The Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship · the bridge
With all the negotiations over, and some diplomatic staff left behind,
Zhao Chen's Owl Dragon fleet began making ready for its next destination.
That destination was not the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire.
"Are we really going straight to the universes Charlotte went to?" Lilith looked at Zhao Chen with some worry. "Going to a strange, high-risk universe without any preparation; this… your safety…… This is wholly unlike coming to the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' universe. The Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' universe is at least a place that has declared itself permanently neutral to the outside."
Zhao Chen sat in the captain's chair and said calmly, "If we go back to the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire first, then get in touch with Charlotte's side, and only then go to the universe Charlotte is in, the time spent on the road alone will be ten days at least. We have no such time to waste now. Whereas if we set out straight from here, it takes only three days."
Seeing Zhao Chen so set on it, Lilith sighed helplessly, knowing she could not talk His Majesty out of it.
She could only quietly charge Xiong Xiangxiang, the fleet commander, to make every possible preparation on the journey ahead.
"Then which universe are we going to?" Lilith looked at Zhao Chen, waiting for his decision.
By the original plan,
the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's "opening of new frontiers" abroad this time had five targets:
the Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe, the Mohadis Star Empire's universe, the Fire-Sigil Interstellar Alliance's universe, the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' universe, and the Stone Kingdom's universe.
These five targets had been divided between Charlotte and Lilith, each in charge of her own.
As things stood, Lilith had dealt with her two targets, the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes and the Stone Kingdom.
That left only Charlotte's three targets.
And where Lilith's two targets could be negotiated with by striking bargains of interest,
those three universes all had a very high chance of breaking out into armed conflict, so a number of Owl Dragon legion fleets had been sent early on to lie hidden in those three universes.
Zhao Chen looked at the coordinates of the three universes.
He thought for a moment, then said, "Then let's go to the Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe. That place has no unified government, and it's only at the T5 technology civilization stage. Even if we run into some danger, our Emperor's Guard Fleet can at least protect itself without trouble."
Zhao Chen was bold, but that did not mean he was not careful.
Of the three target universes, this Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe was the most suitable target for now.
"All right; I'll go and make the arrangements. This voyage will likely take three days." Lilith went at once to arrange the deployment.
Zhao Chen was not idle on his side either; he was still looking over the material on the Stone Kingdom and the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes, and the cooperation plans.
By the time Lilith came back from seeing to things, Zhao Chen was still looking at it.
"Lilith, in your forecast, how far do you mean to grow the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group? How much time will it take? How much profit can it bring us?" Zhao Chen asked Lilith outright.
Since Lilith had drawn up the whole series of terms for working with the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group so quickly before, she naturally had a rough picture in her head.
Lilith stood beside Zhao Chen and raised her hand, and a simulated image appeared before him.
The simulated image was a map of an enterprise's growth, like a little sapling growing into a tree that touches the sky.
"By our calculations, the whole first stage of investment will take about three months. Within three months, make the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group the largest interstellar trader in the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes, holding over 30% of the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' market share. That isn't really very hard. Huaya Lanlan's ability and talent are there to be seen; before, it was only that her circumstances held her back from using her ability to the full. Now we've helped her shed those shackles. Add several kinds of help besides: interstellar transports, Owl Dragon-line products, and the food trade. That's enough for Huaya Lanlan to make the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group grow fast in a short time!"
Lilith went straight on: "At present the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group's net earnings are around 500 trillion star coins. In three months, with our help, that figure can go straight up to 3,000 trillion star coins, an estimated 250 trillion star coins a month on average! And take 30% of the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' market share. Let me mention in passing: the net profit of all the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' interstellar trade groups together is somewhere around 10,000 trillion. It could be said to surpass every T5-grade interstellar civilization's universe, and to be no worse than some T6-grade interstellar civilizations' universes."[1]
Zhao Chen nodded; he knew these small figures too.
Mind you, the Holy Elf Empire, the strongest economy the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire had dealt with so far, came to only 30,000 trillion.
And the Holy Elf Empire's universe territory was who knew how many dozens of times larger than the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' universe!
Of course, because the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes were few in number, with no great territory, and had no need to build interstellar legion fleets of their own, they saved a great deal of the costs that went with all that.
But on the other hand, they had to spend a great deal of money greasing palms on every side.
Of these 10,000 trillion star coins, what truly remained to be spent on building up the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes themselves was not one part in ten.
But even that "one part" was enough to make the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' universe a rich place.
Lilith went straight on: "And after that, the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group's profits can keep a growth rate of at least 10% a month for three years. That means that in the first year the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group's yearly earnings will reach 8,000 trillion star coins, with average monthly earnings of over 600 trillion star coins: sixteen times the present 500 trillion star coins."
She paused, then went on, "And over this three-year plan, the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group's yearly profit can reach at least 50,000 trillion star coins. By then the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group alone will be worth as much as several of today's Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes put together. And under our present cooperation with the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group, from our share of the earnings alone, we can take half. That's without counting the funds the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group borrows from us now and in future, the cost of the goods it buys from us, the interstellar warships it buys from us, and the technology license fees for producing the related interstellar warships. Counting those, of the 50,000 trillion star coins the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group will make in a year in future, at least 40,000 trillion star coins will be ours."
To raise, in three years, an interstellar enterprise worth 500 trillion star coins a year into a money tree that could pipe out 40,000 trillion star coins of profit:
this was beyond doubt very good business!
Mind you, even the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire today, growing at speed, had only just managed to reach a yearly output value of 10,000 trillion star coins,
just about on a par with the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes as they were now.
Only, because much of the technology the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire used now was its own research, it cost almost nothing; once built, it could be used,
and the price was very low besides.
So though its yearly output value looked to be only 10,000 trillion star coins, its true worth had in fact long since come level with the Holy Elf Empire's.
The one flaw was still that it lacked depth, for the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire had not been founded long, and the resources it had laid by fell far short of the Holy Elf Empire's.
And a universe's growth, if it did not connect with the outside, would end up hitting a ceiling.
Take the Holy Elf Empire.
The Holy Elf Empire did not seal itself off as the Stone Kingdom did, but the elves' pride had always made them think the outside world's affairs were inferior to the Holy Elf Empire's.
This inborn sense of superiority made them disdain this kind of trade with the outside, earning the outside world's money.
To put it in a word, the elves did not have much desire.
As Zhao Chen saw it,
an interstellar civilization's potential for growth lay in how strong its desire was!
Order, an interstellar power that looked "peaceful," had as its slogan the keeping of order among the many universes' civilizations.
But why had such an interstellar civilization grown so strong?
Because of its "desire": "keeping order" was its desire, an immeasurably great desire, and it was because that desire existed that they had become the Order of today.
Then there was the Devourer Civilization.
Its desire was strong too: to survive, to make itself strong, even one day in future to challenge Order.
Or take the interstellar hive-race; its desire was strong too: to hunt, and to survive.
These were all their desires.
And the Holy Elf Empire today was steeped in a self-satisfied contentment, steeped in low desires.
The Holy Elf Empire, with its advanced technology, could long ago have built a grand unified interstellar alliance across the universes, but it had not.
Having missed such a chance, the Holy Elf Empire would lose forever its chance to become a strong civilization.
The first signs of it could be seen in how they had chosen before to avoid war, and to use that technology to escape Order's invasion.
So Zhao Chen had boldly worked with the Holy Elf Empire.
An interstellar civilization with so little temper, however strong it was now, could never become a threat to the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire.
Back to the matter at hand.
Because one's own interstellar civilization had a ceiling to its growth, the resources of one universe being only what they were,
the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's growth had already begun to slow by degrees.
Lilith had calculated before that, as things stood in the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's universe, even with T6 technology in full use in future,
it could only reach a yearly output value of 80,000 trillion star coins.
Going a step further than that was very hard.
The only way was to seek a breakthrough outside, to find "new continents."
Like the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group now settled on: as Lilith had said, it was only an interstellar trade group now, but its platform was very large.
Already it covered the interstellar trade markets of dozens of universes' civilizations, and it would grow larger and larger in future.
With the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire behind it, the wealth the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group created would flow back without end to nourish the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire!
Then there was the Stone Kingdom.
Lilith brought up the Stone Kingdom now as well: "The wealth the Stone Kingdom can mainly create for us is really those mineral resources. Mineral resources we can use to build interstellar warships, build more industrial facilities, and so on. The Stone Kingdom's yearly output value now is 10,000 trillion star coins, mainly the value of those mineral resources. Compared with the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group, its growth potential isn't really great. After all, the Stone Kingdom's universe is only so big; mainly we'll build them more interstellar mining fleets and bring their capacity up. So in the short term their rise will be enormous, but in the long run, because their resources are of one kind only, their yearly output value can reach 30,000 trillion star coins within a year. After that their growth will keep slowing. But these 30,000 trillion star coins' worth of mineral resources, in our hands, we can turn into a value of over 300,000 trillion star coins!"
Listening to Lilith,
Zhao Chen seemed already to see in his mind the map of a still vaster Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire to come:
a technological core, interstellar trade, resource output,
each region with its clear part to play.
"Why do I feel I'm getting further and further from retirement?" Zhao Chen muttered under his breath, looking at the excited Lilith.
Whether Lilith did not hear Zhao Chen's words or pretended not to, she looked at Zhao Chen excitedly. "Your Majesty, if after this we can take our next three operational targets smoothly, then once we've integrated these interstellar civilizations' universes' resources, within a year the likes of the Devourer Civilization will be no match for us at all! After that we could take it as our opening to stand against Order in earnest!"
Zhao Chen sighed inwardly.
He had never meant to let the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire grow to such a point, but to stand against Order it was inevitable.
Without enough resources, they would have no backing to stand against Order's invasion.
Zhao Chen knew very well that the head-on clash with Order would come very soon.
They could not, like the Holy Elf Empire, stay shut up in a tortoise shell forever and pretend nothing would happen.
"Then, put that way, what really matters more is the Stone Kingdom and the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes. By comparison, the other three interstellar civilizations' universes aren't especially important. We could have held off on them before; there was no need to move against three interstellar civilizations at once, was there?" the Dragon Emperor's deputy captain could not help cutting in beside them.
Lilith looked at the deputy captain; anyone who could become the Dragon Emperor's deputy captain was naturally being groomed as one of the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire's future senior officers.
Lilith explained, "No. Quite the opposite: these three interstellar civilizations are crucial."
"Huh?" The Dragon Emperor's deputy captain was puzzled.
Lilith went on, "However good a seed is, it needs fertile soil to sprout. These three interstellar civilizations are just the right soil. Our Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire has no few technical talents now, true, but in fact, once we develop the two pieces of the puzzle that are the Stone Kingdom and the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes, our talent will fall far short. So we hope to take in these three interstellar civilizations' universes, and we need these three interstellar civilizations' universes as markets for our future products too. And… these three interstellar civilizations all have marked character and repute among civilizations of every kind. If we can control these three interstellar civilizations' universes, then in future we can use these three anchor points to influence the interstellar civilizations' universes around them. The interstellar universes we'll control in future won't be only these three!"
Watching Lilith talk on and on so excitedly,
Zhao Chen felt that next to himself, an Owl Dragon Emperor who took things as they came most of the time, Lilith had more the air of an interstellar empress!
She was already thinking of controlling many interstellar civilizations' universes in future.
Zhao Chen could see Lilith meant it; she truly had thought this through, and had plans made to match!
"Ahem, ahem, ahem." Zhao Chen coughed a few times, pulling back the conversation that was running further and further off. "Let's not talk of things so far off now. What matters most is keeping our eyes on the present first. Only once we've dealt with what's in front of us will we have the chance to talk about the future."
Secretary-Officer Lilith and the Dragon Emperor's deputy captain nodded in silence.
But what Zhao Chen perhaps did not notice was that Secretary-Officer Lilith's eyes were full of some kind of flame, a fire growing larger and larger,
as though it might set the whole universe alight at any moment.
……
The Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe
In a remote stretch of starry space, the once dark, still void of space suddenly turned the color of white jade, like a mirror.
Very soon interstellar warship after interstellar warship came through, as if breaking into this world from another plane, and hovered in this sea of stars.
"Emperor's Guard Fleet, Third Squad, scout the surrounding environment at once and make sure everything around is safe." Commander Xiong Xiangxiang went straight into combat condition.
Every Owl Dragon interstellar warship went into combat condition, ready for any fighting that might break out.
"Report: no trace of other starships found in the surrounding space, and no sign of other interstellar life either."
"All safe."
Once Commander Xiong Xiangxiang had made sure it was safe here,
she looked at the video window connected to the Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship's bridge, at the Owl Dragon Emperor on the other side, and reported at once: "Your Majesty, we have safely reached the Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe; the stretch of space we're in is currently safe. Awaiting your orders!"
Zhao Chen nodded. "First rest in place for a while; at the same time, try using our communication channels in this universe to contact the Owl Dragon legion fleets here, and find out the situation here as soon as you can. Then send a few interstellar stealth reconnaissance ships to scout the surrounding star systems, and find out exactly where in this universe we are, and what our surroundings are like."
For up to now, the Owl Dragon Interstellar Empire had still not mastered the technology of cross-universe communication,
so it could not learn the situation in other interstellar civilizations' universes at once; add to that, this was a strange interstellar civilization's universe.
So for now, first learning and mastering the intelligence here was the most urgent task.
"Yes." Commander Xiong Xiangxiang took the order and went at once to see to it.
The Dragon Emperor Interstellar Command Ship · the bridge
Zhao Chen brought up the documents on this Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe.
The Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe was an interstellar civilization's universe still at the T5 technology civilization stage, and up to now it had no unified system of government.
To say it was at the T5 technology civilization stage was in fact not the whole of it.
For it was said that traces of T6-grade interstellar warships had appeared here too.
Strictly speaking, it should be said that the Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe did not itself have the technology to produce T6 technology products and parts,
but by certain means it could still obtain some T6-grade interstellar warships from outside.
What price had been paid for them, no one knew.
"The situation in the Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe is in fact rather complicated. It looks like a free-for-all war. But in fact there are other interstellar civilizations entangled in it behind the scenes," Lilith said beside him.
Zhao Chen nodded; the material the Holy Elf Empire had given also explained this.
It was because the Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe, as luck would have it, lay in the middle of a dense cluster of interstellar universes.
Simply put, it stood at a crossroads with easy traffic.
Where cross-universe travel was possible, this position was very convenient; whether for war abroad or for interstellar trade, it was a very handy place.
Even the Flower-Fairy Federal Tribes' interstellar traders had set up several transfer stations in the Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe, just because it was so convenient here.
And once everyone knew the value of the Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe,
the Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe's fate became a very sad one.
Lilith said, "Because of the Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe's special position, many interstellar civilizations' universes want to prop up a puppet government here that leans their way. But the other interstellar civilizations won't allow it. That's what has led to the long free-for-all war here."
Simply put, no one would allow a unified government outside their own control to appear, yet no one could do anything about anyone else.
So the present chaos was just what all of them could accept.
And so that was why the Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe had known no peace for years on end.
"Of the three targets, the Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe is the hardest." Lilith added again: "But its value is also the highest. Once we can take hold of the Cancer Interstellar Civilization Universe, together with our military strength and the Bailan Interstellar Trade Group's power in interstellar trade, this place will become the interstellar pearl of this region in future."
Zhao Chen was silent a moment. "In that case, this pearl must be held in our hands."
In that moment,
this long-chaotic interstellar universe seemed to be wrapped in a layer of black fog.
A huge black shadow was looking down on this universe, as though with a king's air it were looking at a toy set in its own palm, its eyes like torches!