Lin Xiaohe’s senses seemed to catch a crisp, cracking sound.
It was like a giant hammer smashing through a pane of glass, unleashing a tremendous shudder from something that could no longer bear the strain.
But there was no sound in a vacuum. This crack was the very fabric of space being torn apart—a sound that resonated in another dimension of the universe!
Lin Xiaohe watched in horror as the region around the Great Mound shattered into pieces.
The pitch-black domain river split into two tributaries, surging respectively toward the top and bottom of the Great Mound, forming two massive whirlpools.
Those two colossal whirlpools frantically tore through space-time, and the Great Mound trapped between them flickered in and out of visibility.
“What is this?” The Stardust Humans gaped, staring blankly at the apocalyptic scene before them.
Lin Xiaohe pressed her right hand against her left chest.
Her heart was pounding violently. Her red battle armor sensed the danger and, in a flash, covered her entire body.
The leaf-shaped mark at the center of her forehead burned hot. Xinbao and the others writhed restlessly in her spiritual sea.
Lin Xiaohe stared fixedly at the Great Mound and explained to everyone: “It’s crossing over!”
The Great Mound had created its own massive wormhole—it was trying to traverse through space!
Where was it going?!
No one knew where it would end up.
When the Great Mound completed its jump and its shadow vanished entirely from the Sixth Star Ring, the dim Magellan system suddenly lit up with one last, dying glow.
The outer shells of 72 modified planets simultaneously cracked, peeled away, and revealed their interiors.
What lay beneath was not scorching magma or planetary cores—but colossal energy matrices!
Using biological matter as the veins, the Zerg on the surface as pivot points, and at the cost of burning themselves and the very life of the entire planet, the matrix was activated!
The matrices erupted with torrents of energy.
They didn’t shoot toward Lin Xiaohe. Instead, they frantically connected with one another, instantly weaving a vast and impossibly complex web that spanned several astronomical units.
The enormous energy currents disrupted gravity, but even these chaotic gravitational forces had been calculated by the Zerg—and harnessed as part of the web.
Once enshrouded by the giant net, the Giant Sound Whales let out a series of mournful cries!
Their innate ability to control gravitational waves—failed!
They could no longer use their tails to generate gravitational waves, nor could they create the warp bubbles unique to their kind.
Like beached whales, they could only cry out helplessly for support.
Wesley kept soothing his companion beneath him, his eyes reddening. “Good baby, don’t be afraid. The party leader is with us.”
Inside the Ark, the survivors still had no idea what was happening, but every Stardust Human was on high alert.
Because Jiuzhou Star’s industrial system was incomplete and couldn’t independently produce engines for massive space warships, the Ark had no power system whatsoever!
The Giant Sound Whales losing control over gravitational waves meant that the Ark couldn’t move an inch!
“What’s going on? Is that giant web aimed at us?”
Within the Magellan system, aside from the Zerg, there was only them.
This web was constructed from both gravity and energy, with its nodes being 76 planets that were now in the process of self-destructing.
It wasn’t designed for attack—it was a preset trap! A trap aimed at Lin Xiaohe, aimed at the Stardust Humans!
The Ark and the Giant Sound Whales were firmly ensnared in the web, like moths caught in a spider’s silk, wrapped tight and immobile.
Lin Xiaohe flew out of the Ark and took a step.
The distance she covered was less than one-tenth of what it would normally be.
It was a heavy, mired feeling—like being stuck in thick mud, unable to pull her foot out.
Lin Xiaohe took a deep breath, accelerating the energy circulation inside her body. This time, she covered one-fifth of the normal distance.
The confusion and doubt deep in her heart didn’t ease at all—if anything, they grew stronger.
What was the Great Mound after by pulling this stunt?
The giant net might slow her down, but it couldn’t trap her forever. She would eventually break free—it would just take more time and effort.
So, what exactly was the Great Mound’s real goal?!
Lin Xiaohe was about to lose it. She had thought the battle with the Zerg would be a clash of raw power. Never in her wildest dreams did she expect the Zerg to pull off schemes and conspiracies.
How annoying! Couldn’t they just turn off their brains and have a good, brawl?
Lin Xiaohe cursed inwardly, while her mental energy scoured the cosmos, capturing stray information molecules drifting through space.
Most of these information streams were meaningless—basic data like planetary explosions and the like.
But persistence paid off. Lin Xiaohe caught a specific signal from the Octopus.
It was a planetary coordinate, located on the fringe of the Magellan system, codenamed Helios—a resource-barren, uninhabited planet with only a small space station in its outer orbit.
Helios wasn’t far from Vulcos Star. Lin Xiaohe could reach it within a day.
What she needed to figure out now was: what was on Helios?
Lin Xiaohe pondered for a moment, then connected to the Ark and called out to Guo Hai: “What’s on Helios?”
Guo Hai’s expression was strange. He didn’t answer her question directly: “Why are you interested in such an insignificant little planet?”
Lin Xiaohe: “We’ve been trapped here by the Zerg. It should have something to do with Helios.”
Guo Hai’s pupils contracted. How could this be?! Were the Zerg really this intelligent?!
And how did the Zerg even know about Helios? That should have been top-level Federation secret!
Lin Xiaohe had no time for riddles and urged him: “Time is short. You don’t want us all to be wiped out, do you?”
Guo Hai’s eyes flickered with inner conflict. In the end, he broke his oath of secrecy: “Helios has a Dead Hand system. I suspect the Federation activated the Sixth Star Ring’s Dead Hand system. The Zerg are trying to use it to destroy us.”
“What’s the Dead Hand system?”
“A system that uses one planet to annihilate the entire Magellan system.”
What?!
If the Federation had such a doomsday weapon, why hadn’t they used it sooner?
Guo Hai let out a helpless sigh. “Because we didn’t make it ourselves. We found it. We don’t know how to use it properly—only how to trigger its self-destruct sequence.”
Oh. So that was it.
Lin Xiaohe suddenly connected the dots and couldn’t help but curse: “So the Federation never actually planned to retake the Sixth Star Ring. They just wanted to bury the whole thing along with the Great Mound?!”
“Correct.”
“Holy crap! You people are truly monsters.”
Guo Hai explained weakly: “There’s also a Dead Hand system in the First Star Ring.”
“Huh?”
The Federation’s top brass actually lived near a doomsday weapon?!
Guo Hai said with a complicated tone: “When the first generation of humans stepped into the stars, they found the Dead Hand system right there. Back then, people believed the universe was dangerous—if an alien civilization invaded and humanity couldn’t defeat them, they’d trigger the Dead Hand system.”
“Later, as humanity expanded deeper into the cosmos and reached the Second Star Ring, a Federation-wide vote passed unanimously: ‘The First Star Ring shall be the Federation’s core.'”
“At that time, people still carried a strong sense of crisis and were always prepared to go down fighting.”
Lin Xiaohe pressed further: “What about now? Has the Federation figured out how to stop the self-destruct sequence?”
“No. The Federation’s expansion went too smoothly. I suspect most people have long forgotten about the Dead Hand system.”
Well, great! Once again, it was all on her!
Without another word, Lin Xiaohe set off straight for Helios.
At the same time, the vanished Great Mound—along with the shattered domain river—forcibly squeezed into the Second Star Ring!
What it brought was not shimmering starlight, but a ring of subspace shockwaves laced with spatial debris, silently sweeping across the entire star sector.
Nearby ships’ sensors instantly overloaded, and the Second Star Ring erupted with piercing alarms!
