Chapter 299: Stellar Cannon

「Several hundred years ago.」

Surrounded by hundreds of billions of cubes, Li Qingsong cast his gaze toward the massive star, a world teeming with rampaging Electromagnetic Creatures.

The electromagnetic signal, sent via hundreds of massive antennas, had already reached the star.

“I’m giving you two choices. One: total extinction. Two: surrender to me! There is no other path for you! Now, tell me your choice!”

“Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill all technological intelligent civilizations! Either you will be utterly exterminated, or we will be! Even if you flee this Interstellar System, we will follow you. Wherever you go, we will go. This ends only when one of us is dead!”

Li Qingsong sighed deeply.

‘If there’s really no other way, then I’ll just have to wipe them out.’

But just then, a thought suddenly formed in Li Qingsong’s mind.

‘These Electromagnetic Creatures only talk about killing all technological intelligent civilizations… When they say that, do they mean what they consider to be conventional intelligent civilizations?’

‘But I’m not a conventional intelligent civilization. I’m a Cloning Calamity.’

Li Qingsong tried sending another message.

“I am not a technological intelligent civilization! I am another kind of existence. In that case, will you surrender to me?”

A long silence greeted him, and a sliver of hope began to grow in Li Qingsong’s heart.

After a long while, another electromagnetic signal arrived. “We don’t believe you.”

“You don’t believe me? Then come see for yourselves. Don’t worry, I guarantee I won’t attack you. Besides, at this point, do you even care if you live or die? Just come and have a look!”

An Electromagnetic Creature, maintaining its plasma state, left the star. Under special protection, it arrived inside one of Li Qingsong’s residential ships.

After witnessing Li Qingsong’s mode of existence with its own “eyes,” the Electromagnetic Creature left and returned to the star.

After a long time, they finally gave their reply.

“We can surrender to you! But you must agree to one condition.”

“Name it.”

“Once you’ve grown stronger, help us destroy the Purple Moon Civilization!”

“The Purple Moon Civilization?”

Li Qingsong had never heard the name before. But from the sound of it, this Purple Moon Civilization seemed to be the root cause of the Electromagnetic Creatures’ hatred for conventional intelligent civilizations.

“Yes, the Purple Moon Civilization! We Electromagnetic Creatures are a race that reveres freedom and combat. We bear no hatred for those who defeat us honorably on the battlefield. But those Purple Moon People subjected us to the most cruel and despicable torture. My entire race paid a terrible price just so I could escape. From the moment I fled, I swore an oath that I would have my revenge, that I would destroy every intelligent civilization in this Cosmos… You are still very weak now, but that doesn’t matter. I will wait for you to grow strong. As long as you promise that you will help me destroy the Purple Moon Civilization and rescue my kin once you have sufficient power, I will surrender to you!”

‘I’m still very weak?’

‘In that case, the Purple Moon Civilization must be at the peak of a Strong Core Civilization, or perhaps even a step beyond, at the level of a Gravity Civilization.’

‘But that’s a matter for the future. For now, I’ll agree to his terms and secure a powerful asset.’

However…

“As far as I know, you are under the control of the Harville Civilization.”

“Hah. If my kin hadn’t sacrificed their lives to help me escape, how could the Harville Civilization have possibly entered the Purple Moon Civilization’s testing grounds without being discovered and subsequently captured me?”

‘So the Harville Civilization stole this Electromagnetic Creature…’

Li Qingsong quickly made his decision.

“Avenge you? I can agree to that! But you must also agree to one condition of mine! I will provide you with a comfortable living environment, but you must obey my commands and fight for me when necessary. At the same time… I will conduct research on you, attempt to modify you, and ensure that I can kill all of you at a moment’s notice, should it become necessary. Please understand that I must have complete and absolute control over you before I can accept your surrender. Otherwise, an unstable factor like you would be nothing but a liability to me!”

“I agree to your terms.”

The Electromagnetic Creature agreed so readily that it felt somewhat unreal to Li Qingsong.

“Are you sure? Can you speak for your entire race?”

“Within our race, all other Electromagnetic Creatures are my descendants. I can speak for them.”

“Good!”

Li Qingsong’s thoughts raced, and he immediately made a decision. “Now, I need all of you to leave the star. Afterward, I will still command these cubes to crash into it. Your existence will be concealed. You will become my trump card against future enemies!”

“Understood.”

Vast numbers of Electromagnetic Creatures left the star, gathering in a location designated by Li Qingsong. He then commanded the cubes to crash into the star’s surface.

Afterward, Li Qingsong specially modified several Space-Air Carriers, using a magnetic confinement system to maintain their interiors at several thousand degrees Celsius, creating a stellar-like environment for the Electromagnetic Creatures to live in.

Li Qingsong also gave a new name to the one Electromagnetic Creature who had escaped the Purple Moon Civilization’s testing grounds and spawned an entire race.

Electric Calamity!

From then on, Li Qingsong secretly began his research on the Electromagnetic Creatures, developing their potential while simultaneously increasing his understanding of them, all in order to gain complete control.

Ultimately, Li Qingsong achieved two major breakthroughs.

First, using Laser technology, he deliberately carved their internal ionized structures. For an Electromagnetic Creature, this structure functions much like DNA, and it is passed down to subsequent generations.

The purpose of this structure was to make them susceptible to a specific frequency of electromagnetic waves.

With this, destroying the Electromagnetic Creatures became incredibly simple. Even if they were to hide within a star again, all he would need were a few high-powered communication antennas to release an electromagnetic pulse of that specific frequency.

Second, based on the Electromagnetic Creatures’ unique abilities, Li Qingsong combined their powers with the technology of intelligent civilizations, drastically modifying and enhancing their ability to concentrate starlight and fire it as a highly focused beam.

Through specific structures and processes, the creatures were no longer limited to firing single beams of concentrated starlight individually. Now, tens of millions of them could combine their power to gather starlight over a much larger area and fire it as one!

Through constant training, improvement, and iterative optimization, by the time the joint fleet of the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity and the Harville Civilization arrived, the Electromagnetic Creatures were already capable of concentrating starlight from an area of over a trillion square kilometers and releasing it.

Li Qingsong gave this entire mechanism a very fitting name.

The Stellar Cannon!