This is not mechanical ascension.

"I have no choice. For the sake of confidentiality." Raphael explained with a smile, "Please forgive me."

This book was first published on the Internet by 𝕥𝕨𝕜𝕒𝕟.𝕔𝕠𝕞

Although the words sound good, they don't provide any solution.

Mikhail couldn't help but frown and said, "With such a strong delay, we can't carry out related auxiliary research work."

"No need." The dull response surprised several people. The person who spoke was not Raphael, but Tandin who was standing beside him.

His face was solemn, and his eyes swept over the mechanical bodies of the three people without restraint. Although he did not release his own life force, he had a kind of imposing aura:

"You don't need to do any research, and you don't even need to meet the owners. You just need to provide us with some advice when we need it, or help us repair something."

"Suggestions? Repair things?" Reynolds was slightly stunned. He looked unhappy on the highly camouflaged mechanical body. "What do you mean by this? Do you think we are repairmen?"

"Even if it's the Empire, it's a bit too arrogant."

This is not the Red River Star Stream, their bodies are safe, and Reynolds spoke very rudely.

Even Mikhail's face darkened. When they came here, they had discussed it and had already figured out that the Empire and the Federation would not allow them to access the core secrets of the Overlord-class corpse.

But I didn't expect that they wouldn't even be allowed to have any contact with us, and were treated as decorations.

Tandin's expression was still indifferent: "There's no need to pretend to be so angry. This matter is of great importance. You came here in mechanical bodies and didn't care about this matter. Do you expect to get to know more secrets?"

"Ha—" Reynolds laughed angrily, "If that's the case, then there's no need for us to cooperate. Why don't we just go our separate ways?"

"No." Tan Ding said in a dull voice, "The cooperation was finalized at the beginning. Are you sure you want to withdraw now?"

"I wonder if you three can afford the cost of ending our cooperation?"

Tan Ding spoke in an unfriendly tone. Li Ming frowned slightly. He couldn't figure out what the other party wanted to do. He didn't want him to join or leave.

Reynolds sneered: "The price? At worst, we'll all be finished together and turn this galaxy upside down!"

Tandin's eyes suddenly looked over, exuding an extremely dangerous aura, and he spoke word by word: "You,

Sure?"

Reynolds was about to speak, but was stopped by Mikhail, whose attitude was much softer:

"Mr. Tandin, we are not going to end our cooperation, but you and I are both well aware of the current situation.

We will never leak anything, and there is no need for this superficial cooperation to continue."

"It's really not necessary." Tandin said indifferently, "But if we insist on maintaining this superficial cooperation, I wonder if the three of you are ready to cooperate?"

Li Ming's heart was slightly moved. Was Tandin forcing them to bow their heads, or in other words - testing them?

The main universe is not the Red River Star Stream, and the Empire and the Federation actually have very few means to check and balance the three great masters.

The Mechanics Guild has already been incorporated into the Interstellar Alliance, so it is no longer possible to use this as a bargaining chip.

If the butcher knife is raised again, regardless of the reputation of the Imperial Federation, there will be more things involved and it will not be that simple.

Perhaps the Empire and the Federation also want to see if the three of them have any other ideas.

Is it just a verbal attack today? He speculated in his heart, but he didn't say anything.

"What a great prestige." Reynolds sneered, "If we say we won't cooperate, will you declare war on us immediately?"

"I tell you, I, Reynolds, will never go back on my word. The reputations of the other two master craftsmen are not bad either."

"If you don't trust us, you can just send someone to kill us directly, instead of resorting to such petty tricks."

Mikhail didn't stop Reynolds this time.

Even though he is the most thoughtful person, what he wants most now is to restore the mechanical evolution path of the Holy Spirit Civilization as soon as possible.

Instead of focusing on this household and making a fuss about it.

However, this research on the path of mechanical evolution is also their internal secret and cannot be exposed to the Empire and the Federation.

"You've said too much. Just one sentence: will you cooperate or not?" Tan Ding said indifferently.

Reynolds glared and was about to refute when he was interrupted again. This time it was not Mikhail.

"Why did you start arguing?"

Alves, tall and handsome, appeared at the dock port with a warm smile.

The tail of the white robe dragged on the polished metal floor.

If you look closely, you can see that the tail of the robe is actually floating on the floor with a tiny gap.

The good guy came. Li Ming's heart moved slightly, but he kept silent, wanting to see how the other party was going to play this role.

Alvis walked over slowly and said helplessly, "The atmosphere is so tense, and Mr. Tandin is still so explosive. Rafael, why don't you stop him?"

Raphael smiled bitterly and made way.

"Humph," Reynolds sneered. Even he didn't think Alves was here just to ease the situation.

I couldn't help but say:

"We were talking peacefully in the Red River Star Stream, but who knew he would be so different when he came out."

"There's no need for us to get involved, but why is this guy not allowed to leave?"

"We would have leaked this secret a long time ago if we wanted to. The interstellar space is still calm until now. You must know how many people are watching this matter."

"Of course I know." Alvis said in a warm tone, "We naturally believe in the credibility of the three of you. After returning from the Red River Star Stream, Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Mikhail have been very honest and have not been active in the interstellar space."

"Hmm, it should be in the Beilan Vortex Meteor Belt. What are they researching?"

After the words fell, even Li Ming was slightly surprised.

The coordinates of the Godcrafter Laboratory are near the Beilan Vortex Meteor Belt, which is a special starscape in the universe.

It was leaked?

Although these are not the specific coordinates, since we have already talked about it to this point, they are not far off.

To build the laboratory, they should have used mechanical bodies created by the two of them. Needless to say, the level of confidentiality was very high, so how could it have been leaked?

Mikhail's eyes moved, his expression didn't change much, but his heart was already in turmoil. At this moment, he even suspected Qinglong.

But he quickly dismissed this speculation. Disclosing the coordinates would do no good to Qinglong and would only put him at risk.

Only Reynolds' expression changed the most, and he asked in a deep voice: "Are you monitoring us?"

"Don't get me wrong, I just found out by chance." Alvis explained calmly, but then added: "Of course I'm also very curious, what kind of thing could make the two master craftsmen stay together for such a long time?"

"The ruins of the Holy Spirit Civilization?" At this point, Alves's eyes had already turned to Qinglong, and he asked tentatively: "The little secret of revival?"

Li Ming sighed inwardly. No one was idle. The Empire and the Federation were always worried about these three unstable factors.

People from both the Empire and the Federation participated in the exploration of the ruins of the Holy Spirit Civilization and knew the so-called little secret of the Protoss, which was obtained by Li Ming.

"This has nothing to do with you." Mikhail said indifferently.

"Of course it's related." Alves smiled, "We have to know what it is.

It has delayed the cooperation between the three of you and us, and you are even unwilling to send your main body."

"Of course, we just want to know and have no intention of interfering," Alves added.

This is a way to give each other leverage. Li Ming finally understood what the purpose of this scene was.

He didn't care, but Reynolds and Mikhail obviously couldn't accept it. "Impossible!" Reynolds shouted categorically, and then looked around, "We refuse, what are you going to do, knock on our door directly?"

"Then the three of us will accompany you to the end and show Xingji what a master craftsman is!"

"What a courage!" Alvis clapped his hands and said, "It doesn't have to be that serious. Kelans, South Wind Galaxy, Gubaoer Star, and Lenatit are all strongholds with the strongest defenses. Even if we attack them,

The loss is probably not small.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Reynolds' mechanical pupils stared at Alvis, and the energy engine in his chest roared.

Mikhail couldn't help himself and his expression suddenly changed.

Hmm? Could this be their base?

Li Ming noticed the reactions of the two people and couldn't help but make some speculations.

Even a cunning rabbit has three burrows, let alone Reynolds and Mikhail. They have countless bases and even branch bases.

But there must be some that are light and some that are heavy, and some core bases carry most of their secrets and power.

The thing that could make Mikhail lose his composure like this must be the core base.

Mikhail tried his best to calm down and narrated slowly, "These two bases stopped exchanging materials with the outside world more than 2,000 years ago and became self-sufficient."

"Even in the past, confidentiality was extremely high, and I always thought no one knew."

"As expected of the Empire and the Federation."

Mikhail felt disappointed as all his savings had been drained out.

Four coordinates, two of which are his base coordinates,

The other two should belong to Reynolds and Mikhail respectively.

Reynolds had the support of Forge Hammer at the beginning, and basically did not need external resources. It is understandable that not much was leaked.

The fact that Qinglong can be found is already quite secretive.

At the beginning, he needed to seek cooperation everywhere and had to contact too many people, so if one more coordinate was leaked, he could figure it out.

Alves kept smiling. "Two thousand years is not too far away. We may have some information that even you have forgotten."

Reynolds stopped talking, his face looked extremely ugly, and one could even hear a buzzing sound coming from inside the carrying machine.

He also understood Alves' subtext, these were just what they said, and perhaps there were more they didn't say.

What was even more difficult for him to accept was that he had leaked one more information than Mikhail. This guy hid it so deeply that the coordinates of the base were exactly the same as those leaked by Qinglong.

Li Ming watched quietly, feeling emotional. The internal structure of an empire-level civilization was extremely bloated, but it was not without its benefits.

They might even set up a department specifically for a newly emerging force or person, and then have it exist for thousands of years with the sole purpose of collecting relevant data and information.

As the importance of the goal increases, more and more resources can be mobilized.

The confidentiality level of these coordinates is naturally extremely high now, but in the initial stage, it may not matter.

The atmosphere was silent. Reynolds and Mikhail remained silent. They had thousands of years of accumulation under their hands, but once their lair was found and various electromagnetic interference equipment was set up, most of the mechanical bodies would become scrap metal.

Mikhail became even more uneasy and thought more. At this moment, would the Empire and the Federation have already deployed troops outside?

"Cooperate or not, speak or not?" Tan Ding spoke again, his tone still indifferent.

"Hmm," Li Ming groaned, pretending to be confused and asking, "What do these coordinates mean?"

Mikhail looked at it suddenly, his heart stagnating for a moment, a gleam of light flashing in his mechanical pupils, which was a little unbelievable. How could there be no Qinglong base among them?

As soon as Qinglong opened his mouth, he understood that the other two places belonged to Reynolds and there was no base of Qinglong at all.

He is so powerful. The Empire’s Federation takes him seriously, but they still haven’t found his base?

Reynolds was a little slow to react, but he also came to his senses and asked, "The remaining two, are they all Lao Mi's?"

The smile on Alves' face faded slightly.

Qinglong was the most difficult one. We had investigated thoroughly but found almost nothing.

Even if it is a backup of Forging Hammer's consciousness, it is impossible that it has no intersection with the interstellar space, and resources cannot appear out of thin air.

The resource throughput of the Mechanical Royal Court has not been much so far, and a considerable portion of it has been converted into mechanical bodies.

Alves was silent for a moment, then showed his signature smile again: "Last time I heard that Li Ming was kidnapped, I didn't have time to ask him, is he not injured?"

"Li Ming?" Li Ming said his name with a hint of amusement. He chuckled twice, paused, and laughed again: "Ha."

The laughter grew louder and louder, and Li Ming's own laughter echoed throughout the empty dock.

Alves laughed until his expression became restrained and expressionless.

Tandin laughed so hard that his brows were furrowed and his eyes were grim.

However, Reynolds felt as if he had someone to rely on and sneered silently.

Mikhail breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the Empire and the Federation really had no way to deal with Qinglong.

Even Li Ming took it out.

Amid the laughter, Alvis felt a nameless anger rising, and his calm attitude disappeared. He said coldly: "Sir Qinglong, is there anything so funny?"

They did not find Qinglong's base or any clues, but they were not completely helpless.

Li Ming's voice gradually subsided, and he shook his head and said, "Nothing, I just want to laugh when I think of how many fish I have caught with Li Ming's bait."

Fish? Alves' temples throbbed.

"Li Ming is fine, you don't have to worry. Besides..." He paused, and everyone's eyes were on him.

When he spoke again, his voice was extremely cold. "Some things can be said directly. I understand your concerns, but as Reynolds said, we promised it in the first place and we will not regret it."

"You all know the Star Alliance's affairs some time ago. I am very grateful to the Empire and the Federation for speaking out for justice."

"But at the same time, the Star Alliance also gave me a blank check. As long as I tell them, I can ask for any conditions."

Li Ming spoke without hesitation. No one would verify such things anyway.

The camp sound died down and the surroundings remained silent. Li Ming looked around and even Alvis and Tandin were a little afraid to look him in the eye.

Suddenly, Li Ming's voice became several degrees higher: "But, I refused, so the Star Alliance is so calm now!"

"If you're still worried, no matter what you want to do, I, Qinglong, will accompany you to the end!"