The player is playing like a god, and has already advanced to Space Marine level at the start.

In the hands of Guilliman and Caul, time on Terra (Earth) is not a slowly flowing river, but a red-hot iron being forged madly.

Just one year.

The Earth, once ravaged, has now recovered and prospered. Hundreds of millions of engineering machines and workers, like ants, burrow in and out of the steel jungle.

Looking up, the near-Earth orbit was crowded like a river teeming with monsters. Rows of orbital docks, like the spines of giants, encircled the Earth. Newly launched warships, unpainted and bare of their gray armor, lay densely packed in the harbor.

The changes on Mars are even more frightening.

This once red planet was brutally "awakened" by Belisarius Caul. A massive gear emblem was laser-etched into the ground, the heat from the Earth's core was frantically extracted, and the furnace fires turned the Martian night sky crimson. A brand new forging world rose from the ground, a steel miracle forged by Caul's sheer willpower.

The fortress of the "Burning Heaven" battle group, Skyblade VII, hangs beside Mars.

The bridge was filled with the smells of incense and ozone.

"Commander, the twelfth batch of new recruits has completed their transformation."

Wei Laoqi's voice switched in, brimming with barely suppressed agitation, "The survival rate is really high. Your methods are practically stealing business from the King of Hell."

Lu Xiao didn't respond, tapping the explosive pistol at his waist with his fingers.

That year, he became a full-time caregiver. He had to oversee every surgery and every implantation. The results were frightening—this was no longer a single battle group, but an expanding legion.

Guilliman had long ago thrown his own copy of the Astartes into the shredder. "In this godforsaken place, limiting military strength is suicide," were the Regent's exact words.

Thus, conscription orders rained down like snowflakes. There was no limit of one thousand people; as long as it could be supported, even one hundred thousand would be accepted. The current "Burning Sky" chapter alone has over six thousand official Space Marines, not counting the tidal wave of mortal auxiliary troops and mechanical slaves.

"This is all thanks to that old madman, Kaul," Lu Xiao muttered.

As soon as he finished speaking, the holographic platform made a crackling sound, and Belisarius Caul's cobbled-together iron face suddenly popped out.

"Lu Xiao! Look at this! By Om Messiah, that severed hand is an endless treasure!"

Kaur's voice was shrill, like fingernails scratching a blackboard, and carried a manic joy.

"Another new toy?" Lu Xiao raised an eyebrow.

"A toy? No, it's a miracle! It's evolution!"

The dozen or so mechanical tentacles behind Kaul danced wildly, pulling up a set of complex human data. "I've cracked the atomic recombination logic in that arm. Although I can't completely replicate the immortality of the fourth-generation divine body, I've violently simplified it and stuffed it into the nineteenth surgery—a modified version of the black shell."

The scene changed. In the simulation, a Space Marine had his leg blown off. No blood was gushing from the wound; instead, granulation tissue was growing rapidly. Within minutes, the bone cracked and healed, and the flesh quickly reformed.

"See that? This is the new 'Belissau Furnace'!" Caul roared, his electronic eyes flashing red light. "As long as their brains aren't rotten and their hearts aren't shattered, they can grow new limbs like geckos! Although this will instantly drain their bio-energy, that's not a problem—an injection of energy fluid can restore it—but what does this mean?"

"That means the Dreadnought Mech will be discontinued," Lu Xiao added.

"That's right! The days of stuffing the seriously wounded into iron coffins are over! Now, Astartes, as long as they're not completely dead, can get up and continue plunging their chainsaw swords into the stomachs of their enemies!"

The scene shifted again, this time showing a set of thrusters carried on the back.

"And this! It combines the propulsion technology of this universe with Imperial technology. Now, every warrior wearing the new Mark X power armor possesses vacuum-sealed individual combat capabilities!"

"No need for shipboard torpedoes, no need for Thunder Eagle airdrops. At close range, they themselves are humanoid missiles!"

"How is the equipment distribution?"

"Everyone's armed! The production line on Mars is practically smoking, but I guarantee every one of your men is armed to the teeth." Caul thumped his chest, making a loud, resounding thud.

Suddenly, the soft lights on Skyblade 7 went out, and a glaring red alarm went off.

A sharp buzzing sound instantly shattered the silence of the bridge.

"Warning! Warning! High-energy spatial fluctuations detected in the outer solar system!"

"Unidentified fleet warp reaction detected!"

Lu Xiao's previously relaxed posture instantly tensed up, like a fully drawn bow.

"Location?"

"Outside the Oort Cloud, three million kilometers from Pluto's orbit."

The hologram rapidly expanded, and in the pitch-black void, a bizarre fleet emerged like a ghost. These ships were streamlined and teardrop-shaped, their surfaces covered with feather-like crystalline armor that shimmered with iridescent light under the starlight.

……

At the edge of the solar system, the Featherfall Civilization's reconnaissance fleet.

The bridge of the flagship "Cloud" is dazzlingly white.

Salas leaned lazily against the crystal chair. He looked human, his skin covered with expensive white fur, and a pair of decorative wings of light were tucked behind him—the hallmark of a higher life form.

The Featherfall Civilization believes in absolute "survival of the fittest." They expand across the Milky Way like locusts, devouring every inferior civilization to feed their home planet.

"Reporting, Captain, scan complete." The adjutant turned around, his face filled with disbelief. "This star system... it's practically an untapped gold mine."

On the screen, the solar system was clearly visible. There was Earth's busy orbit, Mars transformed into a war fortress, and those massive creatures wandering in the void.

"That red planet has an alarmingly high energy level," the adjutant said, pointing to Mars. "And those warships, with their crude designs, are all primitive, violent aesthetics, but their numbers... are quite considerable."

Salas squinted, tapping his fingers on the armrest. "Indigenous?"

"It seems so. No trace of the Dark Dimension shield was detected, nor was a large-scale wormhole defense system discovered." The adjutant pulled up a set of data. "It seems their tech tree has gone astray, focusing excessively on physical matter and kinetic weapons."

"No dark dimension technology?"

Salas laughed, with the arrogance of a superior civilization looking at ants.

In the Super God Universe, the lack of dark dimension technology means the absence of divine bodies and conceptual strike capabilities. Even if warships are built as large as mountains, they would be nothing more than a bunch of giant live targets in the face of the Featherfall Civilization, which has mastered dark energy-driven technology.

"Looks like a group of barbarians who have just stepped into the world of interstellar travel and have been lucky enough to dig up some ancient ruins."

Salas stood up, staring greedily at Mars. "If we can seize the industrial facilities on that red planet, our fleet can double in size."

"Captain, shall we make a preliminary contact first?"

"A test?" Salas snorted, making a cutting motion across his neck. "In this universe, weakness is the original sin. Pass on my order: full speed ahead."

"Let's weigh this civilization. If they know what's good for them, we'll enslave them; if they don't, we'll show them that piling up scrap metal is useless in the face of a true interstellar civilization."

……

Skyblade No. 7, Command Center.

Lu Xiao stared at the unfamiliar fleet on the star map that was accelerating toward the solar system; the red cursor had already locked onto them.

"Featherfall Civilization..." He searched his memory, but there was no such character in the original work. It seems to be a new fly attracted by the butterfly effect.

"Commander, the enemy has sent a message!" Communications Officer Li Erniu roared. "Unencrypted, broadcasting across all frequencies, they're incredibly arrogant!"

"read."

Li Erniu cleared his throat and read out with a strange expression, "This is the third expeditionary fleet of the Yuluo Civilization. The indigenous civilization ahead, immediately disarm yourselves, shut down your engines, and accept the reception and indoctrination of the advanced civilization. Otherwise, you will face annihilation."

Then, a burst of laughter erupted. Not happy laughter, but the snarling of wolves watching a rabbit run into a tree.

Lei Zhan stood to the side: "Natives? Disarmed? Commander, are these guys still asleep?"

Lu Xiao laughed too. He hadn't expected that in this universe, there would actually be someone who dared to call an empire "natives."

"Now that our guests have arrived, we must treat them well."

Lu Xiao put on his helmet, a skull mask covering his face, leaving only a pair of glowing red eyes visible. A synthesized, deep voice suddenly spread through the channel to every warship and every military camp.

"All personnel, listen to my command!"

"This is Lu Xiao."

"A group of reckless aliens are trying to test the strength of the Empire."

"Tell them who we are."

"Tell them whose territory this is."

"Burning Sky Battle Group, prepare to attack!"

At Lu Xiao's command, the engines of the Skyblade-7 spewed blue flames that stretched for several kilometers. Behind it, dozens of Imperial cruisers and frigates simultaneously turned around, their side gun ports snapping open.

Inside these steel behemoths, countless landing craft and Thunder Eagle gunboats were already mounted.

Six thousand Astartes, dressed in the new Mark X power armor, pulled back their bolts in unison, and the sound of exploding bullets being chambered filled the air.

The four hundred Iron Cavalry Terminators that Kaul sent were currently being worn by the First Company of Thunder War. These old relics had awakened, and the motors were buzzing like thunder—the prelude to destruction.

"Thunder Battle".

"exist!"

"Since these people think we're natives, then you take your men up there and teach them a lesson."

Lu Xiao pointed at the flagship called "Cloud Ship" on the screen, his hand slowly clenching as if he wanted to crush the ship.

"I want that ship's captain, alive and kneeling before me."

"As for the rest..."

"Cut them all down."

"One line! Teleportation array, prepare!"

"Let them see what an imperial greeting really looks like!"