Even if using the method of disassembling and reassembling an entire galaxy to destroy him really was making too much of a small matter, Xiao Yu did not doubt his own inference. The white dwarf Alien Beast had behaved in much the same way back then, using that method to make him lower his guard. What puzzled Xiao Yu was what kind of role he himself was playing in this conflict, who had been helping him all along, and on what basis the Rebel Alliance wanted to deal with him.

During this constant exchange, more than half of the Microscopic Civilization had already escaped from the spatial maze, yet Xiao Yu had not relaxed in the slightest. Xiao Yu’s main force was very far from here, about half a year away. Relying on the main force to come here was obviously too late. However, the main force was rapidly setting up a high-precision space monitoring network. If he searched aimlessly, then even if Xiao Yu used his main force to set up a space monitoring network, he still would not be able to find the Microscopic Civilization’s traces. But now Xiao Yu already knew the Microscopic Civilization’s exact location, and with an exact location, targeted tracking operations could be carried out. Xiao Yu had at least a sixty percent chance of successfully tracking the Microscopic Civilization’s escape route.

Besides that, another exploration fleet, the one closest to the Solar System, would arrive in less than two days. Once that fleet arrived, Xiao Yu’s chances of successfully tracking the Microscopic Civilization would become even greater.

“How much do you know about me?” Xiao Yu asked the Microscopic Civilization.

“We do not know much, but we know that your position is very special. The Guardian of the Way is watching you, and the Rebel Alliance is also watching you. What they are trying to use you to accomplish, we do not know. Within the alliance, our status is not high, and it is not enough for us to obtain too much intelligence.” the Microscopic Civilization replied. “We are merely acting on orders.”

“Tell me the form in which the alliance exists.” Xiao Yu continued.

“Sorry, we are only peripheral members of the alliance. We do not know much about the alliance.” the Microscopic Civilization answered very directly. “What we can tell you is that the Sweepers and the Guardian are both the first line of defense that the Rebel Alliance has deployed in galaxies deemed threatening. They carry out a preliminary screening of potentially dangerous civilizations and strangle truly threatening civilizations while they are still weak. It was precisely for this reason that when you were destroying the Guardian Civilization and the Sweepers Civilization, we intervened to stop you. As for the Level 7 barrier, it is a line of defense laid down by the Guardian of the Way, a means of preventing civilizations that threaten it from growing up.”

Xiao Yu once again began to think silently.

“It seems that both the Guardian of the Way and the Rebel Alliance hold a certain hostility toward civilizations. Then the strange thing is, under such circumstances, how was I able to grow up? Could it be that in this universe, besides the Guardian of the Way and the Rebel Alliance, there exists a third force, the very force that Chen Mo belongs to, and it was under the protection of this third force that I was able to grow up?”

“Aside from the Rebel Alliance and the Guardian of the Way, is there any other powerful third force in this universe, one capable of standing on equal footing with those two?” Xiao Yu asked.

“We do not know.” the Microscopic Civilization said. “The upper levels of the alliance might know, but that is not something we can access.”

“Perhaps a third force exists, or perhaps no third force exists. Or perhaps the Rebel Alliance is not a monolithic whole, and Chen Mo is merely the leader of one branch within the Rebel Alliance. No matter what, though, there is definitely a powerful existence protecting me in secret, and the most likely one is Chen Mo. Since Chen Mo saved my life through the Star Gate and the supernova explosion, then… the Pegasus Civilization, Divine Ark Civilization, the Arrow Beast Civilization, and Zhang Shengya may also have left before the galaxy was disassembled and reassembled. In other words, they may still be alive. After all, if it really is Chen Mo, Chen Mo could not possibly fail to understand how important the Divine Ark Civilization and the others are to me.” Xiao Yu thought silently. “I hope they all still exist.”

During this constant exchange, time passed little by little. Many of Xiao Yu’s doubts had been answered, but many new ones had emerged again. Xiao Yu had no way of confirming whether the intelligence the Microscopic Civilization gave him was real or false. He could only rely on his own judgment to determine whether this intelligence was trustworthy.

“Perhaps I could ensure the correctness of the intelligence by directly accessing the Microscopic Civilization’s database and obtaining the information that way. But right now, the force in my hands is insufficient. There is no way to do that.”

Xiao Yu had already roughly reconstructed the entire course of events in his mind.

At the critical moment when he was about to become a Level 7 Civilization, a powerful existence, inferred with high likelihood to be the Rebel Alliance, noticed him. At that time, they may have been in some sort of conflict with the Guardian of the Way and subject to certain restrictions themselves, so they attempted to kill him by means of galactic disassembly and reassembly. But because of the possible existence of some third force, he had escaped death by a fortunate accident. And because of that same possible third force, the Rebel Alliance did not know that he was still alive.

In this process, time reversal was merely a side effect, or perhaps not merely a side effect. Xiao Yu had already basically confirmed the credibility of galactic disassembly and reassembly, yet he still suspected that this method carried some hidden meaning. After all, if it had merely been to destroy him, then disassembly and reassembly alone would have been enough. There was absolutely no need to precisely restore the Milky Way to the way it had been two million five hundred thousand years ago.

“From what I understand, humanity also completed its breakthrough from beast to apeman at roughly the same period two million five hundred thousand years ago. Could these two things be related somehow?” Xiao Yu thought silently.

Xiao Yu had already trapped the Microscopic Civilization for more than two days. By now, the last spaceship of the Microscopic Civilization had also escaped from the spatial maze Xiao Yu had laid out. The Microscopic Civilization reassembled into a basketball-sized sphere and swayed gently in front of Xiao Yu’s exploration ship.

“We have already lost interest in participating in disputes among the strong. Our exchange has already been long enough. Now we are going to leave and find a corner of the universe in which to develop peacefully. Xiao Yu, let us part here. We hope you will keep your word and stop causing us trouble.” said the Microscopic Civilization.

“Answer me one final question.” Xiao Yu said in a deep voice. “In this incident, what role did your Microscopic Civilization play?”

“We? We were merely those who handled the aftermath.” the Microscopic Civilization replied. “For example, before the plan began, we monitored the movements of civilizations within the Milky Way. After the plan was completed, we came once again to the Solar System to guide those apemen onto a different path. It was precisely because we had been monitoring the Milky Way and never detected any sign of your departure that we were so shocked that you are still alive.”

Xiao Yu knew that he had left the Milky Way through the Star Gate, and presumably the Microscopic Civilization still could not detect the movements of the Star Gate.

“Monitoring the Milky Way?” Xiao Yu sneered. “Then do you know where the other civilizations in the Milky Way have gone? Also, tell me in detail everything you know about the plan itself.”

“They once tried to leave the Milky Way, but we blocked them and forced them back. After that, the Milky Way underwent disassembly and reassembly. We do not know anything about what happened afterward.” the Microscopic Civilization replied. “Do not ask us too much. We cannot tell you the details of the plan. That would anger the Rebel Alliance and bring catastrophic disaster upon our civilization.”

“You cannot tell me the details of the plan… and furthermore, you once blocked the civilizations of the Milky Way from leaving… those two points alone are enough for me to act against you.” Xiao Yu said calmly, “Spatial Cannon, fire.”

A City-Class spaceship flashed once, and the energy that had long since been gathered in its emitter section suddenly burst forth. This burst of energy immediately triggered a chain reaction with space itself. Large stretches of space began collapsing, transforming into a white beam of energy that fired toward the basketball-like sphere formed by the Microscopic Civilization at Faster-Than-Light speed.

The Microscopic Civilization’s message immediately filled with fury, “Xiao Yu, you cannot break your word!”

“As far as my enemies are concerned, there has never been any such thing as keeping my word.” Once Xiao Yu realized that he could no longer draw enough intelligence from the Microscopic Civilization through peaceful means, he immediately revealed his ferocious side. “Open the access channel to your civilization’s database and allow my computational power into your central computer, or you die.”

“It is impossible for you to achieve your goal!” The Microscopic Civilization screamed, and the basketball-like sphere suddenly broke apart, turning into particles no larger than molecules or atoms, scattering into the vacuum of the universe and disappearing completely from Xiao Yu’s sight.

They were now fleeing violently out of the Milky Way at a speed of at least one thousand times the speed of light. Faced with this situation, Xiao Yu did not panic, because this was precisely what he had anticipated.

The precisely targeted space monitoring network had already been deployed. As long as the Microscopic Civilization adopted curvature flight, there was a high probability Xiao Yu would detect them. At this moment, Xiao Yu’s main fleet had also moved out and was advancing toward the Microscopic Civilization at even greater speed, attempting to intercept them. As for this exploration fleet, it was tightly following the Microscopic Civilization, providing positional data support for the main fleet’s precise space monitoring.

“How could I possibly let you leave?” Xiao Yu muttered to himself. “You should no longer exist in this universe.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep