Resurrection Empire

Chapter 1377: Chapter 520: Schemes on All Sides (Part 2)

So currently, Liu An is extremely distressed, but as an Earl, matters of face are also exceptionally important.

Previously, he had clearly declared his opposition to the rising figure Earl Red Blade. Now, his subordinate forces in the Shattered Star Ring have been scattered, and his black market business has been significantly affected. He hasn’t torn the facade and personally sent troops to attack Red Blade Star only because he is constrained by the Empire’s laws; he absolutely won’t bow to Earl Red Blade for the sake of obtaining the coating.

Seeing that the sanctions and blockades are completely ineffective, with Earl Red Blade’s wealth, power, and planetary development evolving by leaps and bounds, while his own side has not only been clipped of its wings but his warship’s technological advantage is also gradually being surpassed by many second- and third-tier forces within the Nanxiang Star Cluster. Many factions that previously severed ties with Red Blade Star due to his pressure are becoming more and more superficially compliant and secretly defiant. Liu An sees this and is anxious but helpless, even to the point where he’s lost the thought of entering cold sleep, spending day and night pondering how to act to cut off Jerzon’s momentum before the review period ends.

One day, upon waking, Liu An received yet another bad news.

The head of the Special Service Bureau, whom he had bestowed the surname Liu and renamed Liu Jin, reported that the civilization under Earl Red Blade’s command had made rapid progress in the past six months. Now, with just the force of a single star, it has surpassed old established Viscounts like the Augustus family in development index.

Liu An didn’t need to ask much to know that Jerzon’s momentum was certainly not relying on the Expeditionary Army base in the Shattered Star Ring.

The Shattered Star Ring wasn’t even included in the official sequence of the Nanxiang Star Cluster, so Earl Red Blade’s strength there wasn’t counted towards the development index.

Therefore, what truly allowed Earl Red Blade to progress so rapidly was still Red Blade Star and that exclusive patent for the stealth coating.

Thinking of this, Liu An finally could not stand it any longer. He personally knocked on the Viscount Mansion in the South Nine Star, but heard that Grue, this worthless person, could still remain composed and continue his frozen sleep.

Two hours later, Liu An scolded the forcibly awakened Grue Augustus so severely.

The implication of Liu An’s words was crystal clear: Earl Red Blade’s current momentum relies heavily on the Star Annihilation Ant, which your Augustus family developed.

The specialties of Red Blade Star are inseparably linked to your Star Annihilation Ant.

If this really allows Ren Zhong to pass the Earl review with the highest rank score, it would only prove that your Augustus family has been fooling me all along, biting the hand that feeds you. Then I might as well take your life on the spot, establish your young son as Viscount, and completely incorporate your Augustus family into my domain.

As for you, Grue, whether this family will live or die, prosper or decline, will no longer have anything to do with you.

Grue Augustus, already extremely fearful of death, seeing Liu An almost losing his mind, hastily patted his chest and promised to find a way to control Earl Red Blade starting with the Star Annihilation Ant.

Only then did Liu An feel somewhat relieved.

To put it bluntly, the Red Blade Clan only happened upon an unconventional use for the Star Annihilation Ant, a weapon initially considered of minimal importance. How could it be possible for them to do what the Augustus Academy, which developed the Star Annihilation Ant from scratch, couldn’t?

No one thought of it before, but now that the Red Blade Clan has presented the product, sending over a sample and having the Augustus Academy reverse engineer it to create an imitation should not be difficult, right?

Even though Earl Red Blade holds a thousand-year exclusive operating patent, the Augustus family can certainly tweak the performance slightly to sidestep the patent blockade. Moreover, once the product is ready, there will be more articles to work with. The Augusta family’s development of the Star Annihilation Ant was recorded at the Royal Academy of Sciences a thousand years ago, and there’s a chance it could even backfire and accuse Earl Red Blade of infringement.

According to the Empire’s law, he, as the Steering Man of the Nanxiang Military and Political Center, would be the arbitrator of this lawsuit.

At that time, Liu An would both be the judge and a hidden participant in the game. With the power in his hands, there was no reason he couldn’t deliver a severe blow to Earl Red Blade.

Meanwhile, as this master and servant formulated their plan, Ren Zhong was secretly meeting with Ou Youning, Wu Moyou, and a hereditary Baron from South Nine D Star, Vittel Haddon, who had secretly defected to their side.

Many years ago, the ancestor of the Haddon family was a close comrade of the ancestor of the Augustus family on the battlefield. The Haddon family could be said to have worked tirelessly and with great merit during the Augustus family’s rise to power.

Afterwards, the Augustus family gained South Nine b, the main star of the Southern Nine Star System, as their origin fief. Naturally, the Haddon family, together with several other comrades-in-arms, received a continent each as a benefice on South Nine D Star.