At the same time, the Dawn Star Cluster Shattered World.
The surfaces of these military base planets are covered with a dense network of deep wells, each containing massive, long-range Psionic Energy destroyers aimed at the adjacent Gaolu Star Cluster, Crown Ring Star Cluster, and Renault Star Cluster. These areas were part of the second phase of exploration and are now thriving territories occupied by many Beyond Grade A forces. Among them, the space destroyers targeting Black Star's territory are the most numerous.
The Dawn Star Cluster was the first region taken over by the Crimson Dynasty. Many planets there are military restricted areas. After decades of secret modifications, the interiors of these planets have long been converted into special anti-planetary weapons.
Decades after the first Meeting of the Gods, the Crimson Dynasty secretly implemented this transformation project as a precaution, in order to prevent the current situation from changing. If things change, this star cluster can immediately become a bridgehead for war and block the conventional passage between the Shattered World and the Explored Universe.
Fleets belonging to the Three Universal Civilizations were stationed in various parts of the Dawn Star Cluster, and the temporary combat command center of the Three Universal Civilizations was changed from Lighthouse Star to a military planet in the heart of the Dawn Star Cluster.
"Maintain the highest alert level for the next ten days. Whenever the Allied Fleet engages in battle within the Machine Race's territory, that's our signal to act. Bombard all Beyond Grade A forces, including the Black Star Army's territory."
In the temporary operations command post, Youn Fabik surveyed the numerous officers in the room, his eyes as sharp as a hawk's.
He was a high-ranking officer in the Crimson Dynasty. After Tarrokov retired, he took over as Marshal of the Empire Exploration Army. In the recent turmoil, the Three Universal Civilizations divided the Shattered World into an independent and important war zone, and he directly became the war zone commander, responsible for directing the military operations of the Three Universal Civilizations in the Shattered World.
"Understood," everyone responded in unison.
Youn turned to one of the officers and said, "The higher-ups are short-handed and can't send their elite Beyond Grade A officers to guard the area. How are the interception measures going? Once the war starts, the Beyond Grade A officers will definitely try to decapitate the command center using their individual strength. If we can't stop them from infiltrating the heart of the Dawn Star Cluster, the situation will be very passive."
"The Engineering Department is racing against time to deploy interception equipment and has left behind strangulation traps and rapid support routes. If the Beyond Grade A gets too deeply involved, there's a chance they could be encircled and annihilated by us..."
"Give me a report later." Youn held up his palm, indicating that he didn't need to say anything more, then turned to inquire about the progress of the other arrangements.
Whether the Three Universal Civilizations and the Association would eventually go to war was not his concern; he only cared about his duty to prepare for war and ensure that the strategic plan could be strictly implemented once the fighting began.
On the other side, somewhere in the Desolate Universe Belt of the Dawn Star Cluster.
A series of floating concealment devices orbited an asteroid, slowly rotating along their orbits in outer space, releasing illusions to obscure the landscape on the ground and prevent remote observation.
From the outside, it appears to be just a barren planet, but once inside its atmosphere, its true nature is revealed: a heavily armed mechanical fortress with countless warships and mechanical legions rising and falling.
Over the past few decades, the Black Star Army has not only been managing its territory, but has also established many hidden agents in other areas, and this is one of its secret bases.
At the top of the tallest building, Aurora stood on the edge of the rooftop, gazing at a giant white mechanical ring in the distance. This was a new type of directional teleportation technology that Han Xiao had unearthed from Jess's technological treasure trove, capable of transporting large numbers of troops, but it was not activated at the moment.
Behind her stood a dense crowd, their bodies emitting a faint glow; they were all reincarnated heroic spirits who had gained physical forms.
The eight Great Heroic Spirit King stood in a row, followed by thousands of Calamity Grade Heroic Spirits, and then countless Grade B Heroic Spirits.
Back when Manison was exposed, Han Xiao urgently recalled Aurora, who was wandering around outside, and gave her a secret mission: to hide in a secret base, constantly use the Impure World Reincarnation, and spend all her time except for eating, drinking and resting, summoning spirits from the Netherland.
Aurora's life during this period consisted of summoning heroic spirits, resting and recovering, and then continuing to summon, in an endless cycle that almost drained her dry. It was only with great difficulty that she reached her current scale.
These materialized, reincarnated heroic spirits exist for a period of time depending on the rate at which their physical vitality is lost. As long as they are not killed or removed by Aurora, they can basically exist for a long time. Especially now, in the low-energy standby mode without combat, the rate of vitality loss is almost negligible. This allows Aurora to continuously expand its scale and accumulate a large army.
Aurora turned to look at the assembled heroes and said softly, "Black Star said that before the ultimatum expires, you must wreak havoc in the Dawn Star Cluster and destroy as Three Universal Civilizations ' planet-destroying weapons as possible."
"He certainly knows how to order people around."
Sorokin snorted.
Having been a heroic spirit for over forty years, he had accepted his fate and grown accustomed to his identity. However, he still hadn't given up his hobby of accumulating wealth. To satisfy his own desires, he devised a way to transform the social environment of the Netherland.
Because Heroic Spirits have virtually no material enjoyment in their spirit form, Sorokin, through long-term observation, discovered the common needs of many Heroic Spirits. Therefore, based on the characteristics of Heroic Spirits, he established a conceptual currency system in the Netherland based on "promises." One promise currency means owing someone something, and the promises given by Heroic Spirits of different ranks and statuses are equivalent to different "face values."
When a Heroic Spirit makes a promise to another or even more Heroic Spirits, it's equivalent to printing money. Sorokin devised a special credit system to prevent Heroic Spirits from making promises arbitrarily, which could lead to inflation, and to address a series of issues that could damage the value of the promised currency. Furthermore, each Heroic Spirit can only create a limited amount of promised currency per cycle, and this two-way promised currency can be sold to others, similar to transferring a "debt relationship."
Sorokin made a lot of effort to promote this system, and even persuaded Aurora and Onicelu to link the monetization methods with reincarnation opportunities and reincarnation time. This was equivalent to giving ordinary Heroic Spirits a chance to relax, which allowed the Netherland Spirits who had nothing to do on weekdays to gradually accept this system.
After cultivating the market, Sorokin used a series of skillful capitalist tactics to reap a huge amount of promised currency. Now, everyone in the Netherland owes him 0.37 requests, making him the "richest" person in the Netherland... Although it doesn't have much practical significance, the act of accumulating wealth itself satisfies him.
This war showed Sorokin the opportunity to convert promised currency into cash on a large scale. After all, these spirits of the Netherland were born suicide squads and would be frequently reincarnated. Although they were summoned to fight, it was still much better than staying in the Netherland doing nothing.
Sorokin is no longer interested in the conflicts between the Association and the Three Universal Civilizations; after all, his status has changed, and such matters are no longer his concern.
Aurora her gaze and continued looking ahead. Where the many heroic spirits could not see, her expression became worried.
In several key star regions, the Three Universal Civilizations and the Association have all left similar mobs. Once a full-scale war breaks out, bloodshed will erupt everywhere. She couldn't bear to see this happen.
"If war really breaks out, I hope we can use the Netherland to save as many people as possible..."
The Ancient Star Desert, the territory of the Machine Race.
News media continued to broadcast the standoff in its entirety. A considerable amount of time had passed since the negotiations between the two sides failed. Han Xiao sat in the middle, seemingly separating the two fleets, and neither side made a move.
As the broadcast footage appeared frozen in time, countless interstellar citizens grew increasingly anxious.
Most of the day has passed, and neither side has made a move. Are they just going to stare at each other like this for the next ten days? Will neither side's attitude change after ten days?
Just when many people were feeling pessimistic, there was a sudden movement within the combined fleet of the Three Universal Civilizations. The High-Dimensional Apocalypse Teleporter suddenly activated, spun rapidly for a while, and with a flash of light, another small fleet was teleported in.
"Reinforcements have arrived?"
Countless interstellar citizens were invigorated. Although they didn't know what the Three Universal Civilizations were doing, any change was a good thing.
Through the broadcast, countless eyes followed this small fleet as it passed through the enemy lines and docked with the main ship of the combined fleet.
At the same time, in the command room of the main ship of the Three Universal Civilizations ' joint fleet, all the crew members, including Commander Simon, stood up to greet the newcomers.
Footsteps approached slowly down the corridor, and a group of men with different appearances entered the command room.
Upon seeing this, the crew members stirred slightly, and excited chatter broke out in deliberately hushed voices as they rattled off the names of the group as if they knew them by heart.
"The Crimson Dynasty's ' Dark Emperor ' Clottey, ' Thunder ' Guzar, ' Leader ' Padro, ' Battle Flag ' Enid... the Federation of Light's ' Golden Ring ' Oulu, ' Super Mentor ' Velina, ' Guardian ' Rama... Arcane Church ' God's Chosen ' Urnos, ' Mechanical Catastrophe ' Francisco, ' Saint ' Monan... they are all big shots!"
At this moment, all the direct descendants of the Three Universal Civilizations, numbering in the Beyond Grade A, arrived and were urgently conscripted.
Simon stepped forward, nodded to the crowd, and said, "Gentlemen, enough with the small talk. I'm sure the higher-ups have already given the orders, and you all know what to do."
Upon hearing this, everyone turned to look out the porthole, their gazes fixed on Han Xiao, who was hovering in the starry sky.
Oulu grinned, revealing a sinister expression.
"Don't worry, now that we're here, he can forget about swaggering around."
"Black Star is in your hands now." Simon nodded.
Fleet clashes signal the start of all-out war. Before the ultimatum deadline, the three major civilizations and the Book-Book civilizations forbade their army groups from taking action. However, Black Star stepped forward in his personal capacity to challenge them, so they could use their high-level combat power to test the waters. Therefore, the Three Universal Civilizations summoned their core members, unwilling to see Black Star continue to clamor, and planned to deflate the Association's prestige and exert pressure.
At this moment, Velina, with her long, flowing hair, glanced at everyone and slowly said:
"Black Star is infamous and has an outstanding record, making him extremely difficult to deal with. However, it wouldn't look good to gang up on him from the start. Only Clottey, Oulu, and Urnos are capable of taking on Black Star one-on-one. Which of you three will go first?"
Upon hearing this, everyone's gaze turned to the three of them, with most looking towards Urnos was widely recognized as the strongest.
Urnos lowered his eyes and remained silent, seemingly uninterested in the task.
Indeed, if the leader of the Arcane Cult hadn't ordered him to come and provide support, he wouldn't have wanted to leave the Temple of All Gods at all.
Seeing that he didn't speak, everyone shifted their gaze to Clottey.
"You used to work with Black Star, so you should know his abilities better than we do," Velina said.
Clottey frowned. "I don't know more than you do, he..."
Just then, Oulu interrupted him.
"Stop arguing, I'll deal with him. I've been wanting to fight Black Star for a long time, maybe I can take him down directly."
Seeing this, everyone nodded in agreement, and no one tried to take it from him.
At that moment, Velina tapped her forehead with her finger, and a wisp of pure white light emanated from it, landing on Oulu.
Oulu shuddered, feeling the energy within his body surge and roar, his power increasing rapidly.
"Hey, even without the enhancement, I can handle Black Star."
Oulu clicked his tongue, not particularly appreciative.
"This is all just to be on the safe side."
Velina remained unfazed.
She is the director of the Federation of Light Super Research Institute. She possesses a composite superpower, primarily focused on support and enhancing the abilities of other superpowered individuals. She can also analyze the developmental tendencies of a target's abilities and formulate comprehensive training plans, which is the origin of her nickname "Super Mentor".
A few minutes later.
Han Xiao, who was resting with his eyes closed in the middle of the battlefield, suddenly twitched his brow and slowly opened his eyes.
In his line of sight, a familiar figure emerged from the formation of the Three Universal Civilizations' fleets, hovering not far from him, exuding a powerful aura unique to Peak Beyond Grade A beings.
"Oulu?"
Han Xiao spoke softly, his voice echoing across the wide-area channel.
Oulu narrowed his eyes.
"I heard that if the association wants to hand over its technology, they have to get past you first?"
"If you can beat me, it's not out of the question."
Han Xiao didn't take it seriously and answered casually.
Upon hearing this, Oulu's eyes flashed, and he said in a deep voice:
"Then you can start thinking about it now!"
Having said that, his aura surged rapidly, and countless golden rings unfolded behind him, connecting to a dazzling golden world with seemingly inexhaustible energy—the very dimension of his renowned "Golden Treasure Ship."
Seeing this, Han Xiao shook his head and slowly spoke:
"How about joining the association to enjoy the Sanctuary Revival? That way, your death won't have been in vain."