147: Chapter 147 The Tactical "Following the Heart" After the Single Strike

Unknown dimension, edge of the Black Desolation Star Domain.

“Boom—!!!”

Even though sound cannot travel in the absolute vacuum of the Universe, when that metallic fortress, as massive as the moon, was split in two, the terrifying spatial tremors produced still caused the nine-hundred-thousand-foot-long [nine dragon star-destroyer ship] to pitch and roll violently.

The aftershocks of the dark-gold blade energy ground the asteroid belt hundreds of thousands of kilometers ahead into cosmic dust finer than powder.

High-dimensional gravitational field, shattered!

“Whew...”

Lin Que stood bare-chested, holding the true immortal artifact: world meteor, floating quietly amidst the sea of stars.

On his Dark Gold Demon God Body, which had reached the Major Achievement stage, his purple-gold blood and Qi acted like a thin layer of nebula, perfectly insulating him from the lethal radiation and absolute zero of the cosmic vacuum.

After the eruption of thirty million catties of Extreme Realm power, he felt a sense of ultimate relief, but at the same time, Lin Que's incredibly sharp intuition sensed a faint, indistinct crisis.

“The Laws of this sea of stars are even more rigorous than I imagined.”

Lin Que’s eyes, which seemed to contain miniature galaxies, swept over the metallic fortress that had been split in half.

He could clearly feel that the moment the fortress was shattered, several extremely stealthy and terrifyingly high-level high-dimensional frequency bands were attempting to penetrate the residual World Power of his slash to send some kind of "alarm" into the depths of the endless sea of stars.

“I just flipped someone's table; the local cops are probably already on their way.”

A playful arc curled at the corner of Lin Que's mouth.

Arrogant as he was, he was never a brainless brute.

Leading a hundred thousand "green recruits" who had just crawled up from the Lower Realm to fight a head-on positional war with others in an unfamiliar high-dimensional Universe? Only an idiot would do that.

A true hunter knows how to hide themselves better than anyone else before tearing out the prey's throat.

“Swish!”

Lin Que sheathed his blade and shifted through the void, directly penetrating the warship's defensive Formation runes and returning to the captain's chair in the main control room.

“The Lord is mighty!! Shattering stars with a single slash!!”

The Chen Family Old Ancestor and the hundred thousand soldiers had now completely turned into fanatical believers, preparing to cheer and celebrate.

“Shut up. Total fleet silence.”

Lin Que raised his hand decisively, suppressing all the cheering.

His lazy but unquestionable voice rang out in the main control room:

“Qingyu, shut down the warship's warp engines and all active detection Formations. Steer the ship into that shattered asteroid nebula ahead.”

“Lord? Are we not continuing forward?”

Su Qingyu was stunned for a moment.

The Lord had just split a fortress with one slash, and morale was at its peak—why the sudden need to hide?

“The tree that stands taller than the forest will be destroyed by the wind; a nine-hundred-thousand-foot ship in the sea of stars is practically a sitting duck.”

Lin Que leaned back in his chair, his crimson cape draped casually over the armrest.

“We’ll lie low for a bit. Once we figure out how deep the waters of this sea of stars are, it won't be too late to head out and get our fill.”

“As you command!”

Su Qingyu immediately took the order, maneuvering the warship to glide smoothly into an extremely dense, dark-red nebula.

After the warship was hidden.

Lin Que looked at the still massive and conspicuous hull on the holographic screen and frowned slightly.

This level of physical concealment might fool Cultivators from the Lower Realm, but against the high-dimensional radar of the sea of stars, it was nowhere near enough.

“System. Time to work.”

“Compress the volume of this ship for me and throw on a high-grade camouflage shell. Unless the Star Sea Mainframe itself arrives, no one should be able to scan us.”

[Command received! Current environment detected as high-dimensional Star Sea (Black Desolation Star Domain)!]

[Analysis: The host's warship's cultivation Formation fluctuations and physical mass are extremely massive, making it very easy to trigger the Star Sea deep space early warning network.]

[Logical reorganization initiated—'Quantum Collapse Hiding and Deep Space Mimicry Camouflage' mode!]

[Operation 1: Forced physical collapse! Utilizing the spatial Laws of the host's inner heaven and earth, the nine-hundred-thousand-foot warship will be folded proportionally and compressed to a size of one thousand feet!]

[Operation 2: Signal silence and camouflage! Intercept the physical frequency bands of surrounding asteroids and forcibly forge the warship's outer armor signal as 'ordinary cosmic asteroid rich in heavy metals'!]

[Operation 3: Activate 'Dao of Cowardice Concealment' Buff! Sever all Karma line connections with the outside world to achieve absolute high-dimensional invisibility!]

“Ding! Your super camouflaged asteroid is now online! As long as you don't fire your cannons, you are the most inconspicuous piece of space junk in this sea of stars!”

Buzz—!

Following the System's notification.

A ripple like water appeared on the surface of the incredibly massive nine dragon star-destroyer ship.

Immediately after, under the frantic compression of spatial Laws, the entire warship shrank rapidly, finally turning into an extremely ordinary, pitted dark-red asteroid that blended perfectly into the surrounding nebula.

Inside the warship, however, the space did not shrink at all (the Sumeru Mustard Seed technique of the inner heaven and earth), and the army of a hundred thousand didn't even feel any turbulence.

“Safe now.”

Lin Que nodded with satisfaction.

With a casual wave, a high-dimensional energy crystal flickering with a ghostly blue light, which he had snatched from the ruins of the shattered metallic fortress, landed steadily in his palm.

This was the backup power core of that fortress, containing extremely pure high-dimensional cosmic Origin.

“Brothers, get familiar with the gravity of the sea of stars first. I’m going into seclusion.”

Leaving those words, Lin Que's figure vanished directly from the bridge and entered the secret room in the deepest part of the warship.

...

Warship Secret Room.

Lin Que sat cross-legged on a prayer mat made of top-grade Immortal Marrow.

He was in no hurry to analyze the star map intelligence within the crystal; instead, he opened his mouth and violently swallowed the massive high-dimensional energy crystal in one gulp!

“Rumble—!!!”

The moment the crystal entered his stomach, a high-dimensional Law even colder and more violent than the Origin of an Immortal Emperor exploded within Lin Que's body!

This energy was like countless sharp scalpels, attempting to dissect Lin Que's Physical Body at the genetic level.

“Trying to dissect me? Once it's in my stomach, even a cosmic black hole has to turn into a nutrition shake for me!”

Lin Que let out a low growl.

The Blood Scripture erupted at this moment like an awakening ancient Vicious Beast, bursting forth with a devouring power that awed the heavens!

His thirty-million-catty Dark Gold Demon God Body, driven by the Blood Scripture, began to frantically crush and absorb these high-dimensional rays.

“Crack... crack...”

Lin Que's bones made a very dull sound of reorganization.

He had just reached the Void Return Star Domain Realm Early Stage; his Realm had risen too quickly, and though his Physical Body was powerful, it still lacked the true tempering of the Star Sea Laws.

Now, with the help of this high-level civilization's power core, Lin Que's Physical Body was undergoing a deep process of "extraction and purification"!

The hundred-thousand-mile starry sky inner heaven and earth within his Dantian also began to operate.

The primordial stars above the firmament grew brighter after absorbing the high-dimensional Origin.

The five Law leaves of the World Tree (gold, gray, green, dark silver, and dark yellow) shone in harmony, locking the violent aura emanating from Lin Que tightly within his body without leaking a single bit.

After three full major cycles passed.

“Phew—”

Lin Que slowly exhaled a breath of turbid Qi laced with blue electric arcs.

He opened his eyes, and his heterochromatic pupils became deeper than the Universe itself.

He had not broken through to the Star Domain Realm Middle Stage, because he did not need that kind of superficial Realm.

His current foundation had been consolidated to the extreme by this high-dimensional energy!

The Major Achievement Dark Gold Demon God Body had completely adapted to the Laws of the sea of stars; his thirty-million-catty physical limit could now exert its full lethality even under absolute vacuum and high-dimensional gravity!

“My Physical Body is stable. Next, let's see just how big this fish pond really is.”

With a thought from Lin Que, the remaining Star Sea data in the crystal was extracted by the System and projected directly into his Sea of Consciousness.

Countless bizarre galaxies, routes, and power distribution maps unfolded before Lin Que's eyes.

“Black Desolation Star Domain... a place of exile at the edge of the sea of stars.”

Lin Que browsed the information rapidly, a flash of realization in his eyes.

It turned out that the cosmic region they were currently in belonged to an extremely remote and chaotic "no-man's land" within the greater Star Sea world.

It was named the Black Desolation Star Domain.

This place was teeming with interstellar pirates, scavengers, and Lower Realm planes like the Immortal Realm that were referred to as "pastures."

As for that high-and-mighty "Star Sea Mainframe" that treated Immortal Emperors like dogs, it was located far away in the absolute center of the sea of stars, separated from here by an unknown number of galaxies.

“The closest thing to this asteroid belt is an ultra-large chaotic trading planet named Black Market Star.”

Lin Que looked at the coordinate flashing with red light on the star map.

“The records say it's a mixed bag, a paradise for interstellar pirates and smugglers to fence goods and buy information. No official power governs it.”

A long-lost smile, full of anticipation and ambition, finally curled at the corner of Lin Que's mouth.

Before understanding the enemy's main force disposition, attacking their home base directly was a poor strategy.

And such a chaotic black market was the perfect springboard for a powerful newcomer like him to gather intelligence, plunder Star Sea resources, and arm his hundred-thousand-strong army!

“Want to harvest us like livestock? Then I'll start with your black market and slowly bleed you dry.”

Lin Que stood up, pushed open the door of the secret room, and walked out to the main control room.

“Lord, you've finished your seclusion!”

Su Qingyu and the others immediately came forward to greet him.

Lin Que sat back in the captain's chair and with a wave of his hand, projected the star map directly onto the large holographic screen.

He pointed at the Black Market Star, which appeared in a dull gray hue.

“Brothers, we've just arrived in the sea of stars. Aside from some local specialties from the Immortal Realm, we don't have any interstellar hard currency; we're dirt poor.”

Lin Que's lazy yet extremely bandit-like voice made the eyes of the hundred thousand soldiers light up instantly:

“Deactivate half the power of the concealment state.”

“Disguise our ship as a dilapidated interstellar merchant vessel.”

“Target: Black Market Star! We’re going to... ‘restock’.”