This is really not mechanical ascension
Chapter 573 - 302: Have fun, I’m going in first! - Part 2

Chapter 573: Chapter 302: Have fun, I’m going in first! - Part 2

All the ships in the Judger Fleet were rapidly coming to a halt, despite their engines still striving to burst forth flames and the main guns flickering with intermittent charging light.

Yet, they were unable to advance even a step further; under the influence of an invisible force field, the shields of all warships were quickly dimming at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Just a few minutes later, apart from the flagship, the shields of all the Judger warships simultaneously extinguished.

Following that, they helplessly became stationary, like a field of ruins, and fell silent, no different from the United Fleet.

"What kind of force field is this?" Li Ming’s breathing hitched. This scene, as if the pause button had been pressed, made him think of time at first, but he soon dismissed the thought.

The Folding Fortress might not even have been built by the Yitelan Civilization themselves; if they can’t manage space, let alone time.

Moreover, he was still able to move freely; he tried a little and didn’t feel any obstruction.

A thought crossed his mind, and a red arc spark flickered at his fingertips, emitting a puff of smoke, but that was all.

"Energy quiescence?" Li Ming pondered. This was a strange scene, and the battlefield once again fell silent.

This energy quiescence field apparently did not differentiate between friend and foe; the United Fleet was similarly affected, yet it remained glorious.

And on one of its metallic surfaces, within the huge, black hole-like turbo gun muzzle, golden arcs had already begun to stir.

Now, it was the only one that could move; even though the United Fleet couldn’t attack, it could pinpoint and shatter the target.

But then, surprisingly, under the state of suppression, the Judger warships restarted, somehow finding a method to do so.

They even rebooted the extinguished energy shields on the ships, their warships recharging once more, their weapon systems surging with black and red energy, neatly turning direction, engines blazing, quickly fleeing the battlefield.

But clearly overloaded, bright sparks were bursting from all Judger warships, and the armor plates were twisting like melted plastic, exposing the smoke-billowing mechanical devices beneath.

The more fragile warships didn’t make it two steps before they abruptly self-destructed into large balls of fire, while the larger warships, amidst continuous explosions, swayed left and right, barely managing to retreat.

The giant gun of the Folding Fortress, with its frightful charging time, had only reached one-third of its capacity so far, and quickly extinguished in the face of the fleeing Judgers.

It directly decided the outcome of the battle.

Li Ming’s eyes flickered. This was the Yitelan Civilization’s trump card for suppressing the Silver Star Cluster.

"If the Judger Civilization doesn’t have a contingency plan, it seems they have lost again." Li Ming mused, not continuing to watch, but decisively turning towards deeper regions.

He moved much faster, and after just five or six minutes, he had passed through several sealed metal doors, stopping in front of a thick metal wall.

The entrance was sealed, with two rows of soldiers carefully guarding it.

"Behind this must be the Core Relics."

The lights around them began flickering again; Asimara must have deactivated the Folding Fortress’s energy quiescence field.

Li Ming took out an EMP bomb again; after letting it take effect, the surroundings once more plunged into darkness, then he put the bomb away, and his body suddenly shrunk, his clothes fell to the ground, and he quickly disappeared.

Bang!

A loud noise suddenly came from behind, and the two rows of eight people turned their heads in astonishment, only to see that a narrow gap had somehow opened in the thick metal door.

Beyond that, they found no other anomalies.

"This..." Their expressions tightened, they looked at each other, inspected carefully, but found no clues.

"It might be an accident due to the warship malfunctions, just a small crack," someone mumbled.

The others couldn’t help but nod, not knowing what was up today; the systems seemed extremely unstable, restarting many times.

Meanwhile, Li Ming, now miniaturized, had slipped in. He was facing a silver-white, diamond-structured Core Relic.

The central part seemed to be cut open with a gap, resembling a black wall, covered in golden symbols.

He was familiar with this material, Black Gold Source Stone, containing a large amount of metal.

And around this Core Relic, were sixteen oddly shaped devices, each extending long, slender metallic needles for meters.

They seemed to be all aimed at the Core Relic, but were now in a dormant state.

And the Core Relic was enveloped in a layer of constantly surging silver-white ripples, like water waves, seemingly some kind of defense mechanism.

The already torn gap was gradually healing due to the halted operation of the surrounding equipment, and the speed was not slow, it seemed that it would soon be completely sealed.

"Although I don’t know what this thing is, it’s best not to let it heal." Li Ming muttered, switched to the Subspace Folding Ring, and in a few flashes, he had already darted into it.

Falling into the rhomboidal crack, everything around him seemed so massive. Following the black walls, he found what looked like an entrance.

Behind a shimmering crystal was a sealed door, and then in the Control Bar, he found the Tanluo Mon Sublimator that had long been repaired and directly used it.

Suddenly, an indescribable feeling rose within his body, and his heart gave a fierce thump.

After steadying himself, he took a deep breath and pressed his hand against the crystal.

In an instant, the crystal lit up with dazzling light, seemingly conducting authentication, and soon a gentle female voice sounded: "Authentication successful, permission granted to enter."

Then, the black wall behind the crystal silently opened.

Seeing this, Li Ming couldn’t help but stretch his lips into a smile that grew wider and wider, he looked back and said, "You guys have fun, I’m going in first."

...

Meanwhile, aboard the Coyle, everyone watched the now fully deployed Folding Fortress on the screen, feeling the oppression through the screen.

Sandro’s voice trembled as he swallowed, "The timing that Azure Dragon spoke of couldn’t possibly mean this situation."

Ulrich clenched his fists, then relaxed them, and clenched them again.

When Azure Dragon left, he hadn’t told them much, except for what they needed to coordinate, only that when the time came, they would need to get close to the United Fleet.

He never imagined that it would be this kind of situation.

The bizarre and inexplicable Star Stream Dark Tide that was heading towards the United Fleet had been surprising enough.

Even more shocking was that Azure Dragon seemed to have anticipated such a scenario, having told them about it more than ten days earlier.

Monroe’s gaze was indifferent, "Regardless of whether or not it is the timing he referred to, we have to go take a look."

"Really going over there?" Sandro couldn’t help saying: "I think they’re about to blow their brains out, there must be thirty Level A life forms."

"You don’t want to go?" Monroe looked over, and Sandro immediately felt embarrassed: "Not that I don’t want to..."

"Even at full power flight, it will take at least thirty hours to reach the location of the United Fleet," Connet suddenly said, "If you want to go, decide quickly."

"Let’s take a look..." A voice suddenly came from the corner, it was Dark Night.

This formidable figure was expressionless; he only had two or three days left until the deadline Azure Dragon had given him.

He, too, wanted to see what exactly Azure Dragon was up to.

The crowd fell silent, palms involuntarily breaking out in cold sweat.

...

"Energy System startup, supply rate at 85%, 86%."

"United communication system online, allocating channels..."

"System reboot complete... self-check done, multiple internal damages to the hull detected, monitoring system damaged..."

In the command center of the Circular Crown Guard, lights finally came on, and Asimara walked back from the torn metal door with a somber expression; the method she had used to leave the command center was violent.

"Damage assessment underway..."

"23% of warships are destroyed, 13% damaged, with losses of various types of warships being summarized..."

"Commander, the Judger Fleet laid an ambush in advance. Before the Star Stream Wander Tide struck, they had already anticipated it, even completed their ambush," the commanders swiftly reported with grave expressions, "We suspect the Star Stream Dark Tide was created by the Judger Fleet."

"We should shrink our battle lines again, in addition, many Raider Warships are advancing, the fastest will arrive within a day."

Bad news followed one after another, and what had been a favorable situation was utterly lost.