Chapter 185: Mourning the Departed

Only this question pulled everyone back from the immense shock back to reality.

On Zhang Xianzhong's face, a hint of the dignity befitting the fleet commander also returned.

He replied in a low voice:

"The battle damage statistics have been preliminarily completed!"

"In this battle, our Federal fleet lost a total of 3,217 regular warships of all types! Among them, 320 cruisers and 2,897 destroyers!"

"The Nüwa-class Special Task Force suffered no losses!"

"As for personnel casualties..."

Zhang Xianzhong's voice grew somewhat heavy: "Preliminary statistics show 286,521 soldiers killed in action and 113,744 seriously wounded."

Hundreds of thousands of casualties.

This number made the briefly relaxed atmosphere on the bridge grow heavy again.

Behind each string of cold numbers lies a living life and a shattered family.

However, everyone knew that with a force of 350,000, they were directly confronting an enemy army of ten million,

ultimately, exchanging several thousand warships and hundreds of thousands of casualties for the glorious victory of the enemy's total annihilation…

This is no longer something that can be described as a "great victory."

This is a miracle!

A battle worthy of being recorded in the war annals of any civilization.

"We... we won."

Zhang Xianzhong muttered to himself, his eye sockets slightly reddened.

Human civilization not only survived, but also broke the aggressors' spine with the most dominant and overbearing posture!

"Pass on my orders: clear the battlefield, treat the wounded, and retrieve the remains of the fallen soldiers."

"Then..."

Zhang Xianzhong's voice paused, then became extremely solemn and dignified.

"For all our warriors who bravely sacrificed themselves in this battle for humanity and for freedom..."

"Moment of silence!"

The order was given.

The surviving 300,000-plus Federal warships, no matter how severely damaged their hulls, all came to a halt at the same moment.

All personnel, wherever they were, stopped their work, took off their caps, and bowed their heads.

There were no cheers of victory.

Only a solemn, dignified silence remained.

On this once bloody battlefield, humanity paid the highest tribute to its fallen heroes in this way.

Qin Hao looked out the porthole at that tragic yet solemn scene, his heart also filled with emotion.

The strength of technology and the invincibility of individuals are certainly key to victory in war.

But what truly sustains a civilization, pressing forward unyieldingly in the dark universe, is forever the willingness to ensure the continuation of the species,

and the courage that fears no death and selflessly sacrifices itself...

In this battle, humanity returned victorious.

But everyone knows,

this is merely a beginning.

After the moment of silence ended, the solemn atmosphere gradually faded, replaced by the tense yet orderly busyness of the postwar period.

Engineering and medical ships immediately sprang into action, beginning to shuttle across that vast battlefield.

Their primary task is to treat the wounded.

With the help of advanced medical bays and nanorobots, the lives of most of the seriously wounded can be saved, but the loss of limbs and psychological trauma require much longer to recover.

Next is the collection of remains.

For each fallen soldier, their genetic information will be recorded, and their remains will be solemnly brought back to their hometown to receive a hero's funeral.

This is the Federal government's highest tribute to the deceased.

And what most excites the tech fanatics of the Academy of Sciences is undoubtedly clearing the battlefield—or rather,

it's "picking up trash."

In this starry expanse, the wreckage of nearly ten million Moyun warships floats.

Although most were turned into debris by explosions, many remain, especially those warships that Qin Hao directly "pinched to death" with telekinesis or destroyed by physical impact,

still retain considerable structural integrity.

Among them, the most valuable is undoubtedly the biological mother ship of the Imperial Insect class, stretching three hundred kilometers in length.

Although its commander, Tatalike, together with the core command area, were completely vaporized by Qin Hao's heat vision,

but its massive hull, as well as its countless internal biological laboratories, gene cultivation chambers, and energy conversion organs, remained completely intact.

This mother ship is itself a moving giant treasure trove!

Academician Qian Bowen and Dr. Liang Zhiyuan, as soon as the war ended, immediately boarded the fastest spacecraft, each with their own teams,

and rushed to the side of the "Imperial Insect" in the shortest time.

When they, wearing powered armor, cautiously entered the interior of this giant ship, everyone was deeply shocked by what they saw.

Here, it hardly resembles a warship at all.

It is more like a living, extraordinarily complex ecosystem.

The wide corridors are made of constantly writhing, elastic biological tissue.

The walls are covered with energy conduits like blood vessels, emitting a faint red light.

In the air, a strange smell mixed with nutrient solution and ozone lingered.

Unbelievable! This is practically a miracle of the Creator!

Qian Bowen caressed a slowly throbbing energy core that pulsed like a heart, his eyes flashing with fervent light.

Their energy conversion efficiency can actually reach this level! They completely abandoned the physical engines we understand, relying purely on chemical reactions to drive such a massive hull...

The technology here could propel our energy science forward by a hundred years!

Dr. Liang Zhiyuan's team, meanwhile, were like rats that had fallen into a rice bin.

Inside the enormous gene cultivation vats, they discovered countless strange Mo Yun creature embryos at various stages of development.

Some were responsible for combat, some for logistics, and there were even biological computers dedicated solely to 'thought'.

Heavens! Quick, look at this gene sequence!

A young researcher pointed at a complex double-helix structure on the holographic screen and shouted excitedly.

Their genes are actually modular! They can be combined and spliced like building blocks, creating entirely new species with different functions!

Longevity genes! Self-healing genes! Psychic power amplification genes!

We struck it rich! We struck it rich!

Dr. Liang Zhiyuan trembled all over with excitement.

The technology previously parsed from Ka La Fa has already pushed the human average lifespan past 500 years.

And now they have obtained the entire Mo Yun Empire's 'gene bank'!

This means that, given enough time, they could cause humanity's life forms to undergo an unprecedented revolutionary leap!

Even... creating true immortality is not impossible!

Besides the Royal Insect, the wrecks of other warships are likewise priceless.

Their biological armor, their neural transmission systems, their weapon-firing organs...

Each technology opens a door to an entirely new world for the Federal scientists.

It is foreseeable that, after digesting this rich haul of 'spoils',

the scientific strength of the Human Federal will inevitably undergo an explosive, gusher-like development.

……

The Nüwa, Qin Hao's private rest chamber.

He sat cross-legged in the center of the room, eyes tightly shut, silently sensing the power within himself.

Although that recent 'slaughter' wasn't even a warm-up, it gave him a clearer grasp of his current strength.

With all shackles removed, his power has indeed reached an unfathomable 'god-tier' level capable of easily destroying planets.

But at the same time, he also felt a hint of a bottleneck.

Whether it's the superhuman gene or telekinesis, both seem to have been developed to their limits.

To go further and become stronger, he seems to be lacking some kind of 'opportunity'.

'System, where does my current strength rank in the universe?'

Qin Hao asked in his mind.