Liu Shu had long stopped all her secondary actions, refocusing all her consciousness into one single whole. Her <Avatar> returned to her <Core Room>, and her focus gathered in her long, detecting roots she had grown beyond her domain.

Her armies had gathered, a total of 5,000,000 soldiers. Her army’s structure was separated into layers, and at the very top, Cael and other general-like figures stood.

In Xakira’s elite group, Liu Shu had gathered most of her elites. Leaving the two insectoid Kings to guide the armies to other locations, depending on needs.

While five million didn’t sound like too much, all of them were high-level, the lowest-level people being Level 140. The number of Star Lords had already reached the tens of thousands, while those at the <Sixth Energy Cycle> had long surpassed half a million.

Moreover, the Star Lord-level powerhouses were not weak, most of them having reached Level 190 and wearing at least B and A Tier armors and weapons. In terms of army quality, Liu Shu’s domain had comprehensively evolved, all thanks to the <Atemporal> quality of her <Dungeons>, making Experience Gain and random equipment gain several times quicker than normal.

Liu Shu’s core was calm, her gaze focused, and her senses alert but not tense. Her view, like a deity overlooking her own domain, didn’t miss a single unusual flicker throughout her entire domain.

Soon, she saw it.

A group of 7 World-Type Motherships, their gargantuan bodies advancing through the void like living behemoths. Around them, a swarm of over 170 Moon-Type ships advanced in formation. The silvery luster of their outer shell made them look like floating blades rotating around the black- and blue-colored motherships.

The direction of advance was the shortest route, a direct line that would eventually meet Ceperet, even when orbital paths were taken into account.

Liu Shu focused there, but before she could take a good look, she saw the World-Type’s blue lines light up, before a silent pulse spread out. This shockwave struck her roots, causing damage and making her gaze blurry.

"...As expected. They have methods to damage me even when I am in another dimension."

She was not surprised. World Trees that had reached a certain level would all eventually need to detach, as their growth would become too much for their home planet to support. Therefore, technology to damage or forcefully pull out a World Tree from their dimension was not a rarity, but a necessity for all armies.

Meanwhile, a short woman with a stern face frowned. She sat in the captain’s seat of this group, inside the centermost World Type. She was Solenne, the Vanguard Leader Rhazor had apportioned.

"The dimensional pulse struck?"

The one in charge of logistics by her side nodded firmly. "General Solenne, the pulse made contact. We’ve even caught the dimensional roots flickering into existence as they were damaged before sinking into their realm."

General Solenne was silent for a moment before sighing. "In the end, it was Lord Rhazor who was cautious enough. If it had been me, I might’ve entered the enemy’s domain without knowing."

Her face was complex, relieved that they managed to pinpoint the range of the domain and, at the same time, somewhat suffocated that the range where they detected the first trace of roots was much farther than initially expected.

"We are not even remotely close to the outermost planet orbit... Didn’t Altherion say that a little over two decades ago, the World Tree was only slightly farther than Feltera?"

Her gaze focused as she looked around and spoke. "Activate combat modules. Make sure the shields enter into shared formation. From now on, we will take Altherion’s words as the truth and then imagine them at least one hundred times more ferocious. Act as if our enemy is capable of bringing down Lord Rhazor!" 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Her voice was firm, serene, and spread into all control rooms of the Vanguard Group.

"Finally, remember, we are not to dive deep but to test combat capabilities! Once we make sure of their combat capabilities, we will retreat out of the domain and join the Left and Right Fleets."

Meanwhile, Liu Shu observed this group for a while and calculated their speed. Her gaze sharpened, taking in every detail, even through the blurry vision from the pulse. "They are... too slow. At this pace, the group would have taken several decades to arrive. Moreover, the fleet is several times larger... vanguard? Scouts?"

Her face became serious. "The Star Emperor is using World-Types for scouting. Truly... luxurious."

So, instead of attacking, Liu Shu placed herself on the other side of the battlefield. ’If I were Rhazor and I were arrogant, a vanguard test group would be completely out of the question. The other side considers me a serious threat. If that’s the case, this group is not the main attack group and won’t dare dive deep. Their threat level... is null."

She stopped looking at them, and her gaze expanded outward, turning in the opposite direction and toward other angles in her spherical domain. Her roots extended outward, focusing on distance instead of sweeping, and she added her <World Tree Eye> to all of those few million roots that were spreading.

"Careful... he is really careful..."

Even as she swept every corner as fast and meticulously as she could, there were no signs of other vessels entering her domain. The more it was like that, the more Liu Shu became serious.

Her mind processed information faster than ever. Even if she had to overexert herself for a bit, it would be worth it as long as she detected the true flanking angles of the enemy.

’Dividing the army is something the Star Emperor must do. Still, being too divided would give me a chance to pick them off one by one. Even if they arrive, the sacrifice is far too large. With their army, I would attack myself through two or three main fronts.’

Her eyes glowed, the battlefield unfolding in several ways before her as she carefully registered all and every single attack path option.

’The usual siege of a World Tree is slow; they need to clear my roots as they advance, or they would be overwhelmed by my reach. While they are unaware of my Perfect Cycle, their tactic would not change much even if they knew...’

Liu Shu sank into her conscience, becoming one with her domain, her senses further sharpening. "More... look deeper. If they have anti-dimensional weapons, then they will naturally have large-scale dimensional stealth."

Liu Shu’s dozens of Aether Mana Stars and Anima Energy Stars rotated within her very core, and then, she burst everything out in an unrefined, wide-spread, sonar-like dimensional fluctuation.

BOOM!

The spatial layer rippled outward like a spherical wave, sweeping in all directions while Liu Shu’s Aether and Anima energy depleted to less than 10% in a single second.

Her consciousness, merged with her domain spanning billions of kilometers, suddenly detected a faint signal. This signal was like suddenly spotting a firefly at night between the leaves of a forest bush, inconspicuous until detected but, once found, guiding her gaze toward it.

There were three such "fireflies" in her domain. "Found you."

Meanwhile, Rhazor, calmly sitting on his seat, felt his eyebrow twitch. An imperceptible frown appeared between his brows. "...impossible. Did I imagine it?"

He stood up and spoke. "Open the hatch."

While the person was confused, they obeyed, and Rhazor quickly flew out of the World-Type, looking around with sharp eyes. "This is... residual essence? Why?"

He was a bit confused, not really understanding what had just happened. Still, he knew that some kind of energy had swept their location. With a shake of his head, he returned to the World-Type and asked. "Are we still concealed?"

"Yes, Sir. Our stealth has not been broken yet."

Rhazor tapped his chin, and he knew better than to disregard these types of feelings. So, he ordered. "Prepare for combat. We might’ve been detected without having our stealth dispelled."

An advisor at the side spoke, his tone doubtful. "Lord, are you sure? Methods like that are usually only available for Level 200 World Trees with deep spatial control."

Rhazor looked sideways once before looking ahead again. "Better be safe than sorry. Follow through. Even if we waste some resources, we can always refill once we are done."

"Understood."

Rhazor spoke into the communication device. "Morthak, Aurelis, have any of you felt anything odd?"

"Nothing, Sir."

"Nothing here either, Lord."

Rhazor nodded, a bit more relieved. Then, he changed to another frequency. "General Solenne, any activity from the World Tree?"

"Nothing, Sir. We are within her domain. I’ve sent you the coordinates where we were detected. We’ve even made contact with some of the periphery roots."

Rhazor looked, and when he saw the coordinates, his pupils shrank slightly. He quickly spoke through all the communication devices. "We are within the World Tree’s domain! Be careful."

Every general was startled. From their coordinates, they were still a few billion kilometers away, not even in the orbit of the seventh world.

Back in Ceperet, Liu Shu felt a bit of a headache, as that move right now was truly too forceful. However, her eyesight was not fixed on these armies. ’While it is still blurry, I can count between 40 and 50 World-Types. That corroborates the information I received back then. Virelya has done a good job this time around.’

Still, even when looking at the impressive army approaching from so many different fronts, Liu Shu felt some unease. "Is this everyone? What if there are some lone World-Types? The groups I’ve discovered are one with three World-Types, two with around 20 World-Types, and then the vanguard group. Any smaller group probably slipped through my pulse..."

Detecting an individual World-Type was too difficult even for Liu Shu. It was like detecting a somewhat different-looking grain of sand from a distance on a beach.

"No matter. Now, at least I know what their overall battle plan is. For unexpected situations, I will just react to the moment." She looked at the standby troops, and then she spoke. "Cael, go into these coordinates. Xakira, standby for now. Sarish, Chost, go in the direction of the Vanguard group."

Her voice appeared in different locations at once, coordinating everyone.

The Skill Merchants had closed their shop, having returned to their starship for the duration of the battle. They, as they had explained before, would not interfere even if the world were destroyed. Moreover, under their previous deal, they would leave in just 7 more months.

Liu Shu knew about it, so she didn’t have any unrealistic expectations. "I will win this war. Next, it will be a prolonged war."

As she muttered, starships soared from the airports around Ceperet, while those in orbit already lit up their engines.

It was the start of a new War.