books44 Chapter 617 - 614: Secret Revelations
Chapter 617 - 614: Secret Revelations
"The specific reason, I’m not at liberty to say."
Leader Qiao clearly knew something, but he remained tight-lipped, saying: "Speaker Wan will explain the details to you. Now, get ready to meet Speaker Wan with me."
"Speaker Wan?" Bai Pu looked at Li Ling in confusion.
Li Ling’s breath nearly halted, quietly saying: "It’s the Speaker Wan you’re thinking of, the one who frequently appears in Central news."
...
At the Cloud Palace, inside a refined bamboo house, Bai Pu met the legendary Speaker Wan.
Speaker Wan was much like seen on TV, dressed simply and looking ordinary, yet possessing an air of authority, one that comes from long years immersed in the power of the Central Hub.
Beside Speaker Wan stood someone Bai Pu knew, a man of the same age.
Skywalker, Wan Zhen.
Both shared the surname Wan.
Bai Pu quickly guessed their relation. Wan Zhen should be a nephew of Speaker Wan, one who’s highly regarded.
"Gangxin, hello."
Speaker Wan smiled and said, "Old Qiao mentioned you’re quite curious why you’ve been elevated to the tenth sequence in the Central Standing position."
Bai Pu nodded in acknowledgment.
According to regular promotion procedures, Bai Pu should first be promoted to a Central Councillor, then obtain the qualification for "Candidacy for Standing Committee Member," followed by waiting for time and opportunities, to fill a vacancy for a Standing Member position.
This process could take years, or even decades.
Many Central Councillors never completed this route even in a lifetime.
Moreover, even after filling a Standing Member vacancy, one can only sit at the end of the table, ranked under the more senior Standing Members.
Now, Bai Pu’s direct elevation to the tenth sequence meant the original tenth sequence Standing Member and the subsequent two to three hundred Standing Members all moved a position back!
This was harder than being promoted from a district Standing Member to Central Standing Member, requiring significantly more Energy.
It’s likely that the nine preceding sequence Speakers collectively voted to support this unprecedented scenario.
Positioning Bai Pu in such a high role was very dangerous. If Bai Pu were inadequate for the role, it would certainly provoke backlash.
Although Bai Pu is capable, to command respect at such a high level isn’t solely about individual prowess.
A leader in such a position must manage their share of responsibilities, domestic influence, the vast backing forces, deep-rooted networks, and Spirit Realm influence—all are indispensable.
The personal combat power of a leader is important but not all-encompassing.
Bai Pu believed that the nine Speakers must have a very legitimate and urgent reason for doing this, breaking the norm to place a youth under 19 years old into the high ranks of the tenth sequence.
Speaker Wan sighed, appearing somewhat weary. He slowly said:
"Gangxin, do you understand the essence of the Spirit Realm war?"
Bai Pu thought briefly, then replied: "Between the Spirit Realm Will and Spirit Realm Will, wars erupt over resource contention. Conflicts of interest may also exist between gods and gods, or gods and the Spirit Realm Will."
"You’re correct; it seems I was overthinking. You’ve already touched upon deeper secrets."
Speaker Wan smiled slightly, "Then I’ll be brief. Our home planet, Earth, is now at the brink of life and death amidst this Spirit Realm war, about to face an Otherworld Traveler invasion!"
"Otherworld Travelers? How many?" Bai Pu immediately felt uneasy. With his current power standing at the pinnacle of awakened individuals, he feared no most Otherworld Travelers.
Speaker Wan displayed a bitter smile, "An entire planet."
Seeing Bai Pu’s astonished expression, Speaker Wan continued, "The Sea Race from Stilan Star is attempting to spatially locate Earth. Once successful, they will sacrifice resources to open a space gateway to deploy Stilan Star into Earth’s orbit and begin the invasion!"
Hearing about Stilan Star startled Bai Pu again. He immediately recalled the Octopus-headed Mo Shate.
"The Sea Race is a branch of the Demon Race; is this invasion a confrontation between Wuya’s Will of the Demon Race and Gaia’s Will of humanity?" Bai Pu asked.
"Not quite. To my knowledge, Stilan Star has long been an Earthly Divine Kingdom of a divine. This war is actually launched unilaterally by that divine."
"But why would a divine covet something from Earth?" Bai Pu found it hard to comprehend.
The universe is vast, with countless billions of life-bearing planets; it’s not unusual for there to be Tier One Awakened Planets like Earth, just like sand at the bottom of a river.
Would a divine fixate on Earth?
Bai Pu then queried, "Is the source of this information reliable?"
Speaker Wan replied, "According to data from the National Strategic Security think tank, recently prices of Primordial Soil and Primordial Water on the international awakened market have risen by 72%, Permanent Gold prices have increased by 94%, and materials like Refined Gold and Mithril have doubled in price.
"This kind of price surge is highly unusual, indicating more than one organization is acquiring large quantities of these high-end materials!
"The Central meeting assembled numerous top awakened individuals for discussions and discovered these inflated high-end materials are essentially used for making ’Spiritual Ability Battleship’!"
Bai Pu shook his head; he was not familiar with Spiritual Ability Battleships.
"Understandably; given that you’re a Major, and the synthesis blueprints for Spiritual Ability Battleships require at least a Quasi-General’s military rank to access!"
Speaker Wan solemnly added, "Ordinarily, a Bronze Quasi-General’s Spiritual Ability Battleship cannot enter the Spirit Realm, and its equipped functions are simply primitive, except for one unique feature—the Secondary Space Gate.
"A Bronze Vice Admiral Level Battleship can open a Secondary Space Gate and achieve a single space leap! Generally, only masters who’ve passed Ascension Plane tests, about to advance to Evolver status, might attempt crafting one to take some loved ones and ascend to a higher level world.
"But such an action has very low cost-effectiveness, and bringing loved ones to a higher-level world is dangerous, reckless; I rarely see Ascenders doing this."
Bai Pu nodded, stating: "So, generally speaking, the cost-effectiveness of crafting Spiritual Ability Battleships is very low, which is why typically no one attempts it; the recent sharp price rise in these materials shows many are secretly constructing Spiritual Ability Battleships?"
Speaker Wan nodded, replying: "According to the investigative trail, forces acquiring these materials largely originate from the US-Canada Federation.
"Within the US-Canada Federation, we have personnel long in latent operation, nicknamed ’moles’—this particular matter was highly irregular, so we activated three Advanced moles to glean information through various channels.
"The acquired intelligence is as I told you. An entire planet named ’Yazd’ is currently being invaded by the Stilan Sea Race! And Yazd Star is merely four thousand light-years away from us!"