278: Healing, leveling up, and the "Spore" intelligence network

"Qianlong" had been "lying" in the dock for half a month. During these two weeks, it enjoyed the highest VIP nursing treatment at the "Spark" base.

Mu Wanqing personally concocted a special "Flowing Silver Tonic"—a highly concentrated liquid nutrient containing pure starlight and various mild life energies, fed to Qianlong's ship body at fixed times and quantities through dedicated pipes for absorption. As she put it: "It takes a hundred days to recover from broken bones; our child is a starship, so it needs to replenish its Origin Qi properly."

The technical team led by Senior Brother Li and Senior Brother Zhang acted as a "surgical team," performing precise repairs and "cosmetic procedures" on Qianlong's "injuries."

Severely torn armor was carefully stripped away, damaged "Flowing Silver" tissue was guided to Rebirth or replaced, broken Star Pattern circuits were re-engraved and connected, and even some structures that performed poorly in battle were optimized and upgraded while at it.

Zhao Iron Pillar was not idle either. He led the combat team and the infrastructure team to refine and forge some high-purity "star pattern gold" and other rare Materials urgently recovered from the periphery of the "Anvil" area (the safe zone), crafting a stronger "new armor" and sharper "new claws and teeth" for Qianlong.

The "little bean sprouts" became the most attentive "nurses," tirelessly crawling on Qianlong's ship body, using their own faint purifying starlight to help clean off residual erosive energy, using their tiny tentacles to check the smoothness of every repair interface, and even spontaneously organizing "patrols" to wander around Qianlong, not allowing any unrelated personnel (mainly other base members who ran over out of curiosity) to get too close and disturb the "patient's" rest.

The "heart module" became a "companion and psychological counselor," using its own consciousness fluctuations to communicate simply with Qianlong every day, sharing interesting things that happened in the base (such as how a certain "Moonlight Rabbit" broke out of prison again, fell into the circulating water tank, struggled for a long time before being fished out, and turned into a "drenched rabbit"), comforting it by saying "scars are a man's medals," and encouraging it to get well soon.

Under this comprehensive "nurturing of love," Qianlong's recovery speed was astonishing. In just ten days, most of the terrifying scars on the ship's surface had disappeared, and it became shimmering with silver light again, though if one looked closely, some newly formed, slightly lighter colored "scar" areas could still be found.

The energy System also recovered to 80% of its level, and the deep blue "dragon eye" became bright and vivid again, even deeper and more agile than before it was injured.

The most obvious change was its "temperament." Having experienced life-and-death battles and recovery from serious injury, Qianlong's ship spirit consciousness shed much of its previous immaturity and playfulness, gaining a bit more calmness and determination, and even faintly possessing a trace of "Evil Qi" from having experienced blood and fire.

It was no longer keen on circling the "hope" keel curiously, but often quietly "gazed" at the starry sky outside the base, its thoughts filled with contemplation and vigilance.

"This child has grown up," Mu Wanqing sighed with relief and a bit of heartache.

"Indeed, only after seeing blood and taking a beating can one become a true warrior." Wen Youyi was very satisfied with this. Starships have spirits and also need growth and tempering.

Meanwhile, other response measures at the base against the "Anvil" area and other potential "Swarm" threats were also being efficiently promoted.

The "starlight gauze curtain" defense upgrade plan (codenamed "Iron Wall") was fully launched. Senior Brother Li and Senior Brother Zhang learned from the lesson of Qianlong being trapped by space sticky nets and dark gold chains, adding targeted "space stability anchors" and "abnormal energy binding field detection nodes" to the "starlight gauze curtain" network.

Once similar spatial anomalies or high-invasiveness energy chain characteristics were detected, the "starlight gauze curtain" could instantly generate a powerful counter-force field locally, interfering with or delaying its effects, buying reaction time for the base.

At the same time, they also developed several offensive "repulsion means." For example, "high-frequency purification pulses" could cause continuous interference and weakening to energy aggregates like the "Swarm"; for example, "induced energy ripples" could simulate the faint fluctuations of "Star People" heritage, but guide them to a preset "trap" area, attracting the "Swarm" to go there and trigger a pre-arranged purification storm.

These means might not necessarily eliminate strong enemies, but they were enough to make the invading enemies suffer, and they would not dare to easily approach the core area of the "starlight gauze curtain."

On the other hand, the "spore" reconnaissance network expansion and intelligence analysis plan (codenamed "Thousand Eyes") led by Wang Wu and Mo Chen also made Breakthrough progress.

They were no longer satisfied with passively receiving simple environmental data sent back by "spores," but began to try to perform "task programming" on the "spores."

For example, letting specific "spores" focus on monitoring a certain type of energy fluctuation (such as dark gold color, spatial stickiness characteristics, etc.); letting other "spores," after sensing a specific threat, not just simply alarm, but try to conduct more covert close-range scanning to obtain more detailed energy structure data; and even designing a "lurking spore" that can hibernate for a long time, only activating and conducting ultra-close-range "suicidal reconnaissance" when receiving specific key instructions or sensing a very high-threat level target, to send back the most critical first-hand intelligence.

These "spores" were like tiny and loyal "eyes" and "ears" scattered to all corners of the starry sky, silently weaving an increasingly dense and wide-ranging intelligence network.

Soon, the "Thousand Eyes" plan received its first "surprise."

Several "reconnaissance spores" deployed on the further periphery of the "Anvil" area in different directions sent back a vague but significant information fragment almost at the same time: they detected more than one energy fluctuation with "dark gold Swarm" characteristics, which were patrolling and cross-searching in a regular manner in different directions on the periphery of the "Anvil" area! Their search pattern was clearly purposeful, as if they were looking for something.

"They are looking for us! Or rather, they are looking for the traces left by Qianlong!" Wang Wu analyzed, "The trap in the 'Anvil' area was triggered and the prey escaped, which obviously angered the 'controller' behind them or activated some kind of 'revenge/tracking' protocol of theirs. They are expanding their search range!"

This news raised the tension in the base by another level. The enemy was not an isolated trap, but a defensive System with a certain level of intelligence that would actively search and pursue!

"Adjust the 'spore' deployment immediately!" Wen Youyi ordered immediately, "On the shipping route between the base and the 'Anvil' area, densely deploy 'lurking spores' and 'early warning spores' to establish a multi-layered early warning buffer zone. At the same time, increase the density of 'spore' deployment in other directions; we must grasp all suspicious signs of energy activity within at least 500,000 li of the surroundings!"

"In addition," he looked at Senior Brother Li and Senior Brother Zhang, "The repair and upgrade of Qianlong must be accelerated. We may need it to restore combat capability as soon as possible to execute some... active 'reconnaissance and counter-measure' missions."

Being beaten passively was not his style. Since the "Swarm" was looking for them, they also had to find a way to figure out the bottom line of the "Swarm," find their weaknesses, and even... find an opportunity to give them a hard blow.

The secret war in the starry sea has begun.

Inside the base, healing, upgrading, weaving the net, preparing for war... all kinds of work were proceeding in an orderly and intensive manner. Everyone knew that the brief tranquility was just the gap before the storm. They must make good use of this time to make themselves and their home stronger.

In the dock, Qianlong trembled slightly, and new, thicker armor plates were being slowly fused and covered by "Flowing Silver." Its deep blue "dragon eye" turned towards the direction of the main control room, sending a clear and firm thought:

[I am ready... I can... fight again at any time.]

Wen Youyi felt this Battle Intent, and his heart settled.

The sharp blade is about to be forged, and the net has been spread.

Next, it will be their turn to meet those "hunters" hidden in the steel ruins.

(End of this chapter)