Ultimately, divine sense was merely a form of energy wave, albeit one imbued with the very rules of the cosmos. At the level of the Ancient Evil Dust Void Realm, divine sense could instantaneously cover a radius of tens of thousands of kilometers. Meanwhile, a Roman super-battleship’s quantum radar could scan for suspicious targets within tens of thousands of light-seconds in an instant. From this perspective, the radar system of a super-battleship was arguably more potent than the divine sense of a Void Realm Grandmaster, making it entirely understandable that Gu Xichen’s divine sense was affected.

A thread of divine consciousness, much like a small boat tossed upon a vast ocean during a raging storm, struggled to navigate the powerful, encroaching radar waves. Exerting more than a hundred times his usual effort, Gu Xichen finally managed to sweep the vicinity with his divine sense. Wiping the cold sweat from his brow, he offered a strained chuckle towards Poison Wolf: “The people from the Heaven Star Expeditionary Force Command are all down below waiting to receive us.”

His brow throbbed with a dull ache. Gu Xichen’s spiritual sense had accidentally collided with several radar wave patterns. These radar waves felt to him as if red-hot branding irons had seared directly onto his brain matter—a sharp, burning pain. Several of the radar wave frequencies were even more subtle and harder to detect than Gu Xichen’s divine sense, seeming to possess a more exquisitely fine-tuned resonance with the surrounding energy. In that instant, Gu Xichen felt on the verge of enlightenment, yet simultaneously perceived nothing, only for the pain in his brow to intensify further.

Beep, beep, several sounds echoed. Fuya'ao, seated at the radar command station in the cockpit, lifted her head and squinted at Gu Xichen, revealing a graceful smile as pure as an orchid. “Xichen, the scanning of Heaven Star is complete. The master control chip of the Yafike planetary defense system has already calculated and designed its topography. The optimal defense system blueprint for Heaven Star has been generated.” Fuya Ming winked proudly at Gu Xichen, slowly retracting the thin data lines that had emerged from the gauntlet on her left arm.

Gu Xichen hurried to Fuya Ming’s side and gently wrapped an arm around her shoulders: “You’ve worked hard.”

Fuya Ming narrowed her eyes, smiling contentedly: “It wasn’t hard, just scanning the planet’s surface topography and the subterranean geological structures. The primary control chip here handled everything else.” With a light wave of her left hand, Fuya Ming stroked the gauntlet on her arm and chuckled: “The defense systems of the Yafike Kingdom have been under continuous development for tens of thousands of years. They have run countless simulations for every conceivable terrain and situation. Designing a defense blueprint is child’s play.”

Poison Wolf rushed over, followed by several commanding officers, and immediately summoned the defense blueprint for Heaven Star that Fuya Ming had finalized.

A colossal light screen, over two hundred meters long and wide, descended from the cockpit’s ceiling. A three-dimensional holographic projection of Heaven Star shimmered onto the screen. Upon this 3D map of Heaven Star, which occupied nearly the entire area of the display, multicolored spots representing anti-air turrets and various defensive installations clustered like dense bees in a hive, numbering so thickly they made the eyes swim.

Poison Wolf and the high-ranking military officials gasped in unison. They secretly compared the diagram with the ultimate defense system currently possessed by Earth, only to find that Earth’s supposed ultimate defense was like a thin sheet of paper, whereas the blueprint provided by Fuya Ming was akin to a slab of alloyed steel several meters thick.

This was the ultimate technological crystallization provided by a high-level civilization whose development spanned tens of thousands of years of fortification, a civilization whose tier far surpassed Earth’s. How could the defense system designed by the Earth Federation compare to this level of meticulous intricacy? Perhaps the only aspect where the Earth Federation’s ultimate defense system offered greater deterrence than this blueprint was its secret contingency: several hundred thermonuclear warheads, each rated at one billion tons. That was the sole highlight of their existing defense.

Fuya Ming turned and clasped Gu Xichen’s hand, then explained the Heaven Star defense system to Poison Wolf and the others in the simplest, most precise terms.

The Heaven Star defense system, based on the current financial and material resources of the Earth Federation, would likely take a century to complete. This estimate assumed they didn't need to research and develop the most advanced defensive weaponry themselves, as all weapon schematics were provided by Fuya Ming. Even with that advantage, merely constructing the fundamental infrastructure, manufacturing the weaponry, and assembly would require a hundred years.

However, thanks to the 'unconditional donation' of numerous warships and refined rare metal ingots by Gu Xichen to the Earth Federation, coupled with the advanced data provided by Fuya Ming, and crucially, the presence of a large contingent of Espers and Innate Warriors within the Earth Federation—who could excavate earth and stone and construct tunnels far more effectively than heavy engineering machinery—especially the Earth-attribute Espers, who seemed tailor-made for infrastructure projects—the foundational engineering work for the defense system could be completed in just one year under the most ideal construction management.

Within this single year, the Earth Federation would have sufficient time to manufacture all the necessary weaponry and equipment. The production capacity of the integrated assembly lines aboard the hundreds of Roman super-battleships was immense, and producing these massive anti-air cannons—which prioritized destructive power over pinpoint accuracy—would present little difficulty.

Another year to a year and a half would suffice for the full deployment of all weaponry, ensuring all systems were integrated into a unified anti-air network. The system’s control centers and backup centers would also undergo comprehensive operational testing.

If all proceeded smoothly, Heaven Star would transform into a heavily armored, bristling hedgehog in just three years.

According to the specifications laid out by Fuya Ming, the Heaven Star defense system would be capable of repelling a coordinated assault by one hundred Roman super-battleships while inflicting devastating damage in return.

To achieve this standard, in addition to newly manufactured anti-air artillery, a significant number of main and secondary ship-mounted cannons would need to be salvaged from the super-battleships Gu Xichen had brought back to the Earth Federation. Dismantling the main and secondary batteries from approximately fifty super-battleships would be enough to bring this defense system to one hundred percent combat effectiveness. If Poison Wolf were willing to invest heavily and dismantle all the armaments from one hundred super-battleships for deployment, then even if the First Roman Kingdom and the Second Roman Kingdom launched all their super-battleships simultaneously, they would be unable to pose any credible threat to Heaven Star.

The hypothetical enemy for this defense system was the Roman Empire, possessing super-battleships. In terms of the Star Alliance, within the scope of Fuya Ming’s knowledge, even the combined might of twenty five-star civilizations could not inflict the slightest scratch upon Heaven Star. The system’s effectiveness against six-star civilizations, however, remained unquantifiable, as Fuya Ming lacked sufficient intelligence on six-star civilizations—information considered absolutely classified, inaccessible even to the high command of five-star civilizations.

The reason the system was sized to defend against the combined attack of twenty five-star civilizations was due to the vast defensive area; the firing density of all gun emplacements was finite, allowing it to withstand the simultaneous offensive of the standing fleets of twenty five-star civilizations at most. If the enemy opted for a war of attrition, committing forces incrementally, with no more than the total war complement of twenty five-star civilizations deployed at any one time, then this defense system would truly be an impregnable fortress of bronze walls and golden moats, utterly unconquerable.

Poison Wolf and the numerous senior officers of the military command listened, stunned speechless, awestruck by the sheer scale of the proposed defense system.

The menacing formation of Roman super-battleships seemed rendered obsolete by this defense? This was truly magnificent news!

But to achieve such results, they needed to strip the artillery from one hundred super-battleships? This... this truly tugged at their heartstrings!

Seeing Poison Wolf’s visible hesitation, Gu Xichen grew impatient: “It’s merely removing the cannons from a hundred battleships, not gutting the main hulls of the vessels. Once we produce newer energy cannons in the future, we can rearm them easily enough.” He shot Poison Wolf a dismissive glance and scoffed: “Besides, these battleships didn't cost you a single cent. Why the heartache?”

Poison Wolf froze, then suddenly realized the truth of the matter. Indeed, why should he feel pained over assets that cost his people nothing? Once this defense system was operational, the Earth Federation's control over the Heaven Star sector and the Thirteenth Chain sector would become unbreakable. Gu Xichen was prepared to invest so many super-battleships and countless rare materials into this system, and he wasn't complaining; Poison Wolf certainly had no basis or excuse to refuse.

In the future laid out by Gu Xichen, Heaven Star would become the administrative center of the Earth Federation—its de facto capital. Therefore, the security of Heaven Star had to be absolutely guaranteed. Earth, the original planet, would be designated the nominal capital, serving in reality as a site for patriotic education and the agricultural hub.

Earth, which had nurtured hundreds of billions of souls, had been utterly bled dry of its last ounce of resources. Every exploitable energy source and mineral deposit had been exhausted. The planet's interior was riddled with caverns, resembling a peach thoroughly eaten by worms. Such a world’s final utility would be as an agricultural planet, or perhaps eventually, a natural heritage scenic reserve. The surface could be used to cultivate various crops, while the underground city complexes could house mushroom farms or tanks for raising livestock and fish species that didn't require intense light—a perfect example of making use of everything available. The thirty billion Federation citizens on Earth would relocate to the three planets under the Earth Federation's control within the Heaven Star and Thirteenth Chain sectors.

Once the Heaven Star defense system was completed, the three planets of the Thirteenth Chain, designated New Earth One, New Earth Two, and New Earth Three, would also begin construction on comprehensive planetary defense systems. However, the scale of these systems would surpass that of Heaven Star, their architecture more complex, and the investment even greater. Even with the inexhaustible resources collected by Gu Xichen as backing, this integrated defense system—which would ultimately encompass the entire Thirteenth Chain sector—would require the Earth Federation over thirty years to finalize.

With a stable base cluster established, it would then be time for the Earth Federation to expand outward.

Leaving the Papal State and the Federation of Gods to contain the Romans, the Earth Federation would expand outward at the fastest possible speed—seizing planets, securing resources, and propagating its populace. Having witnessed the terrifying power of the Star Alliance, Gu Xichen felt an instinctive urgency to rapidly augment the strength of the Earth Federation.

The law of the jungle applied not just to the Earth Federation, but to the entire universe. The strong devouring the weak—this was the immutable law of nature.

After briefing high-ranking officials like Xiao Liefeng on his overall plan for the Thirteenth Chain and Heaven Star, amidst gasps of amazement, the group disembarked from the mothership. They boarded the transport vessel used for their arrival and landed at the central base of the Heaven Star Expeditionary Force Command.

Hordes of special forces soldiers directly under the Federal Military Department poured out of the successively landing warships. Under the command of several senior generals, the troops rapidly deployed, forcefully taking over the defense duties of the base.

Under the stunned gazes of all the generals of the Heaven Star Expeditionary Force, a senior civilian officer affiliated with the Federal Military Department brazenly produced the Earth Federation's sole supreme command terminal. He altered the characteristic code of the Heaven Star Expeditionary Force command system, seizing the command authority for all Expeditionary Force units back to the Federation.

Amidst the anxious whispers of the Expeditionary Force soldiers, dozens of super-battleships slowly descended from the high atmosphere, joining the three motherships carrying Gu Xichen and his entourage to blockade all bases, recruit training camps, and critical defensive strongholds under the jurisdiction of the Heaven Star Expeditionary Force. Large warships, ten kilometers in length, patrolled the skies of Heaven Star, escorted by Southern Heavenly Gate and Northern Heavenly Gate class vessels. The immense pressure caused the hearts of the Expeditionary Force soldiers to pound violently, breeding a profound sense of unease within them.

Even more special forces troops directly loyal to the Federal Military Department descended from the motherships. Vehicle battalions, Esper units, and massive swarms of fighter jets roared out from the capital ships. Furthermore, the eerie insectoid soldiers Gu Xichen had seen at Versailles silently infiltrated the jungles of Heaven Star, cutting off all inter-base communications. These thirty thousand insectoids were a formidable force that Poison Wolf had cobbled together by nearly exhausting his private treasury; their destructive potential was almost equivalent to ten heavy mechanized divisions.

Under the protection of countless security forces, the transport vessel carrying Gu Xichen and the others finally landed. Poison Wolf and Xiao Yusheng walked down the ramp shoulder-to-shoulder, followed closely by Gu Xichen and Fuya Ming. While still on the ramp, Poison Wolf burst into laughter directed at the Expeditionary Force generals lined up on the landing pad: “The Federation’s most reliable ally, Queen Fuya of the Yafike Kingdom, has arrived! What are you lot doing? Have you all turned into statues?”

The military band on the landing field remained utterly silent, and the Expeditionary Force generals standing rigidly in place, including Vagari, glared fixedly at Poison Wolf and his party.

Poison Wolf’s expression gradually darkened. He stepped off the ramp, his face slack, and stared at the ashen-faced Expeditionary Force generals.

“What is this? What are you doing? Have you forgotten even the basic courtesy of receiving guests? Or have you been scared witless by the Roman warships?” Poison Wolf spoke with chilling coolness. “Or perhaps you harbor objections to Chairman Xiao and myself being here? If you have something to say, you are free to voice it!”

The hundreds of generals of the Expeditionary Force remained silent, their gazes fixed solely on Poison Wolf.