Chapter 1 The War Begins

Han Xiao's intelligence cleared away the fog of war for the empire. The group of famous imperial generals on the front lines acted swiftly and launched a fierce attack, allowing the flames of war to engulf the territory of the Kundas within a month.

Each legion acted separately, intercepting the main Kunda fleets waiting in different locations, and engaging in a fierce battle in the starry sky. The warship formations advanced horizontally and vertically, sweeping across the galaxy.

Under the empire's roaring artillery fire, the Kundas were caught off guard, retreating and losing a large number of their main battleships.

In a certain star system, an imperial legion was engaged in a battle with a Kunda main fleet. The enemy was already in a rout and was being mercilessly slaughtered. Kunda warships were pierced by psionic cannons, turning into fireworks in the universe.

The enemy flagship had been completely surrounded. Countless imperial fleets around it were aiming their cannons at it. Any movement would result in it being blasted to pieces. The reason for surrounding it without attacking was to capture the commander of the enemy fleet alive.

A small spaceship flew out of the imperial formation, carrying imperial officers preparing to take over the flagship.

The enemy flagship retracted its shields, seemingly indicating surrender. The small spaceship approached smoothly, embedding itself into the enemy flagship's docking port. The size ratio between the two was like a sesame seed and a grape.

*Chi*—

The sound of an air valve was heard. The landing passage door of the flagship opened, and an imperial officer with pale skin stepped into the enemy flagship. It was Hodd.

The adjutants of the imperial officers had many functions. Some adjutants were like personal secretaries, while others doubled as combatants who took risks. Hodd belonged to the latter.

In front of him, a large number of Kunda soldiers surrounded him in layers, all tightly gripping their weapons, revealing a strong sense of hostility.

Hodd glanced at them, ignoring them. He reached out and adjusted the interstellar universal translator near his ear, and slowly opened his mouth:

"Who is the commander? Step forward."

The Kunda crowd immediately became agitated. A tall shrimp-like creature in a uniform walked out. It was the commander of this fleet, and his tone was dignified. "Invader, why do you know our language?"

The two sides had been at war, without exchanging information. For these Kunda officers, it was the first time they had face-to-face communication with the invaders, and they were surprised that Hodd could speak their language.

"Just a little insignificant technology." Hodd's tone was calm.

The information Han Xiao gave to the empire was complete, which naturally included language. The empire didn't even need to decipher it. They directly imported the language into the interstellar translator, and they could easily communicate.

The Kunda commander didn't pursue the matter and said in a deep voice, "Please stop killing my compatriots. We have already been defeated."

"Alright, as long as you surrender and hand over command of the fleet to me, we will stop attacking." Hodd said lightly.

"Okay, come with me."

The Kunda commander turned around to lead the way, and the soldiers around him made way. Hodd glanced at them, a hint of playfulness flashing in his eyes, and strode forward.

The group moved forward along the passage, turning around corners. The atmosphere was silent, and no one spoke.

After walking for a while, Hodd suddenly chuckled and said unhurriedly:

"You've led us around for so long. Is your trap ready yet? Don't keep me waiting."

As soon as he said this, the Kunda commander at the front stopped abruptly and turned his head sharply, his eyes shocked.

He was exposed?!

But since he had discovered it, why was he so calm?!

Although he was seen through, he couldn't change his decision. The Kunda commander's tone suddenly became ferocious.

"You slaughtered my troops, and you want me to surrender? Dream on! Let's die together!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a violent tremor came from under his feet. Hodd looked down, and the metal deck rapidly expanded and bulged, cracking into seams, with dazzling psionic light coming from the cracks.

"You planted primal psionic energy on your own ship, planning to self-destruct from the start..."

Before Hodd could finish his sentence, a huge sonic boom resounded throughout the entire flagship.

*Rumble!*

In the next moment, psionic energy spewed out, instantly engulfing the bodies of everyone, including Hodd and the Kunda commander, filling every inch of space!

At the same time, the imperial fleet outside discovered the anomaly. The surrounded enemy flagship exploded from the inside out, turning into an ever-expanding primal psionic energy mass, rapidly encroaching on the surrounding area, approaching the imperial encirclement. The Kunda commander was planning to drag these imperial fleets down with him by detonating himself!

In the command ship in the distance, the imperial general in charge of leading the legion snorted coldly.

"As expected, he was going to self-destruct. Psionic energy disposal team, take action!"

Upon the order, the innermost layer of the encirclement of imperial warships revealed a circular device at their bows, which vibrated slightly, generating resonance and forming an invisible, transparent shield that completely wrapped the primal psionic energy mass within it, causing obvious distortion in space.

The imperial fleet had long been prepared for a psionic energy self-destruction. This device was a special piece of equipment specifically designed to deal with psionic energy contamination. It required coordination to wrap up the psionic energy mass. The psionic energy mass that had just been created by the self-destruction was still relatively small, making it easier to handle.

The expansion speed of this primal psionic energy mass began to slow down, changing from expanding outward to contracting inward, constantly shrinking.

The entire process lasted for several dozen minutes. The primal psionic energy mass gradually changed from the size of a flagship to a sphere with a diameter of two to three meters, and was still rapidly compressing.

The most common way to deal with psionic energy contamination was to use special equipment to compress its volume, increasing its energy density, turning it into a psionic seed, and then using a special device to stabilize the psionic energy for containment. This method was relatively clean, with few side effects. The only problem was that it took a long time, and once the psionic energy expanded to a certain extent, it would be difficult to handle.

At this moment, a figure strode out of the psionic energy mass. It was Hodd, not only unscathed, but even his hairstyle wasn't messed up. He was even carrying the still struggling Kunda commander in his hand.

The entire flagship had been assimilated and devoured by the primal psionic energy, yet only two people were still alive.

"You, you..." The Kunda commander's eyes widened as he stared at Hodd in horror.

He had been prepared to die, wanting to perish together with the enemy, but at this moment, he couldn't believe what he had just seen.

Hodd glanced at him, slapped him casually, knocking him unconscious. Then, he stretched out his other palm and made a grasping motion toward the psionic energy mass.

*Whoosh whoosh whoosh*—

Traces of psionic energy flow appeared around him like a thin mist. In the blink of an eye, the primal psionic energy mass turned into a speck of light the size of a grain of rice, shining with a dazzling blue light.

This was a newly formed psionic seed, like a blue gem, landing on Hodd's fingertip, dyeing his fingers and face blue.

Holding an unstable super energy source in his hand, Hodd remained calm. After taking a quick glance, he took out a spherical containment device and stuffed the psionic seed into it.

He then gestured to the imperial fleet, asking his colleagues to turn off the psionic energy compression device. Then, he returned to the command ship with the Kunda commander and the psionic seed to meet his superior.

"Well done, I will personally record this achievement for you."

The imperial general personally greeted Hodd and patted Hodd's shoulder with satisfaction. It was because he was clear about Hodd's abilities that he had chosen Hodd to board the ship.

Primal psionic energy was extremely tyrannical. Even a Beyond Grade A would suffer continuous high damage while in it, but abilities always possessed infinite possibilities. A very small number of abilities allowed users to survive in primal psionic energy.

Hodd's ability was one of them, and it was of a very special significance.

Before Hodd, the entire universe had only speculated that such a high-risk ability existed, but there had never been a concrete case... and Hodd was perhaps the first discovered owner of this ability from ancient times until now, at least his ability was the closest to this ultra-high-risk ability.

On the surface, he was just an imperial military esper who had just entered the Calamity Grade not long ago, but due to the special nature of his ability, he had already received attention from the higher-ups and had been placed on the list of espers under key observation. The empire regarded him as a Beyond Grade A seed to nurture and had high hopes for him.

Hearing his superior's praise, Hodd was not surprised or disgraced. He smiled faintly, put his hands behind his back, and stood to the side. His eyes were calm, and no one knew what he was thinking.

…

The empire launched multiple battle lines simultaneously, blooming in all directions.

The Kunda army was routed time and time again. The empire's sudden all-out attack disrupted their formation.

"Everyone, we are losing this war."

In the Kunda command ship's high-level meeting room, the Kunda leader leaned on the table and coldly scanned the high-level personnel present.

"Defeat was within our expectations, but the process is out of control." A high-level military officer said in a heavy tone, "Our main fleets, which were hidden and waiting in different locations, were precisely attacked by the enemy and suffered heavy casualties. It's very strange. The enemy seems to have our coordinates."

The Kunda's battle plan was originally to slowly lure the enemy in, leading the Crimson Dynasty into the depths of their territory. Then, the main fleets hidden outside would join forces to attack the enemy's stargate, trying to cut off the enemy's retreat as much as possible. Then, they would use the scorched earth plan to wipe out the territory and as many enemies as possible.

However, the Crimson Dynasty's precise strikes had already disrupted the Kunda's strategy. What made them even more terrified was that their own intelligence seemed to have been leaked.

"We can't determine whether the enemy is using special observation methods to locate our hidden main fleet, or whether they have mastered our internal intelligence. If it's the former, it's still better, but if it's the latter, our situation will be very serious. The enemy may have seen through our scorched earth plan, and may even have the coordinates of all our troops, including us." Someone said with unease.

The Kunda leader: "In any case, we must prepare for the worst. We don't have a mature grasp of application-level quantum network technology, and the enemy's technology is more advanced than ours. Perhaps we should temporarily abandon this convenient communication technology."

"If that's the case, we'll be even more passive..."

"Stop talking. The general trend is gone. It's time to evacuate and place our hopes on the scorched earth plan." The Kunda leader said in a deep voice, "The only problem is whether the enemy has seen through the scorched earth plan. If it's exposed, we need to make up for it."

"How do we make up for it?"

"The troops implementing the scorched earth plan have been dispatched for a long time. Even if the enemy has the coordinates, it will take a certain amount of time to catch up. So, as long as we cut off their connection with the command and turn off the quantum network, cutting off all information exchange with the outside world, the enemy will lose their coordinates again."

Hearing this, the shrimp couldn't help but nod.

This was to turn the scorched earth plan troops into blind and deaf ghost fleets, which wasn't a bad idea.

Someone raised a question, "Since the enemy knows our plan, they will definitely prepare countermeasures. Even if they don't know the coordinates of our buried primal psionic energy, they can discover the location of the psionic energy explosion through observation and quickly carry out governance. In this way, the effect of the scorched earth plan will be greatly reduced, and the enemy will be able to put it out first."

"Yes, our strategy has already failed to some extent." The Kunda leader said decisively, "But we must try to leave as little resources as possible for the enemy. In any case, we must inflict a certain degree of loss on the enemy."

The high-level personnel present looked at each other, and no one objected.

Seeing that everyone had no objections, the Kunda leader opened the virtual screen in the meeting room, entered his permissions, and opened a secret interface, which monitored the location and status of all the scorched earth plan troops in real time.

At this time, the interface showed that all the troops were heading to their destinations normally, without any attacks. Everything seemed normal.

Confirming that the scorched earth plan was operating normally and had not been destroyed by the enemy, everyone breathed a sigh of relief... This was the only trump card they could rely on at the moment.

Everyone contacted the executor of the scorched earth plan on the spot. Soon, the communication was connected, and the other party's figure appeared on the virtual screen.

"The higher-ups have an order for you. Change the target location for burying the psionic energy, cut off the quantum network connection, turn off all information channels, leave the burial location after the task is completed, and then restore the connection to report to us, understand?"

"Understood."

After giving a few instructions, the Kunda leader hung up the communication.

After a few dozen seconds, the real-time monitoring of the scorched earth troops on the virtual screen went dark one by one, and soon all the connections were cut off.

"Although it's not the best way, it's at least safer this way." Seeing this, a high-level official couldn't help but sigh.

The Kunda leader nodded, looked around at everyone, and said in a deep voice:

"Now that everything is properly arranged, we can start evacuating. Remember to bring all the esper prisoners we caught."

As things stood, the general trend was gone. The Kunda decided to recall their troops and evacuate separately.

In the previous battles, they had not gained nothing. They had indeed captured a small number of espers, considering them as important experimental materials, and planned to take them back to study.

…

At the same time, in one of the border areas of the Kunda territory, a scorched earth plan troop was under attack by an imperial fleet.

A Kunda warship had been boarded, and imperial espers were clearing out the enemy warship's soldiers everywhere.

The captain sealed the door of the command room and urgently sent communication requests to the command time and time again, but all of them sank without a trace, without any response.

"What's going on? Why aren't the higher-ups answering the emergency communications?!"

The captain was shocked and angry.

Just then, a sharp, cold light broke through the command room's alloy door and swept across the captain's body.

*Swish*—

"Agh!" The captain screamed and fell to the ground with a thud. Blue blood gurgled out, leaving him with only half a breath left.

An imperial officer holding an alloy knife walked in, glanced at the communication calls on the virtual screen, and then at the captain's unwilling eyes. He chuckled, turned off the communication.

"Don't bother. You can't contact your own people."

Hearing this, the captain's eyes widened suddenly, "Could it be..."

*Slash!*

The sharp blade flashed, and a large shrimp head flew into the air, with blood splattering on the cabin wall, like a crude abstract painting.

Putting away his weapon, the imperial officer turned and left, not explaining his side's plan to the enemy. This was a mandatory lesson for imperial soldiers.

In fact, what Han Xiao handed over was not just intelligence. As the saying goes, if you're going to do something, do it right. Since he had decided to help, he also handed over the loophole program he had left in the Kunda quantum network to the empire for them to control, in order to increase the mission rating to a greater extent.

In this way, the entire Kunda command system had completely become a plaything of the empire, with no ability to resist.

Everything that the Kunda command saw, including the communication targets, were all illusions created by the empire.

They thought they had given orders to the scorched earth plan troops, but in reality, they had said nothing. These troops had not received any instructions from the command.

At the same time, the information connections between these troops and the command were all controlled by the empire. All the information was intercepted, and the empire also shielded the communication channels between the two sides, like two deaf people shouting at each other.

The Kunda had completely become deaf and blind. The command thought that the situation was proceeding according to plan, but that was just an illusion that the empire had created for them. With the command system as the brain paralyzed, the troops outside could not call for help and could only be gradually eaten away by the empire.

Without the support of the interstellar society, the Kunda were a crippled Star Cluster civilization. The quantum network technology was really too poor, completely vulnerable in front of Han Xiao. If it had been a proper Star Cluster civilization in the explored universe, it would not have been so easy for Han Xiao to control their quantum network.

The existence of a virtual mechanic was a strategic weapon in terms of intelligence, and Han Xiao was at the peak Beyond Grade A level. Recently, he had also obtained the Perfect Mechanical Sense, making his role in the war irreplaceable by the other four ability systems.

It was enough to make the enemy die without knowing how they died.

…

In a star field quite far from the territory, a fleet of immigrants carrying all the Kunda civilians unknowingly turned around and headed back the way they came.

However, there was no display on the star map, and the people on board were unaware that they were returning along the same route.

The empire did not have the habit of letting the enemy run away. They had already set up a net to catch them all.

The Kunda had no way to escape.