This isn't the energy of a stellar explosion, but the energy of matter and antimatter annihilation. If it were a few hundred kilograms or tons of matter and antimatter annihilating, that would be manageable, but this involves the mass of two stars, which can no longer be described in tens of thousands of tons; their mass has reached hundreds of billions of billions of tons.
In an instant, earth-shattering energy erupted from between the two stars. If the collision and explosion of two ordinary stars is equivalent to a firecracker, then the energy released by the annihilation of these two matter and antimatter stars is equivalent to an atomic bomb.
A giant worm that had just rampaged around the Reaper for over 30,000 kilometers was instantly reduced to dust. This worm could have withstood an antimatter bomb weighing several hundred kilograms, but now it didn't even have a chance to struggle before being reduced to elementary particles.
As the energy spread, the swarm of insects was swept away and crushed like autumn leaves in the wind; not a single insect could survive intact.
"Ugh, what a waste, what a waste!" Wen Zhonghua exclaimed, slamming his fist on the table.
The two stars collided and were immediately annihilated. The powerful reaction force from the explosion shattered them into several pieces, but they were not completely annihilated, so Wen Zhonghua cried out that it was a waste.
However, something strange happened. The star fragments that should have scattered began to fly backwards and collided together again, annihilating once more, exploding again, and then gathering together again, until all the antimatter was annihilated. All of this happened in just a few seconds, leaving Wen Zhonghua completely baffled.
"Have you seen a ghost, Old Hu?"
Before Hu Yu could answer, the swarm of insects in the distance also began to fly backward. They shattered in mid-air, and the shattered fragments did not stop moving backward, but in the opposite direction of the energy. If a powered boat were to go upstream, it might not be a problem, but it would be strange for an unpowered boat to go upstream. Moreover, this was not going upstream at all, but rather going against the current from the foot of the waterfall to the top of the waterfall.
"Not good! Retreat! All fleets, retreat immediately! Hurry!" Hu Yu shouted.
"Why?" Wen Zhonghua asked as he ordered the fleet to retreat.
"It's a spatial collapse."
"What spatial collapse?"
"The explosion was so powerful that it not only destroyed the insects but also the space itself. There is no space left at the site of the explosion. It's like a construction site collapse, which will cause a chain reaction until the entire project collapses."
"Does that mean our entire universe will collapse? Where can we escape to?"
"Of course, the entire universe won't be affected by a chain reaction; it's just this particular space. Space has a healing function. When the rate of collapse catches up with the rate of healing, it will stop. Haven't you seen the insects flying backwards? That's because space is healing itself. To give an analogy, if we instantly sucked all the air out of one place, air from other places would replenish it. Initially, the replenishment rate is the fastest, as if the surrounding air is collapsing. As air from more distant places replenishes, this collapse rate will slow down until the sucked-out space is filled with air, and everything returns to normal."
"The space collapsed, so what was inside the original space? Void?"
"I'm not sure about that. You can ask Academician Zeng when you have time. He'll be very interested. Remember to bring the data to Academician Zeng as well. If you can figure something out, it might be a pretty good weapon."
"That makes sense. I didn't expect this outcome. It would be best if all the bugs collapsed to save me the trouble."
"Let's take a look. The space is still in a state of stretching and movement. No force can resist this natural movement of space, including the insects. Therefore, they will be killed by the deformed space."
"How did you suddenly learn so much? Are you just bragging?"
Do you think I'm as ignorant and incompetent as you?
"Come on, I know your own limitations. Stop pretending."
The spatial collapse was still ongoing. Ten minutes later, the collapse had extended to a distance of 18 million kilometers, but there was still no sign of it stopping. The energy in the collapse area had completely disappeared. It was as if the area had become a spatial hole, swallowing everything, including space itself.
Hu Yu originally thought that this explosion would open up the fourth dimension, and some of the energy would go to the fourth dimension. However, it seems that this is not the case at all. The energy released by the antimatter star in an instant has exceeded the limit that space can withstand. Fortunately, the Xuan Star Civilization was not forced to detonate this antimatter star back then. Otherwise, not only would the Xuan Star Civilization be destroyed, but the entire Grim Slayer fleet would also be wiped out.
Feng Ye, the leader and chief scientist of the Xuan Star Civilization, was also stunned by what he saw. They had not expected that an antimatter star would have such power. They were also glad that they had not detonated the antimatter star back then, otherwise the Xuan Star Civilization would have been wiped out long ago.
Quantitative change can lead to qualitative change. Even a large amount of ordinary TNT can have a devastating effect, not to mention the even more powerful antimatter.
The spatial collapse spread at the speed of light. Wherever the energy passed, space collapsed. The insect swarm did not receive the news in advance. By the time they discovered it, the spatial collapse had already occurred, and none of them could escape, regardless of their level.
When the collapse radius reached over a billion kilometers, the Insect King finally noticed the anomaly. It immediately rallied the swarm to scatter and flee, but outside, the civilization's fleet was watching with predatory intent, continuously unleashing spatial attacks on the swarm. Even if it couldn't effectively annihilate the swarm, it could effectively prevent them from entering warp drive and thus prevent them from escaping.
The Insect King was anxious. Riding on one of the giant insects that was 100,000 kilometers long, it raised its huge forepaws, revealing a mouthful of sharp fangs, and sent out a message with a ferocious expression, ordering all the insects to charge with all their might, open a passage, and escape from here. It had never seen a spatial collapse before, and this kind of thing made it feel a serious threat.
Although it didn't care about the life or death of these ordinary insects, these insects were an important part of its fighting force. If all these ordinary insects were wiped out, it would be equivalent to losing an important fighting force. It would be difficult and dangerous to attack civilized territory alone. Having dealt with civilizations for many years, it knew that these civilized creatures would always come up with some strange things to try to kill them.
Despite the Insect King's anxious urging, very few insects were able to break through the civilization fleet's defenses and escape; less than one in ten thousand. The Aquila Civilization's consciousness-impacting devices caused some low-level insects immense pain as soon as they approached the defenses, making it difficult for them to even maintain their balance, let alone escape.