Starting Cultivation in Wasteland

When Flower Scorpion took the dossier from Duoduo, her brows also furrowed slightly as she spoke, displeased, "More than two thousand people?"

What exactly do you take us for, some kind of junk shelter?

Duoduo jumped at that, but luckily she’d asked around in advance and already had the relevant intel.

She hurried to explain, "This is all the Awakened of Taiping we’ve got on record, plus the files on the relatively important Modified Warriors."

"Mm," Flower Scorpion nodded, flipped through a bit more, then couldn’t help muttering, "Five Supremes... Celestial River only has two?"

Two really aren’t enough to slaughter, but a true major power, how could their vision be that short-sighted?

She’s disliking the low number of Supremes? Duoduo’s brows lifted slightly, but she didn’t even dare pick up the line.

Flower Scorpion also had no intention of making things hard for her; after skimming twice, she nodded. "Alright, we’re planning to make a move on Taiping in the near future."

She didn’t say more. That icy-cool persona works like this: hit the key point and stop; the more you say, the less appropriate it gets.

Duoduo was still young after all. Hearing that, she got a little flustered. "Then what should we be doing?"

"You guys... whatever," Flower Scorpion said mildly. "Anyway, knowing this in advance lets you maximize your interests."

Duoduo hesitated, then braced herself to ask, "My lady, why are you making a move?"

"Because of you," Flower Scorpion answered without the slightest hesitation. "Though, there are also people who’ve offended us."

So it really is... a higher-level power struggle? Duoduo finally didn’t dare ask further.

But with that answer, Ping’an also knew what they should be doing.

Originally, they’d been considering copying Taiping’s previous approach—keeping up an appearance of staying out of it, just to thoroughly disgust the other side.

But now, that way of handling it was no longer appropriate.

So Ping’an started formally demanding justice from Taiping, insisting they give an explanation—the dead A-level was a ready-made excuse.

They had no choice; their own powerful backup had quite likely been dragged into an even higher-level struggle.

That meant they had to pick a side—whether they liked it or not.

As for standing by with arms folded? Impossible!

Once their own powerful backup took a hit, could they really stay untouched? Whether they joined the fray or not, they’d still get implicated when the time came!

Yet just as they’d finally assumed the proper posture, they got word that all seven had already used fake identities to leave Purple Star.

"Don’t tell me they’re going to run?" Someone felt a bit uneasy.

But someone else snorted and shot back, "How many people does Taiping even still have on Purple Star? They’ve long since hidden away elsewhere, okay?"

Sure enough, just a few days later, death reports of Taiping members started coming in one after another from other planets.

In just three days, two Supremes of Taiping—one dead, one severely injured.

The severely injured one didn’t die purely because the other party recognized him, muttered "still the same trash," and left.

As for A-level? Seven dead, two severely injured, and minor injuries... none.

Even three B-levels who were on scene got conveniently killed along with them.

In an instant, the entire Celestial River Star Realm was shaken; Taiping’s mid-to-high-level members fled in droves.

They had to run; this was fucking terrifying. Anyone who ran into them died—being severely injured was charity, minor injuries simply did not exist!

Very few people noticed that during this period, the Military also had two A-levels go missing.

A few days later, Qu Jianlei and his group returned to Purple Star.

Those who didn’t know who they were naturally let it slide, but those who did looked at them with deep, undisguised awe in their eyes.

Duoduo’s gaze was especially complicated. "Lord Huang... Huang Tian... do you have any operations coming up?"

"If we take action, we’ll notify you," Flower Scorpion answered without thinking, then froze for a beat. "Do you have some request?"

"No," Duoduo shook her head honestly. "The Trading Group’s growth has been... extremely rapid lately."

"Rapid is good," Flower Scorpion smiled casually. "Otherwise what would we be out there doing?"

"Pass a message to Xijiesi: if he doesn’t come back, the Taiping matter is not getting brushed aside."

This time, the seven had moved separately and indeed stirred up a bloody storm—but was their main goal slaughter?

Obviously not. Flower Scorpion was very clear: even the "kill a chicken to scare the monkeys" line was just that—a line.

Ping’an could interpret it that way, but everyone in the little group knew perfectly well: with things blown up to this point, Ping’an was absolutely not the main battlefield anymore.

The reason they’d come back here was to sit and wait for a direct strike from the enemy—a kind of "if you’ve got guts, come at us; if you don’t, you’re not Imperial."

Bottom line, their proactive strike this time was aimed at the forces skulking in the dark, observing; they wanted to force the other side to make a move.

Clearly, Taiping had collusion with some unknown force, or they wouldn’t have chosen to stir up trouble during the tuning of the machine units.

And through this round of slaughter, they’d also gotten key intel—Xijiesi was the initiator of the operation, and he hadn’t stated his reasons.

What’s especially noteworthy is that not long after the operation ended, that guy went straight back to the Core Circle Star Realm.

Obviously, Xijiesi also knew the power behind Ping’an was not to be messed with, so he picked a fight then bolted.

Through the trajectory logs on Xijiesi’s watch, Little Lake did a rough search of his movements before leaving and dug up a few suspected targets.

Pinpin is one of them, but there are quite a few similar suspects, so the suspicion on this famous singer isn’t that heavy.

She has intersections with many powerful figures, but her own trump cards are hidden very well, unknown to the public.

And in most people’s eyes, since she’s a well-known singer, she probably wouldn’t easily get involved in such a complicated struggle.

The key point is that this woman not only knows a lot of people, she’s also running around everywhere, so trying to investigate her is anything but easy.

There are too many suspects to verify one by one, so they could only let Flower Scorpion spread the word.

This move is not only directed at Xijiesi, it’s also a direct provocation to the unknown force.

If the other side really dares to come, they dare to make a move. This is different from their previous situation on Celestial Hook or in the Hope Star Realm.

Now they not only have fake identities and the support of local forces; the key is that this place is relatively orderly, the other side can’t just brute-force their way in.

That being the case, them clashing with the unknown force is no big deal.

As long as the other side doesn’t use interstellar weapons and relies only on personal combat strength, even if ten-odd Supremes show up, their side still has the power to fight.

Of course, if something unexpected happens, they still have to run—no need to spell that out.

Anyway, the message is out there, now they just wait for the other side to come—otherwise the computer group and all those Arrays were collected for nothing, weren’t they?

Qu Jianlei just needs to be careful about protecting a bit of secrecy—not letting the other side know that their side has already found the back door.

"Xijiesi..." Duoduo silently noted down this name. The other side dared to call a Supreme by name; she actually didn’t dare.

Before long, the information was passed to Ping’an Headquarters.

Seeing the name "Xijiesi," Jilt’s brows also knitted slightly, and he remarked with a wry smile.

"So this is the real main player, and those two Supreme lords... were actually just collateral damage?"

He never thought his own backing was the merciful type, and he knew they had killed Supremes in Star Wars before.

But Star Wars happen in the depths of space, a place beyond the reach of law; you can do whatever you want there.

As long as you can make sure no evidence comes back, you don’t have to fear doing the most lawless things.

However, their performance on Purple Star has still been relatively restrained.

Although they’d taught two Supremes, Kopache and Collins, a lesson one after the other, it was only injuries—very precise, well controlled.

Who would have thought that this time their strike wouldn’t be ordinary at all, actually causing multiple deaths.

And now from the sound of it, the casualties were just incidental, while the main target wasn’t even present!

Thinking of his earlier guesses, Jilt couldn’t help sighing. "I really don’t know what kind of vortex they’ve gotten sucked into!"

Since their backing has been dragged into a huge conflict and they chose a side, this isn’t the time to complain—there was no other choice to begin with!

"Cooperate. Get the message out... No need to explain anything to other forces. Ready up internally, and wait until the dust settles to talk."

Trying to explain now would just show weakness and even look like playing both sides, which would definitely displease their backing.

Since they’ve already made their choice, then just go all the way down this road—don’t end up a traitor to both sides.

Very quickly, Ping’an Trading Group’s stance spread throughout Purple Star and successfully attracted the Government’s attention.

You have to know, as a powerful local force native to this planet, the trading group itself has quasi-militarized power.

They don’t belong to the Military’s reserve forces and can roughly be classified as a "reserve local defense force."

This kind of quasi-militarized power is something the Imperial authorities only consider using when the situation is extremely urgent.

They become an effective supplement to military strength outside of the Military and the City Guard.

They even possess Standard Warships. Once fully mobilized and armed, they’re enough to go toe-to-toe with the City Guard.

Under normal circumstances, to use this force the Military must first make a request, and the Planet Government is in charge of mobilization.

Without the Planet Government’s permission, anyone mobilizing them on their own is almost tantamount to rebellion.

Ping’an hasn’t openly shown its hand to use this force; they’ve only ramped up internal alert levels and started issuing some weapons.

Their goal is to leave no gap for certain forces to exploit and to strictly guard against looting while the house is on fire.

But the Planet Government couldn’t sit still. The Imperial system doesn’t go in for the saying "officials push people to revolt," but if something happens they still have to hold someone responsible.

The Government tried to understand Ping’an’s basic needs and promised them that the Government would not stand idly by.

To put their minds at ease, the Planet Government dispatched the City Guard to help protect the trading group’s related properties.

Someone might ask: why didn’t the trading group use this method earlier to resist other forces’ encroachment?

Don’t be ridiculous. Back then Ping’an really couldn’t operate like this—it would basically have been suicide.

Before they met Qu Jianlei and the others, no matter how hard Jilt tried to keep things together, he didn’t dare even think along these lines.

Without a powerful central pillar, Ping’an internally was just a pile of loose sand; hearts unstable, unable to form effective cohesion.

Even if Jilt dared to risk his life on a desperate gamble, with no powerful backing behind the trading group, the Planet Government could just move in and arrest people outright.

As long as the trading group’s upper management was taken away, those below would naturally scatter like frightened birds and beasts.

—It’s obviously just a commercial dispute, and you’ve escalated it to the level of rebellion. Isn’t that just making trouble?

Now that the trading group has strong backing, the Planet Government is wary and naturally prefers to quell the situation through peaceful means.