Chapter 686: I Say, The Advantage Is Mine

In the depths of the endless, chaotic void, over a thousand silver-gray warships advanced slowly.

Their icy hulls refracted dim, cold light amid the void turbulence. The massive fleet resembled a sharp shuttle, tearing through the elemental chaos along its path and pressing straight toward the faint golden light wall that stretched across the heavens ahead.

After a period of sailing, the entire fleet was now less than a thousand kilometers from the plane barrier of the Infernal Sulfur Plane.

Three sixth-level capital ships occupied the triangular nodes of the formation, heavy as mountains, firmly shielding hundreds of auxiliary vessels in the center.

All ship prows locked onto the target simultaneously. The gun ports were silent, yet they loomed like a pack of steel behemoths poised to strike.

Inside the flagship “Deep Root.”

Streams of deep blue light flowed slowly through the command cabin. A complex star map floated in midair as countless data streams cascaded down like waterfalls.

The commander stood before the central controls as usual.

His head, formed from a silver-gray metallic tree crown, swayed gently. Eight crystalline eyes reflected the entire battlefield.

On a display screen to the side, real-time battle damage statistics were updating.

Their journey had not been entirely smooth. The enemy’s assaults came wave after wave, almost without pause.

In the previous rounds of advances, those black behemoth-like enemies had launched at least a dozen kamikaze charges.

In the fiercest wave, several black behemoths had even smashed through a reinforced joint shield on one flank strengthened by escort ships.

That attack had inflicted considerable losses on the fleet, with several escort ships suffering severe damage.

One particularly unlucky escort ship had nearly been torn in two after its shield was breached.

Although the warship’s damage control systems activated in time, combat personnel aboard still suffered over thirty percent casualties in a short period. But… that was all.

Even after enduring so many enemy attacks, the fleet’s formation remained intact, and the capital ships were unscathed.

This meant the scales of victory had tilted completely!

“The enemy’s intensity has clearly decreased,” the commander said.

He slowly raised a tentacle and tapped the star map three times.

This was a gesture in their civilization signifying “the situation is stable.”

“In the initial few waves of charges, the vast majority included fifth-level individuals.”

“But that last wave…”

His crystalline eyes swayed slightly, reflecting the lights inside the warship.

“Most teams only had fourth-level individuals. There were no fifth-level entities at all.”

“Yes. The enemy’s numbers, density, and assault intensity have all dropped,” the adjutant replied, tentacles rapidly tapping data nodes, unable to hide the excitement in his voice.

“It seems Your Excellency’s judgment was entirely correct. This world is almost at its limit.”

“The enemy’s reaction suggests their high-tier combat power has likely been exhausted. After breaching the plane barrier, we should not encounter any large-scale resistance.”

Hearing this, the commander emitted a low, rustling sound—the laughter produced when his tentacles rubbed against his tree crown.

“Don’t be too optimistic,” the battle-hardened commander warned his adjutant out of habit. “A civilization capable of producing fifth-level lifeforms won’t be without trump cards.”

Though his words were cautious, the tips of the commander’s tentacles lifted slightly.

Clearly, he was not truly worried.

“However… we must not lose the opportunity due to excessive caution.”

The commander raised his head and gazed at the faint golden barrier on the display screen.

“Once the world barrier is broken, initiative will be in our hands.”

“Even if those black beasts still have residual strength, they won’t be able to stir up any waves.”

As he spoke, the fleet drew close to the faint golden plane barrier.

Seeing this, the commander suddenly struck the controls with his tentacle.

“All fleet units…”

“Activate the World Penetration Protocol.”

Buzz!!!

The instant the order was issued, over a thousand warships lit up with deep blue radiance simultaneously.

This time, however, the deep blue light was not cannon fire.

In front of every ship prow, a needle-tip-sized blue light point slowly coalesced.

Immediately after, the light point began to rotate, its volume expanding rapidly.

Soon, these light points transformed into high-speed spinning energy vortices.

Under the flagship’s command, these energy vortices quickly converged into an even larger energy vortex.

The final vortex rapidly expanded outward, turning into invisible rings of energy that continuously struck the plane barrier ahead.

This was the Tentacle Tree Civilization’s unique plane-breaching technology.

As a civilization capable of sailing beyond its original plane, they naturally understood the existence of plane barriers.

To break through this invisible boundary and shatter the “shackles” confining them within their world, the Tentacle Tree Civilization had developed numerous techniques. What the fleet was using now was the civilization’s most advanced “World Breaching Technology”: multi-frequency energy resonance penetration.

In simple terms, it involved continuously adjusting the energy resonance frequency to match the plane barrier’s own resonance, then using that to pierce through.

Tens of thousands of energy vortices, harmonized by the warships’ immense computational power, pulsed simultaneously at perfectly identical frequencies.

Invisible resonance waves spread through the void, slamming fiercely against the plane barrier.

The faint golden light wall immediately rippled with circle after circle of undulations.

The elements around the plane resonated as well, creating a majestic spectacle as if the entire plane had begun to tremble.

Inside the Infernal Sulfur Plane.

The Main Altar.

A towering black altar stood at the center of a sea of sulfur flames.

Scorching air currents rolled past, carrying the burning scent of mixed lava and air.

Jie Ming stood at the highest point of the altar, his figure completely merged with heaven and earth.

In the ethereal state granted by the Great Void Step, he no longer seemed like a “person,” but rather a part of the environment itself.

Even at such close range, the black giant priests could only barely confirm their master’s location through the faith imprints in the Fate Subsystem. If even the black giants could scarcely locate their master, there was no hope for the enemy warships, which could only observe the plane’s interior through optical instruments.

The golden vertical eye between Jie Ming’s brows slowly opened.

His vision instantly pierced tens of thousands of kilometers, locking onto the fleet outside the plane.

Meanwhile, torrents of data from countless recording crystals were being transmitted back and synchronized into his consciousness via the spiritual network.

The “fallen” black giants had brought back vast amounts of intelligence. After compilation by the black giant priests, it flowed back continuously.

Gun specifications, energy accumulation cycles, formation coordination, communication delays, command relationships between the flagship and escort ships…

Thanks to the adaptive evolutionary talent gained from extensive use of the Entropy Brain, Jie Ming did not even need to process this data manually. Every piece of information was automatically organized the instant it was transmitted.

Thousands of fragmented pieces of information were sorted almost in the blink of an eye.

His post-Dao Integration Realm mental processing capabilities turned Jie Ming’s brain into a high-speed super mainframe.

Reviewing such pre-organized information could hardly even be called time-consuming.

“Not bad.”

He spoke softly, a trace of satisfaction in his voice.

Jie Ming was mainly satisfied with his “luring the enemy” scheme.

The intensity of the black giants’ charges had all been precisely calibrated.

They could not be too weak—otherwise the enemy would suspect a trap.

But they could not be too strong, or the enemy would be scared off directly.

He needed the opponent to feel they were paying a price, yet one still within an acceptable range.

Only then would the enemy willingly step into this trap.

And now, it appeared…

The results were perfect!