The stream of data kept pouring in. Dong Qianyi and Chen Tianhua exchanged glances and nodded in unison. It was time. Dong Qianyi immediately made an announcement on the phone. “Attention all units. Attention all units. Prepare for liftoff. All combatants, immediately board the Chaos and stand by at your designated posts.”

The tier eight battleship Chaos had been on standby for a long time. They were prepared to take off in the shortest time possible when needed. The crews were usually delegated with more critical tasks and only a minimal amount of crew was reserved to maintain the ship. Throughout the base, many people took off their usual uniforms and donned the uniforms that identified themselves as crewmembers of the Chaos. Numerous combatants immediately returned to the ship.

Chen Tianhua, on the other hand, was speaking over the radio. “Marshal Zhao, the Chaos detected an invasion originating from outer space from within the depths of the wilderness. Requesting permission for lift off.”

“Permission granted.” The gentle-looking old geezer that Xiang Ning was familiar with was now a man with a gaze so sharp it could puncture steel. It was the true face of one of the Eight Pillars!

A loud whirring sound was heard throughout Fortress One as the ground split open. The people within the fortress were shocked by the reverberations and many of them stood on the walls to see what was happening.

The earth was split open by a crack that was almost four kilometers long!

Five minutes later, they saw an incredible battleship rise from the ground. It was the Chaos, the tier eight battleship that had cost the Federation blood, sweat, and tears to build. The ship was 3561 meters long and 1357 meters wide. Before it was truly completed, it weighed roughly a million tons. It was a staggering metal behemoth!

Everyone was shocked at the appearance of the battleship. “Holy fucking hell! What the fuck is that?!”

“Is that a galactic battleship? Holy fuck?! Since when did the Federation have something like this?!”

“Fuck! Am I seeing something I shouldn’t be seeing?”

Everyone felt goosebumps when they saw the battleship rising from the ground. A low groaning sound was heard and the jet-black battleship suddenly lit up as it opened up the shutter of the thruster pods. The engine hummed, then roared, as the surrounding trees were blown away. The wind ripped through the air as even the martial artists that were ten kilometers away on the walls almost lost their footing.

“Shit. What a crazy world we live in! To think that everything could change so fast!”

“HAHAHAHAHAHA!” Dong Qianyi was standing on the bridge as he observed the hologram at the center of the room. It was displaying a 3D view of the battleship and the various processes that were occurring on the ship.

“We did it! It was a success!” Chen Tianhua almost cried tears of joy.

But neither of them were sitting in the seat of the captain. Instead, a young man was sitting there. He was about twenty-three or so. He stood up and graciously bowed at both Dong Qianyi and Chen Tianhua. “I give my thanks to the two prodigies that created a guardian deity for humanity.”

Chen Tianhua and Dong Qianyi both smiled. This was their brainchild, and it had finally been birthed! It was a cumulation of countless wisdom, errors, and effort.

“Major Lu, she’s in your hands now.”

“To think that I’d have an opportunity to steer this ship just as I arrived. Is the young boy still alive? I really want to meet him.” Lu Zhenyu smiled.

Not only was the extra-large tier eight battleship visible to Fortress One, even the other fortresses nearby saw it. The battleship was simply too large—even if it took off into space, its outline would still be visible!

“Chaos, depart.” Lu Zhenyu sat down as numerous cables attached themselves to his head.

Lu Zhenyu was a tier seven, eight-star spiritual cultivator. His official rank was a Major under the Federation and he was currently the lieutenant commander of the Zhenyuan fleet.

“Report! Our energy level is currently at 99%. The ship is in excellent condition. Prepared for takeoff!”

“Let us depart!” 

“Sir, yes sir!”

A pale blue light emitted from the thrusters as a large number of spirit stones were turned into energy for the ship. The amount of energy it consumed every second was monstrous, to say the least.

......

Back in the depths of the wilderness, a distance away from where the dimensional rift was, there was a massive lake. If someone were to look at it from the skies they would see that it wasn’t a natural one. It was as if something had exploded and left a massive crater before rainwater filled it up. At present, something stirred from beneath the mud of the lake as a pair of eyes lit up and the surface of the lake started boiling….

Sixteen kilometers away from the west of Fortress One, the situation was rapidly changing.

The dimensional rift gradually grew larger and larger. It was originally ten meters tall, but as the long metallic object pushed itself through, it slowly expanded until it was hundreds of meters tall.

Now everyone could see what was happening. The metallic object was the bow of a ship! It was purple and black and numerous humanoid figures were standing on it. All of them were looking at the little girl while the mutants near her bared their fangs.

The situation turned into a stalemate. Only Lord Vulture and Helos were still fighting. It was obvious that Helos had failed to pay attention to what was happening around it.

“What should I do?” Yu Qian was clutching her sniper as she wasn’t sure who to aim it at.

Gu Kun didn’t know, either. He had never encountered such a situation.

Unexpectedly, Chu Long was the one that knew the most. “To think it was true! Back in the academy, they taught us a little bit about space. It wasn’t much, but it deeply affected me. Are they invaders from outer space?”

Suddenly a voice came from behind them. “Aim at the people coming out of the dimensional rift.”

Yu Qian spun around and trained her gun at the location of the voice.

Six men walked out from the shadows as they deactivated their invisible cloaks. All of them were two meters tall, but on a second look, they saw that all of them were wearing exoskeletons. On their exoskeletons was the engraving of a blue flower.

“You… you must be the third group of people.” Gu Kun made a swift conclusion.

“Correct.” Lan Quan nodded. They had intended to observe the situation first, but to think it was already this bad. The dimensional rift was already so large, and to think that the special-type beast was Helos! They had no choice but to appear now. This wasn’t the time for an internal conflict—they need to kill the invaders first!

“Why should we trust you?”

“That’s because they’re invaders.”

“Are you not?”

“We are humans.”

“And… they aren’t?”

“Correct.”

Yu Qian and the rest hesitated.

“Trust them,” another voice rang out from somewhere, but this time they recognized it. They saw Xiang Ning walking out from the bushes.

“Xiang Ning!” Chu Long excitedly shouted. Xiang Ning rejoined them and poured a bottle of healing potion into Long Xiaoqi’s mouth. She immediately coughed and woke up. “X… Xiang Ning! Chu Long, what’s happening?”

Xiang Ning shook his head and asked Chu Long to take care of her. He stood up and came to Lan Quan. “What do you guys want to do?”

Lan Quan and the rest hadn’t expected Xiang Ning would trust them so easily.

“We wanted to leave after recording some data. I never thought of winning against the special-type beast or the battleship that’s emerging from the dimension crack. With our strength, there’s simply no chance.”

“But you guys didn’t leave.”

Lan Quan didn’t answer, but he was glaring at the battleship that was now two thirds of the way from completely emerging from the dimensional rift. 

Battleship incoming!!