Rebirth of the Super Battleship

Chapter 455: Pursuit

During the earlier preparation phase and the phase when the collision erupted, Xiao Yu had already been controlling this planet to keep retreating. The distance from here to the black hole at the center of the star system was already very great, but it still was not far enough for Xiao Yu to enter curvature flight without gravitational interference. So Xiao Yu still needed three hours of conventional flight to get far enough away to safely enter curvature flight.

Conventional flight releases extremely bright visible light as well as radiation in other bands. This cannot be avoided or eliminated, and it makes the traveling fleet easy for distant observers to detect. In other words, Xiao Yu’s trajectory would be captured by the Guardian Civilization.

But that did not matter. Once the starships entered curvature flight, they would no longer emit such radiation. At that point Xiao Yu could change his heading at will in order to evade the Guardian Civilization’s pursuit.

As the distance from the planet grew greater, Xiao Yu’s fleet finally left the shelter of this world. Xiao Yu had prepared himself mentally to face intense radiation, and he had set all kinds of shields to maximum power, yet the reality was still somewhat beyond his expectations.

At the instant they left the planet’s protection, fully hundreds of thousands of small starships lost contact with Xiao Yu. He knew that these small vessels, lacking sufficient defensive capability, had been damaged by the intense radiation.

In addition to these hundreds of thousands of small starships that lost contact, a considerable number of vessels suffered serious damage. Internal wiring and various instruments experienced malfunctions. These damages, however, occurred on small and medium starships. Large vessels of City-Class and above were not significantly affected.

“It does not matter. Starships can be rebuilt. If people are gone, then nothing remains. So long as we can evade the Guardian Civilization’s pursuit, this loss does not amount to much.” Xiao Yu murmured to himself as he controlled the starship to set out by conventional flight.

Once he left the planet’s shelter, there was no longer the planet’s obstruction, and Xiao Yu could finally view the situation at the center of the star system directly.

What entered his sight was an extremely bright point of light. Even at a distance of over ten billion kilometers from there, the light it emitted was still strong to a considerable degree. Yet the mode of this point of light’s existence was somewhat peculiar.

Its state seemed unstable. Xiao Yu saw a very obvious bending of space there. The bent space bent the light along with it, causing the area to look as if veiled in a layer of mist, indistinct and hard to see clearly.“This luminous point is much dimmer than estimated. It should not be this faint. The remnants of the white dwarf, under the black hole’s gravity, will attain extremely high velocities. When they collide with each other, they will release exceedingly intense light. Mm, I understand. This is a gravitational lensing effect. This black hole is strenuously hiding its form.”

A black hole is a celestial body of such wonder. It is not like a pitch-black blob as in film and television. In fact, because of gravitational lensing, a black hole is not easy to see. Under the action of gravitational lensing, light sources directly behind the black hole can be observed by an observer directly in front of it, because the light is bent. This leads to a very obvious consequence, namely that the black hole itself is concealed and disappears from the observer’s line of sight.

The reason this black hole was not completely hidden now was that the light emitted by the white dwarf’s remnants around it was too intense. It was precisely this light that outlined the black hole’s existence.

Xiao Yu could very clearly see the blackness behind this intense light. The present scene was like a pitch-black great sphere shining with light.

Xiao Yu carefully observed this scene, collecting the information he needed. Such extreme celestial phenomena were very helpful for improving his theories.

The time for conventional flight had passed, and Xiao Yu had reached a region where curvature flight could be conducted without gravitational interference. He therefore controlled the starships he still had to enter curvature flight one by one. After entering curvature flight, Xiao Yu deliberately changed his direction of advance. The purpose was only one, namely to hide himself better, to maximize his concealment, and to prevent the Guardian Civilization from capturing his trajectory.

Xiao Yu kept his fleet’s speed at one times the speed of light, advancing along with the powerful energy released by the stellar collision. The situation was quite interesting.

The gamma-ray burst carrying world-ending power was at that moment ahead of Xiao Yu. Anything that tried to intercept him would first be baptized by the burst. Given the gamma-ray burst’s fearsome energy, which can sweep away life within tens to hundreds of light-years, Xiao Yu did not believe anything could withstand it. The Radiance perhaps could, but the Radiance had already been pinned down by the Meson.

This was equivalent to Xiao Yu having the most dutiful vanguard. And now, behind Xiao Yu, a continuous stream of powerful energy was still arriving. That energy would erase every trace left by Xiao Yu’s curvature flight, making it impossible for others to track him. This was equivalent to Xiao Yu having the most competent logistics officer.

Under such circumstances, Xiao Yu did not believe anyone could catch him, not even the Guardian Civilization’s fleet. In fact, this was precisely why he had insisted on destroying the Neutron War Star.

But there was one drawback, namely that the travel speed was too slow. To make maximal use of natural conditions, Xiao Yu had to proceed at light speed, neither faster nor slower. His usual maximum cruising speed was about thirteen times the speed of light.

Five hundred light-years was a relatively safe distance. Xiao Yu believed that only after fleeing at least five hundred light-years would he be safe, which meant five hundred years.

“There is no helping it. Slower is slower, but that is better than being captured by the Guardian Civilization.” Xiao Yu thought to himself. “I can also conduct scientific research during the voyage, so it is not a waste of time.”

At that very moment, in a place Xiao Yu did not know, within a small universe, thousands of starships were assembling, quietly waiting for orders to arrive.

This place was detached from the main universe. Its mode of existence was basically similar to the New World constructed by the Trolor Civilization that Xiao Yu had once entered, only smaller. Energy from the main universe maintained this small universe’s stability, and by being detached from the original universe, it would not be affected at all by the neutron star and white dwarf collision.

It was exactly the same method used to evade an information storm. They were now quietly waiting for the violent energy to pass, so they could go capture Xiao Yu.

New orders finally arrived.

“Capture squad, deploy. I have already seen the light released by the Divine Ark Civilization fleet during conventional flight. Mm, now they have entered curvature flight, and the explosion’s energy has erased all their traces. However, once you approach the point where they vanished, you can use space fluctuation detection instruments to find the trail of the Divine Ark Civilization. Then set out and bring back the main body of the Divine Ark Civilization…”

“Understood. The capture squad guarantees mission completion.”

With this simple exchange, the capture squad’s thousands of starships exited the small universe, quickly entered curvature flight, and headed toward the place where Xiao Yu had vanished.

Maintaining a speed of over one hundred times the speed of light, the fleet arrived at the point where Xiao Yu had entered curvature flight and disappeared from the visible universe after only a short time.

“Activate the space fluctuation detection equipment. The energy released by the neutron star and white dwarf collision will greatly affect the detection accuracy of the space fluctuation instruments, but it does not matter. The Divine Ark Civilization disappeared less than three hours ago, which means they are at most three light-hours away. The space fluctuation detectors can search out all spatial curvature within a range of five light-hours.”

“Good, we have found the target. The target is currently 2.6 light-hours from us. We estimate contact with the target in one and a half minutes. Then advance.”

The fleet paused briefly at the place where Xiao Yu disappeared, then once again vanished from the visible universe and entered curvature flight.

At that moment, Xiao Yu was still proceeding slowly at the speed of light. He currently enjoyed a geographical advantage and had sufficient confidence to evade the Guardian Civilization’s pursuit, but he did not grow careless. Although the outburst energy had drastically reduced the precision of his instruments, he was still using them to obtain as much information about his surroundings as possible.

The tachyon detection equipment reported very bad news. Xiao Yu saw the scene.

In curvature space, he saw a fleet rapidly approaching him, estimated to catch up to him in one and a half minutes.

This intelligence instantly tensed Xiao Yu’s mind.

“This… this is… the Guardian Civilization’s fleet.” Xiao Yu thought silently. “My plan is so thorough, I considered every detail, and my voyage leaves no traces in the universe. Then how did this fleet find me?”

Xiao Yu did not have much time to think. In that one and a half minutes, he made only a few simple deductions and determined some contingency plans, and the fleet had already reached his rear.