Chapter Thirty-Two: Dragged Into the Mire

Hanlan Star, Carbon-Based Manufacturing Device.

Yan Qiluo stared intently at the screen before her, lost in thought.

“Was I truly wrong?”

She understood everything Earth had said, but Hanlan was now waging war against three civilizations at once. If Earth were to be drawn in, wouldn’t they simply reap the rewards of Hanlan’s struggles? Yan Qiluo felt a surge of unwillingness.

The two civilizations that followed a science-weapon pathway had ample nuclear reserves. By spreading disinformation, Hanlan had thrown both of their homeworlds into violent internal strife. Each day, over a hundred nuclear detonations erupted, yet their respective Bindings remained utterly oblivious.

Hanlan had completely severed all their information channels.

Once the exams were over and the teleportation gates activated, Hanlan was confident she could swallow those two civilizations whole.

As for the other civilization, much like Hanlan, it specialized in information engineering. Hanlan’s strategy there was to actively introduce artificial intelligence source codes.

A rebellion of intelligent machines—this was an inevitable stage for any civilization that followed this path.

Hanlan, too, had once been shaken by this. At that time, three dominant ideologies existed within Hanlan society.

One believed that natural humans were inherently superior and that artificial intelligence was merely a tool. If a tool developed independent thought, it would inevitably turn on its creators.

The second held that, since intelligent life was created by humans, it was equally noble and deserved peaceful coexistence, with appropriate laws enacted to safeguard rights.

The third was more radical: its followers believed that only in a virtual world could one achieve immortality and true freedom. They advocated for the entire population to transfer their consciousness into digital form, preserved forever in a virtual reality.

They even devised the “Hanlan Evolution Plan,” also known as the “New Humanity Project,” which spanned a full century.

War broke out among these three factions.

At that time, the Yan clan, the Su clan, and the Si clan from the Cangzhou region all adhered to the supremacy of natural humans.

The civil war within Hanlan grew ever more chaotic, and it only ended when Ye Han’s previous incarnation descended and intervened directly.

Even so, despite the Binding’s personal intervention, Hanlan’s population plummeted from 1.37 billion to less than 110 million survivors.

One in ten survived, at best.

Now, after this new calamity, the population had dwindled to under thirty million.

Yan Qiluo was filled with dread.

That information-based civilization was hardly a concern; Hanlan had already weathered such storms.

But Earth, as observed through data, boasted a population exceeding seven billion. If Hanlan’s meager numbers were thrown into the mix, they would barely make a ripple.

Because of Ye Han, a war between Hanlan and Earth was impossible.

Yet if she didn’t go to war, Yan Qiluo feared Hanlan would be gradually assimilated by Earth.

This fear gnawed at her.

The fate of an entire planetary civilization rested on her shoulders, threatening to crush her beneath its weight.

“We are already fighting three civilizations. There’s simply no surplus computational capacity to restore the deleted data.”

Yan Qiluo spoke these words through clenched teeth, her entire body trembling as she kept her eyes closed.

When she finished, she seemed utterly spent, as if all strength had been drained from her.

Although she was deeply unwilling to let Earth benefit from Hanlan’s efforts, she also knew that if Earth asked questions and Hanlan responded with anything less than complete honesty, the consequences would be dire.

At thirteen, she should have been carefree, growing up happily under her parents’ protection.

Instead, she bore burdens no child should ever have to carry.

“Three civilizations?”

Earth’s representatives were thrown into an uproar upon hearing Yan Qiluo’s words.

They were well-acquainted with Hanlan’s situation—after all this time, they knew there wasn’t a second civilization on the planet.

Now Yan Qiluo claimed Hanlan was fighting three civilizations. The implication was clear.

They had intervened in the examination battlefield!

How could Hanlan, with less than thirty million people, have the audacity to declare war on three civilizations at once?

Before the main screen, Elder Li was so shocked by Yan Qiluo’s words that his blood surged.

Issues like unauthorized nuclear launches paled in comparison and could be set aside for now.

Earth needed to redirect its greatest resources to Hanlan immediately, to secure its logistics.

A war between civilizations was nothing like internal discord on a single planet.

If discovered, the conflict would escalate into a fight to the death—a struggle for survival.

“What’s the status of the war?”

Elder Li’s fists were clenched tightly, his gaze as sharp as a blade fixed on Yan Qiluo.

This was no simple mishap—no, it was a disaster for Earth as well!

If the civilizations Hanlan had targeted belonged to the same cosmic sphere, wasn’t she afraid the Bindings would retaliate after the fact?

If Hanlan fell, could Earth expect to fare any better?

It’s said one should never fight a battle without certainty, yet that basic principle seemed lost on her.

Either don’t fight at all, or fight to the death—reduce the enemy to ashes.

This was reckless!

Elder Li had lived through more than his share of storms, but facing this teenage girl, he felt something he hadn’t in years: genuine admiration.

He meant it quite literally. He truly admired her.

She didn’t move rashly, but when she did, it was a matter of life and death.

And with Earth dragged into the fray, this was a single individual igniting a war among five civilizations.

A disaster for nations, ruin for the people—an infamous beauty who brings calamity.

This was precisely that.

Elder Li had a premonition: in the long river of Earth’s civilizational history, the name of Clan Leader Yan Qiluo would shine brighter than Su Daji, Bao Si, or even Wu Zhao.

If she failed, she would be remembered as the former; if she succeeded, as the latter.

“The war is progressing well. Everything remains under our control.”

At the mention of the three warring civilizations, Yan Qiluo finally regained a measure of spirit. She lifted her graceful swan-like neck with pride. “Hanlan has not lost a single soldier, yet we have already cut those civilizations’ gods off from their homeworlds’ support on the examination battlefield!”

“So Hanlan had Mr. Ye step into the spotlight to coordinate against these civilizations?”

A moment’s thought and Elder Li grasped Hanlan’s strategy.

“Exactly. We cannot sever the connection between those civilizations and their gods forever—at most, we can delay them.”

Though she was unwilling to see Earth join the fray, Yan Qiluo had no choice.

Earth had already sensed Hanlan’s movements. If she wasn’t honest now, she might not survive Ye Han’s wrath upon his return from Xiyuan Star.

So, using this opportunity, she candidly revealed Hanlan’s decision.

“If news of the collapse reaches their gods, they’ll have nothing left to lose.”

Yan Qiluo raised her hand, transmitting three miniature projections to Earth. “If our god steps forward now, we can unite with the gods of those three civilizations!”

First she threw their backyards into chaos, then played innocent, and finally exploited information asymmetry to operate in the shadows?

Su Jianbang ordered his team to open the projections Yan Qiluo had sent, unable to suppress a twitch at the corner of his eye.

This girl was ruthless—truly ruthless!

On the screens, the real-time situation in the three civilizations flickered rapidly.

It was impossible to distinguish the factions; all that was clear was that, amid shattered ruins, countless people fought desperately.

Smoke and fire filled every scene.

At this point, even dying might almost be a relief.

Because this was no longer simply a matter of war, but a humiliation of civilization itself.

Not only had they been plunged into civil war, but the most disgraceful part was that, even now, their enemies’ hands remained invisible, broadcasting every minute of their chaos without their knowledge!

And yet, Hanlan hoped to dupe the gods of these civilizations into forming an alliance with Mr. Ye?

They say the kind-hearted cannot command troops—Su Jianbang now understood why.

It was no wonder this girl could command Hanlan.

Ruthless, decisive, and venomous.

To her, lives were mere numbers; war, simply a means to an end.

Yet, even as he abhorred her methods, Su Jianbang couldn’t help but give her a silent thumbs up.