Dai Tianling could still clearly recall the description for the soul missile that had just been launched. Its name was the Twofold Soul Harvesting Missile, and of course, it wasn't a ninth-grade soul missile.

According to the Tang Sect's evaluation system, it was a 10th-grade soul missile, and it was comprised of two soul missiles connected together using a special method.

The primary missile's explosion would produce a burst of powerful explosive force, unleas.h.i.+ng destructive power while protecting the secondary missile within. The secondary missile's core circuits allowed it to devour the violent energy in the outside world, thereby making its own internal structure extremely unstable. As a result, an extremely powerful second explosion would ensue, and it would be imbued with exceptional explosive and penetrative power.

If the Twofold Soul Harvesting Missile had been allowed to strike without any interception, even an aircraft carrier wouldn't have been able to withstand the power of its two consecutive explosions. The first explosion would allow the secondary missile to burrow straight into the s.h.i.+p, then produce an even greater explosion.

The core circuits for this type of soul missile had to be accurate to a tee. Otherwise, if both missiles were to detonate at the same time, the effect would be significantly lessened.

It was essentially a combination of two ninth-grade soul missiles, but the power unleashed was superior to the sum of its two const.i.tuent parts, which meant that it had gone beyond the realm of a ninth-grade soul missile. Having said that, it wasn't entirely accurate to call it a 10th-grade soul missile as there were no set criteria for 10th and 11th-grade soul missiles in the federation. 

It was undoubtedly the case that this Twofold Soul Harvesting Missile had come from the Tang Sect, and it was so expensive that even Dai Tianling had winced at the sight of its price.

However, in the instant that the missile forced back the aircraft carrier, he knew that this was money well spent!

If it weren't for the agreement that the empire had forged with the Tang Sect, he really wanted to immediately launch another one to completely destroy that aircraft carrier.

Unfortunately, he couldn't do that. Destroying an aircraft carrier wouldn't be enough to turn the tide of the war, and it would make the empire and the federation sworn enemies; something that the empire couldn't afford to have happen.

On top of that, they only had a total of four Twofold Soul Harvesting Missiles, and regardless of how powerful a weapon was, it always had the greatest intimidation factor before it was used.

Only after close to 20 minutes did the Sea G.o.d Fleet's aircraft carrier completely stabilize itself, but the sirens continued to blare.

 "The soul power detection system and thermal imaging system have been damaged; the protective barrier's efficacy has fallen to 30% and is currently slowly recovering. Due to the excessive energy expenditure, the radar detection system has been severely impacted, and seven fighter aircrafts have been damaged."

A series of reports were being made alongside the loud sirens. As for the wars.h.i.+p that the aircraft carrier had crashed into, it was in an even worse condition. Its left side had been severely damaged, and if emergency repairs weren't applied, it would run the risk of sinking. It hadn't activated its protective barrier at the time, and was rammed into directly by the aircraft carrier. If this had been a wars.h.i.+p from either one of the other two fleets, it would've most likely sunk on the spot.

Not only had Chen Xinjie's expression become very strained, all of the commanders' expressions had also darkened significantly.

That attack had come close to sinking the aircraft carrier! Did the enemy have more of these weapons?

A stunned silence had settled over the federal fleet, and the Star Luo Empire was also waiting for the situation to unfold further.

Through the surveillance devices, it could be seen that a series of cannons had been set up on the sh.o.r.eline, and soul missiles had already been loaded into them, so they were ready to fire at a moment's notice. The same also applied to the federal fleet.

The soul missiles that the Star Luo Empire was preparing to fire were all extremely huge and of a dark red color, making them particularly eye-catching.

Thinking back to the explosions of red light earlier, the federal fleet was naturally very wary of this.

The biggest problem was that the federal fleet had no idea how many soul missiles of that caliber the Star Luo Empire possessed. If two of them were launched in succession, even an aircraft carrier would be destroyed, and that was far too heavy a price for the federation to pay.

The main advantage the federation had was its three aircraft carriers; if they were to be destroyed, then the invasion would become extremely difficult to achieve.

Of course, if the three aircraft carriers were to open fire with all their might, they'd also be able to destroy everything on the sh.o.r.eline, but at such close range, neither side could ensure that they wouldn't be struck by enemy retaliation.

The soul missile from before had arrived far too abruptly, and it had been launched from outside of the federal fleet's projected attack range, so they hadn't been able to retaliate right away, but the situation was different now. If either side were to attack under these circ.u.mstances, then it was very likely that a mutually destructive battle would commence.

What should they do?

Judging from the range of that last attack, the federal fleet no longer had any advantage in that area. If a battle were to break out, even if they were to win, the three fleets would most likely sustain severe damage.

At this point, it had already become very clear to Chen Xinjie that there was only one possible power that would've been able to supply the Star Luo Empire with such a weapon.

Aside from the Tang Sect, who else could be capable of developing such a weapon? A soul missile of this caliber was truly able to pose a threat even to a wars.h.i.+p.

Tang Wulin had visited the Star Luo Empire and Dou Spirit Empire most likely for the purpose of delivering weapons to them. In doing so, the Tang Sect was committing an act of treason!

In any case, the threat was looming right before them, and how they addressed it was going to impact the rest of the war.

Even though Chen Xinjie's heart was burning with fury, he forced himself to remain calm as the commander of the federal fleet. "Retreat 100 nautical miles!" He could no longer make a decision on his own in this current situation; he had to contact the federation and ask for a verdict. If the two sides were to clash, the ensuing battle would most likely inflict severe damage onto both sides, and that wasn't beneficial to the federation in the slightest.

"They retreated! Hahaha, the federal fleet is scared!" In contrast with the tense and gloomy atmosphere in the federal fleet, the Star Luo Empire control center was in full celebration.

They had forced back the entire federal fleet with just a single soul missile and completed their first objective.

However, Dai Tianling wasn't cheering. In fact, his heart was currently filled with remorse.

The Twofold Soul Harvesting Missile had shown him just how incredible the Tang Sect's technology was. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that if the Tang Sect were to provide all of its soul technology to the Star Luo Empire, the empire would be able to catch up to the federation in just a few years.

The two continents were extremely far apart, so wars could only be waged through fleets; as long as there wasn't a ma.s.sive technological disparity, the Star Luo Empire had nothing to fear. Furthermore, the empire had far more resources than the federation. If it could receive the Tang Sect's unreserved technological support, then they'd be able to take many shortcuts and outstrip the federation when it came to s.p.a.ce exploration!