The outskirts of Demon Cave Time-Space had remained rather inconspicuous in recent years.
Ever since the Demon Cave Master had fallen, and Locke had absorbed nearly all the remaining extreme Destruction Factors within this Higher Dimensional Plane, Demon Cave Time-Space had gradually changed from the chaotic, violent war quagmire of the past, filled with Demonized Tides, into the right-wing stronghold of the Mechanical Civilization and the Destruction Divine Kingdom Faction.
The Evil Tide Civilization Main Clan, the Stein Empire, the Devil Moon Civilization, and countless old and new forces affiliated with the Mechanical Civilization had all redrawn their territories here.
Skynet's network was also deeply spread throughout this region.
Yet Saine had not transformed this time-space into a tightly ordered Mechanical Core heartland like Gear Time-Space.
The environment of Demon Cave Time-Space itself was too ruined.
And too complicated.
Many star zones still bore the source wounds left behind by the Demon Cave Master, while a few regions even periodically erupted with Demonized Tides.
For ordinary civilizations, such a place was naturally terrible.
But for Saine, this half-chaotic, half-controllable state was instead ideal for laying traps.
When Myriad Phenomena Arbiter Luo Heng led his army to the outskirts of Demon Cave Time-Space, the first thing he saw was a mechanical defensive line that was slowly contracting.
The lights of several metal starports were dim.
The semi-mechanical magic-energy fortresses modified by the Stein Empire seemed to have shut down some of their outer turrets due to insufficient energy.
Farther away, only scattered patrol fleets cruised through the Lunar Eclipse Star Belt controlled by the Devil Moon Civilization.
As for the dark fleets of the Evil Tide Civilization, they had withdrawn even deeper.
On the surface, this truly looked like a weakly defended region that had just undergone a major troop withdrawal.