In the year 70026, within the Immortal Sect's Solar System.
The Immortal Sect flourished as never before. Seventh-tier spiritual veins crisscrossed the Solar System like rivers of heaven winding through the cosmic void, their starlight glittering in a breathtaking display.
This was the sacred seat of an order that ruled a cluster of worlds.
This was the home of dozens of Dao Integration Divine Lords, the place guarded by a mighty instrument of a Celestial-tier civilization, and the home port of many renowned eighth-tier starry-sky army group fleets.
Here, immortal science advanced with each passing day. Every moment brought new technologies that reshaped every walk of life.
The most brilliant talents of the myriad races gathered here—the finest in character, ability, and achievement. They constantly absorbed new ideas and ways of thinking from beyond the Immortal Sect, ensuring that minds did not grow rigid and its citizens did not rot in comfort, as so many extinct races had.
By every measure, this civilization brimmed with life and vigor.
It resembled the Immortal Orders of the upper realm during their rise: united from top to bottom, striving forward together, and drawing talent from every quarter. In some ways, it was even better!
On this day, the Golden Emperor Palace held an Immortal Sect academic conference as usual.
"There's a problem with conduit 8721 of the Solar-System-Class Battleship's engine. We can't solve it."
"Construction is stuck here. There's no telling how many years a breakthrough will take. We need more technical groundwork—perhaps three thousand years, perhaps twenty thousand. There's no way to estimate it..."
Eight mechanical arms danced behind Divine Lord Myriad Mechanisms, writing the Immortal Sect's distinctive runes of zeros and ones. Those runes conveyed a vast body of information on constructing an eighth-tier engine furnace.
In truth, it had been