Massive arrests

Xiao Yu named the three "county-class" starships as the Voyager, the Solar, and the Tianyuan. Of these, the Solar was the largest and served as Xiao Yu's flagship.

Together, these three starships formed the core strength of Xiao Yu's fleet. He equipped them with a vast array of weapons, including hydrogen bombs, atomic bombs, laser cannons, missiles, and high-velocity machine guns. Xiao Yu's intent was to transform these vessels into fortresses of war.

Had it been feasible, Xiao Yu would have considered constructing a city-class or even a province-class starship. However, after careful deliberation, he abandoned the idea. 

Constructing such massive starships was unnecessary. Given the current limitations of Xiao Yu's technology, the propulsion systems, defense mechanisms, and overall maneuverability of a starship of that size would not keep pace, making them less practical than the county-class ships.

In comparison, the seventy "town-class" starships were less heavily armed, though still formidable. The "village-class" ships, however, were not equipped with nuclear warheads. According to Xiao Yu's strategy, in the event of interstellar war, the village-class ships were mainly intended for escort duties and close-quarter combat, where nuclear warheads were unnecessary.

Xiao Yu now stood aboard the Solar, commanding a fleet of 1,073 starships as they left Titan and ascended into space.

Gazing at the vast fleet behind him, Xiao Yu felt a surge of pride well up within him.

"These ships are all my creations! They shall carry me on a grand voyage!"

"But before the voyage, there is one more task to complete."

"And that is to reach Jupiter and capture the Mokun!"

"Advance!"

With Xiao Yu's command, the colossal fleet surged forward, embarking on its journey towards Jupiter.

To assemble this formidable fleet, Xiao Yu had exhausted nearly all his reserves of Mokun. To ensure future construction, he needed to gather more Mokun and bring them along to the Tianyuan Four-star System.

Although the Mokun had undergone some mutations, developing a faint glimmer of intelligence beyond their primal instincts, Xiao Yu was unconcerned. With such a powerful fleet at his disposal, Xiao Yu was confident that even if he encountered Mokun as strong as those that had previously forced him into a desperate retreat, he could obliterate them within a second.

The laser cannons on village-class ships like the Hope were not as powerful as those on the county-class starships.

As the size and mass of a starship increase, its maneuverability inevitably decreases. A village-class starship could withstand up to 230 times the gravitational force, but the largest county-class starships could only endure no more than 100 times the gravitational force. This meant that the Voyager, Solar, and Tianyuan could only sustain a maximum acceleration of 500 meters per second.

The massive fleet accelerated together, ultimately reaching a speed of 400 kilometers per second, hurtling towards Jupiter.

During the half-month journey through space, Xiao Yu continuously maneuvered the fleet into various formations, gradually mastering the intricacies of space fleet operations.

Finally, Jupiter's immense form appeared on the horizon. Xiao Yu began to slow the fleet, guiding them into orbit around the giant planet.

The densely packed starships, like harbingers of death, brought destruction to the life forms on Jupiter.

Under Xiao Yu's direct command, the Mokun on Jupiter, drawn by the scent of intelligence, swarmed towards the fleet in a frenzy, both the mutated and ordinary Mokun alike, in numbers nearing one hundred thousand!

Detecting countless radiation sources exhibiting strong blueshift, Xiao Yu remained calm. With his immense computational power, he calculated the approach speed, radiation intensity, and current location of every single Mokun in that vast swarm in an instant, devising specific strategies for each.

Some were to be destroyed outright, others captured once they drew closer, while some would be slowed down with laser fire. The entire capture plan proceeded smoothly under Xiao Yu's meticulous direction.

Among the horde of Mokun, there were hundreds of mutated ones, with radiation intensities at least a hundred times that of ordinary Mokun. Xiao Yu was particularly intrigued by these mutated specimens.

A thousand village-class starships and seventy town-class starships opened fire simultaneously, each targeting different Mokun. Xiao Yu's vast computational power ensured optimal efficiency in firepower, guaranteeing that no Mokun required more than precisely three and a half seconds of laser fire from seven cannons to be eradicated. Similarly, if a Mokun was to be captured thirty seconds later, Xiao Yu ensured it would approach the fleet in exactly thirty seconds, not a second more or less.

Xiao Yu's control over the fleet was so precise that over a thousand ships operated in perfect harmony, wasting not a single resource.

Under the might of the fleet, the Mokun—whether mutated or ordinary—were utterly defenseless, captured one by one and sealed in specially designed containers within the starships.

In less than three hours, Xiao Yu had eradicated at least half of the nearly hundred thousand Mokun, capturing the remaining half.

Looking at his spoils, Xiao Yu grinned from ear to ear, inwardly gloating, "Well, who's the boss now? You were so cocky last time, chasing me down. What, not so tough now, huh? Come on, let's see what you got!"

Muttering these irreverent words, Xiao Yu commanded the massive fleet to head towards the next Mokun gathering spot.

The total number of Mokun seemed endless. Jupiter, with a volume thousands of times that of Earth, was simply too vast. Xiao Yu couldn't even begin to estimate the number of Mokun on the planet.

Millions? Billions? Tens of billions? Who could say?

Jupiter was like an unguarded, enormous orchard, teeming with trees laden with ripe, sweet fruit. Xiao Yu now played the role of a harvester, gathering these delectable fruits into his own basket, one by one.

Compared to the thousands of years of travel ahead, no amount of resources was too much. Xiao Yu, determined, continued his rampage across Jupiter.

During the journey, Xiao Yu lost interest in isolated Mokun, casually vaporizing them with a single laser blast. Wealth breeds arrogance, after all.

It took ten minutes before Xiao Yu found another gathering of Mokun. This cluster orbited Jupiter carefree, anchored to a small asteroid about twenty meters in diameter.

With a cold smirk, Xiao Yu charged towards them.

Sensing the presence of intelligence, the Mokun, driven by their simple instincts, rushed at Xiao Yu in a frenzy. Xiao Yu laughed heartily, "Come on, just what I wanted. Makes it easier to catch you."

Immediately, Xiao Yu commanded the fleet to fire laser beams, strategically spacing out the Mokun, then sent in the village-class starships to capture them one by one.

This time, the capture yielded Mokun with radiation intensity equivalent to three thousand ordinary Mokun. After securely storing them, Xiao Yu resumed the hunt.

To Xiao Yu, the Mokun capture operation was the last feast before the impending famine that would last 6,300 years. He was determined to seize this opportunity and feast to his heart's content.

For a month and a half, Xiao Yu rampaged across Jupiter like a ravenous tiger among sheep. The tiger had an insatiable appetite and no regard for sustainability. Xiao Yu devoured what he could and wasted the rest, with no concern for frugality. What he couldn't capture, he simply destroyed. After all, the orchard of Jupiter was inexhaustible, ripe for the taking.

During this time, Xiao Yu captured millions of Mokun, including thousands of mutated ones. He deliberately confined each mutated Mokun with hundreds of ordinary ones, encouraging them to devour the others. After half a month, Xiao Yu was left with only a few thousand Mokun, but each boasted radiation levels thousands of times higher than the ordinary ones.

Xiao Yu had discovered that mutated Mokun possessed the ability to evolve. He did this experiment to see just how far they could evolve and what level of intelligence they could attain.

The results, however, were disappointing. Even when these mutated Mokun's radiation levels reached thousands of times that of ordinary ones, their intelligence was no greater than that of an ant. At most, they could engage in simple communication and rudimentary teamwork, but nothing more.

"Pathetic," Xiao Yu sighed, shaking his head, abandoning the notion of cultivating intelligent beings to keep him company.

The capture operation continued for another month and a half. It wasn't until Xiao Yu ran out of space to store the Mokun that he finally called off the hunt. Looking back at the countless Mokun still swarming across Jupiter, Xiao Yu couldn't help but feel a twinge of regret.

"Enough is enough. Overindulgence could be fatal," Xiao Yu consoled himself, steering the massive fleet away from Jupiter.

Xiao Yu would return to Titan one last time for final preparations, then proceed to Saturn for a final refueling. After that, the time would come to leave the solar system and embark on humanity's first interstellar voyage.