Generally speaking, if they are missing, just let them be missing. Maybe they have mastered some special means to escape. This is normal.

But all the supplies that should have been taken away with the retreat were left to the empire, which was obviously wrong.

It just so happens that Chen Ming is free recently.

The design of the spacecraft is nearing completion, and it still needs a thorough self-inspection before entering the final closing phase.

He could have taken the initiative to intervene in this matter and investigate it.

the next day.

Chen Ming continued to drive his Supreme, and after a few jumps he successfully arrived outside the empire, at the front-line command post of the Fourteenth Legion in the area where they had been fighting with the Mechanical Race in the past six months.

The headquarters is located on a military planet in the afterglow that was occupied by the Legion.

With advance notice, Chen Ming arrived at the planet's ground port smoothly.

The legion commander was already waiting for him here.

As soon as Chen Ming got off the spaceship, the legion commander took the initiative to come up to him and extended his hand.

Chen Ming shook his hand back and went straight to the point, asking, "What's the specific situation? Is Yu Hui still missing? Are there still no clues?"

"It's true that they are all missing. There are clues, but I think it's a little hard to figure out what's going on."

"Come with me first."

The legion commander signaled to Chen Ming, took Chen Ming on the shuttle, and headed to the nearest military base, which was also the real command center on the front line.

After boarding the spacecraft, the legion commander placed a terminal on the small table inside the shuttle and projected a star map of the empire's border.

The legion commander then handed Chen Ming several documents, and while Chen Ming was reading them, he explained to him the general situation when they were chasing Yu Hui.

To put it simply.

The retreat of the Yuhui army was not an all-at-once escape; they still maintained a complete social structure.

Moreover, they actually did not show any obvious desire to retreat at the beginning, but continued to pretend as usual, as if they did not care at all about the Empire's attack on the mechanical race and the fact that the mechanical race was about to be destroyed.

During the war with the Mechanical Race, the Fourteenth Legion had not yet received any orders to launch a large-scale attack directly against Yuhui.

Therefore, the battle has maintained the same intensity as before.

Until one day, the legion commander discovered that Yu Hui and the legion's fighting force was significantly weaker, and there were fewer follow-up reinforcements.

So some additional reconnaissance fleets were sent out.

After receiving a report from the fleet that had gone around the flank to conduct reconnaissance, the legion commander confirmed that Yu Hui had escaped, and he was immediately instructed by the Empire to track down the fleeing Yu Hui.

They actually retreated slowly after a relatively long period of preparation.

Therefore, Yuhui specially allocated a considerable number of individuals to remain in their original territories to block the pursuing Imperial fleet.

Then Yuhui in the star field farthest from the empire packed up and ran away. When they took away everything they could, the large-scale fleet divided into several batches chose to retreat.

Judging from the traces found so far, the Yuhui force was divided into five fleets that maintained contact with each other but had a relatively loose structure.

They are the forward, center, aft, port, and starboard fleets.

They didn't disperse too far, and it seemed that they planned to separate only when something really went wrong.

Although the plan seemed good, since the legion commander was able to learn about Yuhui's retreat plan in such detail, it was obvious that their counter-reconnaissance was not good enough.

and……

"Retreat like this? Aren't you afraid of being caught up and harassed to death by the Imperial Fleet?"

"It's better than being beaten to death here."

"And they have been doing this secretly for a long time. Although we discovered it very early, they retreated even faster."

The legion commander raised his hand and drew a crooked mark on the terminal projection in front of him. Some of the corners of these marks would often branch out into small branches. Obviously, this was Yuhui's retreat route.

And the end of this route is not finished.

"Yuhui's front fleet evacuated the earliest. We really can't track them accurately and we can't be sure where they went."

"But as long as there is still the Afterglow Fleet escaping behind, they will eventually reunite."

"So what I did before was to deliberately keep them hanging, not completely killing them all at once, in case the Yuhui who escaped before we could react couldn't catch up with us."

Chen Ming said: "In the end, something unexpected happened."

"Yes, no one expected it."

"So when exactly did he disappear?"

"The day before yesterday."

The legion commander gave a time with certainty and said, "Our front fleet is almost reaching the tail of Yuhui's rear fleet."

"I haven't had time to really do anything yet, and this happened."

"Look at this position."

The legion commander pointed to a point on the star map.

Chen Ming carefully looked at the various professional military symbols on the projection, mobilized the knowledge he had learned in his mind and said: "This is the location of the last battle with Yu Hui's rear guard troops."

"Yes, it was here that we killed Yuhui's last blocking force, and found that there was no new fleet to resist."

"No more?"

"right."

"Originally, Yuhui would regularly send fleets to our side to stop us. You could say they were using their lives to stop us and buy time for the front to evacuate."

"I guess they're thinking that once the distance is far enough and our logistics can't keep up, we can escape."

"They didn't expect how determined we were."

"After defeating one fleet, we were still waiting for the next one, but Yuhui suddenly stopped sending a fleet. It was very strange."

"At the time, I thought it was impossible that the Yuhui Fleet was wiped out. There must be some reason, so I sent a ship to investigate."

“Then in this position.”

The legion commander pointed to the place on the star map where the last battle between the legion and Yuhui broke out more than 300 light years away, which was near the area where the route was not completed.

"Here we found the rear fleet of Yuhui's retreating army."

Chen Ming raised his hand and interrupted, "Did you discover the fleet? I thought only the supplies were lost by Yuhui, and then they escaped and couldn't be caught up."

"No, maybe I didn't make it clear in the message I sent you."

"In short, the entire retreating transport fleet is here. There are a lot of not-so-important supplies in this fleet. I guess they want to abandon them and continue to buy time when we are about to catch up."

"There really is almost no supplies here that can sustain us, but these things are just here, and we basically got them without encountering any resistance."

"No resistance?"

Chen Ming repeated the legion commander's words in a questioning tone, wanting to know more details.

The legion commander explained, "Because only some automated defense weapons detected a slight resistance from our fleet, all of Yuhui's ships went silent."

"Whether it's the spacecraft or the afterglow core that should have been installed in the various devices that were taken away, everything is gone."

"Only the afterglow core is missing."

"And there's something even stranger."

"We also discovered a group of Afterglow Fleets here that were obviously going to cover the rear and fight against our fleet."

"The ships are all there but the afterglow cores inside are gone."

Chen Ming frowned subconsciously. He couldn't understand why such a strange thing happened.

Chen Ming could understand why the Yuhui core of the transport fleet disappeared. After all, in order to preserve more cores, Yuhui might choose to load all the cores together and take them away.

This is what Chen Ming did when he was trying to take advantage of Yu Hui.

But he couldn't understand why the battleship was without the afterglow core.

Yu Hui is being hunted by the Empire now, and the fleet ships are not used to fight back but abandoned? Even if he set up an autopilot for the ships to fire automatically, Chen Ming would think that Yu Hui had tried his best, but now? Chen Ming couldn't help but ask: "Is there no sign of battle or other damage to the fleet that Yu Hui is guarding?"

"No, all the ships are intact and there are no signs of violent dismantling. They were dismantled using normal means."

"Judging from the state of the remaining spacecraft, those ships had been floating there about ten days ago. The afterglow we shot were all sent out earlier."

"It's also because we weren't advancing very fast. We were deliberately fighting the fleet that Yu Hui sent out from behind, so we didn't notice it."

"That's outrageous." Chen Ming stared at the star map projection in front of him for a while and asked him what he was thinking: "Is it possible that Yu Hui was thinking of taking only the core, abandoning the others and running away faster?"

The legion commander gave the same answer as Chen Ming had in mind: "Of course there is such a suspicion, but there is no need for the intercepting fleet to withdraw."

"It's a matter of life and death for Yuhui. There's really no need to save these cores."

"Even if we set up an automatic program to automatically lock and fire when other spacecraft approach, it would be better than just leaving it there."

"That's right." Chen Ming nodded slightly and asked, "What about the fleet ahead?"

"The reconnaissance fleet is still chasing. If the same thing happens to the fleet in front, our reconnaissance fleet will probably be able to find them within today."

"arrive."

The legion commander suddenly pointed out the window of the shuttle.

Chen Ming looked in the direction and saw that diagonally below the spaceship was the human command center of Yu Hui’s military base.

However, the shuttle turned a corner during the landing and flew in another nearby direction.

"Let's go to the test site first. Earlier today, the scouts ahead brought back some samples of the fleet and cargo left behind by Yuhui. There might be clues on them."

Chen Ming has been using his psychic powers for such a long time, and everyone who should know about it knows the effects of Chen Ming's psychic powers.

As long as he could bring back some samples, he would be able to figure out something.

Since he came here, he came with the intention of helping in this matter.

After all, the connection between Yu Hui and him can be said to be quite close, and he really wants to take advantage of Yu Hui by means of the empire.

If something happens, it’s not a big deal to help take a look.

He was indeed curious about what had caused Yu Hui to be in such a condition.

The testing grounds set up by the Legion were beneath an apparently newly constructed dome.

The shuttle soon landed in an open space near the dome.

As soon as Chen Ming and the legion commander stepped off the shuttle, they saw a spaceship using an electromagnetic capture device to carry an afterglow spaceship into the dome at the edge of the dome in the distance.

The outside of the spacecraft is also equipped with some equipment and supplies that also belong to Yuhui.

When the spacecraft arrived inside the dome, it hovered in the air above the central area of ​​the dome.

Under the guidance of ground personnel, the captured items were gradually placed in different areas on the ground.

Chen Ming could see that in the open space in the center of the dome, there were some things that had been transported earlier and placed there, waiting for someone to investigate.

As for who is waiting, there is no need to say more.

Chen Ming and the legion commander quickly changed to ground vehicles and entered the dome smoothly.

Once inside the dome.

Chen Ming's body, created with Zerg technology, keenly smelled a familiar scent.

He will never forget this smell in his life, because it is the smell of toxic substances produced by the mechanical family's nanorobots when they are operating.

The source of this smell comes from the afterglow things brought back by the spacecraft.

Chen Ming immediately asked the driver to stop the car and opened the door.

He came out of the car and took a few deep breaths.

Although the smell is very light, it proves that there are not many pollutants in the air and the degree of harm is very low.

Not to mention the body Chen Ming is using now, the impact on ordinary people is not that great. Inhaling too much poison gas may at most cause minor problems such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

But it is a pollutant nonetheless.

Chen Ming immediately said to the army commander who had also gotten out of the car, "Let everyone under the dome evacuate first. Anyone who has come into contact with the afterglow should go to the hospital for a checkup."

The legion commander's expression became more serious: "What's wrong?"

"The contaminants from the mechanical race are on those things in the afterglow. The concentration is very light. I see that everyone is wearing protective clothing. The problem should not be serious. However, let's let people leave first to be on the safe side."

Chen Ming had said so, so the corps commander was not vague. He took out a walkie-talkie, adjusted the channel, and asked, "Have you checked the contaminants on Yu Hui's things that you brought back?"

"I've checked it, and everything is normal, but I haven't done the purification yet. Time is too tight."

The legion commander turned around, frowned, and switched several communication channels. He then issued several orders, asking everyone who had contact with Yu Hui today to go to the hospital for a check-up, without any hesitation.

After finishing this, he looked at Chen Ming again and said, "It looks like I need to check the data of the equipment later."

Chen Ming nodded slightly, pointed to the empty space in the distance and said, "In fact, these pollutants are also very strange. I even feel that they are not ordinary pollutants. In short, Yu Hui's disappearance is likely related to the mechanical race."

The legion commander immediately thought of the past and said, "I remember you brought back a large star map some time ago, didn't you?"

Chen Ming, who was thinking about this, immediately said: "Yes, I remember that there seemed to be no mechanical race near the place where Yuhui disappeared on the star map. However, if there are mechanical races heading here since we killed the nearest mechanical race star field some time ago..."

Chen Ming didn't finish his words, but his meaning was clear.

This was something he had warned the Empire about some time ago.

Now, his warnings appear to be coming true.

The personnel under the dome began to withdraw one after another.

Chen Ming and the legion commander's drivers and accompanying guards were also evacuated.

Chen Ming didn't know why he and the legion commander, two of the empire's top psychics, had guards around them, but it didn't matter.

After making sure that everyone nearby had evacuated, he put on a biological armor and approached the aztec where Yuhui's things were placed.

The legion commander followed closely behind Chen Ming without taking any protective measures.

Soon the two of them arrived at the area where Yuhui's things were placed.

From the high point nearby, you can see that the afterglow of the venue is divided into three areas.

The first area houses several of Yuhui's combat ships.

The second area houses Yuhui’s cargo ships. Many of Yuhui’s cargo ships are copied from the Empire’s designs, and are very different from their own combat ships, so they are easy to distinguish.

The third area was where Yu Hui's cargo was placed. This batch of cargo seemed to be completely free of pollutants, with at most some contamination on it when it was being moved out.

Chen Ming scanned the area several times, preparing to start with the combat spacecraft.

But just before he took action, the legion commander suddenly said to Chen Ming: "Wait a moment, there is news coming back from the front line."

He looked down at the terminal for a while, and said to Chen Ming: "The front line found traces of the destroyed Yuhui combat spacecraft around where Yuhui's rear fleet was staying. It has drifted away from the main force for a distance, so it was not seen until now."

He turned the terminal and pointed it at Chen Ming so that Chen Ming could see the photos clearly.

The photos all showed Yuhui's battleship being cut off by something, and then there were traces of something exploding from the inside.

No matter if it was an escort, destroyer or cruiser, all the wreckage of the spacecraft had similar marks.

In addition, Chen Ming also keenly observed that there were traces of metal rust on the edges of some of the spacecraft wreckage, which was very special.

This was also confirmed by the several photos of shooting details that the legion commander later showed to Chen Ming.

After reading it, the legion commander said, "It is estimated that the enemy at the front line who is fighting against these Afterglow Fleets used a cutting weapon and a penetrating, corrosive and explosive weapon."

Chen Ming shook his head and said, "I don't think it's quite like it, but I can't be sure what it is."

If you can't be sure, then there's nothing to say. The legion commander continued to say to Chen Ming: "The front line said that the wreckage has been captured and is being sent to the empire."

"In addition, other reconnaissance fleets have also discovered some wreckage of Afterglow combat ships between the rear fleet group and the expected central fleet group. The number is small, but the damage is basically the same."

"Then we discovered more and more traces of the front and middle fleets. Many ordinary afterglow ships broke away from the team and scattered along their paths."

"That should be enough to show that Yu Hui's entire unit ran into this."

"Yeah." Chen Ming also agreed with this point: "Then there should be no other news. We still have to start from here and see what happens after we find the wreckage."

"Yes, let's start from here."

Chen Ming didn't say anything more.

After a few steps, he arrived at the place where the Yuhui battleship was parked, reached out and pressed it, and completely controlled the battleship.

He immediately called up the spacecraft's database, wanting to confirm whether there was any valuable information stored in the databases of these combat ships brought back as samples.

However, Chen Ming searched carefully and found that there was no valuable data left in the spacecraft's system database in the past few months.

Chen Ming's expression did not change at all, but the metallic liquid that appeared around him instantly wrapped around several warships and tried to repair them.

As long as the condition of the spacecraft can be restored to the state before the data was deleted, the necessary data can always be seen.

However, Chen Ming's repair also did not work.

These combat ships do not have any recent logs stored in their storage units.

There is only one possibility for this situation.

That is the afterglow core that was originally installed inside the spacecraft. When recording the spacecraft data, it directly stored the spacecraft data in their core without passing through the spacecraft's storage system.

The special features of the afterglow cores allow them to do this.

Avoid some data leakage issues.

Chen Ming knew that some Afterglow Cores would do this. For example, the Afterglow Core that was about to be upgraded from Gamma to Beta as its self-capability was optimized would do this to avoid data leakage due to the subsequent replacement of spacecraft.

But he didn't understand why these samples were all like this? Could it be that Yu Hui's top management had issued some order?

Chen Ming turned around with confusion and went to control the cargo spaceship in the next area.

The designs of cargo spacecraft are all modeled after those of human spacecraft.

The data acquired by these spacecraft first pass through the spacecraft and then are transmitted to Yuhui.

Although the cargo ship's data was deleted, Chen Ming was able to see the specific situation after it was repaired with psychic energy.

These cargo ships really recorded the battle scenes in the afterglow.

It is not accurate to say that it was a battle, because the few images recorded on the cargo ship all showed Yuhui's ships being destroyed suddenly.

That is, the warships that were originally sailing in the universe were suddenly cut into several sections by some force, and other spaceships were detonated by some force from both inside and outside and blown into pieces.

In just a dozen seconds, dozens of battleships of the rear fleet, more cruisers and countless combat ships were destroyed in this battle where it was unclear who the enemy was and what the attack methods were.

What happened next was even stranger.

All the afterglows took the initiative to unload their own afterglow cores and gathered them on a cargo ship that had abandoned its supplies and left.

Although leaving here was Chen Ming's own imagination, after all, when the cargo ship's afterglow core was dismantled, the data stored in the cargo ship had been deleted.

But from the actual situation, this is the fact.

And in the records of several cargo ships.

From beginning to end, Chen Ming did not see any enemy.

Yuhui seemed to be attacked by some invisible means.

(End of this chapter)