Killing with a Borrowed Knife

At that moment, the object was orbiting Luoshen Star at an extremely slow speed along an orbit far from the planet.

Under the clone's control, the spacecraft quickly approached it and salvaged it.

Inside the weightless cabin, Li Qingsong carefully examined the fragment through the clone's eyes and saw what seemed to be remnants of mechanical constructs on it.

A chill slowly rose in Li Qingsong's heart.

"This definitely wasn't made by me! Nor was it a creation of Human Civilization!"

A technological artifact not made by himself had appeared near Luoshen Star. This clearly meant that another entity had once arrived here.

Then... when had it come? Before or after he arrived on Luoshen Star? What had it come here for?

On a broader scale, when had it entered the Solar System? Did it have anything to do with humanity's disappearance?

Li Qingsong transported the fragment to the scientific research base on Luoshen Star's surface as quickly as possible.

This place had the most advanced laboratories available at this stage. Perhaps he could determine what kind of equipment this object had fallen from.

After conducting his analysis, Li Qingsong stared at the conclusion before him, his expression more grave than ever.

He had figured out what this fragment was from.

There were still some mechanical remnants on it. Their Technological Level was too advanced for Li Qingsong to replicate, but he could still discern their basic function.

They were clearly remnants of light excitation devices!

And not visible light, but light of a particular wavelength within the infrared band. Its total energy was also extremely high.

In other words, within that frequency range, the light it emitted was extraordinarily intense.

Further analysis showed that light of this particular wavelength corresponded to the spectrum of a certain organic substance. And...

After years of breeding and studying those Strange Birds, Li Qingsong had confirmed that the light emitted by the organic food the Strange Birds liked best after being exposed to sunlight happened to possess this spectrum!

It all matched. Everything matched.

Those Strange Birds had not happened upon Luoshen Star by chance at all!

Those Strange Birds might never have intended to come to Luoshen Star. But when they were not far from it, an "Infrared Bomb" with extremely high energy had exploded near Luoshen Star, releasing intense light highly similar to that of a certain organic substance.

Because his Technological Level had been limited at the time, and he lacked the ability to observe it, he had not noticed it at all.

But the Strange Birds could see it!

So the Strange Birds had assumed that Luoshen Star contained large quantities of organic matter that met their needs. They changed direction and flew straight toward Luoshen Star.

They had been deliberately lured here by some entity hidden in the dark!

That unknown entity had wanted to use the flock of Strange Birds as a borrowed knife to kill him!

Li Qingsong controlled a clone and suddenly raised its head, looking out into the vast, boundless universe.

The sky was dotted with stars, silent and profound.

"Who was it? Who wanted to harm me? Why?"

Recalling his battle with the Strange Birds, Li Qingsong felt a chill run through his entire body.

Although the final outcome had been good, the process had been fraught with danger.

One slight mistake, and everything he had built on Luoshen Star would have been destroyed.

If he had not already possessed a certain degree of Industrial Capacity and been able to quickly produce cold weapons, if he had not stockpiled a large number of clones in advance and used their lives to buy time, then rapidly developed firearms technology, he might already have been devoured completely by that flock of Strange Birds.

At the same time, Li Qingsong directed every space observation device he possessed toward the sky.

They were still rather primitive, merely outdated telescopes, radar, and the like, but they were everything Li Qingsong had.

After a thorough scan, space remained empty. Nothing was found.

Li Qingsong's heart was more grave than ever.

"We must accelerate technological development again, and we must devote all our efforts to military technology and space observation technology.

Even if we are behind, we must at least have some ability to protect ourselves!"

Li Qingsong looked toward the Space Laboratory that had only just begun construction.

This Space Laboratory was the foundation for all his future development.

Too many technologies needed to be researched in a space environment, and too many experiments needed to be conducted in weightless space.

Without it, his spacecraft technology, engine technology, space exploration technology, and weapons and equipment technology suited for combat in space would not be able to develop rapidly.

After weighing everything, Li Qingsong gritted his teeth.

"Complete the Space Laboratory within one year!"

For Li Qingsong, this was an incomparably ambitious goal.

According to his plans, this Space Laboratory would be a massive kilometer-scale laboratory, with a total mass as high as 1.3 million tons. Even the Deep Space spacecraft was far inferior to it.

—Of course, this did not mean that Li Qingsong's current Technological Level had surpassed Human Civilization. Rather, Luoshen Star's environment was unusual, allowing Li Qingsong to travel between space and the surface using extremely simple technology.

On Earth, however, humanity's launch operations were constrained by Earth's greater gravity and dense atmosphere, making them countless times more difficult.

But even though space launches were extremely simple on Luoshen Star, constructing a million-ton experimental base was still immensely difficult.

Li Qingsong currently had only two hundred Opening Heaven Type-1 spacecraft, and each spacecraft could carry only two tons per trip.

At eight hours per trip—including refueling, maintenance, loading, unloading, return flights, and so on, this was already the fastest possible rate—even if all two hundred Opening Heaven Type-1 spacecraft gave it their all, it would still take nearly three years.

Add in personnel transport and the transport of various supplies, and the total time would likely rise to more than ten years.

And that was only transportation. It did not even include the time required for actual construction.

"There's no time to worry about that! We'll give it everything we have! It must be completed within one year!"

Under the threat of this unknown entity, all seven hundred thousand clones across the Luoshen Star Base cluster whose consciousnesses Li Qingsong could directly link to sprang into action.

In the Collective Dormitory Building, the two million reserve clones also prepared themselves to step in at any moment.

The entire planet of Luoshen Star seemed to be shrouded in a grave, murderous atmosphere.

Li Qingsong knew that all the progress he had made over the past century had reached the moment of its comprehensive test.

The construction of this Space Laboratory itself involved nearly every industrial field and every kind of Industrial Capacity he had mastered.

"Then come on!"