"How could this be? A level three civilization... Is this what a level three civilization is like...?"
Faced with Wen Jing's sudden arrival, the Purity Faction was terrified and immediately initiated an emergency evacuation of the Changheng people who were active nearby.
" The Changheng people here still maintain their individual forms..."
Wen Jing did not stop the fleeing Changheng people. Her senses easily penetrated various substances and barriers, and she saw their true appearance—octopus-like forms that were very similar to the sculpted body of the leader she carried, but smaller and not as emaciated.
At the same time, her exploration of the [ Key of Tuning ] also yielded a considerable amount of superficial social information about the area.
For example, the Changheng Purity Faction Civilization is now called the Boundary-Breaking Empire. Unlike the Star Alliance, which has a social form of Clustering consciousness ascension and temporary body printing, they stimulate social vitality by maintaining individuals and differentiating classes.
However, it is clear that more information about civilizations cannot be obtained in this way, as the information concealment technology of a Level 2 civilization is far more advanced.
Soon, her attention fell on the cone-shaped tower, which was over ten kilometers away and had an exceptionally high mass, its entire body radiating a faint blue energy glow.
This building is a landmark with distinctive features, and its shape is somewhat similar to the site where the Phase Creation Civilization received Wen Jing. It is the embodiment of the most cutting-edge technological achievements of the Boundary-Breaking Empire, apart from the regional rule distortion field.
Without hesitation, the pitch-black alien insect transformed into a blurry black line and charged straight toward the base.
While Wen Jing was carrying out his mission, the Boundary-Breaking Empire launched an attack.
A barrage of high-energy particles, powerful enough to melt through a warship's armor, flashed and struck her precisely.
After the initial shock, the Supreme Council decided to go all in:
"Continue to destroy the target! Even if the opponent is a Level 3 civilization, it's still just an individual!... Faced with the threat of the forbidden zone, we have no way out but to 'break through'!"
However, these violent energy flows did not cause the expected damage to Wen Jing's exoskeleton. Bronze cauldron patterns lit up on her body, and an invisible vortex absorbed the energy attacks, transforming them into nutrients to nourish her damaged body.
The [ Myriad Transformation Furnace ] ability, combined with [ Cellular-Level Regeneration ], allows her body to recover at an astonishing speed after leaving the distortion field.
"Warning! The target possesses highly advanced energy conversion technology; the regional distortion field is still charging! Immediately switch to other attack modes!"
"All personnel inside and around the tower have been evacuated! The target... has not attacked the evacuated units or the surrounding city, but is instead heading towards Hengshou Tower." The observer's report was filled with confusion.
Wen Jing's unusual behavior left the Supreme Command, which had just recovered from the shock, completely baffled.
It should be said that her appearance here violated the Boundary-Breaking Empire's consistent military understanding.
As the saying goes, "judging others by oneself," if they were in their shoes and had found and reached the enemy's territory, they certainly wouldn't take any other unnecessary actions, but would instead launch a massive, devastating attack to paralyze the command system and production capacity.
"Could it be that her authority is limited? For example, does she lack military authority within the civilization, and can only control this reconnaissance aircraft?"
"Or perhaps she's performing some kind of cross-dimensional positioning, and this 'reconnaissance aircraft' is itself a beacon..."
Before the various speculations could be finished, the dark figure had already arrived at Hengshou Tower.
"Whoosh..."
In the monitoring footage, the seemingly indestructible superconducting crystal at the top of the Hengshou Tower began to mysteriously collapse and dissolve inward the moment it came into contact with Wen Jing.
"The material appears to have been broken down, but no energy reaction was detected throughout the process; it's like it vanished into thin air... What is she doing, and why is she doing it?"
Watching Hengshou Tower disappear Extreme Speed from its tip, the command staff couldn't help but try to Analysis the reason.
"Stop! Stop thinking about the action logic of individuals in a third-level civilization; this is cultural contagion!"
A high-ranking official shouted sternly, "This action has violated the most fundamental taboo of the empire."
All sounds in the meeting suddenly ceased.
Preventing and eliminating cultural contamination is the cornerstone of the existence of the Boundary-Breaking Empire.
They immediately abandoned pointless speculation and focused all operational resources on a single military objective: to destroy the invading unit in front of them.
"Prioritize sending all available energy to the homeworld's defense arrays! Strike with ' Spacetime Ripple '!"
Whatever the reason, the best strategy is to completely destroy this 'reconnaissance aircraft'.
"Boom!"
A low, mournful sound emanated from the space, and dozens of invisible, special gravitational waves emanated from the defense platforms in different directions, converging towards Wen Jing at the top of the tower like ripples from a stone thrown into a pond.
This attack creates localized spatial structural oscillations and microscopic temporal flow disturbances, essentially a 'bombing' of space, and is remarkably effective against energy-absorbing defenses.
Dense ripples powerful enough to shatter the surface structure of a small planet overlapped and erupted on this landmark building. The light in that area of space was eerily distorted and folded, and the material of the tower collapsed again and again, turning a large amount of material into dust and even finer crystalline mist.
If the evacuation distance hadn't been insufficient in a short time, the damage inflicted by the Empire would certainly not have been limited to just one kilometer.
Conversely, the ability to limit the strike range while maintaining its power demonstrates a high level of technological sophistication.
The smoke and dust and spatial distortions have not yet completely subsided.
"Snap... Crack... Snap snap snap..."
Within the ruins of Hengshou Tower, which has now become a ring-shaped mountain, from small to large, from few to many... the sound of hard materials rubbing and snapping together comes from the center filled with smoke and crystalline mist.
"What is that...?"
The monitoring footage underwent emergency enhancement and filtering to penetrate the gradually settling dust.
The first sharp and flexible mechanical insect limb emerged from the ruins, gleaming with the same eerie blue light as the vanished Hengshou Tower.
Chapter 205
The first one, the second one, the third one...
In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen mechanical insects, each the size of a large dog, emerged from the ruins and began to expand outwards.
During the exploration by the Boundary-Breaking Empire, a blurry scan revealed similar machinery operating in the center of a deep pit inside the ruins. Some mobile mechanical insects did not come to the surface but instead dug into the surrounding underground.
After a brief moment of astonishment, the extremely tense Supreme Command was filled with doubt, so much so that they even felt it was absurd.
"The target individual used the Hengshou Tower material to construct a group of small combat units?"
Analysis were incredulous. "The scans show its structure is very simple, with no high-energy reactions, and the estimated threat level is extremely low."
If Wen Jing hadn't already proven his identity with his strength, they simply wouldn't have believed that a member of a Level 3 civilization was making a move.
Interstellar warfare has long since transcended the struggle for planetary surfaces.
The standard procedure should be to first release beyond-visual-range rule-based weapons to disrupt the enemy, then have the main fleet enter the battlefield for a fleet decisive battle, followed by launching planetary destructors or smart neutron annihilation bombs to cleanse the surface, and finally occupy key space facilities and resource rings.
Manufacturing robots on-site in the homeworld's capital like this... is it for... ground warfare?
To the people of Changheng, this was like using cold weapons in modern warfare, and these cold weapons were even sharpened on the battlefield with whetstones.
"That's it!" a military strategist exclaimed, waving his hand. "This reconnaissance aircraft lacks wide-area destructive capabilities, so it can only expand its ground presence through this primitive method of material conversion! This is our opportunity!"
"Order ground units to clear the ruins of the Hengshou Tower. The orbital fleet shall remain on alert, prioritizing the acquisition of high-energy reactions and space jump signals to prevent the target from escaping or calling for support."
The Boundary-Breaking Empire no longer has an army; its ground units are actually armed personnel who control ground Matrix weapons.
With a command given, weapon nodes deployed in near-Earth orbit unleashed devastating directed energy beams, sweeping away the mechanical insects that had emerged from the ruins.
Explosions and flashes of energy enveloped the mechanical swarm.
Although the blue crystal used to build the Hengshou Tower is a top-tier material, since it is an industrial creation of theirs, it is more effective at targeting and cracking the system.
"All targets hit... Wait, the survival rate is abnormal. Do these temporary robots also have energy conversion?" the observer exclaimed.
In the scene, many mechanical insects were not vaporized as expected, but strangely withstood the explosion, and their bodies even became more shiny and bright.
Even if thrown off by the kinetic energy of the shockwave, it can immediately grip the ground with all six legs and quickly burrow into underground cracks or building wreckage.
"How is this possible? This material, this structure... We can't find any related devices. Is it a technology we don't understand?"
As a Level 2 civilization, the Boundary-Breaking Empire's observational precision naturally extends beyond external imaging. Apart from Wen Jing's true form, which they cannot analyze, the mechanical swarm, from its very inception, not only reveals its external structure but also its internal structure.
These mechanical insects would be considered sophisticated mechanical combat units in the context of Federation or Forging Alliance, but to a Level 2 civilization, their structure is as simple as a toy.
Apart from the Resonance Network core that executes instructions, there's nothing inside that could be considered technologically advanced.
This seemingly simple 'toy' somehow emanates advanced technology, such as energy conversion.
"The aftershocks of the last strike have not yet subsided, so we cannot use the Spacetime Ripple strike again."
The most effective attack method to counter energy conversion is still the Spacetime Ripple used before, but it cannot be used at present because if space is compared to the surface of water, it is impossible to make the already broken space 'vibrate' again before the aftershocks of the last attack naturally subside.
"Continue the attack, increase the energy level, and add kinetic energy attacks; their numbers are limited!"
Before the conversation in the command center could be finished, a sound rang out from inside the ruins.
"Snap... Crack..."
More mechanical insects crawled out of the ruins.