Chapter 4: The Grand Fleet (Part 1)

The captain let out a long sigh. He had just narrowly avoided several attack beams and noticed that the attacks coming from the space fortress were becoming increasingly sparse, eventually stopping altogether. Qi Wu Zhen said calmly, “It’s done. That fortress has been taken.”
Not only was the space fortress taken, but Li Ran and his team had even blown it apart. At that moment, a skilled member of the Secret Clan arrived—he was a warrior hired by the United Spirit Kingdom to guard the star gate. He came out of the space base near the star gate and, after flying most of the way, saw the fortress destroyed. Frightened, he turned around and fled. He wasn’t stupid; those who could destroy a space fortress were surely no weaker than him, and they weren’t even alone.
But he didn’t realize that as soon as he left the base, Li Ran spotted him. Li Ran immediately rushed toward him along with Guo Shier.
The man was very clever. Realizing something was wrong, he turned and fled while sending a warning to the base, summoning a large number of warriors to emerge. He flew back at incredible speed, and even though Li Ran and Guo Shier were fast, they couldn’t keep up, allowing him to return to the base. A large group of warriors armed with star weapons rushed out, along with hundreds of attack aircraft. The man didn’t stay at the base at all; he immediately boarded a small spaceship and headed straight for the star gate.
Li Ran and Guo Shier were surrounded by the swarm of warriors and attack aircraft, giving the man precious time to escape. After a brief skirmish, the man’s spaceship disappeared into the star gate.
Guo Shier said, “He got away… This is troublesome. We need to be faster—first, destroy the command center of this space base!”
This space base was actually a space supply station, resembling an inverted pyramid from afar. Layers upon layers of ships and starcraft were parked there, mostly for inspection, with most being merchant ships. Now, chaos reigned inside the base.
Li Ran and Guo Shier acted simultaneously. Without caring where the command center was, they swung their sacred weapons and slashed. In moments, the entire base was paralyzed, and the warriors and attack aircraft fled in panic. Such inhuman attack methods could even overwhelm starfleet fleets and space fortresses, let alone a small space base. This time, they didn’t go to extreme lengths; after paralyzing the base, they immediately flew toward the star gate.
Soon, they took control of the star gate’s control center and sent a message to summon small starships.

Withered Wood, Wang Dayang, and Cecile arrived quickly. A few minutes later, the small starship also reached the portal, and the five of them entered it swiftly. The starship immediately entered the portal, and in an instant, it emerged on the other side. Due to their extreme speed, the people on the other side were unprepared; even though that Secret Clan expert gave a warning, they didn’t have time to prepare. So as soon as the small starship appeared, it launched an attack and instantly destroyed the communication base. Immediately afterward, Li Ran and the others rushed out, and in moments, the defenses on this side of the portal were completely paralyzed. The small starship left swiftly.

At the portal, Li Ran received a star map and a route chart. After examining them, he said, “It’s not too far—about ten days of flight. This route isn’t easy to navigate. I reckon within a few days, large fleets will arrive to block us. Heh, anyway, we won’t be at peace until we crush the United Spirit Kingdom. We have to make them fear us and force them to negotiate with us—only then might we get rid of these bastards.”

Guo Shier said, “Consider it training. After these few battles, heh, I feel my strength has improved rapidly. It’s just that I don’t have time to organize, digest, and absorb what I’ve learned. Especially regarding the sacrificial artifact, I think it needs to be refined again—it still has a lot of room for improvement.”

Li Ran nodded. “That’s right. I’ve noticed the same problem. If we had time to rest and recover, our strength could increase significantly. Let’s wait until this crisis is over before dealing with it… Hm?” He suddenly froze.

Guo Shier asked, “What’s wrong?”

Li Ran shook his head vigorously. His gaze was somewhat unfocused. After a long while, he said, “Nothing. Heh, I was just distracted…” He was also puzzled, as a familiar feeling flashed by, but he couldn’t grasp it no matter how hard he tried.

Qi Wuzhen said, “They probably won’t be stupid enough to send another fleet to block us. If they do, hehe, it would only prove one thing—that their leaders are all idiots.”

Guo Shier laughed. “That’s hard to say. Besides their fleets, what other strengths do they have?”

Li Ran replied, “That’s not certain. A Level 7 star nation is considered advanced in the greater universe. Whether in terms of financial or material resources, it’s beyond our imagination. If they really go all out, they can still find experts.”

Withered Wood said, “So what? We have seven people, which is enough to handle them.”

After arriving in the Greater World, they had encountered some experts. Aside from Xing Yunzi and Lan Landai, they hadn’t really run into any particularly formidable masters. Although there were many experts in the Greater World, it was simply too vast. To gather the top experts together required not only enormous financial resources but also the ability to locate them first—a task that was extremely difficult and impossible to accomplish in a short time.

Using interstellar fleets to deal with top experts was basically ineffective, so any advanced star nation would prefer to appease them. However, this time, the United Spirit Kingdom got involved with Li Ran and his six companions, who massacred them, forcing the United Spirit Kingdom to make an extremely painful decision. At this point, neither side could simply back down; it was a situation of life or death. Even if reconciliation were possible, one side would have to admit defeat, and the cost of such a defeat would be unbearable for both.

In just one day, a large number of fleets arrived. Li Ran hadn’t expected the United Spirit Kingdom to be so foolish as to send fleets after them.

Yet, everyone quickly understood the United Spirit Kingdom’s intention. These fleets weren’t there to eliminate them but rather to destroy that small starship. To buy time, they needed to destroy the starship to delay their arrival at the capital planet.

In fact, the United Spirit Kingdom’s leaders hadn’t realized that even if the starship was destroyed, Li Ran’s team’s speed in space wouldn’t be slower than that of the starship—possibly even faster. They used starships for travel to save effort and avoid getting lost. Now, having obtained star maps and navigation charts at the star gate, they no longer cared about having that starship.

A barrage of remote attacks was launched, and the fleets immediately retreated quickly, regardless of whether they had hit their targets. One fleet after another arrived, and soon three fleets were attacking that poor small starship in turn. Eventually, Li Ran had no choice but to abandon the ship. Such massive remote attacks were beyond what a small starship could withstand—the target of the fleets was too large, while the target of the seven men was much smaller.

By the time the small starship turned into countless metal fragments in space, the seven men had already gone far away.

The three fleets did not notice the departure of the seven, as they quickly teleported behind an asteroid and used rune defenses to conceal their presence. They were too lazy to engage with the fleets—no matter how many they killed, it brought no sense of achievement; after all, they were just ordinary people, and killing them was meaningless. They could also tell that the higher-ups of the United Spirit Kingdom didn’t care how many warriors died.

Li Ran and the others rested on an asteroid for a day. Only after the fleets left did they set off again. This time, without starships to transport them, they had to form a five-star formation and fly straight toward the capital planet.

The fleets of the United Spirit Kingdom couldn’t be sure if the seven had been killed, but since they couldn’t detect their presence, they had no choice but to leave. However, they deployed numerous detectors along the way. Once the seven were spotted, the fleets would return to slow them down. At this point, the United Spirit Kingdom realized that their only option was to use remote attacks to delay the enemies—once the seven got close, even their fleets would be destroyed.

The seven were discovered after three days of flight. Yet their speed was extremely high, so even though they were spotted, the fleets couldn’t keep up. They had to mobilize other fleets to block them from ahead.

Guo Shier said, “Here they are again! Damn, they just won’t leave us in peace!”

Two fleets had already arrived in succession, both small in size—usually one large starship along with a few smaller ones. From afar, they would launch remote attacks before turning and fleeing, then firing again after gaining distance. This tactic gave the seven a lot of trouble.

Li Ran sneered and said, “We’re almost inside the capital planet’s defense circle. They won’t be able to hold us much longer.”

The star system where the capital planet lay had already assembled a large number of fleets for defense and set up more space fortresses. The higher-ups of the capital planet were evacuating urgently, and the entire star system was in chaos. And this was before the seven arrived—once they entered the defense circle, even greater chaos would ensue.

The entire United Spirit Kingdom was in disarray. Large fleets were arriving from various star systems. Even if they couldn’t defeat the seven, they intended to overwhelm them with sheer numbers.

Countless invitation letters were sent out, offering extremely tempting conditions, so many experts from secret clans rushed over. It was a feast—if they could defeat the seven, they would reap great rewards. Such temptation was beyond the resistance of ordinary experts.

Three days later, Li Ran and his six companions had reached the outer defense circle of Capital Star. Entering this defense circle meant they had entered the star system where Capital Star was located. As soon as they entered this space, numerous starships appeared in front of them—at least a thousand in number. Guo Shier said in surprise, “Damn it, this is insane! There are only seven of us, yet they’ve deployed over a thousand starships…” Li Ran added, “That’s not all; more starships are coming from afar!” Qi Wu Zhen shouted, “Scatter! They’re about to launch remote attacks!” Guo Shier said, “Let’s go!” He grabbed Serichlin and teleported away with her. Everyone used their unique abilities to teleport to distant locations immediately. Guo Shier teleported upward; in space, there’s no real concept of up, down, left, right, or front, as everything around is empty, allowing them to go anywhere they want. In just over ten seconds, the space where the seven of them had been covered in countless bursts of gunfire.