Setting Out Again

Time flies.

As the lights of the Particle Collider in space, a structure that can be described as a giant, were turned off one by one, humanity reached its planned launch time.

The Space Particle Collider has been operating for over a century, shut down for the first time. After the lights dimmed, the large circle with a circumference of 10,000 kilometers began to emit clicking and clacking mechanical sounds, accompanied by the hum of motors and the roar of the Heavy Nuclear Reactor.

The huge circle gradually split apart, resembling a donut divided into five pieces.

The initial impetus for the Particle Collider to split into five modules from a single structure was the mechanical thrust of the structure and the repulsive force of the reciprocating magnetic field at the joint.

After these two forces gradually pushed the five parts of the 'donut' apart, the previous mechanical changes were completed. The thruster nozzles, which had been folded up, re-extended and connected to the Heavy Nuclear Reactor that had previously provided power to the Particle Collider.

Any system controlled by a dedicated AI will release the enormous energy from the vents of Heavy Nuclear Fusion.

The eerie blue flames grew longer and longer, spewing endless light and heat into space as if they were free. In an instant, the previously dim space seemed to burst into countless Little Sun, illuminating everything around them.

Illuminated by the bright trails of flame, the warships that were assembling and lining up emerged from the dark background. Instantly, the once dark and desolate space was bathed in a silvery glow, a testament to the brilliance of technology.

The power of industry was clearly demonstrated at this moment.

The five parts of the space Particle Collider slowly separated under the propulsion of the heavy Fusion Thruster, and then joined the ranks of those silver lights with the combined action of various steering thrusters and auxiliary thrusters.

Once in place with the Great Fleet, the Cold Nuclear Pulse Thruster, originally installed on the five parts of the collider, will also activate at the appropriate time, working together with the heavy nuclear thrusters to propel this largest structure ever built by humankind into the depths of space.

At the same time, the transfer platforms on the synchronous orbits, under the operation of countless mechanical gears, folded back from their unfolded state, transforming into industrial spaceships that, like streaks of light, broke free from the planet's Gravity and flew into deep space.

Four hundred and thirty-seven years.

From entering the gravitational field of this orange dwarf main-sequence star to leaving, humanity stayed for a total of 437 years. From arriving with warehouses and horses galloping, to leaving with overflowing wealth.

During this period, humanity gained not only material resources, but also scientific progress and experimental data in all aspects.

The most obvious and undeniable benefit for humans, which they encounter daily, is the availability of meat. The Dog-Headed People Planet has allowed humans to eat meat again.

Then there's the improved version of the Body Enhancement Elixir and the Life Elixir 3.0.

With these two gains, humanity not only gained a long lifespan, but also shed its overclocked, scaly appearance and was able to eat meat again, achieving a win-win-win situation.

Besides these gains that every human being can personally experience, there are also various experimental devices and data accumulations.

First, there's the ongoing Gaseous Planet exploration mission. Although this experimental project has been going on for hundreds of years without actually reaching the core of Gaseous Planet, there has been progress. Each advancement in deep-sea exploration has brought valuable scientific data to humanity.

Secondly, there is the research project on the Mind Imprint. This research project was also unsuccessful. However, after so many years of unremitting efforts, human scientists have indeed figured out some tricks. They believe that the reason for the failure is not that humans are limited by theory, but by technology and processes.

According to the scientists in charge of the project, as long as humanity can break through the Technology Barrier of Level 3 Civilization, the technology of Mind Imprint will naturally become a reality under the impetus of the advanced craftsmanship and technology of Level 3 Civilization.

Finally, there's the Space Multi-Point Particle Collider and its collision experiments. Like the previous two, it hasn't produced a single particle in two hundred years, and the grand occasion of discovering new particles or writing new chapters in fundamental physics has not occurred. However, it has spurred the scientific community to produce a great many papers on cutting-edge physics technologies.

The technologies mentioned in these papers were gradually brought to reality by humankind over the next hundred years, filling in the gaps in the theoretically achievable branches of technology.

It can be said that humanity is now at the peak of Level 2 Civilization, and is only one opportunity or a qualitative change resulting from quantitative change away from entering Level 3 Civilization.

Perhaps one day a brilliant scientist will have a flash of inspiration and naturally push humanity to the level of Level 3 Civilization.

After an unknown period of time, the official departure time finally arrived. At the flagship's command, approximately three thousand Gear ships plunged headlong into the boundless darkness.

Of these spaceships, only about 1,200 were Lake-Class Warship; the majority of the rest were Residential Spaceship and Biosphere Spaceship, while the number of engineering and mechanical spaceships did not increase much.

The reason, of course, is that the humans have made a huge harvest of Biosphere Resources on this trip. Also, there is a large number of Dog-Headed People set off with the humans, numbering about eleven million, all of whom have entered a state of hibernation.

Gradually, the bright thruster tail flames representing humanity finally disappeared into the darkness, the noisy Electromagnetic Wave followed, and the ghostly Neutrino Detection particles also vanished. The bustling starry sky finally fell silent once more.

A thousand years later, a legend circulated among the Dog-Headed People civilization: More than a thousand years ago, the God of Light descended upon the world, imparted Divine Art, and then vanished.

Our ancestors were blessed with great virtue and received the inheritance of Divine Art. It is said that those who practiced these Divine Art could easily summon wind and rain, and control thunder and lightning. Those with profound Divine Art could travel thousands of miles in an instant, fly through the sky and escape into the earth, and move mountains and overturn seas with ease. As for those who could comprehend the Way of Heaven from these Divine Art, they could even glimpse the way to Eternal Life.

Some Dog-Headed People even fabricated a mythological storybook based on some fragmentary legends. The storybook has a clear hierarchy of cultivation levels. The entry stage seems to be called the Quiet Qi Realm, followed by the Concentrated Spirit Realm, Refining Spirit Realm, Breaking Light Realm, Light Realm, and finally the Shattering Void Realm.

In this mythological story, it is said that the ancestors of that time achieved great success in their cultivation and then Void to depart.

As for why no Dog-Headed People were seen to achieve success in cultivation later, this mythological story also provides an explanation: during the great war between the West Continent in history, the battle between the powerful beings at the Shattering Void Realm of both sides was so intense that the continent's ley lines were severed, causing a change in the world. The divine energy of the entire continent dissipated, making it no longer suitable for cultivation.

In legend, the place where the early inhabitants left the mainland was called Tianmen (Heavenly Gate). Mythological stories also describe Tianmen, saying that it was a spatial gate set up by the God of Light before he left, and that one could leave this world by passing through Tianmen.