Chapter 267: Chapter 266: The Stars
The instant the self-detonation occurred, Li Qingsong realized it wasn’t a nuclear explosion, just a conventional chemical one.
But… a chemical explosion couldn’t possibly release such a brilliant light.
And yet, at the detonation sites of the 20 giant Space-Air Carriers, Li Qingsong saw what looked like 20 bright Suns appearing in that instant.
Twenty brilliant Suns rose up, illuminating everything around them! More than ten seconds had already passed. Normally, the light from an explosion would have vanished by now, but those Suns remained, showing no signs of fading.
‘This doesn’t seem like… an explosion?’
The next moment, the 20 Suns abruptly expanded, their volume ballooning several times over in an instant.
Li Qingsong immediately mobilized nearby observation assets, aiming countless telescopes at them. Upon closer inspection, he saw that their volume wasn’t ballooning at all—they were clearly dividing!
What he had been seeing wasn’t actually 20 “Suns,” but countless minuscule points of light! These endless points of light had converged, creating the illusion of a single Sun.
Now, the points of light that formed these Suns began to separate. Like bees leaving a hive, they instantly dispersed outward.
Thus, to Li Qingsong, it looked as if a Sun was rapidly expanding in size while simultaneously dimming in brightness.
The Sun, in the end, became a swarm of stars.
As if possessing a will of their own, these countless stars born from the Sun immediately pounced on the nearest technological constructs the moment they separated.
This was deep within Li Qingsong’s defensive line. Everything here—all the Warships, Cannon Platforms, satellites, and fortresses—belonged to him. There wasn’t a single Harville Civilization vessel in sight!
Only as they drew closer did Li Qingsong get a clear look at the true form of those “stars.”
They looked like balls of fire, but with no fixed shape. They constantly shifted their forms in the vast emptiness of space, undulating like ripples on water.
‘What is this…?’
‘Whatever they are, they can’t be good!’
Even before they got close, Li Qingsong, through his Clones, took control of the surrounding Warships. He simultaneously issued a command to the Wukong AI to direct the unmanned combat forces, and in an instant, they unleashed a fierce bombardment against the innumerable, star-like “flames.”
In that instant, countless incredibly powerful Energy Cannonballs roared forth, carrying world-shattering force as they hurtled toward the flames.
This fierce onslaught could have torn apart a mountain or even a small asteroid.
But as the projectiles reached the “flames,” Li Qingsong witnessed something completely unexpected.
The projectiles passed straight through the flame-like unidentified objects, as if moving through a vacuum.
Because they experienced no external impact, they failed to detonate, even though they were in an armed state. They couldn’t release the energy derived from the Strong Core Force.
After passing through, their trajectories and velocities didn’t change in the slightest!
‘Physical attacks seem to be ineffective!’ Li Qingsong immediately reached this conclusion.
The next moment, the bodies of the flame-like, unidentified entities suddenly flared. Highly directional, intensely focused, and high-energy beams of light shot out from them, striking Li Qingsong’s technological constructs.
In an instant, thousands of satellites were incinerated and pierced, numerous Landmines were destroyed, and scores of Unmanned Warships exploded. Even some Manned Warships sustained damage.
Despite the loss of so much combat equipment, Li Qingsong breathed a sigh of relief.
‘It’s a Laser attack!’
‘I don’t know what these things are, but at least their method of attack is clear.’
‘What I fear most are attacks with completely unknown mechanisms, based on principles I can’t even begin to understand.’
‘As long as I can understand it, it’s not to be feared!’
At that moment, Li Qingsong understood the Harvillers’ plan.
These flame-like, unidentified objects had obviously been under the Harvillers’ control. The Harvillers had paid a heavy price to deliver them behind his defensive lines, hoping to tie down his fleet and create an opportunity to escape.
‘So the Harvillers did have a trump card. No wonder they dared to risk running out of supplies and being stranded in space to make their bold escape…’ In that moment, everything clicked into place for Li Qingsong.
‘It’s just that… this trump card you’re relying on, this life-saving ace up your sleeve… it looks intimidating and bizarre, but its combat effectiveness seems pretty mediocre…’
‘They’re just Lasers. So what if their power seems a bit greater than my Laser Cannons? They’re not impossible to defend against. They won’t be able to pin down my forces.’
‘Even with these strange things running around, the Harville Civilization is staying right here today. You’re not getting away!’
But in the next moment, the unexpected happened once again.
He watched as the flame-like, unidentified objects, all while maintaining their laser beam attacks, suddenly accelerated. With maneuverability far exceeding his own Warships, they lunged violently onto the vessels.
Thanks to the Energy Shield, the seemingly non-corporeal apparitions couldn’t make direct contact with the Warship’s hull. Instead, they latched onto the Energy Shield constructed from the Strong Core Force.
The next moment, a flood of warning messages was transmitted via Super-distance Communication to the combat control base, and from there, relayed into Li Qingsong’s mind.
The Energy Shield seemed to be under some kind of unknown influence and was becoming unstable!
Li Qingsong saw that on the Warships latched onto by the flame-like objects, the Energy Shields all began to flicker in unison. Simultaneously, their internal systems’ temperatures soared, entering an overload state.
The next moment, the energy levels and instability surpassed the equipment’s limits. With a blinding flash, the Energy Shield collapsed, leaving the Warship’s hull completely defenseless and exposed to space.
‘How are they doing that?! What’s happening?!’ Li Qingsong was utterly shocked.
Without the Energy Shield and its ability to deflect and weaken the laser beams, the Lasers fired by the flame-like entities struck the Warship’s hull directly.
At the same time, the various systems inside the Warship seemed to be under intense interference, beginning to malfunction en masse or even crash completely.
Amidst the flood of alerts, one Warship after another either exploded, lost contact, lost power, or lost its sensor arrays, becoming combat ineffective.
Just then, Li Qingsong saw that over by Planet Three, the Harville Fleet—a total of 600,000 Warships escorting their main fleet—was once again launching a furious assault on his defensive line.