“Are these people passing by, or are they here for us? And who exactly are they?”

Han Xiao gazed at the rapidly approaching fleet. Their ships lacked any faction insignia, making it impossible to discern their affiliation. He couldn't help but look puzzled.

Seeing that they had no intention of stopping, Han Xiao prepared for battle, his mechanical force surging within him.

But just as he was about to act, the spatial wall not far away fractured again, and Klotti finally arrived.

In the next moment, the fleet slammed on the brakes, stopping abruptly midway.

“What's going on with this fleet?”

Han Xiao glanced at them, baffled. Just then, Klotti flew over, and he turned to greet him.

“Your Excellency Dark Emperor.”

“Hmm, Black Star.” Klotti nodded slightly, turning his gaze to the Traveler, who lay dying at Ames's feet. He asked, “How did you encounter him?”

“It was just a coincidence…”

Han Xiao briefly explained the situation.

Klotti listened, his expressionless face betraying a faint twitch at the corner of his eye. He murmured, “How unlucky.”

Having blasted the psionic cluster, he had lost his leads to finding the Traveler and was pondering how to continue the hunt. But he hadn't expected the Traveler to be so unlucky as to run into Black Star.

He wasn't curious about why Han Xiao was here; Klotti generally didn't concern himself with the private affairs of other Beyond Grade As.

“I heard your mission is to kill him?” Han Xiao inquired.

Klotti nodded. “The Traveler is just one target. The Prime Minister's orders are to kill them if they cannot be captured alive. If they can be brought back, they will be publicly tried, and these Beyond Grade As will be executed live across the universe… Oh, and we'll also interrogate them about who their employer is.”

“You have other hunting targets?”

Klotti glanced at him. “Just a few neutral Beyond Grade As who like to work as mercenaries.”

“Are they related to Hela's rescue operation?” Han Xiao asked, curious.

“The Empire will decide,” Klotti said indifferently, not caring.

Han Xiao was speechless. Those neutral Beyond Grade As who were targeted were probably innocent in this matter but were unlucky enough to be used as tools by the Empire to establish its authority.

The Dark Emperor was indeed a staunch loyalist of the Empire, and didn't care about this, showing the harsh living environment of some neutral Beyond Grade As.

Han Xiao then thought of the Super Star Cluster civilizations and understood. The Empire's chosen targets were likely those who had accepted employment from the Super Star Cluster Alliance, using the Hela rescue operation as an excuse to kill the chicken to warn the monkeys, and eliminate the Super Star Cluster Alliance's wings.

Perhaps they were also imitating the Twilight of the Gods, using conflict as an excuse to reduce the number of Beyond Grade As.

Han Xiao shook his head and changed the subject. “I already interrogated him and pried the identity of the mastermind out of him.”

“Who is it?”

Their conversation wasn't shielded from the Traveler, who immediately changed his expression upon hearing this, staring nervously at Han Xiao, fearing he would reveal the existence of the Star Arc civilization.

However, he saw Han Xiao give him a look.

The Traveler immediately understood and interjected, “Sorokin! He hired me to attack Black Star's palace and distract Black Star's attention, indirectly assisting the encirclement by the Crimson Dynasty and the Arcane Church!”

“It's him? Isn't he just a pure businessman?” Klotti frowned, somewhat surprised, and couldn't help but look at Han Xiao. “Do you think it's credible?”

“I think it's quite reliable. The Traveler is just a neutral mercenary; he wouldn't attack me for no reason.”

Han Xiao smiled.

Sorokin was indeed involved, but Han Xiao had signaled the Traveler to conceal the identity of the Star Arc civilization, placing all the blame on Sorokin. This way, the Empire's hatred wouldn't be diluted but would all be directed at Sorokin.

Anyway, Sorokin wasn't clean and it wouldn't be hard to find evidence.

While Han Da Technican was about to become a shareholder of the Limitless Financial Group, he wouldn't really help Sorokin develop for the sake of dividends, especially since he had just learned that the other party was secretly scheming against him.

It was a good opportunity to use the Crimson Dynasty to screw over Sorokin, making the higher-ups wary of this guy.

“…I will tell the Prime Minister, but we still need to take the Traveler back for questioning,” Klotti said thoughtfully.

Han Xiao nodded, turned, and patted Ames's thigh, signaling her to lift her foot. He then took out a Time Amber and sealed the Traveler, who was unable to resist.

As he did this, Han Xiao pointed to the unfamiliar fleet in the distance, pretending to be air.

“By the way, I wanted to ask earlier, are they your troops?”

Hearing this, Klotti was taken aback. “I thought they were your people.”

When he arrived, he had noticed the fleet, and seeing Han Xiao together with them, he assumed they were a group, and that he had misunderstood earlier, so he didn't pay attention.

And in Han Xiao's view, he only gave the coordinates to the Dark Emperor, and the fleet arrived around the same time, so he mistakenly thought the fleet was subordinate to the Dark Emperor.

Both of them thought the fleet was related to the other party, and now that it was clarified, they realized it was a third-party force.

Realizing this, Klotti opened a wide-area channel and shouted, “Who exactly are you people, and why are you following me?!”

In his view, he had encountered the other party twice, and it was only possible that they were tracking him.

At this moment, in the fleet's command room, Luo and Fei were already going crazy.

They had locked onto Black Star and were ready to strike, but they didn't expect the first peak Beyond Grade A marked on the map to move at the last moment and also arrive in this secondary dimension.

The sudden situation disrupted their plan, and they quickly had the fleet brake, not daring to open fire rashly.

Seeing that Black Star and another peak Beyond Grade A were together, they both felt it was tricky. If they acted in this situation, the difficulty would increase exponentially, adding many variables.

They only wanted to wait until Han Xiao was alone before acting, and now they just wanted to quickly brush it off, evacuate this place, and look for another opportunity.

Hearing Klotti's question, Luo could only use the same excuse as their first encounter.

“Respected Beyond Grade A, I didn't expect to meet you again. We just detected special energy fluctuations here, so we came to explore. We didn't expect it to be you again, we'll leave now.”

With that, Luo was about to have the fleet turn around and leave, but this time, Klotti stopped them, his tone cold:

“Once is one thing, but now it's the second time, and still with the same excuse. Do you think I believe it?”

Klotti didn't believe in such coincidences. He had already suspected the origin of the fleet, but he didn't want to cause trouble because he was focused on his mission. But now that he had dealt with the Traveler, he wasn't going to let this mysterious fleet that had run into his hands go.

“But it really is just a coincidence, we're just a private exploration team…” Luo could only bite the bullet and continue to pretend.

“Then it's easy to solve. Stop your ships and let us search them. If there really isn't a problem, I'll let you leave,” Klotti said sternly.

Hearing this, Luo and Fei exchanged glances and communicated mentally.

“What do we do now? They won't let us leave easily. Are we really going to let them board our ships?”

“You know that's impossible.”

“Then it looks like we can only force our way through…”

Both of them were in a bad mood and didn't want to act in this situation.

But now that they had revealed their hand, they couldn't back down and couldn't let the other party board the ships.

Luo gritted his teeth and slammed his fist on the table.

“Open fire!”

…

After Klotti demanded to board and inspect the ships, the mysterious fleet suddenly went silent and stopped responding.

After waiting for a few seconds, Klotti saw the other party playing dead and couldn't help but raise his tone:

“This is your last warning, if there is no reply within ten seconds, I will destroy you!”

Meanwhile, Han Xiao was watching Klotti communicate with the mysterious fleet, thinking they were here for the Dark Emperor, so he was just eating popcorn and watching the show.

Hearing Klotti's ultimatum, Han Xiao thought for a moment and said, “There's no need to act, I can perform a virtual intrusion, control those ships, and check their databases to see their origins.”

Hearing this, Klotti pondered for two seconds and nodded.

“In that case, I'll have to trouble you…”

Before he could finish speaking, an unexpected event occurred!

The warships suddenly opened fire, and conical solid rounds shot out, dragging long trails of fire, heading toward the three of them.

“Solid rounds?”

Although conventional weapons were now mostly dark energy cannons and psionic energy cannons, Han Xiao wouldn't underestimate solid rounds, because since the other party had the ability to traverse secondary dimensions, the ammunition loaded in the solid rounds must be extraordinary.

Seeing this, Ames waved her hand, and a force field spread out, fixing all the rounds in mid-air, unable to advance.

Seeing that the other party had acted, Han Xiao didn't hesitate to activate his virtual intrusion, attacking the databases of the ships.

However, just as Han Xiao's data probe pierced the ship's intelligence, an invisible force surged through the quantum network link, flowing back into his mind.

Boom!!

A strong shock exploded in his consciousness, and the constructed memory palace suddenly collapsed, with countless papers representing memories turning into tornadoes, spinning rapidly.

All of this was reflected in Han Xiao's perspective, as countless memory fragments flashed uncontrollably in his mind, as if they had all turned into garbled code, making it difficult to maintain normal thinking.

At the same time, a prompt popped up in the interface:

[You have been invaded by {Memory Formatting Virus • Quantum Network Type}]

[Detected that your class is {Virtual Mechanic}]

[{Memory Formatting Virus • Quantum Network Type} deals 200% additional damage to you]

“What is this?!”

Han Xiao was shocked and felt the world spinning.

The virus had taken root in his quantum soul. It wasn't just a negative status effect, but was frantically messing with his consciousness on a virtual level. It was like a bear child had come into his house, rummaging through boxes and cabinets, throwing all the neatly arranged things around. Han Xiao had to muster his energy to fight it.

Seeing his condition, Klotti's eyes narrowed, and dark energy gathered around him, launching a fierce attack.

However, in the next instant, the large group of {Dimension Banishing Rounds} that had been fixed in mid-air by Ames actively detonated, releasing expanding spatial turbulence that swallowed Klotti's attack and transferred it to an unknown location.

Not only that, the released spatial turbulence was also frantically tearing at the spatial wall of the Silent Land, creating more gaps.

Seeing this, Ames immediately manipulated her force field, preparing to crush the ships.

At this time, Fei in the flagship acted, and a misty white shield popped up from her, protecting the fleet and blocking Ames's force field, with both sides contending against each other, preventing Ames from immediately destroying the ships.

In the next moment, the well-prepared flagship revealed a special disc-shaped device at the bow, which looked like some kind of radar amplifying band. It suddenly shook and released a special wave.

Buzz!

The wave swept across Klotti, Han Xiao, and Ames, and their bodies suddenly stiffened. The strength they usually controlled with ease suddenly became uncontrollable, making it much more difficult for them to control their bodies, as if every cell was working against their consciousness.

[You are affected by {Advanced Life Form Strength Disruption Wave • Beyond Grade A Frequency Type}]

[Detected that your total level is 320]

[{Advanced Life Form Strength Disruption Wave • Beyond Grade A Frequency Type} increases the confinement effect on you by 320%]

“It's working, we don't have much time!”

Seeing this, Luo suddenly raised his arm, and his sleeve slipped down, revealing a gauntlet-style metal device on his wrist. This was a special piece of equipment for capturing primordial esoteric entities, and he yanked it towards the Mystic Augmenter.

Clack!

The chaotic esoteric energy seemed to have taken a great tonic, suddenly expanding and tearing the Mystic Augmenter apart from the inside out, instantly freeing it.

However, before it could move, an invisible traction force grabbed its energy body, causing it to fly uncontrollably toward the fleet.

On the other side, the ships weren't idle either. A second wave of Dimension Banishing Rounds shot towards the struggling trio. Klotti barely manipulated his powers, forming a shield to cover his body.

However, the spatial turbulence directly swallowed Klotti, shield and all, disappearing without a trace, banished to an unknown location.

At the critical moment, Han Xiao barely suppressed the virus raging in his mind, freeing his mind, and with great difficulty raised his hand to grab Ames's shoulder, using a virtual warp to escape the range of the Dimension Banishing Rounds.

Then, he raised his hand and released a Constraint Field, grabbing the chaotic esoteric entity from the other side, preventing it from being captured.

Whoosh!

The chaotic esoteric entity was like a cloth being pulled from both sides, stretched taut.

Luo's tone became urgent, “Black Star's state is recovering, we can't delay any longer, or we'll be dead. Grab as much as we can!”

As he spoke, he changed his gesture, activating another function of the special gauntlet-like collection device. A small part of the chaotic esoteric entity was directly cut off.

This part of the energy was like being absorbed by a black hole, rapidly pouring into Luo's gauntlet.

“Let's go!”

Having completed this step, the fleet fired a Dimension Banishing Round, which detonated as soon as it left the chamber. The spatial turbulence directly swallowed the fleet, causing all the ships to disappear on the spot.

After a few dozen seconds of recovery, the effect of the body control disruption slowly faded away. Ames gasped for breath, her chest heaving, her expression shocked and uncertain.

“What kind of methods are these?”

“These are special technologies developed through the study of primordial esoteric entities…”

Without external interference, Han Xiao had used virtual technology to nearly wipe out the memory formatting virus, and had reorganized his memory palace. His expression was now grave.

From beginning to end, the fleet had only used technological weapons, yet they were able to put the three of them in an extremely passive position. Han Xiao had a deep impression of these special technologies, because they had also appeared in his previous life.

Whether it was the memory formatting virus, Dimension Banishing Rounds, or the Advanced Life Form Strength Disruption Wave, they were all special technologies derived from the reverse engineering of different primordial esoteric entities, with different uses.

Among them, the Dimension Banishing Rounds could not take effect in the main universe, because the spatial structure of the main universe was completely different from that of the secondary dimension. But in the secondary dimension world, this technology was a powerful weapon that combined the functions of dividing the battlefield, escaping, expelling, and destroying the secondary dimension.

The memory formatting virus was a technological product that acted on the soul, also from a primordial esoteric entity. Modified into a quantum network model, it was a trap specially set up for Han Xiao's virtual intrusion, and it had successfully taken effect while Han Xiao was unprepared.

The Advanced Life Form Strength Disruption Wave was specially designed for the strong. The higher your own energy level, the greater the impact you would receive. It was like using your own energy to fight yourself. However, Beyond Grade A life forms had strong adaptability. Each time they endured the disruption wave, the basic effect would be reduced, and their cells would constantly adapt to this influence.

The enemy had specialized in researching primordial esoteric entities, and their collection technology was more advanced. By stimulating the chaotic esoteric energy, they shattered the Mystic Augmenter's vessel and stole a portion of the chaotic esoteric energy.

No matter how strong a Super is, they are still a life form, and since they are a life form, there are ways to target them. They are far from being invincible. Although the technology trees of the three civilizations were different, they all had targeted technologies specifically for advanced life forms. For example, the All-Heaven Staff was an example. Even the old dragon, a peak Beyond Grade A, couldn't withstand a few blows. As advanced civilizations developed, similar technologies would only increase.

If it were a frontal battle, either he or the Dark Emperor could easily crush this fleet. However, the other party had laid a trap with various targeted special technologies, catching the three of them off guard.

Even the powerful Klotti had suffered and been banished into the spatial turbulence, not knowing when he would come out.

It was just that the other party could only control the three of them and didn't have enough means of attack to harm them.

“This group's target isn't Klotti, they came for me.”

Han Xiao re-collected the chaotic esoteric entity, his brows tightly furrowed.

“Do you know their identities?” Ames asked curiously, capturing the information in Han Xiao's words.

“I do know.”

Han Xiao narrowed his eyes and slowly said,

“These are a group of guys who shouldn't be appearing in this era…”