Wandering Meteor

Heavenly Nebula, dazzlingly beautiful, like a city of angels.

Within the nebula are countless Heavenly Palace buildings, crisscrossing and layered, presenting a serene and holy vista.

However, at this moment, a violent fluctuation suddenly occurred within the Heavenly Nebula. The massive hydrogen molecules began to collapse inward at an accelerated rate. This caused the original Heavenly Palace structures to be destroyed, rapidly shrinking the size of the Heavenly Nebula. From afar, it resembled a divine twilight, the end of days approaching with the imminent collapse of the city of angels.

"What's going on? Why is the Heavenly Nebula contracting all of a sudden? Could it be the impact of the previous war?"

Witnessing this scene, the only remaining Commander of the Anti-molecule Star Force was quite surprised, focusing more attention on the Heavenly Nebula.

Even the Little Entropy Beast, after devouring the Cannibal Tree, began to notice the Heavenly Nebula, as its system detected increasingly high entropy reduction values within the nebula for unknown reasons.

Personnel on the Battle Star continued to analyze, "It doesn't add up. Our battlefield with the tree-shaped nebula is at a significant distance from the Heavenly Nebula; it's unlikely to affect it. Even if some energy beams were to reach the Heavenly Nebula, it shouldn't be severe, especially since we have been monitoring it and haven't detected any intense energy waves."

"But what about the current situation? As a stable nebula structure, the Heavenly Nebula should not experience such violent collapses unless a new Constant Star is born. Could it be that a new Constant Star has formed inside?"

"It's a possibility, though we, the Antimatter Civilization, have observed countless star-producing areas and witnessed many new Constant Star births, none have been as peculiar as the Heavenly Nebula. Usually, a new Constant Star would only absorb material from nearby orbits; distant material would slowly form satellite planets or meteor clusters or disperse into the Universe under the influence of Constant Star Wind. It would never collapse inward this rapidly unless the new Constant Star has a mass exceeding a billion times that of a Constant Star."

"That's just theory though, but remember, the birth of a new Constant Star is an extensively long process, usually taking millions of years. Each specific period during star formation has its distinctive characteristics. However, throughout our prolonged war with the tree-shaped nebula, we never spotted any signs of the Heavenly Nebula turning into a star-producing area. Therefore, the sudden intense shrinkage of the Heavenly Nebula is likely not a natural phenomenon, but an unnatural one."

"Unnatural phenomenon? Are you suggesting this is man-made?"

"This possibility is strong, firstly because we have probed the core of the Heavenly Nebula but have never been able to fully detect the core's specifics. We must personally explore it, so we actually don't know what's happening at the core. We hadn't thought about this due to the war with the tree-shaped nebula; secondly, the contraction speed of the Heavenly Nebula has reduced by one percent in just a moment, clearly exceeding that of normal new star formation. It's more like a massive celestial body absorbing the Heavenly Nebula to cause this phenomenon."

"Damn it, could it be that some civilization sneaked into the Heavenly Nebula while we were at war with the tree-shaped nebula? They are courting death!"

"Whether natural or unnatural, we absolutely cannot allow the Heavenly Nebula to be seized by an Alien Civilization. Although the Heavenly Nebula is not critical to us, daring to snatch from our jaws is clearly an underestimation of our Antimatter Civilization. We must make them pay. Pass down my order, immediately activate the Antimatter Domain, and open a direct passage to the core of the Heavenly Nebula. Let us see the true cause of the contraction of the Heavenly Nebula."

Following the Commander's order, the Battle Star, having just recovered some energy, invested it into activating the related devices for the Antimatter Domain. As the device started, flashes of light appeared nonstop, rapidly emitting a transparent energy membrane.　Controlled by the membrane controller, the energy membrane expanded in a linear, single-point fashion towards the Heavenly Nebula, appearing like a transparent Energy Beam.

Boom!

The Heavenly Nebula, being an unconscious ordinary nebula, naturally couldn't resist the power of the Antimatter Domain, and was quickly penetrated, creating a narrow nebula tunnel.

Through the vacuum of the nebula tunnel, the Battle Star finally observed the situation at the core of the Heavenly Nebula. However, upon seeing the core, the Battle Star was immensely shocked!

"How is this possible? It was you?"

The Battle Star was incredibly shocked and disbelieving, as they observed the previously escaped Wandering Alliance within the core region of the Heavenly Nebula! Initially, they thought they had observed incorrectly, but after multiple confirmations, it was indeed the Wandering Alliance. The rapid contraction of the Heavenly Nebula was because Lu Chen, a Constant Star with a mass of 470 million times that of a Constant Star, was voraciously devouring the Heavenly Nebula.

This also explained the previous doubts and conjectures of the Battle Star.

Only under the pull of such a massive Constant Star or Black Hole could the Heavenly Nebula experience such intense fluctuations.

"Damn, we thought you had escaped, but you dared to come back and even meddle with the Heavenly Nebula, you really are asking for trouble!" The Battle Star sent out an angry message.

"You're mistaken on one point. We, the Wandering Alliance, can't be said to have come back because we never really left. We just used the Jump Engine to hide inside the Heavenly Nebula and didn't actually flee, so we saw everything in your war with the Entropy Tree," seeing that they had been exposed, Lu Chen no longer continued to hide and replied straightforwardly.

Turns out, this was all part of the Wandering Alliance's plan, a strategy they had decided upon long ago to submerge the light into darkness.

At the time, the war between the Wandering Alliance and the Anti-molecule Star Force was drawing to an end, but the Wandering Alliance was facing an unprecedented defeat. Nearly all Battle Stars were sacrificed, and their strength was greatly diminished, leaving only including Lu Chen and nine major celestial bodies and seven major biological civilizations. The Anti-molecule Star Force hadn't lost a single Battle Star and still had the power of three hundred Battle Stars. The Wandering Alliance knew they could not defeat the Anti-molecule Star Force, so after internal discussions, they decided to submerge the light into darkness. While the Entropy Tree occupied the Anti-molecule Star Force, they used the Jump Engine to hide inside the Heavenly Nebula. This allowed the Wandering Alliance to peacefully restore their strength and accelerate technological research. Lu Chen could also slowly absorb the Heavenly Nebula, while also observing the war between the Anti-molecule Star Force and the Entropy Tree, deciding their next steps based on the direction of the war.

Therefore, this strategy was perfectly executed, versatile and flexible, allowing freedom of action and strategic retreat.