Humanity is missing, luckily I have billions of clones.

Chapter 396 All-Star Defense Line

Amidst flashes of intense explosions, Li Qingsong relentlessly annihilated countless star beasts. When the last swarm of star beasts was dispersed, Li Qingsong knew that the outcome of this war was decided.

Many surviving star beasts began their desperate escape, and after leaving behind the lives of hundreds of thousands of star beasts, they completely fled the battlefield, disappearing into faster-than-light travel.

As in previous wars, Li Qingsong did not pursue, but instead gathered his fleet and returned to the vicinity of the gas giant.

This victory marked the true completion of the first step in Li Qingsong's plan. However, neither Li Qingsong nor the leaders of the Morais civilization felt any sense of excitement.

Even when facing a star beast at the peak of gravity, they had already truly used all their trump cards and exerted their full strength.

This could only be achieved if these star beast hordes intentionally held back, did not resort to any underhanded tactics, and simply confronted them head-on.

If the star beasts at the peak of gravity are already so powerful, then... how powerful would the star beasts at the dark force level be, even if, according to the pattern, the next one is only a star beast at the early stage of dark force?

How should we respond?

Comparing their combat capabilities when they had just upgraded from a strong core to a gravity-based force and completed a comprehensive upgrade of their weapon systems with those of their peak strong core era, Li Qingsong could clearly perceive the difference.

Even if it's only at the initial stage of gravity, it's almost impossible for someone at the peak of a strong core to contend with it. If that's the case, then is this initial stage of dark force something I can contend with?
That's the Dark Force level... Looking across the entire Milky Way, apart from the most powerful beings such as the Destroyer, the Crimson Star Alliance, the Space-level Demon Eye, and the Space-level Star Beast, the Dark Force level is the most powerful.

However, at this moment, their hopes of escaping the Star Beast Kingdom rested entirely on the Dark Force level Star Beasts.

"Based on past patterns, we will have a recovery period of ten to twenty years after this war. So now, let's discuss in detail how to deal with the upcoming Dark Force-level Star Beasts..."

Numerous intelligent life military strategists, scientists, and leaders of the Morais civilization, along with Li Qingsong himself, embarked on a long process of deduction, calculation, and discussion.

Soon, a very clear and certain conclusion emerged.

It is impossible for our side to confront a Dark Force-level Star Beast head-on.

Whether in terms of hardware such as technological level, weapon performance, and spacecraft performance, or software such as strategy and tactics, our side has no possibility of confrontation.

To force a dark-level star beast to attack a star, detonate it, and thus help them escape the star beast's realm, special methods are required.

After taking into account information from various sources and conducting a series of discussions and deductions, a plan gradually took shape.

"This is our only hope, and the only possible solution to achieve our goal."

Li Qingsong sighed softly: "To fight against dark force with gravity... Even though the dark force star beasts will definitely hold back and won't go all out, to achieve something that may never have happened in the entire galaxy or even the entire universe, we must rely on the power of the environment and use all our trump cards to go all out in order to have any hope."

"I command, the Stellar Project... to commence!"

With Li Qingsong's command, the joint fleet of human civilization and Morais civilization set sail simultaneously, escorting the numerous residential ships located at the core, carrying all the industrial equipment and resources accumulated over the years, and slowly heading towards a place closer to the star.

That's right, Li Qingsong has made a decision to change his main base.

Previously, it was a gas giant on the outer edge of the galaxy; now, it plans to relocate to the rocky planet at the innermost edge of the galaxy, closest to the star.

This rocky planet has a mass about 1.5 times that of Earth and is about 1.1 million kilometers from its star.

Because of its greater gravity and the distance from the star, it has a relatively thick atmosphere, which is enough to maintain a certain atmospheric pressure on its surface.

However, there isn't much liquid water on it because its average surface temperature is too high, reaching 160 degrees Celsius. This causes all the liquid water on its surface to vaporize, turning into water vapor and merging into the atmosphere.

Only underground, there may be some underground rivers, lakes and the like.

Overall, the surface environment of this planet is like a giant pressure cooker: high pressure, high temperature, and extremely humid. Without protection, a human being would likely be completely crushed by this pressure cooker within an hour, with even the bones crumbling.

In this hellish environment, Li Qingsong and the engineers of the Morais civilization jointly carried out a massive industrial operation.

Factories sprang up one after another, producing a massive amount of industrial equipment. Some of these industrial facilities were assembled and gradually coalesced into giant engines as high as mountains.

These engines are distributed relatively evenly on the ground, and there are millions of them in total.

Indeed, what Li Qingsong is doing now is exactly the same as what that civilization did back then when it tried to push its own planet to embark on interstellar travel because its star was "sick".

He intends to propel this planet forward!
Li Qingsong had the ability to do this long ago—he had it during the core development phase—but he had never actually done it.

Now it's finally time to put it into practice.

Of course, what he wanted to do was not to make the planet break free from its star, but to bring it closer to its star.

This is the first step in Li Qingsong's overall plan.

In just a few years, these millions of giant planetary thrusters were built at a speed that left the Morais civilization speechless, and then immediately put into operation.

In an instant, millions of bright blue trails of flame, like lightsabers, pierced through the thick, moisture-rich atmosphere and pointed straight into space.

Under the impact of these high-speed exhaust plumes, the molecules that make up the atmosphere also acquire extremely high kinetic energy, rushing into space like mud carried by a burst dam.

In just one month since its launch, the planet's atmosphere has been reduced by about 1%.

Although it is only 1%, when converted, it means a mass of about 700 trillion tons, which is about one-seventh of the total mass of the Earth's atmosphere.

This month-long, all-out effort abruptly halted the rotation of this massive rocky planet. The cost was that the entire planet entered a period of geological activity, with frequent volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

Of course, this has no impact on Li Qingsong.

After coming to a stop, the planetary engine restarted, beginning to slow its orbit, and it fell toward the star.

This process lasted for about 10 years, until it stopped when its distance from the star shrank to only 200 million kilometers. Keep in mind that the star itself has a diameter of about 150 million kilometers; at a mere 200 million kilometers, the planet could be said to have entered the star's atmosphere.

Even if Li Qingsong stops interfering in the future, due to the constant friction with the star's matter, the planet will fall into the star within a million years as it is continuously slowed down.

Its eventual demise is a foregone conclusion.

Even if it hasn't perished yet, it has already been severely affected.

Due to constant friction with the star's matter and the intense stripping effect of stellar radiation, its own thick atmosphere began to thin rapidly at a rate hundreds of thousands of times faster than before.

It is estimated that the entire atmosphere will disappear completely in just a few decades.

This also triggered a series of amazing changes.

Although the temperature on the side facing the star rose dramatically again, even to the point where it could melt gold and iron, covering this side of the planet entirely with molten lava, the temperature on the other side began to drop sharply due to the lack of insulation and convection from the atmosphere. Even substances such as water ice, methane ice, and dry ice began to appear.

One side is extremely hot, and the other side is extremely cold; it can truly be described as a world of extremes.

By this time, Li Qingsong's massive industrial construction was almost complete, so the plan immediately entered its second phase.

Based on this planet, and with an almost endless supply of resources, countless unmanned warships, interstellar minefields, artillery emplacements, satellites, missiles, and other equipment were scattered throughout the orbit around the star.

The production of manned warships has entered a state of near frenzy.

One after another, Mercury-class, Gold-class, Earth-class, Mars-class, and even the largest Jupiter-class warships emerged from the dock like an assembly line.

The production of the Wood Star-level warships is too difficult and the output is limited. No matter how much effort is concentrated, it is impossible to produce them quickly. However, the other types of warships are different.

In a short period of time, Li Qingsong increased the number of Mercury-level warships to more than ten million!

Of all these warships, Li Qingsong could only control a small number; the majority of the rest were stored away by him.

Regarding the only strategic weapon, the Universal Force Field, the production speed of its components is limited, but the production of clones can be accelerated. Thus, with the construction of large-scale hibernation bases, the number of clones in Li Qingsong's reserve is rapidly increasing: 50 billion, 100 billion, 200 billion…

Electromagnetic lifeforms were also released onto the star and began to cooperate with the "Shepherd of Lightning" fleet that Li Qingsong had built, developing and training new tactics in an effort to further enhance their offensive capabilities.

Time flies, and in just a few years, Li Qingsong has armed this star into an impregnable fortress.

This was the strategic arrangement made by Li Qingsong and the Morais civilization after joint discussions.

Relying on the star and electromagnetic life as the main force, supplemented by the countless manned and unmanned gravity-level combat facilities on our side, we will fight against the approaching dark force-level star beasts at the edge of the star!
Yes, it's merely confrontation, not victory.

Li Qingsong had already made it clear that even if the Dark Force Star Beast didn't use its full strength, and even if they used all their trump cards, defeating the Dark Force Star Beast was still impossible.

All Li Qingsong could think about was resistance.

If we can withstand the first few waves of attacks from the Dark Force Star Beasts, leaving them helpless like a tiger facing a turtle with a hard shell, unable to defeat us, then they might be able to unleash the attack we've been dreaming of.

To launch an attack that is highly likely to be dominated by tachyons, or rather, negativeons, against a star and detonate it!

This was a "flaw" that Li Qingsong intentionally left for his opponent.

The situation is quite clear: Li Qingsong's side relies entirely on the star to build its defenses, and due to the presence of electromagnetic life, they have a significant advantage around the star. If the star beasts cannot break through the defenses in a short time, they will almost certainly resort to attacking the star itself.

If we have the capability to detonate a star, why not?
Once the giant bomb that is the star is detonated, the defenses built upon it, no matter how strong, will be reduced to ashes in an instant.

Looking at the entire plan, Li Qingsong and the high-ranking officials of the Morais civilization were all clear that there were only two possible loopholes in the plan.

The first question is whether our side can withstand the first few waves of attacks from the Dark Force Star Beast.

After all, only by blocking these attacks and rendering the Dark Force Star Beasts helpless against them can they launch a direct attack on the star, attempting to annihilate their defenses in this way.

After comprehensive analysis, Li Qingsong believes that even if his side uses all its trump cards, including electromagnetic life, a powerful field, and a full-stellar defense system, the Dark Force Star Beasts will not use their full strength. The probability of his side blocking their first few rounds of attacks is only about 20%.

The second loophole, or rather the key point, is whether the Dark Force Beasts have the ability to directly attack stars with negatives and detonate them.

After comprehensive analysis, Li Qingsong and the high-ranking officials of the Morais civilization agreed that the probability was also around 20%. After all, there are different levels of Dark Force, and star beasts or civilizations at the early stage of Dark Force might not possess such a large-scale offensive capability.

Multiplying two 20% probabilities together, the final probability is only 4%. Furthermore, the possibility of detonating a star to open a spatial passage for their escape is merely speculation, so let's estimate that at 10%. Ultimately, the probability of their escape is reduced to approximately 0.4%.

A final probability of 0.4%...

"What a truly despair-inducing probability..."

Li Qingsong sighed softly: "And even if we succeed and escape the Star Beast Kingdom, we might still be caught and brought back the next moment."

But, as the saying goes, one step at a time; let's finish the task at hand first.

The entire stellar defense line has been successfully built, but Li Qingsong has not stopped the progress of the project and is still frantically producing more war supplies to replenish it.

Seemingly sensing that Li Qingsong was ready, a large cluster of star beasts in a relatively inner star system finally stirred.

A total of about ten million star beasts gathered from various planets and disappeared when they were less than three trillion kilometers away from the star, entering a state of faster-than-light travel.

Just four months later, it appeared at a distance of only 3.2 trillion kilometers from the star where Li Qingsong was located.

(End of this chapter)