“It’s a way out!”
“Charge through! At any cost!”
“Out of the way, you low-grade junk!” A pitch-black warship shaped like a vicious claw brutally rammed into a disc-shaped research vessel ahead of it.
The research vessel’s shield flickered a few times before shattering with a boom. Its hull broke apart into pieces from the impact.
“Go home!” A giant, elongated ship covered in scars fired all its turrets on overdrive, clearing anything that might block its passage—whether debris or other ships.
“Oh, no!!!” The pilots who had just barely woken from their stasis pods were immediately faced with this chaotic situation.
Their colony ship’s tail was sparking with electricity, its speed clearly slowing down as it was left far behind by the main fleet.
Their despairing faces pressed against the portholes, watching the way out ahead grow narrower and narrower.
The entire star region was like a pot of boiling water, bubbling and churning, chaotic beyond measure.
A shuttle-shaped ship that tried to cut corners by skirting the edge of the energy turbulence was caught by a suddenly rising spacetime vortex. Like a toy squeezed by an invisible hand, it instantly twisted into a ball of scrap metal and then was annihilated.
An enormous industrial ship, like a mobile fortress, was running in the front third of the fleet. Because its bulk was too cumbersome, during the chaotic collisions, one of its side rotors slammed hard into the now-materialized energy flow. It erupted in a chain explosion that swept across tens of thousands of miles, turning into a brief yet brutal firework—and dragging dozens of nearby ships that couldn’t dodge in time into destruction along with it.
However, not all ships were disorganized and undisciplined.
Three streams of ships, like three tough daggers, cut through the chaos and sped through the narrowest part of the Domain River into the resplendent dimensional space.
“It’s Jörmungandr, Chang Qing, and Yanidamu, along with their subordinates.” Wesley’s voice was icy cold.
As more and more ships entered the dimensional space, the Holy Monument countdown visibly accelerated.
[Collapse Progress: 73%, 74%, 75%…]
Everyone looked at Lin Xiaohe with longing eyes.
Would the Arbiter enter the dimensional space or not?
Lin Xiaohe hesitated for only a brief second before deciding: “Enter!”
But before going in, Lin Xiaohe had Little Black release a giant tomb and leave it in the Black Domain.
Lin Xiaohe could travel through the fourth dimension, but she needed an anchor point—otherwise, she could easily get lost.
The giant tomb placed in the Black Domain served as that anchor.
If things went wrong, Lin Xiaohe could quickly return to the Black Domain through the fourth dimension and then figure out how to resolve the crisis.
This was Lin Xiaohe’s backup plan. She hoped she wouldn’t need it.
The Arbiter raised its turrets engraved with spirit patterns and joined the race.
The energy fluctuations caused by the psychic power nearly capsized the Jishe people’s ship.
The Jishe people cursed and swore inside their ship, then the entire vessel clung to the Arbiter’s tail like a barnacle with a splat.
The Arbiter’s speed faltered slightly.
“Don’t worry about them. Charge forward!”
“Yes!”
The Arbiter quickly overtook ship after ship, climbing to the middle section.
The middle section had the highest density of ships.
In order to find the shortest escape route, every ship would use force to clear objects in its path.
The Arbiter, relying on its hull forged jointly from the Zerg and the [Source Body], withstood several waves of attacks.
The fiercest wave seemed to carry corrosive properties. Wherever the Arbiter was hit, it was continuously eroded.
Fortunately, the Zerg had extraordinary regenerative abilities and managed to hold out.
After yet another attack, Lin Xiaohe was furious.
These bastards were deliberately targeting the Arbiter!
“Deploy the Zerg Giant Cavity! Blast them to death!”
“Yes!”
The topmost hatch of the Arbiter automatically retracted, revealing an ugly, fleshy giant cavity.
Chu Huaizhi, who had long since hidden inside the dimensional space, watched with gleaming eyes: “Nüwa, do you think the Arbiter can make it in?”
Nüwa, thoroughly annoyed by the Ora people who had newly entered the star region, replied irritably: “I don’t know. We lack enough data to build a model for Lin Xiaohe. She’s growing too fast, and her evolution path is too unconventional. Chu Huaizhi, the Ora people are about to enter. I need the [Source Body].”
Although this wave of Ora people had just arrived and weren’t familiar with this star region, with their powerful information-gathering and analytical abilities, they would surely determine that the dimensional space beyond the Domain River was the key to surviving the great crisis.
Nüwa had to obtain the [Source Body] to escape from the Ora people’s grasp.
Chu Huaizhi said helplessly: “Got it, you traitor to the Ora people.”
“Aren’t you also a traitor to the Sui Star civilization?”
“So, we’re birds of a feather, colluding together?”
While they chatted, the Arbiter’s gene-decomposition beam unleashed its devastating power, shaking the entire middle section.
The powerful beam instantly decomposed the living beings inside the ships into particles.
This beam pierced straight through ten thousand miles. Wherever the beam covered, nothing survived.
Lin Xiaohe leaped to the top of the Arbiter, her gaze coldly sweeping over the surrounding ships.
A thought exploded across all still-connectable communication channels, through gravitational waves, and even through telepathy, detonating in countless ships.
“Those who block my path shall be killed without mercy!”
The deterrence of this move greatly shocked the ships outside the Domain.
The Arbiter was no longer deliberately targeted. It smoothly climbed to the front, crossed the Domain River, and entered the dimensional space.
“Wow, it’s huge.”
Hardy couldn’t help but marvel.
The dimensional space was actually an enormous galaxy, with surging energy that almost spilled over.
Everywhere one looked was a magnificent phenomenon that couldn’t be described by conventional spectra.
The sky was not dark, but composed of flowing, dreamlike energy, displaying billions of ever-changing colors.
The physical laws here were different from the Black Domain. The physical constants that had nearly stopped and were heavy as lead in the Black Domain now became lively and welcoming here.
The spatial structure was stable yet full of elasticity, as if it could actively bear the weight of travelers.
What was even more stunning was that there were actually signs of life here.
They were not carbon-based or silicon-based life, but something more fundamental, more wondrous.
Creatures of various forms floated in the void. There were energy jellyfish swaying like auroras, and also enormous, semi-transparent phantoms of World Trees, their roots anchored in nothingness.
Everything was as beautiful as paradise.
But all the ships that had entered did not dare to act rashly.
In the long and dangerous voyage through the cosmos, there was one rule.
[The more perfect it is, the more dangerous it is.]
For a time, the ships that had fled here vaguely divided into five regions.
Chang Qing, Jörmungandr, and Yanidamu occupied the star regions with the most abundant energy and richest resources.
The other scattered ships surrounded the Ora people’s ship, which had arrived at the last moment, guarding the area closest to the Domain River.
The Arbiter’s position wasn’t great—it was almost surrounded by all four of them.
The Jishe people’s ship clung tightly to the Arbiter, refusing to let go. There was no helping it—there were no other ships around the Arbiter, so they had no choice!
