Chapter 1261 - 353: Preparations, a New Round of Action

Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

Chen Ming brought the Phase Giant Beast back within the Empire’s borders and temporarily settled it at the legion headquarters.

The Mechanical Race Star Realm had already become a battlefield, definitely not a good place.

Especially since the Phase Giant Beast harbored quite obvious hostility towards the Mechanical Race, it would occasionally wander near their side, which was even more dangerous.

The Phase Giant Beast’s abilities were inherently limited; it could only rely on physical means to destroy the colonies and ships of the Mechanical Race, with very low efficiency.

Staying there further wouldn’t accomplish much and would instead put it in danger.

The Phase Ship technology of the Mechanical Race had been rapidly developing, and they could truly develop Phase Cruisers with ample combat power at any moment.

Hence, the Phase Giant Beast was better off returning to headquarters to assist in the research of Phase Space, speeding up technological advancements.

This was also beneficial for Chen Ming.

The legion was certainly more than welcoming for Chen Ming to do so.

The Phase Giant Beast had no objections either.

Ever since it regarded Chen Ming as its new clan leader, it had been following Chen Ming wherever he went.

It could roam freely in most of the headquarters area, occasionally showing up at the Ship Research Institute to cooperate with some experiments.

Although many in the legion wanted to figure out how Chen Ming managed to tame the Phase Giant Beast, which seemed to be a legendary one recorded in archives.

No one dared to directly ask Chen Ming about these matters; they focused more on the Phase Giant Beast.

Aside from people from the Ship Research Institute, there were also individuals from some other departments.

Since Chen Ming didn’t want the Phase Giant Beast to become a research tool, he only agreed with the Ship Research Institute’s involvement.

Departments like the Biological Research Institute that wanted to study what exactly the Phase Giant Beast was were rejected by Chen Ming.

The Legion Commander, upon learning the specifics, intentionally made a call to chat with Chen Ming for a while.

He ultimately didn’t say much.

The Phase Giant Beast was Chen Ming’s pet; others didn’t have the right to interfere excessively.

Later, the Fan Chao Research Institute also seemed quite interested and sent a formal email to Chen Ming, applying for the Phase Giant Beast’s participation in their Phase Technology research.

Chen Ming didn’t explicitly reject it,

he just replied with one sentence.

"Come over if needed."

As for whether the Fan Chao Research Institute would send people over afterward, it was hard to say.

According to Chen Ming’s understanding, almost all institutes, when cooperating with the Fan Chao Research Institute, send people over, and it’s rare for the Fan Chao Research Institute to actively dispatch.

Except for the previous interaction experiment that affected the entire Empire and deeply impacted the Cai Mo Star Realm involving dimensional contagion.

It’s uncertain if they will come this time.

If they come, they certainly can’t come empty-handed.

Additionally, after careful consideration, Chen Ming gave the Phase Giant Beast a name.

Xiao Xiang.

Apparently, quite a few people found it hard to keep a straight face upon learning the name Chen Ming chose, and Bai Quan even suggested that Chen Ming shouldn’t name it if he was incapable of doing so.

But that didn’t matter much; Chen Ming felt the name was quite fitting and ultimately settled on Xiao Xiang.

It was sent to headquarters.

Aside from needing to provide food for Xiao Xiang, Chen Ming didn’t have to worry too much about other matters for now.

The legion would have specialized zoologists to observe and study Xiao Xiang to ensure it wouldn’t encounter any emotional issues.

During these few days, Chen Ming primarily focused on the progress of the war between the Empire and the Mechanical Race.

As the Empire’s initial probing ended, the main force of Bei Niu’s Fourteenth Legion arrived.

The originally planned star system armies or independent armies for the Mechanical Race war from other star realms also gradually began to gather at Galor’s branch here.

Almost everyone could foresee what the upcoming war situation would be like.

Combat strength and morale were definitely not an issue.

And the Mechanical Race, in recent days, organized several more attacks.

All targeting star systems that lacked much defense and were closer to the Empire and Mechanical Race’s battle areas.

However, these attacks were different from the initial one.

The Mechanical Race didn’t prepare any Mother Ships, only Cruisers and lower-level ships, essentially offering them up.

It seemed odd.

But with a change in perspective, one could roughly see that the Mechanical Race was searching systematically for star systems near their realm with weak defenses.

The number of ships in the attacks was generally enough to defeat the colony’s patrol teams, dealing devastating blows to colonies.

A posture of being ready to clash explosively with the Empire at any moment.

This tactic felt familiar.

Because it’s the same approach as Chen Ming’s, exchanging damage.

However, Chen Ming exchanged damage because he could afford it, whereas the Mechanical Race did because they knew they couldn’t win this war within their star realm.

The Mechanical Race was prepared to fight desperately.

Since it was determined they couldn’t beat the Empire, what other options did they have?

They only had two choices, either withdraw from this star realm and give it up,

or, before their end, try to exchange damage with the Empire as much as possible.

They were essentially ready to drag someone down with them as they approached their demise.

It appeared to be this way.

However.

Chen Ming felt it was still necessary to maintain a bit of suspicion.

Because he had a Mechanical Queen he’d captured from the Mechanical Race in his possession.