Chapter 1606: Chapter 1606

Originally, Du You had planned to push forward and continue cultivating without hesitation, but the situation suddenly changed drastically.

As a result, Du You could no longer focus on improving himself and had to pay close attention to the unfolding changes. Before this, those Blood-colored Empire personnel had infiltrated the Star Ring Alliance internally, causing chaos everywhere.

As a result, the internal members of the Star Ring Alliance, forced by pressure, united to try to drive them out.

However, the situation gradually shifted. After all, even within the Blood-colored Empire, not everyone shared the same objectives. Many among them didn’t favor destruction but sought occupation. In fact, quite a number had come here searching for their home worlds.

Thus, these internal personnel connected with one another, and some regions were occupied. Of course, these occupied areas were seen as traitorous by certain members within the Star Ring Alliance, and the clean-up efforts against them were ruthlessly stringent.

Meanwhile, longstanding internal conflicts within the Star Ring Alliance finally erupted due to the oppression from its upper class.

"That makes sense, after all, the Star Ring Alliance’s truly prosperous regions have always been concentrated in the core areas—the other regions have suffered quite a lot of oppression. Many organizations have always wanted to overthrow the Star Ring Alliance, and now they finally see an opportunity."

Du You glanced at the information in hand, feeling unsurprised.

Some things might initially seem unexpected, but after they happen and you reflect on them, they turn out to be very straightforward.

Yet these sorts of developments completely evaded the awareness of the Star Ring Alliance’s upper class. These people might have been sitting high above for far too long, so they continued to assume that everyone else must obey their orders.

As a result, some orders that seemed outright idiotic to Du You—and even most others—were issued just like that.

That’s right, the Star Ring Alliance actually paused their resistance against the Blood-colored Empire’s army in order to deal with their own internal people. In some areas, they even went so far as to invite the Blood-colored Empire’s forces in and allowed them to clear out planets under their rule.

At the same time, a portion of the army was redeployed—shockingly—to suppress their own citizens.

To oppress your own people under these circumstances is undoubtedly a disastrous move. Dissatisfaction toward the Star Ring Alliance had already been growing, and now the situation was even worse.

Not just within the Star Ring Alliance, even in Du You’s own region, he received some troubling orders.

The orders demanded that Du You suppress the civilians in his region and implement high-pressure policies against them.

Before Du You could respond, the local military had already begun acting on their own. In the end, Du You had no choice but to quietly subdue these military personnel, effectively curbing the situation.

However, due to the military’s actions, Du You noticed that the reputation of the military in this region had grown even worse.

This region had already been treated as a battlefield, so its residents were already deeply dissatisfied with the military. To now suppress these people further, if not for Du You’s intervention, conflict might have already erupted.

Residents of a battlefield are different from those elsewhere. Many of them possess spacecraft and even warships. While civilian models may not be on par with military-grade ones, they still possess combat capabilities. The civilians living on battlefields generally aren’t afraid of risking their lives. After all, in this place, their lives were already constantly at risk, with no guarantees of survival.

A few days later, when Du You received new intel, even he was shocked.

"Who would’ve thought? One of the top three factions within the Alliance’s internal ranks has directly declared independence. And now the Alliance plans to attack them? I wonder how things will play out." Du You looked at the news, both shocked and thrilled.

To think that someone within the Alliance has started to break away—this faction has declared itself an empire, complete with interstellar fortresses as their powerful weapons. Faced with this, the Alliance was forced into war.

This battle has become a war of immense public attention. If the Alliance wins, its suppression of lower-tier factions will become far more manageable. But if the Alliance loses, this marks the beginning of its collapse.

In fact, there may be many people hoping for the Alliance’s collapse.

At this moment, inside the Star Ring Alliance, within a whole stretch of star systems, a tense atmosphere permeated everywhere.

Modified asteroids rotated around the central region. These weren’t interstellar fortresses but rather simplified versions based on fortress technology. Each of these asteroids possessed combat strength far surpassing the average Tier 6 warship.

In other words, these asteroids were like miniature interstellar fortresses. Who could say if there weren’t Tier 7 weapons hidden on them?

After all, not every Tier 7 weapon needs to be mounted on a planet-strength object to be used.

These asteroids formed a defensive line encircling the area to prepare for potential attacks from the Star Ring Alliance.

Within, large fleets of warships were gathering, ready to strike at any moment. "Your Majesty, are we really going to go this far? Engaging the Star Ring Alliance in battle—we only have less than a ten-percent chance of victory."

A middle-aged man gazed at the starry sky, speaking helplessly: "Do we have any other options? The Star Ring Alliance has been growing more excessive by the day. If this continues, we won’t even need the Blood-colored Empire to attack—we’ll have our own internal issues first. Besides, this opportunity for revenge is too good to pass up. We’ve waited far too long."

At this point, it could no longer be measured in years. From who knows what generation, their ancestors had already been forcibly integrated into the Star Ring Alliance. Their family was nearly wiped out back then.

Since then, their royal lineage had been reduced to mere mascots. But through countless generations of effort, they had finally regained the support of the people, expanding their influence step by step to become the true rulers of this region once again.

And then, they’d waited for years—no, generations—for the right opportunity. Now, they finally had it. In terms of technological capability, they were in no way inferior to the Alliance. The only disadvantage was the smaller territory they held, which left them lagging in resources. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡⁂𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢⁂𝘯𝘦𝘵

"Our only hope now is to see how others choose to act. We are certainly not the only ones with such an idea."

Indeed, they’d secretly established contacts with many like-minded individuals. Those people, like them, also desired resistance. In ordinary times, the Star Ring Alliance could suppress all forces completely, but not now.

Due to the Alliance upper class’s self-destructive actions, the Blood-colored Empire had fully infiltrated its territory. Yet the Star Ring Alliance’s leaders continued to issue foolish commands. Consequently, public dissatisfaction had reached its peak, and the Alliance had gradually lost control over many regions. In several locations, their commands were not merely being ignored—they were being outright rejected. The people’s collective resistance was growing stronger.