"Lord Star Emperor Rhazor, we’ve already spotted the targeted star in our short-range maps. We’ll arrive at the Ceperet Solar System in a few months."

Rhazor nodded, his eyes thoughtful. During this time, their army has been careful. The 50 World-Type Motherships had led 25 Moon-Type ships each. The Moon-Types were all Level 150, while the World-Types were all Level 170.

Rhazor activated the communication device and spoke. "Admiral Morthak, start preparing the Left Wing Fleet. You’ll be the commander. Admiral Aurelis, start preparing the Right Wing Fleet. You’ll be the commander. General Solenne will lead the Vanguard Fleet. Shademaster Velmira will try to infiltrate. Captain Draegon will be the Heavy Weapons Commander and guide ship attacks to coordinate."

Then, Rhazor looked to his right and ordered the man standing by his side. "Captain Kaedrix, you will lead the Elite Guard Fleet. Gather all 6,000 of them in one Moon-Type."

Finally, he looked to his left and smiled. "For dealing with the World Tree, High Bishop Nysera, I will be in your care."

The woman, wearing ceremonial long robes and holding a black-colored staff, smiled calmly, her dark eyes deep. "I am unsure what there is to take care of with Lord Rhazor here. However, this little one and my followers will do our best."

Rhazor nodded. "There are two Moon-Types to carry all 16,000 of your people. Do not worry, Kaedrix will escort your two groups and make sure there are no unexpected ambushes. If we can corrupt and take over this True World Tree, perfect. If that’s not possible, you can kill it."

"Understood, Lord."

Both answered solemnly and moved. Seeing all fleets beginning to take shape as they gathered and prepared, Rhazor nodded, satisfied. Even if this opponent was someone he could crush easily, he would never take it easy.

He was a Level 230 powerhouse, one of the strongest leader figures of the Nexus. So, even if he were a bit dissatisfied with the main council’s strategy this time, he would complete his mission to perfection.

’Losing even one Moon-Type in this assault would be a shameful mark in my battle report.’

Thinking as such, he planned to fight as if the opponent were a formidable enemy. If they weren’t, then the battle would end swiftly. If, by any miracle, they were, Rhazor would not be taken by surprise.

"Never take anyone who has managed to hold a foothold in the galaxy lightly." This was something he deeply understood, as many powerhouses have fallen to schemes of the "weak" in the past.

Looking at the radar in front of him, Rhazor saw the 1,000 Moon-Types and 50 World-Types gathered in groups, each ship being attached to their respective legion.

He, himself, was the overall commander, whose orders were above all. So, his World-Type and the 25 following Moon-Types were the only ones that didn’t move to fall into formation.

Then, Rhazor opened the Ceperet Solar System map. "Let’s see... seven planets. One inner asteroid belt. The asteroid belts separated the inner four worlds and the outer three. Since our target is the third innermost world, we can use the asteroid belt as a frontline..."

However, this thought immediately paused. Rhazor asked. "Is there any information on how far the World Tree has expanded through space? I don’t want to be taken by surprise knowing that we’ve already entered its domain."

The person responsible for answering Rhazor about intelligence matters sighed, shaking his head. "Nothing, Lord. Altherion’s report said that the World Tree stopped its chase after it reached around the orbit of the fifth world. Feltera. However, a few years have passed, so we can’t discard the World Tree having reached Tiravel or even Erynthea."

"That mysterious?" Rhazor was momentarily surprised. "How have they kept this information under wraps so tightly?"

That same person’s lips twitched. "The reason is that not even locals know World Tree Tianlian Liu Shu’s root range."

Rhazor was momentarily stunned before sighing. "Poor people. World Trees are, like always, aloof and selfish creatures that don’t weigh human life as precious." Speaking here, he muttered. "Remember not to be too harsh. Once we kill the core, the rest of the World Tree will quickly wilt away. The world won’t destabilize much, so make sure not to cause too many casualties. This Solar System will be our operational base to expand from here and drill into the Covenant’s territory."

"Understood, Lord. I will inform them to be careful when fighting near worlds."

"Great." Rhazor nodded. "Since the asteroid belt is a place where we think the World Tree has already reached, we’ll push back our frontline much more. When we are midway through the Oort cloud of the Ceperet Star, stop and prepare."

"...That far?" The man in charge of intelligence frowned. "Aren’t you retreating our frontlines a bit too much, Lord? If we attack from that far away, the different battlefields will be hard to support by other forces."

"If it is hard for us, it will be hard for the enemy. Moreover, as a newly ascended World Tree, I doubt she has over 100 starships functional for battle." Rhazor explained his reasoning. "Moreover, the other side has proven unpredictable, and if Altherion’s words weren’t a ramble but a warning, we will do well making sure we attack from that far away."

The man was a bit unconvinced, but Rhazor was the wise general whose words were like gold. Therefore, everyone had to work to obey his commands.

When the chosen commanders heard Rhazor’s strategy, they were similarly surprised. However, as subordinates, they did as told.

Rhazor looked into the distant dot on the map, representing Ceperet Star, his eyes deep. ’I don’t know whose help you have to give you the confidence of provoking us when the Covenant clearly doesn’t appreciate you. However, whatever your confidence is, I will crush it through raw military tactics.’

***

Back in Ceperet, Liu Shu had also reached the final preparations for war. As Rhazor had suspected, even taking into account the ships that arrived from the insectkin, her total Starships had only reached 121. Moreover, their levels were not that high, having only three Mothership Class ships, while the rest were 80% battle types and 20% scout types.

Therefore, Liu Shu understood deeply that she could not resort to usual resources when fighting a real army. The bulk of the weight would fall on her shoulders, using Xakira to keep the enemy Star Emperor in check.

’Let’s use one mothership and 30 battle ships to keep the Star Emperor and his troops in check.’

The information was not too detailed, but Virelya had pulled some strings to get a general picture of the enemy army. After all, their sizable group had garnered the attention of nearby Solar Systems.

With enough price and contacting the right people, Liu Shu learned from Virelya, the informant merchant, the size of the enemy fleet.

’50 motherships, 1,000 battle ships...’ Liu Shu sighed in her heart, her eyes firm. ’This battle won’t be easy. Not in the slightest. Thankfully, starships do not correlate to the number of combatants. Otherwise, I would be in an unsolvable situation.’

After Xakira revealed her strength, Liu Shu’s slightly calm mindset had been overturned, and she was now treating this as a true survival battle. She was now as focused as back when she was a small World Tree fighting in the Golden Sap Forest for survival.

"The biggest problem is the battlefield. How can I keep an army as large as that in check without having my roots obliterated?"

Thanks to her several buffs, Liu Shu’s essence regeneration could only be described as monstrous. How monstrous? Liu Shu recovered 54,000 Cores per hour without any buffs. After buffs, that number jumped to over 700,000 Cores per hour. Converted, Liu Shu recovered 7 Stars worth of essence each hour.

This number was on her "base" stat page. However, the important point was that 7 stars accounted for about 50% of Liu Shu’s total essence pool.

This number, as Liu Shu comprehensively buffed herself, was converted together with Liu Shu’s stats. That meant that, even in her strongest form, Liu Shu currently recovered 50% of her essence reserves per hour, or around 0.7% per minute.

"This kind of regeneration is high enough for me to fight as long as I am not destroyed."

Her attacks were extremely wide-scale, so she didn’t need to attack once per second. As long as she constantly put pressure, Liu Shu could bombard their fleets with terrifying energies.

Moreover, knowing that this battle was the battle that would shoot her into the eyes of the entire nearby interstellar powers, Liu Shu was not going to hold back anything. As long as they entered her domain deeply enough, all her cards would be flipped.

"Liu Shu, you are frowning again."

Inside Green, Liu Shu was sitting on Verdantia’s lap when she felt a finger gently smooth out her furrowed brows. Looking up at Verdantia’s slightly tired eyes, Liu Shu smiled helplessly. "Sorry, I was focusing on doing some combat math."

Verdantia laughed. Liu Shu asked, worried. "You’ve been diving <Dungeons> with reckless abandon lately. Are you okay? You four are not overexerting yourself, right?"

Verdantia kissed her lips gently and smiled. "We are overexerting ourselves. What can you do about it?"

Liu Shu pouted, and with a laugh, Verdantia smiled. "Haven’t we four reached Level 190 thanks to our efforts? Flor, Ignatia... everyone is at Level 190 now, just shy of crossing that last hurdle to reach Level 200."

"Do you think you can reach it?"

Verdantia wanted to confidently answer that they could. However, everyone had underestimated the difficulty of breaking through to Level 200. The second Ascension didn’t only require experience and talent; it required a deep understanding of themselves.

Xakira, Sarish, Virelya, and everyone who was knowledgeable had warned them again and again not to push themselves to break through. Sacrificing their future because of rushing this step would be like putting the fruit before the tree.

So, Verdantia answered honestly. "We won’t be able to. So, Tempestria, I, and the others have chosen to pour our Experience Points into our skills." Here, Verdantia paused in thought. "Who would’ve thought that boosting an A+ Rank skill to S- Rank would be that easy?"

Liu Shu laughed. "If the others heard you say that, they might want to slap you to death out of anger." 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Our World Tree had known that her four lovers were somewhat special. Their talent was not static. It was as if time not only boosted their strength but also their talent. Their comprehension of skills was also as ridiculous as her own!

They just needed some basic understanding, and then they could fill the rest with Experience Points. Moreover, Verdantia and the others had already given up some skills they didn’t use to arm themselves with the catalog provided by the Skill Merchants.

Liu Shu sighed, looking up at the ceiling, as if her gaze could pierce the ceiling and look deeply into the cosmos. "Now, everything that is left is to set up the defensive perimeters and traps..."