"What do we do? How could she agree? How will she explain this to her family?" Li Yali exploded the moment Irina accepted Liu Hai's plan. This wasn't their goal at all!
At this stage, obtaining a Life Planet would be suicidal. With the Starsea Fleet consisting of barely over a dozen small warships, encountering any Katon Exploration Fleet alone would mean writing their wills in advance.
That's why Liu Hai and Li Yali had initially agreed on the opposite approach—trading all their gains to Irina's family in exchange for liquid funds to expand the fleet. That was their top priority.
The overt confrontation had only been a roundabout way of hinting that the deal could be reversed. But Irina had genuinely taken the bait.
Now, Liu Hai couldn't just say, "I don't actually want these things, I just want warships." That would hand the initiative to Irina, and what he'd ultimately gain would become uncertain.
So when Irina asked Liu Hai for his solution, he had no choice but to go along with the mistake, though privately, he and Li Yali were in turmoil.
He truly didn't have the capital to develop a Life Planet. While there were plenty in the Federation eager to throw money at him for development, it would come at a cost.
With the Pyramid Core in his possession, Liu Hai had never considered trading access for resources. Wouldn't selling Armament in the future be far more profitable? There would still be plenty willing to offer resources in exchange—why make things difficult for himself?
The two of them spent a long time in the virtual lounge without coming up with a practical solution. Selling to the Federation was an option, but Liu Hai had plans to develop in the Third Spiral Arm.
With the Xue family currently drawing the Katun Civilization's fire, he had a favorable environment for steady growth. If he dragged the military into this, the surrounding thousands of light-years would be under their watch. How could he quietly develop his technology then?
Liu Hai and Irina hastily made a verbal agreement before returning to their respective fleets.
It wasn't time to terminate the deal yet—Liu Hai's Exploration Fleet hadn't even finished surveying the surrounding star systems, and the homeworld of that Humanoid Civilization still hadn't surfaced.
"This is giving me a headache. What on earth was Irina thinking? Didn't you say core family members always prioritize their family's interests? This doesn't add up at all!" Back on the transport ship, Liu Hai pulled Li Yali aside to discuss Irina's bizarre reaction.
Li Yali was equally frustrated. As the fleet commander, she had clearance to access some of Liu Hai's secrets, with the same authority as the executive director on Kono Administrative Star. Some of the technical and scientific data were also disclosed to her.
During the journey, she had been thinking about how to leverage Liu Hai's inexplicably advanced scientific theories to strengthen their position. Fully developing these theories, which differed from the Federation's existing technological framework, could undoubtedly turn them into another interstellar powerhouse.
But all of this hinged on one thing: money.
Over the past few years, the Star Sea Group had indeed developed some mid-to-low-end products using those technical blueprints, but the profits weren't as high as Liu Hai had imagined. The reason? They lacked their own factories, sales channels, and sufficient R&D processes.
Originally, her thinking had aligned perfectly with Liu Hai's—earn money first, use it to build a fleet, and with a fleet, they could secure a few resource-rich star systems. Then, they could develop however they wanted.
Liu Hai's initial thoughts aligned with Li Yali's—once they had a fleet, they could accelerate resource collection to expand the Pyramid Core's production capacity. With increased capacity, they could build their own Shipyard to manufacture warships.
Yet all these rosy plans were wiped away by Irina's single question: "Do you have any solutions?"
"Irina might have ambitions of independence, or perhaps her elders are considering branching off from the main family to establish a subsidiary lineage," Li Yali mused, convinced her speculation was likely true. After all, it was common for large families to split into branches.
Liu Hai slumped back in resignation. "Then what should we do next? Actually develop a Life Planet? There's already a civilization there—I can't bring myself to harm a Humanoid Civilization."
Li Yali pondered for a moment. "It's not entirely impossible. Based on existing data, that Humanoid Civilization may already be extinct, and the culprit might be related to that Shadow Creature."
"Besides, we don't need to immediately develop the planet for colonization. The fact that a Third-level Civilization emerged there suggests the surrounding mineral resources are abundant. We can focus on exploiting those resources instead."
"You once said that as long as we have resources, we have the means to build and grow. Doesn't this align perfectly with your goals? Even if the lack of liquid assets slows our early development and risks drawing the Katon Fleet's attention, as long as we deploy detectors across a range of dozens of light-years for early warnings, we can avoid a lot of trouble."
Liu Hai nodded. This was the only way forward now. Though it didn't match his original vision of overwhelming resource accumulation for rapid growth, he hadn't expected to get entangled with these families when he first left the Kono Star Region—trading a Life Planet for resources was never part of the plan.
Now, he was simply returning to his original starting point.
"Human ambition always grows unchecked," Liu Hai sighed. "Once better options appear, past plans are discarded like worn-out shoes."
After a moment of reflection, he made up his mind. "Let's proceed this way. Keep an eye on the space station and extract as much information as possible from its databases. Ideally, we should pinpoint the spatial coordinates of that Humanoid Civilization."
"Taking more time isn't necessarily bad. Growing too fast can be dangerous—without a solid foundation, we'd just be building castles in the air."
With their decision made, the two went about their respective tasks. Meanwhile, on the other side, Elena pressed Irina for answers.
"You're saying your grandfather wants to break away from the family and establish a branch? Since when? How come I never heard about this?" Elena was shocked. As employees of the Elizabeth family, her lineage had served them for over two thousand years.
Generation after generation, their privileges had grown to rival those of core family members, granting them access to classified information almost immediately. Yet this news had never reached her ears.
Faced with her childhood friend's relentless questioning, Irina could only explain helplessly, "It hasn't been openly discussed. It's just my grandfather's personal idea. Besides, the main family wouldn't tolerate anyone undermining their efforts at this stage—they wouldn't support it."
"But if we truly secure full control over that stealth technology this time, my grandfather might really go through with it. And he wouldn't take any of the family's shared assets with him."
"But that's a Life Planet! How can the benefits be equivalent to just a concealment technology?" Elena was still unwilling to give up. Having a Life Planet was merely the basic requirement to become a Lord, but without one, you wouldn't even meet the fundamental criteria.