In the vast and boundless starry sky, a spatial fold appeared out of thin air, accelerated its rotation, and quickly transformed into a wormhole from which hundreds of thousands of World Tree warships sailed out.
"Finally, we made it."
In the main ship's command center, a creature resembling a stick insect stood with its arms crossed, speaking in a playful tone. Judging from its uniform, it was a high-ranking officer, with a string of medals hanging on its chest.
Owell, the World Tree military commander, belongs to the "External Operations Guidance Group," a talent pool composed of World Tree's elite mid-level commanders. He is responsible for special operations missions such as exploration, infiltration, and intelligence gathering year-round. Currently, he commands the 274th Vanguard Exploration Corps, which is also the fleet that has been dispatched here.
His skin was like a leaf, with clearly visible Vein, and it shimmered with a faint emerald green Glimmer. He looked like a plant spirit—this was one of the World Tree's kin species, the Green Demon.
Not all races World Tree Devour are qualified to become Familias. Familias are elite groups empowered by the World Tree, much like Beyond Grade A races, possessing extremely high superpower awakening rates, unique talents, and an innate, exceptional connection to the World Tree.
Owell fiddled with the medals on his chest and slowly issued orders. "All units, take note: proceed according to the pre-arranged tactics, split up and take detours to the navigation targets, avoiding any potential enemy fleets as much as possible. Our objective is to reach our destination, not to engage in a stalemate with enemy interception forces here."
The previous wormhole passages were interfered with by the spatial stabilizing anchors, preventing them from being teleported over. As a result, the 274th Vanguard Exploration Corps had been on standby for several days. The World Tree naturally guessed the strategy of the Three Universal Civilizations from this, knowing that this "unknown civilization" wanted to intercept them in this area and prevent them from reaching the territory.
Therefore, the World Tree decided to have the exploration teams split up and take detours. With hundreds of thousands of exploration ships, each additional route increased the World Tree's teleportation coordinate options. As long as the opponent's spatial stability and orbit were not blocked in time, they could slowly explore inwards until they reached the opponent's territory.
This approach is time-consuming and labor-intensive, but the World Tree is not lacking in patience. The method is simple, crude, and effective. If one path is blocked, they can simply take a longer route next time. Sooner or later, they can penetrate the opponent's interception network. Their advantage is that they don't care about losses and have enough capital to try and fail. They are not afraid of protracted battles.
At Owell's command, hundreds of thousands of warships scattered and moved in all directions, disappearing from sight like streaks of light scattered by celestial maidens.
Meanwhile, Owell's personal forces swaggered along the route taken by the previous expedition.
"Although the executives believe this civilization is similar to the homeland of the previous outsider, they cannot confirm it at present. If not, they don't know if any individual Great Powers exist here..."
Owell squinted and casually glanced at a figure resting with his eyes closed in the corner of the command room.
The World Tree specifically assigned a Sacred Tree Envoy to accompany the ship. If they encountered enemy interception forces, the messenger would act as needed, with the goal of forcing out the individual power of this unknown civilization, even if it meant sacrificing himself.
Three days later.
A small fleet of Arcane Church members searched along the exploration team's route.
The captain was connected to the command channel, listening to the frequent reports from other units, his expression serious.
"A total of 7,200 enemy ships have been intercepted so far. It has been determined that the enemy is taking multiple detours, but the total size of the enemy force is still unknown..."
"Sir, this is very disadvantageous for us," the deputy said worriedly.
"That's certainly disadvantageous," the captain nodded solemnly, "But we can only do our best to intercept."
With so many forces scattered across the World Tree, not every route could be used as a medium for the Predictors. Therefore, even the Child of Destiny' channels couldn't monitor all the routes of this exploration legion. The Three Universal Civilizations could only send troops to patrol everywhere, like sieves, sifting through various regions again and again to intercept any that slipped through the net.
This approach is like finding a needle in a haystack, largely relying on luck and potentially leading to the dispersal of forces. However, since the defensive perimeter has not yet been established, the only option is to use this cumbersome method to intercept the World Tree's attacks. No matter how troublesome it is, we cannot allow the World Tree's exploration force to strike directly at the heart of the enemy.
The outer defense perimeter is a massive undertaking. Its principle is to establish a virtual sphere centered on the Shattered World, and then continuously expand and extend it along with the _Map_Book until it covers the current location. Next, the Three Universal Civilizations will cut a spherical arc-shaped section along the World Tree's direction of progress, further expanding or shrinking it as needed to form a three-dimensional boundary, thus determining the basic extent of the defense perimeter. Then, numerous wormholes will be built to rapidly support base stations, compensating for the problem of an excessively long battlefront.
Because the arc is so large, it seems like an impossible project, but in reality, it's just a limitation in terms of manpower and resources. With the engineering efficiency, military strength, and resource reserves of the Three Universal Civilizations, they are more than capable of undertaking such a project. Since they don't want the World Tree to advance unimpeded, there's not much room for trickery in establishing a defensive line.
Just as the captain was about to speak, the anti-stealth radar suddenly issued a warning, pointing diagonally forward and displaying a group of unknown moving targets.
"We've encountered them! Let's go meet them!"
The captain's eyes narrowed, and he immediately gave the order.
The fleet immediately changed course and headed toward the target, while the target locked by the radar did not turn around and also rushed straight toward them.
Before long, the Arcane Church fleet encountered Owell's forces, appearing within each other's line of sight.
"Fire!"
Without saying a word, the captain, his face contorted with rage, let out a roar reminiscent of Li Yunlong.
The Arcane Church fleet immediately opened fire, unleashing a salvo. The muzzles of their ship-mounted cannons glowed with a dark red light, followed by dazzling beams that pierced the starry sky. At the same time, Owell's personal forces also retaliated.
Two opposing waves of light rained down, striking each other's arrays and splashing sparks across the shields.
Neither side intended to communicate; their first encounter was a fierce, impending battle, with both sides exchanging blows with great enthusiasm.
The two sides were locked in fierce combat when suddenly, a mental wave erupted from the Owell flagship, sweeping across the Arcane Church fleet in the blink of an eye.
As if reacting to a stress response, numerous warships of the Arcane Church suddenly ejected complex magical circuits composed of energy to directly resist the mental fluctuations. The magical sparks from the explosions immediately faded, flickering incessantly, indicating that they had suffered severe damage.
"Beyond Grade A telekinesis! Requesting backup!"
The captain's expression changed, and without saying a word, he immediately called for help in the command channel.
Because there are too many search teams, the limited number of Beyond Grade A is naturally insufficient to be deployed to each team. Therefore, they are all on standby at the main base. Only when the search teams encounter World Tree powerhouses can they request support from Beyond Grade A units.
To prevent ordinary crew members from having their memories stolen by mental magic, telekinesis, or other means, the search ships have been specially modified with enhanced mental barriers and engraved with special industrial enchantments to resist mental intrusion. The number of times this can be done depends on the strength of the attacker, ensuring that the crew members inside the ship are not instantly killed upon first sight.
Not long after the words were spoken, a phantom suddenly appeared on the battlefield, then solidified abruptly. Kasuyi had descended through the High-Dimensional Apocalypse Teleporter.
"Is this the immense power of the World Tree as a single entity?"
Kasuyi narrowed his eyes, a hint of interest flashing across them.
The next moment, a vast and boundless psychic power surged forth like a flood, crashing down on the Owell forces.
The psychic power released by the Sacred Tree Envoy suddenly reversed, transforming into a shield to protect the fleet. However, it only lasted for a few seconds before being crushed into dust by the vast ocean of psychic power of Kasuyi. One after another, the exploration ships were squeezed into scrap metal and exploded into a sky full of smoke and fire.
Seeing this, the Sacred Tree Envoy hurriedly rushed out of the main ship and launched an attack on Kasuyi. The psychic ripples transformed into a needle-like beam and shot towards Kasuyi's brain. It immediately made a "ding" sound and could not penetrate Kasuyi's thick mental barrier at all.
Without a word, Kasuyi unleashed an even more concentrated burst of psychic power, instantly binding the Sacred Tree Envoy. The vast difference in energy levels rendered the opponent almost immobile.
"Let me see your memories..."
Kasuyi's eyes flashed, and he probed the mind of the Sacred Tree Envoy with his telekinetic power.
This was his first encounter with World Tree expert. Before this, he had only heard Han Xiao talk about them and had never experienced it firsthand. Now, he couldn't help but want to peer into the other's memories.
However, the moment the psychic tendrils probed into the mind of this Sacred Tree Envoy, a powerful pressure suddenly surged through the mental link.
Boom!
An indescribable sense of fear suddenly crashed into his heart. Kasuyi felt a chill run down his spine, as if he had been stared at by an endless, colossal beast.
An intense sense of vigilance suddenly surged into my mind, as if something extremely terrifying would happen if the mental link wasn't severed.
--Because the World Tree's Psychic Network connects all individuals, once someone attempts to use mental means to peer into an individual's memories, it's equivalent to connecting to the World Tree. Outsiders will immediately feel the immense pressure and intense oppression of the Psychic Network, and will also be detected by the World Tree... If someone stubbornly maintains the mental connection, it will give the World Tree the opportunity to devour their soul, or at the very least, their SAN value will be reduced to zero, causing them to go mad.
"This is the World Tree?"
Kasuyi quickly withdrew his telekinetic power, his eyes filled with astonishment.
He finally understood why Han Xiao was so wary when he mentioned the World Tree.
Although it was just a fleeting glimpse, he almost felt faint for a moment, and the oppressive feeling of facing a high-ranking being was deeply etched in his heart.
Having abandoned the idea of prying into his memories, Kasuyi increased his efforts, unleashing a barrage of psychic attacks. Before long, the consciousness of the Sacred Tree Envoy was crushed, and his physical body exploded into countless fragments, crushed to death.
In the only remaining exploration flagship, Owell lit a cigarette, took a puff, and shook his head helplessly as he gazed at the incoming artillery fire outside the window.
"Tsk tsk, not a success so far... Hopefully, I'll be luckier next time."
The next second, the spaceship was engulfed in artillery fire and exploded. All the crew members, including Owell, turned into seeds and returned to the embrace of the World Tree.
At the same time, in the World Tree Civilization, at the Tree King's Palace.
"What a powerful telekinetic user! They killed Manny so easily."
Tedrian and the other executives tensed up, their expressions showing concern.
They had just watched the entire encounter between Owell and the sacrificial Sacred Tree Envoy through the Psychic Network.
"Did you see the arrival of this telekinetic master? It's similar to the teleportation method used by that outsider last time," the Heart Tree King said calmly. "There's a 70% chance we can confirm that this unknown civilization is that outsider's homeland."
"This is good news." Tranquil Tree King nodded.
The previous outsider had already put them under pressure, and if they encountered a new enemy at this critical juncture, they would doubt whether they could fight on two fronts and take down two prey at the same time.
But now that it's highly likely they're the same enemy, it's a huge relief—meaning the exploration team discovered the enemy's lair when they had no clue, it's practically a stroke of luck!
"This telekinetic master's skill level is probably not as high as that outsider's, but it's still quite formidable. Ordinary Sacred Tree Envoy are no match for him, which shows that this is indeed a civilization with highly developed individual power." Tedrian pondered.
Heart Tree King hummed in agreement and said slowly, "The enemy's strategy is clear: they intend to establish an interception perimeter here. It's obviously not built yet, so we can sabotage it... Next time, we'll choose a coordinate a little further back for teleportation, have the troops build a temporary base there as a guide, and then mobilize the main force for a general offensive."
"Do we no longer need to gather intelligence before launching a full-scale attack, as we did before?" Tranquil Tree King turned his head and glanced at him.
"Intelligence gathering is essential, but focusing solely on it is too conservative and rigid. It's best to adjust plans flexibly according to the situation. Gathering intelligence is one aspect, but disrupting the enemy's deployment is equally important. The two are not mutually exclusive. If we allow the enemy to comfortably build up their interception perimeter, we'll have to spend several times or even ten times the cost to break through later. It's better to act now and sabotage their plans."
The Heart Tree King narrowed his eyes. The World Tree Civilization was pragmatic, and he didn't have the habit of waiting for others to finish transforming before taking action.