Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

No one knows when the Shadow Star was discovered, but it has clearly become a religious sanctuary now. Between the soaring mountain ranges, Gothic cathedral structures are visible one after another, making the entire city look like a gigantic monastery or perhaps—a cemetery.

Because it has already been abandoned.

When Darth Vader and Fang Zheng arrived, all they saw was a city blanketed in deathly silence amidst the snowy white snow, along with some zombie-like cultivators. They wore gray robes, their eyes vacant, looking like the living dead. Faced with the arrival of the Imperial Forces, they showed neither fear, nor resistance, nor any reaction. Even when these Imperial Soldiers drove them out, they didn’t respond, appearing as lifeless as a group of puppets.

"Set up defenses immediately!"

Darth Vader coldly issued the order, and the soldiers promptly sprang into action. This time, the Galactic Empire spared no expense, sending over various advanced weaponry to determine the best way to deal with these damned invaders.

The choice of this city was partly because it was built on the mountain top, making it easy to defend and hard to attack. Additionally, the city followed the design rules of old medieval fortress-like cities, surrounding it with layers of walls built from millennia-old ice and rock, standing dozens of meters high. At least, from a visual standpoint, this was more reassuring.

But only Fang Zheng had an uneasy feeling.

"Do you have any historical records or the like about this planet?"

Standing on the balcony, Fang Zheng gazed at the city before him and asked softly, while Darth Vader shook his head.

"No, the Empire’s database only has some basic information about this planet... is there a problem?"

To Darth Vader, this was nothing more than an ordinary planet. Of course, the Empire’s database did mention many ancient ruins here, but to Darth Vader, those things left unknown millions of years ago had no significance or value. At least compared to those, the immediate threat was obviously more important.

"Hmm... it feels bad."

"Feelings?"

"Yes."

Fang Zheng nodded, squinting his eyes to scrutinize the city before him. In fact, since stepping off the starship onto the planet’s soil, Fang Zheng felt a mix of subtle dark aura within the biting cold wind, hmm, this aura... he found it somewhat familiar.

"Don’t you think the city’s defenses look too solid?"

"Weren’t old buildings always like this?"

In response to Darth Vader’s answer, Fang Zheng chuckled.

"Lord Vida, do you know what kind of building possesses fortress-like defensive capabilities?"

".......?"

"That would be a prison."

Fang Zheng turned around, looking at the Dark Warriors behind him.

"Anyway, caution can’t hurt. This planet gives me a very bad feeling."

"Understood, I’ll increase vigilance."

Darth Vader nodded, saying no more, while Fang Zheng just shrugged. The Galactic Empire’s civilization still follows a materialistic path, and honestly, he suspected whether it was his senses playing tricks. However, as Fang Zheng mentioned, caution doesn’t hurt, even though as of now, Fang Zheng hasn’t truly sensed the presence of any evil forces. But... how to put it?

In short, it just feels bad.

"By the way, what is that?"

Fang Zheng shook his head, dismissing his thoughts, and curiously pointed below. On a lower platform, a group of Imperial Soldiers was patrolling, and what intrigued Fang Zheng was that one of the soldiers had a flag hoisted high on his back, which caught Fang Zheng’s interest. In fact, he noticed that almost every squad had someone carrying such a flag...

"We now know that before the Taren Insect Race reaches their destination, their teleportation causes subspace perturbations, rendering all transmission signals useless. In this situation, we can’t communicate in usual ways, so our scholars searched ancient texts and ultimately decided to use flag signals and horns to command attacks."

"Oh......"

Upon hearing this, Fang Zheng nodded. In medieval times, wars were conducted like this, and it seems the Galactic Empire intends to follow a retro path now.

"Then what about space warfare? Fleets can’t use flag signals."

"Signal transmission through light reflection."

"Alright, that’s a way."

At Darth Vader’s answer, Fang Zheng gave a thumbs-up. It’s undeniable that the Galactic Empire is genuinely impressive. Just after their first standoff with the Taren Insect Race, they immediately devised solutions—of course, these solutions are presently just emergency measures and may not necessarily work. It is precisely for this reason that they chose to defend on Shadow Star for this battle.

But......

"Why paint a skull on the flag?"

Fang Zheng couldn’t help but voice his inner doubts, looking puzzled at Darth Vader. Could it be that you and Palpatine have a penchant for childishness? Luke is one thing, but you two are way past that age. It’s a bit much for you to be playing death metal like some middle-schooler, isn’t it?

Even if you want to play Pirates of the Caribbean, shouldn’t it be in space?

"It’s His Imperial Majesty’s will."

"Hmm?"

"The skull on this flag is a human skull. His Majesty hopes to use this flag to showcase the Empire’s majesty and let everyone know that the Empire, past, present, and future, is an empire ruled by humans. Humans are the core and everything of the Empire."

"Oh, I see."

Fang Zheng nodded without saying much more. Human supremacy is indeed quite necessary. The main military force of the Galactic Empire is comprised of humans. Of course, other races do have armies, but due to the Galaxy’s long-standing imperial rule, these races’ armies mostly serve as Self-Defense Forces on their autonomous planets and star systems. Clearly, Palpatine doesn’t intend to play the "unite against a common enemy" trick like in Hollywood movies. He uses human armies to protect the Imperial territories of the Galaxy, so humans must occupy the ruling position of the Galactic Empire.

Other races... well, we’ll see.

If it were a regular war, Palpatine might wish for those alien races to rush to their deaths. But he’s up against the Taren Insect Race, and previous reports indicate that this race can absorb all living matter on a planet and convert it into their own combat power.

This is also why Fang Zheng’s probes didn’t detect a large number of enemy invasions at the gaps, but the Taren Insect Race’s fleet expanded many times over.

In such a scenario, sending people to their deaths would just aid the enemy.

In fact, Fang Zheng already got intel from Darth Vader that Palpatine has ordered the Dead Star to move to the front line. However, the Dead Star’s purpose is not to hold back the enemy but to monitor planets that might be attacked by the Taren Insect Race. Once those planets are attacked and can’t hold them off, the Dead Star will fire and destroy them directly.

"Not even a speck I’ll leave for you!"

Palpatine is indeed ruthless and merciless, but it’s such people who can hold back the invasion of the Taren Insect Race.

However, Fang Zheng himself is not worried about the Taren Insect Race, because after acquiring information through the psychic network, he discovered the Taren Insect Race’s weakness, which is—they can only absorb organic matter.

While the Taren Insect Race is quite formidable when it comes to absorbing organic matter, even capable of compressing and taking the air itself, they can only absorb organic matter. Fang Zheng’s Swarm, however, can eat anything that is energy. Strictly speaking, even dirt could be turned into energy.

The reason they don’t eat it is just because the conversion efficiency is too low.

Both sides have the traits of devouring, infecting, and evolving, and they do so quickly. Taren has the Hive Mind, while the Swarm has the Zerg Overlord. However, the Swarm eats anything indiscriminately... heh, heh, aren’t you scared?

Fang Zheng was already contemplating how to lead the Swarm directly into the void and completely devour the entire Taren Insect Race... If he can devour this wave of the Taren Insect Race, his Swarm will be invincible under the heavens! Hahaha...

"Report!!"

Just when Fang Zheng was idly daydreaming, a soldier suddenly ran over.

"Detected abnormal warp fluctuations, communication signals are being interfered with—complete outage!"

"Switch to backup channels and see if any are usable. Sound the horn and prepare for battle."

"Yes.....!"

To counter the subspace interference caused by the Taren Insect Race, the Galactic Empire was also trying to solve the issue. Unfortunately, looking at the soldiers in the command center scurrying and sweating, it’s evident their solution wasn’t successful—since subspace interference isn’t something anyone can easily handle.

Not to mention, the Taren Insect Race is quite experienced in this area.

"Hoooooo———————!!"

Soon, the blaring horn resonated from the speakers, and upon hearing it, the Imperial soldiers hurriedly lined up on the castle walls. They clutched their weapons, staring at the darkened sky in front of them.

For a moment, it was as if even the howling cold wind came to a standstill.

Then, the shadow descended.

Countless spores plummeted from the sky towards the Shadow Star, like massive hailstones falling from the clouds and striking the ground with a whoosh.

"Fire!!!"

With a command, the already set-up anti-aircraft guns immediately roared to life, and in no time, flashes of fire scattered across the sky.

Simultaneously, the battle officially commenced.

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