In the capital star system, the battle unfolded as it always had. The City-Class warship from the Guardian Civilization continued shifting rapidly from position to position, freely displaying its superior capability of short-distance curvature travel within the system. It was causing enormous trouble for Xiao Yu’s biological army.
During this time, the City-Class warship had already refueled many times. Xiao Yu had made his own calculations, about every three days it needed to return to the planet’s surface for a half-hour rest. During that half hour, the remnants of the Molian Civilization fleet would attack Xiao Yu’s ships with full force. Xiao Yu’s fleet, while fending off their assault, would also strike at the planetary shield of the Molian Civilization’s capital planet. But the time was too short. Xiao Yu’s attacks rarely achieved much. Often, after half an hour of bombardment, destroying one or two energy bases on the capital planet, the moment his fleet was tied up again and unable to continue attacking, the Molian Civilization would dispatch forces to repair those damaged energy bases, restoring the planetary shield to its peak condition.
This kind of warfare gave Xiao Yu a great headache. It meant he was wasting time in vain. The longer the delay, the more dangerous his situation became. Xiao Yu had never forgotten that the Guardian Civilization’s reinforcement fleet could arrive at any moment. If he failed to escape before their arrival, what awaited him would certainly be utter destruction.
Fortunately, the one million one hundred seventy thousand ships from Star System Number 5 were already on their way to reinforce him.
Among those one million-plus ships, the China, the United States, and the Russia, three Nation-Class ships equipped with space weapons, were not included. This was for safety reasons. Xiao Yu was guarding against the possibility of an irreversible situation that might drag his own flagship into crisis. In a battle where sheer numbers dominated, whether or not those three Nation-Class ships were present made little difference.
The three Nation-Class ships had already departed, accompanied by about fifty thousand escort vessels, quietly taking another route and vanishing into the darkness of space.
Meanwhile, the Stellar Cannon was being constructed in secrecy. Curvature travel only affected the space outside the ships; the interior remained as stable as ever. Thus, the Stellar Cannon was divided into tens of thousands of modules, and within hundreds of thousands of vessels with large-scale manufacturing capability, the components were being built separately. When curvature travel ended and they returned to normal space, Xiao Yu would only need a simple assembly process, and he would possess a weapon powerful enough to annihilate a star.
The plan was progressing smoothly. The situation in the capital star system remained largely unchanged, except that the Guardian Civilization’s warship had made multiple speeches urging Xiao Yu to surrender, ranging from appeals to personal benefit to galactic peace. Naturally, Xiao Yu ignored them all. Apart from that, starting a month ago, small reinforcements from the Molian Civilization had begun to arrive from other star systems, joining the battle to defend their homeworld. These reinforcements numbered from a few dozen to several hundred ships, too few to affect the overall situation. But from the arrival of these small fleets, Xiao Yu sensed a dangerous sign.
In the future, only more and more Molian Civilization reinforcements would come. Xiao Yu’s situation could only grow worse. This meant he had to accelerate his progress.
The worst-case scenario finally came to pass, the four hundred thousand Molian ships that had gone to reinforce Star System Number 5 had now returned, reaching the Molian Civilization’s capital system.These four hundred thousand ships arrived in two groups. Two hundred thousand had turned back to reinforce as soon as the biological army appeared in the capital system. The other two hundred thousand had originally continued on to support Star System Number 5, but before they arrived, the battle there had already ended. With no other choice, they too had begun their return journey.
If the first wave of two hundred thousand reinforcements had only put immense pressure on Xiao Yu’s biological army, then the following two hundred thousand ships completely drove the army into the worst possible situation. Four hundred thousand ships, plus the roughly ninety thousand that had already been there, meant the Molian Civilization’s forces had now reached parity with Xiao Yu’s biological army. And with the capital planet serving as their logistical support base, Xiao Yu’s advantage was completely gone at this point.
But in misfortune lay a stroke of luck, the Guardian Civilization’s City-Class ship withdrew from battle. After broadcasting a message, “Molian Civilization, I have resolved your crisis and successfully stopped the Divine Ark Civilization from seizing your capital planet. After this war, I’ll be waiting to see you fulfill your promise. Divine Ark Civilization, give up. I don’t wish to strike you. This universe is too dark; only by joining the Guardian Alliance can you achieve long-term survival.” It became a bystander, no longer interfering with the struggle between the two civilizations.
Xiao Yu knew that relying solely on the biological army, he had no chance of conquering the Molian Civilization’s capital planet. But he had no intention of giving up. A reinforcement force of nearly 1.2 million ships was about to arrive.
“Thank you for your kind intentions, great envoy. After we destroy the Molian Civilization, our Divine Ark Civilization will consider joining under your banner. Even though we have become a Level 5 Civilization, the universe is still far too dangerous for us. We know that following you is the only true path to safe development.”
What Xiao Yu said was, without question, a lie. Even if it cost him his life, he would never consider joining the Guardian Alliance. But if a few small lies could earn the Guardians’ temporary neutrality, Xiao Yu thought the bargain more than worth it.
Time flowed on, amid war and slaughter, lies and blood.
Two months passed. The reinforcement fleet from Star System Number 5 finally arrived, two hundred billion kilometers from the Molian Civilization’s capital planet. One million one hundred seventy thousand ships simultaneously dropped out of curvature travel, emerging into the visible universe. Without the slightest delay, Xiao Yu immediately began his work.
Countless small ships and propulsion-equipped robots were released. They shuttled between the larger vessels, unloading one component after another. Armies of robots set to work, assembling these strangely shaped, almost inexplicable parts into place. Others began laying circuits, calibrating equipment, securing fittings.
The vast fleet floated silently in space, halting its advance. Xiao Yu intended to resume his approach only after the Stellar Cannon was fully assembled.
Xiao Yu was certain there were no Molian monitoring devices in this region; he had already cleared them out long ago. Which meant he had no fear of his activities being discovered by the Molian Civilization. What he could not be sure of, however, was whether the Guardian Civilization had detection methods unknown to him.
Thus, he could only keep his distance as great as possible from the Guardian ship, reducing the chance of discovery.
Under the tireless labor of the robots, a colossal structure began to take shape in the fleet’s center, like a snowball rolling across a snowy plain, growing larger and larger. When they had just exited curvature travel, it had been no bigger than a house. After a single day, its diameter had reached hundreds of meters, and it was still expanding rapidly.
Energy supply modules, tachyon reaction modules, generation modules, control modules, storage modules, everything was being put together in perfect order.
The assembly of the Stellar Cannon progressed smoothly. In just five days, the task was complete. Now nearly ten kilometers in diameter, its body elliptical in shape, the Stellar Cannon stood ready. With the weapon in tow, Xiao Yu began moving toward his target at conventional speed.
The Stellar Cannon’s optimal firing range was within five billion kilometers; its effective range was up to ten billion. Beyond that, the loss of tachyons during the firing process would greatly weaken its effect, something Xiao Yu could not allow.
As he advanced, Xiao Yu kept the Guardian Civilization’s City-Class ship under constant, rigorous surveillance, watching its every move. If it attempted to approach the Stellar Cannon, Xiao Yu would immediately attack, regardless of consequences. Even if the cannon could not achieve maximum power, it would still deal devastating damage to the star, and that would still benefit him.
Xiao Yu pressed forward at a speed of one hundred fifty thousand kilometers per second. To cover two hundred billion kilometers would take half a month. During that half month, Xiao Yu’s nerves remained taut, always ready to fire the Stellar Cannon.
The fierce battle raged on. The distance between the Stellar Cannon and the capital system’s star shrank to less than twenty billion kilometers, and it continued to shorten rapidly.
When it reached seventy billion kilometers, the very thing Xiao Yu most dreaded happened. After receiving a furious message from the City-Class ship, that warship vanished from sight.
At that very instant, Xiao Yu gave the order to attack without the slightest hesitation.