248: Civilizations destroyed along the way, the heinous crimes of the Star-Eating Entity!

"Run! It's a trap!"

The line of Chinese characters, flickering with a faint red glow, was like a curse from hell, nailed firmly onto the holographic screen and into the hearts of everyone present.

In the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, 26,000 light-years from Earth, surrounded by alien civilizations, a standard piece of Morse code, styled like something from Earth's last century, had appeared?

This wasn't just bizarre; it was terrifying!

"Wh-who sent this?"

"War Wolf" widened his eyes, his face full of disbelief. "Could it be that there's a fellow countryman of ours in this godforsaken place? Or is it haunted?"

"Haunted?" Lu Chen sneered, the surprise in his eyes quickly receding, replaced by a deeper coldness. "In the face of quantum mechanics and high-dimensional space, the low-level concept of 'ghosts' has long been obsolete."

He reached out, his fingertip gently tapping the red text.

"Whether the sender of this message is man or ghost, and whether this is a benevolent warning or an enemy trap, we no longer have a path back."

"Since we are already here, even if it's a mountain of knives and a sea of fire ahead, we must push through and see!"

Lu Chen waved his hand decisively, his voice resolute: "heavenly craft, lock onto the signal source location! The entire fleet, maintain 'Dimensional Submergence' status and continue advancing!"

"I want to see exactly who is playing tricks!"

[Yes, Master!]

The massive expeditionary corps started moving again, silently approaching the signal source—that pulsar cluster known as the "Corridor of Death"—like ghosts traversing the cracks of time and space.

However, as the fleet went deeper, the scene outside the windows became increasingly shocking.

This was the nuclear bulge of the Milky Way Galaxy, which should have been the densest and brightest region of stars. But what greeted everyone's eyes was a stretch of dead, gray darkness.

It was as if a bustling city had been instantly drained of all vitality, leaving behind only ruins and dry bones scattered everywhere.

"heavenly craft, open the panoramic scan and remove the dimensional filter."

Lu Chen's voice was low. "Let everyone see: this is the enemy we must face."

As the command was issued, the image on the holographic screen instantly became clear.

"Hiss—"

The next second, a collective gasp swept across the bridge.

Even War Wolf, who was accustomed to life and death, felt his scalp tingle, a chill shooting straight from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head!

Floating on both sides of the fleet's path were countless enormous, bizarrely shaped "corpses."

They were not the corpses of living beings; they were—the corpses of planets!

To the left was a rocky planet that should have been full of life. But now, it looked like an apple that had been half-eaten, with half the planet gone! It exposed a dark red core and distorted crustal structures.

On the remaining half of the planet's surface was a thick, mold-like layer of black substance. Those were dead nano-robots; after consuming all the planet's energy and organic matter, they simply died there, becoming the planet's shroud!

"That is the ruins of a 'Silicon-Based' Civilization."

Su Qingying said in a trembling voice, her gaze fixed on a massive fragment. The outline of a city could faintly be seen on it—a magnificent complex of buildings constructed entirely of crystals, breathtakingly exquisite.

But now, those crystals had lost all their luster, turning gray, brittle, and seemingly ready to crumble into dust at the slightest touch.

In the ruins of this civilization, countless "statues" maintained the posture of their last moments before death. Some were running, some were embracing, and some were roaring at the sky.

But they had all turned into gray stone.

"Star Devourers don't just consume energy; they devour the 'orderliness' within matter's structure," heavenly craft's voice carried a hint of sorrow. "For them, the more advanced the civilization and the more precise the architecture, the better the taste."

"Beasts!"

A young staff officer cursed, his eyes red. "They are practically locusts! They are the cancer of the universe!"

But this was only the beginning.

As the fleet continued to advance, more and more "corpses" appeared before everyone.

An ocean planet, entirely composed of liquid water, had now become a shriveled, cracked ball of ice. The colossal creatures that once swam in the deep sea were now frozen tens of thousands of meters beneath the ice, maintaining postures of desperate struggle.

A gas giant had its atmosphere completely stripped away, leaving only a bare metallic core, staring fixedly at the dark universe like an unblinking dead eye.

There were also countless remnants of battle-scarred warships. They belonged to different civilizations and boasted different technological styles, but their fate was the same before the tide of the Star Devourers—to become scrap metal and dust.

This journey was practically a "History of Civilization Destruction" in the Milky Way!

Every remnant represented a civilization that was once glorious and brilliant; every ruin buried billions upon billions of vibrant lives!

Oppression.

An extreme sense of oppression weighed on everyone's hearts.

This was not war.

Although war is cruel, at least there are victories, defeats, and honor.

But this was slaughter! This was predation! This was the consumption of lower life forms by higher life forms!

"Wuwu"

Alia, the Queen of the Winged Human Race among the crowd, suddenly covered her mouth and burst into tears.

She saw a familiar symbol.

Engraved on a massive fragment of a spaceship was a pure white feather. That belonged to an exploration fleet of the Winged Human Race that had gone missing a thousand years ago.

It turned out their ancestors had not been lost in the stars; they had died here.

They had become the meal of those monsters!

"Is this the dark forest?"

Su Qingying looked at the endless ruins outside the window, tears welling up in her eyes. "Why? Why did the universe evolve something so cruel?"

"Because of survival."

Lu Chen's voice was cold as ice, but his eyes burned with a rage hotter than a star.

"For the Star Devourers, they have no good or evil, no morality. They just want to live, to reproduce, and to become stronger."

"In their eyes, there is no difference between us, the Winged People, and these destroyed civilizations, and the crops in the field or the pigs and sheep in the pen."

Lu Chen slowly walked up to Alia, reaching out to gently pat the shoulder of the sobbing Queen.

"Crying is useless."

"Tears can't drown the enemy; they can only drown yourself."

He turned around and strode onto the command platform. His silhouette, though not tall, seemed incredibly imposing at that moment, as if he were holding up the collapsing sky!

"All of you, lift your heads!"

Lu Chen's fierce roar made everyone tremble!

"Look at these ruins! Look at these corpses!"

"Tell me, what do you see?!"

"Is it fear? Is it despair?"

"No!"

Lu Chen suddenly raised his volume, his voice exploding across the bridge like thunder!

"What I see is rage! It's hatred! It's an irreconcilable enmity!"

"If we don't eliminate these bugs, if we don't wipe out that damned Brood Nest, then the next thing to turn into a dead star like this will be our Earth! It will be our parents, wives, and children!"

"Do you want to see Earth become a dead star like that?!"

"NO!!!"

All the soldiers and all the crew members roared in unison at that moment!

It was a roar erupting from the depths of their souls!

Fear was consumed by rage, and despair was replaced by fighting spirit!

At this moment, this fleet was no longer fighting for "Interstellar Hegemony," nor for "Mission Rewards."

They were fighting for survival! For vengeance! And to seek justice for this silent, dead starry sky!

"Very good!"

Lu Chen looked at the pairs of eyes burning with the fire of vengeance and nodded in satisfaction.

"Remember this rage."

"When the fighting starts later, stuff this rage into your shells and blast it hard into the mouths of those beasts!"

"heavenly craft!"

[Present, Master!]

"How far is the signal source?"

[Reporting, Master. The signal source is right in the center of the 'Pulsar Array,' one light-year ahead!]

[Furthermore—]

heavenly craft paused, and its voice suddenly sounded strange.

[That signal source seems to have sensed our arrival.]

[It is sending us new information.]

"Oh?" Lu Chen narrowed his eyes. "What did it send?"

A new line of Chinese characters slowly appeared on the holographic screen.

It was written using an extremely ancient, even obscure, Oracle Bone Script encoding method. But under heavenly craft's translation, the meaning was chillingly clear.

[Hurry, leave. They have awakened.]

"Awakened?"

Lu Chen raised an eyebrow, and the uneasy premonition in his heart instantly reached its peak!

Almost at the exact same moment—

"Alarm! Alarm! Alarm!"

The shrieking red alarm sounded violently across the entire bridge without warning!

heavenly craft's usually calm voice now carried a hint of panic!

[Super high-energy gravitational fluctuations detected!]

[Dimensional collapse reaction detected!]

[Massive hostile target reactions detected!]

[Right beneath us!]

Lu Chen snapped his head down, looking at the holographic projection beneath his feet.

In that previously silent, debris-strewn dark void, countless massive remnants that everyone thought were "ruins" suddenly moved!

Those weren't remnants at all!

They were clearly individual, dormant Star Devourer Soldier Ants, massive enough to rival asteroids—

Star Devourer Soldier Ants!

They had been lurking here, disguised as debris, like a group of patient spiders quietly waiting for prey to walk right into their web!

"Boom—!!!"

Accompanied by a soul-level tremor, hundreds of millions of "Soldier Ants" simultaneously opened their crimson compound eyes!

The previously dark starry sky was instantly illuminated by countless beams of blood-red death light!

A trap!

This was the trap the signal had warned about!

This wasn't a graveyard at all; it was a Star Devourer barracks!

"Hahahahaha!"

Facing this overwhelming tide of terrifying bugs—enough to make someone with trypophobia instantly drop dead—Lu Chen showed no panic. Instead, he threw his head back and laughed loudly!

That laughter was full of madness, full of fighting intent, and even more full of...

...the excitement of a hunter spotting his prey!

"Good! This is excellent!"

"Since you've awakened, don't go back to sleep!"

Lu Chen violently waved his hand, pointing toward the surging sea of bugs, his voice as cold as an Asura from the Nine Hells!

"All forces, heed my command!"

"Deactivate Dimensional Submergence!"

"Show your fangs!"

"Kill them!!!"