Chapter 120: A Costly Victory

It was difficult for the internal contradictions to reach a climax under the current internal conditions.

While Yan Xia was stirring up trouble within Xingcheng over the course of several thousand years, Ella was not idly standing by within the Civilization Federation.

Plans often change.

The tachyon communication device became essential, and multiple communications were necessary to confirm each other's next steps.

After confirming that Yan Xia had been noticed and Ella's attachment was controlled, Ella foresaw that more contradictions would be exposed, which might even lead to Yan Xia's death.

A rescue plan was proposed.

However, Yan Xia did not want to leave Xingcheng at this time, as all his previous efforts would be in vain.

Yan Xia then devised a plan to put himself in danger. During his captivity, his life was entirely in Chu's hands, and if not for Chu's kindness, Yan Xia would have died long ago.

Of course, the clone escape plan itself included making Chu believe that the imprisoned Yan Xia was a clone, which was a form of protection, but this protection still depended on Chu's mood.

Yan Xia's plan also included the subsequent False Starry Sky Project, which was not intended for rescue but for defense and misdirection.

Although they couldn't initially confirm the malicious intentions of the Olive Branch Civilization, they still needed to defend against a possible attack. Over the past few thousand years, Ella had created countless machines to simulate the starry sky.

One of these machines was applied to the Cosmic Silk Road, while another, even earlier one, had already set off and was located between Xingcheng and the Orion Nebula.

This false starry sky was 30 light-years away from Xingcheng, making it difficult to detect. It then deceived Chu, making him even more convinced of the Holy Grail Project and fearfully destroying the First Fleet.

The most critical part was the second fleet's investigation after its return. The reason for making the second fleet feel that their time had passed so slowly was actually a deception.

The half-life of a metal refers to the time it takes for the metal to radiate and decay to half its original mass. Speeding up the half-life of a metal is not difficult; it only requires increasing the radiation of the metal for a period of time.

In simple terms, it involves making certain atoms unstable at the microscopic level, causing them to decay.

Manipulating 'time' was even simpler. The false starry sky could simulate the changes in the surrounding stars, making the Olive Branch Civilization's lifeforms believe that time was passing faster. Moreover, there was an even deeper level of simulation, which involved another technology.

Simulating the Universe

The essence of the Olive Branch Civilization was a mechanical civilization, and mechanical lifeforms were more easily misled than biological ones, especially when the shared consciousness cluster placed all the Olive Branch Civilization's lifeforms under the same consciousness.

Mechanical lifeforms perceive the passage of time through data, not through their own bodily senses.

Ella used the false starry sky to perform a virtual and real simulation of the universe.

As long as this universe simulation was realistic enough, the Olive Branch Civilization's lifeforms would constantly correct themselves, rationalize all the unreasonable aspects, and then believe that they had experienced that much time.

Combined with the change in the metal's half-life, it was as if the mechanical lifeforms' bodies had aged.

To draw a human analogy, it was as if you saw your own body aging, while everything around you was also growing old, and the starry sky had indeed passed that much time. Who could doubt it?

It sounded simple.

In reality, it involved many exquisite technologies and an enormous amount of energy to support it.

Ella gathered a large number of scholars from the Civilization Federation and vigorously developed the universe simulation. This project began in the year 11073 AD and took over 4000 years to complete. Subsequently, it took 3000 years to place the false starry sky on the second fleet's route, just in time before their departure.

By then, it was the year 18762 AD, only 200 years away from the second fleet's departure, or more precisely, 185 years. Time was extremely tight, and any mistake could result in missing the deadline.

Fate seemed to favor the Civilization Federation and Yan Xia.

All the plans fell into place, and Yan Xia successfully influenced Chu's judgment within Xingcheng, ultimately leading to the subsequent outcome.

The second false starry sky, placed on the Cosmic Silk Road, was intended to divert the Olive Branch Civilization's observations, which was infinitely easier than deceiving the second fleet.

Only a slight deflection of light was needed. At this scale, even a 1-micrometer distance was enough to cause Xingcheng's weapons to deviate.

This false starry sky defense was the first line of defense, while the second was related to the content Ella had previously transmitted via tachyon communication.

Creating the illusion that the Civilization Federation's main-sequence star had been destroyed.

The fundamental purpose of this illusion was the core of this battle.

...

On the battleship.

Ella looked at the incoming message without expression.

"All fleet units are ready."

"The enemy fleet has entered within 1000 astronomical units."

"The enemy has not seen through the false starry sky and is approaching at a speed of 30,719 km/s."

It couldn't command this war, as it was located approximately 17 light-years away from the current position, and without the help of tachyon communication, which consumed an enormous amount of energy.

Since Yan Xia's departure tens of thousands of years ago, Ella had been working to simplify tachyon communication, but she had only managed to reduce its energy consumption by one-third. After all, the technology she used was still too advanced for the Civilization Federation.

During her time in the Civilization Federation, Ella had released her production capacity and started mass-producing battleships, bringing the Civilization Federation's fleet to a terrifying scale.

In addition to the 60 fleets advancing towards the Silk Civilization, they had another 173 fleets.

These fleets had almost emptied the Civilization Federation, and compared to several thousand years ago, the entire Civilization Federation had not made any progress and had even regressed. One can imagine the enormous consumption required to maintain these fleets.

It takes a thousand days to train soldiers, but only a day to use them.

These fleets would finally have a chance to prove their worth.

This was a war between 165 fleets and 140 battleships.

The Civilization Federation deployed 22,110 battleships, solely to counter those 140 battleships, and this was an ambush. In Ella's simulation battle model, their odds of victory were only 72.54%, which was still a victory, but with heavy losses.

28 years later.

Ella received news of the war's end.

Their side had lost 19,723 battleships and suffered 1.15 billion casualties.

The enemy had lost 127 battleships, and their casualties were unknown.

The enemy retreated, and their side—a great victory.

Yes, it was a great victory, a victory of a 2.1-level civilization against a 2.4-level civilization, specifically against the 140 battleships sent by one of the 50-plus star cities of the 2.4-level civilization.

And this war truly laid the foundation for the collapse of Xingcheng.