The intercepting operation was still ongoing. As the enemy had only brought one Holy Tree Emissary, with the rest of their troops lacking individual strength, Kasuyi was the only one who took action. The other Beyond Grade As did not have the chance to take action and merely continued to wait.

In the compartment of the command room, almost a hundred Beyond Grade As were gathered there, doing their own things. Some were supervising the situation, some were resting with their eyes closed, some were dealing with matters, some were chatting casually, and there were even some who were playing cards in such a serious setting.

“Speaking of which, it has been some time since the two of us sat down to chat.”

Kant looked at the direct descendants of the three Universal Civilizations and sighed.

When the three Universal Civilizations were targeting the association, Han Xiao did not allow the direct Beyond Grade As to participate in the meeting. After the lockdown was lifted, due to various things being delayed, the three Universal Civilizations had yet to regain the normal treatment that the direct Beyond Grade As of the three Universal Civilizations received in the association. Therefore, the time they spent on standby in the main base was when the members of the association and the direct Beyond Grade As finally got to sit together and chat.

“Now that we have a common enemy, let’s not talk about the past for the time being. We’re just doing our own thing.” Oulou sighed and looked at Han Xiao with a complicated expression.

“Heh, don’t confuse us with you guys. You guys have masters, but we don’t. It’s all for ourselves.” Sun Hunter curled his lips.

Oulou was silent for a few seconds before changing the topic. “I saw that the members of your association are not here yet. Why aren’t the others here?”

“They’re still considering it.” Kasuyi shook his head.

“You guys are participating in the battle, and they’re watching from behind and taking advantage of us? You guys can accept this?” Oulou raised his brows.

“So, you should kneel down and be grateful to us… Damn it, just thinking about it makes me feel so noble,” Sun Hunter cursed. Kasuyi helplessly explained, “Someone has to set an example. If not for Black Star, we might not have come.”

This time, Clotti, who was resting with his eyes closed, opened his eyes and slowly said, “Then, do you have the resolve to die in battle?”

Hearing this, everyone paused and looked over.

Clotti was expressionless as he calmly continued. “We, the direct descendants, are all participating in the battle with the determination to sacrifice our lives. Aren’t you self-serving people afraid of losing your lives? Even if there’s the Sanctum Revival, I’m sure none of you are willing to spend your chance to revive and give the initiative of your life and death to others.”

“…You’re right. Of course, no one is willing to sacrifice themselves if they can survive. However, they have to personally experience the strength of the enemy before they know what they’re doing,” Secret Master replied calmly. “Therefore, don’t expect us to fight to the death for you. We’re just fulfilling our end of the bargain. We’ve already done our part by coming to help.” This time, Oulou looked at Han Xiao, who did not participate in the conversation, and asked, “Black Star, if we die, you will help us revive, right?”

Hearing this, Han Xiao turned around and gave a brief reply.

He was not familiar with Oulou in the past, but after interacting with him for the past few days, this person was indeed not difficult to deal with.

“Yes.”

“Ha, then I’m relieved. If I can leave my body behind when I die in battle, please use the Spacetime Amber and preserve me as a specimen to let me take it away when I revive. I don’t want others to covet my handsomeness and steal my body for their collection.”

Oulou made a joke, but no one laughed.

Sun Hunter rolled his eyes. “Do you think you’re funny?”

Han Xiao could not be bothered with the people who were chatting. He looked away and continued to browse the forums.

At the moment, more than ninety percent of the players in the universe had arrived at the frontline. Most of them were rubbing their hands in anticipation of the war.

This kind of large-scale war operation had always been a good opportunity for the players to accumulate experience. Most of the army players participated in the operation, which would allow Han Xiao to gain experience more efficiently.

However, the players had yet to reach the level limit of the version. The first choice for EXP was to level up on their own. After reaching the level limit, they would then have a lot of extra EXP to do other things.

This meant that when most of the players reached the maximum level, his efficiency in harvesting EXP would increase by a lot. This was not his fastest harvesting speed.

It’s a pity that the usage of the players in this scenario is not as good as it was in my previous life…

Han Xiao felt helpless.

The World Tree War was supposed to be a later version, but due to the butterfly effect, it had been brought forward to Version 5.0. In his previous life, this would only be considered a middle version. The players were lacking a few extra versions to accumulate, and the upper limit of their levels would be a few dozen levels lower. Thus, they would not be as useful in the main battlefield as in his previous life.

In his previous life, the players had very high strategic value. The Immortals who were formed by high-level Supers had contributed a lot to many battlefields. Now that this force was gone, it would definitely affect all aspects of battle.

Fortunately, the fate of Hila and Aurora had been rewritten by him, and the Underworld should be able to fill this gap.

Beep beep beep…

While he was pondering, his communicator suddenly rang. It was a message from Oathkeeper.

Han Xiao took it out to take a look, and his expression changed.

“The World Tree is recruiting an army, estimated to be in the tens of billions, ready to launch an attack!”

Hearing this, the chatter in the room disappeared. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him. There were all kinds of expressions such as seriousness, surprise, and fear. Han Xiao immediately walked out of the cubicle to share information with Simon and the others. The other Beyond Grade As also stood up and followed behind Han Xiao.

Simon and the other commanders had been monitoring the situation outside the cubicle the entire time. Upon hearing the intelligence that Han Xiao had shared, their expressions changed, and they hurriedly opened their long-distance communication to report the situation to the leaders of the three Universal Civilizations.

The figures of the three Universal Civilizations’ leaders appeared on the remote communication screen. The three of them listened to the report with solemn expressions and nodded.

“Is the World Tree Civilization preparing to launch an attack? Got it. We will send the order to gather the various armies to the frontline and prepare for a tough battle.”

As he spoke, Marbruce heaved a sigh of relief.

“Black Star, your intel this time is still very timely and bought us quite some time.” The World Tree Civilization was still in the recruitment phase, and the fleet had yet to be gathered, but Destiny’s Child had already detected it and sent it to Han Xiao. This was a huge advantage, and the other party would not arrive so quickly, so they had plenty of time to prepare. Knowing the other party’s next move ahead of time, the three Universal Civilizations would be able to deal with it ahead of time. Black Star’s intelligence network had already made contributions more than once, and every time, the three Universal Civilizations felt like they had been given coal during a harsh winter.

Han Xiao nodded. “A fleet of tens of billions is not easy to deal with. Although I have provided intelligence, you are the main force.”

The World Tree Civilization had sent out tens of billions of battleships, which was indeed quite a large force. However, in terms of a Universal War, this was not an all-out attack. The scale of tens of billions was not at the level where they were invincible.

The mobilization capacity of the two civilizations could not be compared in the same breath for internal and external battles. When there were no external enemies, the three Universal Civilizations would control their military strength to an appropriate standard. They would not expand their army on a large scale to avoid excessive military expenditures, instead mainly focusing on accumulating strategic resources. However, once they fully entered the state of war, they would quickly turn into a militaristic mode. All the military factories under their flag would explode with soldiers day and night, and their military strength would increase every day.

The scale of the World Tree’s assault was not enough to make the three Universal Civilizations give up on intercepting them. Unless they could not stop them completely, it would not be the time to use their rear strategic strength to exchange for more time.

At this moment, a staff officer touched his chin and said, “Since the other party is still recruiting troops, should we take the initiative to harass them?”

Hearing this, everyone turned to look at him before looking away.

Simon glanced at him, shook his head, and said, “The World Tree’s information state warning network is spread all over the territory. If we encounter it, we’ll be exposed. What can we do to disrupt it? Furthermore, any army can move quickly in the territory, almost instantaneously. Their mobility is far beyond ours. It’s a natural ambush circle. Once exposed, we’ll be surrounded by countless fleets. We’ll be devoured no matter how many we send.”

Another commander on the side brought the topic back on track and said with a deep voice, “The wormhole reinforcement base already covers the current intercepting area. No matter which blockade area the World Tree hits, we will be able to start the battle and stop the other party.”

The intercepting circle was divided into many levels, and there were strategic zones of different depth between the different levels. The reinforcement base station was the connecting channel, which ensured that the various regional troops in the horizontal longitudinal area would look out for each other. Regardless of whether it was the observation level or the garrison level, they had completed the allocation. No matter where they met a strong enemy, they would be able to quickly send their main force.

As for whether the World Tree’s assault team would hit the intercepting circle, it was not a big problem. Although the intercepting circle was still under construction, it would still be effective even if it was not fully formed. It was similar to running a race; as long as their expansion speed was slighter faster than the enemy, it would remain effective. At the same time, the intercepting team was also constantly setting up spatial anchoring orbits to eliminate the coordinates of the exploration teams’ routes, constantly moving the enemy’s starting point backward as much as possible to return to its original position, causing them to only be able to resume their usual voyage and remain in the intercepting circle. “It seems like the World Tree doesn’t plan to only give us appetizers. It’s preparing to give us a proper meal… This is the first time I’ve experienced a Universal War of this scale.” Oulou’s eyes flickered. At this time, Secret Master pinched his fingers and calculated in his mind before saying with an expressionless face, “My death omen is flashing.” With that said, he changed his hand gesture, and magical waves spread out.

Everyone sensed something and looked over curiously. “What did you just do?”

“I shifted my bad luck,” Secret Master said calmly.

“Who did you transfer it to?”

“Him.”

Secret Master pointed at Han Xiao.

Han Xiao looked at the Luck Reduction status on the interface with a face full of question marks. “Do we have a grudge?” “No.”

“Then why did you push your bad luck on me?”

“Anyway, you’re not afraid. There’s no room for your luck to decline.”

Han Xiao’s mouth twitched.

Are you treating me like a trash can? If not for the fact that I have enemies now, I would let you know why one’s anus is called a chrysanthemum!