Five hundred years after Yan Xia's departure, Ella re-established contact with the Star City.
This time, the purpose was to promote the social nature of the Civilization Federation and fully support Chu's return.
Ella bound the Civilization Federation and Chu together, which, in the eyes of the Olive Branch Civilization's lifeforms, was foolish, as Chu had previously decided to destroy the Civilization Federation.
However, Ella's plan quickly made them uneasy. She elevated Chu's status by presenting her as an envoy of the universe and the third leader of the Olive Branch Civilization.
This made the leaders of the divided five Star Cities doubt one thing: Could it be that Chu had planned all of this?
Perhaps Chu had long known about the fake starry sky set up by the Civilization Federation on the Universe Silk Road, and her attack was just for show. In fact, Chu had already colluded with Yan Xia of the Civilization Federation.
But what benefit would this bring to Chu?
This was a point that couldn't be understood.
However, Ella provided them with a perfect explanation: Chu's role as the third leader.
Chu wanted to use the Civilization Federation to first destroy the Star City and then rebuild it, making the other managers believe that she had accomplished a great feat.
The lifeforms of the Olive Branch Civilization, upon understanding this, instantly hated Chu to the core and were even more determined not to release her.
But the internal strife did not end with this small incident; instead, it intensified.
As the various factions fought fiercely, the quality of the Star Cities decreased, and the production of energy also declined.
In the years following the split, the total energy of the Star City had been continuously decreasing, which gave Ella an opportunity.
In one battle, Ella deployed a portion of her 6 million soldiers to openly rescue Chu.
This action was quickly discovered, and those soldiers were crushed.
The leader of that Star City promptly dispatched more troops to guard the Quality Prison and prevent Ella from rescuing Chu again.
Her opponents seized this opportunity to launch a large-scale attack and gained some advantages in the battle.
At this moment, Ella, taking advantage of her opponent's joy in winning a small victory, threw a black hole bomb into the interior of their Star City.
The Purple Thorn Civilization had used this weapon when dealing with Yan Xia and the Kate Tribe, but the Civilization Federation had not produced any since then.
The efficiency of this weapon was too low, and its use was limited.
The black holes they could create now were not very large and existed only for a short time.
Previously, when Ella sent a large number of inferior spaceships, they only managed to destroy three battleships of the Star City, and that was by surprise.
Therefore, the Civilization Federation's current black hole weapons are mainly used for precise strikes.
For example, destroying fast communication equipment.
This tactic of attacking one place while aiming elsewhere caught both sides off guard, causing the Olive Branch Civilization's research on fast communication to stall.
The five Star Cities were all furious.
The originally w fighting sides even negotiated a ceasefire.
Due to Ella's actions, there was even a brief period of peace among the five Star Cities.
However, Ella also took advantage of this moment of peace to lift the control over the 6 million soldiers, allowing the machines in their bodies to enter the Star City and rescue Chu, just as they had done with Yan Xia.
...
The Quality Prison was like a scorching hell.
The room where Chu had imprisoned Yan Xia was set up by her, and although she used energy to suppress Yan Xia's actions, the environment inside was very suitable for humans.
However, the room where Chu was imprisoned did not have such treatment. She had been locked up here for a very long time.
The lifeforms of the Olive Branch Civilization had no concept of time, as their nature was mechanical, and to understand time, they had to connect to a device specifically designed for time observation.
Outside, Chu only needed to connect to the Star City's intranet.
But here, she was deprived of this right.
The mechanical lifeforms had no concept of sleep, so Chu was always awake, waiting as a savior of justice, or a savior of destiny, for the day when she would be favored and could find an opportunity to escape from here.
Chu herself thought this was foolish, but it was the only thing she could do.
However, she never expected that this day would actually come.
Some mechanical components integrated into her body, providing her with anti-energy.
Without time to think, Chu, who had been trapped for so long, used this energy to break out of the room and directly escape from there.
She was fed up with staring at the scorching darkness every day.
However, as soon as she left, an alarm was triggered. Originally, Chu was not considered important, and without any rights, she wasn't even worthy of having an alarm.
But after Ella said she would rescue Chu, an additional alarm was installed.
This was not unintentional.
Ella wanted the Shared Consciousness Cluster to know that Chu had escaped, so that Chu would no longer believe she could hide in the Star City and wait for an opportunity.
Ella wanted Chu to rely solely on the Civilization Federation.
Everything that had been done was for one purpose: to turn the Star City's split from an external cause into an internal one.
It was all Chu's scheme, and the Civilization Federation was just following her orders.
So, when other managers of the Olive Branch Civilization's Star Cities, or the first and second leaders, intervened, they would not direct their anger towards the Civilization Federation.
When Chu sensed that the small machines in her body were luring her to a place where she saw a small rectangular box, she became aware of these things.
Who would come to rescue her at this time?
It couldn't be any individual from the Shared Consciousness Cluster.
So it could only be Yan Xia or the Civilization Federation.
After leaving, she became the shield of the Civilization Federation.
But she had to do this.
Because without leaving, there would be absolutely no chance.
The Olive Branch Civilization had autonomous management of the Star Cities, and Yan Xia might not have understood this deeply, but Chu did.
Other Star Cities would only provide assistance when one Star City was facing external invasion and couldn't hold on.
Internal strife would not be resolved, and instead, many Star City managers, as well as the first and second leaders, hoped for the strife to continue so that they could study it.
Yan Xia might have never noticed that when the Olive Branch Civilization transitioned from flesh-and-blood lifeforms to mechanical lifeforms, the scale of individuals was not very large, only in the billions.
But now, a single Star City had nearly a billion individuals.
These individuals were not born from machines and machines; they were created.
So, the Olive Branch Civilization would not feel sad for the death of any individual because if one was lost, they would just create another.
The so-called morality, compassion, and anger in the Civilization Federation had a different set of standards in the Olive Branch Civilization.
Therefore, this internal strife would not prompt any other Star City managers to rescue Chu.
They would only wait for the end of the internal strife and the beginning of a new round of fusion, naturally giving birth to a new manager.
This manager might be able to transcend the role of a manager and become a leader who would benefit the entire Olive Branch Civilization.
Chu entered the box.
"It seems like we can only keep going down this path," she said.