Chapter 697: News

It was as if he had completed a simple cleanup operation. Darryl continued descending without a care.

He swept past the rolling sea of clouds and finally stopped in the sky above the center of the planet’s largest continent.

From his height, the entire continent lay fully visible below.

Gray-white urban clusters stretched for thousands of kilometers. Transportation tracks ran through the cities like veins, while ornamental vegetation transplanted from the home planet lined both sides of the streets. Everything appeared orderly and well-organized.

“This is the most prosperous region on this planet…”

Thinking this, Darryl slowly opened the vertical slit in his chest cavity. Power surged forth from the depths of his core.

Relying on the innate talent of an elemental being, he quickly located the planet’s elemental ley lines and resonated with them.

The entire planet’s atmosphere vibrated at once.

The whole atmosphere had become a giant amplifier.

From the equator to the poles, from administrative metropolises to wilderness outposts, every corner simultaneously echoed with his voice.

“Greetings on our first meeting.”

It was standard Tentacle Tree Common Language, nearly perfect in every respect.

The grammar was precise, the wording elegant, and even the opening honorific was flawless—polite as if delivering a speech at a high-society banquet.

“Following my master’s orders, I have come to accept your nation’s submission.”

“You naturally have the right to refuse. My master never forces any civilization to submit.”

Here, Darryl paused slightly. The fangs at the edge of his chest cavity caught the sunlight, forming a faint arc as if he were smiling. “But allow me to explain the consequences of refusal…”

His tone remained steady throughout, as if he were merely reading an ordinary report.

“Your civilization’s main fleet has been completely annihilated. The number of confirmed destroyed vessels in this war is counted in the trillions. The border fleet was destroyed during initial contact, and the elite main forces were destroyed in this battle. The ultimate weapon arrays in outer space are being progressively cleared by our units and are expected to completely lose their counterattack capability in subsequent operational cycles.”

“As for the orbital defense system above you…” 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

“It was personally disabled by me half a minute ago.”

Saying this, Darryl slightly lowered his head and looked down at the continent below.

“Your technological system has been fully analyzed by us and cannot pose any substantial threat.”

“Therefore, the consequence of refusing to submit is that I will continue advancing until there is not a single life form left on this planet that dares to resist.”

Panic had already begun spreading across the surface the moment the elemental shockwave Darryl created swept across the globe.

Especially after the inhabitants understood the content of his words, the society of the entire planet nearly collapsed on the spot.

Because the border forces had suffered heavy losses earlier and the Supreme Council had been quite confident at the time, they had not deliberately concealed news of the invaders.

However, to avoid causing widespread panic, the results of subsequent battles had not been announced.

Thus, the vast majority of Tentacle Tree Civilization citizens still held the impression that it was merely a hostile civilization launching an invasion. They had never imagined such an outcome.

Figures ran frantically through the streets. Transportation tracks made emergency stops, and the entrances to shelters were packed with trembling, curled-up Tentacle Trees.

The military reacted immediately to Darryl’s “advice.”

Two military airports entered combat status at the same time. Hundreds of atmospheric fighter jets shrieked into the sky.

Missile launch vehicles deployed urgently at street corners, and vertical launch silos opened one after another.

Following the orders, large numbers of missiles streaked toward the sky on trails of flame.

The fighter groups that had already closed in opened fire first. Blue-white energy beams and swarms of missiles struck Darryl simultaneously. Explosive flames bloomed continuously across his chest and shoulders.

Unfortunately, just like before, no attack could leave even a trace on his body.

Darryl had no intention of counterattacking. He simply hovered there calmly, as if the surrounding fighter jets were nothing more than buzzing flies. Melted and resolidified fragments from the exploded missiles rained down from the sky like a metallic storm.

Suddenly, one fighter jet broke formation.

It accelerated madly, the pilot forcing the engine thrust to its absolute limit. A piercing screech tore through the air.

The terrifying pressure Darryl emitted had completely shattered the pilot’s mind.

He intended to ram straight into him, hoping to trade his life for even the slightest damage.

For such an attack, Darryl finally moved.

He merely tilted his body slightly, letting the fighter jet brush past his shoulder.

The out-of-control jet tumbled toward the sea, while the pilot successfully ejected at the final moment.

Darryl showed no intention of pursuing. He was not here for slaughter.

Master had said:

Conquering this plane was for resources, knowledge, and intelligent beings.

Not for turning every planet into glass.

Therefore, moderate fear was beneficial for ruling.

But slaves driven to complete despair would lose their value.

Finally, the fighter group ceased its attacks.

With ammunition exhausted, the pilots finally realized… the entity they faced could not be defeated at all!

The formation circled once in the air before all returning to base.

At the top floor of the administrative tower.

The colonial governor gripped the emergency communication terminal tightly.

Nutrient fluid seeped continuously from the cracks in his bark—an expression of extreme fear.

He looked up at the black giant god in the sky, then lowered his head to read the latest order from Supreme Command.

[Hold position and await reinforcements.]

The governor remained silent for a few seconds, then cursed:

“Await reinforcements? What reinforcements? There aren’t any fucking reinforcements!”

He suddenly turned to the secretary beside him: “Send the surrender signal immediately!”

“Notify the airport to transmit the submission agreement using universal light code.”

Soon, a small official aircraft flew out from the top of the administrative tower.

Black signal lights flashed continuously beneath its fuselage—the universal surrender light code of the Tentacle Tree Civilization.

It circled Darryl three times, then began transmitting the governor’s surrender agreement word by word using the Tentacle Tree Civilization’s standard signals.

Darryl watched quietly. The vertical slit in his chest cavity opened slightly wider, the arc more pronounced than before.

“A wise choice.”

This time he did not use atmospheric elemental resonance. He simply emitted sound normally, yet it still reached every sensor on the official aircraft with perfect clarity. Then he raised his hand and gently patted his own chest.

At the same time, two synchronized communications arrived in the Dao Soldier system channel.

Ashel and Emerson had completed their reports: the inner planets had surrendered, and both colonial stars were now fully under control.

Immediately after, communications from Everett and Perry also connected.

The outer satellites had encountered no resistance, but… a special situation had appeared.

Darryl’s chest cavity slit opened and closed slightly.

The inner planets had fallen faster than he had anticipated, but considering he had already dealt with the main colonial star possessing the strongest forces, it was only natural. As for the outer satellites…

Recalling the intelligence in the message, a trace of contemplation flashed through his eyes.

“This requires further confirmation. If the information is accurate, it must be reported to Master immediately!”

In the vacuum of space, Jie Ming remained seated cross-legged.

Before him, large swaths of spatial ripples continued to spread.

Spatial jump windows opened one after another, densely packed and nearly covering the entire starfield.

Warships slowly squeezed out from the jump windows.

Clearly, Jie Ming’s decision to disperse the Black Giant Legion had led the upper echelons of the Tentacle Tree Civilization to believe they had seized an opportunity. They had immediately interrupted their original deployment plans and redirected a fleet.

Jie Ming merely glanced over and saw that most of these were hastily refurbished old ships.

The hull craftsmanship was crude and the paint numbering chaotic—obviously products privately constructed by colonial shipyards.

Although their numbers far exceeded those of the previous battle, the quality was clearly inferior.

Jie Ming shook his head lightly.

He had been prepared to activate spatial distortion. For such crude spatial jumps, a single thought from him would be enough to crush both the warships that had not yet completed their jumps and the spatial windows themselves.

But halfway through raising his hand, Jie Ming suddenly stopped.

He thought for a moment and felt it would be somewhat wasteful.

Although the quality of these warships was average, their sheer quantity was considerable, and their material and energy content was not bad.

“After all, it’s this much matter and energy. Might as well put waste to good use.” Jie Ming changed his mind.

With a fluctuation of his will, a deep azure light slowly rose from behind him.

The nest’s massive gelatinous body fully manifested in space, like an azure canopy covering the star sea.

Its current size already needed to be measured in thousands of kilometers. The moment it appeared, it obscured a vast swath of starlight.

“Subdue them.”

Jie Ming casually pointed at the fleet ahead.

“They are all your new nourishment.”

Pleasant ripples immediately spread across the nest’s surface. It liked this task.

An invisible information waveform diffused from within its body. When the ripples swept over the fleet, there was no detectable energy reaction, yet the interior of every warship instantly fell into chaos. The operators were horrified to discover that their controls had stopped responding right after the jump.

Immediately afterward, the warships’ engines shut down, weapon systems went offline, navigation screens displayed garbled code before going completely dark.

Even the bridge lights extinguished, and darkness rapidly swallowed the entire fleet.

In the end, the life support systems ceased operation and the air circulation gradually fell silent.

Crew members began frantically pounding the control panels with their tentacles in terror, trying to manually activate emergency oxygen supplies.

But aside from a few purely mechanical facilities, all other systems had failed completely!

Despair spread rapidly within the hulls.

Meanwhile, the nest had already swum toward the nearest group of warships. Hundreds of thick tentacles extended at once, wrapping around and contracting. The warship hulls began to decompose—from armor to framework to internal structures—layer by layer transforming into informational torrents that the nest slowly absorbed. The entire process was highly efficient.

Jie Ming did not continue watching.

The nest handled such matters more professionally than he did. After all, it was fundamentally an information lifeform.

The technological systems of these warships had already been thoroughly analyzed when it devoured the earlier wreckage.

Controlling them was no different from flipping a switch for the nest.

At that moment, a communication signal suddenly entered his spiritual sea through the Incense Fire Divine Dao system.

It came from a Black Giant squad dispatched to a remote star sector.

Report level: Special Discovery.

Jie Ming’s three eyes blinked gently at the same time.

“Oh?” He chuckled softly.

“A special discovery, huh…”

“That’s worth checking out personally.”