The Molian Civilization’s plan was indeed vicious. They had even accounted for Xiao Yu’s every move, calculating that he would definitely hide behind this planet after the firing of the Stellar Cannon rather than leaving the planet beforehand.

The reason was simple. If he attempted to escape before the Stellar Cannon fired, it would draw extra attention from the aging Specter, potentially leading to undesirable consequences. Furthermore, after the star was destroyed, its destructive energy would take approximately nine minutes to reach this planet, and nine minutes was obviously not enough time for Xiao Yu’s fleet to enter Faster-Than-Light travel.

Therefore, hiding behind this planet was necessary. The Molian Civilization had arranged this plan, exploiting the disparity in technological levels and using technological control as an excuse to secretly conceal certain critical information. Quietly, with Xiao Yu’s unwitting assistance, they constructed this device which was both a Stellar Cannon and a planetary bomb. Once the Stellar Cannon fired, after releasing a Tachyon Torrent sufficient to destroy the star, it would simultaneously detonate the planet, wiping out Xiao Yu in the process.

Xiao Yu had essentially created a bomb for himself, sending himself to his death.

And after both Xiao Yu and the aging Specter perished, his Specter companion, at this stage, was still no match for the Molian Civilization.

Thus, amid the chaos of this battlefield where four forces clashed, the Molian Civilization would become the one who laughed last.

This was the wisdom of a civilization. Countless wise beings had together devised this conspiracy, and they had nearly succeeded. If it hadn’t been for the last-minute discovery by Luka Three and Luka Four, the two most outstanding scientists, they would have succeeded.

That was the most perilous second of Xiao Yu’s life. If not for the timely warning from Luka Three and Luka Four, and Xiao Yu’s decisive command, he would be dead by now.

Such was the cruelty and indifference of confrontations between civilizations.

After Xiao Yu issued the emergency evacuation order, chaos erupted inside the command hall buried five hundred meters underground. None of the scientists knew what was happening when robots abruptly burst in. They grabbed every scientist they could see and herded them into elevators. Equipped with antigravity technology, the elevators took only one second to transport them to the surface, where numerous Village-Class ships were already waiting with open hatches.

The robots forcefully herded them into the ships, which then took off and flew to rendezvous with the main fleet.

“At this point, there’s no time to think about anything else. All ships, enter curvature flight… You damned old Specter, since you’ve remained silent and haven’t come out to stop me, then stay calm at this final moment as well… Don’t jump out now…”

Xiao Yu’s actions at this moment were bordering on a gamble. It was extremely risky. Xiao Yu knew that his abnormal behavior could easily attract the attention of the aging Specter, who might then step in to stop him. But he had no other choice. He could only hold on to a sliver of hope, praying that its attention was fully occupied with hunting his Specter companion and would overlook his minor movements.

“Current speed has reached 3 percent of light speed… 20 percent… 50 percent… 100 percent!”

The fleet’s speed had reached the speed of light and was still accelerating, yet the aging Specter had not emerged, as if it didn’t exist at all.

When Xiao Yu’s fleet reached 0.5 times the speed of light, the probe left behind in planetary orbit reported to him that the Stellar Cannon had successfully fired.

The probe, moving at sub-light speed within the star system, transmitted the scene of the Stellar Cannon’s firing directly into Xiao Yu’s mind.

Xiao Yu knew that the Stellar Cannon had successfully launched. The Tachyon Torrent, with a mass of negative one hundred fifty billion tons, upon leaving the emitter, took only an instant to reach the core of the star, excavating a cavity nearly one cubic kilometer in size within the stellar core. Deprived of its core support, the star’s outer layers immediately began to collapse. Amidst this collapse, the stellar material collided violently, and tremendous forces started to propagate outward…

This was the entire process of a stellar weapon destroying a star.

A star’s diameter could reach up to one million kilometers, and the speed at which force could be transmitted could not exceed the speed of light. Therefore, several seconds after the Tachyon Torrent had hollowed out the star’s interior, its effects only then began to manifest on the star’s exterior.

In that instant, the star’s brightness suddenly increased by several hundred times. Not only in the visible light spectrum, but its various other radiations across multiple wavelengths also intensified several hundredfold.

This was already an astonishing transformation, but Xiao Yu knew this was merely the prelude to the star’s catastrophe. The main event was still to come.

Through highly filtered lenses, Xiao Yu observed a cataclysmic scene on the star’s surface, as if mountains were collapsing and the earth was splitting apart.

Like tsunamis stirred up by earthquakes, countless flame peaks, each towering tens of thousands of kilometers high, suddenly surged up from the star’s surface. The matter at the peaks of these mountains had even reached the star’s escape velocity, and they were flung off the star, scattered into the surrounding space.

In the few seconds following the initial eruption, the radiation intensity increased even further, rapidly climbing to tens of thousands of times the star’s usual radiation levels, and continued to rise. The ejection of stellar matter intensified, with even larger amounts of material being expelled into space. From the perspective of the probe, it was as if a magnificent rain of fire was falling around the star, with the star itself as its center.

Xiao Yu only witnessed this scene for an instant. The radiation from the star was simply too intense. Under such powerful radiation, all the probes Xiao Yu had deployed in the star’s orbit were incinerated in an instant, leaving Xiao Yu blind to further observation.

“Hopefully, this powerful stellar catastrophe will be enough to eliminate that aging Specter…” Xiao Yu silently prayed in his heart.

This was the first Stellar Cannon Xiao Yu had built, and also its first use. Since Xiao Yu’s current knowledge of stellar structure, stellar mechanics, and related fields was still incomplete, the cannon theoretically possessed the capability to tear apart this star, but how effective it truly was would have to be proven by actual results.

However, in Xiao Yu’s estimation, even if this Stellar Cannon failed to tear the star apart, it would certainly cause the star’s activity to intensify dramatically. The energy released per unit area under such extreme stellar activity would still exceed the power of the shot he had previously fired at the aging Specter, and should likewise be enough to completely annihilate it.

With all his probes destroyed, Xiao Yu no longer knew exactly what was happening at the star. But he no longer had the mental capacity to worry about that. Right now, his mind was focused on only one thing: escape!

If he was too slow, his life would be forfeit!

Even amidst such a frantic retreat, Xiao Yu did not forget one thing. Just a few seconds after the Stellar Cannon fired, Xiao Yu transmitted a message filled with fury to the Molian Civilization via superluminal communication.

“Despicable Molian Civilization! Why did the Stellar Cannon explode?! Why did it destroy an entire planet?! Ah! My ships! My Tianjin! My Chongqing! Despicable Molian Civilization, I will not spare you! I will wipe out every one of your shameless, vile creatures!”

After sending this message, Xiao Yu decisively cut off communication and continued to flee at full speed.

Xiao Yu knew that after the explosion settled, the Molian Civilization would definitely come to investigate. Thus, it was unrealistic to pretend that his fleet had been completely wiped out. The best outcome was to make the Molian Civilization believe that his fleet had suffered heavy losses, thereby concealing part of his strength. Then, when the Molian Civilization eventually caught up and engaged him in battle, he would have a hidden trump card.

When the Molian Civilization discovered that his fleet’s strength was actually intact, they would surely be shocked. Xiao Yu thought to himself.

Yes, everything was unfolding just as Xiao Yu had predicted. In the instant after the Stellar Cannon fired the Tachyon Torrent, it immediately transformed into a planetary bomb, shattering the entire planet.

At that moment, at the planet’s location, a light burst forth as bright as a star. Tens of millions of tons of antimatter were released into the natural environment, and the instant it came into contact with normal matter, a massive amount of energy was unleashed, instantly blowing the entire planet into fragments.

It was another disaster. The decoy ships Xiao Yu had previously stationed there were instantly torn apart, reduced to scrap metal.

By this point, 99.9 percent of Xiao Yu’s probes in this star system had been destroyed. The remaining tiny portion would soon be burned up as the stellar radiation arrived. To continue observing the situation in this star system, he would have to wait until he reached a safe distance before stopping and slowly monitoring.

Both a star and a planet had been completely destroyed in collateral damage. At this moment, Xiao Yu had already reached his maximum speed of seven times the speed of light, desperately fleeing toward a star over thirty light-years away.

“Hopefully, the stellar catastrophe has killed that aging Specter. Hopefully, it won’t come after me…” Xiao Yu silently prayed.

But it seemed Xiao Yu’s prayers were not answered. At that moment, he received the message he least wanted to see.

“My descendant, you have greatly disappointed me. Your performance has truly disappointed me.”