High Martial Arts: Slay enemies to become stronger, forge invincibility from billions of corpses.

One minute later.

The hatch of the Shadow Bee slid open, and Song Chen flashed out from inside the ship, stepping into the void.

The biting cold of the vacuum was kept out of his body by his psionic energy. He flew toward where Ral was, and the surrounding Alliance soldiers and fleet automatically parted to make way for him.

Lal looked down at Song Chen, his face, which no longer had human features, was expressionless.

"They're here."

He spoke, his voice deeper than before, as if it came from the foot of a mountain.

"Lord Ral, you've changed quite a bit."

Song Chen stopped in front of it and looked up at the huge battle form.

"Battle mode, don't be nervous."

"This form is more convenient for dealing with the Blood Erosion Civilization. The me you saw on Flowing Star was my everyday form. Things in the universe don't have that many rules."

Song Chen nodded but did not reply.

Lall didn't continue with pleasantries, pointing to the neutron star fortress in the distance: "This neutron star is called Cangxing Zhenxing, one of the Alliance's most treasured possessions in the Milky Way, which they've brought out this time."

"Although the Alliance has a fairly strong presence in the galaxy, it has never liked to take the limelight in these kinds of matters, so we are not the main force in this war."

Song Chen was somewhat surprised: "Then who's the main player?"

"Naturally, it is the strongest native civilization in the Milky Way besides us alien civilizations, the Nine Luminaries Civilization."

"This entire Tian Shu defense line was set up by the Nine Luminaries Civilization."

As he spoke, Lar pointed to the fleet lined up in the distance.

"The Nine Luminaries Civilization is the only Type IV civilization native to the Milky Way galaxy, and they are the absolute main force in this Blood Erosion Defense War."

"The Black Dimension Nebula is a large war fortress, half of which is occupied by the Nine Luminaries Civilization. Our Cangxing Alliance has sent the First Legion, along with the auxiliary defense forces of affiliated civilizations, with a total force of about 500 million."

"The Nine Luminaries Civilization has an even larger main force, with all types of troops totaling over two billion, plus other civilizations from the Galactic Union Defense Council, bringing the total military strength to over six billion."

Song Chen listened and slowly processed those numbers.

With a military force of six billion, he came from a blue planet with a total population of less than ten billion.

Song Chen listened quietly, knowing that Lar was telling him these things and was not just chatting.

If a seventh-tier Punisher is thrown onto this kind of battlefield, and doesn't even know whose troops are around him or how to fight, he won't survive long.

After speaking for a while, Ral finally stopped, and Song Chen then spoke, "Lord Ral, I have a question."

"Ask away."

"Aren't you even concerned about why my strength has increased so rapidly?"

Ral looked down at him, a half-smile appearing on his huge face.

Why should we care?

Song Chen was taken aback.

"When you left Flowing Star last time, your Qi and Blood were only a few million, now they are seventy million."

"It looks amazing, but there are quite a few people like this in the universe. Perhaps some ancient powerhouse took a liking to you and left you some legacy, or perhaps you have something inside you. I don't need to ask any more questions."

"I'll be frank with you, you're one of my key investment targets, so of course I need to investigate you."

"I've looked up everything you did on your home planet."

"You must have a secret to getting this far, but I don't care what the secret is. I only care whether you've grown and whether you're worth my continued investment."

After thinking for a moment, Song Chen replied solemnly, "I won't let your investment go to waste."

Upon hearing this, Lal burst into laughter.

Looking at that eight-meter-tall figure, Song Chen suddenly felt that some things didn't need to be said.

The investment director of this alliance is indeed shrewd and frank enough.

He never asked a single question about the system or what you had gained; he only cared about the return on investment.

After laughing, Lar said, "Just stay alive. If you survive this battle, I'll consider it a favor you've done for me."

Song Chen didn't laugh. He looked at Lar and wrote down what he had said.

At this moment, Lars pointed to the depths of the Black Dimension Nebula, and Song Chen looked in the same direction.

Lal said, "What you see is a nebula, but it will soon become a wall, and the Tian Shu defense line will be deployed."

Song Chen didn't interrupt and listened quietly.

Ral's fingers traced the dark gray nebula in front of him, leaving a trail of dark golden psionic energy at his fingertips: "The Black Dimension Nebula spans about seven light-years and has a very high density of ionized dust inside, making it naturally suitable as a base for spatial sealing."

"The Joint Defense Council will transform this entire nebula into a restricted area, using a combination of spatial folding, psionic resonance, and gravitational pits to completely sever the Blood Erosion Civilization's jump path."

"Three kinds of superposition?" Song Chen was surprised.

"Using just one method, the biological-level spatial sensing ability of the Blood Erosion Civilization might still be able to bypass it."

"With all three factors combined, if they try to jump, they'll only end up crashing into the wall and dying."

Song Chen doesn't actually understand space technology, but he can roughly grasp the concept.

Wars on Earth rely on military formations, artillery, and missiles, but here, war begins on the spatial level.

Whoever controls the space controls the initiative on the battlefield.

"The universe is too big," Lal suddenly said, his tone carrying a sense of wonder that could only be understood from a place like this.

"If the main force of the Blood Erosion Civilization can freely jump, it would only take a few space jumps to get from the outer edge of the Milky Way to the Moon Shadow Civilization."

"But without the leap, relying solely on the propulsion of the biological warships, they would never be able to cross the boundary of the Milky Way in their entire lives."

"So this defensive line isn't for killing enemies," Song Chen added.

"It's meant to slow down the enemy. Once they slow down, they'll have to take a hard bite out of our fortresses."

"Slow down, and our reinforcements will have time to wear them down wave after wave."

"Slow down, and the ninth-tier experts will have room to intercept and kill their ninth-tier units. Spatial blockade is this defensive line. The other fortresses, fleets, and experts are all nails built on this defensive line."

Song Chen looked up again at the unfolding fortress complex in the distance: "But the Black Dimensional Nebula spans seven light-years. What kind of power would be needed to seal off such a vast area?"

"We need 86,000 spatial nodes, each of which is a complete spatial suppression device and requires someone to be stationed there."

"The nodes are connected by an energy grid. If any node is breached, the blockade will fail from that point. Therefore, these nodes are the true lifeline of the defense."

Song Chen's expression didn't change, but he had already memorized the number 86,000 in his mind.