Indifference! If we could explain it with 'cautiousness' at that time, right now, our army is on the winning side, and the enemy is fleeing in defeat. Yet, we are still hesitating and delaying the opportunity. Vice Commander Song, what are you thinking exactly? "
"The defenders of the Jade Tripod Planet have sent the battle records and all the data over. It is obvious from the battle data and even the video files that Bai Xingjian's troops have indeed escaped from Lei Chenghu's control and disappeared into the depths of space through a space jump. The morale of the remaining troops of Lei Chenghu hit rock bottom, too. In the chaotic battle that lasted a day and a night, they suffered heavy losses. Two Adamantine Super Arsenal Warships were even lost! Is that a lie, too? "
"If it is a trap, the enemy is too generous with their capital. Even if Lei Chenghu has ways to regroup the messy soldiers into a solid battle formation, it is impossible for him to compete with our army with such a weak troop. Besides, nobody can finish off such a troop instantly. Even the deities can't do that!"
"There's no need to think about it. Lei Chenghu must be trying to escape. The opportunity is fleeting. Once Lei Chenghu's remaining troops run to the jump point and return to the capital with a space jump, it will be barely possible to annihilate them all!"
"Vice Commander Song, do you still have the courage as a soldier of the Imperium and your loyalty to His Majesty? If not, why are you the commander of the Heaven's Return Fleet? "
Such criticisms that were brimming with the smell of gunpowder smashed Song Bugui's head so hard that he did not dare say anything.
The data transmitted by the intelligence and strategic analysis department verified the words of the big shots of the military, too.
The defenders of the Jade Tripod Planet sent a lot of clear pictures and videos, including the surveillance of space ripples, which proved that Bai Xingjian had indeed taken away at least one third of the warships and almost all the trophies of the rebels, including the starships that had just been captured.
Also, the departure was not pleasant at all. The disobedient pirate seemed to have some friction with Lei Chenghu's troops. The forced retreat had completely exposed Lei Chenghu's most vulnerable flanks. The defenseless cyberwarfare warships and comprehensive supply starships that Lei Chenghu deployed in the flanks were all subjected to the fiercest bombardment of the defenders.
After a day and a night of fierce battles, Lei Chenghu had lost a lot of cyberwarfare warships and almost all the comprehensive supply starships, including the two Adamantine Super Arsenal Warships. In other words, he had lost all the war assets that could last for a sustained battle. If he did not retreat, his starships would probably run out of supplies!
The big shots of the military of the four families judged their enemy by their own standards. If it were them, they would not have invested so much in a trap.
Therefore, Lei Chenghu had truly failed. He had suffered a crushing defeat!
The scanning and analysis of the traces of exhaust flames on the starships supported the opinion, too.
When the starships were propelled by crystals in the working medium reactors during a regular cruise, the exhaust flames spurted out of the engine nozzles contained tremendous radiation and high-energy particles that lingered in the vacuum for a long time. They would form invisible traces that were hundreds of thousands of kilometers long behind the starships.
It was like the obvious ruts left by chariots when they crushed the muddy ground in the ancient wars.
Although they were invisible to the naked eye, the senses of the Immortal Cultivators and the sophisticated scanning magical equipment could detect the colorful traces clearly.
By analyzing the 'ruts', they would be able to locate the enemy's retreat precisely and even learn the situation inside the enemy's territory to a large extent.
Right now, in the vast space from the Jade Cauldron Planet to the No.4 Planet, the traces of exhaust flames were scattered everywhere, like headless flies flying randomly and even crashing into each other.
It suggested that Lei Chenghu's control over the fleet had been reduced to the minimum. It was impossible for him to maintain a neat battle formation and retreat in an orderly manner. All the starships under his command were fleeing toward the jump points in a hurry.
More importantly, the defenders had locked onto Lei Chenghu's flagship the whole time.
Every starship had a different power unit. Even warships of the same model would have subtle differences in the exhaust flames spurted out after constant battles, maintenance, and upgrades. Through the differences in the exhaust flames, it was possible to tell the model and even the serial number of the warship.
Lei Chenghu's flagship was the target of everybody. Naturally, it was the primary target of the defenders' analysis.
When the Heaven Return Fleet showed up, the defenders reported the exhaust flames and traces of Lei Chenghu's flagship to their superiors.
After comprehensive scanning, the Heaven Return Fleet soon locked onto the location of Lei Chenghu's flagship. After analyzing the exhaust flames of Lei Chenghu's flagship and other starships, they reached a shocking conclusion. Lei Chenghu's flagship seemed to have been heavily damaged and could not escape at 100% of the cruising speed. Its speed was even lower than other starships, and it was gradually lagging behind the whole fleet.
"Lei Chenghu is crippled!"
"His starship is lagging behind all by itself and dragging the whole fleet down!"
"His flagship has been heavily damaged. Not just its speed, even its firepower and defense ability have probably plummeted. If we can catch up with him, it is possible that we can blow up his flagship and even … capture Lei Chenghu alive!"
Such news was like an exhilarating drug that had been injected into the center of every noble's brain, making their heads squeak and almost explode.
Neither Song Bugui nor the 'highest joint battle meeting' gave any orders, but a branch fleet of the Heaven Return Fleet that belonged to the Yun family had already taken the lead to break away from the main troop and charged out.
"This — this is nonsense! Nonsense!"
In the joint battle meeting, the big shot of the military from the Yun family glared at him, as if he were infuriated by the rash advance of his generals, but he showed no intention of summoning his subordinates.
Therefore, after looking at each other in bewilderment for half a second, the other noble families also hinted their subordinates to charge out in all kinds of ways, having no time to berate the shamelessness of the Yun family. They had to intercept Lei Chenghu's flagship before the other families did.
For a moment, a hundred thousand starships accelerated abruptly, leaving colorful exhaust flames behind them as they darted toward the dark space zone near the No. 4 planet that was enshrouded in radiation, turbulence, debris of starships, and stone belts like arrows that had been shot out of the bow.
They did not have a unified command, and they lacked effective cooperation. In fact, they were even secretly sabotaging each other and disrupting and blocking the routes of their allies. When they had just completed the jump, their formation had been rather neat, but after a few hours of high-speed pursuit, they were now in disarray and uneven.
But they eventually caught up with Lei Chenghu's remaining troops.
"Do you see it? That's the magnificent 'God of War' in the past!"
The nobles roared in excitement.
It was like the laughter of hyenas when they saw a dying lion.
Lei Chenghu's troops were indeed not in a good situation.
His fleet had consumed too much armor and fuel in the incessant high-intensity battles for almost a month. The power units had all been scrapped, too. As a result, most of the starships could not carry out 100% of their speed. In their hasty escape, some of them were fast, and some of them were slow. Gradually, they were dragged into a zigzagging line.
At this moment, the starships at the front of the line had reached the back of the orbit of the No. 4 planet, where intense space ripples were spreading out. They seemed to have entered the jump state.
Including the flagships, the super arsenal warships, and the comprehensive supply starships, many enormous and clumsy starships were still lagging far behind, like bulls that were bathing in blood and breathing heavily.
Theoretically speaking, if the starships were intact and had sufficient fuel for the space jump units, they could perform a jump at any coordinate. The only issue was the odds of success and the consumption of fuel.
However, if the starships had just been through a fierce battle and were full of cracks that could barely be repaired, their overall structure was seriously deformed, their metal fatigue level soared, and they were seriously short of fuel, they could not jump randomly, unless they wanted to be completely torn apart by the four-dimensional storm, or if they ran out of fuel halfway through the jump and fell into the ocean of the four-dimensional space forever.
Under such circumstances, they could only look for the most unstable areas in the three-dimensional space where the natural wormholes were densest, which were also the so-called 'jump points', in order to maximize the odds of a safe retreat.
It was exactly why Lei Chenghu had to flee to the fourth planet after a long journey.
"Launch! Launch! All the magical equipment that can launch, launch now! Cover our 'God of War' with the most powerful firepower!"
The nobles held their heads high in delight, not caring that they had not reached the effective killing range yet. Countless dazzling pillars of light pierced through the entire sea of stars like javelins and spears, turning into thousands of expanding bubbles around Lei Chenghu's remaining troops.
Of course, such a tactic was not exactly wrong, either.
Although it could not effectively damage the enemy's starships, the surging barrage and the sweeping spiritual energy could put the entire space in a highly unstable state of twisting. Not only did it slow down Lei Chenghu's speed of escape, it also made it impossible for him to perform a space jump in desperation.
In other words, the thousands of pillars of light were like thousands of hooks that hooked Lei Chenghu's remaining troops. There was nowhere for them to run.
It seemed that Lei Chenghu had realized that he had run into a dead end and could not get rid of the pursuers behind him. Therefore, he simply retreated his battle formation and turned around, trying to fight against the fourth planet with his back to the wall.
However, with such low morale, it was certainly not an easy task for the almighty 'God of War' to gather the remaining troops of the long snake and establish a solid battle formation!
"Haha. You can't even complete the most basic battle formation and can only set up such an incomplete battle formation. Lei Chenghu, I didn't know you would have such a day!"
"Don't be careless. It is Lei Chenghu after all. Give him another hour, and chances are that he will gather all the remaining troops and gather an effective combat ability. We have to charge forward and completely disperse his incomplete battle formation before that happens!"
"Charge. One charge, and Lei Chenghu and the rebels will be doomed!"
The vibe in the 'highest joint battle meeting' could not have been more dazzling than blossoming fireworks.
"Father —"
As a communication officer, Song Bugui's eldest son brought the latest news. He rushed into the meeting room with an awful face, but he was stopped by his father who was gloomy at the door of the meeting room.
"What's the matter?"
Song Bugui asked casually.
"We have further analyzed the space ripples from the back of the fourth planet. Something — something is not right. The data is very messy. It does not seem to be the ripples left by a starship. It seems … seems to be some sort of interference!"
The eldest son said anxiously. "Somebody seems to have deployed some sort of large-scale interference magical equipment on the back of the fourth planet to intentionally interfere with our monitoring of the space ripples. However, it doesn't make sense. If Lei Chenghu's fleet was fleeing in a hurry, there was no reason for him to waste his time setting up such an enormous interference array!
"Is there anything on the back of the fourth planet? The fog of war there is too intense. We don't know the first thing about the existence in the darkness. Should we send more scouts and unmanned crystal cameras to scan the place carefully before we make a decision? "
"Okay."
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