That night, the three moons hung in the sky over the eastern hemisphere of Light Source Planet.
Deep beneath the Civilization Temple lay a giant flying-saucer-shaped structure, roughly four hundred meters in diameter.
This was the ancient alien civilization ruin that Master Zhen Li had stumbled upon. It was also a genuine spaceship, preserved in excellent condition and fully capable of interstellar flight.
In the ship's control room, Master Zhen Li followed the usual procedure and had the ship's intelligent system authenticate Yu Duan, granting him secondary control privileges.
While this was happening, Master Zhen Li went over some basic facts about the universe with Yu Duan. Yu Duan might have known more than Master Zhen Li, but he didn't speak up.
"A B6-level spaceship... So its former owner was probably a Star Level expert. How did he die so suddenly?"
Yu Duan was puzzled. Why had a Star Level expert died for no apparent reason on Light Source Planet? If he'd been murdered, why was the spaceship so well preserved?
And if he'd died by accident, why hadn't any relatives or old friends come to claim his inheritance?
Master Zhen Li sighed at Yu Duan's questions. "I just told you about slavery and Bio-chips. The former owner of this ship was a commander in the Crimson Empire's slave army."
"He died because his Bio-chip activated and destroyed his brain. As for the details, let Number One explain them to you."
Number One was the ship's intelligent assistant. Master Zhen Li, its new owner, had given it that name.
"Whoosh!"
Colored light gathered into the shape of a bald, humanoid figure. It bowed slightly to Master Zhen Li, then turned to Yu Duan.
"The former owner, Collins Barto, was a ninth-stage Star Level expert and commander of the Seventh Company of the Crimson Empire's Fourth Slave Army..."
In short, while the former owner was carrying out a mission, the Bio-chips of every member of his company activated at once, destroying all their brains.
Bio-chips were highly advanced technology. They could detect thoughts in the brain and retaliate as soon as their owner thought something disloyal.
As commander of the slave army, Collins Barto had triggered ten "Red Line" warnings over the course of a century. He exceeded the maximum threshold, and met the fate he had now.
A slave army commander was still a slave. Once he exceeded the Red Line threshold, he was simply "destroyed."
The whole process required no human order to "destroy" him. It was a preprogrammed command.
Things were a little better for Universe Level experts. Even if they exceeded the warning threshold, their case would be investigated by a person. As long as they hadn't violated any fundamental principles, they would at most receive a reprimand.
After all, Universe Level experts were scarce in the Crimson Empire and therefore immensely valuable.
"Then why wasn't the spaceship taken away?"
Yu Duan quickly asked. This concerned the future of civilization and his own life, so he couldn't afford to be careless.
The crystal-headed figure raised its right hand and fired a beam of blue light, forming a translucent screen.
"The Chilian Star was Collins Barto's private spaceship. Seventeen years before his death, while carrying out a routine patrol mission, he discovered this life-bearing planet. He didn't report it. Instead, he parked his private spaceship here."
"Barto did not return to Light Source Planet during the following seventeen cosmic years, and died before he could do so."
"According to our analysis, there is over a 90% probability that the first Red Line signal detected by Barto's Bio-chip was triggered when he considered keeping Light Source Planet for himself."
"Later Red Line warnings were most likely triggered by his thoughts about how to obtain official ownership of the planet and sell it."
"According to our probability model, there is over a 99.41% chance that the Crimson Empire authorities did not know about the Chilian Star or Light Source Planet."
"The remaining 0.59% probability is that the Crimson Empire authorities simply didn't care about Light Source Planet's value. That probability is almost zero."
After hearing Number One's explanation, Yu Duan breathed a sigh of relief.
It seemed there wouldn't be any major hidden dangers. Even if Number One's analysis wasn't entirely accurate, it was probably close enough.
The Crimson Empire definitely didn't know about Light Source Planet or the Chilian Star.
A B6-level spaceship might not mean much to the Crimson Empire, but a life-bearing planet was another matter.
Since Light Source Planet was still free, Barto must have handled things carefully and left no traces.
Unfortunately, under the watch of the Bio-chip in his brain, he had still ended up with his head blown open!
"Yu Duan."
Kun Zhu came to Yu Duan's side and patted him on the shoulder. "You understand the predicament civilization is facing. Our journey into the universe can't wait."
"According to the plan that Master Zhen Li, Shen Jian, and I came up with, we'll take this ship into the universe at next year's First Day Festival and purchase an A1-level celestial-class large energy shield."
"However, Light Source Planet still needs a Planetary Level expert to guard it. The surviving Sea Clan haven't been wiped out... Can you take on that responsibility?"
The First Day Festival Kun Zhu mentioned was simply the New Year.
As for the surviving Sea Clan, they were another aquatic, amphibious intelligent species that had once lived on Light Source Planet. They had fallen into ruin after the rise of the Light Source Race, but they hadn't been completely exterminated. Most of them were still hiding in the deep sea.
"No problem. I've only just broken through to Planetary Level, so keeping an eye on things here will be easier for me."
Yu Duan didn't argue. He readily agreed.
They had to go into the universe, but they needed to find the right way to do it.
There was still half a Light Source year until the First Day Festival—just over a year by Earth reckoning. That was enough time for him to use his "talent" and "hard work" to unlock the "Domain" skill.
By then, he wouldn't need to say anything. They would naturally let him go into the universe.
"Then I'm counting on you, Yu Duan." Master Zhen Li pointed to Number One. "There's a dedicated training area on the ship. Since you've just broken through, you can use its training environment to get used to the changes in your body."
"There are also some common combat techniques used by Star Level Fighters. They're nothing special in the universe, but they're still very precious to us. You can try learning a few."
Yu Duan nodded. "All right. Thank you, Master Zhen Li."
The brief meeting ended. Master Zhen Li, Kun Zhu, and Shen Jian all had matters to attend to at their respective grounds, so they didn't linger.
Normally, Yu Duan would also have been expected to establish a training ground and teach disciples.
But he couldn't be bothered.
A short while later, in the spaceship's gravity chamber.
Yu Duan stood with a blade in hand inside the sleek, silver chamber, its futuristic design on full display. A screen of light hovered in front of him.
"Based on your physical condition, we recommend setting the intensity to five hundred times Light Source Planet's gravitational acceleration."
After scanning Yu Duan's physical data, the intelligent assistant Number One provided a suitable recommendation.
"Fine. Five hundred times."
At Yu Duan's words, the gravity field in the chamber surged to five hundred times its normal strength with a hum!
Yu Duan's body trembled slightly, then steadied. He half-closed his eyes, apparently experiencing the increased gravity. In reality, his consciousness had sunk into his mental space.
"[Leap of Rosy Clouds]—self-created martial art. Level: Artistic Conception Level. Can borrow insights into Unity of Heaven and Man-level movement techniques in advance. Repayment cost: travel one million kilometers at full speed while using the movement technique."
A newly advanced Planetary Level expert usually had a cruising speed of about one kilometer per second.
But Yu Duan's Planetary Level awakened talent was light. If he ran along the ground and added the speed boost from his movement technique, he could easily maintain a speed of four to five kilometers per second.
"If I fly at full speed for two hours a day, it'll take a little over thirty days to repay the cost of borrowing insights into Unity of Heaven and Man. That's much more efficient than directly improving my Artistic Conception."
The calculation was simple. Yu Duan made his decision almost instantly.
"Borrow insights into Unity of Heaven and Man for the movement technique [Leap of Rosy Clouds]."
As soon as Yu Duan formed the thought, a wave of unfamiliar insights flowed into his mind.
It was like a dream of a golden millet. In the dream, Yu Duan spent years training his movement technique without rest, in the best possible mental and physical condition.
He devoted himself wholly to movement, to Artistic Conception, to nature... He couldn't tell whether Zhuang Zhou had dreamed he was a butterfly, or the butterfly had dreamed it was Zhuang Zhou.
In the outside world, Yu Duan stood motionless with his eyes closed for nearly ten minutes before slowly opening them.
"So this is Unity of Heaven and Man—when Artistic Conception reaches perfection, one returns to Heaven and Earth and resonates with nature."
Yu Duan felt as though he had merged with nature. At the same time, his own energy fluctuations began to change.
They pulsed at a specific frequency, resonating with the faint background radiation of the universe.
[PS: From this chapter onward, time units are by default based on Earth time, equivalent to the cosmic time units in the original.]
Please follow, comment, and bookmark—anything and everything helps!
Before you continue