Let’s rewind to the moment before the countdown began.

At that time, the situation aboard the All Nations Pay Tribute was dire. Inside the ship, intense tremors occurred almost constantly. Artificial gravity systems frequently failed, sending all kinds of unanchored equipment flying wildly. Explosions erupted everywhere, flashes of fire blazed through the corridors…

The worst incident was an engine that exploded due to excessive load. That single blast alone caused more than ten casualties, and the shockwave flattened everything within dozens of meters.

The scientists aboard the All Nations Pay Tribute seemed to sense the arrival of doomsday. Some were frantically trying to connect to Xiao Yu’s emergency communication line. Others ran wildly through the ship, only to be struck dead or buried alive by burning machinery crashing down from above. Some huddled together, trembling. But most simply stayed still, praying in their own way, hoping that the god of their civilization’s legends would descend to save them.

At that moment, the inside of the All Nations Pay Tribute was a true depiction of apocalypse.

“Master, please save us! We still have so many unanswered questions to study, we can continue to contribute to your scientific progress…”

“Master, where are you? Have you abandoned us? Please, we beg you, don’t give up on us, save us…”

“We were imprisoned by the Molian Civilization for so long, suffered so much… and finally, under your command, we found peace and stability. Is this peaceful life now coming to an end?”

“Help! Help!”

A flood of desperate pleas filled Xiao Yu’s mind.

Watching everything happening inside the All Nations Pay Tribute, Xiao Yu felt a complex swirl of emotions.

These scientists were undeniably of immense importance to him. If there was even the slightest chance to save them, Xiao Yu didn’t want to lose them. But given the current situation…

Xiao Yu didn’t know whether his plan would succeed. When it came to saving the All Nations Pay Tribute, he had no confidence at all.

“Everything… it all depends on whether my plan works. If it does, that’s great. But if it fails… it’s not that I didn’t want to save you. I truly had no other way… sigh.” Xiao Yu sighed and simply shut off the communication channel.

By this point, Xiao Yu had mentally prepared himself for the loss of the All Nations Pay Tribute. He had already decided, if the plan truly failed, he would use the explosion of the ship’s Four-Dimensional Shield to heavily wound the Alien Beast, then use the rest of his fleet to kill it, using its corpse to recoup at least part of the loss.

But without question, even such a massive Alien Beast didn’t equal the value of the All Nations Pay Tribute. Not even close. And that’s without counting the scientists aboard. If Xiao Yu had to choose between the two, could only save one, he would unhesitatingly choose to preserve the ship.

The countdown ticked lower and lower. Each number that dropped meant the All Nations Pay Tribute was that much closer to destruction. But just as it reached ten, those final ten seconds, a turning point appeared.

The Alien Beast seemed to finally understand Xiao Yu’s ‘scheme.’ After a series of furious curses, it suddenly released its grip on the All Nations Pay Tribute. In a flash, its body twisted like a jellyfish drifting through the sea and shot off into the distance, instantly breaking through Xiao Yu’s encirclement and vanishing who-knows-where.

Without the ship restraining it, it was not difficult for the beast to escape Xiao Yu’s encirclement.

The moment the beast disappeared, Xiao Yu knew, his All Nations Pay Tribute was finally safe.

With the threat gone, Xiao Yu immediately halted the bombardment on the All Nations Pay Tribute. That was his ship, after all, any damage would still be his responsibility to repair.

Only at this moment did Xiao Yu finally relax.

“This creature… finally figured it out? Has my plan… finally succeeded?” Xiao Yu murmured to himself, but he no longer dared take any risks. He immediately regrouped all ships, placing the All Nations Pay Tribute securely in the center of the fleet, once again deploying an outward-facing combat formation. At the same time, he maxed out all internal and external scanning equipment.

Without the interference of the Alien Beast, the All Nations Pay Tribute quickly stabilized and ceased shaking. However, the situation inside remained grim. After all, the damage it had just sustained was far too extensive.

The entire process of rescuing the All Nations Pay Tribute had been a nerve-wracking ordeal. If there had been even the slightest misstep, if the Alien Beast had hesitated a moment less, he would have truly lost the ship.

In truth, the plan was fairly simple. Xiao Yu had worked to create an impression, trying to make the Alien Beast believe that destroying the All Nations Pay Tribute was part of a trap. The goal of the ‘trap’ was to leverage the explosion of its Four-Dimensional Shield to severely injure the beast and ultimately eliminate it.

There were solid preconditions for executing this plan. First, when the creature had first appeared and destroyed the five County-Class ships, it had already experienced the power of a Four-Dimensional Shield’s explosion. Then came the City-Class ship’s self-destruction, which directly blew off hundreds of meters of its tail.

So, unless it was an idiot, the beast would naturally begin to consider a key question.

If even the smallest County-Class ship could cause such severe harm to it, and a City-Class ship could blow off its tail… then what would happen if the massive ship it was clutching exploded?

While the specifics might be unclear, it would certainly know that a Nation-Class ship’s explosion could very likely leave it critically injured. And once injured, it could easily be overwhelmed and killed by the encircling hundreds of thousands of ships.

On top of that were Xiao Yu’s deliberately ambiguous, seemingly provocative messages, and his suspicious ‘friendly fire’ directed at the giant ship… all of it could be strung together to form a single narrative: a trap.

Xiao Yu could clearly imagine its line of thought. It had surely concluded that the entire incident was a carefully laid scheme, from start to finish, devised by Xiao Yu to kill it, using the largest ship as bait and aiming to destroy it with the power of a self-detonation.

But this wasn’t a trap at all. Xiao Yu’s true objective wasn’t to kill the beast, it was only to save his ship and the ten thousand-plus scientists aboard. But that didn’t matter. As long as the beast believed it was a trap, that was enough.

And now, Xiao Yu’s plan had succeeded. After spewing a string of vicious curses, the Alien Beast gave up on destroying the All Nations Pay Tribute and fled outright.

“Whew… that was really close,” Xiao Yu exhaled with relief. While maintaining the highest level of alert, he immediately began rescue operations for the injured scientists aboard the All Nations Pay Tribute.

“Luka Two, Three, Four, well done. In the face of life-and-death crisis, you maintained your composure. Excellent. I now have a new task for you three, stabilize the scientists psychologically, help them calm down and return to work as soon as possible. Leave the rest to me.”

Xiao Yu issued the command.

The three Luka units bowed respectfully in unison. “As you command, Master.” When they raised their heads, expressions of profound relief appeared on their faces.

No matter how unafraid of death one may be, anyone with a sound mind knows that living is better than dying.

Throughout the corridors, rooms, and open plazas of the ship, the panicked scientists finally began to settle down. Xiao Yu had already broadcast a message, briefly explaining the situation, clearly stating that the enemy had been driven off and that they were now safe. He instructed everyone to remain in place and not to move around; rescue bots would come for them soon and provide aid.

“We’re finally safe? I’m still alive? That’s wonderful, thank you, Master! Thank you!”

“To save our lives, the Master sacrificed so many ships, and even detonated a City-Class vessel!”

“It was the Master who saved us. He let us keep living. From now on, we must work even harder to repay his kindness.”

The surviving intelligent lifeforms of various species wore different expressions, but all of them were visibly moved and excited.

Xiao Yu had little interest in all this, not in the emotional responses of these scientists. He had far more important matters to deal with.

At present, the interior of the All Nations Pay Tribute was in utter chaos. It looked as if an earthquake had just swept through it. Fires from explosions burned everywhere. Equipment was reduced to wreckage. Severed limbs and corpses of intelligent life littered the ship. The overall assessment was grim. During this disaster, thirty percent of the ship’s power engines had been completely destroyed by fire. The remaining seventy percent had sustained varying degrees of damage.

“What a mess… but no choice. Let’s start cleaning it up.” Xiao Yu sighed and deployed a massive robot force into the ship. The robots began repairing equipment, clearing debris, tending to the injured, and restoring order…