Chapter 118: Light from Afar

The closer Moon One approached its target, the more vigilant Xiao Yu became. He firmly believed that the powerful alien beast would not passively accept its fate. It must have some trump card hidden up its sleeve.

With only a month left until impact, Xiao Yu knew he was about to find out what that final move would be.

To prepare for any eventuality, all 5,000 of Xiao Yu’s warships had taken to the skies and entered a state of full combat readiness. Every detection system was running at maximum power, scanning the surroundings for any sign of the enemy. Xiao Yu, like a watchful hunter, constantly monitored his prey’s movements.

“One month left… As soon as Moon One enters within 100 million kilometers of the white dwarf, the collision will be inevitable. Nothing will be able to stop it.”

After factoring in the mass and velocity, Xiao Yu arrived at a definitive conclusion.

This was the edge of the heliosphere of the Aquila Two binary system. Due to the mass loss of Aquila Two-X, its stellar winds were abnormally strong, clearing a region with a radius of over 200 billion kilometers within the Aquila Nebula. This vast space was devoid of interstellar dust.

As a result, Moon One had lost its source of “food,” and its mass had stabilized. This spared Xiao Yu considerable trouble.

Time ticked by. With every passing moment, success drew closer.

Ten days remained until impact.

“Weak technological civilization, stop now. Do not force me,” came a sudden spatial broadcast from the alien beast after years of silence.

“So, it’s finally revealing its trump card?” Xiao Yu’s nerves tensed to their limits. His fleet assumed battle formations, and high-powered detection equipment scanned the surroundings without pause.

Once everything was ready, Xiao Yu responded, “I don’t know who’s forcing whom. In my civilization, there is a saying: ‘An eye for an eye, blood for blood.’ You deceived me at the start, causing me significant losses. Don’t expect me to trust you, and don’t expect me to spare you.”

“I’ve given up on relying on you to free me from this white dwarf,” the alien beast replied. “You can leave the Aquila Nebula, and I won’t stop you. In exchange, abandon your plan to crash that little thing into the white dwarf. What do you think?”

Xiao Yu sneered. “I’m on the verge of success. Why should I stop? Moreover, you once said that the bodies of alien beasts are tougher than the most resilient materials a technological civilization can produce. According to my calculations, during a nova explosion, you might very well be shattered. Part of your body could be blown off the white dwarf’s surface and fall into my hands. With such a huge benefit at stake, why would I give up?”

Over the years, Xiao Yu had awoken Luka Two to verify the claims about technological civilizations hunting alien beast civilizations for their bodies to build spacecraft.

Luka Two confirmed that the tissue of alien beast organisms functioned like a super additive. When incorporated into manufacturing processes, it significantly enhanced the material properties of the resulting products.

“This means that the role of alien beast tissue isn’t much different from the Black Bugs I found on Titan,” Xiao Yu concluded.

Luka Two also revealed another key point, while technological civilizations often hunted alien beast civilizations, the reverse was also true.

Alien beast organisms saw spacecraft from technological civilizations as an excellent food source. The two sides needed each other for different reasons, which created an irreconcilable enmity between them.

Armed with this knowledge, Xiao Yu resolved to kill the alien beast on the white dwarf at all costs.

Hearing Xiao Yu’s determination, the alien beast replied coldly, “You think you can claim my body tissue? I’ll give you one last chance. Change the satellite’s trajectory and don’t crash it into the white dwarf. In return, I’ll let you leave the Aquila Nebula unhindered. Find another area to develop your technology. We’ll leave each other alone.”

“You’ve got a clever plan,” Xiao Yu retorted sharply, refusing to back down. “I don’t know what leverage you think you still have to negotiate with me. Let me leave? Fine. Sever one of your arms, throw it out of the white dwarf’s gravitational field, and give it to me. Then I’ll go.”

Xiao Yu had no faith in the beast’s offer. From the start, he assumed it was stalling for time. He intentionally proposed an impossible condition, aiming to provoke the creature further.

Even if the beast truly left him alone, Xiao Yu wouldn’t leave. The losses he’d suffered—ships destroyed, resources expended, and his pride wounded by the beast’s deceit—had fueled a simmering anger he couldn’t let go.

“Very well, very well,” the beast sneered coldly. “Even a mere Level 3 Civilization dares to make such demands of me. Very well. Let’s see if this little rock of yours can truly kill me.”

With that, the alien beast fell silent once more.

“It seems it truly has a trump card… but what could it be?”

Xiao Yu pondered deeply, the tension growing in his mind. “Judging by how it wants me to leave, it seems reluctant to escalate to the final stage. That suggests its trump card doesn’t guarantee success. But what is it?”

“Based on its usual tactics, it primarily relies on thought manipulation. It hasn’t shown any means of affecting the physical world. If it could even control a few meteors, the Village-Class ships I left to monitor it would’ve been destroyed long ago.”

“Thought manipulation… thought manipulation… Could it be planning another attempt to control me? It’s highly likely, and this time, the probability of success might exceed seventy percent.”

“Given the preset program that alerts me, it should know how difficult it is to control me. Yet where is its confidence coming from this time?”

“Since it is a highly evolved lifeform, it might have hidden methods. To be safe, I’ll awaken Luka Three,” Xiao Yu decided.

Luka Three was the young Luka scientist who had alerted Xiao Yu during a critical moment. Xiao Yu had given it the codename Luka Three. Among the Luka, earning a codename from Xiao Yu was a badge of honor. Luka Three was the second individual, after Luka Two, to receive this distinction.

After arriving in the Aquila Nebula, Luka Three displayed extraordinary capabilities. In discussions about how to handle the unknown lifeform, it was the first to suggest interpreting the beast’s actions with suspicion. Even when the Luka were entirely mind-controlled and mutated, Luka Three remained unaffected.

Later, Xiao Yu conducted experiments with Luka Three. Together, they intentionally subjected themselves to the beast’s manipulations. While Xiao Yu’s thoughts were influenced, requiring the preset program to snap him out of it, Luka Three stayed clear-headed throughout.

Considering these factors, Xiao Yu decided to awaken Luka Three as a precaution.

Under Xiao Yu’s command, a cryogenic chamber opened, and Luka Three awoke, blinking in confusion. It quickly received Xiao Yu’s instructions.

“For the next month, your job is to monitor my behavior. If you notice anything abnormal, you must alert me immediately and wake me.”

Luka Three’s expression turned enthusiastic. “Master, it is an honor to assist you.”

“To be safe… take this as well.” Xiao Yu maneuvered a robot to hand Luka Three a controller.

“If I fall under its influence, and all your attempts to wake me fail, use this controller as a last resort. If even that doesn’t work… then we’ll leave it to fate.”

“Understood, Master,” Luka Three replied earnestly.

“Now, head to the control room. From there, you can monitor all my actions. If you observe any irregularities, you can use the dedicated communication channel to wake me. Go.”

With all precautions in place, Xiao Yu fully focused on commanding the 5,000 expedition ships and maintaining Moon One’s trajectory.

Time passed, and the distance to the white dwarf shrank to 21 billion kilometers, leaving just five days of travel.

It was then that Xiao Yu noticed flashes of light from the opposite side of the Aquila Two binary system.

At first, these flashes were faint, discovered during routine all-spectrum detection using high-precision optical telescopes. Their brightness quickly intensified.

Through measurements, Xiao Yu determined that the flashes were approaching him at a speed of 76,000 kilometers per second.

Relative to the white dwarf, Xiao Yu was closing in at 50,000 kilometers per second, while the flashes advanced at 26,000 kilometers per second.

Xiao Yu couldn’t yet identify what the flashes were, but he could estimate their number with ease.

At least 7,000 bright points formed a dense cluster, like a swarm of stars converging in the sky.

“This… looks like the glow of fusion engines… Is this your trump card, alien beast?”