Chapter 43: Vast Territory: Strategy of Iron and Blood

Tianyi Star, Qingtian Plateau, Tianyi Supreme High Command.

Adjacent to the stern government building, this structure possesses a far more rugged and imposing architectural style, resembling a dormant steel behemoth.

Cast entirely from deep, dark, primordial chronium, its edges are sharp and its lines severe. Towering massive energy shield generators stand atop the structure like the dorsal spines of a beast, emitting a faint glow that induces a sense of dread.

This is the core brain of the Tianyi civilization's war machine, the place from which the iron fist of the "Order of Light" is swung.

Deep within the High Command lies the central command hall—the "Conquest Hall."

The lighting within the hall is chilling. In the center of a massive circular space floats a precise holographic star map encompassing the entire known Tianyi territory.

The star map is breathtakingly vast, with countless bright spots representing stellar systems resembling the sands of the Ganges.

It is clearly divided into three massive defense and administrative sectors composed of countless superclusters: the Wall of Light (100 superclusters), the Tianyi Wall (85 superclusters), and the Emperor's Wall (55 superclusters).

These three "Great Walls" stand like cold iron curtains traversing the unknown universe, guarding the innermost "Tianyi Star."

Surrounding the hall are tiered alloy command seats. At this moment, the seats are fully occupied.

Except for Hexifeng, who sits alone in the highest and sole primary seat, every attendee, regardless of rank, wears uniform su-silver armor!

This is the standard combat armor of the Tianyi Legion's senior officers. Its basic design features clean, sleek lines covering all vital areas of the body, gleaming with a subdued and cold metallic luster that symbolizes their identity as blades of war.

The insignia or serial numbers of their respective legions are engraved on the shoulder guards.

Only one person stands out from this solemn ocean of silver armor, yet rightfully occupies the highest position.

Hexifeng.

He wears no armor whatsoever. His upper body is clad in a meticulously tailored, pure white high-collared shirt of fine texture, buttoned tightly at the neck, with the cuffs rolled up to his forearms to reveal sturdy wrists.

Over it, he wears a perfectly tailored, dark black administrative jacket with the buttons neatly fastened. The ultimate contrast of black and white is simple, capable, and majestic.

Far from appearing out of place against the backdrop of the silver-armored hall, this attire instead highlights an authority that transcends sheer force—a dominance that commands everything.

He resembles an ultimate divine weapon sheathed in the most unpretentious scabbard; his sharpness is restrained, yet no one dares to meet his gaze.

His posture is upright, his hands resting casually on the alloy armrests. His dark pupils sweep calmly across the attendees below, like a deity looking down upon a chessboard.

"The meeting begins." Hexifeng's voice is not loud, yet it clearly pierces the solemn atmosphere, acting like the first stone dropped into a calm lake, instantly activating the entire Sharpening Edge Hall.

"Understood, Your Majesty!" A uniform response, resounding like clashing gold and iron, echoes through the hall. All the officers clad in su-silver armor straighten their backs, their gazes burning.

The first to rise and report is the "Chief of the Star Map," an officer responsible for territorial surveying and intelligence aggregation. He is a stern-faced male angel officer, his su-silver armor emblazoned with complex stellar orbit patterns across the chest.

"Reporting to Your Majesty!" The Chief of the Star Map says in a steady voice, raising a hand to point at the central star map.

The blue region representing the territory of the Tianyi civilization (the three Great Walls) instantly highlights, extending countless dense detection rays outward.

"According to the latest surveying data, our Tianyi territory, with Tianyi Star as the origin, has a maximum effective control boundary distance of: 149.7 billion light-years (the 'Shattered Star Bastion' supercluster of the Wall of Light).

The shortest boundary distance is: 121.8 billion light-years (the 'Throat of the Abyss' supercluster of the Emperor's Wall)."

Two extremely distant points are marked on the star map, the figures staggering.

"This territorial expanse far exceeds countless times the peak period of the old angel civilization!"

A trace of hard-to-detect fanaticism colors the Chief of the Star Map's tone, but it immediately turns grave. "However, overexpansion of territory brings prominent problems:"

"Insufficient core population, severely diluted."

On the star map, the warm-colored regions representing population density decay sharply outward from Tianyi Star, leaving almost only cold blue at the edges of the Great Walls.

"135 million core population (super warriors) dispersed across such a vast territory is like a drop of water in the ocean.

New colonization areas are sparsely populated, mostly consisting of vassal civilization immigrants or small military outposts, resulting in extremely low actual control and development over the territory."

"Severe lag in infrastructure, plunging expansion speed."

On the star map, green light spots representing large-scale space infrastructure (such as macro wormholes and stargate nodes) are sparsely distributed, concentrated mainly in the inner core regions of the three Great Walls.

"Lacking a stable cross-Great Wall and cross-supercluster wormhole network, the efficiency of material, personnel, and fleet deployment is low, severely restricting the timely control and development of newly discovered resource-rich regions.

Current expansion has encountered physical bottlenecks, with speed dropping by 78% compared to a century ago."

"Superior resource endowment, restricted conversion rate."

The star map switches to display rich mineral and energy source markers detected within the newly incorporated territories.

"Although total resources are near infinite, limited by the scale of mining fleets, transport capacity, and the conversion cap of core industrial stellar sectors (concentrated in the Tianyi sector and its vicinity), the efficiency of actually converting resources into usable military and civilian supplies cannot match the pace of territorial expansion."

Hexifeng listens quietly, his fingers tapping lightly on the armrests, producing a rhythmic, soft sound.

The data on the star map coldly displays the hidden ailment beneath the empire's massive body—bloated obesity.

Core population is the foundation, infrastructure is the blood vessels, and resource conversion is the blood.

When the foundation is not deep enough and the blood vessels are not clear, blood flow is naturally sluggish.

"Countermeasures?" Hexifeng's voice betrays no emotion.

"Responding to Your Majesty!" the Chief of the Star Map replies immediately. "The Survey Department suggests: First, suspend large-scale external territorial expansion, shifting focus to deeply cultivating the existing three Great Walls, especially strengthening infrastructure network construction between core superclusters (priority: macro wormholes).

Second, led by the Internal Affairs Department, formulate a more aggressive internal population migration policy, encouraging immigration to resource-rich new colonization areas (especially key nodes on the edges of the Great Walls).

Third, step up the extraction of resource-mining capabilities from vassal civilizations to make up for our industrial conversion deficit."

Hexifeng nods slightly, noncommittal. His gaze turns to the next speaker.

The "Chief of Conquest," responsible for external military operations, stands up.

This is a burly male angel with a gaze as sharp as a falcon. His su-silver armor bears a few faint scorch marks, as if left by energy weapons. His name is "Milega."

"Reporting to Your Majesty!" Milega's voice sounds like a striking warhammer. "A report on recent major military operations is as follows:"

Target: The Kasadin Coalition (mid-stage aerospace civilization, located at the edge of the 'Ash Corridor' supercluster of the Wall of Light).

This civilization refused to sign the vassal agreement, its leader issued a declaration of "Defending Independence and Freedom," and began assembling a fleet.

Action: Execute the final phase of "Protocol White."

A special operations squad (12 members, all second-generation super warriors) from the Nox Legion (Legion Commander: Nox, black-haired) infiltrated the capital of their mother planet, "Steel Heart," the day before standard time.

The squad precisely located their Highest Council, Supreme Military Command, and main industrial node control center.

Process: Encountered weak resistance (their capital garrison troops equipped with energy rifles were unable to breach the su-silver armor).

The special operations squad instantly paralyzed all resistance forces with the sword of thunder without causing massive collateral damage. A total of 137 high-ranking members of the target civilization (including their so-called "President of Freedom") were captured alive.

Disposition: Implanted on-site with "Soul-Eater" neural venom (latest improved version, adjustable pain threshold, irreversible).

Established a puppet regime, the "Kasadin Administrative Committee." All committee members and their direct descendants had the venom implanted.

The remote control terminal has been connected to the High Command's "Punishment" system. Tieqiong adds coldly, "Currently, the committee has signed a comprehensive vassal agreement, and its industrial production capacity and resource extraction have been incorporated into our scheduling system. Resistance sentiment has been effectively suppressed."

Target: The Gruur Bestial Tribe Alliance (peak pre-nuclear civilization, located in the 'Wilderness Star Domain' of the Emperor's Wall).

Probes show that the resources (conventional minerals, biomass) of their mother planet "Howling Rock" are nearly exhausted, and their social structure is primitive and violent, possessing no technological or genetic value.

Action: A "Punisher-class destroyer from the Dema Legion (Legion Commander: Dema, brown-haired) was ordered to proceed.

Disposition: After evaluation, confirmed to have no retention value.

Your Majesty, it is recommended to execute 'Purification' (planet-cracking). Report complete.

Others:

A rich 'Chaos Crystal' mineral vein (a key material for the Tianyi Cauldron) was discovered in the 'Crystal Song Forest' supercluster of the Wall of Light; reserve rating: S-grade.

It has been secured by the local garrison legion (Designation: Seventh 'Typhon' Legion), and the vassal civilization 'Helios Mining Syndicate' is mining it at full capacity.

An unknown late-stage aerospace civilization signal was detected in the 'Silent Sea' star domain of the Tianyi Wall (tentatively designated: 'Silent Observer').

Its technology tree leans toward stealth and reconnaissance, and preliminary judgment indicates it possesses basic cross-galactic navigation capabilities. Its social structure is highly centralized, with no obvious expansion or hostility yet, but it holds the potential to step into a god-making civilization.

Report from the 'Rotting Swamp Star Domain' of the Emperor's Wall: A massive rebellion broke out within the territory of a vassal civilization ('Tiamat Chamber of Commerce') (not directed against Tianyi rule, but arising from internal class contradictions), and its puppet government requests military support for suppression.

Milega's report is concise, cold, and full of iron-blooded efficiency-first implications.

The cold efficiency of Protocol White, the casual suggestion of planet-cracking, the matter-of-fact nature of resource plunder, and the acute monitoring of potential threats all highlight the modus operandi of the Tianyi military machine backed by absolute power.

Hexifeng's gaze lingers for a moment on the points mentioned by Tieqiong on the star map.

"Kasadin was handled appropriately." Hexifeng's voice is flat, affirming the actions of Tieqiong and Nox. "Protocol White is prepared precisely for those who fail to recognize the times."

"Pain is the most direct and effective teacher." He pauses. "The Gruur bestial species... approve purification."

"Barbaric beasts whose resources are exhausted have no necessity to exist."

"Execute it."

The survival of a pre-nuclear civilization is spoken of by him as if clearing a pile of cosmic garbage.

The captain of that destroyer from the Dema Legion will shortly receive a brief encrypted directive from the Supreme High Command, and then a planet along with billions of living souls upon it will turn into cosmic dust in the radiance of antimatter bombs.

"The Chaos Crystal vein is classified as a top-priority resource point. The Typhon Legion shall dispatch an additional force to garrison it, ensuring absolute mining safety and efficiency."

"For the Helios Syndicate, increase the extraction quota by 30%, and completion will be linked to the 'Punishment' system." Hexifeng's directives are precise and cold.

"The 'Silent Observer'..." Hexifeng's fingers tap lightly on the glowing point representing the unknown late-stage aerospace civilization on the star map, his black eyes narrowing slightly.

"Classified into the 'Potential Threat (God-Making)' sequence, code name: 'Seaside.' Conquest Department, formulate a long-term monitoring plan."

"Deploy top-tier deep space probes to infiltrate their information network, analyze their technology tree, social structure, and leadership will."

"I need all intelligence regarding them, especially any signs of their breakthrough into the god-making domain. Do not make contact; observe in stealth."

"Understood, Your Majesty!" Milega accepts the order solemnly. Classifying a late-stage aerospace civilization as a "potential god-making threat" and initiating the highest level of monitoring amply demonstrates Hexifeng's vigilance.

In the dark forest, any cub that might grow into a fierce beast deserves to be locked onto in advance.

"The Tiamat Chamber of Commerce rebellion..." Hexifeng's lips curve into an extremely faint, almost ruthless arc. "Tell their 'Committee' that Tianyi's sword only cleaves the thorns threatening the Order of Light."

"Internal maggots must be cleared out by themselves. Ten standard days deadline."

"Failure to quell it by the deadline will be deemed incompetence in governance, and the entire Committee shall... experience the highest setting of 'Soul-Eater' for one hour."

"Swap in another batch of obedient ones."

The cold directive causes the temperature inside the hall to drop by several degrees.