For the past few days. The Swarm, with its astonishing reproductive capacity, had expanded its territory to nearly a hundred planets, establishing millions of Hatcheries that provided powerful momentum for the continuing growth of the collective. If all the Swarms on these planets were gathered, they could easily form an army of a billion, and this army had now assembled.

The Lorean fleet, after wiping out the combined fleets of several minor races in the Perseus Arm, suddenly changed course, sweeping around the periphery of the Swarm territory toward a different direction. It seemed they had no intention of entering the Swarm domain.

The Broodlord Emperor watched their movements quietly. He felt no surprise regarding their actions.

After all, the Lorean Empire possessed three beings at the peak of the Fourth Level. With their command and central strategy, the Lorean fleet only needed to be cautious to avoid any major trouble.

During this time, besides the fleets of the Hysen Federation and the Davasi annihilated by Feda, several other expeditionary fleets from the Orion Arm had met a bitter end within the Swarm territory, the impact of which was quite significant. This entire star sector had been designated a restricted zone, and recently no fleets dared approach it.

Not long ago, the intelligence network of the Terran Mercenary Corps received news that several Fourth Level existences belonging to different races had jointly issued a danger signal, asserting that unknown, major perils existed within the territory occupied by the Swarm—dangers so severe that even Fourth Level beings themselves dared not approach.

Once this news spread, even fewer fleets dared to come. The Lorean fleet was the closest military force to the Swarm territory recently; apart from them, the fleets of other races were at least five hundred light-years away.

Conversely, in recent days, Yang Ying and his avatars frequently sensed certain Fourth Level existences attempting to spy into the Swarm territory through the psychic plane. He did not stop them, nor could he; if it were only a single planet, it would naturally be a trivial matter, but defending an area spanning a hundred planets covered thousands of light-years—a single Fourth Level Limit being, or even several, could not defend against it all.

Although every planet housed at least one Overmind, the Overminds had not emerged long ago and had not yet matured to the Fourth Level Limit. Only a few, like Baal and Feda, had reached the Middle Fourth Level, still lacking much to contend with the top-tier existences in the Orion Arm.

This also served as a subtle warning to Yang Ying. The Lorean fleet's maneuver of returning today, while seemingly ordinary, when combined with the frequent psychic probing from previous days, made Yang Ying feel as if a net was subtly closing in on the Swarm.

Watching the Lorean fleet disengage from the battlefield and slip into hyperspace, the Broodlord Emperor mused internally, "Is this fleet here to test the boundaries of the Swarm territory? Perhaps they have supporting forces waiting behind them?" If he followed this line of thought, they might also be probing the Swarm’s aggressiveness.

The issue was: if this operation was indeed premeditated, was it solely the Lorean initiative, or an alliance of several Orion Arm races? This needed to be investigated first. Although the Swarm had developed vigorously, it had existed for too short a time and was still far outmatched in scale compared to the massive expeditionary fleets of the Orion Arm.

With this thought, the Broodlord Emperor moved, instantly plunging into hyperspace, trailing the fleet. He decided to gather intelligence. His powerful Cloaking Technique rendered his form as invisible as the void; he was very confident in it. Except for the continuously emerging True Human Empire at the Fourth Level, no other power in the galaxy possessed the technology to detect his presence.

After traveling for over a thousand light-years in hyperspace, the Broodlord Emperor sensed a change; the fleet ahead was not far now, and then, with a whoosh, they vanished. They were decelerating. Hyperspace was a peculiar dimension where the minimum speed of any object was the speed of light. If the speed dropped below this threshold, the object would be expelled by hyperspace into normal space.

Under normal circumstances, entering or exiting hyperspace generated powerful physical reactions, intense enough to tear a small spaceship to pieces. This was analogous to a supersonic aircraft breaking the sound barrier in a planet's atmosphere, causing a sonic boom, but breaking the speed of light generated a "light barrier." The sonic barrier originated from the air, but the light barrier came from space itself, and the power difference between the two was incomparable—a truly vast gulf.

Of course, races mastering spatial jump technology possessed their own solutions to this problem, which was a crucial consideration in spatial jump technology.

At the very moment the Lorean fleet disappeared, the Broodlord Emperor instantly perceived the situation in the outside space. In the normal space corresponding to the point where the Lorean fleet vanished, there were layers upon layers—three outer layers, three inner layers—a colossal armada stretching almost as far as the eye could see, appearing to number at least ten million warships!

The Broodlord Emperor could also discern that among these fleets, besides Lorean-style warships, there were vessels belonging to several other races. Moreover, two million of them were main battlecruisers belonging to the Cycro, the second-ranked powerful race in the Orion Arm. They featured sleek lines, thick armor, exuding a sense of mechanical force, power, and oppression, yet carrying a strangely agile essence.

"The Cycro, they... aren't they staying out of this mess?" The Broodlord Emperor felt a sharp alarm in his heart. The Cycro were indeed the second-ranked race in the Orion Arm, but they were the most formidable in mechanical technology. These beings were silicon-based lifeforms, much like the Transformers, their entire bodies composed of machinery. Studying mechanical technology was as easy as reading the palm of their hand.

They could shapeshift and integrate various destructive weaponry onto their bodies, such as plasma cannons, gravity bombs, beam guns, light sabers, and antimatter missiles. In terms of sheer destructive power, a single Cycro warrior could easily surpass a peak Third Level expert wielding a light saber.

Their thought processes were quantized, granting them computer-like calculation speeds, computer-like reaction times, computer-like information sharing, and the creativity of a biological brain. Cycro warships were also "alive," possessing not only more potent energy cores but also onboard weaponry and equipment that, due to spatial constraints, far exceeded that of ordinary Cycro individuals.

The most famous among them was the Cycro Star Destroyer, possessing the most powerful ship-mounted annihilation cannon in the galaxy, capable of reaching Level Ten energy output—enough to exterminate all life on a planet's surface in a single shot!

Among the two million Cycro ships outside, two hundred thousand were Star Destroyers, but their combat effectiveness and deterrent power far surpassed the other 1.8 million vessels.

Even the Lorean Empire, with its host of experts including three peak Fourth Level beings, had been suppressed by the Cycro Federation for over ten thousand years, perpetually ranked third in the Orion Arm. The formidable nature of the Cycro could thus be inferred.

Of course, thinking deeper, the Gallan beings, who managed to keep the Cycro in check for ten millennia, must possess an even higher echelon of might.

According to the intelligence Yang Ying gathered from the Coster people, combined with other information he had collected, the Gallan beings held such a lofty status because they possessed an extremely critical military technology that made them invincible on the battlefield—wherever their blade pointed, victory was certain, and every assault successful.

Since the Gallan beings had not engaged in large-scale conflict for several millennia, only engaging in minor skirmishes, there was no need for them to deploy that particular technique, making reliable confirmation extremely difficult.

However, based on what Yafei, who had witnessed the Gallan beings in action, described, it was a powerful technique capable of perfectly unifying the strength of an entire army, allowing a host of soldiers to operate as a single entity, maximizing efficiency to the extreme.

Even fleets from other races, regardless of superior training, more skilled tactical commanders, or fiercer weaponry, would crumble like scattered sand against the flawless execution of the Gallan beings.

All these considerations flashed through the Broodlord Emperor's mind in a mere instant. Snapping back to the present, less than one-hundredth of a second had passed since the Lorean fleet exited hyperspace.

The Broodlord Emperor took a step, leaving hyperspace, and appeared on the outer edge of the armada's encirclement. His form remained hidden within the void; no one detected him.

Upon emerging, he again sensed several Fourth Level presences, including the previously encountered Emperor Salian and the God of Slaughter, Cydelon, as well as six unknown Fourth Level entities.

The Broodlord Emperor cautiously scanned the area. Among the six unknown Fourth Level beings, none surpassed Emperor Salian or Cydelon, which slightly eased his mind. He continued to focus on the situation of this joint fleet.

After waiting for about half an hour, Emperor Salian transmitted a wide-area telepathic message to the fleet, and then the fleet's formation began to shift, transforming from an encircling posture into a marching formation.

Then, they began to withdraw.

"Losing patience already?" the Broodlord Emperor watched silently from the void. Emperor Salian's mental energy was already close to the limit. Had he exited hyperspace slightly closer to the main fleet, he might have been discovered, so he was being extremely cautious now.

Once the fleet’s formation transformation was complete, the Broodlord Emperor contemplated for a moment before cautiously moving closer to the departing fleet. He decided to infiltrate the convoy to observe, constantly monitoring the spatial fluctuations around him during his movement, ensuring he created no disturbance.

He successfully entered the core area of the fleet, arriving near a Lorean warship. This vessel was not far from the Lorean flagship and, judging by its exterior, was also a highly advanced command vessel of the same model as the flagship.

Just as he prepared to breach it to steal some data, the Broodlord Emperor's heart gave a sudden jolt. He captured a faint, almost imperceptible presence—in addition to the eight Fourth Level presences he had previously detected, there was one more!

The location: inside a vessel nearby!

The Broodlord Emperor's focus sharpened. This presence had managed to conceal itself from him until this proximity, meaning its strength was clearly no less than his own!

Simultaneously, that mysterious Fourth Level being seemed to have sensed the Broodlord Emperor as well. A surge of immense mental power instantly spread out, enveloping the entire core area of the fleet, almost instantaneously confirming the Broodlord Emperor’s location and surging toward him.