416: Strange Star Strategy, Hidden Heavenly Ghost

Gou Sheng, who was standing behind Hu Ling, turned around upon hearing her words and looked in the direction she was staring, his pupils contracting sharply.

“Flying robots? Sky-air aircraft carriers?”

“So many?”

“And this technology, wasn't it still just a fantasy? How… how…”

Hearing Gou Sheng’s murmur, Hu Ling finally snapped back to reality.

She licked her lips twice, letting some saliva moisten her dry throat before speaking: “Those are technologies from an alien civilization.”

Gou Sheng’s eyes lit up:

“The alien civilization that contacted us before, saying they would come to save us?”

“Didn’t they say it would take seven to one month for them to come and support us? How did they arrive in just four days (different concepts of time; the sun rises and sets twice on Earth, but four times on Strange Star)?”

Hu Ling’s expression dimmed slightly upon hearing Gou Sheng’s words:

“Sheng, there is never salvation without reason in this world.”

“If they are willing to save us, it’s either because there’s something on our side that they covet.”

“For example, various resources, or us, or even the Weird itself.”

“Or it’s because they are so powerful that they have nothing left to do, and can only seek spiritual satisfaction through the act of salvation itself.”

“But no matter which possibility it is, it’s not good for us.”

“The former means that the only thing useful about us to them is our resources.”

“The latter means they are truly too bored; no one knows what will happen after they ‘save’ us.”

Gou Sheng bared his teeth, revealing sharp canines:

“Is there no third possibility?”

“Ling, don’t worry, no matter what happens, I will protect you.”

Hu Ling pursed her lips:

“Of course there’s a third possibility.”

“There are even fourth, fifth, and sixth possibilities, but those possibilities are simply too, too small.”

After speaking, she tidied her white ceremonial robe and walked towards the survivor base gate:

“Let’s go, Sheng, they are coming.”

“Remember, no matter what happens, don’t be impulsive, and don’t clash with the alien civilization.”

“We are in a weaker position.”

“Only by gaining the alien civilization’s recognition and assistance can our civilization have a chance to continue.”

“Finally, notify the surviving members of our tribe.”

“I just hope the alien civilization isn’t like those Weird, a civilization that enjoys slaughtering and enslaving living beings…”

Just as Hu Ling led the Beast-Ear Tribe survivors to await judgment, Yang Dian also watched as millions of Expeditionary Force soldiers, hundreds of millions of war robots, and even more engineering robots than war robots, entered the Strange Star.

The autumn wind was bleak, stirring up dust across the Gobi Desert.

He surveyed the vast, hazy world, and as the thought of entering the Strange Star arose in his mind, that vague, unsettling premonition reappeared.

Closing his eyes to steady his mind, Yang Dian opened a projection to monitor the Expeditionary Force’s progress in conquering the Strange Star.

At the same time, he called Han Zhang.

Han Zhang, who was discussing the future development plans for Huaxia with other members of the Think Tank, walked into a small office nearby and answered Yang Dian’s call:

“What’s wrong? Why are you calling me at this time?”

Yang Dian explained his premonition, then asked:

“The World of the Strange has 80 million Weird on the surface. Counting those hidden in the dark, and rounding up, let’s say Strange Star has 1 billion Weird.”

“I’m worried that after I enter Strange Star, the Heavenly Dao Ghost will employ a base-swapping tactic.”

“If 1 billion Weird simultaneously enter Huaxia, can we hold out?”

Han Zhang stroked his chin in thought, then nodded:

“If it’s just a large number of Mortal Body Realm, a small number of Transcendent Realm, and a very few Star-Patrolling Realm Weird, we can hold on.”

“But there will definitely be casualties.”

Yang Dian nodded, “I understand.”

Han Zhang looked at Yang Dian:

“What are you planning to do?”

Yang Dian smiled:

“I’ll just stay on Earth.”

“Let the Expeditionary Force control the war robots to clear out the Weird, killing all of them.”

“If they encounter trouble during the clearing, I’ll open a spatial gate and go over to slap them once.”

“Since I’ve guessed that the Heavenly Dao Ghost intends to swap bases, of course I won’t let it have its way.”

“Once the Weird are almost all killed, I’ll then go to Strange Star and try to attack the Strange Star’s core.”

Han Zhang nodded:

“It’s good that you have a plan.”

“While you’re on Earth, I’ll have the Industrial Department work harder to quickly produce some war weapons, just in case of any unforeseen circumstances…”

After hanging up the call, Yang Dian surveyed the deserted Expeditionary Force Base, where only Ya Zi accompanied him, and simply sat cross-legged on the general’s platform.

He opened his mouth and inhaled, swallowing the heavens and earth.

Countless Spiritual Qi particles, visible as streaks of light, were swallowed by Yang Dian, transforming into the nourishment for his growing strength.

Strength is accumulated step by step.

Now, with a large increase in Spiritual Qi within Huaxia, it was still a drop in the bucket for Yang Dian, but getting stronger, even a little, was better.

‘Absorb some Spiritual Qi, then go dig for some earth core milk. Perhaps I can Cultivate the next trait of Dragon Claw Hand before entering Strange Star.’

While Cultivating, Yang Dian also had Ya Zi provide real-time updates on the Strange Star’s battle situation.

The Expeditionary Force operated in combat units.

One combat unit consisted of 5 Expeditionary Force soldiers, 1,000 Lizardmen warriors from auxiliary legions, and 50,000 war robots.

The soldiers meticulously executed the pre-battle plan.

Following the strategy of encircling cities from the countryside, they first cleared the Weird in the wilderness, villages, and small towns, then dispatched engineering robots to build walls outside large cities, confining ordinary Weird strictly within them.

The Transcendent Realm and Star-Patrolling Realm Weird were locked onto by satellites and directly struck by artillery fire.

Except for Weird that could ignore physical attacks, even Star-Patrolling Realm Weird, when targeted by artillery, could only obediently dig a hole and escape to two hundred meters below the surface.

Staying at a depth of nearly two hundred meters below the surface?

Zhang Heng satellites combined with bunker-buster missiles—just think about it.

While the Weird were being largely annihilated, a portion of the Expeditionary Force also made contact with the indigenous inhabitants of Strange Star and entered the survivor bases.

Noticing that a survivor in survivor base number 37 suddenly underwent a Weird transformation, their arm turning into a forelimb that pierced the power core of a war robot, Yang Dian instinctively raised an eyebrow.

“So the survivor bases weren’t undetectable, but rather the Heavenly Dao Ghost pretended not to notice them?”

Just as Yang Dian was murmuring, in survivor bases number 17 and 21, Expeditionary Force soldiers had already engaged in combat with the Beast-Ear Tribe survivors.

Ya Zi simultaneously provided a situation analysis.

“The Seventh Legion Expeditionary Force soldiers received information about a hidden Weird in the survivor base and wanted to inspect the Beast-Ear Tribe survivors in the base. The Weird, realizing it could no longer hide, incited the survivors to fight the Expeditionary Force…”

“A large number of mental-type Weird were discovered in the survivor base, but this attribute of Weird has no effect on Machina…”

Watching Ya Zi periodically report on how many Weird had been killed, how many mineral veins had been found, and how many foundations had been laid, Yang Dian’s expression gradually grew serious.

The Weird were already at a disadvantage, yet the Heavenly Dao Ghost still showed no reaction.

“So, has it completely hidden itself, or is it undergoing some kind of metamorphosis, or is it brewing something big?”

“For example, tampering with the Machina’s underlying code.”

Yang Dian hadn’t forgotten that when Strange Star launched a dimensional fold against Earth previously, all of Huaxia’s supercomputers were mysteriously infiltrated.

Only Zero detected traces of the ‘unknown’ intrusion, but Zero was powerless against this ‘unknown’ intrusion…