Chapter 226

As his words fell.

The major shipyards and space stations of the Yanhuang Star System and the Solar System also opened at the same time.

Brand‑new Federal warships streamed out one after another!

Ten million flagship warships, like two black steel torrents, surged from humanity's home star system!

And the hundred thousand "Giant Spirit" ships also merged into the array.

Human Federal, all forces deployed!

At this moment, the two massive fleets of the opposing forces met on the outer rim of the Yanhuang Star System.

The entire starry sky warped and trembled due to the confrontation of the two forces!

"Hahaha! Well timed! Well timed!"

Zhou Shaoqing stared at the holographic star map, at the densely packed tens of millions of light points representing both sides, and felt no fear—only his blood boiling with ferocity.

"Rote Commissioner! Chief Commander! Give the order! Let me lead the first fleet to smash the first round! I want to see just how hard these iron clods are!"

He proactively challenged Luo Lao, yearning to clash with this legendary Third-level Civilization in a real fight!

Qin Hao slowly opened his eyes.

His gaze pierced the endless void.

He could clearly sense that, at the core of the Silicon-based Union's mechanical planet, there existed a cold, vast, profound mechanical mind.

At the same time, he also felt that within the Star Sea Divine Church's fleet, the "Sea of Faith" formed by the wills of countless believers had become fully activated.

Two utterly different yet equally powerful forces were silently undergoing the fiercest collision.

At that moment, a communication request from the Star Sea Divine Church's "Joint Forces Supreme Temporary Command" came through.

Nominally headed by a Star Sea Divine Church representative as Chief Commander, but in reality a temporary alliance rife with intrigue, was formally established.

"All forces, attack!"

A cold, emotionless synthetic mechanical voice emanated from the Silicon-based Union's central brain, instantly reaching each of its combat units.

No pre‑war mobilization, no lofty speeches.

Only the coldest, most efficient execution of orders.

The next second, the boundless black iron curtain composed of countless mechanical warships moved.

They advanced as a perfect matrix formation optimized by mathematical models, slowly pressing forward as a whole.

That uniform motion and suffocating pressure made every Joint Forces soldier who saw it feel a tingling on their scalp.

"Fire!"

On the Joint Forces side, the nominal Chief Commander of the Star Sea Divine Church, a "Grand Archbishop" clad in golden battle armor and wielding a scepter, also issued the attack order.

In an instant, a multicolored torrent of energy burst forth from the Joint Forces' array!

The holy golden Light, the assorted energy cannons of the vassal civilizations, and the Human Federal's laser cannons and curvature antimatter missiles, steeped in violent aesthetics…

Hundreds of billions of attack beams converged into a dazzling energy storm capable of tearing stars, sweeping toward the black iron curtain.

However, faced with this cataclysmic attack.

The Silicon-based Union's fleet neither flinched nor evaded.

Their matrix formation underwent a slight change in an instant.

Each warship's Spatial Shield, via some unknown technology, linked together, forming an immense unified spatial folding field that covered the entire fleet.

Wave—!

The Joint Forces' energy storm struck the massive Spatial Shield in its entirety.

There was no earth‑shattering explosion as imagined.

All the energy was redirected elsewhere.

Nevertheless, the high‑density energy attacks caused a ripple in the Spatial Shield field, evidently consuming a great deal of energy.

At the instant the Joint Forces' first wave of attack ended.

The Silicon-based Union's counterattack arrived.

Their method of attack was equally simple, efficient, and lethal.

It was neither an energy cannon nor a missile.

But gray, inconspicuous disintegration rays.

Hundreds of billions of such disintegration rays shot from their matrix formation toward the Joint Forces' vanguard fleet.

The Joint Forces' vanguard, composed of vassal civilizations with uneven technology levels, was instantly hit with devastating blows.

Their Energy Shields, before those gray disintegration rays, were as thin as tissue paper, collapsing at the slightest touch.

One by one, warships, the moment hit by the rays, began silently from the outside to disintegrate, collapse, and turn into cosmic dust.

Just a brief encounter.

The Joint Forces' vanguard lost over one hundred thousand warships!

The entire front was brutally ripped open with a massive gash!

The scene was extraordinarily grim.

"Is this… the combat power of a Third-level Civilization?"

Inside the Federation Command Center, a young staff officer watched on the holographic screen the Joint Forces warships falling in sheets like a wheat harvest, his voice trembling.

Too strong.

That war machine, cold to the extreme and born solely for efficiency, shocked everyone psychologically.

However, this was only the beginning.

At the moment chaos erupted in the Joint Forces' front.

The Silicon-based Union's mechanical planet, thirty thousand kilometers in diameter, moved.

The countless mechanical structures on its surface began to operate at high speed.

A dark-red energy ball, over a hundred kilometers in diameter, made of pure energy and emanating a destructive aura, rapidly formed at its top.

"Evade! Everyone, evade!"

The Grand Archbishop, fleet commander of the Star Sea Divine Sect, issued an emergency order.

But, it was already too late.

Only to see that dark-red energy ball blast forth from that mechanical planet!

However, it vanished in the next second, directly entering a space jump.

In an instant, it crossed a distance of trillions of kilometers, appearing among the vanguard fleet.

The energy ball exploded, directly shattering a spherical space of tens of billions of kilometers.

The hundreds of thousands of allied warships within the attack range had no time to react, being utterly torn apart and disintegrated in those terrifying space fragments!

Just one shot!

The allied forces' line was once again cleared of a large section!

"What kind of weapon is this? It's so terrifying! How huge is its range?"

At the allied forces' headquarters, Zhang Xianzhong and others exclaimed in shock.

Soon they heard the Grand Archbishop's explanation.

"Don't panic, everyone; this is merely a conventional tactical weapon of the Silicon-based Union—a space bomb."

His tone was as if stating an insignificant fact.

"Conventional... tactical weapon?"

Zhou Shaoqing almost bit off his own tongue; he couldn't believe his ears.

"One blast wiped out hundreds of thousands of warships, clearing tens of billions of kilometers of space—this is called a conventional weapon?"

"Then what would count as a strategic weapon?"

"Directly blow up an entire star system?"

"Yes, a conventional weapon."

The Grand Archbishop repeated it, his gaze sweeping over everyone present, carrying the aloof indifference of a higher civilization looking down on a lower one.

"Its purpose is to clear large-scale, densely gathered fleets like just now. It's highly efficient, but not unbeatable."

"Its energy reserves and firing frequency are limited. Each shot also imposes a massive energy burden on that mechanical planet itself."

The Grand Archbishop's explanation eased the atmosphere in the headquarters somewhat.

It turned out it couldn't be fired indefinitely.

"What should we do, Your Excellency Grand Archbishop?" asked a commander of a vassal civilization, urgently.

"It's simple."

The Grand Archbishop raised his scepter, pointing at the holographic star map.

"Pass on my order: all fleets shall immediately break formation, scattering fully by combat unit! Increase the distance between each other!"

"Abandon frontal line confrontation and enter a mobile, interleaved combat mode!"

"Their space bombs may be powerful, but their coverage is ultimately limited. As long as we are sufficiently dispersed, each attack can destroy at most one or a few of our combat units."

"Use casualties to drain its energy!"