The fall of Xakhalov marked the first Limit-level expert to perish in the Empire’s civil war, sending a tremor through the psychic worlds of both the Empire and the Alliance, felt by nearly all Fourth-level existences.
As a Limit expert, Xakhalov had once been a towering figure who defined an era for the Empire. His legend could fill a hundred thick novels, many of which are still recited today. Yet, he had fallen! In less than a month since the civil war erupted, a Limit expert was already gone!
“Mother Empress.” Empress Elmira, the supreme controller of the Force Sea, immediately sensed the disappearance of Xakhalov’s presence. She could barely believe it, yet she had to accept it as fact, for the Force Sea never deceived her. She hurried to the Dowager Empress, seeking guidance.
The young Empress found the Dowager Empress gazing up at the stars, deep within which lay the direction of the Dassen Starfield, where a ferocious battle raged. “Lord Yang Ying and his company never cease to amaze us. I thought we had deduced their hidden strength, but it seems they conceal even more. To cause the fall of Xakhalov was no feat achievable by merely a few Fourth-level existences.”
After a pause, the Dowager Empress said to her daughter, “We wait. This Dassen confrontation is likely to feature many unexpected developments. I sense this will greatly accelerate the course of the war. The more hidden strength Lord Yang Ying reveals, the better.” “Understood, Mother Empress,” the Empress replied with a slight smile, her heart momentarily eased.
Having dealt with Xakhalov, Yang Ying immediately sped toward the next battlefield. Since Sandor had dispatched those dozen fleets to scatter his clones, Yang Ying decided to use the enemy’s ploy to his advantage and devour those decoys!
These decoys were commanded by Fourth-level Limits, or at the very least, peak Fourth-level existences. Relying on the God Core System, they could exert considerable influence on the battlefield. The loss of even one of them represented a devastating blow to the Alliance. Warships could be rebuilt, and troops could be recruited, but as the saying went: armies are easy to acquire, but a general is hard to find. Fourth-level existences were distinguished figures tested by time and having survived countless hardships; the loss of one was irreplaceable. Of course, Yang Ying felt no pity for the Alliance.
Roughly five minutes later, another decoy fleet was annihilated by Yang Ying, along with its commander, Gouluobali, who also perished at his hands. Gouluobali was a formidable Limit expert whose fame predated Xakhalov by several millennia. His signature skill was Cryostasis: he could dispel all thermal energy, instantly dropping matter to absolute zero. At absolute zero, all molecular motion ceases. This technique could end all things; even lightning would revert to static electrons in such a field, losing all destructive power. However, the ultimate victor between two opposing powers depended solely on the amount of energy each side possessed. Under an overpowering force exceeding its critical threshold, even the most ingenious spell could be broken. Having lost his entire fleet, Gouluobali lost his energy replenishment. Overwhelmed by Yang Ying, who commanded the backing of a million ships, Gouluobali’s Absolute Zero domain was easily crushed, leading to his demise.
This event was quickly perceived by the Fourth-level existences of both the Empire and the Alliance. “Did you sense that? Both Xakhalov and Gouluobali’s presences have vanished!” “Yes. What is happening? How could someone eliminate them both in such a short time?” “They must both be on the Dassen Starfield battlefield, overwhelmed and killed by superior numbers? With a supreme commander like Sandor, how could such a lapse occur?” “Unbelievable!”
The Fourth-level existences buzzed with speculation. If the first fall, Xakhalov’s, could perhaps be attributed to Yang Ying’s luck, then the second fall, Gouluobali’s, proved Yang Ying’s true strength.
On the Dassen Starfield battlefield, the remaining decoy fleets dispatched by Sandor immediately showed signs of wavering. They were following Sandor’s plan, each engaging one of Yang Ying’s clones, but now they wondered who would be the next to fall. Although Fourth-level existences could foresee the future to a degree, this ability was not infallible. If only one side in a conflict possessed Fourth-level existences, precognition would be quite accurate, as these beings were controllers of fate, while those below the Fourth-level were subject to it, allowing the Lords to easily discern the trajectory of destiny and select the optimal response. But when both hostile sides had Fourth-level entities, the situation changed dramatically. Their machinations would interfere with each other, rendering the future uncertain, creating eddies and undercurrents in the river of time, thereby diminishing the precognitive abilities of both sides.
The High Spiritual Sense Eye of a Fourth-level existence, much like a normal person’s sight, had limitations regarding distance. The better the eyesight, the farther and clearer one could see. Powerful Fourth-level entities could observe a vast span within the river of time, whereas weaker ones could only perceive a much shorter range. Furthermore, Yang Ying, being a Fourth-level Limit expert himself, possessed the ability to shield himself from the Spiritual Sense gaze of other Fourth-level entities. Coupled with the unprecedented power of the Starship in Hand utilized by the Empire, the success rate for assassinating several Limit experts was naturally extremely high.
After killing Gouluobali, Yang Ying struck down two more decoy fleets, and then— Since his dozen-plus clones were currently engaged with the various decoy fleets, Yang Ying could easily discern which fleet was led by a Limit expert and which by a Peak expert. The difference in the commander’s strength brought about a significant disparity in the fleet’s combat effectiveness. The targets Yang Ying chose were all Limit experts; their demise would inflict massive damage upon the Alliance.
Following Gouluobali’s fall, the various decoy fleets increased their vigilance, their formations shifting toward defense. They had learned of Yang Ying’s methods from the telepathic messages sent just before Xakhalov and Gouluobali perished—they knew they were facing a sudden million-ship main force, a prospect none of them favored. Most had already resolved to retreat, seeking to avoid the unfavorable situation of being picked off one by one, but since they were already locked in fierce combat with Yang Ying’s clones, withdrawal first required separating their fleets from the clones. And Yang Ying’s clones were certainly not going to allow for an easy disengagement.
Combat between God Core fleets differed significantly from that of ordinary fleets. With a Fourth-level existence as the command core, reaction speeds were incredibly fast, sometimes even allowing them to evade incoming energy beams. In battle, every exchange of attack and defense was lightning-fast: fleet fires, fleet evades, fleet counterattacks, fleet evades again. If evasion failed, they absorbed the blow with their shields. Under this high-tempo combat, unilaterally breaking off was extremely difficult; a mere turn of the fleet could expose a flank, allowing an incoming beam to pierce straight through to the core. Because space was temporally locked across the battlefield, wormhole-type spells were unusable; Fourth-level entities had to break away from the engagement entirely before they could escape. If a fleet suffered excessive losses, the Fourth-level entity, deprived of its protective screen, would face the direct assault of Yang Ying’s clones, hastening their death. Thus, although all decoy fleets intended to withdraw, Yang Ying still managed to destroy two more before the rest eventually succeeded in breaking off combat, albeit after paying a massive toll.
In a mere twenty minutes, Yang Ying eliminated four Limit experts from the Alliance side, along with four hundred thousand ships, sustaining only minor losses himself, as he attacked each engagement with a ten-to-one troop advantage, launching long-range assaults with the Yamato Cannons, maximizing his superiority. If not for the complete depletion of the Yamato Cannon’s energy pool in the final engagements, Yang Ying might have managed to eliminate one or two more decoy fleets.
Returning to the main battlefield with his dozen-plus clones, Yang Ying saw Sandor’s fleet engaged in fierce battle with Da’An’s fleet. It was clear that Sandor had committed nearly all his forces; close to four million ships were arrayed in offensive formations in the void, unleashing waves of synchronized yet flexible bombardment upon the Imperial Space Force. For a hastily assembled fleet, this performance was clearly beyond expectation; the sheer fluidity of the Alliance fleet’s attack attested to Sandor’s command capabilities. Yet, Yang Ying took a second look and noticed Sandor was already preparing for a retreat. He detached a sub-fleet, totaling about three hundred thousand vessels, composed of elite troops and damaged warships, sending them forward as a suicide squad to launch a desperate assault against the Da’An fleet. This sacrifice was clearly intended to buy time for the main fleet’s withdrawal. The rout of the decoy fleets had shown Sandor that the nature of future warfare would change drastically. An unprecedented tactic was about to have a profound impact on the contest between the Empire and the Alliance, perhaps even deciding the war’s outcome. No—it had already begun to influence it.
The returning Yang Ying and his clones immediately linked up with the God Core System of the Imperial Space Force fleet, gathering immense energy to unleash a powerful, broad-spectrum Psychic Storm upon the Alliance fleet, an attack that engulfed nearly the entire formation! Some warships, whose shields were already damaged, swayed precariously in the electrical field generated by the storm. Soon, the remaining energy in their shields was entirely consumed. Thick lightning wrapped around the hulls of the ships, followed by incessant, violent explosions.
Sandor maneuvered his fleet into an instantaneous warp, reappearing tens of thousands of kilometers away, escaping the psychic storm’s reach. At that moment, the suicide fleet charged at full thrust toward the Imperial Space Force. They opened all gun ports and missile bays, clearly preparing to unleash their entire arsenal upon breaching the Imperial ranks. The weaponry crafted by True Humans was devastating; in a close-range suicide attack, they could potentially take ten times their number in enemies down with them! They seemed to have forgotten that, not long ago, the Alliance and the Empire were one, both being branches of the same human race. Blood and death had set their spirits ablaze, leaving only destruction and sacrifice in their eyes!
To avoid incurring massive casualties on his fleet in what was already a winning battle, Duke Da’An ordered all energy focused on eliminating the opposing suicide fleet. The Imperial fleet responded with a thunderous barrage; thousands of massive explosions erupted every second. The suicide fleet diminished at a visible rate. Two minutes later, the last suicide warship vanished before the Imperial line, while Sandor, leading the rest of his fleet, had already escaped the immediate battlefield and retreated. “H”
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