Chapter 1069
Even after they withdrew from systems, the Scarlet Alliance left behind probes to monitor people coming and going. Their ultimate goal was to track the movements of the Silver Fang leadership. There were several among them who had been responsible for many of the early attacks, and taking them out would go a long way towards forcing the Silver Fang to surrender.
The information from said probes was slightly delayed in reaching the Scarlet Alliance, as the fastest methods of communication were also high enough power to be easily detected. However, by analyzing enemy patterns and their historical movements they hoped to predict an optimal time and place for an assault.
That unfortunately meant more waiting, though they weren’t inactive. Most of their attacks were focused on planets closer to the border, but they still occasionally launched focused attacks on poorly defended planets deeper into Silver Fang territory.
If the war ended sooner it would be better for the Scarlet Alliance, as the conflict placed them in an unstable situation. If the Citadel of Exalted Light thought to take advantage of the conflict they could find themselves at extreme risk… but trouble could come from other sects in the Trigold Cluster as well. Many of the nearby sects had been seen to be repositioning their forces, though whether simply to defend themselves or because of eventual plans to aid the Silver Fang it was unclear.
The closest sects of note were the Twirling Forest, the Creeping Fire Sect, and the Fearsome Menagerie. Fortunately the latter two sects had some amount of buffer zone from much smaller sect, but they were still close enough to prove a threat. The instant any sort of reinforcements arrived in the deeper Silver Fang territory, the Scarlet Alliance would have to react.
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Much too far to affect the war even if he had been willing to try another blatant attack on the upper realms, Anton was surveying an empty system. At least, it appeared empty at first. However, he noticed signs he’d seen before. Extremely basic life was visible, plants and animals that formed a basic but incomplete ecosystem. It didn’t take him long to pick out underground civilizations. He had several examples.
As for why they would be that way… it was fairly simple. Invasions from the upper realms weren’t something that could be trivially ignored. Either they had been nearly wiped out, or they chose to isolate themselves to prevent such a situation.
The two planets were in the inner system, both within the expected size range for terrestrial planets. Anton noticed quite a few differences in the life on their surfaces, though he wasn’t certain if that was due to differing climates or an intentional lack of standardization. Then again, it was also possible that the planets weren’t spacefaring. At the very least, he spotted nothing in-transit, and he would have expected at least something at any given time if that was the case.