Chapter 414 The Net Tightens

More and more Imperial fleets gathered, blockading the barren space zone outside the Dawn Star Cluster. The encirclement was slowly taking shape, leaving less and less space for the Arcane Church fleet.

With Han Xiao's location assistance, the Empire seized more enemy ships. After Rogo divided his forces into millions of teams, these teams had no ability to break through when they encountered Imperial search teams. Once encountered, they could only be annihilated or captured alive.

Before long, hundreds of thousands of warships fell into Imperial hands, and countless dejected Arcane Church crew members became prisoners.

However, Rogo's method of cutting off his tail to survive did increase the difficulty of the Empire's pursuit.

As Lu Xun said, the best way to hide something is not to lock it in a safe, but to hide it among a vast sea of bait. The Empire was now facing such a situation.

On the main ship of the pursuit force, Tarrokov was holding a video conference, analyzing the situation with Han Xiao and others:

"According to the prisoners' confessions, the enemy commander Rogo adopted the method of abandoning his troops to confuse our vision, and half of the enemy ships were disconnected from the network, detached from positioning monitoring, and became lone troops fleeing in the dark. We seized the Yaoyang-class main ship, but there was no trace of Rogo and others on it, so they should be hidden in the disconnected troops."

Han Xiao rubbed his chin, "It seems they've noticed my infiltration, and they've chosen to cut off their tail to survive, sending all their troops to us as abandoned pieces… Heh, this commander named Rogo has some guts."

"Black Star, do you have any solutions?"

"As long as those disconnected troops reconnect to the quantum network for even a moment, their location will be exposed." Han Xiao shrugged.

When he left the infiltration program at the time, he hadn't yet learned [Virtual Creator], so he was limited by the firewall, and the function of the infiltration program was very limited. If the virtual technology at that time had the level it does now, he wouldn't have just left an infiltration program, but would have been able to bypass the intelligent defense mechanism and use viruses to quietly infect and subvert the intelligence of enemy ships, with a higher degree of intrusion. Even if the enemy disconnected from the network, he could force the enemy's intelligence to turn on, which would alleviate the current situation to a certain extent.

"I can use divination." Ravenlaude opened his mouth, "But the Arcane Church also has two mages. They must have arranged a field that interferes with the threads of fate on their bodies to prevent others from spying."

"Try it, it doesn't cost any money anyway." Han Xiao raised his eyebrows.

Ravenlaude snorted, raised his hand, and a pale blue secret crystal divination ball appeared in his palm, with a cloud of hazy gray mist inside the ball.

The divination ball floated in front of him. Ravenlaude pointed a finger at the center of his eyebrows, and blue-purple arcane brilliance surged on the surface of his body, turning into wisps of mist that poured into the divination ball. The next moment, the clouds in the divination ball began to spin and change, gradually showing a picture.

Everyone subconsciously stretched their necks and looked expectantly, only to see Nija's face suddenly appear in the ball, as if aware of something, glancing at Ravenlaude.

Crack!

The next moment, the expensive divination ball shattered into two halves.

"It was indeed interfered with." Ravenlaude said helplessly.

Everyone gave him a look, their faces clearly saying, "You're useless."

Ravenlaude had a thick face, and nonchalantly put away the divination ball, also asking if he could get reimbursed.

Tarrokov decided to ignore him for the time being.

At this time, Heber pondered:

"The enemy divided their forces, and the number of warships in each sub-team has decreased. They lack the ability to break through. Then Rogo's main team may be the only team with the ability to break through. Once a Super A-grade makes a move, they will be discovered by our people, but we have no corresponding eyewitness reports yet, which means they have not encountered our blockade line from beginning to end."

"These people are lucky." Beyoni snorted.

Eh, luck… Han Xiao blinked, suddenly had an idea, and turned to look at Fording behind him, his eyes revealing a scorching heat.

"Fording, you pick some locations, which direction do you think Rogo's troops will escape from? You're lucky, maybe you'll hit the jackpot?"

Fording laughed wryly:

"Black Star, it's fine if you usually joke about my good luck, why are you like this in front of outsiders? Don't joke with me about this kind of serious matter."

"What are you talking about? Which eye of yours saw me joking?"

Han Xiao spread his hands, straight-faced, "You see, we've encountered an unsolvable problem, why not let you try? Believe in metaphysics, maybe it'll really hit the jackpot. It's a win-win situation, so don't refuse."

Seeing Han Xiao's firm attitude, Fording had no choice but to endure the gaze of a group of Super A-grade big shots, and randomly clicked a few times on the star map, circling a few directions.

"Here, don't blame me if it's wrong."

Han Xiao laughed heartily, put his arm around Fording's shoulder, pulled the helpless Fording into his arms, hugged him tightly, and then looked at Tarrokov, smiling: "Commander-in-chief, focus the search on the directions he pointed out, maybe we'll really run into Rogo."

"That's too childish!" Aurora couldn't help but complain.

However, when she looked up, she found that Tarrokov and the other Super A-grades such as Millisauros were all calm, not at all surprised.

"I see." Tarrokov said thoughtfully, "At this point, relying on intuition is a good method."

Millisauros and others nodded in agreement.

Everyone was knowledgeable and experienced, and they believed in the power of intuition more than ordinary people.

Luck is also a part of strength!

…

Rogo's team had only a dozen small spaceships. After being disconnected from the network, they had lost contact with the other fleets, unaware of the fate of the many sub-teams, and could only flee alone in silence.

"We're not far from the secret stargate. We haven't encountered the Imperial fleet yet. As long as we continue to bypass the Imperial blockade line, we'll soon reach the secret stargate."

Rogo looked at the star map and said in a deep voice.

"It seems we're lucky." Tylerdy said.

"It's not all luck. Within the warning range, we misled the Imperial fleet with our feigned escape direction, so the Imperial blockade line on our side is relatively weak." Rogo said.

Sagman nodded slowly, "At the current rate, we'll soon be able to…"

Wuwuwu—

Before he could finish speaking, the spaceship's alarm suddenly went off!

"Warning! Radar detection detected, stealth has been exposed, please prepare for battle!"

Everyone turned their heads abruptly, only to see an Imperial fleet suddenly emerge diagonally from the sensor radar screen, heading straight for them.

"Damn it!" Rogo slammed the console angrily.

Stealth mode could conceal their tracks, but if they got too close, they would still be detected by other people's radar. Just now, an Imperial fleet patrolling in stealth mode had brushed past them, triggering detection on both sides at the same time.

Rogo turned to Sagman and the others and shouted:

"The enemy has fifty warships, everyone, please quickly take care of them!"

Although the Arcane Church warships were a bit faster, the Red Empire's technology was still the standard of a cosmic civilization, and it wouldn't be so easy to shake them off.

If they kept dangling the pursuing troops while escaping, the surrounding Imperial fleets would be able to lock onto their specific location, so they could only eliminate the Imperial fleet that had discovered them first.

Sagman and the others looked solemn and nodded.

A battle broke out between the two sides. With the help of five Super A-grades, Rogo's team effortlessly annihilated this tracking team, but it also exposed the existence of Sagman and others.

"The Empire already knows we're in this direction. We must speed up to the secret stargate and escape before the enemy's Super A-grades arrive…" Rogo clenched his fists.

…

Due to the exposure of their location, Rogo's team encountered heavy blockades along the way. They could no longer play any fancy tricks and could only break through in a bloody battle, extremely embarrassed.

They originally wanted to speed up, but they were restrained, and their speed slowed down instead.

Tarrokov and Han Xiao and others, upon receiving the news, immediately changed direction and pursued at high speed.

The distance between the two sides was rapidly closing, and they were also constantly approaching the secret stargate.

This time, Rogo and the others' escape direction was straight to the secret stargate. The Imperial search fleet finally discovered the location of the secret stargate and broke out into battle with the Arcane Church forces stationed there.

Rogo and others happened to arrive at the battlefield in the midst of the battle. After their location was exposed, they forcibly broke through all the way, relying on the combat power of five Super A-grades, and finally managed to break through and arrive at the secret stargate.

Next to the huge stargate station, the Arcane Church garrison guarding this stronghold was engaged in fierce fighting with the Imperial fleet, and reinforcements were constantly arriving from the other end of the stargate.

In the distance, Rogo and the others watched the battle scene. The hope of escape was close at hand, and Rogo and Sagman were all excited.

Rogo reopened the quantum network connection, contacted the stargate station garrison, and then commanded his team to rush into the rear of the Imperial fleet, joining the battlefield, wanting to cut a bloody path into the stargate.

However, at this moment, Tarrokov's main fleet finally arrived, and Han Xiao and the others immediately discovered Sagman and the other five who were using Super A-grade power to advance in the battlefield.

"Let's go!"

Without hesitation, Han Xiao and the other five left the spaceship and rushed into the battlefield, heading straight for Sagman and the others.

Rogo was the first to notice this, his face suddenly turned gray, and his heart sank to the bottom.

Those Super A-grades still had the chance to escape into the stargate with their personal power, but he… had nowhere to escape!

He had even abandoned his troops with a ruthless heart, but he still couldn't escape?!

Powerful energy fluctuations attracted the attention of Sagman and the others, and they all turned their heads to take a look, their expressions changing drastically.

"They've caught up!"

"We can't get entangled!"

Sagman and the other five didn't dare to turn back to fight at all. They hurriedly sped up and fled in a panic, not even caring about the Imperial fleet that was fighting with the stargate station garrison around them. They just wanted to rush into the stargate before Han Xiao and the others caught up with them.

They all knew that once they were entangled here by a strong opponent of the same level, the hope of escaping the Shattered Star Ring would become extremely slim.

Five meteors fled in front, and another five meteors chased closely behind, the two sides in front and behind, passing through the chaotic interstellar battlefield.

"Attack the stargate!"

Han Xiao and the others, who had ranged attack capabilities, fired at the secret stargate one after another.

The mechanical legion's salvo, Star Shattering Fist, Arcane Energy Impact, and other Super A-grade power attacks went straight to the secret stargate, and the planetary shield covering the stargate was hit with cracks, unable to support it for long.

Sagman and the others gritted their teeth, and while escaping, they took the initiative to meet some of the ranged attacks from Han Xiao and the others, preferring to be injured in order to reduce the damage to the secret stargate, and used the reaction force to accelerate their escape.

The tables had turned, and now it was Sagman and the others' turn to guard the stargate, very passive and extremely embarrassed.

The mechanical legion's concentrated fire caused extremely high output. Metos was the worst. Unlike Sisko, Sagman, Nija, and others, he didn't have ranged energy protection methods, and most of the time he could only use his body to withstand the attacks, spewing out mouthfuls of green blood mist, his condition constantly declining, his flight speed gradually slowing down, and falling behind.

Sagman and the two mages were the fastest, passing through the battlefield and rushing into the stargate first. Sisko followed closely behind, using his psychic shield to withstand a round of planet-destroying cannon strikes from the mechanical legion, spewing blood and flying backwards into the stargate.

Four people escaped through the stargate, leaving only Metos on the battlefield. Not far from the stargate, he was finally caught up by Han Xiao and the others.

Heber stepped forward and grabbed Metos tightly. The two behemoths wrestled, tumbling in the universe, their flight paths deviated, just brushing past the stargate, crashing through the fragmented shield, and smashing a corner of the stargate.

With a wave of Han Xiao's hand, a small team of mechanical troops rushed into the stargate to scout the way first.

However, the next moment, this mechanical team lost contact and was wiped out.

In Metos's desperate gaze, the spatial vortex of this stargate suddenly disappeared, and it was closed from the other end.

Seeing this, Millisauros flapped his dragon wings and snorted in the consciousness communication, saying, "The four guys who escaped detonated the stargate on the other end, destroying the passage. Hmph, it seems they abandoned Metos."

"Well, at least we left one behind, so it's not a complete loss." Ravenlaude's mouth curled up.

Everyone turned their heads to look over, leaving only Metos, a Super A-grade, left on this battlefield, surrounded by heavy siege, with nowhere to escape, isolated and helpless.

Heber was facing off against Metos, who was in despair and rage. The two muscleheads were rubbing against each other, and the splashing flames were like solar prominences ejected from a star.

Sensing the gazes of Han Xiao and the others, Heber said in a deep voice, "This is my prey, don't interfere."

Everyone didn't care. Metos had nowhere to escape. Since Heber wanted to fight one-on-one, they didn't mind watching the show and observing the strength of the two.

Han Xiao clicked his tongue and quipped, "So energetic, Little Brawler."

"…Don't call me that!"

Heber's forehead popped with veins, and he simply ignored Han Xiao, burying his head and concentrating on dealing with Metos.

He finally had the hope of capturing a Super A-grade alive, and he would never give up.

The stargate passage had been destroyed, the enemy had no way out, and the stubbornly resisting secret stargate garrison was crushed and defeated by Tarrokov, who had arrived, and it wouldn't be long before they would completely collapse. The outcome of the battle was no longer in doubt.

At this time, Tarrokov joined the communication, looking satisfied, and nodded, "Four escaped, one was left behind, and Rogo was also captured. The results of this battle are good. Even if Sagman and the other four escape the Shattered Star Ring, they will face a new round of pursuit."

Escaping the Shattered Star Ring didn't mean that Sagman and the others were safe.

The Red Empire was deploying interception troops in the Shattered Star Ring, and Imperial allies such as the Black Star Army, the Crimson Dynasty, and Klent were also taking action, not to mention the Radiant Federation, which was secretly eager to move.

Sagman and the others' escape career was far from over. If they wanted to be truly safe, they had to traverse the vast Shattered Star Ring, enough to make them suffer.

Hearing this, Han Xiao opened his mouth and said:

"I just invaded the stargate's database, followed the clues, and obtained the coordinate data of the other end of the stargate."

Tarrokov's eyes lit up.

"This way, we can uproot the Arcane Church's secret stargates and make it easier for us to lock onto their location. Black Star, well done!"

Han Xiao smiled, and then turned to look at the battlefield where Heber and Metos's flames were shooting.

Capturing Metos was only a matter of time.

Letting out a sigh of relief, a flash of light flashed in Han Xiao's eyes.

This was the second Super A-grade prisoner captured by the Empire!

He wondered if the Arcane Church was satisfied with his return gift!

…

At the same time, somewhere in the barren space zone outside the Shattered Star Ring, the exit of the Arcane Church's secret stargate.

The disheveled Sagman and the other four looked at the stargate in front of them that they had blown up, and all fell into silence.

"Metos… didn't escape…"

Sagman almost gritted his teeth to pieces.

If the raid plan had succeeded and Millisauros, Black Star, and Beyoni had been killed, the Empire would have only three Super A-grades left in the Shattered Star Ring, and they could have escaped calmly.

But now…

One wrong move, and the whole game was lost!

Nija hurriedly said, "Don't linger here, Black Star will definitely be able to track this location, leave quickly."

Sagman came back to his senses, his face extremely gloomy, and said, "Let's go, we must bring the Staff of the Gods back."

Having been Super A-grades for so long, they hadn't experienced such a desperate situation in a long time!