The passing of a great existence marked the rise of another. Just like a supernova explosion, the violent death of a star brought various materials into the universe, making the emergence of intelligent life possible and adding color and vibrancy to the cosmos.

“My elder has died, perished by my hand,” Xiao Yu thought, his mood turning sorrowful.

“Then let me inherit your will. With the death of one aging Specter, another newborn Specter shall rise. I will follow the path you once struggled along and carve out a road of my own in this dark universe. The mysteries behind us will one day be fully uncovered by me, and all powerful enemies will eventually be trampled beneath my feet…”

Xiao Yu silently vowed, continuing to race forward at seven times the speed of light.

“Once the Molian Civilization realizes I haven’t been destroyed, only severely damaged, they will not let me go. Their speed… is about eleven times the speed of light. Calculating this way, they will catch up to me in less than five years. Hiding is now meaningless, and escape is no longer possible. So I will face them head-on. Let the Molian Civilization become the first enemy to fall on my path to power!”

During his desperate flight, Xiao Yu secretly made up his mind.

Even while still fleeing, Xiao Yu began working intensively. During this period, while developing the Stellar Cannon, his technology had advanced significantly. Although most of these breakthroughs were related to the Stellar Cannon and still incomplete, technology is never isolated, progress in one field often drives advancement in others. Just like in the Earth era, the rapid development of computer technology brought revolutionary changes to all areas of civilization.

Previously, Xiao Yu had not had time to apply these technologies to enhance his combat capabilities. Now, finally having some time, he naturally needed to prepare as quickly as possible.

Thus, even while traveling at Faster-Than-Light speed, Xiao Yu began his work. Of course, due to the constraints of reality, physical material exchange could not occur effectively inside the ship during FTL travel, so at this stage, only internal modifications of the ship were being carried out. Xiao Yu would complete this phase during travel, then perform full-scale upgrades after arriving at the next star system.

The greatest benefit brought by the Stellar Cannon project was a tremendous leap in energy supply technology. This major improvement in energy supply meant that Xiao Yu’s ships now had longer endurance, stronger firepower, and more powerful shields. Under Xiao Yu’s command, countless robots busily worked throughout the ship’s interior.

In this manner, three years passed in the blink of an eye. Xiao Yu had already traveled over twenty light-years away. Here, he found a red giant star, a star that had entered its aging phase. Xiao Yu’s fleet stopped here. He intended to set up the battlefield here and turn it into the Molian Civilization fleet’s grave.

If he had fled at full speed, he could have put over thirty light-years between himself and the Molian fleet before they caught up. But that would not have been worthwhile. The reason was simple: if all his time was spent fleeing, there would be no time left to set up traps.

This star, during its main-sequence phase, had been slightly smaller than the Sun. But at this stage, its radius had expanded to 130 million kilometers. In comparison, though the Sun’s mass was still slightly greater, its radius was less than 700,000 kilometers. According to Xiao Yu’s observations, there had originally been three planets orbiting this star, but two had already been engulfed by the star.

As a star enters its late stage, its outer layers are pushed outward by internal pressure, causing its volume to expand dramatically. If a planet is close enough, it will be swallowed by the star’s atmosphere. Through friction with the stellar atmosphere, the planet’s speed will gradually slow, eventually plunging into the star like a falling meteor.

When the Sun enters its aging phase, Mercury, Venus, and, if Earth has not exploded by then, Earth itself will not escape the same fate. These three planets will be gradually swallowed one by one by the expanding Sun.

However, under the condition of fixed mass, the larger the volume becomes, the lower the density will be. A red giant is exactly this kind of celestial body. Its outer structure has extremely low density, and its temperature is relatively low, only around three thousand degrees Celsius. That is why its color appears red, hence the name ‘red giant.’

“This is a suitable battlefield,” Xiao Yu silently contemplated. “I can hide part of my forces directly within the stellar atmosphere. With a temperature of only around three thousand degrees, my ships can withstand it with their current defensive capabilities. But due to the intense radiation and interference here, they won’t be detected by any external observers.”

“The Molian Civilization is expected to arrive here in one year. Then, let’s begin!”

Of the three planets, only one remained, a gas giant with about half the mass of Jupiter. The various moons surrounding it were excellent sources of raw materials.

Due to the urgent timeline, Xiao Yu didn’t have enough time to construct large ground bases. In fact, not just large ground bases or space gun turrets, even fully upgrading his existing fleet with the latest technology was not feasible. Under these circumstances, Xiao Yu had to make trade-offs, prioritizing the fastest construction of several raw material processing bases and carrying out critical upgrades to the most essential parts of his ships.

In addition to that, there was the repair of damaged ships, formulation of new strategic plans, and so on. One year was truly not much time.

Before beginning his preparations, there was one more thing to do. With no time to wait for reinforcement construction, Xiao Yu had to rely on his existing fleet, which likely wasn’t a match for the Molian fleet. Who knew how many ships the Molian Civilization had built up over nearly a hundred years?

So Xiao Yu quickly built a Faster-Than-Light broadcasting device and used it to transmit a distress signal into space. “I am here! My coordinates are… come immediately! Come immediately!”

This message was also encoded using Morse Code, which, among known existences, only Xiao Yu and his Specter companion could decipher.

Although FTL broadcast was not as fast as superluminal communication, its advantage was that it operated point-to-field. No matter where his Specter companion was, as long as it was within fifty light-years, it would be able to receive the signal. According to Xiao Yu’s estimation, after the aging Specter’s death, his Specter companion likely wouldn’t stray far from this region.

Once the message was sent, Xiao Yu plunged into intense preparations for battle. Three months later, the first batch of resource bases was completed and started producing large quantities of materials. Countless small ships busily shuttled between dozens of moons, transporting load after load of resources. All kinds of robots worked on the ships, removing outdated components and replacing them with newly manufactured, higher-performance parts.

Besides upgrading old ships, Xiao Yu also built a large number of expendable small ships. Though their combat capabilities were low, they made up for it with sheer numbers and could be operated by artificial intelligence, meaning they wouldn’t consume his own computational capacity during battle.

As the intense preparations continued, time ticked by. Half a year passed. One year passed…

A year and three months later, the FTL detectors Xiao Yu had placed at the outskirts of the star system detected abnormal signals. This indicated that some objects were approaching him at Faster-Than-Light speed.

“So they’ve finally come,” Xiao Yu sneered coldly in his mind.

Under Xiao Yu’s command, part of his fleet had already hidden within the star’s atmosphere. There were about eighty thousand ships hidden there. Though not many in number, every one of them was County-Class or above, all equipped with Four-Dimensional Shields. Compared to the massive main fleet outside, filled with all sorts of mixed, inferior ships, these hidden vessels represented Xiao Yu’s true combat power.

The hidden force remained still, while the external fleet sprang into action. As many as one million various ships quickly ascended, ready for battle.

Under Xiao Yu’s observation, one ship after another abruptly emerged from the void two billion kilometers away from the star: one, two, ten thousand, twenty thousand…

There were as many as forty thousand ships. Among them were four Province-Class vessels, and one particularly massive ship estimated to have a mass exceeding two hundred million tons. In Xiao Yu’s classification, that would already qualify as a Nation-Class vessel.

It was undeniably a formidable force. But Xiao Yu felt no fear.

“Molian Civilization, you should have died long ago. Let this stellar graveyard become your resting place. You shall accompany this aging star into death!”

The death of the aging Specter had long been a knot in Xiao Yu’s heart, leaving him deeply unsettled. He longed for a chance to vent his emotions, and the Molian Civilization was now the perfect target for his rage.

“Despicable Predator Civilization, have you finally given up running? Obediently surrender now, and perhaps our civilization will still leave you a path to live…”