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

In the end, Shadow Star turned into a sea of flames. Both the Taren Insect Race and the Chaos Demons were burned into ash, while Fang Zheng just burped contentedly, patted his butt, and went back. As for Shadow Star... yeah, that place was definitely done for, but it was an abandoned system anyway, so whatever.

For Fang Zheng, this wasn’t anything special, but for the Galactic Empire it was a headache. Although they’d reaped a huge harvest this time, they also learned that there was actually another enemy this powerful and terrifying lurking within the Milky Way... If not for the outbreak brought by the Taren Insect Race, they probably wouldn’t even have had the slightest concept of it!

Fortunately, it’s not too late to find out now.

"You’ve already wiped them out?"

Darth Vader came up to Fang Zheng, his voice low and uneasy.

"For now? Yeah, I did kill them. But whether there’ll be another wave... that I don’t know."

Fang Zheng also shook his head at this. When he used the Primordial Fire earlier, he got a read on the situation on the Chaos Demons’ side as well. To put it simply — the space where the Chaos Demons reside is like the gap between two pieces of furniture; it’s something that has to exist. This sweep of Primordial Fire was basically a full sterilization. In the short term, it’ll definitely be clean and tidy with no issues. But after many years, whether bacteria, dust, and microorganisms will reappear there is no longer up to Fang Zheng.

After all, this kind of world seam is trouble. Just look at how in the World of Shana, the gap between the two realms was turned into a Paradise by the Followers of the Crimson Realm — hmm? Should he just fire off another wave here too?

Forget it, let’s see how things go.

Thinking this, Fang Zheng pulled his thoughts back and looked at Darth Vader.

"According to my suggestion, in the short term you’d better keep your focus on the Taren Insect Race. Those Chaos Demons at least won’t be coming out to stir up trouble for a while, but nobody can say what’ll happen in the future. And I have to remind you, these guys are not any easier to deal with than the Taren."

The reason Fang Zheng could wipe out both sides in one go was because he’d sensed something long ago and had been waiting for the right moment. On top of that, both the Taren Insect Race and the Chaos Demons were completely locked into their battle at the time, never imagining such a powerful enemy would jump out from the sidelines to ambush them. That’s the only reason Fang Zheng managed to take them in one strike. If it had been a frontal battlefield, with both sides lining up properly, Fang Zheng would never be dumb enough to reveal his true form and deliver himself to them.

"I understand."

Darth Vader’s mood wasn’t great either. Although he didn’t know exactly how Fang Zheng had eradicated those Creatures in the end, just from the earlier videos and data he could tell that the Chaos Demons were enemies just as terrifying as the Taren Insect Race. The Galactic Empire was still at a disadvantage up till now, yet those Chaos Demons could fight the Taren Insect Race to a standstill. That alone was scary enough.

"By the way, Mr. Fang Zheng."

Thinking of this, Darth Vader drew back his thoughts and decided not to dwell on these headaches for now.

"His Imperial Majesty just sent word, hoping that you can attend the national sacrificial ceremony in five days."

"A ceremony?"

"Yes. His Imperial Majesty plans to announce the founding of the New State Religion at this ceremony, as well as the debut of a brand-new Warship."

"Oh?"

Hearing Darth Vader say this, Fang Zheng’s interest was immediately piqued.

"You guys finished building your new-type Warship?"

As for the Galactic Empire’s plan to create new-type Warships, Darth Vader had already mentioned it to Fang Zheng before. The current Star Destroyers were simply not comparable to the Taren Insect Race, and to resist these invaders, the Galactic Empire had to build an entirely new fleet capable of facing the Taren Swarm head-on in space.

On this point, Fang Zheng agreed. He’d studied the Star Destroyers and found that, although they were extremely powerful, they really weren’t suited to fighting the Swarm.

The reason was simple: they were built for the wrong job.

The purpose of the Empire’s Star Destroyers isn’t actually space combat. Their core mission is "burning glass." Put bluntly, just from the name "Star Destroyer," you can see the Galactic Empire’s military strategy — you want to fight a war with me, fine, but if you push me too far I’ll burn your whole planet to slag, let’s see if you’re scared or not.

There’s no one in the Galactic Empire crazy enough to install engines on their own planet and play Wandering Planet. Faced with the Empire’s "if I can’t beat you, I’ll burn your whole family" tactic, they basically have no countermeasures. So the Star Destroyers’ combat power is more about quality than quantity. That’s only natural; in the Milky Way, the Galactic Empire stands alone at the top, and the Rebel Army can’t even scrape together a few fleets to match them. So as long as the Galactic Empire maintains a certain number of fleets while ensuring sufficient deterrence, that’s already enough.

But this kind of method is useless in front of the Swarm.

Even if a person is lugging a heavy machine gun with infinite ammo, if I send a hundred fearless axemen at you, they can still hack you to death in a flurry of blades. That’s exactly the awkward situation Star Destroyers are facing. Their bombardment is still brutally powerful, but there just aren’t enough guns. Faced with this Taren Insect Race–style, fearless, pack-of-wolves-mad-dog assault, they’re completely out of options. So Vida had already told Fang Zheng before that they absolutely had to build brand-new warships to fight the Swarm...... and now it looks like they’ve actually pulled it off?

"Yes, it’s finally finished......"

"Can I take a look?"

"If it were anyone else, definitely not. But you, Mr. Fang Zheng...... of course there’s no problem."

At first Fang Zheng had wondered why the other side would so casually show him such a military secret, but once he saw the photos Vida Teleportation-ed over, he immediately understood.

This guy had completely copy-pasted his own Paladin-Class Raider!

The Galactic Empire’s brand-new warship had totally ditched the original sandwich-style triangle shape and instead was much closer to the long, strip-like profile of a Paladin-type Raider Ship. And just like the Paladins, they’d mounted the turrets on the sides ——— uh, maybe because his own Legion had performed way too well in the previous battles, so the Galactic Empire had their eye on them?

But...... whatever.

Compared to the Azure Battleship’s simple, grand, Science Fiction-style aesthetic, this warship in front of him felt a lot more luxurious. While in silhouette it did look similar to a Paladin Rank, all the decoration was a totally different style. The Galactic Empire’s new warship looked more like a Middle Ages-style Royal Warship, full of intricate carvings and patterns. You could even see the structures on the deck built like churches, magnificent and splendid.

On both sides of the hull of this warship, there were also twelve cannons each. From the outside they looked like Middle Ages-era artillery, except obviously ——— there was no way these were actual gunpowder cannons. They were a main bombardment weapon called Ion Macro Cannons, a brand-new product redesigned by the Imperial Naval Research Institute. They compressed the massive energy of an ion explosion into a photon cluster and fired it, with quite a long range, meant to deliver the first wave of long-range attacks against the Taren Insect Race fleets.

Not only that, the Galactic Empire had gone a step further and installed several weapon-array systems on the deck called Light Spears. Their core principle was also the integrated product of the Laser Cannons from Star Destroyers, mainly used to deal with enemy Protective Barriers and armor, with considerable destructive power.

According to Vida’s explanation, the firing concept of this type of warship was ramming-charge with frontal bombardment. The twelve cannons on both sides of the hull were specifically for dealing with those Taren Insect Race warships daring to rush up for point-blank engagement. Besides that, on the lower half of the ship they hadn’t forgotten to mount torpedoes and the Star Destroyers’ Laser Cannons.

The main Laser Cannons of the Star Destroyers were installed beneath the ram at the bow, while the torpedo launchers were mounted directly on the front of the bow.

The latter’s rate of fire was indeed a bit slow, but the firepower was absolutely solid. Once they ram-charged in and fired a shot straight into the enemy’s face, not even the Taren Insect Race could withstand it.

Simply put, when the new-type warship faced the Taren Insect Race fleet, first came a round of long-range bombardment, then an Acceleration charge. After rushing into range, it immediately fired torpedoes and Laser Cannons from the bow to open a path. If they brushed past, then the side guns would go point-blank, and if they directly rammed in, they’d use the ram for a full-on charge.

Aside from that, most of the remaining space was filled with anti-aircraft guns, specifically for dealing with enemy torpedoes and those Swarm Army units that tried to jump aboard for close-quarters fighting.

The concept was solid, the idea was great, but...... looking at this brand-new Imperial warship that basically looked like a Paladin Rank with some mod pack slapped on, Fang Zheng couldn’t help feeling a bit complicated.

How to put it... it was like watching someone get plastic surgery to look exactly like your own daughter, then slather on heavy makeup on top.

"What do you think, Mr. Fang Zheng?"

"Ah, mm...... pretty good. It’s nice that you’ve got your own ideas."

Facing Vida’s question, Fang Zheng coughed, shut off the terminal, and silently decided that once he got back he absolutely had to call Rodney and the others over to comfort them properly.

Otherwise, who knew, the moment they saw this warship they might just open fire on the spot. Mind Models have very lofty pride; seeing this kind of knockoff look-alike, who knew if they’d get so mad their circuits started smoking.

After that, Fang Zheng attended the Galactic Empire’s grand national sacrificial ceremony.

At the ceremony, Palpatine looked high-spirited and triumphant. He abandoned his former low-key style and donned a pure white and gold robe symbolizing nobility and splendor. At the ceremony, Palpatine publicly announced several things. First, that the Galactic Empire was under invasion by an extra–Milky Way species, and that the Galactic Empire would spare no effort to encircle and protect the Empire’s territories and subjects. Then he smoothly unveiled this Battleship, which was called the "Retribution-Class."

Besides that, Palpatine also announced the last and most important matter: from this day forward, the Galactic Empire would establish a New State Religion. From now on, this state religion would be the only legal religion in the entire Galactic Empire; all other sects would be regarded as Heresy. As for Palpatine himself, as Emperor of the Galactic Empire he would also serve as the first Pope. From this day forth, he would be known as————— the Imperial Emperor!

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