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The fleet surrounded their three ships, and the next moment, an alarm sounded inside the Nuwa.

"Captain! We are being locked onto by an unknown enemy weapon, and numerous targeting signals are aimed at us! All the ships here are enemy ships!"

"Captain! We've received a communication from the other side!"

"Bring them in!"

Su Xi's expression was very serious. How could she encounter such a thing so soon after coming out? Something was wrong... What civilization did this fleet belong to? And why were they surrounded?

The communication was in progress... A few seconds later, a captain of the Wenger fleet appeared on the screen. He did not have the arrogance he had shown when he encountered the Wengers before; on the contrary, his eyes were filled with vigilance and a hint of fear.

"Excuse me, we have no grudge against you, why are you locking onto us with weapons?"

"Then you must first explain why there are quantum demons on your ships. Quantum demons must be destroyed, without a doubt! Even if you are the examiners, for the safety of this universe, you must perish with the quantum demons!"

The other party spoke in a tone that brooked no argument from Su Xi. Su Xi raised an eyebrow and asked, "How do you know there are quantum demons on our ship?"

"Of course, it was those quantum beings who told us that there are 'demons' on your ships that can control quantum beings! Considering that you are examiners and part of a new civilization, we'll give you one last chance to exile the 'demons' from your ships! Otherwise, we will open fire and send you to hell with that 'demon'!"

Chapter 453: Escape

"Do we have a chance of winning?"

"No... With so many fleets launching at the same time, even if the Iron Curtain can withstand the first wave, it won't be able to withstand the subsequent waves. Our energy core doesn't have that fast a charging rate, so the Iron Curtain's energy consumption rate will far exceed the normal rate."

Su Xi gritted her teeth. What should she do? This development was completely unexpected... No! She had to buy some time!

"Lower the shields! Lower all artillery units!"

"Captain! Are you sure?"

"Confirmed! Lower the shields, lower all guns, and contact Gong Ning and the enemy captain!"

Despite their confusion, the crew did as instructed. A few seconds later, the communication connection was established, and Captain Unger on the other end stared at Su Xi and asked, "Are you ready?"

"Please give me something... You may not know this, but our civilization did not kill all the quantum demons as you think... We chose the path of coexisting with the quantum demons."

The Wenger captain was stunned. "What did you say?!"

"In the records of our civilization, they are not called quantum demons, but heralds, and the disasters they cause are called Honkai."

"Honkai will breed the dark side of the personality in the Herrscher's heart, and then the negative personality will take control of the body and power. This is the Herrscher. However, if the negative personality is eliminated and merged, then the normal personality will control the power and body, and naturally there will be no so-called disaster."

Su Xi paused for a moment, then continued, "I understand that the path our civilization has taken is different from yours, but I still hope that you can understand the difficulties our civilization has faced. The Herrschers have helped us a lot to get to where we are today, and we cannot decide to abandon them immediately."

"If you insist that we do this, please give us some time. We need the decision to be made by the entire ship."

"Should I abandon them, or... die here with them?"

Su Xi's words were firm and resolute. The Wenger captain was silent for a moment, then nodded and said, "I'll give you half an hour. Give me your answer in half an hour, or we will open fire!"

"I hope you can cherish this hard-won opportunity. I understand that your civilization is different from the path we have taken, but a demon is a demon, and that will never change."

"You think they've changed, that they're helping you. But the moment they betray you and destroy your homeland, you'll know they've never changed at all!"

The communication ended. Although the Wenger people remained stubborn, at least Su Xi had bought some time.

"It's not entirely heartless. It seems that there were once civilizations in the Human Alliance that followed our path, but they were either rejected or wiped out."

Su Xi breathed a sigh of relief; half an hour was enough time for them to complete their preparations.

"Next, let's start preparing for the evacuation! A direct confrontation is not realistic. We need to continue to our target location, the Holy Land. Only when we reach there can we choose to go home directly."

Su Xi pondered for a few minutes, then looked up and said, "Navigator, star map scanner at maximum power, find us a safe place to land!"

"Send all shield power to the Iron Curtain device, and make sure the Iron Curtain device lasts until our warp engines are fully warmed up."

"Finally, we bid farewell to our mermaid friends, as we probably won't see each other again in the future."

"Gong Ning, is there anything else you need?"

Gong Ning shook her head to indicate no. "You did much better than me. Does marriage really change people? Hmm... should I go find a handsome young man to marry too?"

Su Xi was speechless at her best friend's "Flag" behavior. Although it was just a joke, what if something really went wrong?

"Captain...why don't we reduce the power of the weapon guns and redirect it to the shields?"

At this point, one of the operators asked with some doubt, "If we switch it to the shield, it should last longer, right?"

Su Xi shook her head. "No, if we try to withstand it with our shields, it could overload the shield core. If the shields are damaged or malfunction during the warp, we will be hit by the spatial torrent during the warp."

"The best approach is to transfer all the shield's energy to the Iron Curtain, let the Iron Curtain hold for us, activate the shield immediately after entering the warp, and then deactivate the Iron Curtain once we've confirmed that the shield is functioning properly."

During the five years of training for captains, Su Xi and other captains became the people most familiar with the ships. Being a captain is not just about learning command and decision-making; it's about being familiar with everything on the ship, the power and function of every piece of equipment, and basic maintenance strategies.

In other words, they didn't have the energy to date or pursue other hobbies during those five years because the Captain's University system was flawed, and all the captains in this batch graduated under immense pressure.

The subsequent captain training will gradually get on track, and things should be much better by then, especially at night.

Now, Su Xi's understanding of ships is comparable to, or even far surpasses, that of her husband and daughter. The fact that she was able to get married and have children after graduation is already a small miracle among most captains.

Su Xi's plan was implemented very quickly. All the crew members on the ships executed the orders 100%. The Shenzhou ship crew's extremely high execution ability allowed both ships to be fully prepared for battle within just half an hour. Furthermore, the mermaids, persuaded by Su Xi and Gong Ning, temporarily left the area to avoid being affected.

"Captain, this is a communication from the Wengers."

The correspondent turned around and stared at Su Xi...

Su Xi took a deep breath. "Take it."

"Yes...."

The communication channel was switched, and the Wenger captain appeared in front of Su Xi. "Now, have you made up your minds? This is the last chance, and also my last act of mercy."

"The quantum demon must be killed!"

Su Xi remained silent. "I understand... From now on, we will show you my answer through our actions!"

Communications were instantly cut off. On the Wenger ship, the crew shouted, "Captain! The enemy ship's warp engines are warming up! They're trying to escape!"

"Damn it! Stop them! Track their warp signals! Full fleet, open fire immediately!"

"Full fleet, open fire! Deploy warp interceptors! We cannot let them leave this place! The Quantum Demons must die, and those who are with them must also die!"

Captain Wenger was furious! In space, the Wenger fleet unleashed all its weapons.

A dense barrage of lasers and photon torpedoes hurtled toward the two ships. The sheer scale and intensity of the attack made it hard to believe that this was an attack launched by the Wengers against the two vessels.

"Activate the Iron Curtain! Keep the warp engines stable! We'll be able to leave here in two minutes!"

Su Xi immediately shouted, and a black and red iron curtain instantly covered the ship's armor surface. The next moment, lasers and fish bombarded the ship's surface in a dense barrage. The explosions and light scattering caused the ship's interior to tremble slightly.

While the Iron Curtain can protect the ships themselves from damage, the powerful gravitational effects are still unavoidable.

The ship trembled slightly as wave after wave of attacks bombarded its surface. Because the warp drive was preheating and they couldn't move the ship freely, they could only passively endure the attacks and wait for the warp drive to take them away.

"Tsk! Why, why! Can anyone tell me their ships are still alive! Give me a reason!"

After Captain Unger realized something was wrong, he suddenly discovered that their attacks were completely useless against the enemy ships, which seemed invincible and impossible to damage.

"Captain, the enemy's ships are covered by an energy field that we cannot understand. This field protects their ships from any form of damage!"

"At this rate, we won't be able to break through their shields! We need more firepower!"

"Keep attacking! I refuse to believe they can hold out indefinitely! As long as we keep attacking them, they won't be able to warp away!"

However, no sooner had they finished speaking than the two ships that were their targets suddenly stretched out and disappeared from their sight. The captain's expression instantly turned extremely ugly, and the crew members turned around and stared at their captain.

"Damn it...start reverse tracking immediately! We must find their location! We can't let the quantum demons roam freely in this area; it will kill us all!"

"understand!"

Having successfully entered the warp space, the crew quickly transferred the Iron Curtain Core's energy into the shield according to the previously planned scheme, and the engineers swiftly began inspecting the Iron Curtain Core area.

The warp lasted for three minutes. When the warp ended, the ship was directly facing a huge meteorite as it emerged from the warp space, and almost crashed into it.

Looking at the meteorite so close, Su Xi breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help but complain, "Your coordinates are really accurate...we almost crashed into it."

The navigator looked slightly embarrassed, scratched his head, and said, "I'll be more accurate next time, Captain."

"We'll see... Everyone, begin the spaceship inspection. Navigator, star map administrator, scan the surrounding environment and the star map. Defense department, what's the situation at the Iron Curtain core?"

"Captain, the Iron Curtain core is in bad shape. It has been subjected to too many attacks, and multiple energy pipelines have burst. Repairs are currently underway, and the Iron Curtain device will not be able to be activated for the time being."

Hearing the loud commotion from the defense department in the background, Su Xi understood, but thankfully they seemed to have shaken off their adversary.

"Where are we now?"

Bronya stood aside and asked, but Su Xi shook her head, "I don't know, but it's definitely not a star system we're familiar with. Let's hide here for now, and once things have calmed down, we'll figure out a way to sneak into the Holy Land."

"Gong Ning, how's the situation over there?"

Su Xi turned to ask about the situation on Gong Ning's side, as she didn't know how their ships were doing.

"The situation is very bad. Our Iron Curtain core is paralyzed and cannot be used again. The Shield core is also overloaded and cannot be recharged for a while. We have less shield now, and we can't replenish it."

"Tsk... This time they're really ruthless. How did they know you existed? Is it because of those Quantum Knights?"

Seele looked very downcast. "I'm sorry... I didn't expect things to turn out this way."

Su Xi quickly said, "No, no! That's not what I meant. I just think it's a bit strange!"

“Think about it, those quantum knights made a deal with the controller. They knew about the existence of quantum beings and even cooperated with them. They were the ones who leaked our information. But given the intelligence of quantum beings... I guess they wanted to tell their original owner that they were leaving.”

"But why did the Wengers waiting outside know? Are the controllers and the Wengers also related? What kind of relationship? Why were we surrounded as soon as we went out? This was clearly prepared in advance."

"Furthermore, the fact that they are willing to give us half an hour to consider makes me suspect that within the Human Alliance, there were once civilizations that followed the same path as us, but they were not recognized and were ostracized."

"Or they were destroyed."

Bronya added, "In short, we'll need to reach our destination while being relentlessly pursued by the Ungers, and we don't even know if they'll let us in, or if they'll be able to get what we want..."

Bronya was having a bit of a headache... Should she... leave them on the Nightfall and let the Nuwa operate alone? But that wouldn't do; what if they encountered danger?

"It seems we need support from above."

Bronya's expression froze. "Are you sure?"

"Confirmed. The enemy knows our destination and will definitely have a fleet lying in wait. If it's just a small number of ships, we can easily take them out. But if it's a large fleet like before, we'll have a hard time even defending. Automatic interceptor target drones will have a hard time intercepting such dense and fast laser and photon torpedoes."

Su Xi rubbed her temples: "So, my suggestion is that we calculate the time and distance carefully to ensure that we can get support from above as soon as we set off to engage in battle."

"And...maybe we'll even see a whole new Paradox Operation again."

Paradox? Indeed... If we could bring that behemoth over, we could easily deal with not only the fleet we had just faced, but even if we doubled its size. The ability to stop time is no joke.