Chapter 226: Celestial Attraction
Chapter 226: Celestial Attraction
Chapter 226: Celestial Attraction
"Shit! Canyue, I can't find the other ring. Did we leave it in your room?" Zhang Bao'er suddenly asked nervously.
Looking at this simple-minded brother of mine, I felt somewhat speechless. It was obvious Zhang Bao'er still believed that he had managed to snatch both rings from Domo.
"Don't worry. Go look for it. My door isn't locked," I said. I did not expose Domo, as I did not want to see the two bickering yet again.
Upon hearing my words, Zhang Bao'er was overjoyed. He sneaked off to look for the ring alone, afraid that Domo would follow him. Surprisingly, he returned in disappointment after only a few minutes. In fact, he even hid in the corner, as though he was afraid that I would scold him. I felt rather awkward upon seeing his behavior.
Soon, we were ready to initiate wormhole travel. This was the strongest the 7th Armored Division had ever been. Each battleship needed its own wormhole, so when our entire fleet moved, we created quite a spectacle.
About 10 minutes later, the fleet arrived at the new location: the neck of the nebula. Like other parts of the nebula, the place was also filled with rolling dark clouds. No stars could be seen around us.
Dodo and Jack used infrared scanners to search the area for heat signatures. Before long, several star systems were discovered. Among them, a three-star system could be clearly detected. This time, Dodo did not say anything. Rather, they only led Zhang Xingxing toward the image of the three-star system.
"After untold hardships, we finally found you," said Zhang Xingxing, who couldn't help but feel emotional.
"The fleet can reach that system after traveling at top speed for two hours," said Dodo.
"The entire fleet will become invisible to avoid being detected by the enemies on the beast-breeding planet," ordered Zhang Xingxing.
Following the order, the entire fleet turned invisible and moved rapidly toward our destination. After about 30 minutes of flight, we flew out of the dark clouds. At that moment, a terrifying sight appeared before our eyes. To the front right of our fleet, a newborn yellow star surrounded by dust clouds was spinning rapidly. That was obviously abnormal. The reason for its high-speed rotation was the two terrifying giants to the front right of it. The gravitational pull of the two giants had caused great instability to the yellow star.
A blue giant star was being devoured by a black hole, and it was struggling valiantly to avoid destruction. A massive spiraling blue flare leaked out of the blue star, and it was being devoured by the tiny black hole. Although we couldn't exactly see the black hole with our naked eyes, the black circle highlighted by the spiraling blue spiral had exposed its existence.
The blue giant star was hundreds of times bigger than a newborn star. Due to the blue giant star's gravitational pull, the yellow star was losing its balance, to the point its physical appearance looked unstable as well.
Of course, the blue giant star did not look like it was doing well either. The black hole was akin to a maggot that had bitten through its belly, and the belly was bleeding non-stop. From what we could see, the blue giant star and the black hole were probably wandering celestial bodies. As for the dust clouds around the yellow star, they were probably the embryonic forms of planets, and some were probably even fully formed planets. These dust clouds and planets were being torn apart by the pull of the three bigger celestial bodies.
"Perhaps these planets used to be full of life. However, this damn space fortress has ruined the balance of the universe and caused the extinction of these new life forms," sighed Baron Sisse.
"All life forms are supposed to only face the threat of natural disasters during the process of evolution. I suppose even artificial disasters need to be taken into consideration now," said Kelly.
Suddenly, the scene before us changed. Pulled by the blue star's gravity, the yellow star finally fully lost its balance. It was diverted from its orbit by about 80 degrees, and the loss of balance caused its core to instantly collapse, creating a blinding explosion.
"Heavens! Gamma-ray explosion!" exclaimed Dodo as they looked at the terrifying explosion, which was accompanied by a horrifying ripping sound.
Two powerful beams of light erupted from the top and bottom of the yellow star. The bottom beam instantly traveled tens of millions of kilometers. As for the top beam, it shot straight toward the blue star.
"Dodo, order the fleet to evade the gamma-ray explosion. A few of our ships are too close to the explosion," ordered Zhang Xingxing loudly.
"Commander, this explosion stands right in our path to the three-star system. We will have to take a long detour to avoid the explosion," said Dodo.
"Set up a new safe trajectory and notify the fleet about the detour. Prioritize the safety of all our ships," said Zhang Xingxing.
With the order, Dodo started plotting a new route. But none of us had expected a new crisis to erupt at this time. When the yellow beam struck the center of the blue star, it started swelling.
"Shit! This blue giant's core seems to have turned unstable after the rush of energy. We need to leave immediately," shouted Baron Sisse.
We knew that the gamma-ray explosion created by the collapse of a blue giant's stability would be far more powerful than the explosion of a newborn yellow star. The explosion could reach a range of 50 lightyears and obliterate everything within its reach.
"This blue giant's explosion can even damage the space fortress's wall of light. That would probably be a good opportunity for us to escape," said Dodo, who was paying close attention to the blue giant as it started deforming.
"If the burst happens to be in the direction of the three-star system, we might all perish before we even have a chance to escape," said Baron Sisse.
"I have already calculated the burst's coverage based on the angle of the blue giant's core. The three-star system is outside the coverage, but I'm not sure if the gravitational pull of the yellow star and the black hole will change its angle later," said Jack.
The blue giant was under the effect of the yellow star explosion and the black hole's pull. The two factors caused it to be extremely unstable. The smart thing to do was to leave as soon as possible. The fleet started moving away from the terrifying area in accordance with the new route plotted by Dodo, and it headed toward the three-star system from a different direction.
In truth, for there to be so many chaotic celestial bodies to exist in such close proximity to each other, the space fortress's ripples would sooner or later ruin this birthplace of stars. According to the results of our scan, the three-star system was roughly 480 billion kilometers from us. It wasn't a short distance. The distance between Blue's sun and the farthest planet in the system, Neptune, was only roughly 4.5 billion kilometers.
Thus, the explosions would temporarily not reach the three-star system. Nevertheless, there was no doubt that we were running out of time. The fleet remained invisible as we started detouring. With our speed, we will approach the three-star system after roughly three hours.
"There won't be any mishaps this time, right?" said Old Du, who had come beside me without me knowing.
"Based on the results of Dodo's scan, I believe there won't be any other surprises. But I am very worried about the 27 planets mentioned by Commander Herbert. If that's true, then the beast army must have expanded by three times their original number. With our current strength, it will be very hard for us to obtain victory," I said.
"At this point, we can only brace ourselves and keep going. We have the beast army ahead of us and the pursuing soldiers behind us. The wall of light is also acting as a barrier to stop our wormhole-leap. We must destroy the beast base, or this journey would have been for nothing," said Old Du, showcasing his determination to perish together with his enemies if needed.
I nodded at Old Du. At that point, everyone in the ship could already feel the tense mood before a battle. In the wide universe, the battleships were our sole shelter. And now, we were going to take our shelter to face our enemies. There would only be one result. Life or death.
Lin Feixue was already on his way to the bottom level. He was going to prepare the Wargod soldiers for combat. The various captains had also returned to their own ships through the docking bridges. An interstellar battle was imminent. Three hours passed in the blink of an eye. By then, the fleet was traveling at an average speed of 15 million kilometers per hour.
After we went through the thick dark cloud, an expansive space suddenly appeared before us. In the distance, a stellar system of red, yellow, and blue stars could be seen. This had been our target for a very long time.
In the very beginning, a small squad would brave numerous dangers and solve countless puzzles, and eventually, the squad of Blueling warriors would lead their army and come here. This was a part of Nommo's prophecy. And our arrival at this system could very well be only the start of what was to come.