Search Team Seven: "Captain of Seven has received the message. What are the instructions from the command center?"
"Any enemies discovered?" the messenger asked.
"No enemies found so far. There are no anomalies within the explored area," came the voice of the captain from Search Team Seven.
"How is that possible? Where on earth are the enemies? Not even a shadow has been seen for so long."
The messenger muttered to himself. Glancing at Lei Ke, who was still waiting not far away, he hurriedly reported the situation relayed by this search fleet to him.
"I know. Keep questioning the other search fleets," Lei Ke said and waved his hand. The watching messenger nearby immediately began contacting the other search fleets.
"Report to the command center. This is Search Team 186. No anomalies detected currently."
"Report to the command center. This is Search Team 245. No anomalies detected currently."
"Report to the command center..."
The images inside the command room constantly changed. Lei Ke and the messenger also kept watching patiently, carefully inquiring whether those search fleets had discovered any enemies.
Judging from the messages transmitted back by these search fleets, within a range of over a hundred light-years around the East District Fleet, there were no anomalies. The information understood from the search fleets was completely consistent—no enemies had appeared in the surroundings.
Lei Ke tapped the armrest of his chair, his brows furrowed the whole time.
"Could the enemy not be in this area? But the fleets in the other three areas haven't found them either. Where on earth could the enemy have gone?"
Then Lei Ke shook his head, shaking off the stuffy feeling in his heart.
"Forget it. Since the various search fleets haven't found any anomalies there, there's no need to keep waiting here." Lei Ke thought for a moment, looked at the messenger on the side, and ordered, "Pass down the order. Have each search fleet expand its range and continue reconnaissance, and let the Main Battleship fleet continue forward."
"Understood, Commander!" The messenger's spirit was boosted, and he immediately received the order.
Soon, the engines of the massive fleet once more spewed out several incomparably thick jets of white particles. Those particle jets roared out, making the fleet race forward like a comet dragging a comet tail.
Around the fleet, countless small warships were the same. The movements of the small spacecraft distributed around were much smaller. Although the scale was large, they looked far less breathtaking than those huge Main Battleships.
The East District Fleet set sail once again. At their speed, they would soon be able to expand the search range once more.
More than a month passed after that, and the four regional fleets of the Taotie Civilization still failed to find the fleet of the Huaxia Civilization. By this time, the four Taotie fleets had expanded their search range to half the area within the Milky Way Galaxy, yet there was still no discovery.
Not only that, but in this month or more, the Taotie Civilization had successively lost nearly a hundred patrol fleets, greatly diminishing their search capabilities.
Not far from Pluto, the Huaxia Third Fleet was currently hidden within a spatial fold. Inside the flagship, Deputy Commander Yang Bin reported to Zhu Tianyi, "Commander, the Second Fleet has already lured out two-thirds of the enemy's forces. At Pluto now, only one-third of the Taotie Legion's forces remain. Can we launch the attack?"
This was the combat plan that Zhu Tianyi personally deployed two months ago, because the strengths of both sides were about equal, and the numbers were also extremely huge.
Starting a war directly on Pluto was simply impossible, and it might even destroy Pluto. Therefore, Zhu Tianyi sent people from the Second Fleet to lure away the enemy's large main forces, and then lurked in the dark to launch sneak attacks and eliminate their living forces.
As for the Third Fleet, it secretly hid and waited for the right opportunity to directly attack Pluto, whose defensive power was greatly reduced. It would be best to annihilate the Taotie King Shi Hao in one fell swoop!
"Good. Having waited for so long, it's time to make a move. Order all captains of the Third Fleet: target Pluto, ten light-years away, and set off immediately."
"Also notify the Second Fleet to begin their action. At the very least, they must hold down the Taotie Civilization's external forces. Isn't the Super Soldier Company there observing interstellar warfare? You can have the Super Soldier Company assist from the sidelines."
"Yes, Commander."
Following the issuance of Zhu Tianyi's order, within the massive Third Fleet, every single warship sprang into action. Their engines ignited, and they successively entered high-speed motion. As the speed of the entire fleet grew faster and faster, led by several Main Battleships, they instantly accelerated into a state of faster-than-light speed.
Then space shuddered, and a large wormhole appeared. The fleet, so massive it blotted out the sky and earth, plunged directly into the wormhole after advancing for a moment, vanishing completely from here in an instant.
The two fleets of the Huaxia Civilization began acting simultaneously. At this moment, at the location where the Taotie Civilization's East District Fleet was situated, the massive fleet was racing forward at high speed.
Inside the giant flagship's command room, East District Fleet Commander Lei Ke looked at the image of the area ahead of the fleet presented on the screen, feeling vaguely like something was amiss, yet he couldn't put his finger on what was wrong.
Yet Lei Ke had a strong premonition that something definitely wasn't quite right.
Lei Ke was born with exceptionally strong intuition. Relying on his super-strong intuition, he had evaded countless dangers in the past, ultimately managing to climb all the way to his current position and beat down all competitors.
"No! We can't keep moving forward." Lei Ke felt restless, sensing only that the surroundings were incomparably dangerous. He felt somewhat creeped out, and his intuition told him that if he continued forward, he would likely encounter great danger very soon.
"Order the fleet to stop and immediately retreat," Lei Ke commanded hurriedly.
"Commander, what's wrong?" the messenger asked with a puzzled expression.
The search fleets had already confirmed earlier that there were no enemies around; why retreat? Harboring numerous doubts, the messenger still obediently passed down the order.
As the orders were transmitted everywhere, the engines at the bows of the East District Fleet's warships all activated. The violently spewing white particle jets erupted, and the fleet's speed gradually decreased.
Then, instead of turning around, they continuously drove their forward engines in this manner, causing the entire fleet to slowly retreat.
Lei Ke's experience was extremely rich. In such a situation where they might encounter danger, the fleet could not turn its bows around when retreating; otherwise, if the formation scattered, they would likely be caught off guard by suddenly appearing enemies and have no power to fight back.
However, after only a short while, massive spatial wormholes appeared all around the East District Fleet. A large number of warships from the Huaxia Civilization's Second Fleet sailed out from the wormholes.
Meanwhile, in the direction the East District Fleet was retreating—ahead, to the left, to the right, in space from all four directions—in just a split second, tens of thousands of Huaxia Civilization warships suddenly emerged from wormholes, surrounding the East District Fleet.
The East District Fleet was scanning all directions at all times. The moment the Huaxia Second Fleet appeared, over a dozen alarm sounds instantly rang out inside the flagship of the East District Fleet.