Chapter 2005: Lighting the Strange Dream in the Heart (Part 35)

Ever since Jason Spartacus had secured his throne, he had wanted to bring his wife back, but just as he was about to return to Earth, Prince Gareth intercepted him and told him that his wife had already died in childbirth.

At first, Jason did not suspect much, but later he realized something was wrong. However, if he sent people to Earth at this time and the facts were truly as Gareth had said, it would easily chill Gareth's heart.

So he asked Gareth how he had learned of this news. Gareth told him that when he heard from Jason that his brother still had a wife on Earth, he had sent people to look for her immediately, but when they arrived, they only found a tombstone.

Jason felt more and more that something was wrong. He hadn't been that close to Gareth before he was exiled to Earth, so why was this younger brother of his so kind as to go looking for his sister-in-law the moment he found out she existed?

But he still did not rashly go to Earth; instead, he began to secretly investigate Gareth's subordinates. From their own mouths, he learned that Gareth had sent people to kill his wife, and that some accidents had occurred while they were abducting the child.

Jason felt extremely furious at the time, but Gareth was still useful then, so Jason decided to keep him for now, though he had to find his child first.

Thus, he found the well-informed space pirates and contacted Yondu, who took on missing-person missions, asking him to head to Earth to bring his child back.

This sounded simple, as if it were just a trip, but in actual operation, it was incomparably difficult. First of all, smuggling into the center of the Nine Realms was as hard as ascending to heaven.

The only possible opportunity was when Odin went out to war. After Yondu discovered this, he told Jason that he could only wait—wait for an opportunity when a Ravager could sneak into the Nine Realms.

But over a decade ago, Odin had already realized the problems within Asgard and had thoughts of transformation, so his campaigns were no longer as frequent as before. This wait lasted for several years.

During the waiting process, Jason's throne became increasingly stable, and the state of the Spartax Empire continued to improve. He inevitably developed greater ambition, wanting to seek a position for the Spartax Empire within interstellar society.

But not every civilization was Asgard, capable of sitting directly at the negotiating table of the three great empires; at the very least, the Spartax Empire had not yet reached that level.

Therefore, Jason Spartacus planned to first join the Galactic Council within the galaxy, then gradually seize power within the Galactic Council, using this as a springboard to step onto the interstellar stage.

But at the time, the Spartax Empire's certainty of joining the Galactic Council was not that high, and Jason had to ensure as much as possible that no accidents occurred.

Jason conducted a detailed study of the Galactic Council's rules, and then he discovered that his illegitimate son on Earth was truly a problem.

So he urgently called a halt to Yondu's infiltration operation and gave Yondu a letter, telling him that this would be a long-term mission. A prince with Spartax blood flowing in his veins could not stay on Earth forever, so he asked Yondu to keep a careful watch and provide help when necessary.

Just as Quill said, Jason wanted to join the Galactic Council and had ambitions for greater power, yet he could not bear to part with family affection. He wanted to get a biological son as an heir for free, so he hedged his bets on both sides, unwilling to give up either.

Although Quill felt sad after figuring all this out, he hadn't interacted with this biological father for so many years anyway and didn't have much affection for him. Beyond the disappointment, only sighs remained.

He looked at Jason, shook his head, and said, "Fine. If this is your decision, I won't interfere with your choices as King. We will leave the Spartax Empire and never come back."

After speaking, he turned to leave, but the moment he pushed the door open, the cold glint of the guards' weapons reflected the icy expression on the face of the Spartax King behind Quill.

"Peter, you cannot leave now. I have some things to ask you."

Quill's hand immediately reached for the gun at his waist, and the members of the Guardians of the Galaxy also drew their weapons, but more guards appeared outside the door. Quill looked back at Jason in disbelief.

"You just returned from Earth, right?" Jason stepped forward and looked at Quill, saying, "Tell me what exactly is going on with humans now."

Quill pursed his lips tightly, the anger and sadness on his face fully visible. Just as he was about to open his mouth to denounce Jason, Rocket Raccoon darted onto his shoulder and patted the back of his head, signaling him to stay calm.

"Your Majesty the King, you don't intend to force information about Earth out of us, do you?" Rocket Raccoon twitched his ears, narrowed his eyes to reveal his sharp teeth, and then said, "Do you really know what you're doing?"

"This is not an interrogation." Jason shook his head and said, "I just want to know the current situation on Earth."

Quill was even angrier. He drew his gun directly, pointed it at Jason's head, and said, "Don't even think about getting anything from me, anything at all, you damn heartless man!"

"Peter, please understand, I don't want to force you." Jason spread his hands and looked at Peter, saying, "Now the entire Galactic Council wants to know what has happened to human civilization. Why do they seem to have suddenly become enlightened?"

The worry in Jason's heart was actually stronger than he let on. If the human threat theory was just a slogan before, human performance now could completely be described as, "Oh no, they really learned it."

First, the mutants collectively migrated to Andromeda to occupy land in violation of rules, making other civilizations with weaker interstellar colonization capabilities green with envy. Then, the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Nine Realms kept its business running, making many civilizations that lived by interstellar trade jealous.

And what made Jason lose his composure the most was that Asgard returned to interstellar society, and humans were dragged along to success, directly skipping the ascent channels of galaxies, star clusters, and star sectors, and being pulled by Asgard to sit at the negotiating table of the three great empires—or perhaps they were pulling each other.

Jason had been painstakingly managing things here for a long time, and he could barely claim to have a voice in the Galactic Council. He was still a hundred thousand miles away from touching the center of power in interstellar society. How could he balance this?

Of course, these were just opinions and did not involve actual interests. What really caused the Galactic Council to gather to discuss the next direction of development was the true threat brought by the rapid development speed of humans.

In the past, Earth was the target of bullying by these civilizations in the Galactic Council. Anyway, they held a super cool party, but they just wouldn't let Earth attend, firmly forbidding Earth from coming into contact with any civilization within the galaxy.

Isolating and bullying someone would strengthen the cohesion within a group; this was also one of the reasons why school bullying was frequent. Watching the desolate scene of Earth constantly sending signals but receiving no response was the source of the superiority complex of the Galactic Council member civilizations.

But now that the other party had truly turned the tables and was developing at an astonishing speed, they had to consider the possibility of the other party retaliating. The Spartax Empire was also within the scope of retaliation.

And Jason had another consideration. Now the civilizations within the Galactic Council were in a state of panic and could not come up with countermeasures, mainly because they had not grasped the most important intelligence.

If he could grasp the intelligence one step ahead of other civilizations, he would have the initiative, and seizing power within the Galactic Council would be as easy as turning over his hand.

Gamora had stayed under Thanos for so long, and she hadn't just learned how to fight. Her mind moved like lightning, and she immediately thought through the crux of the matter, also understanding the intention behind the letter Yondu gave them.

So she immediately placed her hand on Quill's shoulder, telling him not to be impulsive, and then looked at Jason, saying, "You did betray their mother and son, didn't you? You are not a good father, so even if you have many reasons, he will not accept it easily."

Jason took a deep breath, his expression softening slightly. He looked at Quill again and said, "I will give you some time, Peter. Think it over carefully. Now that you have no family left on Earth, only Spartax is your home."

After speaking, he had the guards take the members of the Guardians of the Galaxy away.

They were not locked in a dungeon, but were confined in a relatively spacious guest room, though there were guards watching both the balcony and outside the door. Jason's meaning was clearly that they wouldn't be released until they spat out some information.

"Why did you stop me?" Quill turned his head to look at Gamora, saying somewhat angrily, "I won't let him get his way. I will never tell him anything!"

He clenched his fists and said in a low, sorrowful voice, "My mother believed in him until she died, believed he would come back to find us, believed he at least wouldn't abandon me, but he betrayed us!"

"Haven't you thought about why Yondu wanted to give you this letter? He just wanted you to come find Jason." Gamora explained, "Don't forget, you admitted in front of Asgard that you are Yondu's adopted son."

Quill opened his eyes wide in confusion, looking at Gamora, as if trying to search for the meaning of this sentence on her face.

Gamora sighed helplessly and said, "If Yondu refused to talk to death in Asgard, who do you think the Asgardians could come to find?"

Quill froze.

Then he reacted. Yondu gave him this letter at this time on purpose, letting him come to Spartax to find Jason. He was trying to divert the disaster.

Yondu first demanded that Asgard release his adopted son. This was both creating an opportunity for Quill and his group to leave and explaining to the Asgardians that his adopted son was very important to him and was his weakness.

Then he gave this letter to Quill. After seeing it, Quill would definitely feel confused and come to the Spartax Empire to find Jason. And after Yondu was taken to Asgard, he began to bicker with the people there, completely inconsistent with his previous cooperative attitude.

To make Yondu cooperate with Asgard, they could only come to find Yondu's adopted son. Whether it was to threaten him or to have Quill go back to persuade his adoptive father, in any case, they definitely hoped that Quill would also go to Asgard.

But there was another problem. Quill was Jason Spartacus's biological son. Although he wasn't an official prince yet, there was quite a commotion when Gareth was killed, and the center of power basically knew that their King had only this one biological child.

Asgard ran over angrily to demand people. If they demanded irrelevant people, most civilization leaders would just admit defeat. After all, too many people had admitted defeat to this bunch of brutes, so it wasn't shameful.

But demanding a biological son was another matter. To bow down and admit defeat to Asgard, even giving away one's own biological son—what prestige could the King have left?

Furthermore, Asgard—if you demand staying aliens, that's fine, but you run to someone else's kingdom to demand their prince? Isn't this stepping on someone's head to take a dump? How is this any different from those pirates who kidnap the dignitaries of interstellar civilizations?

If Asgard really did this, then the moral high ground of maintaining interstellar security would be untenable.

After hearing Gamora's explanation, cold sweat broke out on Quill's back. He had only vaguely felt that Yondu might have been schemed against by Loki, but he didn't expect that they were all thousand-year-old foxes; no one should play games with anyone else. Those who could thrive in interstellar society were not stupid.

As a space pirate, Yondu could run rampant in interstellar society for so long not just by relying on his fists. Sowing discord, fanning the flames, and driving tigers to devour wolves—he was proficient in everything.

And this time, he wanted to make Spartax and the Galactic Council behind it check and balance each other with Asgard, thereby fighting for a way to survive for himself.

Sure enough, not long after, Quill heard movement outside the house. He stood by the window and looked far away, seeing the flames of the iconic divine power engines of an Asgardian spaceship appear outside the port of the Spartax main planet. ===== CHAPTER 2006 =====