Chapter 963: Chapter 519_2

In reality, Gu Hang has ambitions for Jindi Star.

It’s not that Gu Hang wants to risk universal condemnation by forcefully seizing and controlling Jindi Star.

It’s neither possible nor necessary.

However, Jindi Star, being a legitimate Founding World, is truly the strongest in production capacity within the entire Star Domain.

The Mingyang Sect is not particularly famous for shipbuilding, but the Alliance’s current shipbuilding industry is nothing more than comparable to Jindi Star’s.

They have announced the restart of the construction of the Mechanical Ark; moreover, they have suspended all external orders. Two battlercruiser dockyards and eight cruiser dockyards are fully operational, and all constructed ships are retained in the new fleet.

The Mingyang Sect indeed has not suffered such severe damage directly for many years.

After this incident, they decided to learn their lesson.

External orders are nonsense; their own strength is most important!

If the Mingyang Sect hadn’t sold every battlecruiser they had produced in the past, and had kept six, seven, or eight more for themselves, would they have suffered so much during the Iron Tooth Green Tide?

Absolutely not!

The situation is similar for other production capacities as well.

On Jindi Star, the construction of Starships is currently the most heavily controlled sector.

Other production capacities do not completely reject external orders, but at least significantly reduce them. The Mingyang Sect is determined to significantly strengthen its military power until they feel secure. A substantial part of their production capacity is also directed toward rebuilding their own planet. They are not wealthy enough to take on external orders.

But Gu Hang is troubled by this.

He now has a lot of money. Not only the fiscal revenues of the Alliance and the saved Imperial Tax but also the war support from the Eastern Cosmos Domain. With this money, he hopes the Sect of Mechanics can manufacture some equipment for the Alliance.

Especially Starships.

However, during multiple communications and exchanges, the Mingyang Sect decisively rejected the Alliance’s request to purchase ships.

Even with Wu Jiarong mediating, it was to no avail.

…

All this information was disclosed by Wu Jiarong during her repeated communications with the Alliance and with Gu Hang.

Her current status and position are quite remarkable.

Back then, when Gu Hang sent her to the Mingyang Sect for ‘exchange learning,’ she gained formal identity recognition within the sect, becoming a legitimate Dominant Bishop.

By rights, this was Wu Jiarong’s ultimate goal for coming to Jindi Star at that time.

After becoming a Dominant Bishop, she should have returned to the Alliance to continue overseeing the Alliance’s Secret Research Institute and began planning to establish a small sect of the Sect of Mechanics for the Alliance.

A Dominant Bishop might barely have that qualification.

However, no one anticipated the Iron Tooth War would break out so suddenly, and the war progression would be so rapid.

With the isolation across the Star Domain, Wu Jiarong couldn’t return. She could only stay with the Mingyang Sect.

As a Dominant Bishop, she naturally participated in this war.

And she performed exceptionally well.

The many unique technologies she mastered earned her a large group of supporters in the war and garnered the appreciation of the Founding General Chen Haixu, who provided her with many additional resources.

Using this support, she forged a strong military force and led them to several successful battles.

With her growing accomplishments and prestige, Wu Jiarong quickly realized she might even have the opportunity to step up, advancing from the identity of a Dominant Bishop to the level of a Principal Sage in a short time.

This is already the title second only to the Great Sage within the Sect of Mechanics.

The entire Mingyang Sect doesn’t have a true Great Sage. That requires going to the Solar System, to Mars World, to receive recognition and assessment from the headquarters of the Sect of Mechanics to be promoted.

In fact, the process is similar for becoming a Principal Sage. However, the Mingyang Sect internally has eleven slots for Principal Sages. If not exceeded, those elected by the sect can also be recognized.

Previously, an outsider like Wu Jiarong, no matter how much merit she achieved, could never expect to seize such a scarce position.

But isn’t it because many Principal Sages died in war, leaving many positions vacant? Additionally, many qualified Dominant Bishops who could compete for these positions also perished?

This gave Wu Jiarong hope.

Chen Haixu hinted more than once to Wu Jiarong that as long as she pledged not to return to the Alliance and devoted herself fully to Jindi Star, the position of Principal Sage could be hers.

Wu Jiarong agreed without hesitation on the surface.

At that moment, she made her assessment; in front of Chen Haixu, she couldn’t react any other way.

Otherwise, it would have been too abnormal.

In the ‘homeland,’ on Jindi Star, a legitimate Founding World, the title of Principal Sage is an enormous temptation for a member of the Sect of Mechanics.

If it were just a Dominant Bishop, it would be trivial. On Jindi Star, there are dozens, even hundreds of Dominant Bishops, limiting their preciousness; going outside, like to the Alliance, there would be at most two or three, with different status.

Some Dominant Bishops who didn’t want to stay in the Founding World indeed opted to leave.

But the Principal Sage is different.

Once becoming a Principal Sage, Wu Jiarong would become one of the top eleven individuals on Jindi Star, a true ruler.

In sheer common sense, even a hint of hesitation would seem utterly fake.

However, she clearly knew she could not so easily sever ties with the Alliance. She knew too many of Mr. Gu’s secrets, which were far too significant; once seceded, Mr. Gu would certainly want her dead.

That would only require a thought. Her soul was long sold to Mr. Gu.

If she ever dared to betray, Gu Hang could easily erase her soul without any loss: there were so many black boxes that if one of her could be cultivated, another high-ranking member of the Sect of Mechanics could be nurtured right away.

Moreover, even without this situation, she never intended to leave the Alliance.

In the past, she was just a low-level skilled worker who could be easily expelled from the Founding World. What helped her grow in just twenty years?

It was the countless black boxes Mr. Gu stored.

She felt she still had room for advancement.

Everyone thinks that progress must be fastest in the Founding World, but she knows the place with the fastest progress is undeniably the Alliance’s Secret Research Institute.

Although she had already studied many of the black boxes the Alliance possessed, she knew Mr. Gu would reveal a new one after a period. Moreover, the technologies represented by these new black boxes often continued to advance upward.

Having been away from the Alliance for so long, she didn’t know what new black boxes Mr. Gu had obtained, making her extremely curious.

Thus, after having to agree with Chen Haixu on the surface, Wu Jiarong immediately reported this brief news to Gu Hang and sought an opportunity to have a Starry Dialogue with him.

During the conversation, she thoroughly expressed her loyalty and, with utmost sincerity, stated that she would fully comply with Gu Hang’s directions on what to do next.

Gu Hang wasn’t worried about Wu Jiarong leaking secrets.

She couldn’t do it.