Qin Beiwang immediately issued his orders.
"Fire Qilin, maintain course and navigation speed!"
What left the commanders of the Sub-Level Fleets even more confused and uneasy were the subsequent instructions.
"Dubhe, Merak, Alkaid, Mizar, and the directly subordinate fleets—five fleets total—immediately break from your current trajectories. Maneuver into the Ghost Nebula (a dense interstellar cloud located on the S-22 flank with extensive range and chaotic electromagnetic signatures). After entry, maintain absolute silence, shut down non-essential energy output, and await further orders."
The commands were transmitted over the encrypted channel.
Seconds later, barely concealed doubts echoed through the communication loop.
"Commander."
The voice of Dubhe Fleet Commander Feng Shaojun came through first, carrying his usual steadiness mixed with evident concern.
"The interior of the Ghost Nebula is highly complex, with extremely high concentrations of ionized gas and microdust. Our conventional detection methods will be practically useless inside—it's equivalent to being blinded. Starship hulls and external equipment may suffer persistent corrosion, and there's a risk of internal circuitry faults due to electrostatic accumulation. Most importantly, once we enter, we'll struggle to observe external enemy movements ourselves, making maneuvering and coordination extremely difficult... This is like locking ourselves inside an iron can."
"Exactly, Commander!" Alkaid Fleet Commander Fan Jingxuan added urgently. "The Obsidian Fleet is about to catch up. Hiding the majority of our main force scattered inside a blind spot at this moment—what if the enemy fleet bypasses the nebula? Or if our position is exposed and we're attacked? We might not even have time to react! Should we... reconsider?"
Though the other Sub-fleet Commanders remained silent, their unspoken doubts were palpable. Placing the fleets in such a passive and dangerous position was far from conventional tactics.
Facing their confusion and concern, Qin Beiwang's voice remained calm, betraying no fluctuation.
"Everyone, execute the orders. Specific coordinates and postures after entering the nebula will be sent to each of you shortly. As for observation and navigation issues..." He paused briefly, as if confirming something, then continued, "Don't worry. I have my own methods to monitor the external situation, especially the movements of the Obsidian main force. You just need to hide well, maintain silence, and wait for the attack signal."
His tone carried an unquestionable certainty, but where did this certainty come from? Though doubts lingered in their minds, military orders were as firm as mountains, and Qin Beiwang's past battle records and those incredible tactical successes forced them to suppress their concerns.
"Yes, Commander."
"Acknowledged."
Brimming with unanswered questions, the four Sub-fleet Commanders accepted their orders.
The massive Pluto Fleet began to divide.
The "Qilin"-class aircraft carrier "Fire Qilin" and two escort cruisers continued maintaining their posture of "pursuing" the Emerald remnants, though their speed noticeably decreased, like a retracting fist holding back some of its strength.
Meanwhile, the other five fleets, comprising over seventy main force starships, slipped away like ink-dyed fish disappearing into the depths.
Slowly turning, it headed towards the nearby "Ghost Nebula" swirling with magnificent yet dangerous light.
Gradually swallowed by the dense ionized gas and cosmic dust, it "vanished" from the main battlefield.
Meanwhile, in the tactical center of the flagship "Kunlun Mountain - Modified".
The atmosphere here was starkly different from the confusion outside.
Qin Bei Wang stood alone before the central holographic tactical console, where two star charts hovered above the surface.
One was the standard fleet-shared tactical star map, containing relatively conventional information, currently displaying the positions of their two carrier battle groups, the withdrawal trajectories of the Beryl/Emerald remnants, and the approximate location of the Obsidian main force.
The other was his system star chart.
This chart was far clearer, more detailed, and real-time.
On this private star chart, vast regions of the Savannah Star System were no longer just blank voids or rough simulations.
Countless subtle, nearly imperceptible data streams were converging from the vast expanse of space.
The sources of this data were the passive detection buoys secretly deployed by Shadow-class reconnaissance ships along key shipping lanes, gravity anomaly points, and the outer reaches of the star system—long before the fleet's departure, and even earlier.
These buoys emitted no active signals, transmitting no detectable energy.
They lay dormant like sleeping senses, recording every "trace" that passed by.
Engine heat radiation, minute perturbations in gravitational fields, the occlusion of background radiation by large-scale metallic objects in motion, and even occasional leaks of encrypted communication harmonics—all were directly fed into Qin Bei Wang's system star chart. As long as the distance did not exceed 780 million kilometers, the data was essentially real-time.
This was also the confidence behind Qin Bei Wang's decision to hide the fleet within the nebula.
On the bridge of the Obsidian Fleet's flagship, "Unbreakable Bulwark".
The communications officer presented the latest reports from the Beryl and Emerald Fleets, filled with interference and hurried breaths.
"Enemy... enemy fighter craft continue to harass... attack intervals have increased somewhat. But the attacks are relentless... our fleet losses continue to mount... The Pluto Fleet's main force... still appears to be following behind. The distance... hasn't significantly closed, but they haven't been shaken off either..."
Lancaster listened to the report, a confident smile finally curling at the corners of his mouth.
"Just as I thought!"
He snorted softly, his tone carrying the understanding of a veteran who had seen through a young officer's tricks.
"Greedy for merit and rashly advancing, blinded by the prey right before his eyes. Sending only fighter craft to pick us off while the main force dares not approach—is he afraid of a counterattack, or... is he wary of a trap?"
He could almost picture the young face of Qin Bei Wang, filled with desire for "military merit" and the unease of venturing deep behind enemy lines. He had seen this mindset all too often.
"Commander!"
At that moment, the fleet chief of staff, a stern-faced lieutenant colonel standing slightly behind him, stepped forward, his brow furrowed with unresolved concern.
"I feel something is amiss."
Lancaster tilted his head slightly.
"Speak."
"From the beginning of the engagement, the enemy has only deployed space fighters for attacks. Their battleships, cruisers, and other capital ships have yet to appear, not even conducting long-range firepower probes."
The chief of staff pointed at the star chart.
"This defies logic. If they were truly intent on devouring Beryl and Emerald, even for the sake of intimidation and suppression, their capital ships should have advanced, at the very least to conduct an artillery barrage."
"This 'Hide the Head and Show the Tail' tactic of only deploying fighter craft... seems like they're deliberately hiding something, or waiting for something."
His words fell, and the bridge fell silent for a moment.
"Chief of Staff, you're overthinking it."
From the other side, Deputy Commander Jeremy Sloan, a sharp-eyed middle-aged Colonel, immediately refuted.
His tone carried absolute confidence in their own technology.
"Our 'Night Owl'-class T4 Special Reconnaissance Ships have long been deployed to the fan-shaped alert network 180 million kilometers around the main fleet.
Each 'Night Owl' is equipped with the latest long-baseline thermal tracking arrays and hypersensitive gravitational wave detectors."