Just as Han Xiao used the Sovereign's Teleportation to teleport and wipe out another fleet, spatial rifts appeared around him again, and the troops that had been besieging him rushed to his aid, relentlessly pursuing him.
But before Tedrian and the others could fully arrive, Han Xiao changed into another set of Sovereign and disappeared again in full view of everyone, this time teleporting to a "bait" force that had not yet been caught.
When the Tranquil Tree King, Tedrian, and others arrived, all that remained for them was the wreckage of a fleet floating in space, and the corpse of yet another Sacred Tree Envoy.
Damn it!
Tedrian was furious, his anger rising from feeling utterly humiliated.
Even though the World Tree Express's support was fast enough within its own territory, it was still a step too late, allowing the outsiders to kill another of its companions.
The other Sacred Tree Envoy and the Ancestral Spirit also had gloomy expressions.
The High-Dimensional Information Vision locked onto the target. Everyone thought the outsider had nowhere to escape, but they didn't expect the other party to have such a method, catching them off guard. Although the other party's traces were still Nowhere to Hide, the teleportation to another decoy force that had not yet been caught meant that they could not immediately lock onto Han Xiao's location and move around, and could only re-track his trajectory.
The Three Universal Civilizations knew very little about the World Tree, but the reverse was also true; the World Tree Civilization knew even less about the Explored Universe and was witnessing the Sovereign's teleportation methods for the first time.
"In that case, those other decoy traces could turn into the real outsiders at any time, which is very dangerous and could very well lead to our defeat..." Roxilian's expression was grim, as if facing a formidable enemy.
The crowd felt a chill run down their spines when they recalled the outsiders' fighting prowess. They could catch up, but who would be unlucky after they did was anyone's guess.
"This outsider is definitely trying to whittle down our forces through this method. If we split our forces to pursue them, we risk being counter-annihilated. But we can't just give up and let someone with this level of individual power move freely in our territory... Speaking of which, what kind of civilization does this person come from that would send such a powerful individual on a solo adventure? Could it be that this civilization has many high-level combatants of the same caliber?"
Offerman frowned and spoke, his tone somewhat uneasy.
The thought that the outsider was not only individually powerful but also possessed such highly mobile and unsolvable methods instilled a deep sense of dread in most of those present.
Just one person has caused them so much trouble, running rampant in their territory—it's practically a provocation against the entire World Tree Civilization.
What was originally a one-sided hunt turned into an unexpected situation. Instead of fleeing, the outsiders turned the tables and became the prey. No one expected to find themselves in a passive position on their own turf. This was something that had never happened before.
Having fought across the universe for many years, they had never encountered such an arrogant fellow before, as every hostile civilization had cautiously probed their territory upon first contact.
"... No matter what, we have to solve this problem." Tedrian said in a deep voice, "Wake up those invisible guys and get them all into the pursuit!"
He couldn't think of a way to deal with the outsiders' strange teleportation ability for the time being, but since the outsiders' goal was to kill the isolated troops, increasing the manpower of each pursuing force to keep the enemy occupied and prevent them from inflicting casualties before reinforcements could arrive was a useful method.
However, Tedrian was very worried that the outsiders would once again send out a bunch of decoy troops. This open scheme forced them to split their forces. Originally, they could collect high-dimensional information samples during the tracking to pinpoint the path of the outsiders' main body, but the enemy's teleportation methods made it impossible to distinguish each "decoy" from the main body.
After speaking, Tedrian turned to look at the Tranquil Tree King and nodded, saying, "Your Tree King, what do you think?"
Tranquil Tree King, who had been listening to the discussion without interrupting, finally spoke slowly:
"Notify me after you've surrounded him... Also, I'll clear this star field and seal it off later; don't worry about the losses."
After saying this, the Tranquil Tree King transformed into a streak of blue-green light and disappeared, disappearing into the World Tree.
He had already made a wasted trip, and he figured they wouldn't be able to deal with the outsiders anytime soon. He didn't want to be made a fool of along with everyone else.
Upon hearing this, Tedrian and the others breathed a sigh of relief.
The planets within the World Tree Civilization's territory were not formed naturally, but rather were high-value planets "regurgitated" by the World Tree through Information State transformation. The World Tree could freeze the current evolutionary state at any time, swallow it back, store it as Information State, and then transform it out in a different location.
With these characteristics, the World Tree is like a mobile base, capable of taking an entire civilization with it, changing the location of its headquarters in the universe, and dealing with various situations; it is almost as if it was born for war.
Clearing out this star field means allowing the World Tree to reclaim all the planets and creatures in this area. In this way, there will be no need to worry about outsiders causing destruction everywhere, and many worries will be eliminated.
Only the Tree King has been granted this level of control by the World Tree, enabling it to issue such commands to the World Tree; others do not have sufficient authority to do so.
However, the World Tree cannot simply leave at will. After changing its base location, it needs to "take root" in this area from scratch, transforming it into its own information collection and "merging" with it. Some abilities can only be used in the merged territory. For example, the World Tree Express can only travel quickly within its own territory, like an omnipresent stargate. In other parts of the universe, it cannot descend as freely as it can now.
Buzzing--
Just then, more spatial rifts opened up, and more troops, summoned by Tedrian, rushed to his aid.
This included more high-ranking Sacred Tree Envoy and the Thirteen Ancestral Spirits, who emerged from their slumber. Several executors also arrived, along with a number of high-ranking military officers specifically responsible for external conquests, causing the team to snowball in size.
Although the opponent was only one person, the World Tree treated him with extremely high standards; an army of this size would be more than capable of waging a cosmic war.
More than ten days passed in the chase.
These days, Han Xiao has been traveling through this star field, dealing with the World Tree forces' pursuit and interception.
He repeatedly deployed decoy forces, constantly using the Sovereign's Teleportation ability to cut off the World Tree's pursuing forces. Sometimes he set up Throne, but sometimes they were just simple Primal Psionic Energy bombs, creating a mix of real and fake attacks. He also occasionally used the Sovereign's Return ability to repeatedly jump around, making him extremely flexible and causing the World Tree's forces a lot of trouble.
The Sovereign weapon is practically a guerrilla warfare marvel. Using this tactic, Han Xiao achieved some success, accumulating six kills of Beyond Grade A powerhouses.
However, as the World Tree's powerful members gathered, it became increasingly difficult to kill the enemy in each encounter. Each pursuing force was assigned enough powerful members to hold them off for a short while, and then dozens of Beyond Grade A reinforcements would appear in the blink of an eye. Peak Beyond Grade A members emerged one after another, forcing Han Xiao to reduce the time he spent fighting each time and not daring to linger in one place.
Moreover, the World Tree's fleet was too large, surrounding the entire star field and constantly tightening its encirclement. Han Xiao's guerrilla range was also shrinking accordingly, and the time it took for each decoy unit to be caught was getting shorter and shorter.
At the same time, Han Xiao also discovered that the navigation star map was malfunctioning; the planets in this area seemed to have disappeared, making accurate positioning impossible.
"Could it be that the World Tree has swallowed up all the nearby planets? To deal with just me alone, they've gone to such lengths."
In the empty universe, Han Xiao sped along alone, secretly marveling at the speed.
This was somewhat unexpected for him. Only someone with an extremely wealthy World Tree would not care about such losses and would decisively implement a scorched-earth policy.
After more than ten days of guerrilla warfare, he had fought nearly a hundred battles with the World Tree experts and encountered a large number of "familiar faces." Apart from the Tree King, he had fought almost every pursuer.
Although he didn't have the chance to kill the enemy later, Han Xiao learned a lot about the attributes of the World Tree experts through the battle information and learned about the specific abilities of many opponents, all of which were extremely valuable intelligence.
"My guerrilla territory is getting smaller and smaller. At this rate, I'll be blocked soon. Besides, I can't chip away at the enemy's strength anymore, so there's no point in continuing guerrilla warfare..."
Han Xiao's mind raced.
The World Tree indeed had no way to counter the Sovereign's guerrilla tactics, but this was their stronghold, so they simply sent a large army to overwhelm them with sheer force.
While guerrilla tactics are effective, their effectiveness quickly reaches its limit when faced with the overwhelming numerical superiority and rapid support system of the World Tree Civilization.
"It's time to make a run for it."
Han Xiao nodded secretly.
Although the mission to claim territory failed, the gains exceeded expectations. Not only did he obtain a wealth of important intelligence, but he also sent several powerful World Tree cultivators to the Western Paradise, surpassing his expectations. He could now withdraw, as staying would certainly not end well.
However, before retreating, Han Xiao wanted to find an opportunity to confront the Tree King, gather information about its combat capabilities, and ascertain its true strength.
"All decoys have been removed, leaving only one high-dimensional information trajectory. The intruder has not further divided its forces, so we can now locate its main body."
In the main ship's command center, Tedrian looked at the current situation, and his face, which had been gloomy for more than ten days, finally cleared up.
"We've finally got him surrounded. This outsider is too troublesome."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Heaven knows how they got through the past ten days or so; an outsider had kept them from having a moment's peace.
The number of World Tree powerhouses participating in the pursuit was significantly higher than it had been a dozen days ago. Six high-level Sacred Tree Envoy, seven of the Thirteen Ancestral Spirits, and several military commanders and executive officers arrived. A total of about twenty Peak Beyond Grade A beings with an energy level exceeding 71,000 came, roughly equivalent to two-fifths of the entire World Tree Civilization's Peak Beyond Grade A beings, demonstrating the considerable importance placed on them.
"Don't be too happy yet. Since he has this kind of teleportation method, he will most likely be able to escape."
At this moment, a high-ranking officer in military uniform spoke in a cold voice.
Upon hearing this, everyone felt somewhat helpless.
They naturally understood this principle, but after studying it for more than ten days, they still couldn't crack the outsiders' teleportation method. Their requirements had gradually decreased from killing the outsiders to simply driving them away.
"Drive the outsiders away first, then we can consider what to do next. This might be the strongest civilization we've ever encountered," Tedrian replied, frowning.
Just then, everyone's Psychic Network suddenly received a message that the pursuing forces had finally caught up with the outsider's main body and shared its coordinates.
"Walk!"
Everyone present tensed up and immediately activated the World Tree Express, quickly traversing along the roots.
Before long, everyone's vision blurred, and they had arrived at their destination.
The outsiders hovered in space, not attacking the pursuing forces as before. The pursuing forces were waiting for reinforcements and dared not launch an attack. For a moment, neither side made a move.
Seeing this, many powerful World Tree warriors transformed into streaks of light and shot out of the fleet, landing all around Han Xiao to form an encirclement, while more reinforcements continued to arrive.
The number of Beyond Grade A individuals present quickly approached one hundred, surrounding Han Xiao and eyeing him menacingly.
Because all the decoy tracks had been cleared this time, the outsiders could no longer use their previous guerrilla tactics to outmaneuver them, so Tedrian notified the Tranquil Tree King.
Boom!
The next moment, the figure of the Tranquil Tree King descended swiftly, its oppressive aura sweeping across the entire area.
"Your Excellency Tree King."
Upon seeing this, Tedrian greeted many powerful beings of the World Tree via the Psychic Network.
Tranquil Tree King glanced at the situation and nodded slowly, saying, "We've finally surrounded him. Why aren't you making a move?"
"This outsider seems quite fearless; he'll probably use that teleportation method to escape our territory..."
Tedrian explained.
Just as the two were talking, Han Xiao suddenly raised his hand, pointed at the Tranquil Tree King, and then beckoned with his finger. The energy fluctuations rose steadily and locked onto the Tranquil Tree King.
Upon seeing this action, everyone present understood the outsider's intention: to provoke their Tree King.
Tranquil Tree King glanced at Han Xiao indifferently, his face expressionless, and casually raised his palm, gently waving it downwards.
"Take care of him."