Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 223 The Banquet (Part 2)

'Not leaving?'

The dead fish sword stared at Shan Qing with its lifeless eyes. With its still-developing intelligence, it was unable to understand its master's deeper meaning.

But this did not stop it from obeying commands. It shook the mangled corpse to the ground and then began to fall continuously under the gravity of the giant ring.

(Note: The giant ring is hollow inside, and the spacecraft's mass is concentrated in the ring's "wall" rather than in the hollow center. The ring's inner and outer widths are approximately equal to the Earth's diameter, but due to the large number of voids inside, its mass per unit volume is less than that of Earth. The gravitational pull from the ring's own mass is only 1/6 that of Earth, similar to the Moon's gravity; the remaining perceived gravity is due to the centrifugal force from the ring's rotation.)
After abandoning its attempt to rescue its master's body, the White Fish Sword smashed a large hole in the hard ground with a loud thud, then quickly sank into it.

A not-so-bright velociraptor tried to catch the white dwarf starfish, but the white fish sword merely flicked its tail fin (the hilt) and smashed the audacious velociraptor into pieces.

With a weight of 600,000 tons, what kind of dragon do you think you are? Godzilla?
Even Godzilla would have to be smashed to pieces!

The dinosaurs could only watch helplessly as the white fish sword disappeared.

After the chaos subsided, the mutilated corpse on the ground was twisted in a strange position, its open eyes now bloodshot, looking grotesque and terrifying.

"What on earth is going on?!"

The unit commander, who was also the shark-toothed dragon, carefully jumped to the spot where the white fish had fallen. He looked at the bottomless pit and then at Shanqing, who was dead beyond any doubt.

Junlong whispered, "This white dwarf starfish must have grown wings, right? I clearly saw it fly in."

One of the dragons retorted, "How could something weighing hundreds of thousands of dragon tons possibly fly? The simulated gravity of the Great Ring is almost the same as that of our home planet (Earth)!"

Some dragons are very observant. One of them said, "It's less like flying and more like leaping very high from the ground and then crashing in at an angle."

"Maybe it's an evolved white fish; white fish can evolve."

One of the clever dragons countered, "That's unlikely. Without the supergravity of a white dwarf, white fish would struggle to even survive, let alone reproduce and evolve. Currently, all white fish primarily obtain the minimum energy for survival by chewing up the outer electron shells of matter, which is far from enough for reproduction and evolution."

"What about that white fish we just caught? Are we still going to deal with it?" another dragon in military uniform asked.

The clever dragon continued, "How can we manage this? The white fish going out of control is a huge disaster. Without the strong electromagnetic barrier to stop them, they can even swim from the inner ring to the outer ring. Don't be fooled by the fishing teams outside who are busy; out of the thousands of white fish that have escaped, they'll be lucky to catch two hundred!"

"No!" Sharktooth Dragon said with a gloomy expression, "His Majesty the Emperor will not allow any fish to escape. You may not know this, but I learned some information from the noble dinosaurs of District One: these white dwarf fish were a gift from 'God' to the Devouring Empire millions of years ago. The Empire does not have the ability to land on the white dwarf; these fish were all gifts from God."

You must understand, the main supporting structure of the entire giant ring is made from the shed scales of these white fish. Therefore, these white fish are crucial to the future development of the empire; the loss of even one fish is a significant blow. Even if we have to dig the entire ring upside down, we must capture these white fish! Not to mention that suspected mutated white fish from earlier; it possesses immense research value!”

"So what do we do next?" Youlong asked.

The Carcharodontosaurus issued the order, "Notify the fishing forces outside to carry high-voltage fishing rods to fish. The extremely high voltage can stun these white fish, making them easier to catch later. (Ultra-high voltage can disrupt the electron degeneracy pressure balance inside the white dwarf's matter; if the disruption is just right, it can stun the white dwarf fish.)"
The other dragons and I will first take this human body away and head straight to the Grand Elevator. The noble army of District One is already waiting for us. Cheer up, don't be discouraged! This is a great opportunity for us District Six dragons to pay homage to the District One dragons and bask in their noble splendor!

Under the unified command of the Sharktooth Dragon, the military dragons set out in a grand procession. To avoid a sudden attack caused by the White Fish Disaster, Shanqing's body was put into a rotorcraft helicopter and flew very high.

Other military aircraft mostly travel in armored vehicles or other helicopters.

In the chaos of moving the corpses, Shanqing was secretly licked by some dinosaur.

But this is a necessary sacrifice, good corpse, you must be patient.

...

The carnivorous dinosaurs in zones four, five, and six are mainly composed of second-class citizens, primarily descendants of small and medium-sized carnivorous dinosaurs such as Velociraptor, Carcharodontosaurus, and Velociraptor.

The first-class citizen dragons in zones one, two, and three are mainly composed of descendants of large carnivorous dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus Rex, Asura, and Spinosaurus.

As for districts seven, eight, nine, and ten, they were the main habitats of common carnivorous dinosaurs and a large number of herbivorous dinosaurs. The number of dinosaurs in these districts accounted for 70% of the total number of dinosaurs. They were the main dinosaur gathering areas of the empire. For example, the descendants of Triceratops and Brachiosaurus lived here. This area was a mixed area for second-class and third-class citizens.

As for District 11, it is the area where criminals, low-level herbivorous dragons, and even meat dragons reside. District 12 is very close to District 1, and His Majesty the Emperor is kind-hearted and cannot bear to see poor dragons, so it is mainly a natural ecological environment and a tourist destination for the Devouring Empire.

The noble army commander who came to collect Shanqing's body was a huge descendant of a savage dragon. He glanced disdainfully at the small shark-toothed dragon kneeling on the ground, and then commanded other large war dragons to carry Shanqing's remains onto the large ring elevator.

The Great Ring Elevator is the core mode of transportation in the Devouring Empire, consisting of thousands of elevator tracks running through the entire giant ring and tens of thousands of giant elevator shafts.

During transport, the corpse curiously examined the internal structure of the giant ring.

The circular elevators ran along the inner walls, and the elevator shafts were made of metal. Just as he had imagined, the elevators in the dinosaur world and the magnetic levitation railway system in the human underground city operated on the same principle. Both were driven by electromagnetic acceleration; they were more like electromagnetic levitation trains than elevators.

This also shows that there is no significant gap between the technology used by the Devouring Empire and that of humans, an answer that reassured the corpse.

About 4 hours later.

Shanqing was transported to a dinosaur laboratory where dozens of dinosaurs wearing white coats examined his remains and conducted various experiments.

Shanqing was surprised by the emperor's vigilance in devouring him.

Me, a corpse? What are you guarding against?
After two more days of complex and tedious experiments, Shanqing was dissected and divided into eight pieces. Two of the limbs were permanently left in the dinosaur laboratory, while the remaining six pieces were presented to the Devouring Emperor.

The dinosaurs held a special banquet for this occasion.

Clearly, the dinosaur superiors still retained the habit of eating raw meat. Except for His Majesty the Devouring Emperor, who considered himself different and preferred cooked meat, most of the food in front of the other dinosaurs was raw.

All the dragons' eyes were fixed on that spot.

Unfortunately, this human body is far too small.

Dinosaurs also had a need for aphrodisiacs, but unfortunately they didn't get the chance this time.

However, even if they were still around, they wouldn't be something ordinary dinosaurs could eat.

The dinosaurs have been craving human food for far too long. Only the Great Tooth of the Messenger came close to tasting humans, but ultimately failed to get a bite. Today, the Devouring Emperor will become the first dinosaur to eat humans.

The Devouring Emperor glanced down at the plate of food and frowned in displeasure. Compared to the size of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, the human was far too small.

But compared to the other dinosaur ministers whose eyes were practically glowing with greed, the emperor of the empire was relatively more restrained and wouldn't start eating right now. This banquet was less of a banquet and more of a pre-war meeting for the solar system war.

Like humans, dinosaurs liked to talk about things while eating.

Before the banquet officially began, Emperor Tunshi addressed his ministers.

The dragons immediately looked away from the food and lowered their heads to listen to the holy words.

The Devouring Emperor is the ultimate authority holder of the Great Ring, possessing overwhelming military power over the entire empire. Compared to the political system of the Devouring Empire, the centralized systems of any ancient human dynasties are mere child's play. The Devouring Emperor will show humanity what true centralized power is.

It is the absolute ruler of the empire!
"Ministers, a week ago, this superhuman insectoid that was once active in the Kuiper Belt inflicted some losses on the Empire's outer low-level fleet. This is nothing to the Empire, and cannot even be considered a war."

But this war, which wasn't really a war, was seen as a great victory by the insectoid humans who inhabited our home planet.

The foolish and short-sighted human insects, inflated by this, became extremely overconfident. This super insect, oblivious to the danger, believed the Empire was easily defeated and secretly infiltrated the Great Ring through some unknown means. In the past seven days, this super insect has wreaked havoc everywhere, even releasing the meat-branched dragons from the breeding farms and damaging our Great Ring's supply pipelines.

This kind of pointless destruction serves no purpose other than angering the Empire. Three days ago, this human-like insect was attacked by the Empire. The seemingly powerful super insect was powerless against the Great Ring's defensive weapons and had half of its body burned away instantly.

And his other half is now laid out before the assembled ministers.

After the Emperor finished speaking, all the ministers looked up at the tower that was placed on the food platform and piled up with many foods. At the top of the food tower was the head that served as the core ingredient.

The human head.

The head was surrounded by giant vegetables resembling onions, carrots, and lettuce. On top of his head, there were many seasonings, and some dipping sauces were placed next to the head.

Facing the gazes of the dinosaur ministers, the head forced a smile at the minister before it.

"Did he just smile?" the Minister of Science, sitting directly opposite the head, suddenly asked.

“You’re mistaken,” the Dinosaur Pope, sitting next to the Minister of Science, explained. “But I think I saw it too. It might be a natural twitch of the nervous system, or the brine on his head was too heavy and pressed on his facial muscles.”

The Minister of Science said to the Dinosaur Pope, "You know more about science than I do."

A confident smile appeared on the face of the Dinosaur Pope.

The Devouring Emperor ignored the voices below and continued, "Ministers, this cannot be considered a great victory for the Devouring Empire. The enemy is far too weak, and this super insect is far too arrogant. This is at best an ant-level victory. It has no significance for the Devouring Empire's subsequent military operations, but it is indeed a good start."

The Emperor's gaze swept toward the Minister of Science.

The Minister of Science immediately stood up and said, "Your Majesty, ministers, our dinosaur experts in the Ministry of Science have concluded that this super insect is extremely rare in the human world and should be an isolated case. Therefore, the Empire need not worry that there are many such individuals among the human insects."

The emperor then looked at the Minister of Military Affairs and the Minister of War.

The Minister of War said, "Your Majesty, the outer fleet of the Giant Ring is ready for war. The entire fleet of 60 Devouring Warships has arrived in the direction facing Earth. As long as you give the order, the fleet will set sail immediately!"

The Minister of War declared, “Our claws will tear apart the enemy’s defenses, and our teeth will crush their hopes! Just as the dinosaurs did 6500 million years ago, the Devouring Empire will once again become the true ruler of the Earth, reminding all life on Earth of the terrors of the dinosaur era! We will devour this beautiful and delicious home planet as part of the Great Ring!”

60 ships? That many? All of them?

The delicious food in the banquet center was secretly savored.

This fleet size represents almost the entire armed fleet of the dinosaurs. Although the Dinosaur Empire boasts a million-strong fleet, at least 3-4% of it is unarmed, simply ejected by the giant rings, unwilling to become heavy-duty iron scraps for propulsion.

After the two military ministers expressed their opinions, the Devouring Emperor nodded and said, "Ministers, the human insectoids have dispatched 1500 small but exquisite warships toward the Great Ring. They are expected to arrive in the Great Ring in a few months. Are you prepared?"

Here it comes, the most crucial part: the tactical discussion. Delicious Head pricked up its ears.

The Minister of War replied loudly, “Your Majesty the Emperor! I will personally lead 100,000 warships to press against these 1500 human-insect warships. Although the human-insect warships are superior to ours in performance, they are far outnumbered. I will use my superb fleet command and the sheer size of my fleet to destroy these 1500 human-insect warships and continue towards the solar system as the first fleet to attack it.”

The Minister of War said, "I will lead the remaining 500,000 warships, spreading them out in an arc to surround the entire solar system, and then complete the final contraction in the Jupiter region, completely annihilating the human insectoids' thousands of large warships and tens of thousands of small warships! At the same time, I will also destroy all the defensive devices that the human insectoids have set up in the solar system, solving the last problem before the Great Ring arrives in the solar system."

"It's an encirclement strategy! What brilliant command!" The dinosaurs whispered among themselves at the banquet.

"Yes, we used to just crush them, but this time we actually used strategy!"

The Devouring Emperor also revealed a hint of approval in his eyes: "Hmm, to surround humanity from the entire solar system is a truly magnificent space warfare strategy. The Empire has never waged such a great war. You deserve to be commended. Where is the chef? Send the largest piece of belly meat with entrails to the Minister of Military Affairs."

Shanqing's heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys, and abdominal area were taken away.

The military minister was moved to tears.

Wait, is this the strategy and tactics of dinosaurs?

That's it? Huh?

What's so ingenious about this war strategy?
Was the war theory of dinosaurs really that simple and brutal? Is a simple encirclement tactic considered the greatest war theory? Or is all space warfare this unpretentious?
Shanqing stared wide-eyed, her eyes filled with disbelief.

He pretended to be a corpse for so long, even having his arms fried and stewed, dismembered and served on the dinner table, all for this little bit of information? If this is how dinosaurs operate, then what about all the humiliation he suffered these past few days?
The Minister of Science felt a chill run down his spine when he saw the human head in the center of the table suddenly widen its eyes.

What's wrong with this head? It was laughing at first, then its ears perked up, and now its eyes are wide open!

"Pope, look, his eyes are moving again!" The Minister of Science quickly kicked the Pope's chair on the right.

"You've mistaken him," the Dinosaur Pope reassured him. "The room is very warm. He's been kept in refrigeration. It's normal for his eyes to widen slightly due to thermal expansion and contraction. Don't be so worried."

"..."

The Minister of Science remained silent, his gaze fixed entirely on the head that was being served as the main course. Under extreme pressure, he was in no mood to listen to what His Majesty the Emperor and the two military ministers were saying.

(Updates will resume tomorrow. Today was the last single update. I was rushing these past two days, but it's finally over. Orz)

(End of this chapter)