically an established fact in the eyes of the imperial high-ranking officials and certain forces.

However, people of a slightly lower level have no way of knowing this extremely secret information, and the empire will not take the initiative to publicize it.

So on the surface, he or Qinglong had almost no relationship with Prince Ryan. At most, there was a slight collision in the central world, but no one died.

Asmara seemed to be vaguely certain that Li Ming would help her.

Ford seemed to be still in a trance. Li Ming asked again, and he finally reacted. He calmed down, hesitated for a while, and said carefully:

"Because that blood race, at the special request of that prince, the first place to be sown was the Blue Star civilization and your home planet."

Suddenly, Ford felt the room get cold, and he added hastily: "The whole plan will take at least half a year to a year, or even longer to complete. The blood species need to be stimulated at the same time, so it will take a long time."

Asmara told him at the time that Li Ming or Qinglong must have a deeper connection with Prince Ryan.

Otherwise, they would not specifically target a lower civilization.

Li Ming had a blank expression on his face, but a cold light flashed in his eyes. He remained calm and had one last question:
"This matter won't cause any harm to Asmara, right? Then Xavier will definitely protect her life, and even the entire Itlan royal family. Does she want to be the saint who saves the Corona Borealis ring again?"

"You can save the royal family, but you can't save the citizens of the entire Itlan civilization." Ford said sadly. Knowing Li Ming's concerns, he gritted his teeth and said, "You can let me search my memory."

Li Ming raised his eyebrows and looked at Ford, who looked ready to die. He was silent for a moment and said, "No need."

Although there were still many questions, Li Ming had already believed most of it. Everyone knew that Li Ming was in the Mechanical King's Court. Ryan couldn't possibly go to great lengths to set a trap for Li Ming. He wasn't qualified to do so.

Ford felt relieved and couldn't help but say, "Then... this matter..."

"You stay here first and find a way to contact Asmara. I will report to the teacher." Li Ming regained his composure and made arrangements.

Ford nodded, a complicated expression emerged on his haggard face. Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar Li Ming in front of him, he said hoarsely, "Thank you."

Li Ming smiled and said, "By the way, what are the life levels of the people following Xavier?"

Ford thought about it and shook his head, "I'm not sure. I haven't seen them take action. However, there is a guy who doesn't seem to fit in with them. He doesn't seem to be Prince Ryan's man."

He frowned. "It's hard to describe. He's so weird. I've only met him once..."

"Suzaku." Li Ming shouted, and the shadow of Suzaku emerged and stood on his shoulder.

"Suzaku is my artificial intelligence. Just describe the details to it."

Ford nodded repeatedly and arranged accommodation for him. After seeing Ford off, Li Ming quickly calmed down and tried to figure out the whole thing.

The news came somewhat unexpectedly. He looked carefully and found the Corona Borealis ring, thirty-six star clusters, one thousand four hundred and twenty-six galaxies, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two life-bearing planets, and the number of intelligent life forms exceeded ten trillion.

He felt it was horrifying that they were all killed. If the news were to get out, he didn't know how much of a stir it would cause.

"Was it the Empire's instruction, or did Ryan want to play on his own?" He estimated that the Corona Borealis star ring was almost adjacent to the Empire's territory.

But it is precisely because of this that if there was really an imperial order, they would not do so.

"If the distance was farther, it might be the Empire's instruction, but if the distance was so close, I feel like Ryan was trying to drag the Empire into the water in order to avoid any accidents." Li Ming mulled.

No one could withstand the backlash of this Star Ring-level massacre being exposed.

A sharp light flashed in Li Ming's eyes. It seemed that the feasibility of this matter was extremely high.

But a question arises: what does Ryan want to do by paying such a huge price?
With only this information, Li Ming naturally couldn't think of the answer, but it must be of great importance. What the enemy wants is what he wants to stop.

After figuring out the general thread, he acted very quickly. With a slight movement of his eyes, he had already switched on the [Quantum Communication Ring] and the next moment he was in the Iron Throne Hall.

The Iron Throne Hall has many functions, including summoning everyone or just a few people.

Soon, shadows appeared on the seats in front of him and beside him.

He summoned the Navigator and the Bloodfallen.

The Pioneers have been on the move for more than half a year, but they are also smart. The Polk Declaration is not a clarion call for a general offensive. They are still focused on cutting off the empire's tentacles abroad.

The main activity took place in the Sea of ​​Stars, and the results were indeed remarkable. Ryan was almost restricted from going anywhere, and the number of imperial garrisons was greatly reduced.

This also indirectly shows that the empire was indeed deteriorating, arousing the greed of many ambitious people.

Elsewhere, most of the time, they are just laying the groundwork, without any big plans.

According to Blackbeard, "There are not so many big plans. I don't know how many years it takes to prepare each big plan."

Li Ming came up occasionally to exchange information and a few times, by accident, he found out the true identities of several members.

"Qinglong?" The navigator was a little surprised. After all, Qinglong had never taken the initiative to summon anyone.

"What do you want from us?" The Bleeding Man was also surprised.

"I just learned something incredible." Li Ming said.

"Unbelievable?" The navigator became interested. "What is the thing that can make Lord Qinglong feel unbelievable?"

"Someone is preparing a blood sacrifice for the entire Corona Borealis ring." Li Ming spit out a few words.

After the words fell, the other two did not speak for the first time, and the gray mist on the chairs kept surging.

After a moment, the Bloodfallen One asked with some suspicion: "Blood sacrifice to the Corona Borealis ring? Why haven't we received any news?"

There is no way such a big event could go on quietly.

The navigator asked, "Who is so bold? Dare to cause trouble under the nose of the empire? Isn't this a slap in the face of the empire?"

The Corona Borealis star ring is adjacent to the territory of the empire. It’s not quite right to say that the civilization there is like a dog tied at the doorstep, but it’s almost the same.

The dog was killed and the owner knew nothing about it?
"It's still under planning. As for who did it." Li Ming paused and said, "Prince Ryan."

After the words fell, the Bloodfallen One spoke in a suspicious and high-pitched voice: "This is impossible... He is still involved in the Sea of ​​Stars with us."

Li Ming glanced at him. So surprised?

The navigator was also suspicious, "Where did you get this information?"

"It's up to you whether you believe it or not." Li Ming said calmly, "I plan to take action on this matter. Let's discuss a plan. If it is done properly, it will definitely deal a heavy blow to the empire."

That's right, he planned to use the power of the pioneers. It would be difficult for him to handle such a big thing by himself.

Seeing how confident he was, both of them fell silent. After a long while, the navigator said:
"Since you are so sure, let's do some intelligence research first. Blackbeard and Falcon have some power in the Corona Borealis ring. Let them cooperate."

"If we confirm that this is true, we will proceed to the next step."

The Bloodfaller remained silent.

Li Ming also knew that more concrete evidence was needed to convince the two guys, so he responded, "I will ask my students to go there and cooperate with them."

"By the way, I hope you two won't leak this news to other people." Li Ming reminded again.

"Your Excellency should be aware of the confidentiality of the Pioneers," the navigator said calmly.

Li Ming knew the value of this sentence. Ever since the pioneers gradually surfaced, there have been people jumping around.

A more accurate number is three, who were purged three months ago, two months ago, and one month ago respectively.

(End of this chapter)