The universe was so vast, the starry sky so boundless, and the darkness so lonely.
The four fleets of Human Civilization, Silver Heart Civilization, Daya Civilization, and Awakener Huan's civilization were separated by more than a hundred light-years, racing through the empty darkness at 2,770 times the speed of light in warp travel. But compared against the visible structure of the galaxies, their speed did not seem all that fast.
Because they were basically traveling through empty space with no star systems, this voyage felt somewhat like the time they had entered the Boötes Void. There were no oncoming stars turning into streams of light, and even the points of light beyond the side portholes seemed not to move at all.
Because the reference points were too distant, the fleet in flight seemed to be hovering quietly in the Void. If one gazed at the universe, a sense of emptiness would arise—the emptiness born of one's own insignificance and the universe's immensity.
This was the first time the Four-Armed Snakes had experienced a voyage like this. In the past, the most they had done was cross star systems. Back then, they had also faced darkness and emptiness, but it had never felt as intense as it did now.
Back then, it had been the boundless sea of stars. Now, it was the boundless universe.
Wrapped inside the warp bubble of the Daya Civilization's transport ship, the Four-Armed Snakes were filled with emotion. They had labored for tens of thousands of years to cross the gulf between star systems, while a Cosmic Civilization needed only seven or eight hundred years.
Only seven or eight hundred years—and yet it was still as long as seven or eight hundred years!
While the Four-Armed Snakes came to appreciate that Cosmic Civilizations truly deserved the