Setting Off Again, Target Qian Sen Star Lake!

Alliance patrol fleet!

Qingyang and the others immediately shook off the surrounding Firelight Rats and retreated to the Star Port.

The dense swarm of Firelight Rats lost their targets and charged directly at the Star Port.

[Gravitational field detected to be severely distorted]

Qingyang looked towards the area where the gravitational field was distorted. Through Taiyi's monitoring equipment, Qingyang clearly saw a black-blue metal sphere suddenly appear hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.

Extremely complex energy circuits gradually lit up, and the surrounding gravity became more and more distorted with the circuits.

Finally, the first Firelight Rat was sent flying backward towards the sphere.

In an instant, the entire swarm collapsed like dominoes, surging endlessly towards the sphere.

Even meteorites and asteroids several kilometers in diameter were mixed in!

Even those Level 4 Star Beasts could not escape the gravitational pull. A ripple spread around a few Level 4 Star Beasts, and then they vanished.

Clearly, these Firelight Rats wanted to escape into subspace, but their subspace folding organs were completely disrupted by the distorted gravitational field.

Just as the swarm was tens of thousands of kilometers away from the Star Port, hundreds of beams of light flashed between the swarm and the Star Port.

They were warships several kilometers in size, full of mechanical aesthetics, with silver-white exteriors and numerous energy circuits.

The warship in the center had even reached thirty thousand meters, with dense Orbital Ship Cannons surrounding it.

Regular warships!

However, their energy levels far surpassed those of T8 Starships, and even T8 Battleships couldn't compare to any one of these warships.

At least a T7 Battleship would be needed to match the most ordinary warship among them.

Alliance, regular army!

Wasn't the patrol fleet the local defense force?

As soon as they appeared, the main cannon of the massive warship in the center lit up, unleashing terrifying energy.

Qingyang was startled. This was a star-destroying weapon far beyond the ordinary level. Its energy level must be at least 300,000!

In an instant, a brilliant beam of light roared and struck the swarm. There was no explosion; the gathered swarm simply disintegrated.

Not a single piece of wreckage was left.

"Report! Space scanner has detected life signs, most likely Sky Shuttle Rats!"

On the flagship's bridge, an officer nodded. "07 Battlecruiser, calibrate main cannon for three rapid shots at the Sky Shuttle Rats!"

Light gathered again, and three slender beams struck a point in space consecutively.

Violent spatial fluctuations echoed, clearly indicating the target had been hit.

"Report! Sky Shuttle Rats are escaping!" the non-commissioned officer reported.

The officer's expression remained unchanged. "Energy level dropped by 90%. About 40% of their bodies are likely shattered. They are critically wounded. Record the situation and request an additional escort fleet to reinforce this Star Port's defenses."

"Yes!"

In the Star Port, Qingyang, who had noticed the patrol fleet's final attack, had a flicker in his eyes.

He ultimately decided against pursuing them.

While Sky Shuttle Rats were tempting, they were still powerful creatures comparable to Level 6 Star Beasts.

Even if heavily wounded, they could still cause casualties. Moreover, the Eternal Fleet was currently damaged.

The Eternal Protocol's self-healing for ship hulls was 5% per hour, meaning it would take at least half a day to recover.

"If only self-healing started at any time, not just after leaving the battlefield," Qingyang muttered.

With the crisis averted, the Star Port officials checked everything and then activated their shields.

The Star Gate in the north district had suffered equipment damage due to the sudden attack by the Firelight Rats at the beginning.

It would take about another day to fully repair it.

Otherwise, reinforcements could have arrived quickly through the Star Gate instead of warping directly.

Aside from Star Beasts, which were fearless wild creatures, nothing dared to threaten a Star Port within the Alliance's territory.

"Fortunately, I had no hope of promotion anyway, or this would have been a huge loss."

The person in charge of the Star Port could only shake his head helplessly. He encountered a one-in-ten-thousand chance of a Star Beast attack.

Qingyang gave his crew a few days off and went to the Star Net Academy area to research information himself.

The Commander Academy in high school only taught basic knowledge and common item identification, covering perhaps tens of thousands of creatures and items.

Most of the basic Starship knowledge was based on standard operating procedures.

The Eternal Fleet was already deviating further and further from the standard.

He needed to supplement his knowledge in the Commander Academy, at least so he wouldn't have to ask the researcher Bellia about everything.

The signs of a Sky Shuttle Rat's appearance would be immediately recognizable to any Commander.

Of course, learning is a long process. Even if it only takes seconds to view information on hundreds of items in the Star Net, it still requires a very long time.

The universe is too vast, and the knowledge systems involved for Commanders are equally boundless.

Three days later.

Qingyang exited the Star Net, confirming all crew members were present.

"Changxi, fleet status." Qingyang frowned, feeling a slight ache in his head.

It would take at least two days to fully adapt to this enormous amount of data.

Changxi's phantom appeared, her smile bright. "Shields, armor, and hull are all restored. Supplies are abundant, and lost combat units have been replenished."

Noticing Qingyang's discomfort, Changxi's light gold eyes paused.

She immediately moved lightly behind Qingyang, her slender fingers pressing against his temples.

Before Qingyang could react, the slightly chaotic data in his mind rapidly cleared, and the discomfort vanished.

"Hm?"

Qingyang was confused, not because Changxi could help organize the data in his mind, but because she could actually touch him?

Changxi explained with a smile, "Data Lives are also lives. Data that carries life and will is a high-dimensional power. Materializing it isn't difficult, it just consumes a bit more energy currently."

Noticing Qingyang had fully recovered.

"Commander, continuously receiving knowledge at high speed from the Star Net isn't a good thing for you right now."

Changxi withdrew her hands, smiled faintly, bowed slightly, and dissipated into light particles.

Qingyang rubbed his head, feeling as if he'd been lectured.

A glimpse of a figure stifling a laugh caught his eye, and his expression turned serious.

"Ahem, Guxue, where's Guxing?"

"Heh heh, he thinks his practical combat experience is insufficient and is figuring out how to use his abilities more efficiently," Guxue replied.

Qingyang nodded and spread his mental power.

Nine battleships began to depart the starport, heading towards the Star Gate area.

The extra ship was a Xuanjia Cruiser exchanged with Merit from this battle.

The Eternal Fleet's configuration was now quite complete. There were a total of seven cruisers: two Xuanjia, two Changqu, and three Jianren types, all of them powerful, high-class ships without exception.

The core warships were two: a Huiyue Type Battleship and Taiyi.

The fleet passed through the Star Gate and immediately appeared in the Star Gate channel. The Star Gate channel was a technology that altered the spatial structure of the main universe.

It could traverse hundreds of millions of light-years in just a few days. However, because the channels were fixed areas, they lacked the flexibility of Dark Space.

The Star Ring Channel was even faster, covering tens of billions of light-years in just one day.

Unfortunately, there were no Star Gates or Star Ring Channels that led directly to the frontier. It required at least dozens of transfers to arrive.

The final few transfers even required using military Star Gates and Star Rings.

Guxue slumped in her chair, propping her face with her hands. "Where are we going next?"

Qingyang looked up. "To the largest Star Lake on the way to the frontier, Qian Sen Star Lake!"

Qian Sen Star Lake also had another name: Thousand River Star Lake!

It was bordered by thousands of star rivers and Star Lakes, covering an area of hundreds of millions of light-years.

It contained countless cosmic wonders and special regions, and its danger level was terrifying. Even the T6 Fleet only dared to skirt its outer edges.

--

ps: Brothers, I re-read the setting and the Alliance's background is a bit complex, making it difficult to fully explain in a normal narrative.

There are two options now:

1: Gradually mention it in future chapters, though some things will inevitably not be fully explained through the plot progression.

2: In a natural way, within a single chapter, supplement the general background of the Alliance through a conversation between Qingyang and Guxue, and then mention specific details through future plot developments.

If I choose option 2, I will use about 40 chapters to supplement it in one chapter (this won't count towards paid word count, but it will be considered part of the main text as it needs to connect the preceding and succeeding chapters).