Qin Hu's interstellar warships began to chase after those withdrawing interstellar frigates.
But at this point, right upon the sailing route of their pursuit, five T3 interstellar warships appeared out of thin air.
Interstellar stealth bombers!
Upon seeing the form of the hulls, the captains of those interstellar warships at the first glance recognized this rare ship-type of interstellar warship.
And what came in its wake was the great quantity of interstellar torpedoes and interstellar bombs the other party launched.
The fireworks of explosion joined into a single stretch.
But set against the scene of the interstellar-missile bombardment from before, this counted, already, as a small-scale affair.
But by the time this wave of explosions had ended, they discovered, aghast, that those five T3 interstellar stealth bombers had already vanished without shadow or trace.
And those interstellar frigates, whose very sterns they'd originally still been able to see, had already run far, far off — such that only upon the starship radar could the energy signals of those interstellar warships still be tracked.
Plainly, those interstellar stealth bombers just now had been covering their own friendly ships' retreat.
"Bite onto them! Whoever dares lose track of them, I'll kill his whole family!" Qin Hu handed down a death-order.
After that, his remaining 6,000-odd interstellar warships followed, for all the world like clinging shadow-flies, hard upon those fleeing interstellar warships on the starship radar.
And just after they'd tracked them the whole way for some 10-odd minutes —
Suddenly!
A horror-striking thing occurred.
Upon the starship radar, the energy signals of those interstellar warships had, of all things, all vanished out of thin air.
"Reporting — the energy signals of the tracked enemy ships have all disappeared!" the adjutant reported in horror.
"Disappeared? How is that possible!" Qin Hu leapt up from the captain's chair, and ordered, "At once deploy the long-range signal-capture apparatus! Find them for me! How could those interstellar warships possibly just suddenly vanish!"
The interstellar reconnaissance ships accompanying the formation began to deploy "little black boxes," one after another — a special kind of reconnaissance equipment.
A sort of long-range radar of the void.
Its reconnaissance range far exceeded that of starship radar, but because it was comparatively large in size, generally only interstellar reconnaissance ships would be equipped with some, to be used when necessary.
Soon enough, a larger starship-radar detection-map was presented before Qin Hu.
But apart from these interstellar warships of his own right beneath his own eyes, the star region round about held no energy signal of any interstellar warship whatsoever.
Gone!
Those 300 interstellar warships of unknown origin, together with the Princess's fleet's under-1,000 interstellar warships, had all disappeared.
For all the world as though they'd evaporated within this star-firmament.
"How could it be so…" Qin Hu was stunned, his gaze at once bewildered and enraged.
He was unwilling to believe this result; he went on handing down orders to search, meaning to turn this whole star region over from end to end, so as to find every last one of these vanished interstellar warships.
"That, um… Your Highness, there's a piece of good news…" the adjutant looked, trembling and quaking, at the darkly overcast-faced Qin Hu.
"Good news? Have you found those interstellar warships!" Qin Hu bored his gaze into his own adjutant.
The adjutant shook his head.
"No… not found."
"Then what news is it?" Qin Hu knit his brows.
The adjutant raised a hand and called up the images of several interstellar warships.
"We searched within the starship database, and in the end found interstellar-warship data very similar to the several classes of interstellar warship that appeared just now. Your Highness, look." The adjutant pointed at the comparison-data of several interstellar-warship images.
Qin Hu bored his gaze into the several comparison windows before him.
On the left were the interstellar warships of this band of attackers' interstellar fleet before them; on the right were similar interstellar warships searched out from within the starship database.
*Suspected T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser — first appeared in the North Wind Star Region; the Owl Dragon Fleet of the Owl Dragon System has a small number equipped.
Similarity 78%!*
*Suspected T3 Phoenix-class Heavy Carrier Starship — first appeared in the North Wind Star Region; the Owl Dragon Fleet of the Owl Dragon System is equipped with one.
Similarity 87%!*
*Suspected T2 Black Rhino-class Interstellar Heavy Assault Frigate — first appeared in the North Wind Star Region; the Owl Dragon Fleet of the Owl Dragon System was once equipped with them.
Similarity 94%!*
"The North Wind Star Region, the Owl Dragon System?" Qin Hu was quite baffled.
"How would the Owl Dragon System's interstellar warships appear here?"
"This point… I'm not clear on either." The adjutant scratched his head.
Qin Hu knit his brows.
"And what you mean is that that powerful interstellar fleet just now is from a tiny little star system that hasn't even a star gate? And, what's more, a viscount-lord's interstellar fleet?"
The adjutant called up several pieces of intelligence.
"I just checked into this Owl Dragon lord a moment ago; he was only just conferred an imperial marquisate, and in his two earlier battles against the interstellar hive-race he both had exceedingly valiant showings, repeatedly establishing extraordinary merit! And what he relied on was, precisely, powerful interstellar warships. This class of interstellar warship named the T3 Blizzard-class Light Interstellar Battlecruiser above all — it's called a legendary warship. Very similar to that class of T3 interstellar battlecruiser that fought us just now! And there's, besides, one more piece of intelligence: this Owl Dragon lord's own elder sister serves in the little Princess's royal fleet, and is, moreover, exceedingly valued by the little Princess."
Qin Hu's face showed a thinking look; these two did indeed seem to have quite a few clues to them.
And those several classes of interstellar warship were indeed very similar — adding to that that they'd only ever appeared in the Owl Dragon Fleet, this was far too suspicious.
But to have Qin Hu believe that he'd just now been bullied by a lord's fleet — that, no matter what, he was unwilling to believe.
"Never mind; once we're back, I'll take a good, hard look into this Owl Dragon lord. If it truly is he playing tricks behind the scenes, then I'll seize him in person! And make him pay the price!"
Qin Hu prepared to look thoroughly into this Owl Dragon lord after returning.
Right now, what he was torn over in his heart was how he was to account for this affair to his mother-empress and his elder brother.
He still, even now, couldn't fathom it — how could those interstellar warships possibly have vanished without a soul or ghost the wiser?
Even a warp jump needed preparation time; the more so since, within the royal Princess's fleet, there were, besides, a great number of crippled interstellar warships — and for those interstellar warships to enter a warp-navigation state, they'd need all the more preparation time.
At the distance the two sides had been at the time, there'd simply been no time enough to prepare a warp jump.
Just where had those interstellar warships gone?
……
The Princess's fleet, which Qin Hu couldn't find, was at this moment situated in the Owl Dragon System, a thousand li away.
Never mind Qin Hu — even Zhao Ruyue and Qin Xiaolei themselves, being the very protagonists of it, rather didn't believe what they'd heard.
"Are we really in the Owl Dragon System now?" Zhao Ruyue looked in astonishment at Lilith on the far side of the video window.
"Yes," Lilith said.
"Now we're already safe; your interstellar warships may rest and refit where they are, and if there are wounded needing treatment, our interstellar medical ships can provide help. And after that, our interstellar industrial ships can, besides, provide starship repairs for you."
Zhao Ruyue and Qin Xiaolei exchanged a glance.
Zhao Ruyue at once gave an order to her own subordinate.
"Confirm our current coordinate-position."
"Yes; confirming the coordinate-position now…" The subordinate soon reported a coordinate-position that astonished even herself.
"By calculation, we're now situated in the North Wind Star Region's Owl Dragon System…"
Zhao Ruyue and Qin Xiaolei looked at each other, at a loss; then, of one accord, they both looked toward that interstellar warship not far off from them at this moment, calling to mind the scene of a few minutes ago.
That strange interstellar warship had created a thing suspected to be a star gate, and then, in obedience to Charlotte's order, they'd led the fleet through it.
And after that, they'd appeared here.
Just what, after all, was that interstellar warship?