From the ultimate goal, the New Army and Old Army are essentially the same: both aim to build a bridge.

Moreover, if we look purely at the ultimate goal of "reducing Void catastrophe," it doesn’t seem to matter who succeeds between the New Army and Old Army: as long as the bridge is successfully built, the imbalance across the Void will drop below the critical value, and the Void catastrophe will occur in a relatively mild manner (although it will still be accompanied by numerous doomsdays, at least it won’t cause mass extinction, and many worlds can be preserved), which is exactly why the New Empire decided to set aside past grudges with the Abyss Xyrin and work together to build the bridge.

The New Army and Old Army differ in only one respect, and it is this distinction that makes it impossible for us to make any compromise with them: the extremism of the New Army. They elevate "Empire interests" to an obsessive and twisted level, attempting to ensure the Empire’s apex position by eliminating all life other than themselves, even including the Divine Race in their attack target.

The New Army will not share the Void Long Bridge with anyone; they do not allow any civilization other than themselves to succeed in bridge building. These madmen will use any means necessary to become the first Super Civilization to successfully build the bridge and then leverage the specialized properties of the Void Long Bridge to permanently preclude other civilizations from bridge building—including Super Civilizations across the Void.

In contrast, the Abyss Xyrin is clearly much more moderate: she is willing to share the knowledge of bridge building with other civilizations, and to ensure the rapid establishment of the Long Bridge, she is even willing to contribute all her achievements and equipment. Perhaps she foresaw from the beginning what the outcome would be if the Void Long Bridge were entirely dominated by a single civilization, so she early on facilitated the alliance of Abyss, Empire, Star Domain, and Huron, so even if only one Long Bridge is built, it belongs to the four forces, unless the four forces foolishly start infighting at this critical juncture.

The Abyss Xyrin is willing to reveal the special properties of the Void Long Bridge, which at least proves she has no intention of monopolizing it—in any case, she can’t monopolize it, as all four races (Abyssalized Xyrin Apostles count as the fourth race) will be present when the startup terminal is activated. Moreover, this start-up terminal doesn’t activate instantly; it requires a period of operation to connect the two shores, followed by a period to slowly twist the Void structure (all conclusions analyzed by Taville and other experts, guaranteed to be accurate and reliable). During this process, the Abyss Xyrin cannot monopolize the bridge through any sleight of hand under our noses.

However, there is still one question: the bridge-building requires the synchronized activation from both shores, any delayed response would lead to bridge collapse, ultimately resulting in annihilation like the Σ civilization back then, and perhaps even affecting the "pivot world" on the opposite shore. The New Army can’t be unaware of this.

What method have they devised to bypass the restriction of "synchronized startup"?

"I’ve also thought about this problem; there are many possibilities. Perhaps they could hijack communication signals to deceive the Star Ring Federation on the other shore, tricking the other side into collaborating with them, then invade to occupy the start-up terminal while the Star Ring Federation is completely unprepared. But this possibility is very low; we’ve always maintained contact with the ancestral side, and both sides use encryption methods that are very hard to break, so the New Army should not be able to get in touch with the Star Ring Federation," the Abyss Xyrin contemplated my question, deeply thinking, "The second possibility is they indeed found a way to bypass the restriction of ’synchronized startup.’ Maybe they’ve made a significant breakthrough in bridge-building technology... but this possibility is even lower. The New Army and Old Army have the same technical foundation, and it’s impossible to achieve such breakthroughs in just a few months. That leaves the third possibility... They’ve perhaps created a perfect Deep-diving ship."

"Perfect Deep-diving ship?" My eyebrows raised, roughly understanding what this implied.

"It can Deep Dive to the other shore with no or minimal loss, equipped with a huge and stable space cargo hold for transporting the start-up terminal, and carries a powerful energy device capable of powering the start-up terminal upon arrival. They don’t need the cooperation of the Super Civilization on the other shore; they only need to dispatch a start-up terminal to the other shore ahead of time, even bypassing the syncing process. This process resembles early space transmission gates, sending another ’gate’ to the destination in advance and then opening the gates on both sides to begin transmission. Compared to circumventing the restrictions stipulated by the Void, manufacturing a perfect Deep-diving ship is evidently easier."

"Even the Deep-diving ship we’ve jointly built with four races only manages to drift to the other shore by luck, and the success rate is just one percent, even if it drifts over, only a core cabin remains," I rubbed my chin, "Does the New Army have such advanced technology?"

"Perhaps only a breakthrough is needed, or maybe they found some clues in ancient archives, like research notes from Ocam back then," the Abyss Xyrin tapped her head, although it’s just a mass projection, she still uses this gesture for her memory database, "When the split between myself and the New Army Commander occurred, each of us inherited the original set database, but this copying process inevitably had omissions, especially at the moment the split was completing. ’She’ and I instantly developed selfish consciousness and perceived each other as adversaries, so we instinctively interfered with the database copy, blocking the full inheritance of knowledge by the other. Some data may have been shredded in this stage, both ’she’ and I only inherited half. Currently, I still find many fragmented data in my database, and I believe the other half is with my counterpart, but I’ll never know what I’ve forgotten, which is a vicious cycle."

The self-splitting of the Abyss Xyrin has always been something we couldn’t fully comprehend, not in terms of reasoning, but in terms of the process. Biological creatures in the real world struggle to understand how a cluster consciousness rooted in the network duplicates itself and endows each copy with subtly different personalities. Of course, we might vaguely perceive it as data copying and cutting, but surely, the actual process must be far more complex, perhaps even involving Chaos-thinking and other elements. Regardless of Taville’s theories or Bubbles’ calculations, none can simulate this process, hence we can’t be certain how different is the New Army Commander from the Abyss Xyrin, nor can we use the current Abyss Xyrin to reverse deduce the character of the first generation Abyss Xyrin—this is almost entirely without precise corresponding connections.

Now, based on the new intelligence from Abyss Xyrin, we’ve confirmed one more point: She and the New Army Commander might not even have the same memory database.

This might also explain why the omniscient Abyss Xyrin remains unclear about the Deep Dive equipment held by the New Army: even she, her memory database is not omnipotent, network deficiencies or disturbances similarly can harm this seemingly eternal and undead Super Consciousness.

"It’s still uncertain what trump card the New Army has, we’ll estimate everything considering the worst-case scenario," Sandora pondered for a moment and decisively stated, "We’ll assume they indeed created a perfect Deep-diving ship and have already placed another start-up terminal in some universe on the opposite shore... now as long as they can successfully activate our side’s start-up terminal, we will be completely helpless against them, is that right?"

"They won’t be able to activate it within seven days," the Abyss Xyrin confidently stated, "On one hand, my army hasn’t been thoroughly expelled from Peace Core, on the other hand... I’ve also done some tampering within the start-up terminal, and at Peace Core’s Deep Dive Port as well, these ’special arrangements’ will be very troublesome for the Invaders."

Even with a relatively gentle temperament, the Abyss Xyrin’s cunning and meticulousness show no sign of regression, hearing her words reassured Sandora and I.

Just then, the ship-borne mainframe of the Imperial Admiral suddenly broadcasted that the fleet had reached the border; several hours of journey ended abruptly, and everyone absorbed in discussion and contemplation seemed to have overlooked the passage of time.

Oh, there was one person who didn’t overlook: Qianqian looked over when I turned my head, she had a stack of paper cranes over a meter high in front of her, just how bored has this girl been? With time acceleration on, folding these things, have you been eating too much?

The Imperial Fleet docked in orbit around a deep brown artificial planet, this artificial planet is the sovereignty hub of this border world. In the space above the sovereignty hub, we saw many familiar structures: a type of fortress stacked like multiple discs, massive like a space city, radiating great momentum.

These are the same turtle-shell fortresses the Imperial Army encountered during the initial attack on the Abyss Zone, Sandora felt their design had many advantages worth learning from, and after the war, the Empire’s technicians manufactured these replicas based on the fortress blueprints obtained, though replicas, their performance suffered no decline, only slightly weaker in absolute destruction compared to the originals, which is unavoidable: normal Ghost Energy inherently has less destructive power than Abyssalized Ghost Energy, weaker in explosiveness, but it excels in stability and easy control, which makes the shield of the replica fortress stronger and more stable, compensating for the attack deficiencies.

And now this border universe is also one of the spoils from the initial "Total War," the heavily guarded world first conquered by the Imperial Army, now rebuilt and upgraded with numerous fortress facilities becoming an Imperial border defense node.

A group of massive halo devices unfolded at a light-minute distance from the sovereignty hub, within the twisted mystical glow of the halo, another universe’s scenery is projected, facing an ominous starry sky: the Abyss Zone, albeit the territory of the Abyss Xyrin.

"I’ve already picked out the optimal route for you, passing through zones controlled by the Old Army, there will be no interception," the Abyss Xyrin uploaded a jump route map to the navigation system, her expression suddenly turning peculiar, "Using the Abyss Zone’s World Gate for travel, does it feel strange?"

I looked at the World Gate displayed on the holographic projection, the corners of my mouth slightly curled up: "I never thought about it before, but since we’ve formed an alliance, let’s cooperate well this time."

No sooner had I finished speaking than the ship’s main computer reported that another army was entering the Material Plane. I quickly turned my head to look at another set of holographic projections, showing the space scene on the other side of the Sovereignty Hub: in the deep darkness of the cosmos, layers of radiant ripples were undulating, as if an endless aurora had condensed into a sea, floating in space. Accompanying these radiant ripples was an army with a completely different style from the "Starship + Space Station".

These were numerous towers and palaces floating in the air, interspersed with many giant flat rocks that looked like floating islands. Among these entities, which didn’t look like space weapons at all, were Star Domain soldiers swiftly shuttling back and forth: The Divine Race Army had arrived.

The size of this army was hard to determine because the Divine Race has a habit of temporarily creating various things to fight on the battlefield. With a wave of their hands, they could create millions of Elemental Beings and other constructs, and I couldn’t tell whether many of these combat units were buildings or troops. I could only see that their glorious phalanx covered an enormous area, and the monitor, after rotating 180 degrees, couldn’t find its boundary; judging from the formation size, it was no less than the Imperial Army.

And this should be only a part of the Divine Race Army, with another part preparing for an offensive in the Far Border of the Abyss Zone on other battlefronts.

Xingchen said he would dispatch all mobile troops from the Star Domain, and it seems he was quite sincere. He was clearly determined to break through the Abyss Zone.

I turned my head to look at the Divine Clan Tiaozi Five behind me, not far away. Kenser and the other four had already stood up, ready to report to the Divine Race battle formation, while Bingdisi was lounging with closed eyes, already fully embodying the "Imperial Officer - full-time loafer" state. However, these five were not the most remarkable; the most remarkable one was...

I looked down at my chest pocket, where Dingdang was sleepily poking her little head out. The Little One looked around and, seeing no signs of a meal, yawned and retreated back in.

I scooped out the Little One, who had nearly become a couch potato, reminding her of the situation at hand.

"Oh, right," Dingdang finally realized, after being dazed for a bit. She climbed onto my shoulder, beckoning to Kenser and the other four teammates, "Gather up! Gather up!"

The four Divine Race members instantly stood in a neat line in front of me. Though they varied in height, build, and appearance, in this moment they all displayed the full momentum of warriors—it was easy to underestimate them when they were being so laid back, but even if the Dingdang Team occasionally dropped the ball, they were still veterans of countless battlefields!

Dingdang satisfactorily looked at her four subordinates, then raised her eyes to gaze at the Divine Race battle formation on the holographic projection and finally uttered a sentence full of implications: "Eh... Father God said it’s okay if we don’t join... just act as escorts beside Ah Jun."

Everyone: "..."

Bingdisi couldn’t help but shout from the side: "Whoa... did His Eminence really say that?"

"Yes," Dingdang nodded, "He told it directly to me through mental communication just now."

I was about to say how this could be so frivolous, but soon calmed down: in fact, it was fine. In a large-scale joint operation like this, the temporary redeployment of a few soldiers would have little to no impact on the big picture. Though Dingdang and the rest held divine positions and world management rights as "society-integrated professional True Gods," considering their inclinations towards bungling, they were still a group of super soldiers... they could fit in anywhere.

I looked up at the ever-emerging Divine Race Army from the shimmering radiant ocean. The aura of Xingchen and Hila was constantly emanating from that sea of brilliance. I also glanced at Dingdang Team by my side; their expressions were as carefree as always. Suddenly, I felt that Father God had a hard time bringing Star Domain to its current state...

But my sigh didn’t last long, as the system broadcast soon interrupted everyone’s thoughts: the World Gate was ready.

This particular World Gate, adjacent to the Sovereignty Hub, had a special nature. It didn’t connect directly to the Inland Imperial District but directly led to the Abyss Zone, a product of the "Domain Reshape" plan by Sandora. This gate was now being activated for the first time, unexpectedly under the Abyss Zone’s autonomous navigation... indeed, unpredictable are the affairs of the world.

The initial "journey" was safe, as we would pass through the Abyss Xyrin’s territory, escorted by those Abyss Army troops, towards the battle zone. Blue Radiant Glow spread from the Force Field Grid, and the instant the Class Coordinate Engine started, the massive warships trembled lightly, like reflections in water. Then, the enormous Starships began to accelerate, and the mid-sized and smaller Escort Fleets, resembling dense schools of fish, followed the Mother Ship forward like chasing after a giant wave. The First Fleet entered the World Gate first, transmitting an all-clear signal, followed by the orderly entry of other units.

The Divine Race troops also needed to traverse these World Gates to reach the battlefield—although they had their own world-crossing devices and unique methods, there was no need to construct a separate Divine Race Transworld Gate when ready-made facilities were available here.

As the Imperial Admiral crossed the World Gate, Little Crow twisted excitedly in its seat, letting out a "Caw—" of cheer. Accompanied by this rather ungraceful call, the image from the external monitor twisted and shook wildly, then gradually returned to calm, revealing an unstable world with an all-encompassing dark red spectrum before us.

The types of worlds in the Abyss Zone are few, and they tend to be at two extremes: either extremely barren, filling the universe with noise and Original Energy with no matter-rich zones, as if mere Chaos, or abundant with matter and Celestial Systems where everything is overly active, the Celestial Systems in turmoil and the material order on the brink of collapse. Worlds in other than these extremes are rare. The universe before us clearly belonged to the latter: shimmering stars and nebulae like space ramparts were visible, but most stars appeared with diffuse halos, the Constant Stars too clustered, seemingly evolving in a failed manner without solid form. Bright red or orange-yellow nebulae dominated, with some bright, web-like strands lacing through them—these were uncontrolled star-forming activities: while the universe’s fundamental values could support a Material Plane, they were not very reliable.

The external monitors panned to the fleet’s rear, showing a World Gate much like the one at the entry point, though primarily an unsettling black-red color. Surrounding the World Gate were vast spacecraft facilities and Starports, while the fleets of Fallen Apostles... or rather, Abyss Apostles were arrayed orderly in the cosmos, like hordes of slumbering beasts.

Soon they awoke from slumber, naturally positioning themselves at the flank of the Imperial Army, taking up escort duties.

Once perpetual enemies, now moving forward together... (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote with your recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please access the site via m.qidian.com to read.)