Starting from the Planetary Governor

Chapter 1340: Chapter 765

The system’s recognition of the Spear of the Dragon King brought the greatest benefit to Gu Hang, in that he gained a limit of two thousand genetic seeds for exchange.

Every battle group recognized by the system and obeying Gu Hang would provide him with an exchange limit of two thousand genetic seeds.

No matter how these seeds were created, whether through his exchanges or from existing interstellar warriors themselves, the total number of such seeds, once it reaches or exceeds two thousand, would mean Gu Hang could no longer exchange for new ones—although self-generation could exceed the limit.

The genetic seeds of the Spear of the Dragon King are named the ’Giant Dragon Legion Genetic Seeds.’ They aren’t inferior, but unlike the Phoenix which exhibited some differences from the parent group’s Phoenix seeds and thereby got renamed.

After all, their military founding was not that long ago.

But that’s not a bad thing; the Giant Dragon seeds are quite good.

The Dragon King Spear commands a thousand slots itself, and the remaining thousand slots mean if Gu Hang wishes, he could pull out a new battle group.

But he didn’t do so.

He couldn’t quite afford it.

Moreover, with seeds available, he can bolster the ranks of interstellar warriors quickly now. As long as he’s willing to spend Gift Points, emergency reinforcements can be raised as needed.

The only remaining battle group, the Blood Shark, has the most unique situation.

In wartime, they are excellent comrades. Historical events show this battle group to be notably unruly, but upon actual contact, it’s clear that as long as their traditions are respected, they are quite decent, and follow orders well, with no incidences of defiance—even when sent into particularly difficult and formidable battles, they bear no complaints.

This seems inconsistent with rumors, making one wonder if the rumors were mistaken, or if Youwin’s reforms as the new Battle Group Leader were indeed effective, changing the group’s atmosphere.

Gu Hang leans towards the latter view.

There is evidence to support this.

Within the Blood Shark Battle Group, many members, which were later supplemented with new recruits, were from the Alliance.

Apart from those groups with specific origin requirements for recruits, ship-based battle groups that enlist from all around would hardly turn away fresh blood offered by the Alliance. The reason being, the quality of Alliance recruits is too high, whether in terms of success rates for genetic seed implantation surgeries, immediate combat capability after becoming full recruits, or their future potential, all are exemplary.

Even though Youwin was initially inclined to suppress, subtly and vaguely downplaying the status of Alliance recruits within the battle group, he found it hard to suppress them, as these new recruits from the Alliance performed exceptionally well. If it was just a bit stronger, it could be suppressed; significantly stronger, it could be forcibly handled; but what to do when a group collectively excels?

Even without any pretense of fairness, it’s challenging to silence people. Some veteran Blood Sharks even admired the new recruits and stood up for them.

These new recruits from the Alliance naturally heard a lot about the upper management of Blood Shark themselves.

And then, informed the Alliance.

Whether this is disloyal to the battle group… these Blood Shark soldiers from the Alliance didn’t think so. They’ve all undergone commissar training; in their hearts, their ultimate loyalty lies with the Alliance, and that hasn’t changed; secondly, they don’t see this as detrimental to the battle group; on the contrary, fighting under the Alliance’s banner seemed most loyal to them.

They also handle matters rather discreetly, never actively probing about anything, just passively overhearing a lot within the battle group; then, conveying pieces when it’s safe, and not forcing anything when not.

Overall, up to now, Youwin seems not to have discovered this.

Consequently, Gu Hang relatively clearly grasped some of Youwin’s thoughts.

Within Blood Shark, not everything was monolithic. Led by Battle Group Leader Youwin, there is a reformist faction, who strongly advocate for ending the millennia-long nomadic life in the Dark Outer Domain, questioning why the battle group has no right to walk in the light?

The Dark Outer Domain is indeed too perilous, even if the Blood Shark has full experience, they’ve lived like this for a millennium, yet unless the situation changes, the future will only grow tougher. Indeed, Blood Shark hasn’t been at full strength for a long while.

His views gradually became mainstream and formed a consensus internally. The conservatives were either cleansed or gave up their resistance, following the crowd.

Now, the powers at the top of the Blood Shark Battle Group, from the Battle Group Leader to the Intelligence Director to the Chaplain, are all reformists.

But there are still a few old traditionalist veterans.

They can’t stir any significant trouble, mostly just airing grievances, spreading tales of past traditions to the new recruits from the Alliance in ordinary grumblings.

View glimpses of the whole from a part, letting Gu Hang understand, all of Youwin’s motives stem from this—to give the battle group’s future more brightness.

Also due to this reason, the Blood Shark has been quite restless after the war. They didn’t reject the terms offered by the Alliance, but neither did they accept it outright, their stance ambiguous.

Towards the end of the war, they were constantly engaging with various external powers.

On this trip to Holy Terra, Youwin himself came along, wanting to see if there were better avenues outside.

After all, during the Iron Armor War, the combat power demonstrated by the Blood Shark was quite strong, earning them distinction, so naturally, they could be negotiated for a good price.

Indeed, certain powers offered Blood Shark a rather good price.

As far as Gu Hang knows, the highest bid came from none other than Prime Minister Qi Bodu.

A planet with a development level of 3 and 40 billion inhabitants can serve as Blood Shark’s homeworld.

This price equals that of the Phoenix.

More crucially, giving Korolya III to Phoenix was because Korolya III was originally part of the Alliance, so for the Empire, it’s like rewarding Alliance soldiers with something that already belonged to them, effectively only paying 14 billion in tax subsidies.

However, granting Blood Shark an equivalent planet involves far more than just tax exemption. The entire wealth value of the planet is substantial. Within the Prime Minister’s faction, the additional production value of the planet, bureaucratic positions, and political influence would all be transferred to Blood Shark.

The cost is indeed substantial.

But it still couldn’t satisfy Youwin’s baseline.

He came for better treatment for the battle group—can holding a planet with a 12 billion annual tax basis support or even grow Blood Shark?

Probably not.

If he accepted these conditions, he then would have to, like any normal battle group, spend a prolonged time expanding the group’s influence, establishing a domain with the home planet at its center, radiating half or an entire Star Domain, involving many planets contributing to the group.

Only by reaching such a state could the return truly satisfy Blood Shark’s needs.

Of course, having a developed planet with a 12 billion annual tax basis as a homeworld is a particularly good starting point on this path.

But compared to the benefits of continuing with the Alliance, it seems insufficient.

Money, the Alliance would directly provide enough, far beyond 12 billion annually, without them having to painstakingly expand influence, avoiding potential clashes with other battle groups, and staying clear of various political disputes.

Plus the Alliance’s powerful productivity, excellent recruits, and how the Alliance Army can directly serve as allied forces during battle group operations without needing to maintain a massive auxiliary army themselves…

Considering all these conditions, Youwin weighed them, probed around, and found that Prime Minister Qi Bodu wasn’t keen on raising the offer—adding more funds would suffice for him to directly allocate authority to form a few new battle groups, why bother sustaining Blood Shark?

Under such circumstances, Youwin ultimately made the decision not to waver anymore, to follow the Alliance honestly.

And at this point, in Gu Hang’s hands