“Main Civilization, the last time we fought side by side, you were still very weak. I never expected that now you would almost have reached the level of a Level 5 Civilization.”

Amidst the fierce battle, Xiao Yu received this message. The message gave Xiao Yu an extremely familiar feeling. Without needing to verify, he immediately knew it was sent by his Specter companion.

“The last time I encountered you, you had not yet developed conscious awareness. But now, upon meeting you again, you’ve already grown so powerful! It is wonderful to fight alongside you once more. However, let us catch up later. First, let’s kill all these damned Molian creatures!” Xiao Yu burst into laughter and responded.

Never before had Xiao Yu’s mind been so relaxed and confident.

This was the belief of invincibility!

At Xiao Yu’s command, more than eighty thousand large ships that had been hiding inside the atmosphere of the red giant star burst forth all at once!

“You have one trump card, but I have two! I let you act arrogantly for a while. Now, let’s see how arrogant you can still be!”

With high spirits, Xiao Yu sent a message to the Molian fleet that had been taunting him endlessly.

At this moment, however, the Molian fleet fell silent. After a while, Xiao Yu received a reply from the Molian fleet commander. “You… how is this possible? Your fleet was unharmed? But that planet clearly exploded!”

“Foolish Molians! You thought you had devised a flawless plan. Unexpected, wasn’t it? I saw through your scheme long ago, and used it to my advantage, secretly hiding a portion of my strength ahead of time, precisely to make you underestimate me! Let’s see if you can summon reinforcements before your entire fleet is wiped out!”

Xiao Yu laughed loudly and gave the order. “Attack! Attack! Full attack!”

This strategy served two purposes, one was to prevent the Molian fleet from summoning reinforcements in time, and the other was to deal a heavy blow to their morale. Just think, they originally believed Xiao Yu was like a sick cat, easily toyed with. But suddenly, that sick cat had turned into a ferocious tiger. The psychological gap and blow this would deliver to them was immense!

The eighty thousand ships Xiao Yu had hidden were all large ships equipped with Four-Dimensional Shields! The smallest among them were County-Class starships! In fact, these eighty thousand ships were Xiao Yu’s true main force. Compared to these, the one million ships he had displayed openly were no match at all!

With the addition of the Specter Race, Xiao Yu’s strength had multiplied by at least four times in an instant!

“Good! Let’s kill off these detestable creatures first, then we’ll catch up afterward!” Xiao Yu’s Specter companion laughed heartily and charged directly into the battle.

Having reached the peak of Tier-Two, the Specter Race still seemed like an ethereal existence. Their attack methods appeared unchanged. Xiao Yu saw a powerful radiation representing the Specter suddenly approach a Molian Town-Class ship, which immediately came to a halt, no longer moving. The ship’s multi-layer shield system flickered rapidly and within mere seconds, it completely shut down.

That ship was now a corpse, devoid of any operational capacity.

“The Specter Race increases its power by devouring intelligent lifeforms. They probably don’t get to consume beings from Level 5 Civilizations very often. Well, the Molian Civilization wouldn’t submit to me anyway. Rather than selling them as merchandise, it’s better to let my Specter companion devour them directly,” Xiao Yu thought, abandoning any intention of stopping the Specters from killing.

Facing this sudden surge of power, the Molian fleet fell into chaos. The neat and orderly formations they had previously maintained were instantly broken by Xiao Yu. He was applying the same divide-and-conquer tactics he had used at the Azure Market against the Molian Civilization, using quantity to crush quality!

The Molian fleet originally had forty thousand ships. Now that Xiao Yu had suddenly added eighty thousand more, it meant that, on average, every Molian ship now had to face two additional enemy ships equipped with Four-Dimensional Shields!

After mastering multi-layer shield technology, Xiao Yu’s ships with Four-Dimensional Shields were no longer inferior in defense to Molian ships of the same class. In fact, they slightly surpassed them. The only gap remaining was in offensive power.

Under these circumstances, the battlefield was quickly shifting toward equilibrium.

Xiao Yu’s fleet functioned as the conventional combat force, while the Specter Race served as the elite strike force! With Xiao Yu’s fleet locking down the entire Molian fleet, his Specter companion were like a ferocious shark breaking into a pond full of fish, slaughtering everywhere, unstoppable!

Countless attacks rained down on it, but as an extremely powerful individual entity, the Specter simply ignored such firepower. Like a phantom, it moved rapidly across the battlefield, pouncing on and destroying one Molian warship after another.

Xiao Yu’s divide-and-conquer tactics once again proved effective. Every Molian ship destroyed by either the Specters or Xiao Yu freed up at least a dozen of his own ships to engage the remaining enemies, and the addition of these freed ships further accelerated the destruction of the remaining Molian fleet.

Neither the Specter alone nor Xiao Yu’s fleet alone could defeat the Molian fleet, even including Xiao Yu’s hidden strength. But once the two forces joined together, the Molian Civilization was left with no choice but to take a beating.

Once Xiao Yu’s divide-and-conquer tactics took effect, even retreat became impossible for the Molian fleet. Each of their ships was surrounded by at least a dozen of Xiao Yu’s ships, attacking relentlessly.

“I haven’t felt such exhilaration in a long time! Molians, give up your resistance. Surrender to me, contribute your wisdom, and I may spare your lives!”

At this moment, it was Xiao Yu who was persuading the Molians to surrender.

“In your dreams! We Molians would rather die than surrender! Just wait, you despicable schemer! One day, the Molian Civilization will dispatch a fleet and wipe all of you out!”

What came back to Xiao Yu was nothing but furious curses.

“In conflicts between civilizations, the enemy calling you despicable is the highest form of flattery. Hah… being praised like this feels great. To repay you, you can all go die now!”

Xiao Yu roared and once again intensified the assault.

Under the joint attack of Xiao Yu and the Specters, the number of Molian ships kept dwindling. By now, their fleet had been reduced from forty thousand ships to fewer than ten thousand, while Xiao Yu’s large ships had barely taken any damage.

Victory had already been decided. Unless a miracle occurred, the Molian fleet was doomed.

No miracle happened. Just as Xiao Yu was tightening the encirclement of the Molian fleet, he suddenly received a message filled with urgency. “Main Civilization! Quickly pull your ships back, they’re about to self-destruct!”

“Self-destruct?” Xiao Yu was startled. His mind raced before replying, “Forget about the rest of the ships, but can you find a way to prevent that Nation-Class starship from self-destructing? That ship is extremely valuable to me.”

“The largest one… I can give it a try. I’ll restrain it, you focus on the assault!”

After sending this message, the Specter charged swiftly toward the Nation-Class starship.

This Nation-Class starship was the first supermassive ship Xiao Yu had ever seen. Previously, he had considered building one himself but had never found the right opportunity. Now that the enemy fleet was on the verge of destruction, how could he let such a prize escape?

“Alright!” Xiao Yu responded, then commanded the Tianjin, Hebei, Shanghai, and Chongqing Province-Class starships, along with more than sixty City-Class starships, to rush toward it.

The Nation-Class starship was now hovering mid-air, its shields flickering rapidly. Xiao Yu knew that the Specter was already attacking it.

“I can restrain it and prevent it from self-destructing, but it drains my strength heavily. I won’t be able to hold on for long! You must hurry.”

Hearing the Specter’s anxious urging, Xiao Yu immediately replied, “One hour to take it down!”

“Good!”

After this brief exchange, Xiao Yu’s fleet had already reached the Nation-Class starship. The ship, though suspended, was far from peaceful, its surrounding weapons continued to fire intensely. Xiao Yu carefully observed and noticed that one sector’s weapons were not firing externally. After a moment’s thought, he understood that this was where the Specter was located, blocking those weapons.

Not only were the weapons in that area blocked by the Specter, but Xiao Yu also saw that once the Specter pounced on the Nation-Class starship, the remaining Molian ships went berserk, launching a desperate assault on that area.

“You’d rather self-destruct than let me have your ship? And only now you realize this? Isn’t it a bit late?” Xiao Yu sneered. “Since you’re offering yourselves up to die, don’t blame me…”

While the remaining ships attacked the Specter madly, they had all but abandoned evasion, counterattacks, or any tactical suppression. They no longer cared about their own survival or the torrential attacks from Xiao Yu’s fleet. Their only goal was to either kill or drive off the Specter, or at the very least, pin it down long enough… to give this Nation-Class starship the chance to self-destruct.

They were desperately buying time for the largest ship’s self-destruction.