The plunder of the heavens begins with the Spirit Cage.

The moment he finished speaking, Lu Qianwei appeared in front of Urvoren.

Before he could even be shocked, pale silver spatial ripples suddenly enveloped Urvoren's entire body.

The lights and giant star map inside the bridge were instantly distorted and misaligned in the field of vision, and the Sanhri commander was instantly moved to the center of the star map screen, or even suspended in mid-air.

The feeling of weightlessness made his whole body stiffen, and he instinctively tensed all his muscles.

Now he seemed to believe Lu Qianwei's identity.

In the Star Covenant's religious system, isn't such power tantamount to divine authority?!

Ulvoren stood suspended in mid-air, looking down at the force that held him firmly in place despite the empty space beneath his feet. A huge crack appeared in the barrier of faith within his heart.

"Are you truly a pioneer?"

"No, they were wiped out a long time ago!"

"How could he possibly still be alive!"

"You're wrong about that. The pioneers simply left the Milky Way."

"It's not that it's been destroyed!" Lu Qianwei said, walking over to Urvorn's side.

He raised his hand and tapped the giant star map control panel twice. The video, which was simulated by the CG screen of the Halo game, flowed in layers and projected a holographic image spanning more than 100,000 years.

As light and shadow shift, a magnificent pioneer city rises from the ground.

The suspended, ring-shaped artificial world and the crisscrossing stargate routes filled the entire field of vision. That was the most prosperous era of the Aiqiumin Empire, and the golden age of gods worshipped day and night by millions of believers of the Star Alliance.

Ulvoren hovered in mid-air, his limbs slightly tense due to weightlessness, his eyes fixed on the scene before him, his crocodile-like head tilted slightly forward, and even his breathing subconsciously became soft.

These scenes have only appeared sporadically on fragments of the Star Alliance's top-secret sacred texts and on reliefs of ruins. Even he, a high-ranking fleet commander, had never had the privilege of seeing complete, dynamic images.

"What you see before you is the golden age of the Forerunner civilization."

Lu Qianwei slowly walked to his side, lightly tapped the projected image with his fingertip, and the camera suddenly turned to reveal a bizarre life form in the dark depths of the universe, writhing and devouring everything like a living thing.

Countless shattered ships and skeletons were encased in a viscous, fleshy structure, rapidly assimilated and recombined, becoming part of the Flood army.

"This is the Flood Demon that your religious texts have never mentioned, which is also the Red Demon Virus that you avoid talking about."

It is not an ordinary interstellar beast, but a parasitic cosmic calamity at the top of the food chain, which evolves by devouring the nerves and consciousness of intelligent life, and its vitality is almost inexhaustible.

The Forerunners, possessing the galaxy's most advanced neurophysical technology and wielding the power to rewrite life, still suffered repeated defeats in the Flood's war that swept across the galaxy, with millions of colonized worlds falling one after another.

The holographic imagery continued to play, depicting the long and brutal war between the Forerunners and the Flood.

The once prosperous planet has become a desolate lair of flesh and blood. The main fleet of the pioneers has been annihilated in large numbers, and they have been forced to the brink of extinction.

Urvoren's golden vertical pupils suddenly contracted. He had only heard the halos spoken of by the prophet as holy rings that guided believers to ascension, but he had never seen such a hellish scene. For the first time, a strong sense of unease arose in his heart.

"With no other options, the pioneers activated the seven small halos that had not yet been destroyed, along with the two arks of different sizes."

Lu Qianwei's fingertips traced the slowly rotating giant ring-shaped structure on the screen, which was the Alpha Halo of Zone 04, a plot point that Master Chief would encounter in the later stages of the story.

"It is not some holy place for pilgrimage and ascension at all; it is a biological weapon of galactic scale."

Once fully activated, all intelligent life with complex neural structures within the entire galaxy will be instantly annihilated.

With no living beings to devour, the Flood will naturally starve to death; that's the only purpose of the halo.

Urwaren shuddered, finding it hard to accept this truth that shattered his faith.

For many years, the Sanhri clan has followed the Prophet in holy wars to eradicate human heretics.

Everything was for the sake of embarking on a pilgrimage to the halo, but in the end, the halo turned out to be a butcher's knife that slaughtered all things.

"So the Forerunners killed all life in the galaxy and fled here!" Urwaren said bitterly.

Lu Qianwei took this opportunity to pull up another macroscopic star map of the universe.

The star map clearly marks a vast, empty, and desolate interstellar region on the outskirts of the Milky Way.

"We're both interstellar civilizations, you should know there's such a huge void outside the Milky Way, right?"

Seeing Urvorren nod, Lu Qianwei continued, "It, we call it the KBC Void."

This interstellar vacuum void, spanning 200,000 light-years, is not actually a naturally formed barren area in the universe.

Rather, it was a vacuum zone created by an even more ancient civilization that recognized the danger of the Flood and isolated it from it!

The image zooms in on the spatial structure of the hollow area, with countless abandoned space anchors and damaged interstellar defense barriers looming in the darkness.

"The Flood's infectious ability is not limited to ships and planets; even interstellar jumps and interstellar routes can become its means of spread."

The advanced civilizations preceding the Pioneers knew that even if they wiped out all life within the galaxy...

As long as the Flood escapes outwards along interstellar routes, it will soon spread to extragalactic galaxies and eventually infect the entire universe.

Therefore, they actively modified outer space, hollowing out interstellar matter in this region, sealing off all natural jump lanes, and creating a 200,000-light-year-wide isolation void, completely isolating the Milky Way and using it as a prison to imprison the Flood.

"The last species in the Milky Way was wiped out, the Flood starved to death... the Forerunner civilization appeared and killed the life in the Milky Way... it's really just another cycle!"

"However, the pioneers did not leave without a trace like those advanced civilizations before they left."

Instead, it left behind halos, monitors, and shield worlds to guard the Flood within its cage.

The purpose of leaving only incomplete relics is to warn the world, not for you to use them to sublimate into neutrinos!

Lu Qianwei paused, his gaze fixed on the fluctuating Urwaren, and continued to dismantle the Star Alliance's most fundamental lie.

"Your three prophets actually glimpsed the truth by chance when they were deciphering the documents of the Forerunners."

They knew that humanity was the chosen ones, the only race capable of adapting to the Halo and all the facilities of the Ark, and they also understood that the Halo was a weapon of destruction...

However, in order to maintain their theocratic rule, they deliberately altered the scriptures.

They vilified the Returnees as blasphemous heretics, packaged their weapons as sacred relics, and incited all races of the Covenant to wage war against humanity.

Ulvoren hovered in the center of the star map, his entire being enveloped in a long, deathly silence.

He finally understood why the higher-ups strictly forbade scholars from delving into the details of the pilgrimage, and why researchers who noticed anything suspicious would mysteriously disappear.

The once supreme prophet had been exploiting the bravery of the Sanhri clan from beginning to end to weave a massive deception.

He led his fleet to Reach to annihilate humanity, and what he fought so hard for was nothing more than helping the executioner of lies commit atrocities.

However, his long-standing military pride still made it difficult for him to immediately submit, even as his heart was torn between shock, anger, and confusion.

He also refused to admit that the people in front of him were the representatives of the pioneers!

But the ability to manipulate space and teleport at will, coupled with this complete and detailed ancient historical record that could prove everything, had already planted an indelible seed of conviction in his heart.

Lu Qianwei certainly didn't need him to accept it immediately, or to bow down and worship.

If the Covenant members knew this history, the positions of the three prophets would be more easily shaken, and later on, some of them did betray the Covenant.

Moreover, at this point in time, the Covenant forces had not yet successfully tracked the Autumn Wind's Mound or found the Halo in Sector 04.

So... it should be mine!

Chapter 253 Halo 5

Ulvolen was placed under house arrest in the flagship's private cell.

The remaining captured Covenant fleet was incorporated into the escort formation of the Space Fleet and returned with the main fleet to rendezvous with the Pillar of Autumn.

Lu Qianwei returned to the bridge of the Autumn Wind Pillar with the truth he had personally uncovered.

At this moment, Case was staring at the maintenance panel, looking at the engine and shield system that the engineering team had worked overnight to repair, his heart still filled with complex and unsettling emotions.

He didn't believe that such a well-organized fleet could be owned by an individual or a particular organization.

But it's not these things; he can hardly think of anyone in the country who could achieve this level.

The damage to the Autumn Wind Pillar's hull was mostly repaired after it was towed into the World Mothership, and its power system was even three times more stable than when it left the factory.

"Case, the problem is solved." Lu Qianwei walked to the star chart platform. "Then the deal is settled, right?"

"Heh, if it doesn't count, do you think you'd just stay away?" Case smiled bitterly, feeling like he had just escaped one wolf's den only to fall into another.

"This is the reward for protecting your safety, don't act like we're robbing you!" Lu Qianwei patted his shoulder.

"Alright, enough talk, lead the way."

Looking at the armed forces around him, what else could Case do?

Of course, I obediently led the way.

Of course, if he knew that the contents concerned the safety of all species in the galaxy... he might struggle and resist for a while.

Upon arriving at the experimental control room, Case raised his hand to activate the terminal, authorizing Cortana to unlock her encrypted database.

A pale blue virtual figure appeared, and a massive amount of ancient and obscure alien data kept flooding the screen, including unknown star field coordinates, strange building structures... all of which were copied by Lu Qianwei's quantum terminal.

After confirming the coordinates of the small halo number 04, he put away the storage terminal.

He then turned to Case and said, "Your spaceship is now repaired."

Captain Case, are you going back to Earth, or are you coming with us to the depths of the Orion Arm?

To understand the truth of this world?

"What do you mean?" Case looked at Lu Qianwei, frowning in confusion.

"That's literally what it means!"

"The reason the Star Alliance took action against you was actually because of the halo activation program you obtained."

Those idiots think the halo is a tool left behind by the pioneers for ascending to higher dimensions…

As Lu Qianwei walked, he recounted the story of the pioneers and the Red Devil virus.

Case broke out in a cold sweat, understanding the seriousness of the situation, but he couldn't possibly believe Lu Qianwei's one-sided account.

So he chose to see it for himself, record it, and report it to higher authorities.

Lu Qianwei patted him on the shoulder with a smile, knowing that the UEG Earth United Government wouldn't act rashly like in the original storyline.

As the bridge jump indicator lights lit up one after another, the Autumn Wind Pier roared and trembled, fully charged.

On the outer side, the main fleet of the universe is lined up to escort, while the reorganized Star Alliance fleet is on the rear guard.

A massive fleet spanning two major factions, carrying the bewildered members of the UNSC, leaped towards the depths of the Orion Arm, hidden in the vastness of space.

After a brief period of spatial distortion, the violent tremors of the ship suddenly subsided.