Chapter 1632 - 621: Burn After Reading

Chapter 1632: Chapter 621: Burn After Reading

The Star Gate of the Seventh Star Cluster in the Hundred Clusters Star Domain was destroyed.

One of the first-class Mother Empresses, ready to support by traversing through the Star Gate in the Hundred Clusters Star Domain, was severely injured due to the interruption during its descent.

Originally, this Mother Empress was closer to the Seventh Star Cluster and considered this a great opportunity, not realizing it would be a calamity.

Subsequently, the Red Blade Army completely annihilated all stationed troops in the Pegasus Star System near the Star Gate within just a few days, leaving almost no survivors.

For those who narrowly survived, they were treated as Ruined Beasts, such as some of the 331 downy whiskers.

Ren Zhong once said, "If the invaders can go, then so can I," thus, upon entering the territory of the Ascendants, he had no intention of being a bleeding heart, or experiencing the ups and downs of the Ascendants.

This was both revenge and a necessary path to scientific inquiry.

Everything went according to Ren Zhong’s predictions. After completely eliminating the Ascendant stationed troops near the Star Gate and its surrounding area, the Red Blade Army could have a development period of over thirty years.

The Ascendant defense forces within the Seventh Star Cluster were powerless, with no option but to wait for death or flee.

The structure of the Seventh Star Cluster is oblate, with a radius of ten light years. The cycle for traveling internally using the Fold Jump Subspace is about three to four years.

Star Clusters within the Hundred Clusters Star Domain are denser, with the closest Star Cluster to the Seventh Star Cluster having a boundary of only 16 light years away.

Unfortunately, like the Mechanical Empire, after building the Star Gate, the Ascendants did not maintain Fold Jump Subspace Channels between Star Clusters.

Even if Ascendants mastered energy state organisms similar to quantum, allowing quick construction of channels, they hadn’t previously extended such organisms, and their production capacity seemed lacking, making fast construction of channels impossible.

Hence, if Ascendants attempted to encircle the Red Blade Star Cluster, they would have to first use the Star Gate to pile forces near the Seventh Star Cluster in other nearby Star Clusters, then rely on Fold Jump Subspace Channels to reach areas adjacent to the Seventh Star Cluster, and finally approach using conventional flight methods.

With the strongest conventional flight technology currently mastered by the Ascendants, it would take nearly forty years to pile forces around the Seventh Star Cluster.

After clearing the enemy forces in the Pegasus Star System, Ren Zhong did not awaken Yujin and Hu Yang or other core management but delegated combat command tasks to the reserve command center.

Although old generation military geniuses are useful, they have limited lifespans and every day spent is one day less. Ren Zhong enjoyed spending time with the elders but was frugal whenever possible.

The reserve command center is primarily composed of young and talented individuals who have recently emerged from the military academy, led by the more stable and slightly older Guo Denghuai as Commander.

In previous Far Border Star Domain campaigns, Guo Denghuai was disciplined due to a mistake; now is the time for him to redeem himself.

According to Guo Denghuai, as the scale of the Red Blade Army continues to expand, his abilities are reaching their limit, making his position increasingly obsolete.

Rather than wait until the army grows again and face marginalization, leaving a lifespan unused and becoming a joke, he’s better off fully utilizing his capabilities now.

Ren Zhong acknowledges Guo Denghuai’s proposal and intends to have him lead the young graduates in leveling up.

Thus, for the next five years, Ren Zhong remained stationed within the Starry Sky Red Blade Armor, focusing on acting as the "navigator" providing three-dimensional coordinate positioning for various Red Peak Army units engaging in battles.

Guo Denghuai assumed the command position, leading young talents who excelled academically in the military academy but lack practical experience in warfare.

In the ensuing years, the Red Blade Army employed rogue tactics, using the Pegasus Star System as the central hub. War flames spread like wildfire within the Seventh Star Cluster, reaching in all directions.

Vanguard troops focused on destruction, retreating upon encountering strong enemies, gathering forces in surrounding areas, and then encircling and crushing them. Against weaker forces, they would swarm and frantically attack.

Essentially, they fought and then fled, focusing on killing without burial.

As for subsequent resource collection, specialized harvest teams followed up as backup forces, both to deliver finishing strikes and to thoroughly scrape off resources.

Guided by Ren Zhong’s free Subspace navigation, the Red Blade Army, even surpassing Ascendants, was brutally ruthless, causing Ascendant tribes within the Seventh Star Cluster to suffer greatly, leading many to flee.

However, fleeing also involved strategy. Those unwilling to leave swiftly found themselves faced with the Red Blade Army’s onslaught, resulting in immediate destruction.

If they fled only with minimal resources, unwilling to worry about gains and losses just to escape, the Red Blade Army might grant them a chance to survive. After all, Ren Zhong’s primary goal was to leave behind resources to further revolutionize the level of ships, while also proliferating more population in three-dimensional space to accumulate strength, maintaining a cost-effective approach.

During this time, the Communication Research Institute under the army reported an interesting finding to Ren Zhong.

As the army revealed its form within the Hundred Clusters Star Domain, it was unclear how the Ascendants were dispatching troops, but the signal of non-directional information flow communication requests from the Empire’s broadcasts grew increasingly weak.

For centuries, in an attempt to contact the Red Blade Army, the Mechanical Empire never ceased operating high-power information flow transmitters to constantly release signals into the universe; translated into text, such would be "Red Blade Marquis, please respond."

The strength of these signals far exceeded those of the Tracker Spaceship’s "last wave," making interception extremely difficult under normal circumstances due to the information flow’s ability to self-dissipate.

To completely intercept, one had to form a relatively enclosed spherical information shield like that of the former fourth-class Mother Empress.

But enclosing a Planet System is easy; sealing a large portion of a Constant Star System is exceedingly challenging.

Evidently, to prevent the Red Blade Army from reestablishing contact with the Mechanical Empire, the ruthless Ascendant three-party alliance continuously expanded the global information flow interference shield.

This shield’s initial region should be located between two points from the Hundred Clusters Star Domain to the Far Border Star Domain.

Researchers informed Ren Zhong that the Ascendants seemed determined, constantly expanding the shield, sparing no expense to forcibly cut off communication between the army and the Empire, likely to prevent the Empire from locating the Red Blade Army and attempting a counterattack for rescue.

"At this rate, within a few thousand years, the mutual communication signal strength between us and the Empire will degrade to levels akin to cosmic background information flow, almost indistinguishable. We suspect they plan to encapsulate the entire Empire territory with this shield. Truly spending extravagantly."

Ren Zhong smiled without speaking.

He almost wanted to laugh.

This is utterly pointless—a pure waste of energy.

Because in the short term, he hadn’t intended to reconnect with the Empire.

The Empire wants him to "receive and respond," but he just chooses "read and burn."

When he was formally appointed as Chosen One, the accumulated technological knowledge of the Empire had already been emptied by him.

The Empire’s wool had already been entirely shorn off by him, the next step was merely digestion and absorption.

Thus, reminiscing was better than meeting.

As for those special substances, substitutes could be found within enemy territories. If he truly faced a deadlock someday, he could always return home, or just fight back directly.

After a simple communication with people from the Communication Research Institute, Ren Zhong was ready to once again enter the navigation system on duty, when Sun Ai sent him a message.

Yang Misi, who had long since descended to the surface of the third planet in the Pegasus Star System, had defrosted in the newly established ground research institute, successfully waking up.