Deep within the chaos, that diamond-shaped reconnaissance probe was like an inconspicuous speck of dust, faithfully carrying out its mission.
The strange crystalline structure on its surface was aimed at the massive barrier of the Primordial World, scanning and recording vast amounts of data. In its core database, this world, designated "High-Value Resource Zone No. 7322," had been rated as having "low-level" defenses, with no known means of faster-than-light detection.
That was the conclusion reached by its cold calculations.
Yet in the very next second, its calculations suffered a fatal deviation.
Just as it completed its first round of basic data collection and attempted to activate subspace communications to transmit the intelligence back to the main body.
Buzz—
Four overwhelming streams of Human Way Power transformed into the towering phantoms of the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise. They rose fiercely from four unimaginable angles, forming an invisible net of heaven and earth that instantly froze and sealed off this region of chaotic spacetime!
The human fleet had arrived!
A red alert was instantly triggered within the probe's core. It decisively abandoned communications, and its engine output surged to its limit within one-millionth of a second, attempting a spatial jump.
But it was already too late.
The Four Symbols Lock Heaven Array was Chen Ran's modified version of the ancient Four Symbols Great Array, remade with human Rune Technology. Its core principle was to completely "solidify" a section of space. The probe's jump engine let out a meaningless overloaded wail. Before the forcibly distorted laws of space, it could not even stir a ripple.
Breakout failed!
The probe immediately changed strategies. Its cold mechanical logic allowed it not the slightest hesitation.
Dozens of microscopic launch ports, nearly invisible to the naked eye, instantly split open across its mirror-smooth black shell. Annihilation Beams capable of easily piercing the protective immortal light of a Grand Unity Golden Immortal shot in all directions, attempting to rip open a gap through sheer violence.
Yet after flying less than a hundred li, those beams capable of destroying stars plunged headlong into a suddenly appearing haze of brilliant, multicolored mist. Like red-hot iron falling into water, they vanished without even raising a bubble.
Beyond the mist, Zhao Gongming and the Three Ladies of Sanxiao wore solemn expressions, each forming hand seals as they presided over a formation with its killing intent held tightly within.
The Heavenly Absolute Array, Earth Blazing Array, Wind Roar Array, Ice Array...
The ten great killing arrays that were the Jie Sect's most treasured foundations were interlocked at this moment, yet strangely remained untriggered. They released no destructive force at all. Instead, all their power was devoted to distorting spacetime, blocking perception, and devouring energy.
From the outside, this place remained a silent expanse of chaos.
No living being could sense that within this death zone shrouded by the Ten Ultimate Arrays, a silent encirclement against an extraterrestrial visitor was unfolding with fierce intensity.
All of the probe's attacks vanished like mud oxen entering the sea.
It had completely become blind and deaf.
[Alert: Connection to main body lost.] [Alert: Spatial transit failed.] [Alert: All long-range attack methods ineffective.] [Current threat assessment: Unknown. Dangerous!] [Executing final directive: Self-destruct!]
Without the slightest hesitation, the probe's core energy began surging wildly in an extremely unstable manner. A devastating energy storm capable of blasting this sealed region back to its origin was about to erupt completely within it!
"Not good! It's going to self-destruct!"
Inside the Hall of Civilization, Ao Guang, who saw this through the Heavenly Net's live broadcast, was so shocked that even his dragon whiskers stood on end.
Once this energy exploded, even with the Ten Ultimate Arrays weakening it, that terrifying impact would still be enough to severely damage the Primordial World's crystal wall system!
"Now!"
Chen Ran's incomparably calm command directly rang out in the minds of Guang Chengzi and the others.
Almost at the same moment, before Jade Void Palace on distant Mount Kunlun, a newly completed giant artifact-refining furnace filled with the style of Rune Technology burst open!
Guang Chengzi and the others were pale-faced as they worked together to remove a strange treasure cage flickering with the Dao aura of heaven and earth from the blazing True Sun Fire.
This magical treasure had been hurriedly forged according to the blueprints Chen Ran provided, by the Chan Sect's Twelve Golden Immortals working together without rest for seven times seven, forty-nine double-hours. It had been made specifically to deal with a situation like this!
"Go!"
Guang Chengzi let out a roar and hurled the incomparably heavy treasure cage into the sky with all his strength.
The treasure cage expanded with the wind. In an instant, it pierced through endless space and appeared precisely above the probe trapped within layer upon layer of arrays!
"Heaven and earth reversed, infinite space, suppress!"
Guang Chengzi chanted continuously. Countless runes personally inscribed by him and his fellow disciples suddenly lit up across the treasure cage. A vast power of space poured down, about to forcibly "excavate" the self-destructing probe along with the space around it and collect them into the treasure cage.
But at that moment, the energy reaction within the probe suddenly accelerated several times over!
The spatial power cast down by the treasure cage was actually forced into slight distortion by that violent energy, unable to descend!
"Damn it! This thing's self-destruction is three times faster than our projections!" Guang Chengzi's eyes nearly split open.
This hastily refined Universe Cage was, after all, only the first prototype. It simply could not unleash the full power described in the blueprints!
There was no time left!
In that flash of lightning, a trace of resolve flashed through Guang Chengzi's eyes. He suddenly bit the tip of his tongue and fiercely sprayed a mouthful of Nascent Soul blood essence containing a thousand years of cultivation onto the phantom of the Universe Cage!
"With my Nascent Soul, I command heaven and earth! Suppress it for me!!!"
Buzz—
Empowered by Guang Chengzi's blood essence, the Universe Cage blazed with light. Its previously somewhat illusory runes instantly solidified, and the spatial power capable of imprisoning heaven and earth became more than ten times stronger in an instant!
It forcibly suppressed the probe's self-destruct energy, clamped down tightly upon that section of space along with the half-melted probe, and violently drew them into the treasure cage!
At the instant it was taken into the cage, the violent energy inside the probe erupted completely.
Yet within the treasure cage's infinitely expanding internal space, that explosion capable of destroying a star system was like a silent firework. All its energy was diluted and absorbed by endless spatial dimensions, ultimately returning entirely to nothingness.
Capture successful!
Though a slight complication had occurred during the process, the cooperation among all parties had been seamless.
After a deathly silence in the Hall of Civilization, earthshaking cheers erupted.
Every great power was invigorated from the bottom of their hearts by this victory. For the first time, they had felt so directly the terrifying power contained in the word "alliance"!
The humans' precise blockade, the Jie Sect's perfect concealment, the Chan Sect's thunderous confinement... every link had achieved effects far beyond what any single faction could accomplish.
"Beautiful!" Lord of the Heavens slapped his thigh and burst into laughter.
Primordial Heavenly Venerate's expression remained grave, but the slight lift of his brow and the fleeting praise in his eyes as he looked at Guang Chengzi on the light screen revealed the turmoil in his heart.
The power of this Universe Cage, forged under the lead of his Chan Sect disciples, had even surprised him. It proved that the Chan Sect's artifact-refining Dao, when combined with so-called Rune Technology, possessed limitless potential!
City of Origin, Central Academy of Sciences.
Inside Zeroing Laboratory, whose alert level was the highest.
The successfully captured probe was placed intact upon an experimental platform wrapped in nine layers of restrictions and three layers of energy shields.
Chen Ran, along with the technical elites of the Chan and Jie Sects, had all gathered around it, every face filled with excitement and curiosity.
"Begin dismantling it," Chen Ran ordered.
Taiyi Zhenren raised the Nine Dragon Divine Fire Cover, attempting to melt its shell with Samadhi True Fire. After burning it for quite some time, however, the shell did not show even the slightest change in temperature.
"This thing is outside the Five Elements and untouched by karma. Immortal arts are useless against it!" Taiyi Zhenren realized in shock.
In the end, it was the human engineers who activated a High-Frequency Rune Cutter and finally cut a narrow seam into that indestructible shell.
As the shell was opened layer by layer, what appeared before them was an incomparably precise internal structure filled with an alien technological beauty.
Energy circuits thinner than strands of hair spread throughout it like the human body's neural network. Its driving core was a Dark Matter Battery that constantly absorbed chaotic energy. Its control center, meanwhile, was a fist-sized Memory Crystal that seemed to be made of pure light and data.
"That's it!"
The human scientists carefully connected a specially made rune probe to that Memory Crystal.
An enormous encrypted stream of data instantly poured into the Heavenly Net's central processor.
After several double-hours, with several Chan Sect immortals proficient in innate divination working alongside the human race's top programmers to crack it.
The first internal intelligence from an extraterrestrial civilization finally appeared before everyone.
However, when they saw the first line of decrypted information, all laughter and cheers in the laboratory abruptly stopped.
Everyone's smiles froze on their faces.
["Star Devourer" Civilization, Deep-Space Reconnaissance Unit No. 749, mission log.] [Mission objective: Investigate the remains of the suspected high-energy reaction source, "Solar Star," near World No. 7322 (Primordial World).]
"Star Devourer?"
Chen Ran's heart sank sharply.
"This isn't a Gestalt probe!"
Before his words had even faded, the decryption continued.
More information, like the most terrifying nightmare, was gradually revealed.
This Mechanical Civilization called Star Devourer was, like Gestalt, a top-tier technological civilization.
But its goal was not formatting. It was... devouring!
They were the locusts of the universe, feeding on the energy of stars. Wherever their massive fleets passed, they left behind only eternal darkness and dead silence after the stars had gone out.
And this time, their reconnaissance unit had discovered the Solar Star near the Primordial World. Though it had long hidden itself away, it still emitted an unimaginably enormous amount of energy...
According to their detection report, the energy level contained within that Solar Star was enough to allow their entire civilization to undergo an epic collective evolution!
What made everyone's bodies turn cold and made them feel as though they had fallen into an ice pit was that at the end of the log was a record concerning Gestalt, along with an incomplete Star Chart.
On the Star Chart, two massive interstellar empires stood opposed from afar, while the Primordial World lay exactly at the border between their spheres of influence!
[Detected that competitor "Gestalt" Civilization has already conducted preliminary exploration in this region. Based on its operational patterns, its target is judged to be this high-energy reaction source as well.] [Conclusion: Before Gestalt's main fleet arrives, the "harvesting" of this high-energy reaction source must be completed.]
Two!
There were actually two suffocatingly powerful interstellar Mechanical Civilizations eyeing the Primordial World like a piece of fat meat!
And they were competitors!
This news was like a colossal boulder weighing billions of tons crashing down upon everyone's hearts, pressing them until they could barely breathe.
"Sir..."
Guang Chengzi, who had just been high-spirited after rendering great service, now had an incomparably dry voice. He stared at the light screen with unfocused eyes. "What... what should we do?"
Two of them!
One alone had already put the entire Primordial World on high alert, and now another had appeared!
Chen Ran said nothing.
His pupils were fixed tightly upon the incomplete Star Chart attached to the log.
On that Star Chart, a brightly marked route representing the Star Devourer's main fleet advanced resolutely in a straight line toward a single direction.
At the end of that direction, two words were marked with absolute clarity—
Solar Star!
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