Sky Burning Divine Weapon Shows Its Might

On the Gui Xu-class Sky Burning Divine Weapon "Gonggong".

"Reporting to the Captain, currently the distance to the Lieyang Civilization's Heavenly Dao Galaxy is a total of 153 star systems' hyperspace navigation jump distance, with a straight-line distance of approximately 189 light-years. The jump engine can be activated to rapidly jump to that galaxy within a day!"

"According to the combat mission provided by the Federal Armed Forces Department, we only need to resolve the Lieyang Civilization within one month."

"After eliminating that civilization, the 'Gonggong' can mine dark matter resources locally within this galaxy, in order to quickly complete the higher-level mission assigned by the Department of Resources."

The Sky Burning Divine Weapon looks like a warship.

But in reality, its function and original design intent are not that of a warship, but rather a large-scale armed engineering vessel.

It's just that the self-defense firepower it carries is extremely formidable, and ordinary fleets are no match for it.

The primary purpose of this 'Gonggong' Sky Burning Divine Weapon arriving in the Hou Shen Galaxy, aside from resolving the Lieyang Civilization, is another mission to collect dark matter resources.

The priority of the latter mission is actually above that of the former.

The reason dark matter isn't collected in the Milky Way Galaxy is that the Sky Burning Divine Weapon's method of collecting dark matter is too direct—by destroying star systems and instantly extracting the dark matter from the destroyed systems.

This method of resource collection is straightforward and brutal, but highly efficient, and it also has certain side effects.

That is, the destroyed star systems, due to the massive extraction of dark matter, will suffer mass imbalance and rapidly collapse into black holes in an instant.

If such behavior were carried out within the Milky Way, the large-scale formation of black holes would greatly affect the galactic environment.

The Milky Way in this universe has been designated by the Federation as a prize within its grasp. Using the Sky Burning Divine Weapon in the Milky Way would be like setting off fireworks in one's own home—feasible but inadvisable.

Therefore, the Federation's Department of Resources has set its sights on extragalactic galaxies for collecting dark matter resources.

And the Hou Shen Galaxy is a vast galaxy no smaller than the Milky Way.

Collecting dark matter resources here, even if the entire galaxy is drained dry into black holes, will not have any impact on the Milky Way, which is over a billion light-years away.

Not long ago, they eliminated a Lieyang Fleet that had taken the initiative to charge forward to their deaths.

Next, the 'Gonggong' was preparing to press on to the Lieyang Civilization's stronghold, the Heavenly Dao Galaxy, to deliver the final blow to that civilization.

But just then, waves of strange subspace echoes were suddenly received by the 'Gonggong's monitoring system.

"What's going on?"

"Reporting to the Captain, a powerful anomalous spacetime effect is interfering with the galactic spatial structure. The jump engine is being forcibly blocked... and countless subspace signal sources have appeared in this galaxy."

"Countless? I need a specific, exact number!"

"The 'Gonggong's algorithm cannot calculate a specific number... Wait, the entire galaxy we are in has been enveloped by a super gravitational source. Good heavens!"

"Quickly report back to United Star, upload all obtained data in real-time to the Strategic Command Center to prepare for unforeseen events..."

"Conventional faster-than-light intergalactic communication methods have failed. Communication channels are being blocked by unknown factors!"

"Use psychic communication!"

"Psychic communication can barely be used. We've contacted the Armed Forces Department..."

"The Armed Forces Department replies that the relevant situation has been reported to the Grand Marshal... but similar situations are not only occurring in the galaxy we are in; even the Milky Way has experienced some kind of anomalous variable!"

"The situation is urgent. The Grand Marshal has issued the highest directive: the Federation is entering 'Highest Level Strategic Alert Status'!"

"Captain, what do we do?"

"The 'Gonggong's jump engine is temporarily unable to perform intergalactic jumps due to unknown reasons. I'm afraid we cannot return to the Milky Way!"

"Initiate emergency faster-than-light escape!"

"The warship's mainframe calculation program shows that even with emergency faster-than-light escape activated, the 'Gonggong' cannot break free from the pull of that super gravitational source and cannot escape this galaxy..."

"Can the 'Gonggong' still move forward?"

"Yes, but only for hyperspace navigation within the range of this galaxy."

The Captain of the 'Gonggong' fell silent. After a moment of deep deliberation, he decisively said, "Then continue with the previous mission!"

"Advance toward that Heavenly Dao Galaxy, destroy star systems along the way, and collect dark matter resources!"

"Yes, sir!"

The crew showed no signs of panic on their faces. They calmly remained at their respective posts.

From now on, their fate, along with that of the 'Gonggong' stranded beyond the Milky Way, would be left to the whims of heaven.

The Sky Burning Divine Weapon swept over a nearby star system.

Its massive hull extended, and the Star Blaster mounted on its underside aimed at the star below.

Boom!

A terrifying beam of light struck the star's body directly.

The powerful energy level destroyed the celestial structure. The material composition that originally formed the star began to collapse, leading to a massive material collapse, followed by gravitational collapse.

A supernova explosion!

After a brilliant flash of light, a new black hole was formed.

And the series of spatial chain reactions triggered by the destruction of the star also caused other celestial bodies within the star system—such as planets, asteroids, and meteoroids—to be caught in the blast and instantly perish, turning into fragments of stellar debris.

These stellar remnants were continuously drawn toward the newly formed black hole.

A star system was completely annihilated in less than an hour.

Only the massive black hole gravitational source remained at the center of the galaxy.

The Gonggong, having accomplished such a masterpiece, pressed on without pause toward the next star system.

The terrifying black hole's gravity could not affect this Sky Burning Divine Weapon in the slightest, and could only let it depart.

Thus, it continued destroying star systems one after another.

By the time the Gonggong arrived at the Heavenly Dao Galaxy, over a hundred star systems had already been ravaged.

During the wait for the Gonggong's arrival, the entire Lieyang Civilization was in unbearable agony.

Because they too had detected that immense anomalous spacetime effect.

For them, the last time such an anomalous spacetime effect appeared, the Human Federation had suddenly emerged in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Now, a similar anomalous spacetime effect had appeared in the Hou Shen Galaxy where they resided.

These people of the Lieyang Civilization even feared in terror that the Human Federation was employing some unknown technological means to blockade them.

Since this anomalous spacetime effect affected the spatial structure of the galaxy, it also interfered with the Lieyang Civilization's wormholes and other faster-than-light technologies.

This effectively sealed off the entire galactic river, cutting off any possibility for the Lieyang Civilization to use technologies like Wormhole Jumps to escape beyond the galaxy.

Thinking that the Human Federation would actually use such terrifying methods against them, Pan Zhen could only feel a deep sense of helplessness at this moment.

Since that was the case, there was no choice but to fight to the death!

Meanwhile, the crew aboard the Gonggong, upon arriving at the Heavenly Dao Galaxy and seeing the Lieyang Fleet arrayed for battle, found it somewhat baffling.

What?

This civilization wasn't running away?

Due to the failure of their jump engines, they could only reach the Heavenly Dao Galaxy through relatively slower super-space channels.

The journey spanning over a hundred galaxies had caused considerable delay, taking a full three months, and had already missed the scheduled combat time.

Logically, with such a long delay, wouldn't a normal interstellar civilization's mindset, knowing the vast disparity in strength between themselves and the enemy, try to find a way to escape?

It wasn't as if the opposing civilization couldn't flee—after all, as long as the green hills remain, one need not worry about firewood.

In such a situation, retreating without a fight was no disgrace.

Even if faster-than-light technologies like Wormhole Jumps had failed, the opposing civilization should have attempted to rely on other conventional interstellar navigation methods to escape to other places within the galaxy, right?

Though the hope of escape was slim, it wasn't nonexistent; at the very least, they should try to preserve some embers of their civilization.

But judging by this posture, the opposing civilization was clearly going all out to fight them to the death?

Interesting. Truly a bunch of bold alien bastards, daring to gamble like this.

No matter what the Lieyang Civilization was thinking, the crew aboard the Gonggong now shared only one unified thought—

"The light of stars has shone upon these enemies for too long. From now on, they will never see such enlightening radiance again."

(Heavenly Dao Galaxy and Lieyang Planet)