Chapter 4048  Expanding Reach

"You collaborated with him to get rid of this 'alien virus,'" Mother Vyia continued knowingly. "Fine. But now that that is gone, I believe that brings your collaborations to an end as well."

"That doesn't mean I want to compete with him either; he has helped me gain the insight I need to reach a higher rank of power soon," Mother Maeria remarked with a pointed tone of voice.

"Be that as it may, you shouldn't ignore the widening gulf of power between Panama and the rest of human civilization," Mother Vyia remarked. "The three thousand Martial Sages was intense enough, but ever since he broke through to the Transcendent Realm, the gap turned into a gulf."

"I don't think it's something that you should be concerned about," Mother Maeria remarked. "We are on the same side."

Mother Vyia shook her head. "I don't deny that we are on the same side, especially since the alien invasions. But that doesn't mean that we should allow ourselves to fall behind. The reality is that within the Gaian Alliance, which is taking rapid shape, power will still ultimately decide who is the biggest voice. And right now, Emperor Rui's voice is unparalleled; he essentially commands all of Gaian Civilization. That does not bode too well for our independence in the long run."

Mother Maeria wanted to protest at her younger sister's cynical analysis. But she knew that she was right to an extent. Having spent time with Rui, she knew that he wasn't exactly a saint. And indeed, the way that he subjugated the Martial World with his power was overwhelming. If he deemed it to be for the greater good, he was willing to make sacrifices.

In his defense, it had indeed proven to be for the greater good.

The Panama Continent had improved tremendously after his Void Order regime had made life for everybody better. It was why there was hardly any meaningful resistance from the public against it, even among the Martial Artists.

Those Martial Sages who did dislike his suffocating order were welcome to challenge him. If they could defeat him, they were exempt from his regime.

He hadn't lost a single battle in the past six years. His dominance was overwhelming even before he broke through to Transcendence.

But after Transcendence?

Mother Vyia's expression tightened a little as she recalled the astronomically tremendous tide of water wiping out the nebular monsters that had invaded their galaxy with the intention of destroying them. She knew that the power that he had managed to obtain would shape their entire civilization if left unchecked.

It wasn't even that she thought ill of him. The Panamans had been good to the dark elves; they were very different from elves in many ways. And the stronger Rui was than the rest of human civilization, the more influence he would have on them.

And he already had a lot of influence on them. For instance, one of the reasons that the elves had chosen to partake in the True World War despite being fundamentally pacifist in nature was due to the fact that they were influenced by Rui and the Panamans. Otherwise, they were absolutely anti-war, no matter what.

And the changes hadn't stopped there either. The events in the past decade or so since the Unfolding, had reminded everybody that power was absolute. And only the strong would get to survive, while the weak would suffer and perish.

It created an arms race for power, one that the Panamans were winning. "Even the Evolutionary Army, despite all of their potential in their next generation, has recognized that Panamic Civilization is the most powerful," Mother Vyia remarked. "Otherwise, they would have never accepted the Gaian Alliance."

She turned towards her sister. "You will need to break through to the Transcendent Realm. All civilizations will need to reach a higher rank."

Rui had been gracious enough to share his knowledge and information on the higher rank with the powerhouses of the world. Which showed that, even if he wasn't influencing the rest of Gaia, he was still operating in good faith. Then all human civilization would need to do was catch up with him and become equals instead of subordinates.

It was probably something he wished for as well, considering he was shouldering the fate of Gaian Civilization by himself.

Mother Maeria nodded with a serious expression. "I will reach the higher rank, rest assured. Once our civilization and our continent is unified. Nothing will be able to threaten nature anymore."

While the elves and the other civilizations had their own considerations on the growth and power of Panamic Civilization, the Panama Continent was moving right on.

Serun I was just the start.

It was not the only mission that the Panamic Space Organization had planned in the past six years. It wouldn't have taken them six years to plan for Project Interstellar if they were dealing with only one target. There were twenty or so star systems within a twenty light-year radius from Gaia, and the Panamic Space Organization, with the leadership of the Astromind, had made the bold decision to target all of them with twenty different missions.

The Era of Stars had arrived in full throttle, not in a slow bloom. Even as the other civilizations around Gaia accelerated their own space programs to produce interstellar space operations, the Panama Space Organization went all out with its ambitions and goals.

With the success of Pioneer I, it grew much more confident about the exploration and expansion to numerous other star systems in the interstellar district of the Milky Way Galaxy in which Sol was located. The very next day was the mission to Woodbridge 34, a star system that was ten light-years away from Sol, much further away from the Serun I star system. The day after that would be Barnard's Star.

In a series of bold expansions to star system after star system, Gaian Civilization would spread its reach across intergalactic neighborhoods and become a truly interstellar civilization.