Although so Ji Race officers resisted the Council of Elders’ decision, when faced with emotionless chanical soldiers, they ultimately had no choice but to obediently relinquish their commands.
Perhaps Lumina also wanted to avoid wasting too much material—but regardless, Luo Wen supported this decision. As a result, in the following period, the Swarm maintained this level of combat intensity and did not escalate further.
Under the Swarm’s quiet cooperation, the Ji Race spent several years completing this transformation. The battlefield thus evolved into a pure contest of cold tal versus biological weaponry.
Yet it was during these years that the Ji Race developed a new manufacturing system.
The Ji Race—or rather, the Ji Race now led by Lumina—resembled the Swarm in many ways.
Perhaps the Ji Race themselves realized this as well, for they began enhancing their nanotechnology and developed a type of super chanical nanobot.
These nanobots could devour nearly all positive-energy materials and, depending on what they consud, replicate themselves into various material-based versions—iron-bots, copper-bots, gold-bots—essentially turning minerals into active lifeforms. They would then absorb more material, replicate again, and repeat in an endless loop.
Once they reached a certain mass, the Ji Race would recycle them, combine them in specific ratios, and—relying on powerful computational capabilities—have them self-assemble into various alloy-based nanobot types, which would then form into completed warships or other weapons.
This approach massively boosted the Ji Race’s mining and manufacturing efficiency. They even abandoned their traditional space factories, making “mining a starship straight from the rock” a reality.
The Swarm had invested nearly three thousand Star Gates to open up channels between their howorld and Ji territory. If not for Luo Wen deliberately holding back, the Ji Race would’ve already been overwheld.
However, once the Ji Race’s new production system ca online, their fleet size ballooned like kernels of corn bursting under heat—expanding severalfold in a short ti.
Had usable resources within their territory not already been so scarce, that number could have increased several tis over.
But those areas of space linked by the Ji Race’s Star Gates suffered greatly. Ji warships, carrying super nanobots, fanned out in all directions. Along the way, they deployed these nanobots onto asteroid fields, belts, planets, moons—nearly every uninhabited celestial body.
The star systems boiled over as entire planets and asteroids visibly shrank, consud by the nanobots, while complete warships seed to materialize from nothing.
The massive loss of matter even triggered gravitational disturbances in so regions. Fortunately, any civilization capable of interstellar travel could manage such consequences.
Faced with the Ji Race’s actions, the other civilizations were filled with silent fury. What had begun as re spectatorship had escalated into sothing far more threatening. The disappearance of materials within their own territory directly limited their future potential. At that mont, their sentints aligned with the Swarm: take down the Ji Race.
But since they were too weak to participate in such high-level warfare, all they could do was lend the Swarm their moral support.
However, that’s not entirely accurate. While the super nanobots were incredibly powerful, their capabilities were limited to certain domains. Due to their naturally minuscule size, they shared the sa vulnerability as conventional nanobots.
They had virtually no defensive capability. Which ant they could only function in logistics. If deployed offensively, relying on their devouring and absorbing abilities on the battlefield—it was a pipe dream. A single EMP would paralyze vast swathes of them.
EMP bombs weren’t high-tech by the standards of civilizations in the Interstellar Technological Confederation, but fearing Ji Race retaliation, no one dared to act.
The Swarm, however, had no such scruples.
These new super nanobots were far too formidable. While defensively weak as individuals, once assembled into warships, they possessed stable collective structures. Even if they were paralyzed, their material composition still functioned. Though the strength of these composite units was slightly inferior to modular hulls forged in space factories, they could restart the nanobots post-battle. With sufficient material, even heavily damaged warships could be rapidly restored.
Their recovery capability even surpassed the regenerative abilities of the Swarm’s Fungal Carpet.
Worse still, they could devour Swarm unit wreckages to refuel and extract materials. Once, the ability to digest chanical warships was a Swarm-exclusive. Now, the Ji Race had one-upped them—more efficient, more effective.
Not only did this exponentially expand the Ji Race fleet, it drastically boosted their endurance and repair efficiency—an epic-level upgrade.
Even that wasn’t the most infuriating part.
The Ji Race’s thod was inherently destructive extraction—turning lifeless worlds into instrunts of war.
But those places were also where the Swarm’s bases and hidden nests resided. Their actions were fundantally uprooting the Swarm’s foundations. As they mined various star systems, they frequently encountered Swarm nests—resulting in direct clashes.
Only then did the Confederation races realize: the Swarm wasn’t innocent either. They had long been hiding within these star systems, secretly undertaking who-knew-what sches.
This made Luo Wen burn with sha and rage, like an embarrassed middle-aged uncle caught pants-down. The Swarm had only just begun to salvage a positive image, and in re days, they were shoved back into the villain role.
Enough was enough.
Luo Wen decided to strike hard. To show everyone just how angry he was—and what serious consequences that entailed.
Previously sealed combat power began to be unleashed. Swarm units hidden across star systems began to reveal their strength. Countless Primordial bodies surged into space from the cracks and corners, gathering rapidly.
The spectacular sight from not long ago repeated itself: Primordial bodies clustering in the void, morphing into massive, awe-inspiring constructs. Beautiful blue radiance began to shine across the star systems.
The Swarm’s movents left both the Ji Race and the Confederation civilizations—who were now watching the war from inside the war—baffled.
Because much of the data was transparent. While Swarm units were good at hiding, rapid deploynt still required them to be within Close Stellar Orbit, soaking up radiation to function.
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