Chapter 348: Matryoshka

For him to use the Apostle, it must have been the final moment, and the danger he faced exceeded his expectations.

Because Stanley's distance was too far, Li Yu didn't recognize who the enemies actually were.

Detaching from Stanley's perspective, Li Yu's expression was Moody. The others didn't know what had happened and could only minimize their movements as much as possible.

Waiting until his Mental Power had somewhat recovered, Li Yu called Anthony over again and began to peek into his future.

The future foreseen this time was far blurrier than Stanley's, but the Apostle was similarly seen.

In the following time, Li Yu practically tried everyone one by one. Unexpectedly, the futures seen were almost identical; they all saw the Apostle being besieged.

This made Li Yu's expression look very bad. Everyone's future being almost identical meant that if he proceeded along the set trajectory, the situation he encountered would definitely be like the one foreseen in the future, besieged by enemies.

"This is a Trap." Li Yu frowned tightly, knowing full well that this Trap was set precisely for him.

Because based on his understanding of himself, if a situation was unfeasible, he would definitely retreat first, rather than desperately fighting back.

It was just that he didn't know whether this Trap was set by Returning Star or someone else.

Fortunately, when he peeked into Carol's future, he discovered one of the enemies was an Anglo Mantis Person.

This race didn't belong to Returning Star, and the place where they lived was extremely far from Returning Star.

This also meant there was a high probability it wasn't a Trap set by Keya and the others.

"It's... Alexei..." Li Yu narrowed his eyes. His deployment to the Amethyst Civilization was requested by Alexei.

Previously, Soli had secretly informed Alexei of his whereabouts, and not long after, the secret transfer order arrived.

If Keya's suspicion was eliminated, then it basically could only be Alexei, unless there was someone acting secretly that Li Yu didn't know about.

"Bypassing Titus to directly have the Military issue a secret transfer order... this inconspicuous Highness truly hides exceptionally deep." Connecting the events, the train of thought in Li Yu's mind became roughly clear.

What Li Yu was rather curious about now was whether that coordinate was really where the Hermit Squad was located.

Li Yu didn't believe Alexei could directly command the Military.

So there must be substantive evidence proving that was where the Hermit Squad was located, in order to make the Military issue the secret transfer order.

And this evidence—how exactly did Alexei obtain it?

No one could find the Hermit Squad, yet Alexei, who was far away on the horizon, actually received the news earlier than all of them.

"The Lord, what happened?" Anthony came over and asked in a low voice.

He had been observing secretly all along. Seeing Li Yu's expression change multiple times in a short period, he knew something must have happened.

Li Yu glanced at Anthony, and an idea gradually surfaced in his mind.

"Go contact Donovan. Just say you have a spy in the Return Star Fleet who discovered they are heading towards a coordinate." Li Yu ordered.

"Yes..." Anthony hastily nodded, then stepped aside, found Donovan's communication connection, and prepared to Con him.

Want to ambush me? Then be prepared for an Earth-Shaking Upheaval! A dangerous light flickered in Li Yu's eyes.

.........

Four-Armed Titan Fleet. Originally, after experiencing the three-party battle, his fleet size had shrunk, but looking at it now, it had actually expanded quite a bit.

The Amethyst Civilization bordered the Star Glory Empire, and the time for the Star Glory Empire to send additional reinforcements was far shorter than other factions.

"Haha, Brother Donovan, long time no see."

Two burly Four-Armed Titans embraced each other, their four arms slapping each other's backs.

"Commander Aruna, long time no see." Donovan pushed the other party away and greeted him, not too enthusiastically.

The previous embrace was a custom of their race. Even if he hated the other party, Donovan could only Pinch His Nose and embrace.

Aruna looked somewhat more burly than Donovan, seemingly turning a blind eye to Donovan's coldness, laughing loudly:

"The Legion Commander has praised you multiple times. You needed support this time, and I was the first to respond."

The Four-Armed Titan Legion was a Colonial Legion of the Star Glory Empire. The fleet size reached several hundreds of thousands. Besides the Legion Commander, there were ten High Echelon commanders.

Donovan and Aruna were two of them.

Donovan sneered in his heart. This Aruna wasn't easy to deal with, mocking him openly and covertly.

"Thank you for your help." Donovan's attitude was lukewarm.

Aruna continued: "With you and me joining forces as brothers, we will definitely be able to snatch the Heart of the Titan, and then take down that Li Yu to wash away your humiliation."

Donovan snorted coldly. Aruna's words made him very dissatisfied. This was clearly mocking him for being useless.

Just at this moment, the new Smart Terminal on his arm rang. He looked down, his expression flickering, and said to Aruna: "Excuse me, emergency intelligence."

"Please, go ahead..." Aruna immediately said. After Donovan left, the smile on his face retracted, and a look of contempt flowed in his eyes.

A massive Merit is placed before you, and if you can't get it, don't blame me for intercepting it. The Heart of the Titan, Li Yu... are all mine!

"Hello..." Anthony's hoarse voice made Donovan frown. Because Aruna's previous behavior made him very displeased inwardly, he didn't have a good attitude towards Anthony either:

"Grey Snake's informant, what do you want?"

He had just used the Excuse of emergency intelligence to escape Aruna's entanglement, and didn't expect the other party could provide crucial intelligence.

"I wonder if you still need intelligence on that fleet..." Anthony inquired.

Meditation? Right now, the most crucial things were the Heart of the Titan and Li Yu. He didn't care much about Meditation's intelligence anymore.

Donovan was just about to refuse, but on second thought, snatching the Heart of the Titan later might still involve clashing with Meditation. Listening to the other party's intelligence seemed okay too.

"What new intelligence is there? Let's hear it. If I need it, I'll have Grey Snake appraise a price." Donovan said impatiently.

"According to the intelligence I've obtained, that fleet, after stopping for several days, has begun advancing towards a certain direction. Do you need the coordinates?" Anthony recounted.

Li Yu wanted him to use Returning Star's intelligence to Con Donovan into going, but in Donovan's impression, he had been digging for intelligence on the Meditation Fleet all along.

Suddenly bringing up the traces of the Return Star Fleet now would very likely arouse suspicion.

So he took the liberty to substitute it with the Meditation Fleet. Anyway, as long as he Conned Donovan to the target location, it would be fine.

"Advancing towards a certain direction?" Donovan crossed his arms. This could very well just be the Meditation Fleet's routine movement, but it could also be heading towards a certain target.

Anthony seemingly said casually: "Strange to say, according to my people, they encountered a super-large-scale Red Tide on their path of advance. They spent a massive amount of time bypassing the Red Tide, as if with extreme purposefulness."

"Oh?" Donovan's brows twitched. If it were a routine movement and they encountered a large-scale Cosmic Calamity, they could just directly change direction.

But Meditation specifically bypassed it... this was interesting. Could it be... they found the location of the Heart of the Titan?

No... regardless of whether the other party found it or not, chasing after to take a look was never wrong.

Donovan remained calm and collected. If Meditation really found the location of the Heart of the Titan.

Then this Grey Snake informant didn't yet know what level of intelligence he was actually selling.

"That is indeed quite strange. What direction are their current coordinates in?"

Anthony was equally exceptionally cautious, afraid that he would say something wrong and cause the other party to suspect.

Hearing Donovan's inquiry, he deliberately raised his volume: "Do you want to purchase this intelligence?"

"Yeah, I'll purchase it first." Donovan's tone was casual.

"Alright, it's still the previous price. Remit the money over, and I'll give you the coordinates." Anthony still hadn't relaxed his vigilance until now, strictly following Grey Snake's procedures.

"Okay..." Donovan nodded, but sneered inwardly: What an Idiot. If Meditation really found the location of the Heart of the Titan.

Then the true value of this intelligence would probably multiply by several tens of times.

Anthony was also secretly mocking: So what if he's an A-Tier Lifeform? Isn't he still being Had in the Palm of My Hand.

Both were cursing each other as an Idiot inwardly as they ended the communication.

The coordinates Anthony provided were naturally the final destination coordinates, but Donovan didn't know that. He still foolishly believed that was the coordinate where the Meditation Fleet was resting midway.

When he arrived there, reality would give him a big surprise.

"The Lord, it's been completed." Anthony came over to report, not telling Li Yu the intermediate process and the petty calculations between him and Donovan.

For important figures, all they wanted was the final result. As for the tortuous process in between, they didn't care. Anthony was deeply familiar with this principle.

Li Yu nodded. He was thinking about how to make the Meditation Fleet head to that coordinate location without any suspicion as well.

Because there was an extremely faint possibility that the person setting this Trap was from the Star Glory Empire.

If that were the case, Donovan going there with money would instead help the other party increase their Strength.

However, Alexei colluding with the Star Glory Empire—these words placed together just felt awkward no matter how you looked at it.

But even for the faintest possibility, Li Yu wanted to snuff it out.

So he still needed a disruptor to ensure that it would definitely become chaotic. Only when it became chaotic could he Slack Off.

Now the facts were already laid out before him. The safest method was to evacuate immediately, completely ignoring the Heart of the Titan.

However, the Heart of the Titan involved the Perfect Lifeform. No matter what, Li Yu wanted to take a Gamble.

"Right..." Li Yu suddenly remembered: "Claptrap, can you restore the backdoor the Meditation Fleet left in this System back then?"

"No problem, Master. Actually, that backdoor program has always been in my quarantine zone." Claptrap's reply reassured him as always.

"That's good." The corner of Li Yu's mouth turned up.

.........

In the Meditation Fleet, Brooks's hair had been falling out crazily these past few days. He didn't know if it was a lingering side effect of Flesh Distortion, or if he was infuriated by a certain Interstellar human.

The strict orders from Meditation's High Echelon made him even more anxious and restless.

But while he currently seemed to hold high authority and status, in reality, in the eyes of those Controllers, he was still a disposable tool. It was merely a difference of whether they were willing to part with him or not.

"Commander Brooks!" Terra walked over hurriedly, an excited look on his face.

Brooks's eyes abruptly darkened, looking grimly at Terra: "Didn't I tell you not to disturb me unless there's an emergency!?"

Terra suddenly felt as if he was drenched in ice water and hastily spoke: "There is important intelligence regarding Li Yu and the Heart of the Titan!"

Brooks's eyes shot out bright beams, and he said deeply: "Speak!"

Terra hastily opened his Smart Terminal, bringing up a Recording, while explaining: "This is a Recording returned half an hour ago by the sub-program we deployed on those Scavenger Ships."

Brooks looked with a frown, his expression gradually changing.

The Recording was sped up by 30 times, but he could still clearly capture every frame of the image.

The protagonist of the Recording was precisely the person he had been Longing for Day and Night recently—Li Yu!

Roughly, the Spaceship was navigating, and then suddenly intercepted. The people intercepted were precisely Li Yu and his Little Brother.

Terra deduced: "That bizarre Spaceship doesn't seem capable of long-duration navigation, so he must have been wandering in the Ancient Starpath after escaping the battlefield, until he encountered this Scavenger Ship."

"But this isn't the most important part..." Terra said with some excitement, quickly dragging the progress bar to the end, then magnifying the image in front of Li Yu. It was a holographic projection.

"What's displayed on it is Returning Star's secret transfer order. Returning Star has already found the location of the Heart of the Titan and is ordering him to rendezvous."

Brooks's body uncontrollably erupted with a powerful Aura.

The pent-up frustration of the past few days was finally released at this moment. Staring at Li Yu, who seemingly noticed nothing on the screen, he smiled grimly:

"No matter how cunning you are, you can't escape the palm of my hand!"

"Locate the coordinates of this Spaceship. I'm going to tear him to shreds completely!"

Brooks didn't expect that a casual move back then would yield such a harvest. He was Impatient to see Li Yu's shocked expression.

Hearing this, Terra's expression changed slightly, immediately looking like he Hesitated to Speak.

"Why aren't you going yet?" Brooks frowned.

"Commander, Li Yu is certainly hateful, but our mission is to obtain the Heart of the Titan." Terra cautiously reminded him: "The High Echelon is already very dissatisfied with us."

Hearing this, Brooks's brows locked tightly. Another kind of urgency surged in his heart. On one side was Li Yu, whom he wished he could eat, and on the other was the Heart of the Titan.

Terra reminded him again: "What's more, he has now received the secret transfer order and will also head to the location of the Heart of the Titan. When the time comes, you can take down both simultaneously."

"You're right." This sentence reminded Brooks. He was too excited just now and didn't think of this.

He looked at Terra and gave a rare compliment: "You did well."

"I don't dare, I don't dare..." Terra said respectfully. If it weren't for the fact that he would also be implicated if Brooks couldn't complete the mission, he wouldn't have bothered to remind Brooks.

"Haha..." Brooks laughed loudly, but his eyes were full of grim murderous intent. Li Yu... your time is running out.

.........

"Phew... fortunately this Terra isn't a fool, and didn't let Brooks come hunt me down first."

Li Yu similarly learned the entirety of their conversation.

Brooks thought he was monitoring Li Yu, but in reality, it was Li Yu watching Brooks monitor himself. It was a true Matryoshka doll.

(End of this chapter)