Two days later, the giant tree was still wrapped around the Main Star, unwilling to leave.

The Federation Chief finally issued the order to attack.

In space, countless volleys of fire blasted the giant tree’s body.

When the volleys struck its trunk, the giant tree went berserk.

Countless vines lashed out at the warships. Even if a vine was severed, a new one would immediately grow to take its place.

"Quick, retreat!"

"All warships, on my command—retreat!"

But by then, it was clearly too late to retreat.

The enraged tree’s vines attacked indiscriminately, coiling around the warships like giant pythons to block their escape.

The endless barrage of fire only managed to sever a few of its vines and couldn’t even scratch his trunk. It only served to enrage him further.

Several warships were shot down.

Fortunately, the warriors managed to board escape pods as their ships went down, and other warships were there to provide support, but there were still casualties.

With no other choice, the three remaining warships hastily rescued the survivors and retreated.

One of the warships, caught in the vines, was playing music in an attempt to soothe the giant tree.

But the enraged tree was clearly not so easily placated.

It crushed everything that made a sound.

Fortunately, however, this bought the surviving warships enough time to escape.

Silence returned to space once more.

Everyone in the central control room fell silent. After a long pause, someone finally grumbled, "Damn it, that thing’s a monster. How are we supposed to fight it?"

"And the worst part is, we pissed it off."

As they felt the Energy Shield being struck again and again, everyone began to panic.

"The Energy Shield won’t hold for much longer."

"The tree didn’t attack for the past few days, but we kept the shield active just in case, so it’s already consumed a great deal of energy.

If it weren’t for the external supply drops, we might not have even made it through the recent bout of bad weather."

"This is so frustrating! Who provoked this Cosmic Beast anyway? Don’t they usually stay hidden in Deep Space?"

"Could it be... because of the singing?"

The Chief immediately fixed the speaker with a glare, his face dark with displeasure. "Do not voice such baseless speculation.

Miss Jiang Qing has made immense contributions to both our Federation and to the Beastmen throughout the Interstellar space.

Have you considered her merits before you so casually slander her?"

Some looked ashamed, while others were unconcerned.

"It’s a strong possibility. We’re not accusing her of anything, it’s just a reasonable hypothesis.

Otherwise, why does the giant tree react only to her singing?"

"Exactly. Maybe the reason we can’t lure it away is that we’re using a recording. What if we asked her to sing live on a ship? Maybe then she could lead the Cosmic Beast away."

"Are you insane? She’s an S-level female!"

"We know she’s an S-level female. We have no intention of sending her to her death.

But once the Energy Shield shatters, it won’t just be the S-level female—every female on the Main Star will likely die.

Besides, it would just be a test. We would certainly devise a foolproof plan."

Someone looked at the Chief’s dark, silent expression and added a reminder. "Let’s be honest, which one of us here doesn’t have females in our family?

Not to mention the officials who are females themselves. Do you think we don’t know how precious they are?

But when the nest is overturned, how can any egg remain intact?"

"Perhaps we could ask Miss Jiang herself what she thinks. If the worst happens, she won’t be able to escape either.

Why not give it a try? We can dispatch all our warships and vessels to escort her, have every escape pod on standby, and provide close support."

This time, no one spoke.

After a moment of silence, the Chief also found himself wondering if such a plan would even work.

He said in a low voice, "We’ll discuss this matter later. For now, ask Miss Jiang to come here. I’ll speak with her personally."

...

When Jiang Qin arrived, she sat down quietly.

The Chief didn’t mention using her as bait. He simply wanted to discuss with her why the giant tree seemed to be drawn to music.

"Sir, shouldn’t this be a matter for the research institute to study?"

"They’ve already studied it, but they came up with nothing. That’s why I’d like to ask you to cooperate with us on an experiment."

"What kind of experiment?"

"Our Energy Shield can withstand a few more days of attacks. I’d like to ask you to board a vessel and sing from a peripheral flight path to see how it reacts."

As for how to transmit the sound, with our advanced technology, that’s not an issue.

The Chief’s main goal was to test whether there was a difference between the effect of a recording and Jiang Qin singing live.

If it proved effective, only then would he ask Jiang Qin to try luring it away.

But if there was no difference, then the matter would never be brought up again, and they would focus on cutting their losses to survive.

As long as it was within the range of the Energy Shield and didn’t require leaving the planet, Jiang Qin was naturally willing to try.

She could already guess the possible outcomes of the test.

One: it wouldn’t work, and everyone on the planet would have to fend for themselves to escape.

Two: it would work, in which case she would probably have to go lure the beast away...

’To be honest, she was scared.’

After all, her life was so happy now. She had several handsome and considerate husbands, and a lovely daughter.

And there was another little life on the way.

’At a time like this, she was selfish. She didn’t want to take the risk.’

The tree’s power was there for all to see.

’It was precisely because she knew how terrifying it was that she hesitated.’

’She was afraid of dying, but she was even more afraid of watching the people she cared about die before her.’

’She didn’t possess some grand sense of righteousness, nor did she think there was anything particularly noble about sacrificing herself to save millions.’

’But if taking this one risk could give the people she cared about a chance to survive, she was tempted.’

’After all, it wasn’t a guarantee that she would die...’

The giant tree was clearly enraged. It relentlessly attacked the planet, even using all of its vines to entwine the entire world.

If not for the Main Star’s natural weather system, the entire planet would have already been plunged into darkness.

The drones sent out to interfere with it were all destroyed without exception.

Previously, the drones playing music could survive, but now, even they could only keep it quiet for half an hour.

After that half-hour, it would begin to thrash its vines about impatiently.

Under these circumstances, safely escaping the Main Star would be incredibly difficult.

Once the Energy Shield shattered, the planet would face its doom.

Seeing her silence, the Chief didn’t press her. He just sighed and played a video.

The video showed numerous small vessels attempting to flee the Main Star. All of them were struck down by the giant tree.

"This is the result of probes sent out by the great houses. No ship can escape its perception.

Even with multiple ships working in concert to create a diversion, none could escape safely.

We’ve become beasts trapped in a cage."