Chapter 291: The

Free Star Domain Alliance, capital star "Trade Star".

It is a massive artificial planet, the entire world a colossal super‑city that combines commerce, finance and entertainment.

Merchants, adventurers, information dealers, and war‑fleeing refugees from various civilizations across the Milky Way Galaxy converge here.

Here is the most prosperous—and most chaotic—place in the entire Milky Way Galaxy.

Inside the Alliance's council hall, the Free Star Domain Alliance's supreme speaker, a creature named Baffi who looks like an Earth dolphin, sits on a chair.

In front of him lies the Alliance's latest financial report.

Watching the trade volumes and profits soaring because of the war, his mood is exceedingly pleased.

"War truly is a good thing."

Baffi, with his uniquely sonar‑like voice, says to his deputy.

"As long as the Biteng Empire and the Keluo Empire keep fighting, our Free Star Domain Alliance will soon become a force strong enough to stand toe‑to‑toe with them—the galaxy's third pole power!"

His eyes are filled with longing and ambition for the future.

Yet he does not know.

A "crisis" tailor‑made for him and the entire Free Star Domain Alliance is quietly approaching.

…..

Yanhuang Civilization, secret military base.

Qin Hao is conducting the final adjustments on his latest creation, the "work".

It is a small fleet of only one thousand vessels.

The warships of this fleet have extremely unusual designs.

Their hulls seem to be composed of countless, constantly twisting and re‑forming dark‑energy polyhedra, exuding a chaotic and evil aura.

Engraved on each bow is a blood‑red skull emblem that makes anyone who sees it shiver with dread.

"System, name this fleet Ravagers."

This fleet was conjured from nothing using the Fourth‑level system's "Conceptual Creation" ability.

He infused all his negative concepts—"interstellar pirates," "chaotic evil," "anarchism"—into the fleet's design.

Their sole purpose is destruction and plunder.

"Also, implant the 'Absolute Chaos' protocol into the fleet's AI commander."

"I need it to act in the most unpredictable, illogical, and ruthlessly cruel manner."

"It has only one objective."

A flash of icy cold light flickers in Qin Hao's eyes.

"That is, to stage a horrific attack on the Free Star Domain Alliance's routes that will make them feel searing pain."

…..

Half a month later.

On the Free Star Domain Alliance's busiest Golden Trade Route, linking the eastern and western camps,

a convoy of hundreds of large transport ships, laden with rare minerals and luxuries, is sailing.

The fleet belongs to a powerful commercial family within the Alliance.

Their escort fleet, composed of nearly a thousand Third-level Civilization warships, can handle any conventional interstellar pirate.

However, what they encounter today is not a conventional pirate.

Just as the convoy approaches a small asteroid belt,

there is no warning.

Space is brutally torn apart by a raging force.

One thousand grimly shaped, ominous "Ravagers" warships, like demons crawling out of hell, appear before the convoy.

"Warning! Warning! Unknown fleet detected! The enemy… the enemy sent no identification signal! They opened fire on us directly!"

The convoy's escort fleet hasn't even had time to react.

A devastating strike has already arrived.

The Ravagers' weapons are likewise steeped in chaos and evil.

They fire not ordinary energy cannons or particle beams.

but a kind of dark‑energy weapon akin to a "curse".

Black‑as‑ink energy streams strike the escort warships' shields.

The shields aren't pierced, yet they begin to "corrode" at a visibly rapid pace.

The spatial structure collapses, and the shield generators silently turn to scrap metal.

Soon more dark‑energy streams hit the warships' hulls.

The hulls don't explode, but become like rocks weathered for tens of thousands of years, quickly turning brittle and mottled,

then silently disintegrate and shatter in the void.

The whole process is bizarre and terrifying.

The escort fleet's commander lets out a desperate scream in his final moments.

"Devils! They are devils!"

In less than ten minutes.

Nearly a thousand escort warships are completely annihilated.

And those unarmed transport ships become lambs awaiting slaughter by the Ravagers.

They do not destroy the transport ships.

Instead, they use a peculiar tether beam to forcibly rip open each cargo hold of the transport ships.

Then, they looted all the cargo inside.

After doing all that, the Raiders fleet tore through space again and vanished without a trace.

Leaving behind only the hulks of over a hundred transport ships, ripped open and drifting in the void,

and the surviving crew, scared witless.

This sudden, inhumane terror attack struck like a heavy bomb, instantly igniting the entire Free Star Domain Alliance.

Inside the conference hall of Trade Star.

Chairman Bafi watched the horrifying on‑screen footage, his formerly relaxed body shaking violently from anger and fear.

"Investigate! Find out who did this!!"

He let out a sharp roar: "Is it the Biteen Empire? Or the Kelo Empire? Are they trying to drag war onto our alliance?!"

The alliance's Intelligence Department immediately kicked into high gear.

They analyzed the residual energy fluctuations at the scene.

They questioned the surviving crew.

But they came up empty.

That Raiders fleet was like a true phantom, leaving no trace to follow.

They didn't know where the enemy came from, nor what their goal was.

They only knew the enemy fleet was powerful, ruthless, and observed no rules.

Just as the alliance's top leadership was overwhelmed by this crisis.

The second, third, fourth attacks…

Similar terror attacks began erupting one after another on the alliance's major trade routes.

Their merchant convoys were looted.

Resource planets were plundered.

Even a colony planet on the border suffered a devastating strike from that phantom fleet.

The entire Free Star Domain Alliance fell into panic.

Once bustling beyond compare, the Golden Route grew deserted.

No merchant dared risk being looted by those demons to trade.

The alliance's economy suffered an unprecedented heavy blow.

Chairman Bafi and his fellow councilors finally realized they had provoked an enemy too mighty to oppose, mysterious and powerful.

They sought aid from the Biteen Empire and the Kelo Empire.

But those two behemoths were locked in fierce combat in the Milky Way Galaxy's central region, with no time to spare for this "neutral" alliance's fate.

Moreover, they secretly mocked these war‑profiteering opportunists, saying they finally got their comeuppance.

Just as the Free Star Domain Alliance was about to fracture from economic collapse and internal panic.

A signal from the distant east, full of "peace" and "goodwill," quietly reached Trade Ring Star.

"Hello, friends of the Free Star Domain Alliance."

"We are the Yanhuang Civilization."

"We have heard your plea for help."

"Perhaps we can offer whatever assistance we are able."