Resurrection Empire

Chapter 1357 - 513: The Historical Legacy of the Shattered Star Ring (2)

In the Central Star Region of the Ancient Disk Galaxy, at the very core of the Nanxiang Star Cluster, there were departments of this kind.

But within the Shattered Star Ring there was no unified administrative body to regulate the navigation patterns of the pirates’ ships. After all, they were lawless Space Pirates to begin with—who would submit to control?

As a result, the disaster rate in the Shattered Star Ring was extremely high: at most once every few decades, at least once every few centuries. The living standard of the civilian population of the pirate civilization was far from satisfactory.

The disasters brought by gravitational pollution usually lurked in silence, but once they erupted, they laid waste to heaven and earth. Other than fleeing aboard ships, there was no escape.

Yet Space Pirates never controlled their population; they were always breeding madly, and then breeding more.

The Empire had never turned away additional human brains, nor had it ever cared where those brains came from. Within the Nanxiang Star Cluster there existed a vast black market that continuously purchased human brains. Brain trafficking had long been another source of income for Space Pirates, besides plundering and raiding trade routes.

So each time they faced a catastrophe, those who could board ships and escape, instead of being secretly mixed into the pens of meat-tickets to be slaughtered to the last, were always only a small group of privileged individuals. Among the many pirate factions, those at the bottom still struggled desperately to climb upwards, hoping only that they and their families might gain one more sliver of chance before disaster descended.

In this sense, the survival environment in the Shattered Star Ring was both outwardly and inwardly similar to the former Source Star.

But just as Earth did not perish because of humanity’s destruction in the 21st century, the Shattered Star Ring of today, however harsh its environment, would not itself be destroyed; only the humans living here would be.

The universe is precisely like this: it sentimentally brings forth intelligent life, yet always only watches with indifference as that intelligence struggles in hell, never meting out Heaven’s Punishment upon evildoers out of pity. If the universe itself were an intelligent lifeform, then in Its eyes there would never have been a distinction between justice and evil.

"So-called justice and evil are actually defined by humans. From different standpoints and perspectives, we define different forms of evil. Although the relatively active pirate forces in the Shattered Star Ring today all rose in the several millennia since Liu An, the Nanxiang Marquis, inherited his title, the history of pirates in the Shattered Star Ring is almost as long as the colonial history of the Nanxiang Star Cluster itself, reaching several million years. Even when the Nanxiang Star Cluster was once conquered by the Sublimed and turned into their colony, and the Empire’s humans on its internal core star groups were almost wiped out, there were still pirate forces active in the Shattered Star Ring at that time."

"According to intelligence provided by Senior Staff Officer Wu Moyou, the strongest forces in the Shattered Star Ring, aside from the former Fang and Storm pirate groups, include a large number of new rising factions with the shadow of the Nanxiang Marquis behind them. Besides these, there are also pirate species that have existed for over a million years, with deep foundations and all kinds of special strengths; their power must not be underestimated."

"Their names are obscure today only because they have been forced to lurk, compelled by Liu An’s dominance to yield the window of development. Yet on some future day, when Liu An grows old and the title of Nanxiang Marquis passes to another, or when Liu An is promoted to Marquis and shifts his focus of development, these ancient pirate forces will make a comeback and reclaim authority. Next, please allow Senior Staff Officer Wu Moyou to brief everyone on the situation."

Zheng Tian opened the topic in broad strokes, then handed over the floor to Wu Moyou, who knew the Shattered Star Ring Pirates’ power structure inside out.

Wu Moyou’s expression showed some tension. He stepped forward, first giving a courteous nod to everyone present, then said, "Previously, there were seven newly risen pirate factions in the Shattered Star Ring that were the most powerful. The still-unextinguished Storm and Fang were two among these seven. In private, these seven forces were collectively called the Seven Seas Under the Earl. Among them, Storm is characterized by ultra–high-speed Assault Ships, while Fang is renowned for its superior individual combat capability."

Zheng Tian and the others all nodded at these words.

Previously, when exterminating the remnants of the Fang pirate group, even though their own side held every advantage, they still suffered certain losses and lost several Armed Battleships. The reason was that the members of the Fang pirate group were all equally insane: once the fighting started, they threw their lives away without a second thought; their rationality went to Zeroing on the spot.

Wu Moyou continued, "The other five factions also have their own specialties. It is obvious that Liu An, in cultivating the Seven Seas Under the Earl, gave each of the seven forces a different emphasis, so that each could perform its own role and meet his various needs. After Storm and Fang were destroyed, the Nanxiang’s Earldom Special Service Bureau secretly fostered two more factions as replacements. These two new forces may be lacking in heritage, but the Nanxiang Marquis’ support for them is instead more comprehensive and abundant. The two new factions have already grown rapidly and are developing in all directions, with virtually no shortcoming, and are faintly becoming the two poles among the Seven Seas Under the Earl. My personal assessment is that the fleet combat strength of these two is roughly half that of a Star System Level fleet, and they will only grow stronger. Clearly, they are the opponents whom the Nanxiang Marquis is preparing for the great Earl Red Blade."