Chapter 1 Outpost

Forward Base of the Expeditionary Army.

A returning exploration fleet was docked at the spaceport. Harrison and his teammates disembarked from the spacecraft, removed their life-support helmets, and took a deep breath.

"I was suffocating in there. The air in the base's large ecological dome is much better. The air filter in the spacecraft stank after all these days outside."

"Really? I didn't notice."

"Don't you know that we, the Gu Kait people, have a more sensitive sense of smell than most interstellar species?"

"It's a pity that we've been out for so long and still haven't found anything."

Listening to his teammates chattering, Harrison rubbed his forehead, feeling a little annoyed.

Ever since he discovered the ally known as the King of the Limitless, the higher-ups had allowed him to lead an expeditionary team on his own. He had gone from being a follower to a team commander, with a certain degree of freedom to formulate exploration plans.

Black Star always said that Harrison was lucky, and Harrison was willing to believe it. He secretly hoped that his ethereal luck would help him again and find the World Tree's main body as soon as possible to end the war. However, so many years had passed, and his highly anticipated luck seemed to have subsided. Apart from occasionally escaping the pursuit of the World Tree's kin, he had made no new progress in exploration.

The expeditionary army's exploration progress had stagnated, and Harrison was both anxious and worried. As the saying goes, if you walk by the river often, you're bound to get your feet wet. The expeditionary army was wandering around the World Tree's territory, encountering pursuers time and time again, and he felt that there would always be a time when things went wrong.

At this moment, a team member patted Harrison on the shoulder and said, "Captain, how long will we rest this time before the next exploration?"

"Ten days, I suppose," Harrison replied, snapping out of his thoughts.

"Got it. We're going to the base cafeteria for food. Want to come with us?"

"No, I'll go to the logistics department first to report and have them inspect and maintain the spacecraft. I still have to write a routine report later," Harrison waved his hand.

"Okay, we'll bring you some food. What do you want to eat?"

"I want..."

Hearing this, Harrison was about to speak when he suddenly stopped. In that instant, a palpitation suddenly appeared.

Not waiting for an answer, the team member blinked in confusion and asked again, "Why aren't you saying anything? What do you want to eat?"

Harrison was disturbed, and an inexplicable sense of alertness arose in his heart. He couldn't help but come back to his senses, raised his head, and looked at the scenery outside the spaceport, staring intently at one spot.

"What are you looking at?" The team member turned his head and followed Harrison's gaze, seeing only the yellowish scenery of the setting sun in the secondary dimension, like a historical oil painting, but not seeing anything unusual.

"Something's not right..."

Harrison became more and more alert.

The team member wanted to ask again, but at this moment, a blue light suddenly lit up on the distant dimensional barrier, quickly turning into a huge spatial vortex, as if a hole had been torn open. The green, glowing World Tree kin swarmed out like locusts, covering the sky and earth, like densely packed little green dots, and then rapidly magnified in everyone's sight.

"Wuwuwu—Alarm! The spatial barrier has been breached! Enemy attack!"

The piercing alarm suddenly resounded throughout the base. All the expeditionary army members who were resting and waiting in the base were startled. Tense shouts, hurried running, and chaotic crashing sounds formed a concerto of chaos.

"Everyone, retreat at full speed! The base is preparing to self-destruct! The defense force will sacrifice themselves to cover the rear!"

The roar of the person in charge of the outpost resounded in the wide-area communication channel. Half an hour ago, an expeditionary team self-destructed and lost contact. He was still investigating the matter and didn't know if the news had been leaked. He didn't expect the World Tree to come so quickly.

The World Tree had a huge force in the secondary dimension, but the defense force of this outpost was limited. The dimensional coordinates had been exposed, and a head-on confrontation would attract more World Tree kin. In the pre-set plan formulated by the three great civilizations, if this outpost was attacked, the primary task was to self-destruct to clear traces and let the expeditionary army retreat quickly. A head-on confrontation was not the preferred option unless it was absolutely necessary.

"Go!"

Harrison's face changed drastically. Ignoring everything else, he quickly called the horrified team members to board the port vehicle and start the engine.

The outpost was in chaos. The automatic defense force hurriedly activated to meet the continuously emerging World Tree kin and buy time, while the expeditionary army members behind them swarmed into the vehicle depot, hurriedly looking for vehicles to take off and retreat.

Streams of light shot out from the base, scattering and retreating, opening spatial rifts to escape, fleeing to different secondary dimensions.

Soon, the vanguard of the World Tree kin engaged in a frontal battle with the outpost defense force. In an instant, countless warships exploded into fireworks on the spot.

At the same time, the fortresses of the outpost activated the self-destruct program and exploded, and the entrance connecting to the main material universe was also blown up by the physical missiles launched by the base. Flames soared into the sky, black smoke billowed, and countless wreckage crashed down.

The defense force was quickly defeated, the outpost self-destructed violently, and rapidly fell. The same scene happened in multiple secondary dimensions. The World Tree obtained accurate dimensional coordinates half an hour ago, quickly gathered, directly located the end point, and carried out a large-scale blitz attack, catching them off guard. The bridgeheads established by the three great civilizations in the territory of the King of the Limitless were knocked out one by one, and a large number of expeditionary teams scattered and fled.

On the other side, at the residence of the King of the Limitless.

A magical teleportation gate shining with green light suddenly opened, and the Secret Tree King slowly walked out. The first thing he saw was the black mountain range and the huge throne in the center of the dimension.

However, at this moment, there was no sign of the King of the Limitless on the throne.

"Am I a step late? Or is he just not at home?"

The Secret Tree King activated a perception spell and found that the King of the Limitless was not hiding here. He couldn't help but feel a little regretful.

The stable zone controlled by the King of the Limitless had some reputation in this secondary dimension area, and the World Tree kin had heard of it, but they had never paid attention to it.

When he learned from the expeditionary team that the three great civilizations were cooperating with the King of the Limitless, the Secret Tree King wanted to directly attack the King of the Limitless's base camp and transform him into a member of the World Tree, but he found that the King of the Limitless was not at home, so he had to temporarily abandon this plan.

The Secret Tree King raised his hand and squeezed, and magical runes ejected, turning into surveillance spells that took root in this secondary dimension. If the King of the Limitless returned to his lair, he would come over and take action.

After casually setting up the spell, the Secret Tree King summoned the teleportation gate, stepped into it, and the vortex quickly shrank, disappearing with his figure.

At the same time, in a secondary dimension at the edge of the King of the Limitless's territory.

Space was slowly collapsing, and waves of dimensional energy were swallowed by the Nexus Serpent hatchling. On the side, the King of the Limitless, who was responsible for feeding, suddenly stopped and felt a sudden tightness in his heart.

He had a basic perception of the territory he controlled. Just now, he noticed that the World Tree army had suddenly attacked the secondary dimensions he had lent to the three great civilizations. The outposts had almost completely fallen, and the most terrible thing was that his lair had welcomed an uninvited guest, who was obviously coming for him.

"The World Tree is here after all!"

The King of the Limitless panicked.

Although he regarded the intelligence of the three great civilizations as a bargaining chip, he was unwilling to reveal it to the World Tree unless he was forced to. The risk was too great, and now the World Tree was obviously targeting him. A Super-A grade had directly reached his lair. Even if he said he was willing to cooperate, they would probably kill him to ensure the reliability of the intelligence.

"Fortunately, I came out. If I had stayed at home, I would probably have become a puppet of the World Tree..."

The King of the Limitless felt a burst of fear and looked at the Nexus Serpent, who was feasting, with a complicated mood.

When Black Star asked him to take out his territory to feed the Nexus Serpent, the King of the Limitless was reluctant. Now, he only felt grateful... If Black Star hadn't forced this errand on him, he wouldn't have come out to walk the Nexus Serpent today, and he would probably have been blocked by a World Tree powerhouse at home. That would have been bad.

Rounding it off, Black Star saved my life?!

"There's no turning back, I can only go all the way!"

The King of the Limitless's thoughts turned, and he quickly made a decision.

He didn't want to get involved in the war between the two cosmic civilizations, but a confidant (a great source of trouble) had provoked the three great civilizations first, which had already dragged him into the game. After that, the cooperation with the three great civilizations was even more of a last resort. Today, it was difficult to get out. Even if he wanted to stay out of it, he couldn't.

Since the World Tree had already targeted him, the only thing he could do now was to bet everything, hold on to the thighs of the three great civilizations, and defeat the World Tree.

With this in mind, the King of the Limitless turned around and found the Mechanical Apostle monitoring the Nexus Serpent, and reported the situation in detail.

...

The battle did not last long. The World Tree kin destroyed the expeditionary army's outpost with overwhelming force. The raid ended quickly, and a large number of expeditionary teams fled in all directions. Some World Tree fleets followed the fluctuations of dimensional travel to pursue, while the remaining troops had already begun to clean up the battlefield, summarize the results, and carry out finishing work.

World Tree roots stretched out from the spatial rifts, with strings of expeditionary army spacecraft hanging on them. The Secret Tree King hovered aside, sharing memories with his eyes closed.

Before long, the Secret Tree King reopened his eyes. His originally relaxed expression was now extremely solemn.

"I didn't expect the Mother Tree's nemesis to be controlled by the enemy. The situation is dangerous..."

Eliminating the enemies who were searching for the Mother Tree's main body was originally just a matter of convenience, but he didn't expect to discover the whereabouts of the Mother Tree's nemesis. This was not good news.

If the Mother Tree's nemesis entered its mature stage, it could sense the location of the Mother Tree's main body in reverse. If it was acting independently, it wouldn't be a big threat, but if it was controlled by the enemy, the threat level would soar to the extreme, meaning that the enemy could use it to find the Mother Tree's main body.

The Secret Tree King knew the seriousness of the matter. This meant that the World Tree, which had originally been fighting a war of attrition without any pressure, had to race against time. Either kill the Nexus Serpent before it matured, or completely defeat the three great civilizations before that.

The only good news was that the Nexus Serpent had just been born, and it would take a long time from its juvenile stage to its adult stage.

He immediately passed the matter on to the Ancestor Tree King. The next moment, the Ancestor Tree King's solemn voice sounded in the mind network:

"You've done well, otherwise we would have been kept in the dark. You mobilize some of the advanced combat power to pursue and kill the Mother Tree's nemesis, and be sure to eliminate it!"

"Okay, I just got the coordinates of their territory in the secondary dimension world from these people's memories. We have a new target to attack."

"Well, the Fixed Tree King and I are ready to respond at any time. I'll leave the rest to you," the Ancestor Tree King nodded.

"It just so happens that this can smoothly open up the secondary dimension front and solve the problem together."

A cold light flashed in the Secret Tree King's eyes. He was not satisfied with destroying the outposts of the three great civilizations. He was eyeing the long-established base camps of the three great civilizations in the secondary dimension world.

The two sides had been fighting for more than ten years, and it was only today that they had grasped some of the general situation of the three great civilizations, and were no longer led by the nose. They finally had a breakthrough in the battle situation.

...

Explored Universe, Frontline Base.

Han Xiao was listening in on a war meeting when a report from the Mechanical Apostle suddenly came to his mind.

"Oh? The World Tree found the expeditionary army's outpost and launched a raid. They've succeeded, huh..."

Han Xiao frowned.

He was a little surprised by this, but not too surprised. As the expeditionary army's exploration time increased, the risk of exposure also increased simultaneously. He had been mentally prepared for this. The only thing that made him feel strange was the subtlety in the timing.

He had just returned from the expeditionary army's outpost a few days ago and was still thinking about the follow-up action plan when the World Tree attacked the outpost. It seemed like a coincidence, but Han Xiao felt that there was something strange about it.

"The secondary dimension battlefield has still opened up. That's the World Tree's home field. This wave of attacks of theirs probably got the coordinates of the shallow dimension. A two-line operation is unfavorable to the situation of the three great civilizations... But the three great civilizations have also made preparations for a rainy day in the secondary dimension, so the situation won't be as bad as it was in my previous life."

Han Xiao pondered secretly.

At this moment, Simon, who was talking eloquently about tactics, suddenly paused. A remote projection of a senior military officer appeared on the conference table, with an extremely serious expression. He said in a deep voice:

"Emergency situation. The secondary dimension expeditionary army's outpost has been attacked by the World Tree and has almost completely fallen. Some intelligence has been leaked. The World Tree is likely to have obtained the coordinates of the shallow dimension. It is expected that a second front will be opened. We urgently need high-level combat power to come to our aid!"

The notification from the three great civilizations was a step slower than the Mechanical Apostle. As soon as the voice fell, all the officers present were shocked and subconsciously turned to look at Han Xiao.

Hearing this, Han Xiao slowly nodded and asked:

"Who's leading the enemy?"

"According to the information sent back from the front line, it's a Super-grade who has never shown himself."

The figure of the Secret Tree King was projected onto the virtual screen. These were snapshots taken by some bases before they self-destructed and sent back to the main intelligence.

"Secret Tree King..." Han Xiao recognized the identity of this person at a glance and narrowed his eyes. "Okay, I'll take care of this."

At this moment, Simon spoke, frowning tightly. "A two-line operation will involve our high-level combat power. Aurora is stretched thin, and the enemy may also deliberately avoid Black Star and use foreign powerhouses... I certainly agree with supporting the secondary dimension, but the border front line is an important battlefield, and we must maintain a sufficient scale of high-level combat power."

"That's not a big problem. I have enough Emperor Mechanicals to transfer quickly on both sides, and... I have more manpower."

Han Xiao nodded.

Compared to the terrifying scale of the interstellar battlefield, the secondary dimension world, due to its own peculiarities, led to extremely serious battlefield segmentation, which indirectly strengthened the importance of individual power in the secondary dimension battlefield.

It was time for the salty fish of the Saint Accord to play their roles.

Moreover, this Secret Tree King was also worth his time.