The Teleportation Anchor

Several pale-yellow stasis beams suddenly struck Star Origin from all sides. A faint, peculiar energy wrapped around Star Origin's engines and reactor.

They tried to disrupt the power system's energy flow, but Star Origin was equipped with a top-quality purple-grade Power Star Weapon.

Ordinary stasis beams were completely ineffective.

"Put on a show. Lower the power output of the engines and lure them in," Feng Xiao ordered the ship's AI as he left the captain's cabin.

Just as expected, Star Origin immediately slowed down. The Eight-Gate Ship Cannon fired a few shots at only 20% power, pretending to struggle, and four pirate ships came speeding over from a distance.

Wang Hao turned around and said, "The one at the front is an elite-class starship. The others are all advanced-class."

"How did they get in with that level of strength?"

Feng Xiao narrowed his eyes, realizing that something wasn't right.

Forget four ships of this caliber—even four Star-Land-class or Star Dome-class ships might not be able to break into a subdimensional world through the star gate.

Once the Alliance Military had fully secured the subdimensional world's defenses, even every pirate in the Blood Cloud Chaos Sector attacking together would be useless.

"Hahaha! Third Captain, I can't believe that after we slipped through a crack in the corner while the star gate's structure was stable, we found such a big fish!"

"Hahaha! Alliance folks are loaded."

Inside the elite-class pirate ship, shaped like a four-pointed star, its sharp-nosed captain laughed uproariously, his face a little sleazy.

In his mind, even an advanced-class Alliance ship could be stripped of a hundred thousand Alliance Coins' worth of valuables.

Their own advanced-class ships could slip out through a gap in the Blood Cloud Sector's defenses, and Alliance Coins would come in handy. Still, he hadn't forgotten their real objective.

"Once we've dealt with them, place the Space Anchor right away. The Alliance would never guess that one of the three top starships in the Blood Cloud Sector has an Orange Warp Star Weapon!" The sleazy captain was thrilled.

If the people aboard Star Origin had known what the pirates were thinking, they would have found it hilarious.

An orange Star Weapon might be enough to suppress the nations' militaries in the Morton Galaxy, but it was useless against the Alliance Military. Forget orange Star Weapons—even epic-grade ones wouldn't help.

Every large subdimensional world rich in precious resources and suitable for habitation was usually guarded by a standard fortress base cluster.

At least two Neutron War Stars and four powerful starships exceeding the Star Dome Class.

The sleazy captain, unaware that he was about to doom the Blood Cloud Sector's top forces, opened fire. The elite-class ship's main cannon struck Star Origin directly.

A massive sphere of energy engulfed Star Origin in layer upon layer. Energy rays refracted by its shields blasted countless asteroids around them to pieces!

The pirates watched eagerly.

None of them noticed the violent energy fluctuations gathering beneath the cover of the explosion.

As blue-and-red torrents of energy outside the ship battered the shields, Feng Xiao and the other two remained perfectly calm.

After all the buffs and debuffs were factored in, the attack only dealt 2,100 damage to the shields. It hadn't even chipped away a fraction of Star Origin's shield capacity.

It looked powerful, but it was just a squirt gun.

"Tsk, this is pretty funny." Wang Hao put on his sunglasses and sneered.

The energy gradually dissipated. Just as the Fierce Star Main Cannon finished charging, a notification appeared.

[Trigger Weapon Control: Triple Damage]

Feng Xiao froze. Then a dazzling beam erupted, tore through the surrounding energy torrents, and struck its target in an instant!

The sleazy captain aboard the elite ship caught a glimpse of a blinding flash from the corner of his eye. The next moment, the entire ship shook violently. Its shields held for barely ten seconds before shattering!

The remaining force tore through the armor as well, draining most of its durability!

With 7,500 damage, plus Star Origin's other bonuses, how could ordinary pirates in the Blood Cloud Chaos Sector possibly have purple-grade shields?

Even if they did, they'd be junk. And this was a second-generation ship, to boot. Its shields weren't maxed out; they'd be lucky to have an energy value of 8,000.

"Did the Alliance Military find us?" The sleazy captain was filled with despair.

Before he could say anything else, a barrage of missiles and cannon fire completely destroyed the ship.

The so-called Third Captain vanished along with it, lost forever in space.

The remaining three advanced-class ships accelerated frantically in an attempt to escape.

By then, the Li-style Particles that Star Origin had released without a sound had taken effect. Even though they'd fled early, the three advanced-class ships hadn't gotten far.

Star Origin caught up with them easily and destroyed them.

After collecting some valuables, Star Origin set off for the star gate once more. This time, the trip was peaceful, with no unexpected incidents.

After entering the massive ring-shaped military base surrounding the star gate and passing through several inspections, Star Origin finally left the subdimensional world.

Whoosh!

The ink-black hull appeared in space. A powerful energy surge burst outward, then quickly converged and was suppressed, returning to normal.

"Why does this star gate send ships to a random nearby location?" Feng Xiao asked helplessly as he watched a giant asteroid slam into the shields.

The enormous, radiant star gate stood nearly ten million kilometers off Star Origin's lower right. Ten Small Battle Stars, a vast fleet, and a Military Star Port still under construction completely surrounded it.

They had the star gate covered from every direction, with no blind spots.

Wang Hao, already sighing over their bad luck, grew even more curious. How had those four pirate ships gotten in?

"Maybe it has something to do with this." Feng Xiao looked at a triangular crystal in the cargo hold, his expression growing grave.

The Heart of Dawn.

[Analysis: This object is an information artifact associated with an orange teleportation Star Weapon. When activated within the Star Weapon's range, the starship that owns the weapon can reach the artifact's location within five seconds.

It is a special spatial anchor marker.

Estimated range: Usable throughout the Blood Cloud Sector. It may be possible to reach locations beyond the Blood Cloud Sector, if the distance exceeds one million light-years.

Status: Inactive]

Everyone who knew what the object did furrowed their brows, considering how to handle the situation.

"Since it's inactive, why not hold on to it until Star Origin is strong enough? Then we can follow the trail and find whoever owns that orange Star Weapon..." Wang Hao said with a mischievous grin, excitement in his voice.

Ilde rolled his eyes. "How can you be sure it won't be activated remotely?

This thing is a product of a Star Weapon. It'd be easy for the weapon to interfere with it by other means, wouldn't it?"

"Uh..."

Feng Xiao casually set their destination to the Violet Kingdom's gathering point for this mission, then turned to Elsa, who seemed a little timid.

Her purple eyes were full of curiosity, and she held two instruments used to measure the energy of plants.

The snug, ink-black combat suit accentuated her nearly perfect figure.

"Do you have any suggestions?"

Elsa shook her head. "Elsa has no opinion. I'll leave everything to my master."

How had he forgotten about that!

Feng Xiao's face stiffened. He glanced at the other two.

Master?

Sure enough, Wang Hao and Ilde looked at Feng Xiao strangely, their expressions clearly saying, Who would've thought you were into that?

"Ahem. We'll keep it for now. The Blood Cloud Chaos Sector is blockaded in every way, so the orange teleportation Star Weapon must be under the Alliance's blockade too.

Anyway, we'll reach the mission site in twenty minutes. Get ready.

Elsa, you can get back to work. Let Wang Hao know if you need anything."

He issued the instructions at top speed, then turned and ducked into the captain's cabin.

Elsa looked baffled. She glanced at Wang Hao, then at the captain's cabin, and recalled what she'd learned about the so-called "God Realm"—that is, the universe.

Her cheeks turned slightly red.

Wang Hao shook his head helplessly. "Sigh... The captain's changed..."