The Borisin fleet and the demonic star hurtled madly toward the True Sting world.
When Ruan Mei witnessed this scene, she turned to Herta and said, "This experiment has undergone unexpected changes. Shuhu's revival, the summoning of the Borisin fleet, the demonic star Rahu, and even the Antimatter Legion... Handling all of this is truly troublesome."
Herta turned her head at those words and looked at Ruan Mei, who still stood as calm and aloof as a plum blossom in winter. A thought stirred within her, and she asked, "In that case, you have a way to repel them?"
Ruan Mei gave a slight nod. "If we were in a world outside the Yongmei Star System and encountered such a fleet, I might indeed be stretched beyond my limits. But this is different. This is my home ground. Just as one-ninth of Zandar One Kuwabara could fight in Amphoreus and repel the three of us geniuses alone—within the Yongmei Star System, I, Ruan Mei, am the strongest."
The moment her words fell, Ruan Mei raised her hand. In an instant, the enormous cloud "Ruanruan" activated combat mode, transforming into a colossal gaseous planet. It revealed an incomparably ferocious posture and charged toward the Borisin fleet.
Whirr—whirr—whirr...
Upon the gaseous planet that was the Ruanruan, countless hurricanes and storms began to rotate and accelerate without end, ultimately forming a massive drill of tempestuous force that tore toward the Borisin fleet.
"Life-force charging. Fire the Borisin Annihilation Cannon."
Within the Borisin fleet, the fleet captain issued the command.
In an instant, the prows of the Borisin warships split apart, revealing elongated cannon barrels. At the same time, the Borisin within placed their arms against the steel hulls of their ships.
The next moment, the Borisin fleet seemed to come alive, frantically siphoning energy from the Borisin themselves, converting it into the power required for the Borisin Annihilation Cannon before firing it.
Boom!
In the starry sky, the annihilation cannon—vast as a planet—collided with the storm drill unleashed by the Ruanruan.
In an instant, a terrifying explosion erupted within the Yongmei Star System, like the birth of a supernova.
Several satellites were torn apart. The asteroid belt surrounding the True Sting planet was instantly obliterated. The dreadful shockwave even surged beyond the boundaries of the Yongmei Star System and into the Imaginary Tide.
Several seconds later, the result of the collision emerged. The Borisin Annihilation Cannon had been annihilated, while the Ruanruan—though slightly reduced in size—still maintained a powerful and vigorous bearing in its combat form, seemingly unaffected.
"It's a tough opponent—on par with the demonic star. Do not conserve energy. All fleets, fire together. The Borisin fleet will enter full war mode."
With that order from the Borisin fleet commander, dozens of Borisin warships opened fire simultaneously.
Annihilating shells swept across the Yongmei Star System, bombarding the true body of the Ruanruan.
Seeing this, the Ruanruan had no choice but to retreat while stirring up countless storms to form a specialized tempest shield in an attempt to block the Borisin fleet's fierce assault.
Whirr—whirr—whirr...
Even more violent explosions unfolded on a cosmic scale. As the number of annihilation shells increased, they finally inflicted damage upon the Ruanruan. It let out a pained, muffled groan, its body shrinking drastically—from the size of Jupiter to nearly half that.
The moment Ruan Mei sensed this, her gaze shifted toward the sun—the great stellar body.
In an instant, the sun began burning itself, unleashing immeasurable radiance and energy. That energy immediately recharged the Ruanruan.
Whoooosh...
Violent storms once more erupted across the Ruanruan in combat mode. Its body swelled rapidly, as though being inflated, not only restoring itself but growing even stronger.
The Borisin fleet captains' expressions changed upon witnessing this.
This star system was abnormal. Not only did it possess a battle celestial body akin to the Devourer of Worlds, it also possessed a star capable of supporting it.
No. Rahu must personally take action!
The Borisin fleet captains immediately transmitted the message. Rahu received it swiftly and turned its gaze toward the sun, its eyes filled with coldness and fury.
Just a star.
In the past, I, Rahu, devoured the entire Xianzhou Cangcheng. Now I can swallow you, a mere star!
With that thought, Rahu altered its trajectory at once, charging viciously toward the sun cultivated by Ruan Mei. Upon nearing a certain distance, countless wooden tendrils extended toward the star.
More crucially, those wooden tendrils were utterly unafraid of the sun's flames. Temperatures of tens of millions—even hundreds of millions—of degrees meant nothing to Rahu.
An anthropomorphic anger appeared upon the sun's blazing face. The burning within it intensified violently as it began a helium flash... From its body extended enormous, terrifying hands composed of pure light and heat, striking toward Rahu.
Each of those blazing hands radiated light and heat more terrifying than the detonation of thousands of nuclear and hydrogen bombs combined.
Planet-sized tendrils clashed against those immense solar hands of boundless radiance and heat. The intensity of war within the Yongmei Star System escalated further. One celestial body after another was dragged into the aftermath, ultimately shattering into ruin.
At that very moment, the Antimatter Legion deployed into the Yongmei Star System by Lord Ravager Celenova began to move.
Countless Voidrangers swayed their bodies and sang a harmonic hymn of Destruction, while the half-man, half-horse Tramplers lashed their hooves, whipping up gales within the Yongmei stellar domain and amplifying the destructive symphony.
At last, one Doomsday Beast after another emerged. Empowered by the harmonic destruction, they now truly possessed the power to destroy planets—to bring doomsday upon an entire galaxy.
A tide of annihilating shadow began sweeping across the Yongmei Star System.
Of course, this tide of destruction did not move to aid the Borisin fleet in defeating the Ruanruan and breaking the stalemate.
Nor did it rush to reinforce the demonic star.
Instead, this densely packed swarm of Doomsday Beasts sped toward Herta's location.
More precisely, their destination was to seize Herta—to turn the 83rd Seat of the Genius Society into part of Destruction itself.
This was the command issued by their master, Celenova.—And the reason Celenova had given this order was not because Nanook had taken some interest in Herta and wished to capture and transform her into a Lord Ravager.
Rather, it was because Phantylia, another Lord Ravager within the Destruction faction and Celenova's comrade, had recently used the Soul Gem.
After doing so, Phantylia discovered that for a heliobi species like herself, the Soul Gem was not merely a Path amplifier.
It was also a special kind of home.
As long as one resided within a Soul Gem, a heliobi would no longer require external emotional energy to sustain its burning existence. It was as though the Soul Gem itself were a sanctuary for the soul.
After discovering this, Phantylia began further experiments related to the Soul Gem. She found that it truly could contain human souls.
She even carried out one of her conspiracies within a certain star system. The majority of life within that system perished, falling into death.
Yet in truth, only their physical bodies had died. Their spirits—their souls—remained alive, all of them gathered and housed within the Soul Gem by Phantylia, continuing to exist in the form of souls.
More importantly, after surviving by residing within the Soul Gem, those beings continued to generate fear without cease. They became soul batteries that supplied Phantylia with a steady stream of energy, ensuring she would never again lack power.
All of this naturally made Phantylia even more interested. In the end, she told her good colleague Celenova about it and suggested that she attempt to draw Herta into the Destruction camp—because Herta's research was truly fascinating.
Celenova adopted Phantylia's suggestion. More crucially, Shuhu's call for aid happened to involve Herta.
Thus, a legion under Celenova descended. They had come to extend an invitation to Herta—an invitation of Destruction.
Woooo—
The harmonic hymn of Destruction swiftly reached the ears of Herta and Ruan Mei as the Doomsday Beasts beat their wings.
At last, Ruan Mei's expression changed.
"The harmonic of Destruction... A Lord Ravager is making a move. It's the one forged from the ashes of chess pieces after Nanook slew an incarnation of Harmony—the Infinite Steward—Celenova is acting! The legion of Destruction and the legion of Abundance have truly joined forces!"
"Hahaha... Do you now understand the terror of my connections? On this day, both Herta and you, Ruan Mei, will die. Two geniuses of the Genius Society will fall into the sands today!"
At this moment, the consciousness of Shuhu burst into manic laughter. He was utterly convinced of his victory.
Soon—very soon—he would break free from Herta, achieve true resurrection, and then exterminate the Stellaron Hunters, eradicate the Xianzhou Alliance, and slaughter them all...
At that moment, Herta calmly asked Ruan Mei, "Can we still hold them off?"
"Of course. I said it before—this is my home ground."
Though Ruan Mei's brows were furrowed, her voice remained steady and confident.
The instant her words fell, she released the aura of an Emanator of Erudition.
At that moment, Shuhu's manic laughter cut off abruptly. He realized something was wrong.
Ruan Mei—the 81st Seat of the Genius Society—was actually an Emanator!
This was bad. Extremely bad.
After all, the battlefield now lay within the domain of a genius.
And everyone knew that geniuses excelled most at positional warfare—at defending their own territory.
The Yongmei Star System was unquestionably Ruan Mei's lair...
Shuhu's heart sank. The resurrection he had thought within reach suddenly seemed unbearably distant once more.
Yet at that very moment, a voice resounded throughout the Yongmei Star System—and in the ears of both Ruan Mei and Herta.
It carried a mechanical tone, and both women were extremely familiar with it. They had heard it before in Amphoreus.
"Miss Herta. Miss Ruan Mei. I am one-ninth of Zandar—a slice. What you accomplished in Amphoreus was remarkable. You even forced Lygus into a disadvantage."
"But I have come this time to inform you that Lygus' experiment—or rather, Zandar's slice experiment—will not be obstructed by anyone. No interference. No disruption."
"I will now join this battle. Geniuses of the succeeding era—prepare yourselves."
The moment Zandar's slice finished speaking, the virus of the not-yet-born Lord Ravager, Irontomb, began spreading throughout the Yongmei Star System.
Ruan Mei's solar stellar biological computer immediately began reporting errors, flashing with clusters of red warning symbols.
At the same time, it began losing ground in its clash against the demonic star. Rahu, sensing the shift, vibrated excitedly and extended even more wooden chains, attempting to bind the sun tightly and devour it.
Meanwhile, the Ruanruan was affected as well. Its storm shield began to fracture and disintegrate.
Annihilation shells struck the Ruanruan's main body, causing it to emit smoke and painful cries.
Ruan Mei's brows knit tighter than ever. Zandar's slice intervening had been beyond her expectations. More critically, the Irontomb virus he had unleashed within the Yongmei Star System did not merely affect the solar stellar computer and the Ruanruan.
It also severely disrupted her subsequent methods, preventing her next measures from being deployed.
"Herta... this is troublesome." A faint trace of worry entered Ruan Mei's voice.
Shuhu, who had fallen silent earlier, burst into laughter once more.
"Hahaha! Unexpected reinforcements! Herta, Ruan Mei—you have offended quite a few forces within this cosmos. Now multiple factions and powers strike against you, these unloved geniuses. You are finished today!"
Shuhu's wild laughter echoed.
At the same time, countless Doomsday Beasts, accompanied by the harmonic of Destruction, opened their massive jaws and began condensing an enormous bomb—vast enough to obliterate an entire star system in a single strike—aimed directly at Herta.
However, the bomb was not launched immediately. It hovered within the void.
Celenova's voice followed.
"Miss Herta, I sincerely invite you to join the faction of Destruction. If you are willing, I will recommend you to the Sovereign. You have a high probability of becoming the Lord Ravager of Destruction aligned with Erudition."
Herta's lips twitched slightly upon hearing this, and she thought to herself.
According to the future Herman spoke of, I will one day fuse with Irontomb and become the Third Emperor—a Lord Ravager who annihilates the Path of Erudition.
And now Celenova is directly inviting me to join the Destruction faction and recommending me as a Lord Ravager of Destruction aligned with Erudition? Do I really look that much like a villain destined to destroy Erudition?
After thinking it over, Herta shook her head.
"I refuse."
"Since you refuse, then listen to the harmonic of Destruction and turn to ashes within it."
As Celenova's words fell, the Doomsday Beasts collectively unleashed their Star-Crushing Bomb. A single apocalyptic projectile tore open the space of the Yongmei Star System, even causing the Imaginary energy within the Imaginary Tide to surge violently.
Ruan Mei stepped forward, intending to block it.
But Herta moved first.
She stepped ahead and raised her wand high, firing a Herta Magic Cannon she had been brewing ever since she realized something was wrong with Abundance's miraculous hemostasis.
That Herta Magic Cannon had fully absorbed the infinite energy continuously drawn by the Herta Magic Wand from the Path of Erudition.
BOOOOM!
The Star-Crushing Bomb collided with the Herta Magic Cannon.
The Yongmei Star System shattered in the most literal sense.
Across dozens of light-years, space itself was ripped apart, vast storms of spatial fractures raging through the void as reality twisted and shattered amid the cataclysmic devastation.