The role of a Continent-Class spaceship is comprehensive. Its status is about the same as an aircraft carrier in the Earth era. As long as a Continent-Class ship exists on the battlefield, it is absolutely the core of the battle. A fleet without a Continent-Class ship is like rootless duckweed, liable to be wiped out at any moment.

Up to now, the three Continent-Class ships of the Expeditionary Army had all been destroyed, and the total number of ships in the entire army had dropped to fewer than one million five hundred thousand. Xiao Yu still had a full eight million ships. In other words, with the absolute advantage of Continent-Class support and with superior control and individual strength, Xiao Yu had paid the price of only two million ships to take down more than five million five hundred thousand ships of the Expeditionary Army.

This numerical ratio does not prove that Xiao Yu’s ships had twice the combat power of the Pegasus Civilization’s ships. A simple analogy suffices. Suppose two gangs fight. One side has ten people, the other one hundred. The side with one hundred may still suffer some casualties. If those one hundred are replaced with one thousand, they might have no losses at all. Likewise, Xiao Yu’s one-to-two result was due to advantages in both quantity and quality.

After the enemy lost the support of Continent-Class ships, the subsequent fighting was even simpler. Xiao Yu’s fleet swept the enemy ships like a gale scattering fallen leaves, carrying out a ruthless slaughter. Those that could be captured were captured. Those that could not were destroyed on the spot. The entire battle lasted for nearly a month before it ended.

Xiao Yu captured nearly one hundred thousand enemy warships and destroyed more than six million six hundred thousand ships. About three hundred thousand ships fled. In panic, they followed unknown routes into the depths of space. In the future, they might become a wandering civilization or develop into a Predator Civilization-type force.

“The war here is finally over. Next, it is time to head for the capital defense perimeter of the Pegasus Civilization and uproot that civilization completely.” Xiao Yu’s heart burned with fighting spirit. He maneuvered the vast fleet, accelerated again, entered curvature flight, and advanced toward the front.

This location was still more than two hundred forty light years from the capital defense perimeter of the Pegasus Civilization, about seven years of travel. Over those seven years, Xiao Yu carried out comprehensive resupply and refitting for the entire fleet and launched a full technological analysis of the captured Continent-Class ship. Even if Xiao Yu extracted technologies, the time was too short to put them into application and immediately boost his combat strength.

“After destroying the Pegasus Civilization and obtaining its complete technology tree, I may find a place to rest and refit.” Xiao Yu thought to himself. “Judging from the current situation, the technological content contained in this Continent-Class ship is extremely high. Extrapolating from this ship’s tech load, if I obtain the complete technological system of the Pegasus Civilization, I can probably raise my cruising speed again to reach forty times the speed of light, and increase average combat strength by about fifteen percent. For my current foundation, that is already a tremendous leap.”

“Even if I do not obtain the Pegasus Civilization’s complete technological system, this single Continent-Class ship is enough to support decades of technological progress for me. But according to the present situation, I have a good chance of completely defeating the Pegasus Civilization and obtaining their technological heritage.”

In silent calculations, Xiao Yu’s fleet advanced rapidly.

A fleet led by the America remained active within the capital defense perimeter of the Pegasus Civilization, raiding and harassing, constantly creating trouble for the Pegasus Civilization. Thanks to powerful maneuverability and strong individual combat strength, the Pegasus Civilization launched dozens of encirclements without being able to eliminate this fleet and instead suffered many losses.

Amid continuous harassment and raids, this fleet also took on the task of intelligence gathering. During this period, countless covert probes were scattered into the dark starry sky, quietly collecting all kinds of internal star system data with various instruments. Intelligence on ship movements, personnel flows, system defenses, deployments, and so on poured continuously into Xiao Yu’s mind for analysis and for projecting the course of the war.

“How should the next battle be fought?” Xiao Yu pondered silently. “The capital defense perimeter of the Pegasus Civilization is indeed formidable, truly watertight. Although they did not obtain enough of my ship samples to advance their technology on a large scale and raise their strength in the short term, even with current strength projections I would need at least fifty years of long warfare maneuvers, assaults, and raids to defeat the Pegasus Civilization completely. Spending so much time here is not worthwhile. But other than this method, what other way do I have?”

“Master, I think using the stellar cannon is a good idea.” At this moment, Luka Two offered his suggestion. “Our main difficulty now is the Pegasus Civilization’s perfect interstellar defense system. They have ample material resupply and solid garrison bases. One could say that once they lose these, they cannot endure five years of our attacks in field engagements. Then why not eliminate the foundation of the star system’s defense system at the root? As long as the star is destroyed, the entire defense network will collapse. They will be forced into field engagements with us, thereby losing advantages in bases, resupply, and refitting.”

“I have considered that as well.” Xiao Yu said. “But there is a problem. I can be sure that with the precedent of the previous base where we destroyed the star, the Pegasus Civilization must have prepared a corresponding plan to prevent us from destroying their star system’s defense by annihilating stars. If we adopt this method, we will have to concentrate our main effort on this axis. If the plan fails, we will suffer a more serious setback and prolong the time to end the war, which is unfavorable to us.”

“It is nothing but a gamble.” Luka Two said. “One plan is steady but time consuming. The other is riskier but could shorten the timeline. Which to choose still depends on your judgment, Master. Or we could use a Sphere of Death. It is a doomsday weapon against carbon-based civilizations. We still have two. Using one here, what do you think?”

“That will not do.” Xiao Yu rejected it at once. “The Sphere of Death is our Divine Ark Civilization’s last trump card. It must never be used unless we face a critical moment of civilizational life and death. We may yet encounter powerful Level 6 Alien Beasts or a Level 6 civilization later. Using the Sphere of Death then would be appropriate. Taking down the Pegasus Civilization is merely a matter of sooner or later. Using a Sphere of Death here would be too wasteful.”

Luka Two nodded and fell silent. Xiao Yu began to think rapidly.

“After consideration, I still decide to adopt a plan centered on the stellar cannon. As long as we can destroy stars, our fleet can efficiently erode the enemy’s strength, both safely and while saving time. I have decided. We will proceed this way.” The furrow in Xiao Yu’s brow eased. “The optimal firing range of a stellar cannon is within about three billion kilometers. That distance basically belongs to the inner star system. It is certain the Pegasus Civilization will make their arrangements at that range. They will use a comprehensive star system’s defensive system to prevent the stellar cannon from approaching the star. Next, I will continue to refit the stellar cannon to give it even stronger maneuverability and defensive power. At the same time, I will detach twenty Nation-Class ships into a formation to protect the stellar cannon. Hm, I will allocate computational power to build a second stellar cannon as well, to be safe.”

“I agree with your decision.” Luka Two nodded.

Xiao Yu gently exhaled, ended the meeting, and once more invested vast computational power into the busy construction tasks.

On the capital planet of the Pegasus Civilization, the leader stood on the top floor of the highest building and looked up at the sky, his face full of worry. Yet when he turned around, his expression returned to calm and serenity. A sense of assured wisdom emanated from him, making everyone feel that the person before them was someone they could trust and rely on.

“How goes the construction of the star system defense network?” the leader asked.

“In accordance with your will, the star system’s defense system has done its utmost to prevent the stellar cannon from approaching. Follow-up defensive installations are still being built at full speed. Please rest assured.”

“Mm.” The leader nodded slightly and asked again, “How goes the matter of the Level 5 Civilization Alliance?”

“In accordance with your will, we have fully informed twenty Level 5 civilizations with whom we maintain good relations about this matter. Those twenty Level 5 civilizations have agreed to cooperate with us. The threat of the Divine Ark Civilization is too great. Besides cooperating with us and accepting our leadership, they have no second choice. The Galloping Pegasus spaceship has completed its final tests. When the situation becomes untenable, it can depart at any time with our last elite formation to the Death Flower Star System to rendezvous with the fleets of those twenty civilizations.”

The leader nodded slightly and sighed. “I hope that day will never come.”