If you want to win over the Elder of the Giant Sound Whales, you naturally have to play to his tastes.
So Lin Xiaohe led everyone across the Dark Zone, searching for little lobsters, little crabs, and all sorts of other creatures.
The baby Giant Sound Whales knew the Dark Zone better than anyone. They eagerly volunteered to act as guides, insisting on leading the way.
“The Elder said we can’t go to the Domain River,” one of them said. “The other side is very dangerous.”
Lin Meimei and Lin Xiaohe stood at the edge of the Domain River, refusing to go any further.
The Domain River flowed in the same direction as the planet’s rotation and the galaxy’s motion, but it was so impossibly wide that they couldn’t see the opposite bank.
Lin Xiaohe had never seen darkness so thick, so black that it made your heart feel uneasy.
“Okay,” she said. “Let’s listen to the Elder.”
A pod of Giant Sound Whales accelerated through space, swimming gracefully. The starlight that shimmered around them acted like the most beautiful lure, attracting other creatures in the Dark Zone.
Lin Xiaohe and her group spent two years searching but still couldn’t find the giant lobster’s lair. And those wormholes the Elder had complained about? They had all vanished.
Wesley scratched his head, frowning at the few scattered little lobsters they had managed to find.
After two years of hunting, they couldn’t even gather enough for a single dish.
What were they supposed to do?
Lin Xiaohe sighed. “Since there aren’t any in the Dark Zone, let’s try searching near the Stardust Wall.”
Dong Yuxuan raised both hands and feet in agreement. He hadn’t seen his big brother in ages.
Over by the Stardust Wall, Big Brother Dong’s life was a mix of tension and comfortable laziness.
Every day, aside from eating and drinking, he just found random things to keep himself busy.
In these rare moments of leisure, he couldn’t help but think about his good-for-nothing younger brother.
Who would have thought that a discarded son of the family, deemed a waste at birth, would have such an incredible stroke of luck and defy fate itself?
Sitting in front of the porthole, Big Brother Dong gazed out at the vast, starry cosmos. He raised a glass of wine. “Here’s to myself,” he said. “For always being a qualified big brother.”
Suddenly, he blinked. An expression of utter disbelief spread across his face.
Oh, heavens above!
He must have gone crazy from boredom. He was starting to hallucinate!
He could have sworn he saw a bunch of Giant Sound Whales swimming over by the Stardust Wall, with people riding on their backs.
And the craziest part? He thought he saw his little brother!
“Big Brother!” Dong Yuxuan recognized Big Brother Dong’s spaceship from far, far away.
After all these years, he still hadn’t changed ships. That was his stingy big brother for you.
The baby Giant Sound Whales swam circles around the spaceship, blowing colorful bubbles that looked like something out of a dream.
Big Brother Dong looked like he was questioning his entire existence. It wasn’t until Dong Yuxuan knocked on the porthole and gestured for him to open the hatch that he finally snapped out of it.
His little brother, Dong Yuxuan, had really made it out of the Dark Zone!
Big Brother Dong opened the hatch and looked Dong Yuxuan over from every angle—front, back, left, right, up, down—clicking his tongue in amazement. “It really is my little brother! You’ve grown so much.”
As he said this, pride mixed with a pang of bitterness in his heart.
He reached out and patted Dong Yuxuan’s shoulder. The kid was almost as tall as he was now.
Dong Yuxuan grinned widely and puffed out his chest smugly. “Big Brother, from now on, I’ve got your back!”
“Get lost!”
The kid hadn’t even grown all his feathers yet, and he was already talking big, trying to steal the position of big brother.
The two brothers laughed and joked around for a bit. Then Big Brother Dong slapped his forehead and fired off a rapid string of questions, like popcorn popping.
“How did you guys get out of the Dark Zone? Why are you riding on Giant Sound Whales? Is Lin Xiaohe with you? Last time we met, I forgot to tell her that someone named Guo Hai was looking for her.”
Lin Xiaohe was just spreading out her psychic energy, searching for traces of the little lobsters. When she heard Old Dong’s question, she connected to his spaceship. “Guo Hai? Who’s that? Why is he looking for me?”
Old Dong said, “He didn’t say anything specific. Just that he wanted to send you something. I was busy at the time, so I grabbed him as a helper and sent him to Wasteland Planet 7 to receive supplies. Well, I hope those supplies didn’t go to waste!”
Those damned insectoids had caused enormous damage to the Dong family. Every single agricultural planet had been hit by wormholes. The economic losses were astronomical.
Lin Xiaohe didn’t know Guo Hai, so she didn’t think much of it. “What’s the situation here?” she asked. “Why are there so few wormholes all of a sudden?”
Big Brother Dong shrugged. “I have no idea.”
Lin Xiaohe pressed her lips together. Melina had been sending her a lot of messages.
Around a month ago, in Federation time, the Federation, the Empire, and the insectoid race had reached some kind of stalemate.
The war situation had stabilized. All the [Void Devourers] within the Federation’s First Star Ring had been completely eliminated.
On planets with wormholes in the Second and Third Star Rings, safety zones had been established. The Black Armored Beetles had slowed their attacks, striking the safety zones only once every seven days.
The wormholes that had been hovering above the stars hadn’t produced any new insectoids either.
Currently, the most critical situation was in the Sixth Star Ring, which was fighting a two-front war.
The Empire, wanting to seize the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Star Rings in one fell swoop, had intensified its offensive against the Sixth Star Ring.
Making matters worse, more and more wormholes were appearing in the Sixth Star Ring. On the war situation maps, the Sixth Star Ring was completely covered in dense red dots.
Even after expanding the scope of conscription, the military forces in the Sixth Star Ring simply couldn’t sustain a two-front war.
Space battleships and weaponry were all critically low. They urgently needed support from the Federation.
While Lin Xiaohe was reading the messages, the fifth Federation Emergency War Conference was convening.
“Fight the Empire or deal with the insectoids. We can only choose one.”
At the Federation conference, the Star Ring Lord of the Sixth Star Ring and the Military Region Commander looked visibly exhausted.
As the highest authorities of a star ring, no matter which choice they made, it would be painful and devastating.
[Nüwa] sent the loss data for the Sixth Star Ring to every attendee’s personal AI.
Chu Huaizhi frowned as he looked at the report.
The Sixth Star Ring had three galaxies, 72 habitable planets, a population of over 54 billion, and a standing military of about 72 million (not including war robots).
Currently, 56 of those habitable planets had wormholes. 12 planets had completely fallen, 10 of which were agricultural wasteland planets.
Over half of the population was dead.
40 million Planetary Defense Forces were trapped without support. In their battles against the insectoids, over two-thirds had been killed.
Fewer than 10 million Defense Forces were barely holding on, fighting on the planets.
10 million Orbital Defense Troops and 20 million Star Fleets were defending against the Empire’s assault. Their casualties exceeded half.
Of the 16 surviving habitable planets, 13 had been occupied by the Empire.
After reading the war report, everyone gasped collectively.
The Federation government proposed, “This is a critical moment for the Federation’s survival. We should concentrate our forces and preserve what we can! I propose we abandon the Sixth Star Ring and move our battle lines back. Merge the remaining forces with the Fifth Star Ring and strengthen the Fifth’s defenses. Trade space for time!”
“Seconded! There’s no point in holding onto the Sixth Star Ring any longer. All the battle lines have collapsed. Only three habitable planets remain under our control. Resupply is difficult. Instead of spending huge amounts of manpower and resources to maintain a broken basket, we should just give it up.”
The Sixth Star Ring’s Military Region Commander gritted his teeth so hard they squeaked. Veins bulged on his forehead. “We still have over forty planets out there. The people and the Defense Forces on them are waiting for our rescue!”
A representative from the Security Department tried to reason with him. “Given the current balance of power between the Federation and the Empire, even if we drove the Empire out of the Sixth Star Ring, those planets would probably have fallen long ago.”
“Right. Instead of letting those planets drag the Federation down and ruin us, why not dump this mess on the Empire?”
If the Empire took the Sixth Star Ring, they’d have to spend energy dealing with the wormholes and insectoids, wouldn’t they? Otherwise, they’d be asking for trouble in their own backyard.
The Military Region Commander of the Third Star Ring tried to persuade him. “This isn’t abandonment. It’s a strategic retreat. Once the Federation recovers its strength, we can take back the Sixth Star Ring.”
[Nüwa] announced, “The meeting vote has begun!”
