Just how immense is the energy of a supernova explosion? Xiao Yu had never attempted to calculate it, nor could he truly measure its value. He only knew one thing, the energy was enormous, terrifyingly enormous.
It was so great that even hundreds of light-years away, such an explosion could kill all life on Earth. So great that in an instant it could shine with the brightness of all the stars in the Milky Way combined. In extreme cases, a supernova could appear as bright as a full moon in Earth’s night sky, even from thousands of light-years away.
Of course, the sun of the Molian Civilization was not massive enough to naturally evolve into a supernova. Its mass simply didn’t qualify. But under Xiao Yu’s attack, it still ended its life in this way. Though its destructive power was much weaker than that of a true supernova, a supernova was still a supernova. And its power could never be considered small.
Now, Xiao Yu was experiencing firsthand the sheer fury of a dying star.
A little over seven minutes after the negative matter cannon struck the star, its raging energy reached the planet. In an instant, the world was drowned in a flood of endless light. It was worth noting that while the visible light alone was already unimaginably intense, that accounted for only a small fraction of the total radiation. Much of it was invisible, X-rays, gamma rays, torrents of neutrinos.
The wrath of a star effortlessly tore apart the planetary shield that had caused Xiao Yu so much trouble. Against such overwhelming energy, the planetary shield did not last even a second. The moment the stellar energy arrived, it melted away like snow under a blazing summer sun, vanishing with unimaginable speed.
And the shield was not the only thing to perish. Countless Molian ships that had failed to retreat in time were obliterated as well. Their multi-layer shield systems were pierced in an instant. These vessels didn’t even have the chance to explode; their hulls were directly assimilated by the storm of stellar energy, reduced to the most basic particle structures.
Xiao Yu keenly noticed explosions and flashes erupting across the planet’s surface. Vast energy bases spanning kilometers were instantly destroyed, pillars of fire soaring into the sky. Some detonations even triggered earthquakes. But the destruction lasted for only an instant. In the very next moment, the star’s furious energy ripped through the atmosphere and slammed into the surface.
The outburst had a powerful stripping effect on the gases clinging to the planet. Xiao Yu watched as, in that moment, endless amounts of atmosphere were blown away, streaming off toward the far side of the planet. It transformed into a colossal comet.
Every second, tens of billions of tons of gas were stripped away. The amount was so vast it could be seen with the naked eye. In the darkness of space, the sight was magnificent.The entire hemisphere facing the sun lost its atmosphere in an instant. For the first time, the planet’s rocky surface lay bare to open space. What had once been green with plants and blue with oceans was, in the next heartbeat, entirely red.
The energy was simply too immense, the resulting rise in temperature far too terrifying. Green vegetation was instantly scorched to dryness, all moisture gone, all organic matter transformed into inorganic ash. Rocks melted and ran like liquid. Oceans boiled in an instant, only to vaporize into gas in the next, carried off into space together with the stripped atmosphere, blown away behind the planet.
The oceans of this planet boiled away, gone in an instant. With the seas vanished, the seabed was laid bare, and it too was rapidly heated, turning a glowing red.
Towering skyscrapers melted in a heartbeat, collapsing into rubble. Their materials were scorched red-hot. The rocky ground turned red. Forests disappeared, leaving only red earth. The oceans were gone, the seabed burned red…
The planet had become a sea of red, red everywhere. Red meant a temperature of at least over two thousand degrees. In other words, at this moment, the planet’s surface had been heated to such terrifying extremes.
And that wasn’t the worst of it. The most terrifying fact was that the planet still rotated. Which meant that as it spun, every part of its surface would eventually face the burning of the furious star. Like a piglet roasting on a spit, this enraged star was lashing out indiscriminately, leaving no part of the planet untouched.
On such a world, no artificial structure could endure, no living creature could survive. That left one crucial point, Xiao Yu had to recover as much technological data as possible from the Molian Civilization’s supercomputing center before the star’s fury obliterated it. In fact, the moment the star’s energy had effortlessly shredded the planetary shield, Xiao Yu had already begun his operation.
This was no mission for intelligent beings. Long beforehand, Xiao Yu had equipped his biological fleet’s ships with large numbers of landing robots. Now, those machines would prove their worth.
Under Xiao Yu’s command, countless ships opened their hatches, releasing swarms of robots that dropped directly from thousands of kilometers up.
But even the biological fleet was not in a good position. The fury of a dying star was too terrifying. Even hiding behind the planet, with 99.99% of the energy absorbed by the world itself, the remaining 0.01% was more than enough to torment Xiao Yu.
For example, now, the ships rocked violently amid the vast torrents of atmosphere being stripped from the planet. The gases were peeled away so rapidly that what had been negligible masses now carried horrifying kinetic energy. Swept up, they dragged everything they could with them, blowing aside anything that dared block their path.
The fleet did not dare to leave its position, for to do so would be to face the full fury of the star, and certain annihilation. Thus, the ships fought a life-and-death struggle against the raging gases. In that struggle, some of the smaller ships could not endure and were destroyed. Xiao Yu quickly adjusted his formation, ordering the ships to cluster together, with the largest and strongest vessels forming the outer shield to protect the smaller ones within.
Against such natural catastrophe, human effort was often powerless. This was true for both Xiao Yu’s Divine Ark Civilization and the Molian Civilization. At this moment, all ships abandoned hostility. The sole priority now was survival, struggling to live another moment.
The scene before him reminded Xiao Yu of terrifying events from the jungle. He had heard of swarms of ants, when their numbers reached tens of billions, they became an unstoppable force, feared even by lions and tigers. When the ant tide formed, every creature fled. Wolves and sheep, tigers and deer, all ignored one another in the mad dash for escape.
That was the situation now. Who cared anymore about friend or foe?
This chaos, however, caused immense trouble for Xiao Yu’s landing robot operation. Robots, being far lighter than ships, were far more likely to be swept away by the raging gases. Fortunately, each robot was equipped with an independent propulsion system. Out of every ten, at least one or two could still reach the ground.
Millions of robots plunged downward like a colossal meteor shower. In their descent, some were blown off course, some were smashed by rocks, some simply vanished without trace. An hour later, Xiao Yu received the report, of nine million robots deployed, seven hundred thousand had reached the surface.
Time was short. A day on this planet lasted only twenty-two hours, with its night, the time shielded from the star, less than ten hours long. Now, Xiao Yu had fewer than five hours left.
“Five hours… that’s enough.” Xiao Yu muttered to himself, his mind taut, commanding the robots tirelessly. They sprinted across flat terrain, took flight over rugged land, braving extreme heat, violent winds, and toxic gases as they raced across the planet toward the designated target.
Xiao Yu had long since pinpointed the location of the Molian Civilization’s supercomputing center and carefully planned for this moment. Now came the final stage of the operation, the most critical phase. The success or failure of this mission would determine the outcome of his entire plan.
The Molian Civilization’s supercomputing center lay five hundred meters underground, connected to the surface by several tunnels. By now, Xiao Yu’s robotic army had already reached the entrances. Nearly a hundred thousand robots had been lost along the way.
Without hesitation, Xiao Yu ordered the remaining six hundred thousand machines to launch the invasion. As the robots began their assault, clashing with the Molian guards, the furious energy of the dying star, after hours of travel, finally reached the Stellar Cannon. The severest test was about to begin.