The losses of these fleets were almost entirely caused by the Insect King using lower-level Zerg to launch dimensional reduction attacks. The total number of civilizations that were actually directly damaged by the Zerg in the battle was less than 10 billion.
Meanwhile, battles were still raging in other parts of the galaxy among other civilizations. More than a hundred Small Star Sector Civilization, trillions of warships, and countless weapons had been fighting for decades without completely annihilating the Zerg swarms.
However, under the powerful attack of the civilization, a large number of the higher-order insects escaped through the fourth dimension. The Small Star Sector Civilization had neither the ability nor the need to pursue these escaped higher-order insects. Without the lower-order insects as cannon fodder, these higher-order insects would only be annihilated even if they returned to the three-dimensional universe.
There was nothing to be seen here but endless insect corpses. The starlight was obscured, and countless fragments of insect corpses drifted silently in the air. Fleets of some civilizations began to salvage the corpses of some high-level insects for research. Compared to the enormous insect corpses, warships were tiny. It would take tens of thousands of warships working together to move a single insect corpse.
Hu Yu also ordered the Reaper to search for relatively intact giant insect corpses. However, due to the long distance, Hu Yu only collected a few thousand giant insect corpses that were tens of thousands of kilometers long. These insect corpses, regardless of size, were all treasures. Academician Xiao urgently needed organic matter to feed his biological warriors. All the insect corpses from the previous insect swarm had disappeared along with the collapse of space.
While Hu Yu was collecting the insect corpses, he did not forget to monitor the Fish Horse Star Civilization. The Fish Horse Star Civilization seemed to be moving between the Reaper and other civilization fleets as if nothing was wrong, collecting insect corpses. Occasionally, they would even compete with the Reaper for a giant insect. Occasionally, other civilization fleets would also have the same interest in the same insect corpse.
However, there were many insect corpses, and no actual conflict occurred between civilizations. It was purely a race against time; whoever was faster could grab the insect corpses. Those who were slower didn't care; they could just go find another one. In any case, there were plenty of insect corpses, and the number of giant insects was also considerable, enough to meet the needs of these civilization fleets.
Aside from occasionally vying with other civilizations for insect corpses, the Fish Horse Star Civilization civilization didn't take any special actions against the Reaper, as if the Reaper were just like any other civilization in their eyes. Hu Yu really wanted to rush up and fight the Fish Horse Star fleet, especially Wen Zhonghua, who was practically ready to roll up his sleeves and charge in himself.
As everyone knows, although the Reaper fleet's defense has improved, its offensive capabilities are still inferior to those of the Fish Horse Star warships, and its numbers are far fewer than those of the Fish Horse Star Civilization. If a war were to break out between humanity and the Fish Horse Star Civilization now, Fish Horse Star Civilization would absolutely be no match for them.
Moreover, the Fish Horse Star Civilization does not seem to have given up its surveillance of humanity. The fact that the Fish Horse Star Civilization knew that the Consciousness Field impact weapon had only been used near the Alliance base shows that they know a great deal about humanity, while humanity knows very little about the Fish Horse Star Civilization.
Not only do humans know very little about the Fish Horse Star Civilization, but even ancient civilizations Carina Civilization and the Crystal Civilization, which have existed for countless years, know very little about the Fish Horse Star Civilization. No other civilization has ever visited the Fish Horse Star Civilization's base, and they don't even know where their base is.
Even though the Fish Horse Star Civilization is currently fighting the Zerg swarm, what exactly is their purpose in feeding the Zerg? They even specifically asked the Wind Star Civilization to use humans from Li Shun's side to feed the Zerg. These questions puzzled Hu Yu one after another. Although Hu Yu didn't know the specific reasons, Hu Yu knew that the ultimate purpose of these actions would be related to the entire galaxy.
After looting several thousand insects, the Fish Horse Star Civilization left nonchalantly, showing no regard for the Reaper. Hu Yu immediately issued instructions to the miniature spaceship Wriggler to monitor the trajectory of the Fish Horse Star Civilization's warships along the way.
Wriggler are tiny and stealthy, but their only drawback is that they cannot travel faster than the speed of light. Hu Yu has already deployed Wriggler in a small part of the galaxy using his spaceship. The deployed Wriggler will gradually spread throughout the galaxy at sub-light speed, and then every move in the galaxy will be visible to humans.
Everything was going very smoothly at first, but the arrival of the swarm dealt a devastating blow to the Wriggler. The Wriggler were antimatter ships, with the entire ship body made of antimatter. The arrival of the swarm directly annihilated most of the Wriggler, and now less than a third remain. Fortunately, the remaining ones are still widely distributed, and the movement trajectory of the Fish Horse Star warship can still be barely detected for the time being.
For many years, Hu Yu has been trying to find the base of the Fish Horse Star Civilization, but no matter how he tries to contact the photons or Wriggler, he has not found any clues. It seems that the Fish Horse Star Civilization does not belong to this galaxy. The starting point and trajectory of their fleets that are added to the defensive line are different every time, as if they are deliberately hiding the location of their base.
Hiding base locations is something many civilizations do, but no other civilization has hidden them as well as the Fish Horse Star Civilization. The fleet that Fish Horse Star used in this battle, like those of other civilizations, clearly did not come from the defensive line, but from their base. Therefore, after the battle, these fleets would return to their bases. Hu Yu hoped that this time he could track the Fish Horse Star Civilization's fleet and find their hidden base coordinates directly.
However, the messages sent by the Wriggler larvae indicated that the Fish Horse Star Civilization's fleet showed no signs of returning to its base, but instead headed straight for the defensive line. Hu Yu sighed silently, thinking that if he were part of the Fish Horse Star Civilization, he would probably have chosen the same approach and would never have allowed the enemy to find his base.
The fleets of other civilizations also left the battlefield one after another. The Reaper, having collected enough insect corpses, were already on their way back. Along the way, they could still frequently find small swarms of insects. After dealing with these swarms, the Reaper did not rush on their way but instead searched for traces of Mechanical Civilization near the swarms.
The culprit behind this insect plague is the Mechanical Civilization. After the outbreak of the plague, the Mechanical Civilization disappeared again. Now, more than half of the insects have been eliminated. There are still many insects left, but they no longer gather into super insect swarms. The civilization's fleet only needs to spend some time to eliminate these insect swarms one by one.
On their return journey, the Reaper cleared out the insect swarms while searching for the Mechanical Civilization. Hu Yu had the Reaper fleet carefully examine and scan every star, every planet, and even every insect and meteorite, but they found nothing.
This Mechanical Civilization simultaneously opened up the fourth dimension at billions of different coordinates in the galaxy to guide the insect swarm; it's absolutely impossible that they simply disappeared without a trace.