Chapter 222: The Federation’s Trade Gamble

The Federation saw the situation for what it was.

Since jump engines couldn’t be sold anymore, they ramped up exports of other goods to fill that massive gap.

But the gap was just too big.

So…

Relying on Sandik alone was never going to be enough.

Sure, the guy had hundreds of massive transport ships by now, but how much could he move from the Federation in a year? How many civilizations on the main spiral arm could he really supply?

Not nearly enough. Not even close.

That’s exactly why the Federation pushed Sandik to bring in more merchants from the Fanguang Alliance to buy goods from them.

Only then could the Federation quickly expand its entire trade network.

And if you ask whether Sandik was happy about this—the answer was a definite no.

He used to have the whole pie to himself, but now he had to share with others. No way he’d actually want that.

But so what if he was unwilling?

Was he supposed to stick to their old deal and keep buying at least 300 jump engines from the Federation every year?

Let alone a few years—or decades—there was no way he could hold on even for one year.

To put it in perspective, 300 jump engines cost as much as 300 wealthy star systems on the main spiral arm.

It was a completely ridiculous demand.

So, like it or not, after weighing all his options…

He signed a new agreement.

The one comfort for him was that the contract stated if jump engine sales resumed in the future, Sandik would still be the exclusive distributor.

So Sandik could only hope the Os Empire would give up soon.

Or, maybe the people at the center of the issue weren’t his customers after all, and the Os Empire had already found them.

As for the Federation, they made sure to include in the agreement that every merchant Sandik brought in had to be from the Fanguang Alliance and at least a level 6 merchant.

The Federation trusted Fanguang Alliance merchants.

Once an agreement was set, they would never break it. Even if something beyond their control happened, they’d negotiate a solution with you like Sandik did.

Never would they simply walk away from the deal.

Even if you refused to change the contract, Sandik would keep his word until he genuinely couldn’t go on—until bankruptcy.

That’s the kind of reputation Fanguang Alliance merchants have—one built up over tens of thousands of years.

Any merchant daring to break the rules wouldn’t need the rest of the galaxy’s wrath—the Fanguang Alliance would deal with him themselves.

Afterwards, the Fanguang Civilization would compensate you for any loss, no matter how advanced your civilization.

That’s what makes the Fanguang Alliance so valuable in interstellar trade.

Honestly, if the Federation’s civilization level was higher, they’d have recruited them a long time ago just to handle trade.

One year later.

Federation Year 266.

Sandik arrived at the Federation with over a hundred Fanguang Alliance merchants in tow.

From then on, Federation goods flooded every corner of the Milky Way.

Among all their products, two stood out—almost rivaling weapons in popularity.

Tea leaves and porcelain.

The tea leaves grown on Proxima Centauri V became a luxury item, always in high demand.

Prices soared to astronomical levels.

To keep up, the Federation began planting tea on more planets.

They even used artificial X particles to mimic the environment of Proxima V, and on one planet, they managed to create an X particle concentration ten times denser than Proxima V.

Their goal: launch a whole new premium tea brand.

It worked for all carbon-based lifeforms—the more tea they drank, the stronger their bodies became, even gaining a bit more lifespan.

No one could turn that down.

But all this drew attention from fourth-level civilizations.

There was no other reason—this business was just too profitable.

Even the wealth hidden in this trade couldn’t be ignored by advanced civilizations.

Of course, according to the Galactic Council’s agreements…

Every fourth-level civilization had its own territory, and no other fourth-level power could send fleets in without permission.

So even though everyone knew these Fanguang Alliance merchants were sourcing goods from the Orion Spur and were dying to get in on the action, no one dared make a move.

Nobody wanted to be the first to break the rules.

Otherwise, the order of the entire Milky Way could unravel.

But while everyone else was forced to sit on the sidelines, the Drac Empire was practically giddy.

The Orion Spur was their domain. They could do whatever they wanted—no need for approval from other great powers.

So what if the Orion Spur was poor?

If they captured this business, they could hawk tea leaves to the big four spiral arms, then trade the huge profits for rare resources.

That would finally solve their biggest shortcoming.

The Empire grew more excited the more they thought about it.

They tried asking Fanguang Alliance merchants directly where their supplies came from, but the merchants shot them down.

Didn’t matter. If the merchants wouldn’t tell them, they could just watch the trade caravans and find out themselves.

And there was a simple way to do it.

Track every merchant ship entering the Orion Arm.

Check the direction the ship’s bow faced when it jumped, and you could figure out the general direction of the source civilization.

Then, when the ships returned from loading up and were ready to head back to the main arm via the wormhole, log the time again.

This would let you estimate how long they spent loading cargo. Subtract that, and you could calculate the round-trip travel time.

One ship’s data wouldn’t be enough for a pinpoint location.

But ten… a hundred… a thousand… even ten thousand ships later—

Large-scale data analysis could shrink the source’s location to a tiny region.

That’s exactly what the Empire did.

A year later—Federation Year 267—

After monitoring tens of thousands of merchant vessels and crunching the numbers, the Empire had basically found the place.

The edge of the Desolate Star Region!

Truth be told, when that result first came in, most Imperial leaders didn’t buy it. They thought it was a mistake.

But after running the numbers over and over again, the answer never changed.

The Drac Emperor couldn’t deny it—the source was really buried deep inside the Desolate Star Region.

It was almost unbelievable.

The Drac Emperor, Dahn Drac, wasted no time and summoned one of the Empire’s seven great generals—Nick Vanleven.

“Your Majesty!”

Nick strode into the throne room, dropping to one knee and bowing his head in respect.

“General Nick, I need you to take the Thirteenth Fleet out to the Desolate Star Region.”

“Your Majesty—is it true? Did we find the civilization where all the tea comes from?”

“That’s right. As strange as it sounds, the source really is hidden in the Desolate Star Region. Find them, and then…”

“Don’t worry, Your Majesty. If they hand over all their wealth without a fuss, great. If not, I’ll flatten their civilization myself!”

Before Dahn could even finish, Nick thumped his own chest with pride.