NOVPUBXiao Yu found himself in a dilemma.
He realized he had underestimated the terrifying nature of this Alien Beast. After nearly a decade of silence, Xiao Yu had thought these Arrow Beasts were its ultimate weapon. But who could have imagined that these Arrow Beasts were merely distractions meant to divide his mental focus?
If Xiao Yu chose to stop resisting the Arrow Beasts, his ships would be instantly destroyed, and he would lose control over the situation. At that point, the Alien Beast on the White Dwarf, through its control of the Arrow Beasts, could manipulate Moon One to follow the trajectory it desired.
However, if he continued resisting the Alien Beasts, his mental energy would inevitably remain occupied, leaving him unable to withstand the Alien Beast’s control.
Xiao Yu felt his mind slipping into waves of confusion, his control over the fleet weakening significantly.
“Now I understand why it didn’t command the Arrow Beasts to fully charge the defensive line and directly destroy the planetary engines. I had previously thought it was because the Arrow Beasts still retained some control over themselves. Who knew that the Demon’s goal also involved these planetary engines? Of course, it wouldn’t want to destroy them.”
“So, throughout the previous battles, it had been holding back its strength. It’s worthy of being a monster that has survived in the universe for over ten million years… Compared to it, I’m truly too inexperienced.”
At this moment, Xiao Yu came to understand many things.
“My friend, what’s wrong? Are you being deceived again?” Numerous anxious messages from the Alien Beast Civilization flooded in.
Forcing himself to stabilize his mind, Xiao Yu replied, “I’m fine. Don’t worry.”
Then, he responded to the Alien Beast on the white dwarf.
“What if I decide to destroy these planetary engines in advance? At worst, I’ll abandon this collision plan. I could even choose to flee the Aquila Nebula entirely. After all, even without my interference, this white dwarf will undergo a nova explosion within a thousand years at most…”
“You already know the answer, so why ask me?” the White Dwarf Alien Beast replied coldly. “You can try. See if you’re even capable of issuing the command to attack the planetary engines.”
Bitterness filled Xiao Yu’s heart.
He had already tried. Whenever he attempted to control his ships to attack the planetary engines, a mental pain emerged, shattering the thought entirely.
This was a new form of mental control. The Alien Beast had abandoned controlling Xiao Yu’s entire mind, choosing instead to dominate a specific portion. The deep, kilometer-long wrinkles on its body bore witness to the price it had paid for this approach.
Time was down to just thirty minutes.
At some point, the preset programs had returned to normal. Xiao Yu could answer the situation’s challenges with textbook precision, but he knew that even if his accuracy was one hundred percent, he was still being controlled.
Xiao Yu even tried intentionally providing incorrect responses. To his horror, he discovered that even if the preset program destroyed several critical components, it couldn’t free him from this control.
“Change Moon One’s trajectory… Begin altering it now to steer it away from the binary star system. As long as this mission doesn’t fail, there’s still hope,” Xiao Yu thought.
As he believed, as long as this operation didn’t fail, it would still be a success. Even without his involvement, the white dwarf would undergo a nova explosion within a thousand years.
Yet the next moment, Xiao Yu was met with disappointment. His heart was filled with despair.
Xiao Yu realized he couldn’t issue any operational commands to the planetary engines. Every time he attempted to activate the engines, that ghostly pain surfaced, overwhelming his mind and preventing him from issuing the command.
“What should I do… What can I do…”
In the control room of the Aquila One system, Luka Three was nervously monitoring the data. It noticed some anomalies—data that differed from Xiao Yu’s previous instances of being controlled yet were still far from normal. Confused but cautious, Luka Three decided to take action.
“Master, are you… are you okay? Is everything all right?” Luka Three asked carefully.
Xiao Yu had no mental capacity to respond to Luka Three.
After several unanswered calls, Luka Three grew increasingly anxious. After several more attempts, Luka Three resolutely issued the wake-up command.
A high-frequency pulse was activated within the mainframe room of Xiao Yu’s flagship, Yan Jing, but instead of breaking the Alien Beast’s control, it only brought Xiao Yu another wave of searing pain.
Luka Three was thrown into a panic. This phenomenon was unprecedented. In every previous instance where Xiao Yu was controlled, Luka Three had successfully awakened him using this method.
“Master, Master, what’s happening to you?” Luka Three called out again, but there was still no response.
The countdown continued, with only five minutes remaining. Xiao Yu was horrified to discover that his mind, no longer under his own control, had issued a command to the planetary engines.
Under this command, thousands of planetary engines simultaneously ignited, spraying dazzling plumes of flame into space. The sight was beautiful, almost mesmerizing. 𝒏𝒐𝙫𝙥𝙪𝙗.𝒄𝙤𝙢
As the planetary engines roared to life, the orbit of Moon One shifted ever so slightly.
The engines would continue firing for five minutes, right until the moment Moon One crossed the final orbital correction point. Beyond that, under the immense gravitational pull of the white dwarf, no force in existence could alter its trajectory by even the slightest degree.
Xiao Yu was overcome with despair.
“My friend, what’s wrong? Has something gone awry?” The Arrow Beasts, still under the control of the White Dwarf Alien Beast, had noticed Xiao Yu’s unusual state and launched a fierce assault on his fleet.
“Perhaps… we are all destined to journey together to your dark heaven.” Xiao Yu forced a bitter smile and sent out a message.
“Have we failed? Have we failed? Did all my kin die in vain? We were willing to sacrifice our lives, yet we’ve still failed?” Countless Arrow Beasts let out heart-wrenching cries of despair.
“Relish the last moments of your lives. After I escape from the white dwarf, I will devour the entire Arrow Beast Civilization. Once my body recovers to just three percent of its peak state, I will undertake faster-than-light travel to your star system, obliterate your fleet, and then proceed to annihilate your home planet…”
“None of you will escape.” The White Dwarf Alien Beast’s chilling message reverberated with a cruel finality.
In the control room of the Aquila One star system, Luka Three paced anxiously, rubbing its bare head as it wrestled with its thoughts.
“What’s wrong with the Master? Why won’t he respond to my messages? What… what went wrong?”
“If that’s the case, I’ll have to use the last resort…”
Luka Three made its decision. With trembling hands, it retrieved the controller that Xiao Yu had entrusted to it with utmost care. Summoning all its strength, it pressed the button.
Immediately, within the Yan Jing, a few three-dimensional projectors emerged from the floor. Under Xiao Yu’s stunned gaze, the projectors activated, forming the image of a girl. She wasn’t extraordinarily beautiful, but her figure was graceful, and her cheerful demeanor radiated warmth.
Her eyes sparkled as she gazed directly at the monitors, and Xiao Yu could see every delicate detail of her holographic projection.
It was Chen Mo.
“Director Xiao, what’s wrong? Is there something troubling you?” Chen Mo’s clear, melodious voice echoed throughout the ship, reaching Xiao Yu’s ears.
In his gradually fading consciousness, Xiao Yu suddenly felt a surge of clarity.
“Yes… I’m in trouble. I need your help. I… I need your help,” Xiao Yu murmured, almost in disbelief.
Chen Mo’s gentle smile widened. “I’m so glad I can still be of help to you, Director Xiao. However, since I don’t have a body right now, I can only support you mentally. Come on, Director Xiao, you’re capable of anything. What difficulty could possibly stop you?”
“Yes… In front of all of you, I’ve always been unstoppable.” Xiao Yu whispered to himself. “What challenge could ever defeat me? Back on Earth, even with primitive technology, I built the first true interstellar ship. What obstacle… could possibly… stop me?!”
“Planetary engines, fire! Engine One, adjust trajectory by 45.31 degrees to the right. Output power: 32 percent. Engine Two, adjust trajectory…” Xiao Yu began issuing one set of technical parameters after another.
The process brought him excruciating pain, but Xiao Yu never wavered. He kept his eyes locked on Chen Mo’s holographic projection. In her radiant, smiling gaze, Xiao Yu found the strength to endure.
“Keep going, Director Xiao! You’re invincible!” Chen Mo encouraged with a bright smile.
Xiao Yu focused all his energy on operating the planetary engines. In that moment, he even temporarily abandoned his fleet. For some reason, the Arrow Beasts ceased their assault as well. It seemed that the White Dwarf Alien Beast had also withdrawn its control over them, focusing its entire mental effort on combating Xiao Yu.
Thirty seconds remained until the final orbital correction point.
Once Moon One crossed this point, its trajectory would be locked. Beyond this point, any attempt to alter Moon One’s course would be rendered useless by the overwhelming gravitational force of the white dwarf.
On the surface of the white dwarf, the Alien Beast’s body bore deeper and more numerous fissures. Its form became even more hunched, as though it were rapidly succumbing to an unnatural and accelerated aging process.
