"Are these people just passing by or coming for us? Who are they?"
Han Xiao gazed at the rapidly approaching fleet. The enemy's ships had no faction markings, and he couldn't tell which organization they belonged to, which puzzled him.
Seeing that his opponent had no intention of stopping, Han Xiao also prepared for battle, his Mechanical Force surging within him.
Just as he was about to make his move, the spatial barrier not far away cracked open again, and Clottey finally arrived.
The fleet abruptly came to a stop mid-journey, remaining motionless.
What's going on with this fleet?
Han Xiao glanced at the fleet, puzzled. Just then, Clottey flew over, so he had no choice but to turn around and greet her.
"Your Excellency, Dark Emperor."
"Hmm, Black Star." Clottey nodded slightly, then turned her gaze to the dying Traveler at Ames's feet and asked, "How did you encounter him?"
"It was just a coincidence..."
Han Xiao briefly explained the process.
Clottey's expressionless face twitched slightly at the corner of her eye as she listened, and she muttered, "That's really unlucky."
Having destroyed the Fel Energy Aggregation and lost the clues to find the Traveler, he was still thinking about how to continue the pursuit, but he didn't expect the Traveler to be so unlucky, running into Black Star right away.
He wasn't curious why Han Xiao was here; Clottey generally didn't care about the private affairs of other Beyond Grade A individuals.
"I heard your mission is to kill him?" Han Xiao asked.
Clottey nodded. "The Traveler is just one of the targets. The leader's orders are to kill him if he cannot be captured alive, and if he is taken back, there will be a public trial, and these Beyond Grade A individuals will be executed, broadcast live to the entire universe... Oh, and we also need to interrogate him about who his employer is."
"You have other targets to hunt?"
Clottey glanced at him. "Just a few neutral Beyond Grade A mercenaries."
"Are they involved in the Hila Rescue Battle?" Han Xiao asked curiously.
"The Empire decides." Clottey said calmly, seemingly unconcerned.
Han Xiao was speechless. Those neutral Beyond Grade A individuals who were targeted were probably innocent in this matter, but they were unlucky enough to be used as tools to establish the Empire's authority.
As expected of the Dark Emperor, a staunch supporter of the Empire, he was completely unconcerned about this, which gives a glimpse into the harsh living conditions of some neutral Beyond Grade A beings.
Han Xiao then thought of the Supercluster Civilization and realized that the targets chosen by the Empire were probably those hired by the Super Star Cluster Alliance. Using the Hila Rescue Battle as a pretext, they were making an example of them and cutting off the Super Star Cluster Alliance's Wings.
Perhaps they will also follow the Tragedy of the Pinnacle, using conflict as an excuse to reduce the number of Beyond Grade A.
Han Xiao shook his head, changed the subject, and said, "I've already interrogated him and pried out the identity of the mastermind."
Who is it?
The two did not shield the Traveler from their conversation. Upon hearing this, the Traveler's expression changed immediately, and he stared nervously at Han Xiao, fearing that he might reveal the existence of the Star Arc Civilization.
However, he saw Han Xiao give him a look.
The Traveler immediately understood and hurriedly interjected:
"Sorokin! He hired me to attack Black Star Palace, diverting Black Star's attention and indirectly aiding the Glory and Arcane's siege!"
"It was him? Isn't he just a businessman?" Clottey frowned, somewhat surprised, and couldn't help but look at Han Xiao, "Do you think it's believable?"
"I think it's pretty reliable. The Traveler is just a neutral mercenary; he won't attack me for no reason."
Han Xiao smiled.
Sorokin was indeed involved, but Han Xiao instructed the Traveler to conceal the identity of the Star Arc Civilization and shift all the blame onto Sorokin. In this way, the Empire's hatred would not be spread out, but would be entirely drawn to Sorokin.
Anyway, Sorokin is definitely not clean, so there's no fear of not finding evidence.
Although Master Han is a soon-to-be shareholder of the Infinite Financial Group, he wouldn't actually help Sorokin develop the business for the sake of dividends, especially since he had just learned that Sorokin was secretly plotting against him.
It would be good to take advantage of the Crimson Dynasty to trick Sorokin and make the higher-ups wary of this guy.
"... I will inform the Führer, but the Traveler will need to be taken back for questioning." Clottey pondered.
Han Xiao nodded, turned around and patted Ames's thigh, signaling her to lift her foot. Then he took out the Space-Time Amber and sealed the powerless Traveler.
While doing this, Han Xiao pointed to the unfamiliar fleet that was not far away, pretending to be air.
"By the way, I was just about to ask, are they your troops?"
Upon hearing this, Clottey was taken aback. "I thought they were your people."
As soon as he arrived, he realized that this fleet was the same force he had encountered not long ago. Seeing Han Xiao with the fleet, he assumed they were all in cahoots and that he had misunderstood before, so he didn't pay any attention.
In Han Xiao's view, he only gave the coordinates to the Dark Emperor, and since this fleet arrived at the same time as the Dark Emperor, he mistakenly thought that this force was subordinate to the Dark Emperor.
Both men assumed the fleet was connected to the other, but when the truth came out, they discovered it was a third-party force.
Realizing this, Clottey opened the wide-area channel and shouted, "Who are you people? Why are you following me?!"
In his view, the only reason he could have encountered the other person twice was that the other person was stalking him.
Meanwhile, in the fleet's command center, Luo and Fei were going crazy.
They had locked onto Black Star and were ready to make their move, but to their surprise, the first Peak Beyond Grade A marked on the map moved at the last second and also arrived in this Secondary Dimension.
An unexpected situation disrupted their plans, and the two quickly brought the fleet to a halt, no longer daring to open fire rashly.
Seeing that Black Star was in league with another Peak Beyond Grade A, both of them felt a sense of unease. If they were to take action under these circumstances, the difficulty would increase dramatically, and many more variables would arise.
They only wanted to wait until Han Xiao was alone before making their move. Right now, they just wanted to quickly make excuses, leave the area, and find another opportunity.
Upon hearing Clottey's question, Luo had no choice but to repeat the story from their first meeting.
"Your Excellency, Beyond Grade A expert, it's unexpected that we meet again. We only detected unusual energy fluctuations here, so we rushed over to investigate. We didn't expect it to be you again. We'll be leaving now."
Having said that, Luo was about to order the fleet to turn around and leave, but this time, Clottey stopped them, his tone cold:
"Once was one thing, but this is the second time, and you're still using the same excuse. Do you think I'd believe you?"
Clottey didn't believe in such a coincidence. He had been suspicious of the fleet's origins, but he hadn't wanted to cause any trouble because he was focused on his mission. Now that he had dealt with the Traveler, he wasn't going to let this mysterious fleet that had stumbled upon him get away with it.
"But it really is just a coincidence. We're just a civilian exploration team..." Luo could only bite the bullet and continue to pretend.
"That's easy to solve. Stop the ship and let us go aboard to search. If there's really nothing wrong, I'll let you leave," Clottey said in a deep voice.
Upon hearing this, Luo and Fei exchanged a glance and communicated telepathically.
"What do we do now? They won't let us leave easily. Are we really going to let them onto our ship?"
You know it's impossible.
"Looks like we'll have no choice but to go for it..."
Both of them were in a bad mood and neither wanted to make a move under these circumstances.
But now that their scheme has been exposed, they can't let it go easily and can't allow the other party to board their ship.
Luo gritted his teeth and slammed his fist on the table.
"Fire!"
After Clottey requested to board the ship for inspection, the mysterious fleet suddenly fell silent and stopped responding.
After waiting a few seconds, Clottey, seeing that the other party was feigning silence, couldn't help but raise her voice:
"This is a final ultimatum. If you do not respond within ten seconds, I will destroy you!"
Meanwhile, Han Xiao was observing Clottey's interaction with the mysterious fleet. He assumed they were after the Dark Emperor, so he was just watching the show from the sidelines.
Upon hearing Clottey's ultimatum, Han Xiao thought for a moment and said, "There's no need to take action. I can virtually hack into those ships, control them, check their databases, and see where they came from."
Clottey, after a moment's thought, nodded and said:
"In that case, I'll trouble you..."
Before he could finish speaking, something unexpected happened!
Suddenly, the warships opened fire, launching sharp, cone-shaped projectiles that trailed long plumes of flame as they hurtled towards the group.
"A physical projectile?"
Although conventional weapons have now become mainly dark energy cannons and Psionic Energy cannons, Han Xiao will not underestimate physical warheads, because since the opponent has the ability to travel through Secondary Dimension, the ammunition loaded in the physical warheads must be extraordinary.
Seeing this, Ames raised her hand and waved it, unleashing a force field that froze all the bullets in mid-air, preventing them from advancing an inch.
Seeing that the other party had made a move, Han Xiao didn't hesitate either, activating virtual intrusion to break into the databases of these spaceships.
However, just as Han Xiao's data probe pierced through the spaceship's intelligence, an invisible force surged into his mind through the quantum network link.
Boom!!
A powerful shockwave exploded within his consciousness, causing the constructed palace of memories to suddenly collapse, and countless sheets of paper representing memories transformed into a tornado, spinning rapidly.
From Han Xiao's perspective, all of this manifests as countless fragments of memory flashing uncontrollably through his mind, as if they had all turned into gibberish, making it difficult to maintain normal thinking.
At the same time, a prompt appears on the panel:
[You have been infected by the [Memory Formatting Virus - Quantum Network Type]]
[Your profession has been detected as [Virtual Mechanic]]
[The Memory Formatting Virus - Quantum Network Type] deals 200% additional damage to you.
"This is?!"
Han Xiao was startled, feeling dizzy and disoriented.
This virus had taken hold of his quantum soul, and it wasn't just a simple negative state. It was frantically disrupting his consciousness on a virtual level, like a naughty child coming to his house, rummaging through drawers and cupboards, and throwing his neatly arranged things around. Han Xiao had no choice but to brace himself and fight against it.
Seeing his condition, Clottey's eyes narrowed, dark energy gathered, and she made a ruthless move.
However, in the next instant, a large group of [Dimensional Banishment Projectile] that had been pinned in mid-air by Ames exploded on their own, releasing expanding spatial turbulence that swallowed Clottey's attack and was then transferred to an unknown location.
Moreover, these released spatial turbulences are frantically tearing at the spatial walls of the Land of Dead Silence, creating even more gaps.
Upon seeing this, Ames immediately manipulated the force field, preparing to crush the spaceships.
At that moment, Fei on the main ship made her move. A misty white protective shield emanated from her, protecting the fleet and blocking Ames ' force field. The two forces clashed, preventing Ames from immediately destroying the ship.
The next moment, the well-prepared flagship revealed a special disc-shaped device on its bow, which looked like some kind of amplified radar. Suddenly, it vibrated and released a special wave.
Buzz!
The wave swept over Clottey, Han Xiao, Ames, causing their bodies to stiffen abruptly. Their normally effortless strength suddenly surged out of control, making it much more difficult for them to control their bodies, as if every cell was fighting against their consciousness.
[You are affected by [Advanced Life Form Energy Disruption Wave - Beyond Grade A Frequency Type]]
[Your total level has been detected to be 320]
[Advanced Life Form Energy Disruption Wave - Beyond Grade A Frequency Type] Increases your binding effect by 320%]
"It's in effect, and we don't have much time!"
Seeing this, Luo suddenly raised his arm, his sleeve slipped down, revealing a metal arm guard on his wrist. This was a special piece of equipment designed to capture Primordial Esper Ability Entity. He pulled it towards the Mysterious Energy Envoy from afar.
Click!
The Chaos Mysterious Energy seemed to have taken some kind of powerful tonic, suddenly expanding and tearing the Mysterious Energy Envoy from the inside out, instantly freeing it from its confinement.
However, before it could move, an invisible force grabbed its energy body, causing it to fly uncontrollably toward the fleet.
Meanwhile, the spaceship was not idle either. A second Dimensional Banishment Projectile at the three people who were struggling to move. Clottey barely managed to control her powers to form a shield around her body.
However, the spatial turbulence swallowed Clottey whole, shell and all, and he vanished without a trace, his whereabouts unknown.
At the critical moment, Han Xiao barely managed to suppress the raging virus in his mind, freed himself from the attack, and with great difficulty raised his hand to grab Ames's shoulder, using a virtual teleportation to escape the range of the Dimensional Banishment Projectile.
Immediately afterwards, he raised his hand and released a binding force field, grabbing the body of the Chaos Mysterious Energy from the other side to prevent it from being captured.
Wow!
The Chaos Mysterious Energy was like a piece of cloth being stretched taut from both sides.
Luo's tone quickened. "Black Star is recovering; we can't delay any longer, or we're doomed. We'll take as much as we can!"
As he spoke, he changed his gesture and activated another function of the specially designed arm guard containment device. A small portion of the Chaos Mysterious Energy's body was directly severed off.
This portion of energy surged rapidly into Luo's arm guard, as if being absorbed by Black Hole.
"Get out of here!"
Having completed this step, the fleet fired a Dimensional Banishment Projectile, which self-destructed the moment it left the barrel. The spatial turbulence engulfed the fleet, causing all the ships to disappear on the spot.
After several tens of seconds, the effects of the disordered body control slowly subsided. Ames gasped for breath, her chest heaving, her expression filled with surprise and uncertainty.
"What kind of methods are these?"
"These are special technologies developed using Primordial Esper Ability Entity..."
Without external interference, Han Xiao had almost completely eliminated the Memory Formatting Virus using virtual technology and reorganized his memory palace. At this moment, his expression was solemn.
Throughout the entire operation, this fleet only used technological weapons, yet it managed to put the three of them on the defensive. Han Xiao had a deep impression of these special technologies because they had appeared in his previous life as well.
Whether it's the Memory Formatting Virus, the Dimensional Banishment Projectile, or the Advanced Life Form Energy Disruption Wave, all of them are special technologies derived from the reverse engineering of different Primordial Esper Ability Entity, and have different uses.
The Dimensional Banishment Projectile cannot be effective in the main universe because the spatial structure of the main universe is completely different from that of the Secondary Dimension. However, in the Secondary Dimension World, this technology is a powerful weapon that combines the functions of dividing the battlefield, escaping, expelling, and destroying the Secondary Dimension.
The Memory Formatting Virus is a technological product that works on the soul. It also originated from a certain Primordial Esper Ability Entity and was modified into a quantum network model. It was a trap specifically set for Han Xiao's virtual intrusion and successfully took effect when Han Xiao was unprepared.
The Advanced Life Form Energy Disruption Wave is specifically designed to target the strong. The higher one's energy level, the greater the impact. It's like using your energy against yourself. However, Beyond Grade A life forms have strong adaptability. Each time they experience the disorder wave, the basic effect of the next wave will be reduced, and their cells will continuously adapt to this influence.
The enemy specializes in researching Primordial Esper Ability Entity and possesses more advanced containment technology. By activating chaotic Mysterious Energy Envoy Chaos Mysterious Energy, they shattered the carrier of the Chaos Mysterious Energy and stole a portion of its energy.
Even the strongest superhumans are still living beings, and as such, there are ways to counter them; they are far from invincible. Although the Three Universal Civilizations have different technology trees, they all possess targeted technologies specifically designed for advanced life forms. For example, the Scepter of All Gods is a prime example; even Peak Beyond Grade A Old Dragon couldn't withstand more than a few blows from it. As advanced civilizations develop, similar technologies will only increase.
In a direct confrontation, both he and the Dark Emperor could easily crush this fleet. However, the enemy had anticipated their attack and launched a surprise attack using various targeted special technologies, catching the three of them completely off guard.
Even the formidable Clottey suffered, banished to the spatial turbulence, with no idea when she would be able to emerge.
The opponent could only control the three at most; they lacked sufficient offensive capabilities to harm them.
"This group isn't targeting Clottey; they're after me."
Han Xiao reabsorbed the Chaos Mysterious Energy, his brows furrowed.
"Do you know who they are?" Ames caught the information in Han Xiao's words and asked curiously.
"I do know."
Han Xiao narrowed his eyes and slowly spoke:
"These are a bunch of guys who shouldn't exist in this era..."