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

Chapter 272 What the heck flew over? (3k)

Deep space in the universe, far from the Great Ring.

The flagship of the Asian Fleet, the "Asia," a star-class warship, resembled a scarred yet still dazzling golden star, navigating through a dense rain of particle beams. Behind it, approximately 800 star-class warships were flanking and charging towards the equator of the Great Ring.

There are two other similar main fleet groups, located in different directions of the giant ring, led by the European fleet's flagship "Paradox Engine" and the American fleet's flagship "Polaris," respectively, each consisting of a main fleet group of 600 and 700 star-class warships.

In this all-out attack on the Great Ring Equatorial Engine, humanity deployed 2100 star-class warships. Including the 1000 star-class warships that Kuiper led at the front, the solar system fleet has already mobilized 60% of its total strength.

The three main fleets traced three graceful arcs in space, and coincidentally, the arrows pointed to a giant ring. The three main fleets were spreading out in an arc, seemingly forming three interconnected lake lines to create a perfect circular offensive.

Humanity's objective in this war is very clear: to destroy more than 6% of the engines on the giant ring's equator, which means destroying at least 4000 equator engines, thereby disrupting the giant ring's maneuverability.

At this moment, although the Great Ring is heading towards the depths of the solar system, it has not locked onto any planet. If the Great Ring's ability to turn can be destroyed, it can be forced to make harmless, uncontrollable travels under the propulsion of its main engine, thus completely eliminating its threat to any planet in the solar system.

With all 2100 star-class warships in forward phase four, the fleet was radiating intense nuclear fusion light, which made them completely noticeable to the Great Ring.

With the help of the inner and outer ring elevators, 360 gamma laser beam cannons were completely transferred from the inner ring to the outer ring and launched a long-range sniping attack on the incoming fleet.

However, the silver-white hull of the fleet, including the three flagships and the 499 star-class warships that had made great contributions during the expedition, suddenly emitted a faint red light. These star-class warships with the red light stood at the forefront of the fleet and rushed towards the gamma laser beams generated by the large ring.

The molecular-level force field generator—the shipborne Iron Curtain device—has begun operation.

For 30 seconds after the red light was born, the main nano-metal armor structure molecules of the 502 star-class warships were effectively fixed by the faint red light. The nano-metal structure at the molecular level was completely fixed. In this extremely short period of 30 seconds, the surface of these star-class warships reached absolute zero in the true sense.

The massive laser bombardment focused entirely on the 502 leading warships, while the remaining 1600 star-class warships were neatly arranged behind them.

Gamma laser beams are essentially photon beams, and are energy weapons that truly act at the atomic nucleus level. The structural force field generated by the molecular-level force field generator, which forcibly fixes nanostructured molecules, is not sufficient to completely stop the bombardment of gamma laser beams.

Therefore, the Iron Curtain state of the forward fleet, which is being directly bombarded by rays, is being rapidly depleted. The energy consumption of the Iron Curtain state is even greater than that of the nuclear fusion engines of a star-class warship operating at full power. The armor structure under the Iron Curtain force field is constantly being penetrated and then fixed by a new layer of the Iron Curtain force field.

After the 30-second Iron Curtain state ended, the molecular force field generator entered a 5-minute cooldown period, while the enemy's gamma laser beam cannon array had also completed this short, high-frequency rapid-fire.

None of the human fleets suffered any damage.

When the 2100 star-class warships accelerated to 10% of the speed of light, they simultaneously unleashed four rounds of star-shaped hydrogen bombs, launching a full-scale attack on all equatorial engines in the equatorial direction with more than 8000 star-shaped hydrogen bombs.

...

In the rear, the "Luoqing" starship, serving as a temporary command post, became the temporary command center for Pluto's orbit, where the last batch of technical personnel and staff were being urgently evacuated. Outside the huge portholes, Pluto's desolate, nitrogen-ice-covered, grayish-white surface was trembling.

Serandin (Commander of the American Fleet) asked, "How much destruction could Pluto cause by impacting the rings?"

Vitalis (Commander of the European Fleet) pondered, "It mainly depends on the speed. Pluto's mass is not large, only two-thousandths of Earth's. If it doesn't move fast, it probably won't be able to cause devastating damage to the giant rings."

The commander of the Asian fleet shook his head: "Don't forget, the speed of the giant ring itself has increased to nearly 1/1000th of the speed of light. If it were to collide with Pluto at this speed, the main structure of the ring would definitely break unless it is a white dwarf."

Serantin looked at the Taoist-robed youth above Pluto with a complicated expression: "Let's see how fast the Wallfacers can push Pluto. If Pluto isn't destroyed, then we still have the moon, which has a much larger mass."

Vitalis said, "We are still 40 astronomical units away from the Great Ring. The delay is too high. However, the attack by the three main fleets has most likely already begun. If 2100 star-class warships cannot stop the Great Ring from advancing, then we should be prepared for the Kuiper Belt defenses to fall."

The commander of the Asian fleet suddenly asked, seemingly out of the blue, "Where are the Trisolaran fleet's probes?"

"What detector?" Serandin was clearly confused for a moment.

Vitalis exclaimed, "I'd completely forgotten about that... Who knows? It doesn't emit light, so we can't observe it. It'll probably enter the solar system in the next year or two. Should we destroy these probes?"

Serantin nodded casually: "Even 8% of the speed of light isn't considered fast here. We can destroy these detectors with gamma laser beams. I will put the ten star-class warships of the American Fleet into [Advance 4] mode in advance. They will be destroyed as soon as they are detected, so they won't interfere with our war against the Devouring Empire."

The commander of the Asian fleet forced a smile and said, "After this phase of the war is over, recall all the star-class warships of the entire solar system fleet to Jupiter for a major overhaul. We also need to apply the mature 'Iron Curtain' technology to all the star-class warships." Serantin and Vitalis remained noncommittal.

...

Luo Qing appeared to be standing still with his eyes closed, but in reality, his mind was always on the front line. Under his control, the Emperor's Banner had projected its phantom image to various parts of the battlefield, absorbing the remnant souls of humans who had sacrificed themselves in this Kuiper Belt War.

He's turned the perfectly good Emperor's Banner into a prototype of the Underworld.

As for refining Pluto... it's just a formality. This dwarf planet can be used as a football at will. The complicated methods used here are mainly for the sake of ritual.

War has a highly catalytic effect on the development of human civilization. In the three years since the Sophon blockade was lifted, various new technologies have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. If Luo Qing hadn't glimpsed a corner of this treacherous universe through the Risk Removers and the encounters of Evil Qing and Good Qing, he certainly wouldn't have let these space army soldiers sacrifice themselves; he would have already blocked the Great Ring outside the Kuiper Belt on his own.

He has nine ways to kill the giant ring, nine ways.

Here, nine is used in general; in the world of cultivation, nine represents the ultimate number.

However, this cannot be done. Firstly, humanity at this stage still needs the experience of space warfare, and the Devouring Empire is clearly an excellent adversary. Moreover, the Trisolaran civilization's technological level is significantly higher than that of humanity at this stage, and the future Trisolaran fleet will still be a threat to humanity. Another reason is that Shan Qing's intelligence has confirmed the existence of a 'god' behind the Devouring Giant Ring.

Even a powerful threat eliminater is merely a creation of the neural civilization; it's just a sensor. But behind the dinosaurs stands a true 'god,' which puts Luo Qing under immense pressure.

Therefore, even without Sophon monitoring him, he still had to maintain the status of a Wallfacer, always keeping his reserves of strength to ensure he could respond to any emergencies at any time.

As a mere cultivator, when facing overwhelming odds, preparing backup plans and waiting for humanity to develop is always the best option.

Luo Qing pretended to hold his hands together as if embracing an invisible sphere. Under his deliberate manipulation, a visible blue halo surrounded him. As his spiritual power connected with the entire planet Pluto, an indescribable sense of heaviness permeated the deep space.

Serantin looked at the data on the monitoring screen and said in a low voice, "The gravity field readings are abnormal... The internal stress of the star is being redistributed? God, this planet is moving. Well done."

Vitalis said, "What does this have to do with God, or do you think God's last name is Ro?"

Before Serantin could speak, the voice of the Asian Fleet Commander came through: "Pluto's rotation has stopped; there has been no transition."

Serantin crossed her arms: "I thought this would at least take some time, but it's going to happen in no time?"

Vitalis did a quick calculation: "Pluto's mass isn't large, but to stop its rotation, we'd need at least 30 planetary engines, distributed along Pluto's equator, running at full power in opposite directions. It would take at least half a month to bring it to a complete stop. The output power of our planetary engines is about the same as that of the dinosaurs' large ring engines. It just goes to show how high the energy level of cultivators is. The human civilization Luo Qing belongs to must be a terrifying one. I really admire it."

The Asian fleet quickly scanned the progress bar of Pluto's data fluctuations: "Not a single piece of non-fixed matter on Pluto's surface has been ejected; it stopped at the same time as the entire dwarf planet. Tell the frontline troops that Pluto will be past soon."

Serandin asked, "Soon? How soon?"

She quickly got her answer; shortly after she asked her question, Pluto—the dwarf planet with a diameter of 2370 kilometers—made a strange shift.

The anticipated global earthquake did not occur, and even the ice layer did not crack. The dwarf planet was like a stone ball tied with a rope, which was turned around at will.

Luo Qingxu suddenly pushed his arms forward!
As if sensing the lack of ritual, he let out a loud shout.

"rise!"

A gravitational wave, invisible to the naked eye but detectable by all warships with gravitational detection equipment in the Kuiper Belt, lashed the structure of the universe like an invisible whip, sweeping at the speed of light toward the distant devouring ring!

Under Luo Qing's guidance, this cold star began to accelerate continuously and soon broke through the third cosmic velocity from zero, flying towards the ultimate symbol of the Devouring Empire—that huge, slowly writhing red halo!

Objective: Devour the giant ring!
Path: Through the main battlefield of the Kuiper Belt!

Weapon: Pluto itself!

Dinosaurs and insects, prepare for my Pluto bombardment!
(End of this chapter)