Xyrin Empire

When the spaceship entered superluminal travel, the celestial system fleet instantly disappeared into a deep darkness. The light emitted from there couldn't catch up with our spaceship, creating the illusion that the mother fleet had vanished.

Of course, this was just what appeared at the optical layer. The warship's information-gathering observation device still displayed the celestial system fleet, now reduced to a small dot. The bright Ghost Energy Death Star emitted a shining blue light in the darkness, and the explosions and gunfire in the sky above the fleet had turned into a fuzzy glow. Seconds later, the celestial system fleet became a pixel on the screen before disappearing from view.

Big Sister sat beside me, her eyes tightly shut. Since directing the warship in a general direction, she hadn't said a word, just told us to continue traveling at superluminal speed. But I knew she was trying to pinpoint the precise location of that ancient starship, which wasn't easy—we all knew Big Sister had never been keen on composition and distance.

At least she had a rough sense of direction.

The curse truly is a miraculous thing. Sometimes, I even feel it directly modifies mathematical laws. So far, we haven't found a way to completely resist Big Sister's curse. Strong Ghost Energy can suppress the curse's effect because when gathered to a certain degree, it distorts nearby information, making the "probability" on which the curse relies chaotic, thereby freeing it from the curse's initiator. But to be fully immune to the curse seems quite difficult. That "War Song" starship, which has yet to reveal itself, is such an example: although the curse can't affect it due to the vast distance, Big Sister can still feel her spiritual power reacting to something full of "malice," which is now becoming increasingly intense.

"Warship decelerate, cruise."

Big Sister suddenly opened her eyes and said softly.

The noisy dots and black stains on the optical observation images paused for a moment, then merged into a blurry shadow, transforming again into a "tunnel" formed by red and blue shift. The spaceship left superluminal status and began cruising slowly at sub-luminal speeds.

In the expansive universe, the spaceship's sudden appearance at the visual layer was quite startling. If there were Revenge Army warships here, they would certainly attack immediately, but all we received was desolation; radar found only series of empty feedback signals: no large mass targets within half a light year.

But the silence lasted only a brief period. Just ten seconds after Big Sister ordered the warship to cruise, piercing high-energy alarms reverberated across the bridge.

"Warning! High energy reaction detected! Massive object appearing in the Main Material Plane ahead!"

Along with the alarm, a blinding flash tore through space, causing "waves" to abruptly activate on the shield of the mother ship; the enemy's jump warhead had hit its target.

Prepared in advance, the fleet promptly shifted formation. The mother ship formed a joint shield to resist the enemy's first round of firepower. Assault ships charged toward the space rift ahead, deploying massive amounts of Space Internal Bombs to halt the Revenge Army's jump missiles, followed by the salvo of Galaxy Main Guns—thanks to the enemy's attack and Taville's Energy Raider, even when ambushed, the Imperial Army could immediately retaliate forcefully with equal firepower.

"Detecting abnormal information flow," the Commander shouted, "Attempting to break through this disguise… We've approached closely enough… It's the Revenge Army's Planet Battleship!"

"Don't rush to call for fire support," I quickly stood up, "Concentrate the Galaxy Main Gun barrage on the coordinates of the Planet Battleship to let them know they've been exposed."

The Galaxy Main Gun, having just completed its second energy recharge, promptly corrected the target. The colossal Eternal-class spaceship adjusted its posture with impressive agility and unleashed torrents of Ghost Energy into the deep universe.

I noticed that the Galaxy Main Gun didn't open a super temporal rift upon activation; this indicated that the "War Song" was already within our main cannon range. Only at such close distance did we crack the Revenge Army's information camouflage. The "War Song's" invisibility capability is truly astonishing—at such proximity, hiding even a small meteorite is difficult; how did it conceal a planet?

The Star River Torrent illuminated the dark universe, triggering several explosions along the way. Amidst the fire, some shattered Revenge Army warship fragments suddenly splintered from the darkness. These were escort ships destroyed by the aftermath of the torrent, failing to evade in time—it seems that the "War Song" also likely enhances friendly invisibility capabilities, which aligns with a mother ship's battlefield role: it wasn't meant to fight alone.

The planet battleship suffered a precise strike, the Revenge Army knew their disguise system was rapidly failing, so the fleet's exposure was just a matter of time. Hence, they decisively shut down the starship's information interference equipment, conserving energy to intercept the Imperial fleet. With the enemy disabling invisibility units, a vast number of Revenge Army ships suddenly appeared before us.

"Look at that!"

Big Sister suddenly tapped my arm, pointing to a direction on the holographic projection, I followed her finger and my jaw dropped.

"…What the hell! Another celestial system fleet?!"

I thought that when the War Song appeared before us, it would be a colossal planet battleship with the sky filled with Revenge Army escort ships on its orbit, and our task would be to figure out a way to halt the War Song while Super Space-Time Fire Support dealt with the escorts. But in fact, the vast number of escort ships weren't unexpected, only the planet count had increased—appeared on radar was a dim brown dwarf star, along with six closely neighboring planets orbiting this dwarf star.

It's a Constant Star System—if this is the War Song, then it undoubtedly forms a celestial system fleet, though the scale is smaller, and its constant star mother ship is not a Ghost Energy Death Star. This clearly exceeded our preparations.

"Wait, don't hurry," Big Sister carefully observed the small Constant Star System on the holographic projection, suddenly discovering something, "Only one planet is artificial, the others are normal planets—War Song is here."

Big Sister pointed at the image before us, which showed a planet composed of silver-white metallic luster, its surface covered with incredibly orderly and rigid patterns, shrouded by a translucent shield. The energy patterns gently flowing across its surface indicated to everyone that this is our target: War Song Planet Battleship.

The small Constant Star System's other planets are rather mundane. They have the rough hues of common rocky planets, with surfaces marked by lofty mountains that perhaps hadn't seen tectonic activity for tens of thousands of years, rendering them lifeless. Some planets had remains resembling anti-aircraft gun arrays, although at this distance, they didn't need to open fire, and it's unknown if they're still operable: if these were also Old Empire Planet Battleships, I'd say they're more low-key than Zero-level Pirate Starships.

As for the brown dwarf star that almost led me to imagine it was a constant star battleship, well, the radar scan results were quite surprising: it actually is a brown dwarf star…

"Sandora," I swiftly contacted Sandora through spiritual connection, "We found the War Song: a silver-white metallic planet, crisscrossed with avenues. Uh, there's a giant triangular structure at the North Pole, and no visible warship docking area elsewhere. Is it the one?"

"No warship docking area? Maybe it was dismantled; its crust is modular… It should be the War Song, any way to approach it?"

"We've gotten close, and… too close indeed, it's visible to the naked eye. We're currently entangled with escort formations, preparing for Super Space-Time Fire Support—besides, I have a question: the War Song is within a Constant Star System, what's going on here?"

Sandora's voice sounded somewhat peculiar, seemingly curious why I specifically asked such a question: "That's the port—the War Song is the royal flagship, there must be a separate dock, right?"

…Damn, I was almost scared by a dock just now.

"Super Space-Time Fire Support has arrived, commencing guided attack—" The ship's main computer broadcast came on time, and a large number of space rifts instantly appeared beside the fleet. The overwhelming Ghost Energy Beams quickly suppressed the Revenge Army's escort formations. It seemed that Sandora had directed a third of the Celestial System Fleet's firepower this way. I couldn't help but worry about her battle situation, but considering the massive threat that the War Song poses to the Celestial System Fleet, destroying that silver-colored steel planet was likely the most urgent task.

After a few encounters… Okay, after suffering a few losses, I had a general impression of the War Song starship. It doesn't have any specialized offensive weapons for causing harm, yet its threat on the battlefield was far greater than a couple of Sniper Star Cannons. Since the encounter began, the direct combat damage caused to the Celestial System Fleet by War Song was limited to a few escort ship formations, but it managed to weaken nearly a quarter of the fleet's combat power through various rule distortions. Please note: War Song is just one, while our Celestial System Fleet consists of one Constant Star Fortress and over thirty Battle Planets. Isn't that frustrating?

"Attack ineffective."

The ship's main computer coldly announced again.

The Galaxy Main Gun had been test-fired twice: one for free bombardment and one for concentrated point attack. After Sandora's Super Space-Time Fire Support was in place, the fleet my sister and I brought could finally try slowly dealing with the target. I was quite curious about the so-called "Damage Definition System," wanting to know how troublesome it really was, so I ordered all Eternal-class to use their Main Cannons to directly attack the War Song. The conclusion was, the power was roughly equivalent to a fart…

Whether it was a single Galaxy shot or a dozen Galaxy River Torrents focused on one point, our damage to the War Song was all the same—a small splash, and the damage caused by a Single Soldier Fighter Jet desperately charging to the opponent's shield was also the same—conclusion: to take down a starship from the Old Empire Era with conventional firepower, without millions of shells attacking one after the other, it's just impossible.

"What did you use to deal with this thing in the Old Empire Era?"

I patted Pandora's little head beside me and asked softly.

Pandora mumbled a few words expressionlessly, but Visca chirped and explained on her behalf, "Which normal Angel Envoy would think all day about how to destroy their own starship? We built this only to consider how not to destroy it—although there is indeed a way, you need to find a way to stop its Damage Definition System first; the planetary battleship's crust is conventional armor, although heavy, it can still be destroyed with regular firepower."

I thought for a moment and felt this should be nonsense: we don't even know the principles of the Damage Definition System, so how can we find a way to interfere with it?

It's the misery caused by technological gaps!

The commanding hall of the Eternal-class echoed with a low hum, the ground trembling slightly underfoot, caused by energy feedback waves after the Galaxy Main Gun's continuous charging forced cooling, while the holographic image showed the War Song still quietly suspended in the dark space. Its shield seemed a bit dimmer, but that might just be an illusion. This nearly indestructible starship hadn't launched a counterattack on us. It seemed indifferent to its escort formation's over half casualties and was overly confident in its defense system. Of course, it's more likely the Celestial System Fleet had already held this starship back. Controlling the cosmic laws within such a vast Constant Star System probably wasn't easy. But even if the enemy doesn't counterattack, the existence of the Damage Definition System makes it difficult for our conventional firepower to destroy this thing in a short time.

"Sis, got any solutions?"

I turned to glance at my big sister. We initially thought conventional artillery might not be very effective, and she came here to use her own power to bypass the Damage Definition System.

Sister frowned, and I could feel the energy around her vibrating unsettlingly. That was the Curse Power on the verge of eruption, capable of triggering disasters.

"I don't know what it's like inside this starship, so directly cursing it is a bit tricky," Sister lightly clenched her fist, and the energy reaction around her was rapidly increasing, "but this Constant Star System seems useful. Give me a few minutes. Ah Jun, get ready; maybe I can only make its shields disappear for a short while, and then you must ensure it cannot be activated again."

Sister finished talking, then leaned casually back in the chair and closed her eyes. A deputy officer reported to me that the shuttles prepared for landing were already in position.

Pandora and Visca left the bridge to go outside and clear out the leaking Heavy Assault Ships. Those things posed a significant threat to the Mother Ship and couldn't be ignored, while my sister and I were in a somewhat eerie state of calm: outside, the firepower was intense and earth-shaking, but I had to accompany my dear sister napping.

Okay, not napping…

Just when I couldn't resist wanting to speak up and inquire, my sister finally opened her eyes and pulled out a few small items from her body.

It turned out to be a handful of pale gold glass beads. It wasn't surprising that Sister had something like this because she was the "parent" for all the kids in the family, and Little Baobao, still at an age of liking toys, often clung to her. Therefore, Sister's Personal Space, just like mine, was filled with many little gadgets, and these shiny glass balls were meant to amuse Little Baobao.

"Well then, let's give them some bad luck." Sister's lips curled slightly, and then she lightly tossed the five or six little glass beads into the air.

Guided by spiritual power, these little glass beads didn't fall to the ground but floated in mid-air, more or less aligned on a plane. I felt they seemed stationary, but after careful observation, I noticed some beads were slightly rotating, at a very, very slow speed, taking perhaps a dozen hours to complete a circle—if not for the strong spiritual power granting me equally strong observational abilities, it would have been truly hard to perceive this almost subtle movement. I watched this scene with curiosity, not knowing what my sister was planning, but indeed an unsettling atmosphere arose in the surrounding air, some massive malice began dispersing through these small glass beads. Sister reached out and gently nudged one of the beads.

At that very moment, my gaze just swept over the holographic projection on the officer platform, so I witnessed the most incredible scene: on the edge of the Constant Star System where the War Song was anchored, a grayish rock planet seemed to have suddenly struck something, abruptly shifting sideways a bit, perhaps a few hundred kilometers, and its axis tilt seemed to have changed slightly as well—these changes appeared visually minute but resulted catastrophically. Under immense inertia, the rock planet's crust suddenly cracked, like a watermelon smashed by stones, spewing countless mountain-like massive fragments along the tangent of the planet's original rotation into outer space. Moments later, the once-intact planet had a layer of its crust completely torn off, exposing a horrifying dark red mantle, with countless massive crustal fragments either turning into synchronously orbiting debris or hurling into outer space, drifting further and further away.

Such a mutation naturally drew the attention of other commanders, and the warship captain immediately ordered an investigation of the nearby cosmic laws, suspicious that War Song was finally preparing an attack and the Law of Gravity's chaos was War Song's first step. But the feedback from the onboard scanner perplexed everyone: the data showed everything in the Constant Star System where War Song was anchored was normal, those rock planets were in stable gravitational systems, and the rock planet being torn apart had been destroyed without any reason.

The captain promptly reported the situation, but I merely instructed him to continue his post, not to worry about any inexplicable occurrences on the enemy because… it seemed like this was my sister's prowess at work.

"Uh, Sis…"

I felt cold sweat breaking out all over, turned to look at my sister; she was calmly adjusting the other beads' positions in mid-air using spiritual power, and finally, I understood the beads' positions: they were simulating the structure of this Constant Star System!

She planned to model a similar celestial system structure to cast her curse on the target, I understood this, but—

How could Sister possess such immense power!? (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)