Starting Cultivation in Wasteland

It’s a bit regrettable that the pursuing starship didn’t collide with the largest space mine.

However, even so, that starship was blown away to over a hundred thousand kilometers.

The starships following behind were startled by this and came to a sudden stop.

But immediately afterward, the pursuing starship erupted in rage, "Damn, using a space mine, such an ancient relic, who are you trying to mock?"

In this day and age, still using space mines, isn’t that too much of a bullying tactic?

But regardless of what anyone says, once this thing is triggered, it’s really quite effective!

The pursuers stomped in frustration, cursed angrily, yet couldn’t hide the fact that it really worked.

The damage report came quickly; that starship... was scrapped, with basically no repair value left.

There were twenty-three people on board, four died instantly, six were heavily injured—among them, five would suffer permanent disabilities.

Nine were lightly or mildly injured, basically okay, only four were unhurt!

When the space mine exploded, the mining starship was only over a million kilometers from the blast point.

The Black Zone is indeed so bizarre, the other side thought they were separated by four million kilometers, but in reality, it wasn’t even half that distance.

After taking such a hit, the pursuers immediately became much more cautious, slowing down significantly and occasionally firing probing shots.

And the mining starship was not far from them, maintaining about a two-million-kilometer distance.

Supposedly, the Black Zone shouldn’t be observable over such long distances, but celestial bodies follow natural laws.

Although the environment here is chaotic and violent, through various reactions, one can roughly estimate the trajectory of the pursuers.

It might not be precise, and targets might occasionally be lost, but by and large, the pursuers have not escaped the attention of the mineral starship.

This, of course, is thanks to Little Lake’s accurate calculations, and the anti-smuggling terminal has also played a vital role.

But over time, the anti-smuggling terminal became somewhat insufficient, its temperature rising rapidly.

Qu Jianlei had no choice but to take out another anti-smuggling terminal and then bring out the Vortex.

The experienced Palamera and others, with their profound knowledge from the Marquis’s mansion, recognized the Vortex.

After all, this is the most advanced portable terminal for civilian use by the Empire; aside from the high cost, without some connections, one can’t even buy it.

However, everyone remained calm, privately discussing it for a moment; for such a powerful entity, acquiring such equipment is not surprising.

Rusna, being more knowledgeable, thoughtfully asked, "Is this parallel computing?"

Multi-device parallel computing is not difficult; anyone with a basic understanding of the principles can do it, though the hands-on threshold is relatively high.

Her real question was: Is this much computing power necessary?

The Vortex portable terminal, after all, can run large data calculations anytime, anywhere!

"Yes," Qu Jianlei nodded, as only he could answer this question, "the environment in the Black Zone is too complex."

"But..." Rusna hesitated, "With just this equipment, you want to run environmental analysis data for the Black Zone?"

Frankly speaking, even a large computer cluster might not manage it!

In fact, the Empire doesn’t even have a data model for the Black Zone yet, not even a basic one.

This is partly because each Black Zone has different specific circumstances, but there’s also another reason: the Black Zone can be bypassed!

Since it can be avoided to mitigate risk, analyzing the formation of the Black Zone and establishing a data model is not a priority.

There are too many abnormal celestial phenomena in the universe, and researching any requires a massive investment of manpower and resources.

This creates an issue of priority; the ones most worth researching are, of course, the uncertain phenomena with potentially huge threats.

Palamera listened with partial understanding, quietly asking Rusna, "Is the data too large to process?"

"It’s more than just too large," Rusna whispered back, "It’s... never mind, I don’t really understand, I won’t say more."

Seeing her expertise, Qu Jianlei replied, "It’s about choosing critical data; even I can’t handle the data from the Black Zone."

The Supremes exchanged glances, finding it all somewhat incomprehensible.

Cartier spoke up, "How do you choose this critical data?"

Qu Jianlei smiled but remained silent, while Rusna looked at him, then shook her head—you’ve overstepped.

But even she couldn’t help herself and muttered softly, "Artificial intelligence?"

Qu Jianlei chuckled, "How can this be considered artificial intelligence? It’s far inferior to the military’s; it’s just not too dumb."

In front of experts, denial is useless.

After all, since the military is researching digital battleships, a little research into artificial intelligence on his part isn’t a big deal, right?

The Big Head Butterfly swirled fiercely in his mind—"Not too dumb"?

Palamera wasn’t surprised at all, only curiously asking, "How effective is it?"

"We’ve already crippled one ship," Qu Jianlei brought up the real-time monitoring image again, "These are the four that are tracking us."

Cartier, who had expertise in this area, examined it for a while before commenting, "It’s a fuzzy search."

"Good enough, okay," Rusna interjected, "We’re in the Black Zone, after all."

The related information is indeed very fuzzy, but still managing to keep a lock on them is already a miracle.

Unknowingly, three days had passed, and Little Lake’s computational precision had further improved.

However, in the face of the vast data of the Black Zone, this little progress is insignificant, ordinary people simply can’t feel it.

During this process, both the escapee and the pursuer showed extraordinary patience.

There was only one person who was anxious, and that was undoubtedly Patrice.

The journey to the Maiden Star Realm was somewhat fruitful, but she was constantly pursued and cornered, from the Shattered Star Belt to the Black Zone.

If she couldn’t return to the Marquis’ mansion soon, changes might occur.

Yet, she didn’t dare to contact Qu Jianlei, only able to inquire through Palamera, "How long will it take?"

"They’re probably looking for an opportunity," Palamera analyzed calmly, "Otherwise, they would have discarded the locator long ago."

"Continuous movement can effectively wear down the opponent while numbing them."

But if this continues, our people will become restless too. Patrice pursed her lips, remaining silent.

She knew well that with her lower cultivation level, she was also a novice in space warfare and didn’t have the right to question.

In fact, the pursuers showed far more patience than they imagined.

However, ammunition consumption is a real factor, so maintaining a moderate level of probing shots is necessary since the first merchant ship was damaged.

After three more days, the frequency of trial shots from the trailing four starships noticeably decreased, and they began alternating shots.

Upon confirming this, Palamera was even less anxious.

He actively explained to his people, "The opponent is far from exhausted; this change indicates two possibilities."

"The first possibility is they intend to lull us, the second is they are prepared for a long-term battle."

"Of course, it could be both, and what we should do the most is remain unchanged against all changes!"

He had a level of skill, and others could only follow his judgment.

In the blink of an eye, the starships had been circling in the Black Zone for sixteen days.

Putting aside the pursuers’ reaction, a sense of anxiety was gradually emerging in the Mining Starship.

Space travel is truly tormenting, the space is cramped, and there’s no scenery to speak of.

Especially with pursuers at the back, over time, tension naturally transforms into anxiety.

Thankfully, there were quite a few Supremes on this starship, others didn’t dare to complain easily even if they had thoughts.

On this day, Qu Jianlei finally awaited the change from the four armed merchant ships at the back.

Judging by the position shift of the starships, they were likely changing formation, leaving or adjusting their search method.

But any change is good, especially since their current distance is about a hundred twenty thousand kilometers.

The Mining Starship made an immense rotation in an instant, causing the entire starship to shudder slightly.

In that moment, everyone realized: changes were about to occur.

The tenser the moment, the less voice there is, which is a rule during starship navigation.

The Mining Starship rapidly approached the four starships behind.

The opponent apparently hadn’t worked together like this before, taking some time to change formation.

Ultimately, they formed a formation focused on one side, making it convenient to escape in case of unexpected situations.

Just after the formation was set, the Mining Starship abruptly emerged.

Due to Qu Jianlei temporarily disabling the locator, the opponent didn’t even have time to react.

With just one shot, the Gao Fang Battleship immediately went dead, the angle couldn’t have been more cunning.

Normally, these starships have strong defense, not supposed to be so fragile.

The issue is, after over ten days of chasing in the Black Zone, maintaining high-intensity defense is unrealistic.

Not to mention whether there are enough Energy Blocks, the defense system can’t withstand such continuous strain.

Then with the angle and timing of Little Lake’s aim being very precise, it knocked out the opponent’s power system in one shot.

The other three starships were taken aback, "Whoa, did they sneak up on us like this?"

As they enhanced shield strength and rotated their guns, three more white beams shot out.

This triple shot immediately crippled another armed merchant ship.

However, experienced captains were on this merchant ship, directly commanding, "Surround them!"

At this moment, in the remaining two armed merchant ships, some even considered fleeing.

The opponent’s star war capabilities were too superb; they knocked out two starships instantly, leaving two against one, how can this battle be fought?

The statement steadied morale, and the captain of the starship promptly provided the reason, "Our fire control system is still intact!"

Indeed, two starships were crippled, but even the Gao Fang Battleship had backup power systems.

Backup systems might be poorer but can still support most firepower systems.

So it was still four against one, only with two starships being immobile, acting as two firepower output platforms.

Thus began Little Lake’s moment to showcase its skills.

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