"Once this colonist is granted a title, according to the Empire’s law, his place of origin will be counted as lying within my Nanxiang Star Cluster, and his fief will also be in the Nanxiang Star Cluster. He will become the second Earl within the Nanxiang Star Cluster. That’s not good for me; I need to think of a way."

How could one allow another to sleep soundly beside one’s own couch? How could Liu An, who was eager to become a Marquis, possibly resign himself to that. As he muttered to himself, cold light flashed in his eyes, a murderous gleam fully revealed.

Liu An had not expected that this colonial return fleet he had completely abandoned would actually bring him such a great surprise.

He recalled what had happened ten years ago.

At that time, this fleet had once requested aid from him. He refused.

"If back then I had agreed and dispatched an escort fleet... Forget it. The distance between the end of the Tenglong Nebula–South Nine Star passage and here is three light years; even at the fastest, it would take fifteen years to arrive, so we wouldn’t have made it in time anyway. This military merit was never going to fall to me."

Thinking this way, he felt a little better.

Since the current outcome was not caused directly by his own mistake, it wasn’t quite so hard to swallow. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"How could this Mother Empress Ship be so stupid as to actually leave behind Giant Reproductive Cells. Whatever. Even if this colonist becomes an Earl, I can still press him down, after all I am the Nanxiang Marquis. There are still some scattered, remote places in the Nanxiang Star Cluster that can be used to fob him off. Of course, I can also move ahead of his investiture..."

Even if Ren Zhong became a hereditary Earl, he would not receive his fief immediately.

Ren Zhong still needed to remain for a period in the Southern Nine Star System with the commoners from Source Star, to undergo the Empire’s observation and review, to determine whether this earldom had come to him purely by luck, and whether he was worth cultivating as a key figure.

Merit must be rewarded, but rewards also come in different ranks.

Only Earls with promise and potential are qualified to obtain rich Star Systems with planets holding plenty of easily exploitable resources.

After all, every Star System that has not yet been enfeoffed is private property of the Royal Family. If you want to carve meat from the Royal Family’s rice bowl, you must demonstrate your value.

If, during the assessment period, Ren Zhong is firmly suppressed and achieves nothing, and is ultimately judged to be a mediocre man with no prospects for cultivation, then even as an Earl he would only be a high-ranking pensioner, nothing to be feared.

"I am the Nanxiang Marquis; when the time comes, the assessment report on this colonist must pass through my hands. I can first have Viscount Nan Jiu Sosgate press him down a bit. Things are not that bad after all."

A moment later, the Nanxiang Star Cluster’s deputy minister of military and political affairs, who knew Liu An’s temperament well, took the initiative to knock on the comms line and reported an important piece of intelligence.

It turned out that not long ago Ren Zhong had once used the Source Star Super Network Node to initiate an active query to the Empire Super Network, with the target of the query being the transmission speed of information flow—an extremely abnormal request. Subsequently, the Empire Super Network attempted to take over the Source Star Super Network Node in order to verify the data, but the link was cut.

This was a point of suspicion.

On the surface it seemed harmless, but the question asked via the Source Star Node was too peculiar, and the act of cutting the link was also out of line with normal practice. This appeared to be something that could be spun into a story—at the very least, some dirty water could be splashed on this colonist who had suddenly stolen the limelight.

Liu An was very satisfied with the deputy minister’s proposal and was just about to take action when he immediately received a proactive explanation from the Source Star Super Network Node.

According to Ren Zhong’s own account, at that time the Source Star Fleet had already been subjected to light interference from an Ascender Patrol Team, causing a slight drop in the stability of information-flow communications.

Ren Zhong personally misjudged the constants in the external environment, and, because he was overly nervous, he commissioned the Source Star Node to make a query to verify whether something abnormal had occurred in the information-flow communications.

As for the act of cutting the link, it was attributed to interference from the Level‑4 Mother Empress ambush operations unit "Chaos."

After reading these reports, Liu An pondered for a moment. "Forget it, leave it at that for now. Allocate a hundred spiral‑class Fast Shuttle Ships to form a special‑operations fleet. Have them cross the Shattered Star Ring and head to the outer boundary of the Black Mist Zone to prepare to receive the Source Star return fleet and provide escort for this new Earl."

When he spoke the last words, "provide escort," he instinctively put extra weight on them; the murderous gleam in his pupils flashed and vanished, returning to calm once more.

...

Meanwhile, Sun Ai had completed her preparations ahead of schedule. After giving the towed Source Mercury a thorough cleanup, she temporarily transferred her main core program to the Source Star pseudo‑net, keeping only a single concealed, dedicated line to maintain a one‑to‑one link with Ren Zhong.

From that moment, the Source Mercury construct became a true "net." But this de facto Viscount, Ren Zhong, out of a personal streak of dark humor, gave the Source Star Super Network Node a highly anthropomorphic name, also calling it "Little Ai."

Sun Ai said in Ren Zhong’s mind, "Uncle, I’ve completed the disguise. The Empire Super Network can now carry out a takeover‑level scan and audit of the node."