Chapter 351: The Cosmic Fortress and the Purge

Lin Feng’s operation to root out traitors swept through 12 nations in just three days. Whether it was the once-mighty powers among the top five like Britain and Gaul, nations that arrogantly claim the Indian Ocean as their private sea—including the derogatorily labeled “A-San”—or even self-styled fairy tale republics.

All these countries, much like Australia, were overwhelmed by a relentless storm of Wyvern Fighters and massive escort ships.

In reality, the West lives by the law of the jungle, where might makes right.

That’s why that great man from the old Soviet Union once declared, “Victors are never blamed,” essentially giving his own territorial doctrine a boost.

And that is also why Japan willingly bowed to the United States after having its two cities nearly obliterated by nuclear strikes.

This is why the American general, forced to sign a ceasefire, lamented with a colleague, “We fought the wrong war at the wrong time, in the wrong place, against the wrong enemy!”

It was only after Dream Technology’s traitor purge that the Western world truly grasped just how fearsome its power really was.

A rumor now circulates throughout various countries: the warships of Earth’s Defense Fleet are but the weakest class of Dream Technology; their main vessels are said to be ten times larger!

And their destructive power far exceeds that—a single main cannon, rivaling the star-destroying armaments of science fiction, could shatter the Moon even if it couldn’t completely erase Earth.

Western historians later dubbed this operation “Dream Technology’s rehearsal for an alien invasion of Earth,” intended to instill in humanity a crushing sense of vulnerability against extraterrestrial forces.

After all, history is written by the victors.

In truth, Lin Feng didn’t rely solely on overt symbols of power to execute his decapitation mission; he also deployed a fleet of high-fidelity combat robots to guarantee its success.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without Stardust’s impromptu takeover of the target nations’ internet and television networks. By seizing total control of information, in tandem with the escort fleet’s military might, the West was forced to recognize reality and bow its once-haughty heads.

Soon after, Han Bing’s propaganda department—her first act as Lin Feng’s newlywed wife—made a grand entrance, continuing the absolute control of information and, under the guise of preventing alien infiltration, overseeing these nations’ news media.

Dubbed “wartime media control,” this unceasing barrage of information united people around the globe like never before, forging a true community of shared human destiny.

Rumor has it that Minister Han Bing even brought on an able deputy minister—a man once said to have been brainwashed by a pyramid scheme gang.

Of course, these are just legends… merely legends.

Meanwhile, as Lin Feng transformed Earth into an almost impenetrable fortress, Du Qiu waited anxiously at the Mars Base for a decisive outcome.

A probe stationed at the farthest reaches of the Kuiper Belt relayed a strange radio signal.

At first, the transmission appeared to be mere natural static, but after Stardust decoded it using a special algorithm, it turned out to be a modulated signal.

Du Qiu had already discovered that the Pleiadians had enveloped the Solar System with an information barrier that blocked all artificially modulated signals.

Only quantum communications remain unaffected.

This suggests that the Pleiadians deliberately keep civilizations below Level 4 out of the Solar System, ensuring they go undetected.

Yet for civilizations above Level 4, the Pleiadians likely know they can’t be blocked—unless they maintain long-term surveillance of the Solar System.

What puzzles Du Qiu, however, is that space fleets from civilizations below Level 4 can hardly traverse the vast distances required to reach the Solar System.

Even if these civilizations communicate via electromagnetic waves with humanity within the Solar System, they are separated by countless light years, with no clear timeline for an encounter.

Then why would the Pleiadians go to the trouble of creating a colossal information blockade that cuts off all modulated electromagnetic signals?

Now, here we see a Level 4 civilization hesitating outside the Solar System, too intimidated by the Pleiadians’ setup to boldly enter.

At that moment, Du Qiu instinctively believed that this peculiar signal had to be emanating from an alien fleet waiting beyond the Solar System.

It wasn’t long before Stardust finally deciphered the contents of the signal.

“Sir, the message reads: ‘Esteemed Fortress of the Ge Ya Civilization, we are the fleet of the Tur Civilization under the Ge Ya Alliance. After a fierce battle with the malevolent Dominant Civilization fleet near the second cantilever, we retreated only to be caught in a spacetime storm that brought us to this unfamiliar star field.'”

“Unintentionally, we discovered that this might be the Fortress of the Ge Ya Civilization; please forgive our rash probing.”

“We, the Tur Civilization, are true beings of intelligence—not impostors of the Dominant Civilization. We beseech your Civilization Fortress to grant us refuge.”

“After a long interstellar journey, our fleet has dwindled to just 7,680 warships. Our hulls, battered by the cosmic turbulence of spacetime, now desperately require repairs.”

“We earnestly implore you, in the spirit of our alliance and our shared battles against the malevolent Dominant Civilization, to allow us entry into your fortress for restoration.”

“We will abide by all the rules within the fortress. Ge Ya is with us!”

After listening to Stardust’s report, Du Qiu was utterly stunned.

The Solar System had been transformed into the Fortress of the Ge Ya Civilization!

That same Ge Ya Civilization—nearly annihilated by the Dominant Civilization in a remote, unknowable star field in Dreamland,

the very civilization that nearly obliterated a Level 2 fleet of the Dominant Civilization with a coordinated mothership strike—had turned the Solar System into a Civilization Fortress!

What mystical power could this Fortress possess that it can repel a Level 4 civilization fleet boasting 7,680 warships from infiltrating?

Ha ha, all this time they feared an invasion, yet they couldn’t even break through!

Wait a minute, wait a minute…

It suddenly occurred to Du Qiu that the Meteor Warship must be the Tur Civilization fleet’s reckless probing attempt!

How could the Meteor Warship possibly penetrate the Solar System?

Well, its exterior was completely disguised as a meteor, and by using inertial flight at a constant speed, it entered the Solar System just as a genuine meteor would.

Could it be that merely camouflaging as a meteor is enough to break into the Solar System?

Then why didn’t the Tur Civilization deploy more ships in disguise, drifting slowly into the Solar System like meteors?

The Civilization Fortress must have some binding constraints—a condition that no alien civilization has ever encountered in humanity’s ten thousand years of development.

No wonder this eerie cosmic silence prevails!

Could the truth behind the Fermi Paradox be that we are protected by a higher-level Ge Ya Civilization acting as a Civilization Fortress?

Du Qiu once again studied the holographic map of the Solar System and the surrounding star systems; positioned at the midpoint between the Solar System and Barnard’s Star was a distinct white light spot.

If the Tur Civilization fleet is indeed at this White Spot, doesn’t that mean the boundaries of the Civilization Fortress extend beyond the Oort Cloud to roughly three light-years?

What kind of force is this that can block the Tur Civilization fleet?

Du Qiu pondered in circles: if after a fierce battle and a spacetime storm the Tur Civilization fleet still retained 7,680 warships, doesn’t that imply it originally was even larger?

The position beyond the second cantilever—if we consider it part of our Milky Way—could that be the Sagittarius Arm?

No, for a Level 4 civilization fleet facing a Level 6 apex of the Dominant Civilization, isn’t it akin to getting free provisions?

How on earth could they escape the battlefield and still have 7,680 warships left after enduring a spacetime storm?

Clearly, those 7,680 warships were better off never entering the Solar System.

I must admit, I grossly underestimated the prowess of cosmic civilizations; in Dreamland, the Dominant Civilization’s Level 2 fleet barely numbered over a thousand warships, which led me to naively believe that a fleet of over a thousand ships was formidable.

Who would have thought that even after sustaining losses, the Tur Civilization fleet still managed to keep 7,680 warships?

Wait, could this transmission from the Tur Civilization be a deliberate misdirection? Otherwise, why include an excerpt from a Civilizational Lexicon to help us decipher it?

Perhaps they feared that the intelligent civilization within might flee, so they sent out such information to lull themselves into a false sense of security.