Chapter 2004: Lighting the Strange Dream in the Heart (Part 34)

"What kind of civilization is Spartax?"

Gamora, leaning against the spaceship seat, looked curiously at Quill in the pilot's seat and asked. She then explained, "I don't come to the Milky Way often; I've only heard Thanos and his subordinates talk about Asgard and Earth."

"Asgard is indeed the most famous civilization in the Milky Way," Quill said while operating the ship. "The Milky Way is located in a remote part of the universe and isn't considered a major galaxy. Even within the entire Virgo Supercluster, there haven't been any world-renowned civilizations. In the eyes of the three great empires, this is a cultural desert."

"However, highly advanced interstellar civilizations are rare. Just looking at the Milky Way, Spartax is relatively developed. They possess mature interstellar navigation technology, rule over a significant sector, have over two hundred resource planets, and have more than two thousand docking outposts near their home star."

"Spartax has always been a monarchy, ruled by the Spartax royal family. Military, political, and religious powers are unified. Throughout history, there have been no ethnic replacements or civilization extinctions; it's considered a quite fortunate civilization."

"The only period of turmoil occurred shortly after I was born, when the royal family erupted into civil strife. The legitimate heir, J'son of Spartax, was driven out of the kingdom, drifted to Earth, and after uniting with my mother, had me."

Quill clicked his tongue lightly. "I once followed clues I'd investigated for years and found the culprit who killed my mother. It was my uncle, Gareth. At that time, he wanted to rebel. After I discovered traces of his plot, I told the then-King of Spartax, my biological father, J'son of Spartax."

"We worked together to thwart Gareth's conspiracy, and afterward, he asked me to stay as his heir to inherit the throne. But I refused because I don't like ruling over others."

Rocket Raccoon sat silently in the back seat, listening to Quill recount all this, but he didn't offer his usual commentary, which made Quill turn to look at him strangely.

Rocket Raccoon shook his head, signaling him to ignore him. Clearly, he was communicating with Venom in his mind, and from Venom, he had roughly understood what kind of danger this trip would entail.

The ship soon reached the defensive perimeter of the Spartax planet, and a patrol ship immediately sent a signal asking why a strange vessel was entering their territory.

"I am Peter Quill. I demand to speak with my father."

Quill said very briefly.

The guards on the patrol ship didn't actually recognize him, but their superior was a member of the Royal Guard who knew of the prince lost abroad, so they let Quill in.

Along the way to the Spartax capital, the Guardians of the Galaxy discovered that this was a civilization quite similar to humanity's, just with slightly different attire.

After landing at the starport of the capital, they were led by Royal Guards all the way to the palace and told to wait in the waiting room for a moment.

Soon, they were taken to a reception room where they met the King of the Spartax Empire. He was a middle-aged man with a full beard, wearing purple robes and a gray-brown cloak, looking solemn.

He walked up and hugged Quill lightly. Before Quill could speak, J'son said first, "You've finally returned, my child. The Spartax civilization is currently holding a festival to celebrate the tenth anniversary of our joining the Galactic Council."

Quill didn't engage in polite small talk; he took the letter out from his chest. As soon as J'son saw the letter, he understood what Quill wanted to ask.

"Yes, my child. About eleven years ago, when you were still a child, I entrusted the interstellar pirate Yondu to find your whereabouts and asked him to deliver my personal letter."

"In other words, you knew I was still alive eleven years ago?" Quill stared tightly at J'son and said, "How did you know?"

Everyone understood what he was asking. When Peter Quill was born on Earth, J'son of Spartax had already left, and he didn't know of the child's existence.

The only Spartaxians who knew of Peter Quill's existence were the group of aliens who killed Peter Quill's mother; they had seen the child.

So, if J'son had already known of Peter Quill's existence eleven years ago, he must have learned it from the killers or those associated with them, which meant he must have known about the murder case back then.

But the true mastermind, Gareth, lived for another eleven years, until Quill sought him out and killed him.

J'son of Spartax had already secured his throne long after returning to Spartax; surely a few years of consolidation were enough for him to deal with one prince? Since he had known the truth all along—that his wife was killed and his child was left adrift—why didn't he take action sooner?

"You made a choice." Quill's gaze turned icy. He stared into J'son's eyes and said, "Eleven years ago, you hired Yondu to find me and wrote me a letter. You were probably ready to kill Gareth back then."

"But something made you change your mind, so you rescinded the order and had Yondu keep an eye on me, which is why I was picked up by his team when my ship crashed later."

"Tell me, J'son, what made you make such a heartless decision?" Quill clenched his fists and said, "Ignoring the death of your wife, ignoring the helplessness of your child, and choosing to stand on the side of the murderer."

J'son's face was also gloomy. He lowered his voice and said, "I had reasons I had to do so. I am a King."

Quill let out a scoff. He raised his arm, turned away, blinked his eyes hard, and pursed his lips, saying, "You're going to give me that big speech about how you have to be responsible for your people first, right?"

Then he turned back, suppressing his anger, and looked at J'son. "You can indeed choose the state over your family, but since you chose it, don't try to regret it. Hedging your bets is the behavior of a coward, and deception represents baseness!"

"You want to be responsible for the Spartax Empire, yet you also want to get affection from me. Has anyone ever told you? You are shamelessly greedy."

"Enough." J'son's gaze also turned cold. "I was protecting you, Peter. You don't understand anything."

"Since he doesn't understand anything, you should tell him." Gamora stepped forward, looking at J'son. "Instead of rambling here and wasting our time."

"I don't understand why you gave up looking for Peter back then. What made you change your mind?" Gamora pressed further.

J'son remained silent with a gloomy face for a while, finally saying, "He has human blood, and at that time, the Spartax Empire wanted to join the Galactic Council."

Everyone looked at each other, not understanding the connection, until Rocket spoke up.

"The Galactic Council has always implemented a blockade policy against Earth and human civilization. Simply put, they don't allow humans to engage in any extraterrestrial exchanges, even if it's resisting alien invasions or passive defense."

"They believe humans are an extremely dangerous race. Certain individuals among them are too powerful and uncontrollable, and they should be completely locked within their planet; otherwise, they will surely destroy the entire galaxy. All civilizations joining the Galactic Council must agree to the blockade policy against Earth."

Hearing Rocket Raccoon's words, the other members of the Guardians of the Galaxy were stunned. Gamora opened her mouth wide. "Setting aside the logic of this, they haven't succeeded in the blockade, have they? Humans are all over the universe now."

"Well..." Rocket Raccoon drew out the word. "Humans capable of leaving Earth are obviously not ones they can blockade. For example, the mutants. The Galactic Council hasn't been to the Andromeda Galaxy, but to this day, not a single one has returned."

"In recent news reports, they claim mutants are not part of humanity, and the effectiveness of the blockade measures against them remains in doubt."

Gamora laughed in disbelief. She tapped her temple with her finger and said, "Humans capable of leaving Earth, they can't blockade, so they blockade the humans on Earth? But do humans on Earth even need their blockade? Humans aren't even an interstellar civilization; they haven't even walked out of their home planet."

"And saying mutants aren't human just because they left Earth—if they can't blockade them, they're expelled from humanity? When ordinary humans can leave Earth and the Galactic Council can't blockade them either, will ordinary humans not be human anymore?"

"By the time all humans have the ability to leave Earth, humanity will be extinct, and there won't be any humans left in the universe."

"Frankly speaking, they really should check if their brains are fried." Gamora said, "This is the most stupid and absurd policy I've ever heard."

A look of embarrassment appeared on J'son's face. He really wanted to explain that when this policy was formulated, humans weren't that strong.

Eleven years ago, there were indeed some powerful humans active in the universe, but they were very rare. Not to mention being scattered throughout galactic society, they weren't even prominent in the Milky Way.

The overall level of human civilization was even lower. A tiny Earth was split into countless nations fighting each other, and it looked like they wouldn't enter the era of interstellar colonization for another ten thousand years.

But who knew that in the last few years, humans would seem to have turned on cheat codes? First, the mutants became almost completely independent, carving out a piece of land in the Andromeda Galaxy and starting construction and development.

Strictly speaking, this was completely against the rules, but unfortunately, the Galactic Council that made the rules couldn't beat the mutants at all—they couldn't even beat Magneto, and after Professor X arrived, they didn't even dare to get close.

Then, Asgard—who knows what went wrong in their heads—wanted to return to interstellar society. Given their strength, the three great empires had to give them face, and Asgard was dead-set on protecting humans. Even if they wanted to target human civilization verbally, they had to look at the All-Father's face.

This made the Galactic Council very awkward. The policy targeting human civilization was originally just a target drawn by civilizations within the Milky Way to unite and consolidate power.

But as everyone knows, if a slogan isn't extreme, it has no inciting power. Over the years, the slogan of blockading Earth had become increasingly loud and extreme, to the point where any civilization associated with humans would be immediately hostile toward other civilizations within the Galactic Council.

And eleven years ago, the Spartax Empire was actively striving to join the Galactic Council. J'son of Spartax, the King of the Spartax Empire, gave up his plan to retrieve Peter Quill, who had human blood, precisely because of this.