# Chapter 2746: Silent Starry Sky!
The next moment, Qian Li's eyes suddenly widened, blood rushing upward, flushing his old face red!
The corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl up, and he tightly clenched his fists!
His spine straightened like a rod!
And his gaze toward the starry sky changed too, becoming hot, becoming fierce!
But after all, he was an old fox — the unnatural expression on his face disappeared in an instant, yet his entire aura had transformed!
No longer impatient or angry, he appeared calm and composed!
He immediately spoke:
(˶‾᷄ι_‾᷅˵) "Alright everyone! The Sequence Offensive and Defensive Battle ends here. I imagine every clan needs some time to collect themselves and tidy up their rear lines!"
"Let's all disperse. We'll meet again at the Vertex War!"
With these words, none of the clans were willing to stay any longer. After a Sequence Offensive and Defensive Battle, the rear lines were all in a mess, with a mountain of troubles waiting to be dealt with!
Some clans had their entire foundations drained clean!
And the Third Ring was irrelevant to the vast majority of races — they didn't need to busy themselves with it either!
But that didn't mean they could afford to stop paying attention!
The Vertex War would determine the final Starry Sky Sequence rankings, and these races were undoubtedly all entities with significant say!
Especially those that could enter the Top Ten of the Sequence!
Siding early, building good relations, and laying the foundation for the next ten thousand years of development was still very necessary!
Besides, no one knew how the future of the starry sky would unfold — everyone had to make multiple preparations!
There were far too many things to take care of!
As the saying goes, if a man has no long-term concerns, he will surely have short-term worries. Those who only consider the matters right in front of them generally end up in a miserable state!
The various clans collected themselves and prepared to return home, but Jiangnan quickly called out:
(ﾟ口ﾟ)ﾂ "Hey hey hey～ Don't leave yet? Now that the Offensive and Defensive Battle is over, these positions of yours have no use anymore. If they're useless, how about selling them to me? I'll trade you hostages for them!"
"I'll take ruined planets, broken weapons, second-hand broken positions! I don't mind if they're used — think about it?"
The leaders of the various races gnashed their teeth in hatred. Good grief, the Sequence Offensive and Defensive Battle had just ended!
And now you're already in the business of collecting scrap?
Don't tell me you plan to take them back, have the Apocalypse race fix them up, and then sell them as new?
And you're doing it with no capital at all — using hostages to trade, how is that even acceptable?
But no one took Jiangnan's bait. Although the positions were a bit beaten up, they could still fix them up and use them!
Gu Qiong did want to trade positions, but where the heck did the Matter Alliance even have any positions left after the beating they took?
Seeing that no one agreed, Jiangnan quickly added:
(งᵒ̌～ᵒ̌)ง "Fine, you won't sell the broken positions! What about the hostages then?"
"The Offensive and Defensive Battle is over. I have no use for these hostages anymore. Keeping them in the Matter Prison, eating my food, drinking my drinks, and having to send people every day just to beat them up — it's a complete loss!"
"Low-price clearance of all kinds of clan hostages! Affordable prices, easy to trade, not expensive — missing this is a crime! Want to negotiate again?"
"Qian Li! Don't you want to consider it? Tiffany, Nairo, Rum — all of them are in my hands! Since you're an old dying light, I'll give you a discount!"
Two veins bulged on Qian Li's forehead!
Since when the heck am I an "old dying light"?
And you have to send people to beat the hostages? Should we say "thank you for your hard work" then?
But suddenly, Qian Li smiled. Why get angry with him?
After all, he wouldn't live much longer anyway!
(͡°⇀͡°) "Heh～ Just wait and see. You'll return them to me on your own!"
With that, he gave Jiangnan a meaningful look!
"Bose Clan! We're leaving～"
Then he flicked his sleeve and led all the Bose Clan out of the Sea of Star Embers!
Tianli looked completely bewildered.
=͟͟͞͞(꒪△꒪‧̣̥̇) Just... just like that? You're not even going to take them?
He said he'd give you a discount and you still didn't consider it?
At this moment, Tianli made up his mind: even if he died, he would never fall into Jiangnan's hands!
Jiangnan frowned slightly, then curled his lip:
(￢3￢๑) "Pfft～ Return them on your own? You're old enough as it is, but you still dream of eating farts!"
Yet the gravity in his eyes didn't lessen by even half...
Could it be what I guessed?
If so... then it was truly dangerous...
Meanwhile, Gu Qiong of the Celestial Kingdom and his group came over with dark faces, forcing a smile:
꒰⸝⸝⌒ㅂ⌒‧̣̥̇⸝⸝꒱ "We... we're old customers. Does the discount you just mentioned still count?"
They didn't want to come, but after all, Gangyu and 4/5 of Gu Qiong were still in Jiangnan's hands!
Jiangnan looked disgusted:
(￢益￢ꐦ) "Discount my foot! I'll break your legs for you! If you want to trade hostages, go negotiate prices with my Carbon Alliance Sales Department!"
"Shoo shoo shoo～ Don't bother me! Carbon Alliance, withdraw! Everyone go home and tidy up. Come to the Lost Kingdom in three days for the celebration banquet, got it?"
The crowd broke out in a cold sweat. Celebrate again?
Are you going to swindle someone else this time?
The Carbon Alliance withdrew as well. Gu Qiong's face darkened. Since when the heck is there a "Carbon Alliance Sales Department"?
Are you treating hostage sales as a proper business now?
The various races left one by one. In no time, the Sea of Star Embers was completely empty!
Only scattered wreckage, black holes scattered about, and the aftermath of the great battle remained.
The starry sky silently recorded all of this...
It was called a celebration banquet, but there wasn't really anything to celebrate. Jiangnan's meaning was clear:
Let each clan settle down, then gather at the Lost Kingdom in three days for a meeting to jointly discuss follow-up action plans!
After all, the current situation of the starry sky was extremely tense. Anyone with eyes could see that the times were about to change!
Every step the Carbon Alliance took was crucial. One wrong move and it would be the end of the ship!
Humans held the Terminal, and Jiangnan was the core decision-maker of the Carbon Alliance!
The next step ultimately depended on Jiangnan!
And all of this would be decided at the Carbon Alliance Summit three days later!
Jiangnan returned to Lan Xing. He didn't do anything — the first thing was to sleep!
To be honest, Jiangnan had long been unable to hold on!
When he stopped the Two-Dimensional Fragment from expanding, he slashed more than a dozen Will Blades, later pursued causes and traced effects, consuming a massive amount of Will Force!
That's why he had fallen asleep on the battlefield!
But the humans were busy as heck. While other clans were busy reorganizing their rear lines, the humans were busy counting money!
Heaven knows how many resources Jiangnan had scooped into his pockets over the past month!
Previously, they had only roughly received them. Now, after careful sorting, they realized just how complete and massive the variety of resources was!
Their family property had increased by more than five or eight times! Far more than that!
After one Sequence Offensive and Defensive Battle, the humans were dripping with wealth. The resources needed for the Human Lingxiao Plan were no longer a concern!
What remained was to organize and distribute these resources to where they should go to play their role — and all of this needed time to digest!
Freya had never felt so rich in her life. Although it wasn't her money, it still felt good to look at!
Yao Hong's Star Cluster Fund was also busy as heck. This battle had also stripped a large number of slave races from the Bose clan and even other clans!
All these slave races had to be taken in and settled — another extremely massive project!
At the same time, the Carbon Alliance also received a huge number of membership applications!
After experiencing the Sequence Offensive and Defensive Battle, anyone could see that the Carbon Alliance had extremely promising prospects!
Compared to the Matter Alliance, Silicon, and even the Bose clan, the difference was clear!
Perhaps the Carbon Alliance wasn't the strongest in comprehensive strength, but it was definitely reliable!
After all, those who followed Jiangnan's lead this time all took off — they were all stuffed full!
There were even quite a few from the Matter Alliance secretly coming over to sign up and submit resumes!
They were definitely physically in Cao Camp but mentally with Han!
But Freya suppressed all of them without replying a single one!
Whether to expand recruitment still depended on Jiangnan's opinion!
As soon as the Offensive and Defensive Battle ended, the starry sky immediately fell silent. There was none of that fiery preparation period like before the Second Ring opened!
This was a silence that made people uneasy!
The Bose clan consolidated their forces without any special actions. They didn't even look for the Seeds of the Cosmos anymore, and they acted as if they didn't care at all about the Bose Matter that Jiangnan held!
Among the four factions, except for Tianli who still served as the Lord of the Lvzhe, the other three had all swapped in deputies to take over!
The entire Bose clan was as quiet as a sleeping beast!
It was worth mentioning that Silicon didn't cheat — they really paid the compensation from the betting agreement!
Perhaps because their rear lines were unstable and the main terminal hadn't been properly arranged, they didn't want to have any direct conflict with the Bose clan!
Silicon also had no mind to bother with other things and started a massive repair project!
Guangke Star Domain needed to be repaired again, and that Lei Chi Fourth Terminal had also been moved to the center of Guangke Star Domain!
Silicon's various offline industries across the galaxy also needed repair, and they had to face various compensations, after-sales, and claims!
The aftermath of the Watt virus rampage was enough to keep Silicon busy for a while!
As for the main terminal situation, no one knew how Silicon had dealt with it!
They would definitely change the location, but everything was being done in secret. Even the Hole Star clan, who had nearly stared their eyes blind, hadn't detected any anomalies during this period!
And although Silicon had agreed not to attack the Carbon Alliance, that didn't mean they would give up!
Their monitoring, intelligence gathering, and analysis of all Carbon Alliance member races hadn't slackened at all!
In fact, the intensity was even greater than before!
As for the network, discussions about the brilliant battles in the Sequence Offensive and Defensive Battle were still going on!
Compared to before, the number of users on the Human Star Sea Network had exploded, beginning to encroach on Silicon's Cluster Star Network market!
After all, after the Watt virus incident, Silicon's tech reputation had plummeted!
Once trust disappeared, it was hard to rebuild!
However, compared to discussing the various races' brilliant performances and highlights in the Sequence Offensive and Defensive Battle, everyone was clearly more interested in gossip about the big shots!
Some bold and handsome authors even wrote several bestselling novels based on the chaotic relationships of the Bose clan's upper echelons, such as:
"Reborn as the Lord of First Light, Conquering the Star-Devouring Troupe with Charm"
"Discovering the Goddess is a Socialite, as a Simp I Strive to Become the Strongest Lvzhe"
"About the Unspeakable Stories Between Me and the Elder Council's Wives: I, Di Chou, Refuse to Be a Little Brother!"
All of them exploded in popularity, with tons of people chasing the updates. Not only that, but the huge gossip exposed by the Watt virus was enough to keep netizens eating until they burped!
Three days passed in the blink of an eye, but Jiangnan showed no signs of waking up. He slept soundly, drool soaking the pillow!
Meanwhile, countless residents of Lan Xing stared in horror at the sky, which had churned into a giant vortex!
Σ(꒪ͦ口꒪ͦ(꒪ͦ口꒪ͦ(꒪ͦ口꒪ͦ|||)
Like a devouring giant mouth, it seemed as if the sky was about to collapse!
All the spiritual energy on Lan Xing converged madly toward the center of the vortex!
And the center of that enormous vortex was precisely the Jiuxiao Archipelago!
Jiangnan was completely unaware, still here having his spring dreams!
_(⁼ε⁼」∠)_ "Hehe～ Xuexue, don't do that～ Kiss? Let's kiss a couple more times, hehe～ Da... Da Lang Mie? You... why are you here too?"
_(⁼﹃⁼」∠)_ "This isn't good, is it? Wolf tail is so soft～ I love it～ Slurp slurp～ Mm!"
But Ai Jiang was panicking! Her elf form teleported in a flash to Jiangnan's side!
꒰ঌ❍໒꒱ "Ring ring～ Ring ring～ Master! Don't sleep! Wake up! Wake up! In a moment, Lan Xing will be destroyed!"