This kind of technology, capable of rendering a fleet incapacitated without its knowledge, is something only Galactic-Level Civilization could possess. Could it be that even a tiny Sextans A contains a Galactic-Level Civilization?
Hu Yu and Yan Xue analyzed the situation, but Yan Xue was very certain that there was no Galactic-Level Civilization in Sextans. Yan Xue had been in Sextans for ten thousand years and had gathered a lot of information. There was no Galactic-Level Civilization in Sextans. Hu Yu then asked Yan Xue if the Giant General Civilization had cracked some of the Snow Tribe's technology. Yan Xue was also very certain that the Giant General Civilization could not crack the Snow Tribe's technology. Apart from herself, even if she told the Giant General Civilization the password, they would not be able to open the technology storage device.
Hu Yu could only guess that there might be a hidden, low-profile Galactic-Level Civilization in Sextans. This was a possibility. His massive destruction of the home civilization's fleet in Sextans had already attracted the attention of this Galactic-Level Civilization, and they had come up with this move to warn him.
Hu Yu tried changing the fleet's course, heading towards the outside of Sextans. If the blockade disappeared, it meant that a hidden Galactic-Level Civilization was controlling everything here. If it didn't disappear, it didn't mean that this Galactic-Level Civilization didn't exist; perhaps it was a form of punishment.
Since the fleet is currently at least 1,000 light-years away from the outer edge of the Sextans, at its current speed, it would take at least 2,000 years to escape the Sextans.
"General, the test ship has sent back information. The entire Sextans is unable to perform warp drive; it's not just us here," Qin Yin said.
"The entire Sextans?"
"Yes, I deployed Conqueror in eight directions. Once we return to three-dimensional space, Conqueror from any direction are unable to perform warp drive. Moreover, this isn't just happening in our fleet; all civilizations here are unable to perform warp drive. It's as if the rules of the entire Sextans have suddenly changed."
" Qin Yin, what are your thoughts?"
"I need more data. If the rules have truly changed, it will take us at least 4,000 years to escape this airspace. General, I don't believe Galactic-Level Civilization has that capability. Including the surrounding space, this is a vast area with a diameter of 7,000 light-years—it's simply too large."
"It is a bit large. The largest diameter of the Space Millstone used by the Fish Horse Star Civilization was only half a light-year. It's not that the Fish Horse Star Civilization didn't want to make it bigger, but that they didn't have the capability. Only Galactic-Level Civilization with a strength a million times that of the Fish Horse Star Civilization could possibly influence such a large area of space. But to do it without our complete knowledge, even a million times the strength wouldn't be enough. Yan Xue, in the history of your Snow Tribe, is there anything like this that can control an area of several thousand light-years?"
"I haven't heard the old patriarch mention this. To be honest, I don't really believe Galactic-Level Civilization has this kind of power. I believe they could destroy a star system, but to do it this far is hard for me to believe."
"Therefore, I suspect it's not some Galactic-Level Civilization, but possibly a natural phenomenon."
" Qin Yin, continue analyzing more information and try to crack the code. Since everyone thinks the possibility of it being an advanced civilization is very low, let's search for the Giant General Civilization again. Split the fleet into two parts. We will take the Snow Tribe and sail towards the outside of the Sextans, while the other fleets will head to the nearest coordinate point. The Four-Dimensional Fleet will send out small teams to immediately scout the three coordinates."
The Conqueror Fleet immediately split into two groups. One group, consisting of 100 billion ships, continued sailing towards the outer edge of Sextans. None of the known civilizations in Sextans posed a threat to the two-dimensional Conqueror. All other warships, including the Dreadnought, continued to search for the Giant General Civilization at the nearest of the three designated coordinates.
The fleet has completely lost contact with the base. In that chaotic fourth dimension, communication is impossible. Even if they could contact the base, the distance is too great, and it would take hundreds of years for information to travel back and forth. The fleet's next-generation communication technology is still under research. Zero latency and high stability will be the main features of the new generation of communication technology, but this is quite difficult, and even the Great Star Region Advanced Civilization have not been able to solve it.
Even the Snow Tribe didn't have this technology. At the peak of the Snow Tribe's existence, the Milky Way was far smaller than it is now, and even a slightly delayed technology like four-dimensional communication would have been perfectly applicable.
Enormous stars swept past the fleet, and soon a new problem arose before Hu Yu: the fleet could not only not enter the fourth dimension, but it could not even extract energy from the fourth dimension. At the energy consumption rate of the Conqueror's conventional power engine, the energy stored by the fleet was simply not enough to reach the outer perimeter of Sextans or the places where the Giant General Civilization might exist.
The fleet had to replenish its energy from stars every so often during its voyage. Fortunately, there were many stars here; otherwise, Hu Yu would have had to send the fourth-dimensional fleet with the energy. Hu Yu didn't want to send the fourth-dimensional fleet back to the three-dimensional universe unless absolutely necessary, because once they returned to three dimensions, they would be unable to enter the fourth dimension again.
Meanwhile, the native civilizations of Sextans were also gripped by panic. The inability to warp drive was tantamount to locking their civilizations in a cage. Hu Yu had effortlessly destroyed billions of warships from four Great Star Region Civilization, and now they had all lost their warp drive capabilities. Most of them believed that Hu Yu was responsible.
This suspicion is not without reason. Even the Giant General Civilization has some doubts about whether Hu Yu was behind it all. After much deliberation, the Giant General Civilization has realized the strength of the Snow Tribe, a foreign civilization whose name they do not even know. Although the Snow Tribe did not carry out the massacre at Sextans, the fact that none of the advanced civilizations at Sextans dared to provoke Snow Tribe back then already demonstrates the Snow Tribe's strength.
This alien civilization is clearly a friend of the Snow Tribe, a friend of the powerful. Coupled with Hu Yu's godlike attack with the two-dimensional bomb, the now-quiet Giant General Civilization thought it over carefully. Although they didn't quite believe that Hu Yu had such strength, they couldn't completely rule it out.
However, as the rulers of the Sextans, the Giant General Civilization quickly received the information that Hu Yu's fleet was also conducting conventional-powered navigation. The Giant General Civilization immediately realized that this could not possibly have been done by Hu Yu unless Hu Yu was an idiot. So who did it? The Giant General Civilization fell into deep thought.
Not long after, a message from a hidden, god-like civilization in the Sextans controlling the star system and excluding outsiders spread to every civilization in the Sextans. This message immediately dispelled the panic of all civilizations. Although the message came from the Giant General Civilization, everyone believed that this hidden advanced civilization must have disliked outsiders but disdained to take action itself, so it came up with this method to restrict outsiders.