Chapter 151

Inside the newly commissioned Sun-Chaser command ship, after the brief cheer, there was a deathly silence.

Qin Hao's figure had already returned to the bridge, and in the vast expanse of space, countless fragments of black crystal and golden biological tissue floated.

The victory came too quickly, too suddenly, such that everyone was still in a feeling of unreality.

"It… really died?"

A young officer stared at the life-sign readout on the data panel, now completely zero, his voice still trembling.

That terrifying entity, which a single psychic pulse could have nearly paralyzed the entire human tech network and almost contaminated all of humanity, was simply blown apart by two punches.

This fact was even more shocking than the impact it had when it appeared.

"The fleet behind the vanguard is already on its way!"

Zhang Xianzhong repeatedly chewed over those final words, the solemn expression on his face not diminishing but intensifying.

He was not blinded by the victory before him.

"Commander, what should we do with these remains?" a deputy asked.

"Immediately send out a warship to collect every fragment, not a single one missing!"

Zhang Xianzhong immediately ordered, "Set up the highest-level isolation measures and send them at once to the Central Scientific Academy on the Moon for Qian Bowen and his team to analyze!"

"I need to know what kind of ghostly thing we are actually dealing with!"

"Yes!"

As the order was given, an interstellar warship broke away from the main force and flew toward the target.

Then, carefully, they recovered each piece of debris scattered across tens of thousands of kilometers.

Each piece of black crystal and each strand of golden tissue was sealed in a specially made energy-field container to prevent any possible mutation.

The entire process lasted several hours.

Watching those busy figures, Qin Hao calmly said to Luo Te on the other end of the communicator:

"Old Luo, this victory had too much luck involved."

Luo Te nodded, of course understanding Qin Hao's meaning: "This so-called vanguard is strong in psychic attack but neglected physical defense."

"It's like a programmer with god-tier hacking skills but a frail body. We won because your physical cheat just happened to counter it."

"Yes."

Qin Hao's gaze swept past the porthole toward the deeper universe, "But we can't count on its kin having the same fatal weakness. War cannot be built on luck."

That remark dispersed the faint sense of relief that had just risen in the command center, leaving it completely gone again.

……

Three days later, on the Moon, in the Central Scientific Academy of Guanghan City, the highest-security biological lab.

Qian Bowen and his leading top-tier research team had gone seventy-two hours without sleep.

Before them lay countless samples of debris that had been dissected, scanned, and analyzed. NZT-48 kept their energy at peak, their brains running at super-high speed.

On the central holographic projection in the lab, the complete structure model of the biological brain was being reconstructed bit by bit.

"Good heavens… this is nothing short of a miracle of creation!"

A biologist looking at the model let out a heartfelt exclamation, "Each of its cells is a miniature biological processor."

"Countless cells are linked via a quantum entanglement we cannot comprehend, forming a biological supercomputer whose thinking speed and capacity exceed our smart brains by a hundred million times!"

"Its psychic power stems from this pure biological computation."

"In theory, with sufficient energy, its psychic power can grow infinitely, even directly distorting the laws of physical reality!"

"But its physical structure…"

Another materials scientist pointed at the analysis report, his face showing a strange expression, "It's incredibly fragile, almost unbelievably so; although the dark-matter shell is theoretically indestructible, that only applies to energy attacks."

"For a pure macroscopic physical impact, its internal structural connection points are not particularly strong."

Qian Bowen listened to the team's report, his brows furrowed. He compiled all the reports and arrived at a startling conclusion.

He immediately connected to the Blue Star command.

"\"Rote Commissioner, we already have preliminary analysis results, \" Qian Bowen said, his voice tinged with fatigue but more so with gravity."

"\"Speak. \" Luo Te's voice came through."

"\"That organism, as Comrade Qin Hao predicted, is an extreme specialty creation of a civilization. It is a moving thought-seal base station,"

"\"its sole mission is to psychically infiltrate, assimilate, and contaminate the knowledge of a target civilization, undermining its resistance from within. \""

"\"We won this time entirely because of Comrade Qin Hao's personal ability, which just happens to be its sole nemesis."

"\"In other words, if it faced any ordinary technological civilization without a superhuman, the result would be catastrophic. \""

This conclusion made everyone in the command center suck in a breath of cold air.

"\"There is an even more important discovery. \""

Qian Bowen took a deep breath, switched the holographic display, and said, "We found a data unit deep within its biological core, protected by multiple layers of spatial encryption and information folding."

"\"With the help of Comrade Qin Hao, we have just finished cracking it. \""

As his words fell, a vast, boundless three-dimensional star map suddenly unfolded on the command center's holographic sand table!

That was not the Solar System.

It was a cosmic star map composed of hundreds to thousands of star systems.

Thousands of glowing routes linked those star systems together, forming a vast expanse.

At the center of this expanse sat a ferocious emblem, like a burning eyeball.

And the position of the Solar System on this huge star map was as tiny as a speck of dust, located at the outermost edge,

and was circled in a bright red mark signifying 'to be cleansed' or 'to be harvested.'

"\"What… is this? \""

Zhang Yunfeng's voice was hoarse; staring at everything before him, he felt his breath stop.

"It's possible that it's an interstellar empire."

Qian Bowen's voice was extremely heavy.

"According to the scattered information in the data unit, the scout we killed was merely one of the seeds this empire sowed toward other star systems.

Their function is to seek out and control those low-level civilizations with potential, clearing obstacles for the empire's rule."

"Our victory... is like swatting a mosquito that came to scout."

"And now, this mosquito is dead, that terrifying empire has already been alarmed."

The joy of victory vanished at this moment. In its place came a suffocating sense of crisis, as tangible as substance.

The people who had been proud of organizing a coalition fleet of 200 million and building several warp warships,

Now looking at this map representing a super-empire spanning hundreds of star systems, with a massive fleet and resources, they felt incredibly small and ridiculous.

This is not a war; it's ants challenging a giant.

"How far are they from us?" Luo Lao forced himself to calm down, asking.

Academician Qian Bowen pointed to a route on the star map, his voice hoarse:

"According to signal transmission and the partially decoded information, we estimate it's about a hundred-plus light-years.

If they set out now, they could arrive in ten years, or even within a year."

The entire command post, a pin drop could be heard.