Chapter 685: Primitive Civilization

Elemental turbulence smashed down relentlessly.

Navigating the void required extremely high defensive standards. A lone fifth-level black giant was insufficient for stable long-range travel in the void, but once they formed a small-scale formation, they could completely block the turbulence.

“The enemy is accelerating!” The detection operator on Deep Root tapped out a rapid rhythm. “Their speed is very high. They have no warships yet can achieve such velocity. This kind of physical body is simply unscientific!”

“Don’t panic,” the commander pressed down with one tentacle in the air. “They are primitive species that took the individual strengthening route. High speed is their only real specialty. Maintain joint shield stability. All warships… first volley, fire!”

The instant the order was given, the gun muzzles of over a thousand warships lit up simultaneously.

Energy beams and electromagnetic cannons drew dense, glowing trajectories through the void like a luminous net, bombarding the black figures.

The team leader’s body tilted slightly, letting a scorching energy beam graze his left shoulder.

A thin layer of black liquid metal was shaved off, then quickly flowed back to repair the damage.

The deputy beside him was even more dramatic, deliberately slowing down by half a beat and shoving his entire right arm into the path of three electromagnetic shells.

The shells left only a few craters, with all the impact kinetic energy completely absorbed.

“Loss of 2.3%,” the deputy reported emotionlessly.

“It seems the enemy’s attacks are at a normal level,” the team leader summarized.

Not all black giants were holding back. More than half were genuinely torn apart by the first volley.

After all, most had not reached fifth level and truly could not withstand such concentrated firepower.

Several fourth-level black giants had half their bodies blown apart on the spot. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

The fragments of those heavily damaged bodies had barely begun to drift away before they were wrapped in faint, nearly imperceptible golden light and vanished.

The “eliminated” black giants turned into golden light and disappeared into the void.

From the fleet’s technological perspective, these creatures had simply been completely destroyed by energy beams, with even their fragments vaporized by high temperatures—a perfectly normal outcome.

From the commander’s viewpoint: the first coordinated salvo had wiped out nearly half of the enemy’s effective forces, yet the remainder were still charging forward.

The other side had no concept of tactical formation whatsoever; they were simply rushing forward in a mindless swarm.

“Their numbers have already decreased. A common flaw of primitive creatures—individually strong, but completely lacking any concept of group systems,” the commander tapped assessment data on the star map. “Oh, wait, they do have defenses. They’re trading their lives against our shields.”

“The enemy’s attacks have begun reaching the outer fleet groups,” the operator reported. “The joint shield is under impact.”

The team leader threw a straight punch, launching both himself and his entire right arm forward.

When his fist struck the energy barrier formed by the combined shields of all the warships, he actually felt a sense of relief.

The intensity of the thing blocking his fist was not high. With only thirty percent of his strength, he could make the entire fleet’s shield drop sharply. In other words, if he went all out and attacked any single warship alone, he could single-handedly clear out half the fleet.

He therefore withdrew his fist, cautiously circled twice, changed direction, and resumed the assault.

The values representing shield stress on the joint shield were dropping at a speed that made the fleet commander’s tentacles tighten.

“Energy shield down to 74%!” The operator’s tentacles hammered the control nodes furiously, his eight crystalline eyes wide open. “Y-Your Excellency… the second volley hasn’t even fully ended yet, and the shield has already dropped to 76%. It’s still falling—73, 72…”

“I see,” the commander’s tone dropped two degrees lower than before.

The remaining black beasts on the other side continued attacking tirelessly, completely ignoring damage.

Even after he ordered rear shield ships to rotate forward and increase shield thickness, the black creatures’ attacks still caused the shield to shatter layer by layer like glass struck by a heavy hammer.

“It seems they are a high-offense type,” the commander tapped out several syllables slowly, his tentacles unconsciously rubbing against each other at his side.

This was a habitual gesture when he was thinking, usually appearing only when facing difficult problems. “An extremely pure high-attack, high-speed type. Shields are not difficult for them to break through. We will suffer greatly if we rely on shields to endure.”

He remained silent before the star map for less than a breath, then suddenly unfurled his tentacles.

“Have the rear heavy-armored ships move to the front to replace the forward ships whose shields have been overly depleted. Rear warships rotate forward in numbered sequence to maintain the joint shield without interruption,” he tapped out the orders with steady, rapid rhythm. “Second batch of main cannon charging warships, begin bombardment… free fire. Prioritize locking onto remaining enemies. Do not give them the chance to approach further.”

The thousand-plus warships began changing formation according to instructions.

Heavy warships from the flanks and rear slowly moved to the front. Their hulls were covered in thicker armor, and their shield thickness was significantly higher than that of light cruisers.

Several other groups of ships that had finished charging fired simultaneously. Thicker energy beams blasted out from the center of the formation, precisely targeting the few remaining black shadows.

The number of black giants continued to decrease under the continuous barrage.

From the beginning until now, fewer than twenty of the team leader’s kin beside him could still maintain combat form.

“First batch of data is sufficient,” he transmitted this message to his deputy via spiritual power. “We can increase pressure next. At minimum, we need to force that flagship to attack. I need to see the main ships’ attack ceiling.”

The remaining dozen or so black giants simultaneously increased their offensive intensity.

The fleet’s joint shield was layered like onion skins stacked together.

The team leader’s fists began smashing through the outer structures of the shield layer by layer, forcing the operator to hammer the alarm more than ten times: “Shield attenuation accelerating! 7.3 times! Outer shield layer beginning to collapse!”

The commander did not answer immediately.

His eight crystalline eyes were locked onto the few remaining black beasts on the star map. The tips of his tentacles turned slightly pale from tension.

After fighting for so long, the enemy had essentially been wiped out in terms of numbers, yet the few that remained had become even harder to deal with.

“Enemy numbers no longer pose a threat,” he tapped out the judgment, his tentacle movements becoming decisive once more. “All main ships prepare to fire individually. Use main cannons to completely eliminate them. Let these primitive apes witness true civilization.”

The instant the order was issued, the prows of the three sixth-level main ships lit up with blinding light.

Main cannon charging took only a few short seconds, but during those seconds, the entire fleet’s energy distribution system concentrated over ninety percent of output power into the main cannons.

The auxiliary ships around them reduced their own attack output, contributing their energy shares.

The thick energy beams struck their targets without suspense.

More than a dozen black giants were simultaneously submerged in the light. Even their outlines were completely obscured for a short time.

They roared at full volume within the beams, their chest maws stretched to the limit, emitting low-frequency vibrations.

Their black liquid metal bodies gradually deformed and twisted under the energy torrent, finally swallowed completely.

When the beams dissipated, nothing remained in the void.

The commander quietly watched the empty void projection. The tentacles on his crown slowly unfurled.

Then he shook his crown. The branch-like tentacles produced rustling friction sounds. Among their race, this motion was equivalent to a human shaking their head in mockery.

“Hah! What a primitive civilization,” he tapped out a relaxed rhythm.

The operators all shook their crowns in response.

The command cabin was filled with the rustling sounds of tentacles rubbing together. The entire fleet’s command group was collectively mocking the enemy’s stupidity.

At a certain point in the void, roughly where the black giant team leader had been struck by the main ship a few seconds earlier, the last trace of residual dark red energy finally dissipated.

The battlefield returned to silence.

At the same time.

“Hah! What a primitive civilization.”

The black giant team leader opened his eyes beside the altar and uttered the words.

He stood in a spacious altar hall.

The floor was made of a single piece of obsidian, densely engraved with golden patterns through which warm Incense Fire power flowed.

The energy that had just surged into the altar had completed its final round of repairs. Several strands of residual golden light dissipated from the edges of the vertical maw on his chest. The liquid metal there writhed and reformed into a complete armor layer.

The entire right arm that had been blown to pieces by the main cannon had fully regenerated.

Beside him, the black giants who had been “killed” earlier were already standing neatly in formation.

Those eliminated early in the battle had fully healed. Some even had their surface liquid metal repolished.

The fourth-level black giant who had been sent back first was lowering his head and flexing his neck, producing crisp cracking sounds.

On several adjacent altar platforms farther away, more golden light continued to flicker.

Those were black giants sent back from subsequent small-scale skirmishes on different flanks. Their numbers far exceeded the group the team leader had led out earlier.

Clearly, in addition to the main frontal battlefield, several other teams had conducted multi-point harassment against the fleet from different directions.

“Is this Master’s grace? What an astonishing power!” The black giant team leader looked at his intact hands, unable to help feeling emotional.

Although they had heard about the Dao Soldier system’s capabilities long ago, this was their first time truly experiencing it.

As one of the core subsystems of the Incense Fire Divine Dao, the Dao Soldier system could not only empower believers within the Incense Fire Divine Dao system but could also instantly teleport believers on the verge of death back to preset resurrection anchor points.

Combined with the black giant race’s own characteristics, as long as there was sufficient energy, their physical bodies could perfectly regenerate without the slightest wear on their consciousness.

The team leader flexed his right shoulder. The newly grown arm had already returned to pure black.

He raised his head and saw the black giant priest standing at the edge of the altar, watching him.

The priest’s tall, slender figure was half-illuminated and half-shadowed under the hall’s warm golden light. The dark golden patterns on his body flowed calmly.

The team leader assumed a posture equivalent to standing at attention among black giants, then respectfully offered the recording crystal he carried with both hands.

“All combat processes have been recorded.” He lowered his head, his chest’s vertical maw respectfully closing.

The priest held the crystal, his slender fingers gently turning the triangular facets as if confirming the data’s integrity.

“Conclusion?” the priest asked, his chest maw opening and closing to produce a low frequency.

The corners of the team leader’s vertical maw curved into a meaningful arc, revealing the obsidian-like sharp teeth inside. “The other side is a bunch of primitives!”

The priest nodded, turned, and walked out of the altar hall.

On the surrounding battlefields, several more beams of golden light descended one after another. More “killed” black giants were teleported back.