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

When Song Chen returned to the Tian Shu defense line, his first reaction was that he had come to the wrong place.

When he last left the main defense line of Tian Shu, it was still a steel Great Wall spanning seven light-years, with energy grids flowing between countless fortresses like blood vessels.

Tens of thousands of warships shuttled back and forth on fixed routes, and the entire star field was filled with order and power.

But what appeared before him now was a ruin ravaged by war.

The Heavenly Pivot is still there, but it's in a dilapidated state.

Song Chen was standing on a temporary connecting platform, the edges of which still bore the charred marks of being burned at high temperatures.

He looked up and saw large chunks of metal debris floating in the distant starry sky.

Those were fragments of a fortress, some as large as half a city, slowly rotating like the corpses of giant beasts that had just died.

Further away, several still-operational war fortresses were riddled with holes, their armor plates torn open from the inside, revealing the still-smoking energy pipes.

The color of the entire starry sky changed. The once clean and clear deep space became murky and murky, with embers left behind after the explosion of psionic energy everywhere, like a layer of grayish-white mist covering the sky above the defense line.

The most glaring thing is those shattered spaces.

Song Chen saw that a section on the east side of the defense line had completely turned black.

Those were cracks left after space itself was shattered, with pale blue arcs of light still pulsating at the edges, like a piece of broken glass, with an unknown light shining through the cracks.

Many warship fragments floated around those spatial rifts, all of which had their front halves swallowed by the shattered space, leaving only their rear halves.

Some cracks are still slowly expanding, and the engineering ships escorting them are desperately releasing repair fields, as if patching up the universe.

"Is this the main battlefield of a Level 4 civilization...?" Song Chen murmured.

He stood on the docking platform, the distant sound of artillery fire ringing in his ears.

The main defensive line of Tian Shu is under attack, and the attack is fierce.

Even from this distance, he could feel the rumbling vibrations, as if the entire defensive line was being punched repeatedly by someone.

Song Chen suddenly felt that the node he had been guarding earlier was like a small ditch during a flash flood compared to this place.

This is the main battlefield, where the Nine Luminaries Civilization and other civilizations from various galaxies are tearing each other apart in the most primitive way against the main force of the Blood Erosion Civilization.

"Stop staring blankly, keep moving forward," Zefar's voice came from the side.

When Song Chen came to her senses, Zefar looked terrible, his arm hanging limply at his side.

Gu Tu was being carried by two iron soldiers and was still unconscious.

The remaining soldiers followed several Tian Shu guides into the defensive line.

The guide was a young man from the Nine Luminaries Civilization, dressed in a dark blue uniform. He was polite, but his words were unpleasant to hear.

"You've all had a tough journey. Command has received your battle reports from your nodes."

"You held out for three days, that's impressive. However, according to the latest orders from the Joint Defense Council, the troops that withdrew from the node will be rested for one standard day and then incorporated into the western section of the Tian Shu replenishment order to continue fighting."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a Frostmoon soldier covered in blood stepped forward.

"We just withdrew from there. Do you know what the fighting was like there? Five Tier 8 ships and an entire fleet. We fought for three days, and you're telling me we should rest for one standard day and then continue fighting?"

The guide looked at him and replied expressionlessly, "That's an order."

"An order? Whose order? Let the person who gave the order go up and fight for them. Our garrison officer almost died there, and now they want us to go over here and fill in the gaps? On what grounds?"

The Frostmoon soldier became more and more agitated as he spoke, his long sword trembling.

"I'm not going; I'm going to appeal."

He had barely finished speaking when two military police officers in black uniforms emerged from behind the officer and pinned him to the ground, one on each side.

The Frost Moon soldier tried to struggle, but he was already seriously injured and his spiritual power was almost exhausted. He was no match for the two military policemen.

The military police dragged him a few steps to the side, then one of them pulled out a short blade, swiftly brought it down, and blood splattered all over the ground.

Song Chen's pupils suddenly contracted as the Frost Moon soldier's head rolled to the ground, his eyes still open.

The military police dragged the body away with terrifyingly practiced movements.

The guide never glanced at the corpse, but instead turned his gaze back to the crowd, his voice so calm it sent chills down one's spine.

"Does anyone else have any objections?"

No one in the group spoke.

Looking at the pool of blood on the ground, Song Chen felt a chill run down his spine.

He had seen people make an example of someone on Earth, but those were all done after trial and through proper procedures.

This is a cosmic battlefield; a seventh-tier life can vanish in an instant, without even a ripple.

"Follow me," Zefar said in a deep voice, and took the lead.

Song Chen didn't move. He stepped out of the line and walked towards the guide.

"My name is Song Chen, from the Cangxing Alliance. I need to leave the team."

The words "Cangxing Alliance" made the guide's eyelids twitch, but his attitude softened as he asked, "Could you explain why?"

"It's an internal order from within the alliance; I can't disclose the specifics."

The guide frowned, seemingly trying to determine the truthfulness of his words.

A moment later, he took out a psionic light screen, tapped it a few times, and brought up Song Chen's information.

After seeing keywords such as "born a Punisher" and "recommended by Ral Aurelion Castor," his attitude noticeably improved.

He nodded: "Sure, do you have a contact person here?"

"Yes, it's Lord Ral."

The guide didn't say anything more, but called over a military policeman who led Song Chen to a small shuttle platform.

The platform leads to the interior of Tian Shu's main city, but it's not a place that just anyone can enter.

Song Chen was allowed to pass through the passage because of his alliance status.

He stood on the platform, looking in the direction of the main city of Tian Shu.

The war capital of the Nine Luminaries civilization was colder than when I last visited, and the outer walls were covered with scorch marks and holes.

Countless engineering ships and maintenance robots are working outside the city walls, but there are too many wounds to heal them all.

Song Chen even saw an entire auxiliary port that had been bombed and collapsed, with a huge metal structure looming in the void.

He followed the military police into an internal corridor.

The corridor was quiet, with only the lights shining silently overhead.

Occasionally, passing by a few cabins, one could hear the low hum of psionic instruments and the voices of people talking. Very...

Quickly, he was led to a heavy metal door.

The military policeman said, "Lord Ral is inside. You may go in yourself."

Song Chen nodded and pushed the door open to go inside.

The room wasn't large, and it was furnished much like Ral's office on Flowing Star.

The star map on the wall was lit up, clearly marking the Black Dimension Nebula, the Tian Shu defense line, and the defense zones of each node.

Ral sat in front of the star map, with his back to him.

Song Chen noticed that Lal's figure was not right. The Lal he had seen before, whether in his humanoid form several meters tall on Flowing Star or in his eight-meter-tall battle form outside the Black Dimension Nebula, was like a mountain, so stable that it put people at ease.

But now, Lal has returned to his humanoid form, only a little over three meters tall, but he exudes an undeniable sense of decay.

His armor was cracked in several places, two bone spikes on his back were broken, and his shoulders were wrapped in a light silver repair membrane, beneath which the rolled-up wounds could be seen.