122: Chapter 122 Jun Xiao

In this vast starry sky, the Human Race is naturally not the only race; the myriad races of the starry sky come in all sorts of strange shapes and forms.

At least this new map is not a "ruined start" scenario where the Human Race is merely a plaything for some other race; in fact, given the current strength of the Human Federation, it can be considered top-tier among all the myriad races of the starry sky.

In the early days of the starry sky, the strength of a race was determined by the power of its Cultivators. Because of this, ten million years ago, all races across the starry sky were focused on developing methods to Cultivate.

It wasn't until ten million years ago, when the first sparks of spiritual energy arrays and starship industry were ignited by the Beast Race, that the era of pure Cultivators was officially brought to an end.

When Beast Race soldiers piloted the first starships into battle, everyone knew that the era of pure Cultivators had been thoroughly terminated.

The Beast Race thus leapt to become one of the most powerful races in the entire starry sky.

Fortunately, the Human Race did not fall too far behind. Initially, the Human Race was split into several factions, but one hundred thousand years ago, the Human Emperor Jun Mo emerged, using iron-fisted tactics to unify the entire Human Race and establish the Human Federation.

Now, the Federation's territory spans over tens of thousands of light-years. The Federation's military is primarily composed of cutting-edge battle fleets, with a total of over six trillion active warships.

They are categorized by function into four main classes: Gravity Ships, Spiritual Heavy Cruisers, Star Domain Destroyers, and Star Torpedo Boats.

Among them, the three thousand Gravity Ships serve as the core of the entire fleet. Their hulls incorporate the most advanced Starry Sky Array; some smaller races could be wiped off the face of the starry sky by relying on just a single Gravity Ship.

Furthermore, the entire Federation possesses a complete technological system, ranging from the foundational purification of spiritual crystals and engraving of Formation patterns to the high-end construction of Gravity Ships and the deployment of Star Domain-level grand arrays, forming a fully autonomous, closed-loop spiritual industrial system.

It is precisely because the Federation is so powerful that for the past thousand years, calls for expansion within the Federation have grown louder and louder. The military has been expanding for years, and warship production capacity has been climbing year by year.

Although the territory of tens of thousands of light-years is vast, it is clear that the Human Race is not satisfied with the status quo.

Moreover, the current Human Emperor, Jun Xiao, is a young man who is fond of grandeur and prone to nepotism, surrounded entirely by sycophants.

He believes himself to be the chosen one of destiny, convinced that he can unify the myriad races of the starry sky just as his grandfather, Jun Mo, unified the Human Race.

And soon, the opportunity arrived.

The Human Federation and the Black Obsidian Tribe have been on friendly terms for generations, serving as the Federation's most solid ally on the western side of the Star Sea.

The Black Obsidian Tribe's territory is near the Spirit Tree Tribe. With numerous internal clans and constant conflicts, they rely entirely on the Federation's military and material support to maintain stability, always following the Federation's lead in external affairs.

This year, the Black Obsidian Tribe's young Clan Chief, Merke, took his wife to inspect a border garrison star. The intention was to appease the border tribes and demonstrate the tribe's majesty, but they were ambushed on the route entering the city.

Merke and his wife were killed on the spot, and none of the accompanying guards survived.

Afterwards, the tokens and weapon traces left behind by the assassins all pointed to the Spirit Tree Tribe.

When the news reached Mo Star, Jun Xiao was hosting a banquet in the royal palace's inner garden.

Upon hearing this news, his eyes lit up. In his view, this was not merely an assassination, but a heaven-sent excuse for war.

Not only could he legitimately strike at the Spirit Tree Tribe, but he could also take the opportunity to expand the Federation's western territory and achieve feats surpassing those of his grandfather, Jun Mo. The sycophantic courtiers around him immediately chimed in, speaking at length about how the Spirit Tree Tribe despised the Human Race alliance and had gone too far, strongly urging the Federation to stand up for its ally and shatter the old order dominated by the Beast Race in one fell swoop.

Jun Xiao immediately summoned the envoy of the Black Obsidian Tribe and made a promise on the spot: no matter what decision the Black Obsidian Tribe made, the Human Federation would unconditionally stand behind its ally and provide support with the full strength of the entire race.

With the Federation backing them, the Black Obsidian Tribe's attitude suddenly became tough. Three days later, they submitted an ultimatum to the Spirit Tree Tribe with extremely harsh wording.

They demanded that the Spirit Tree Tribe publicly apologize, ban all anti-Black Obsidian organizations, hand over the mastermind behind the scenes, and allow the Black Obsidian Tribe to enter their territory for a thorough investigation, with a deadline of forty-eight hours to respond. These conditions had long crossed the sovereign bottom line of a race; it was clear they were forcing the Spirit Tree Tribe to refuse, thereby providing a legitimate reason to go to war.

Although the Spirit Tree Tribe did not want a full-scale war, they could not accept such humiliating terms. In the end, they only agreed to a few trivial points and firmly rejected core demands like the entry for investigation.

However, the Black Obsidian Tribe's initial demand was for the Spirit Tree Tribe to sign all these terms, so the Black Obsidian Tribe launched an attack on the Spirit Tree Tribe.

Initially, the Human Federation did not intend to join the war itself, but on the other side, the Giant Rock Race, also a great race of the starry sky, was the first to initiate racial mobilization.

Following closely, the Qiye Tribe, which was on good terms with the Giant Rock Race, also began mobilization.

Both of these were great races of the starry sky, with strength only slightly inferior to the Human Race, especially the Qiye Tribe, whose territory was right next to the Human Race.

The Giant Rock Race was close to the Spirit Tree Tribe; they knew that if the Spirit Tree Tribe were annexed, the Human Race would definitely set their sights on them, so their warships were the first to enter the territory of the Spirit Tree Tribe.

Under the pretext of supporting the allied forces, with a single decree from the Human Emperor, the massive fleet of Human warships launched an attack on the surrounding Spirit Tree Tribe.

That was over two hundred years ago, when the Human Emperor's voice spread throughout the entire Federation.

"I do not know what your beliefs are, or what your ideals may be. But at this moment, if anyone intends to ignite the flames of war toward our home, then I hereby issue this order: Humanity's sword is unsheathed today!!!"

Then, the war lasted for two hundred years, and the Human Federation lost.

In the Early Stage of the war, the Human Federation's army was indeed unstoppable.

But Jun Xiao himself was not a smart guy; one could even say he was a complete and utter fool.

His orders were never thought through, and he was prone to nepotism, replacing the experienced generals of the Federal Army with one of his childhood playmates.

The result was the destruction of an entire fleet.

He even said: "I know Li Xian's capability; this was just a mistake." Because of this, the general who had abandoned an entire army and fled back like a stray dog did not receive any punishment at all.

In fact, under Jun Xiao's orders, he was even put in command of another fleet!

Then he threw away another fleet, though this time he was not as lucky and became ashes in the starry sky.

Initially, the Federal fleet was unstoppable, pushing straight toward the core Star Domain of the Spirit Tree Tribe, but the Giant Rock Race's continuous pressure on the eastern front and the Qiye Tribe's repeated harassment on the flanks soon plunged the Federation into the quagmire of a two-front war.

In the third year of the war, the Beast Race officially entered the fray under the guise of "maintaining shipping lane order." Their main fleet completely blockaded the Federation's core external shipping lanes, cutting off the Federation's path to obtaining high-grade spiritual minerals from the outer Star Domains, thoroughly dragging this surprise attack into a protracted war of attrition based on sheer volume and consumption.

Over the two hundred years, Star Domain fortresses on all fronts changed hands repeatedly, trillions of warships turned into scrap metal in the Star Sea, and billions of Mahayana Cultivators were lost in the defensive and offensive battles.

Jun Xiao repeatedly gave blind orders for a full-scale counterattack and replaced a large number of steady, veteran generals on the eve of battle, which instead caused the Federal fleet to suffer successive crushing defeats, pointlessly exhausting the last of their elite forces.

Finally, Jun Xiao himself refused to command the war.

"This is not fun at all." This was the last sentence he said to the officer corps.

From then on, he left the front line.

Over the two hundred years, even with the Federation's complete spiritual industrial system operating at full speed, it could no longer keep up with the terrifying consumption at the front lines, and the people in the border and buffer Star Domains had long fallen into a predicament of material scarcity.

Finally, the revolution broke out.

Jun Xiao was dragged out of the royal palace.