The Empire's exploration methods are progressing step by step, expanding steadily. Currently, the exploration forces have just entered two star clusters and are beginning their exploration from the border systems.
In the border system of the Light Dust Star Cluster, a small exploration fleet warp-in to a lush, green planet. The warships' outer armor bears the insignia of a civilization belonging to an imperial system. They are responsible for exploring this area, and this planet is their target.
"Warp complete. Destination reached. Cooling down warp engine."
"Planetary environment probes have been deployed and are currently detecting the planet's environment and resource distribution."
"Life monitoring device activated, scanning the target planet for signs of life."
In the main control room of the command ship, numerous crew members were busy operating various equipment, while the captain paced back and forth in the room, awaiting the detection results.
brush--
At that moment, the door opened, and a man dressed in heavy mechanical armor walked in, displaying the bearing of a soldier.
The captain turned and glanced at him, nodding in greeting. "Captain Kleber, what is it?"
"I just came to take a look." The man called Kleber was expressionless, his tone somewhat impatient.
This person is one of the Calamity Grade of this subordinate civilization, and he works with the exploration team, responsible for armed security.
However, it is obvious that the chances of encountering an enemy worthy of his attention while exploring the Shattered World are too small. Kleber's existence is more of a safety net. He has nothing to do most of the time, so he is naturally unwilling to carry out this task, which he sees as a waste of his training time.
After a while, the monitoring results came out and were displayed on the virtual screen in the main control room.
"Captain, environmental parameters have been read. This is a habitable planet with relatively abundant resources. We have also detected signs of life, with 730,000 species detected, including one intelligent life form that has formed a settlement on the surface. Observations suggest that its civilization is still in the tribal stage, and its intelligence level is currently unknown. The population is around 120,000."
The virtual screen displayed the appearance of this intelligent species, which looked like a bunch of goblin-like, short, upright creatures with many wrinkles on their white skin, appearing loose and flabby, like an overweight person who had undergone liposuction.
"Intelligent life, that's good." The captain nodded. "Then let's make contact with them according to the Exploration Code."
The Empire's Exploration Code stipulate procedures for contact with indigenous civilizations, adopting different approaches depending on the situation. For these seemingly harmless indigenous peoples, the primary approach is gentle indoctrination. Han Xiao encountered Planet Pangurid during the first phase of exploration and adopted this indoctrination approach.
The fleet slowly landed in a forest on the planet. Ground troops landed and began to make friendly contact with the indigenous tribes. These intelligent native beings were both surprised and frightened, and at the same time very curious about these suddenly appearing creatures.
With the help of a universal translator, the exploration team successfully established a communication bridge with the indigenous people. While learning about the indigenous people, they explained their purpose to them, using various images and pictures to explain the situation of the Explored Universe and introduce the Crimson Dynasty, so that the indigenous people could understand the current situation.
The accompanying doctor also began to examine the curious natives to prevent them from carrying any new pathogens they had never seen before—there were too many such cases—while also checking the natives' physical structures.
Everything seemed orderly, and Kleber, bored, strolled through the bustling camp.
Turning his head, he suddenly saw an indigenous person leave the quarantine queue and sneakily walk towards a house belonging to an indigenous tribe.
Kleber didn't think much of it and was about to look away when, in that instant, a strange sense of alertness rose in his mind.
His steps immediately halted. Most Calamity Grade beings possess keen intuition and occasionally have a premonition of certain threats. Generally, the more powerful a superhuman is, the more they trust their intuition.
"Something seems off..." Kleber frowned, turned around and followed the furtive native, pushed open the door and walked straight into the native's house.
The native was sitting in the corner with his back to the door, doing something unknown. Hearing the noise behind him, he seemed startled and turned around abruptly.
"What are you doing?" Kleber's sense of foreboding grew stronger.
The next moment, the native's expression suddenly turned ferocious and twisted. He suddenly pulled out a bone dagger and stabbed it into his own neck.
Wow!
A gust of wind blew by, Kleber moved with incredible speed, appearing in front of his opponent in an instant. He flicked his finger, knocking the dagger out of the native's hand, and then lifted him up by the neck.
He didn't know what the native meant by this, but stopping him was definitely the right thing to do.
Before he could ask any further questions, the native's body suddenly began to tremble, foaming at the mouth, his eyes bulging out, and he died on the spot.
"He took poison?" Kleber asked in surprise.
Just then, a cry of alarm rang out from outside the door. Kleber ran out carrying the body and found that there was a commotion at the team doctor's place. A large group of doctors were gathered around a medical device used for physical examinations, and more doctors were crowding around, seemingly having discovered something.
Kleber flew straight over and, upon landing, looked at the head of the medical team.
What are you doing?
"Sir, take a look at this genetic test report!" A doctor exclaimed in surprise. "We've discovered a major defect in the genes of this intelligent life form, and this defect shows signs of deliberate genetic manipulation. It has suppressed over 80% of this intelligent species' brain capacity; simply put, someone has castrated their intelligence!"
"You mean, this is a domesticated species?" Kleber's heart skipped a beat.
Just then, something unexpected happened!
Rumble--
At that moment, everyone felt the ground beneath their feet suddenly tremble.
The next second, all the spaceships erupted in piercing alarms!
"Warning! Warning! High-energy reaction Detection, comparing with event model database... Matching complete, [Primal Psionic Energy Eruption] match rate reaches 99.8%, evacuate immediately! Evacuate immediately!"
"Primal Psionic Energy?!"
Everyone's expression changed drastically, including Kleber's.
Kleber seemed to suddenly realize something, and with a swift punch, he smashed the skull of the strange native corpse in his hand, turned it upside down, and emptied everything out. A tiny mechanical object mixed with slurry fell out.
The moment Kleber saw the mechanical device, his pupils contracted sharply, and he instantly understood.
This is a life signal sensing device. Simply put, when the user's life signal fluctuates or even stops, the connected device will activate or deactivate— the Primal Psionic Energy Eruption is related to this life signal sensing device!
Boom!!
The planet instantly collapsed inward, and jets of dark blue energy burst through the surface, shooting into the sky.
Immediately afterwards, a dark blue color spread rapidly across the land, polluting the entire planet.
Mountains, rivers, forests... land, sea, sky—everything that existed was swallowed up by the dark blue, transformed into a part of Primal Psionic Energy!
Expansion, endless expansion!
All matter vanished within this blue light, releasing unparalleled and immense energy during the mass-energy conversion process. The escape speed of this exploration fleet couldn't even keep up with the expansion of the Primal Psionic Energy, and it was completely swallowed up by this dark blue light.
Kleber rushed out of the spaceship, still trying to escape, but the endless blue light engulfed his figure. In the face of this earth-shattering wave of Primal Psionic Energy, even a Calamity Grade object was nothing more than a mass of indistinguishable matter.
And the same scene is playing out on more than one planet at the edge of the Light Dust Star Cluster.
Lighthouse Star, Commander's Conference Room.
Not long after the last meeting, remote projections of representatives from all the participating factions gathered together once again.
This was an emergency meeting, and Han Xiao and a group of Beyond Grade A members were also urgently summoned to the meeting.
The atmosphere in the room was heavy as they stared at the casualty statistics on the virtual screen.
"As you can see, our exploration force encountered an unexpected incident in the Light Dust Star Cluster," Tarrokov said gravely. "More than six thousand warships were destroyed, and the death toll exceeded seven million, including two Calamity Grade from affiliated civilizations."
Upon hearing this, many people were immediately in an uproar.
"What happened to them? Did they encounter a very powerful native civilization?"
"The Light Dust Star Cluster has such powerful natives?!"
Han Xiao narrowed his eyes. He only knew that this indigenous civilization had caused trouble for the empire, but he didn't fully understand the details of the war. After all, this happened during a version update, and players from his previous life hadn't experienced it firsthand, so they could only learn about it from historical background information.
Tarrokov pressed his hands down, signaling for silence, and said in a deep voice:
"The armed forces of these natives are more powerful than you imagine... They have mastered Psionic Energy technology. These lost teams were all wiped out when they encountered Primal Psionic Energy Eruption while exploring the planet. We have reason to believe that this is a trap set by that unknown native civilization."
Upon hearing this, most of the delegates present gasped for breath, their expressions turning astonished.
They could accept indigenous civilizations with strong military forces because the empire's warship technology could easily suppress them, and no matter how strong their conventional military forces were, they could not pose much of a threat to their exploration forces.
However, for indigenous civilizations that mastered Primal Psionic Energy, the significance was entirely different!
In the Explored Universe under the rule of the Three Universal Civilizations, Primal Psionic Energy is an absolutely forbidden weapon. It is terrifyingly powerful and causes serious pollution afterward. Such a weapon has an absolute deterrent effect.
And these natives actually possessed Primal Psionic Energy technology?
How exactly did they develop their technology?
Could they possess some cutting-edge technology that we're unaware of?!
Most of the delegates present felt a strong sense of apprehension.
The feeling of facing such an indigenous civilization is different. In interstellar society, even if you don't possess a certain technology, you know it exists. But when facing a powerful indigenous civilization you've never seen before, who knows what incredible advanced technology they might suddenly pull out from their crotch?
Many of the civilizations present here experienced the Exploration Era War, and at this moment it feels like a dream revisiting that era—no one knows what terrifying trump cards other civilizations possess, such as the Federation of Light's High-Dimensional Apocalypse Teleporter, the Arcane Church's Scepter of All Gods, the Evolutionary Civilization's Distortion Missile, and so on.
This indigenous civilization is naturally not bound by the rules of interstellar society and doesn't care about carelessly throwing away Primal Psionic Energy, which is very dangerous. It's like a child playing with a toy gun. Everyone present has a premonition... the casualties this time will probably be significant.
"What are the empire's plans?" someone couldn't help but ask.
Tarrokov said coldly, "The current situation indicates that this indigenous civilization is not friendly to us and poses a high threat. According to the ' Exploration Code - Indigenous Civilization Contact Regulations,' we will implement the 24th response plan."
Upon hearing this, many people felt a chill run down their spines.
This is the final solution, and compared to the others, it is quite simple: deal with the target through war until the entire race is exterminated or enslaved.
The dominant civilizations that have emerged from the Exploration Era War have never been benevolent.
Shattered World is a microcosm of the Exploration Era War, but the difference is that the Three Universal Civilizations have become the hegemons, and have the confidence to take gentle measures, while the weaker ones are more likely to protect themselves.
The more powerful the indigenous people were, the harsher the attitudes of the Three Universal Civilizations became.
The natives who have mastered Psionic Energy technology have become a clear threat, and the Crimson Dynasty does not mind nipping them in the bud, reducing an annoying hostile star cluster-level civilization, which is also beneficial to the entire interstellar society.
Tarrokov glanced around the room and said coldly:
"We know almost nothing about them—not their location, not even what species they are—but the fact that they launched a precise attack on us indicates they possess some intelligence. And before this, we had no prior contact with this civilization... Therefore, we can conclude that someone is secretly plotting against us, and those stowaways are the prime suspects."
Upon hearing this, the representatives of civilizations present had different expressions, but they all thought of the same thing.
This is not hard to guess. A single civilization cannot have a comprehensive technology tree. The strength of interstellar societies lies in the mutual exchange of technologies. It was the stowaways who packaged up a large number of advanced technologies from interstellar societies and dumped them on native civilizations, including Psionic Energy technology.
Those supercluster-level civilizations also had sufficient motives: first, to kill the Empire's armed forces; second, to slow down the exploration progress; and third, to use others as pawns to indirectly eliminate powerful indigenous civilizations, making more room in the Shattered World.
Of course, they didn't just throw their technology at anyone they met. Only advanced indigenous civilizations with sufficient productivity were targeted; otherwise, the technology wouldn't be of any use to them.
"I hereby declare that the exploration program for the Light Dust Star Cluster is temporarily suspended, and the Empire Exploration Army are officially entering a state of war." Tarrokov's tone was solemn.
Everyone's expressions turned solemn, and they nodded.
Before defeating their opponent, they will no longer continue their leisurely exploration. The Empire possesses rich war experience and countless cases to refer to, which is an advantage.
The enemy has an intelligence advantage for the time being, but this advantage will not last long. With the trap of the Primal Psionic Energy Eruption as the event anchor, the Empire's prophetic ability troops will come in handy, and the mechanics are not to be underestimated either.
The Empire summoned its army, and the Black Star Army had to respond to the call. However, Han Xiao did not intend to take action personally. He mainly had Nero and a group of his subordinates participate, and he himself sent mechanical troops to protect them secretly.
He knew that the Kunde Race did not have Super System, and their individual combat power consisted only of various armored warriors. The greatest threat was strategic-level Psionic Energy bombing. As long as they were careful to avoid this type of battlefield, they could reduce casualties.
"My familiarity with maps might be of some help," Han Xiao thought to himself.
Meanwhile, deep within the Light Dust Star Cluster.
One after another, spaceships carrying countless civilians disappeared into the depths of space. Watching this scene, every Kunde Race soldier who remained felt a strange mix of emotions.
"Report: The wandering fleets to each colony have set sail, carrying local civilians and all the creatures and crop seeds we have discovered, in search of a new home."
Listening to his subordinates' report, the Kunde Race leader nodded silently, and the other high-ranking members remained silent as well.
The crashed spaceship did not deceive them. They secretly arranged for some enslaved races to make contact with the other side, which was indeed called the "Crimson Dynasty," and was as powerful as the data showed.
Although the other party appeared friendly, which differed somewhat from the information provided, the Kunde Race believed that beneath the surface of friendliness lay an attempt at colonization and control.
The future is predictable, but this is unacceptable to the Kunde Race. Originally, this entire star cluster was meant to be their resource for development and their stepping stone for evolution. Now, the Crimson Dynasty has arrived and wants to seize these resources. Just as the data says, their way out will be blocked, and they will no longer be able to develop normally.
In this respect, supercluster-level civilizations are not entirely Lie; they understand this well—telling the truth is the most skillful form of seduction.
The Kunde Race were unwilling to become vassals, and with the universe so vast, they still had a way out.
Even before victory, the Kunde Race considered the worst-case scenario. While deciding to resist militarily, they packed up the vast majority of civilians and sent them into the depths of space, leaving behind the seeds of civilization. Regardless of victory or defeat, there was no chance for normal development here; it was better to send tribesmen to find a new, undisturbed homeland.
Only the Kunde Race's assembled army remained to defend their old homeland, prepared to fight to the death.
As the cosmologists have the theory, war is always the only way to peace.