Chapter 3: The Mysterious Expert (Part 2)

“Did you fight often before?”
The captain replied, “No, this is my first time in a real battle. We… only conduct drills once every few years. Most of the time, we’re on patrol in the shipping lanes.”
Guo Shier asked, “Are there pirates here?”
The captain was surprised. “Pirates?”
Guo Shier explained, “People who rob ships in the shipping lanes.”
The captain suddenly understood. “You mean space pirates. There are very few of them around here. Space pirates usually stay away from our fleets. They’re too timid to enter the range controlled by starships. So, they mostly operate between two star nations, targeting fleets engaged in interstellar trade. They only dare attack smaller fleets; they wouldn’t dare touch large commercial fleets because there are powerful escort ships to defend them.”
Guo Shier nodded. From this perspective, the power of star nations was quite intimidating. He said, “To get from here, we just need to pass through a star gate… Are you familiar with this star gate?”
The captain said, “I’ve been through it a few times, but as a passenger on a transport ship. I’ve never flown a starship myself. This star gate is strictly guarded. If we try to pass through like this… we might be destroyed by its defense fortresses.”
Guo Shier smiled. “You don’t need to worry about that. We’ll take care of the gate’s defenses, hehe.”
Li Ran turned around and asked, “Do you have any diagrams of the gate’s defenses?”
The captain gave a bitter smile. “How could I possibly have diagrams of the gate’s defenses? I’m just the captain of a small starship. The commander of this gate is at the same rank as our fleet commander… I can’t even reach that level.”
Guo Shier laughed. “It’s okay. How much longer until we reach the star gate?”
The captain replied, “Seven star hours left. It won’t be long… We’ll soon enter the gate’s defense detection range. Many detectors will appear. As soon as we enter, the gate will know. Without special permission, attack ships aren’t allowed to enter this gate… We’ll be warned soon, and we’ll need to show authorization.”
Wang Dayang dismissed it. “Just eliminate them!”
The captain felt disdain. Those detectors were only the size of an adult. They couldn’t possibly be found in space, let alone eliminated. He said, “I… we have no way of eliminating them…”

Wang Dayang also despised the captain greatly. He said, “Just focus on piloting the starship; you’re not needed to clean up the detectors.” Then he asked, “Who will go with me to clean up the detectors?”
Li Ran thought for a moment before saying, “Well, let’s clean up the detectors first. Leave two people on the starship, and the rest should go clean them up. I don’t know how many detectors there are, but I hope it won’t be too troublesome.”
Qi Wuzhen raised his hand and said, “You go ahead. I don’t want to move.”
Guo Shier said, “Teacher’s wife, stay with Sister Zhen. Everyone else, go.”
Monier nodded cheerfully.
A few hours later, the captain said, “It’s time to clean them up. Do we need to wait here?” One star hour is roughly equivalent to three hours.
Li Ran said, “This is a navigation path… Everyone, don’t get it wrong.” He demonstrated the path to prevent anyone from getting lost. He added, “We’ll move around the starship, destroying all the detectors we encounter along the way. We need to be fast. Um, Captain, once we go down, you can head full speed toward the stargate in a while. Remember that?”
The captain repeated, “Yes, yes! I’ll move full speed in a moment!”
Except for Qi Wuzhen and Monier, everyone else left the starship and headed in different directions. Sericlin still followed Guo Shier.
Through soul vibrations, Guo Shier quickly detected the detectors. He emitted pre-formed runes, which swiftly turned into invisible ripples that flew to the detectors, attached to them, and within seconds, silently reduced them to ashes.
Each person used their own methods, taking charge of a section and moving forward at a speed no slower than that of the starship.
The starship captain was astonished to find that the detectors guarding the stargate had disappeared. Since the starship had entered the stargate’s detection range, it should have issued a warning according to regulations, but no messages came in from the command cabin. This meant that Li Ran and his team had indeed cleared out the detectors guarding the stargate.
He was horrified—what kind of ability was this? Even a fleet would find it difficult to eliminate so many detectors. Yet these mere five people had cleared an entire area of space, far beyond his imagination.

Qi Wuzhen and Monier were whispering to each other. Qi Wuzhen was a very reclusive person, but Monier was different—she liked to socialize, was resourceful, and had a sweet tongue. Along the way, she had grown to genuinely admire Qi Wuzhen; this woman was truly powerful. In this team, only she could rival Li Ran, so Monier had always made an effort to get along with her.

Even if the five of them had great powers, it was impossible for them to eliminate all the detectors. Moreover, the large-scale loss of detectors indicated there was a problem along the way. The Star Gate quickly reacted, initiating a large-scale detection scan and soon locating the sneaky small starship, after which it issued a warning.

By then, the small starship was already approaching the Star Gate, with about one star hour left, or roughly three hours. Li Ran and the others also gathered quickly and rushed toward the Star Gate. Once their speed was unleashed, even the small starship couldn’t keep up.

The Star Gate had already sent out an intercepting ship—a medium-sized starship—with twenty attack drones.

The captain was sweating profusely from stress, as Qi Wuzhen had smashed the communicator with a single slap, preventing him from communicating with the Star Gate. Qi Wuzhen said calmly, “Charge ahead. Don’t worry about anything else—just keep moving forward.”

The officers in the command cabin were drenched in sweat. The idea of forcing their way through the Star Gate had never even crossed their minds. The Star Gate had powerful defenses, and if they tried to break through forcefully, it would immediately launch a remote attack as soon as it saw the warning was ineffective—something they couldn’t withstand. With the small starship’s defensive capabilities, once locked onto by the enemy, it wouldn’t even be able to escape.

Qi Wuzhen was already familiar with the characteristics of remote attacks. She seemed unconcerned at all and said, “As long as you follow my orders, nothing will happen!”

At this point, the captain had no choice but to obey. He said, “Yes, I’ll follow your orders!”

Qi Wuzhen nodded in satisfaction and said, “As long as you follow my orders, don’t worry—none of you will die.” She emitted her soul waves to scan the area ahead.

Guo Shier and the other four rushed forward. None of them intended to engage in a prolonged fight; instead, they immediately launched their attacks. The medium-sized starship wasn’t prepared for an attack—perhaps due to too much peace in recent times. In an instant, it was torn to pieces by the five of them. As for the attack drones, Guo Shier simply sent out a wave of soul vibrations, causing them to lose control. If there was nothing in front of them, it was fine, but if there was something, they would crash into it directly.

The five of them wasted no time. After destroying the medium-sized starship, they immediately headed for the stargate. They had to destroy the space fortress first, as it posed too great a threat to the starships. At that moment, the fortress defending the stargate began firing remotely, targeting the small starship. Qi Wu Zhen was the first to notice it; she sensed it as soon as the space fortress locked onto the starship and immediately ordered, “Turn! Now! Right away!” The captain promptly gave the order, and the starship changed direction, flying to the left while activating its acceleration system. In just over ten seconds, a beam of light passed by the starship. The captain wiped sweat from his brow, and then Qi Wu Zhen ordered them to return to their course. The small starship kept changing direction to avoid attack after attack. It wasn’t until then that the space fortress began to take it seriously. After several missed attacks, they realized something was wrong. Normally, such a small starship would have little time to adjust its course once locked, but this one could change direction almost instantly whenever the fortress fired, rendering the lock ineffective—a skill that infuriated the fortress commander to the extreme. If it weren’t for the need to pass through the stargate, Qi Wu Zhen wouldn’t have tolerated such attacks. She was furious, and her expression grew increasingly cold. The entire command cabin was dead silent; the officers were overwhelmed by Qi Wu Zhen’s presence. Yet each of them admired her skills immensely, wondering how she managed to do that. After evading a few more attacks, the fortress’s remote attacks intensified. What was once a single attack soon became three, then four—four remote cannons firing at once. This posed a problem even for Qi Wu Zhen. The small starship seemed uncontrollable, darting up and down, left and right, yet it managed to avoid each attack. Qi Wu Zhen cursed, “Damn it… will it ever stop? Down, down… hurry!” The officers were drenched in sweat from fear. Watching the attacks pass by, they knew that even one hit would mean certain doom for them—all there was to escape in space was nowhere. Li Ran and his five companions finally approached the space fortress. Seeing the attacks coming from it, Li Ran’s expression darkened, and he said, “Spread out and destroy it!”

Around the fortress, numerous small floating metal spheres equipped with automatic weapons hovered in the air, all fitted with automatic attack systems that would instantly target any moving objects around them once activated. In an instant, these metal spheres formed a network of crossfire.

Guo Shieru drew out his Moon Blade and swiftly pierced through this network, destroying hundreds of the defensive metal spheres. By closing his hands together, the Moon Blade transformed endlessly—thousands into hundreds, hundreds into ten, and ten into one—forming a giant sword over a kilometer long. After casting several spells in succession, he raised the Moon Blade and, with a gesture of his hand, swung it down with force.

This space defense fortress was built on a massive meteorite, assembled from the wreckage of numerous starships. Its shape was bizarre, resembling a giant monster with countless tentacles extending outward. Coupled with the numerous floating automatic defense metal spheres around it, it appeared even more grotesque.

With one slash from Guo Shieru’s Moon Blade, a huge crack appeared, and the outer metal spheres exploded one after another. The blade’s sharp edge effortlessly cut through the thick alloy defenses, reaching all the way to the interior of the meteorite.

Guo Shieru cast a few more spells, raising the Moon Blade again. The surviving soldiers fled in terror. How could anyone dare stay here after such a devastating strike destroyed an entire defense zone?

Another slash followed, this time aimed at a large defense turret equipped with a long-range attack cannon. Just then, the cannon fired, illuminating the entire space with light.

With one strike, the large defense turret shattered violently, killing everyone inside instantly. Even the long-range attack cannon was split in two.

Li Ran, Wang Dayang, and Kuumu also launched attacks simultaneously. Kuumu, in particular, was ruthless, destroying a long-range cannon in just a few moments.

Wang Dayang’s soul trembled slightly. “I’m in!”

Kuumu rushed into the fortress as well.

Li Ran’s soul fluctuated. “Shieru, we’ll stay outside! Enemies are coming!”