Double penetration, starting from being a trader

Although the three creatures are similar in appearance, their tentacles have different patterns, with the smallest one having far fewer patterns than the other two.

Of the three creatures, the largest one twitched its tentacles and said:

"Stars can be refined at any time; the tasks assigned by the Empire are the most important."

The smallest creature, however, was unimpressed:

“Brother, we’ve already investigated more than a dozen signal sources, and they’re all emanating from special celestial bodies. Even if we’ve discovered a few civilizations, they’re all just low-level civilizations. This signal source we’ve discovered is so weak, it’s definitely not the target the Empire is looking for. Let’s extract the energy from this star first.”

The other creature next to it also opened its mouth:
"Yes, elder brother, the third brother is right. We've come all this way with great difficulty. There are so many stars in this star system. If we take back some stellar energy, it won't be easy to explain to our people."

The eldest of the three said coldly:

"I've already said the mission is the most important thing! Stop wasting time."

Hearing their elder brother's firm words, the other two strange creatures could only helplessly lower their tentacles.

The three creatures then prepared to leave.

But at that moment, the star not far in front of them underwent a dramatic change.

The once energetic star suddenly dimmed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Moreover, nuclear fusion inside the star also began to cease.

The three creatures were all stunned by what they saw.

The phenomenon we are witnessing is very similar to the impending death of a star, indicating that the star's lifespan is coming to an end.

However, they had previously observed that this star was far from its natural end.

"What's going on?" the smallest creature asked in confusion.

"Be careful!" The largest creature's voice was grave.

The sudden appearance of a star as dead is unusual in the universe.

Moreover, this area is unexplored territory for them; who knows what might be inside?

As the group watched, the light of the distant star grew dimmer and dimmer until it disappeared completely.

Immediately afterwards, the stars scattered across the sky like sand, turning into a large cloud of cosmic dust.

The three soon discovered that a man was slowly emerging from the dust.

The man had a handsome face and a calm gaze.

He wore a long, purplish-black robe, and his starlight-colored hair stood out against the dark starry sky.

"Eighty," the man muttered to himself.

This man was none other than Chen Feng.

He spent almost the entire year refining stars, with almost no rest. With the help of the Star Dao Fruit, his refining speed was several times faster than usual.

Even so, he still did not reach the required number of star arrays for the ninety-six-star array.

Over the past year, he has condensed more than thirty star cores and refined so many stars that he himself has lost count, because the difficulty increases as he progresses.

Even now, it's not possible for ten stars to condense into a single stellar core.

Moreover, Chen Feng felt that once ninety-six star cores were condensed, the star would probably be useless.

"What civilization are you from?" a voice rang out from afar.

Chen Feng's attention was then drawn back from his reverie.

He was taken aback when he saw the three strange creatures in the distance: "Octopuses?"

The three-headed creature clearly didn't understand what Chen Feng meant by "octopus".

But they could understand the language Chen Feng spoke; it was the common language of interstellar space.

The largest creature stared at Chen Feng: "Human, what civilization do you come from? Is the destruction of this star related to you?"

There are many human races in the universe, and even many variants, making them a very common race.

Chen Feng did not answer, but instead raised his hand and grabbed.

The three strange creatures immediately felt a terrifying force pressing down on them.

"Oh no, it's a seventh-tier expert!"

The largest of the strange creatures let out a scream, and then the tentacles on its body began to flash with light. As soon as these lights appeared, the main cannons of the three warships in the distance were simultaneously aimed at Chen Feng.

boom!
Three energy beams shot towards Chen Feng at near the speed of light.

However, these three energy rays, powerful enough to destroy a planet, struck Chen Feng but did not cause him any harm.

The three strange creatures stared wide-eyed at the sight.

"How is this possible!" The largest creature stared at Chen Feng in disbelief.

The gamma cannons on their warships are weapons that can penetrate even planets!
The person in front of me was hit by three gamma energy rays but was completely unharmed.

Is the other party still a living being?

Chen Feng glanced at the distant warship, then at the three-headed creature he had controlled, and said with some surprise:

"It's quite interesting that he can still order the warships to attack even after being suppressed by my star power."

"We are the Nero race, a subordinate civilization of the Crimson Cloud Empire. Have you considered the consequences of attacking us!" The smallest creature roared at Chen Feng.

Suppressed by Chen Feng's power of stars, he was completely unable to move, which made him feel extremely humiliated.

"The Crimson Cloud Empire?" Chen Feng frowned.

He initially thought these three strange creatures were accidentally wandering into this place by some unknown civilization, but he never expected that they would actually be related to the Crimson Cloud Empire.

But soon, Chen Feng realized something.

This place isn't far from the solar system. People from the Crimson Cloud Empire have come here. Could it be that they've already discovered the solar system?
Realizing this possibility, Chen Feng immediately reached out and pressed his hand on the head of one of the strange creatures.

The terrifying power of the divine soul instantly entered the body of this monstrous creature!

But the result disappointed Chen Feng.

Like the Moro tribe, the soul of the creature in front of him was also scattered, making it impossible to search its soul.

Although Chen Feng failed to search the soul, the terrifying power of the soul still completely destroyed the strange creature's consciousness.

The bizarre creature, devoid of consciousness, began to flail its tentacles haphazardly.

The other two strange creatures shuddered in fright upon seeing this.

Chen Feng's eyes were calm: "I'll ask, you answer."

The remaining two strange creatures were naturally dissatisfied; as members of the Nero race, they had their own pride.

However, Chen Feng had seen many tough nuts to crack, so he directly injected stellar energy into the two creatures.

Immediately, the two strange creatures screamed in agony.

The screams didn't last long; in less than a quarter of an hour, the two strange creatures began to beg for mercy.

"My lord, spare my life!"

"Sir, we have something to say!"

Both strange creatures had their tentacles shortened by a segment, and their aura had weakened to an extreme.

Relying on his precise control over stellar energy, Chen Feng was able to inject that energy into every inch of the flesh and blood of these two bizarre creatures—a pain that most people could not endure. This was also his most frequently used method of interrogation.

Chen Feng asked:

"Who are you, and what is your purpose in coming here?"

The largest, strange creature quickly said:

“My name is Abbit, this is Abinu, and the other one who died was named Abhihan. The three of us brothers are from the Nero civilization. This time, we received orders from the Empire to explore some unknown star regions. My lord! We really have no ill intentions; we are just passing through here.”

In Abbott's view, this time they were extremely unlucky.

They were just passing through this star system when they happened to encounter a terrifying seventh-tier powerhouse.

Their opponent's strength was simply beyond their capabilities.

"Unknown star region? Do you have specific coordinates?"

"Yes, yes, yes, it's on the warship! I'll take you there, sir!" Abbit thought Chen Feng didn't believe him, so he quickly spoke up.

Chen Feng didn't say much, and immediately led Abbit and the other two toward the three warships.

At this moment, Chen Feng noticed that all three warships had the Red Cloud emblem, the same emblem he had seen on the large warships of the Crimson Cloud Empire in the Moro Star Region.

Abbit spoke cautiously:
"This is a warship issued to our affiliated civilization by the Crimson Cloud Empire. It is called the Crimson Cloud Ship. If you take a fancy to it, sir, I can give it to you as a gift."

Abit took the initiative to introduce himself to Chen Feng, also wanting to mention his background.

The Crimson Cloud Empire was the strongest civilization in the surrounding area.

As long as Chen Feng belongs to any of the thousands of races in the surrounding star fields, they should all know about the civilization of the Crimson Cloud Empire.

However, Chen Feng's performance disappointed him greatly; from beginning to end, Chen Feng's expression remained unchanged.

After entering the warship's command room, Abbit obediently brought up an interface containing the coordinates of more than a dozen star systems.

Upon seeing one of the coordinates, Chen Feng's expression immediately darkened.

His guess was correct; these coordinates were indeed the coordinates of Earth in the solar system.

The Crimson Cloud Empire has discovered the solar system and has even sent people to investigate!
Chen Feng pointed to the coordinates of the solar system and looked at Abit, asking:

"Why did the Crimson Cloud Empire send you to this star system to investigate?"

Upon hearing Chen Feng's question, Abit was immediately taken aback.

He couldn't help but think of what the envoy from the Crimson Cloud Empire had said when conveying the instructions. Could the other party be the abnormal situation the empire was talking about?

Seeing Abit remain silent, Chen Feng's eyes immediately turned cold.

Abbit immediately felt the stellar energy that had tormented him before stirring within him again.

He hurriedly said:

"My lord, I don't know why either! The envoy from the Empire only instructed us, the subordinate civilizations, to check various coordinates and report any anomalies immediately. Our Niro race has been assigned more than twenty coordinates, and the one you mentioned is just one of them."

Abbit recounted everything in one go, including every single word the envoy from the Crimson Cloud Empire said when he gave them the notification.

After hearing what Abit said, Chen Feng frowned even more deeply.

Judging from Abbit's words, the Crimson Cloud Empire probably didn't know that the Moro Clan was in their solar system, and might not even know the specific situation of the solar system. So why would they send people to investigate the solar system?
The universe is so vast. The solar system may seem enormous to humans, but on the scale of the entire universe, it is merely a speck of dust.

Why did the Crimson Cloud Empire discover the location of the solar system?

Seeing that Chen Feng remained silent, both Abbit and Abinu were filled with unease.

Chen Feng then looked at the two of them and said, "Tell me in detail about this Crimson Cloud Empire."

Chen Feng had previously decided to leave the Crimson Cloud Empire alone for the time being.

But the situation changes once the other side has already discovered the solar system.

He needs to understand this civilization carefully.

Lunar base, living quarters.

Lin Wei was having lunch at a Chinese restaurant in the residential area.

As a Nascent Soul level cultivator, she had long since abstained from grains, but she still made it a habit to come and have lunch every day.

Eating is a rare moment of relaxation for her outside of work.

Just then, a figure suddenly sat down opposite her.

Lin Wei subconsciously looked up, and when she saw who was sitting in front of her, her face immediately lit up with surprise and delight:

"Have you finished your cultivation?"

The person who arrived was none other than Chen Feng.

Chen Feng originally intended to continue cultivating, but after encountering the people of the Crimson Cloud Empire, he gave up his plans to continue cultivating.

"It's not over yet. I came back this time because something happened." Chen Feng picked up the cherries he hadn't finished eating from the plate and put them in his mouth.

Lin Wei asked in confusion, "What is it?"

Although Chen Feng spent most of the year cultivating, he would occasionally come back to meet with her and Li Xiaorou and inquire about their research progress.

Lin Wei last saw Chen Feng a month ago, so she didn't feel that a long time had passed.

Chen Feng spoke up:
"I encountered people from the Crimson Cloud Empire in a star system."

"What?" Lin Wei was so shocked that she stood up immediately, and everyone else in the restaurant turned to look at her.

Lin Wei realized she had lost her composure, so she quickly moved closer to Chen Feng and whispered:

"You encountered people from the Crimson Cloud Empire? How did it go?"

Chen Feng didn't hide anything and recounted in detail his encounter with the three members of the Nero Clan, as well as their plans to investigate the Solar System.

Lin Wei's expression changed immediately after hearing this:

"They actually know the coordinates of the solar system!"

"That's also what I'm wondering about. Logically speaking, the solar system is so insignificant that it shouldn't be worth the Crimson Cloud Empire sending people to investigate it."

Chen Feng had already interrogated Abit and the other two in detail, and none of them knew how the Crimson Cloud Empire obtained the coordinates of the solar system.

They were merely a subordinate civilization of the Crimson Cloud Empire.

To put it bluntly, this kind of subordinate civilization is a colony of star systems, essentially a lackey of the Crimson Cloud Empire. It has no access to the core circle of the Crimson Cloud Empire, so naturally it cannot obtain any useful intelligence.

Lin Wei seemed to have thought of something, and her face immediately darkened:
"It should be the country of cherry blossoms."

"The Country of Cherry Blossoms?" Chen Feng hadn't expected that this matter would be related to the Country of Cherry Blossoms.

"Yes, a few months ago, Japan launched an electromagnetic wave signal into deep space. They used a narrow-beam directional electromagnetic wave, which is difficult for ground monitoring systems to detect. We only detected it after they had launched it."

Lin Wei spoke with a grim expression.

A few months ago, after discovering that Japan was sending electromagnetic waves into space, she didn't take it too seriously and simply asked Xiao Ning to handle it.

After all, humanity has emitted countless electromagnetic waves into space; it's not so easy for aliens to detect them.

Judging from Chen Feng's previous description, the Crimson Cloud Empire clearly did not know the specific situation of the solar system, but only knew a coordinate.

In this situation, the only explanation is that the other party used electromagnetic waves to conduct counter-tracking and then located the solar system's position in the universe.

With current human technology, this is indeed possible. (End of Chapter)