(A lot of people have said that the Taiji thing is insanely toxic. Indeed, I think so too! But this author has too little in his head and honestly couldn't come up with a better structure. I also made some minor revisions to Chapter 28, and after the psionic structure is completed, the word "Taiji" won't be mentioned again.)
Having obtained the Star Chart, Shen Jun excitedly warped to the Fleet Beacon, completely ignoring He Xi lying on the bed.
He Xi: "..."
She took back what she had just said. This man was beyond saving...
At the Fleet Beacon, Kerasul had returned to work. Before long, Shen Jun suddenly appeared in his laboratory.
"Hierarch, did you need something from me?"
Kerasul asked curiously. He had just watched the Hierarch warp that Angel away. How had he come here so quickly... no, why had he suddenly come here?
"Kerasul, I have obtained a Star Chart of the Known Universe. Hurry and create the Star Array."
"What? Hierarch, where did you get it?"
"That isn't important."
Shen Jun handed the Ian Crystal to Kerasul.
Kerasul accepted the crystal and said no more. Rather than choosing to receive its memories directly, he knew that no biological brain could possibly process such immense information: hundreds of millions of civilizations of every scale and level, and trillions upon trillions of planets across more than a hundred billion star systems.
He performed several operations on the main console. A strange container rose nearby, specifically designed to extract the information stored within ultra-capacity Ian Crystals. Kerasul placed the Ian Crystal inside it.
The container then slowly descended. At the same time, a mechanical-looking platform rose from the floor to support the Ian Crystal container. A translucent light screen swept across it, and with the Ian Crystal at its center, dozens of transparent holographic displays appeared in midair above the platform, their numbers rapidly increasing.
The screens displayed star systems of varying sizes, along with frantically flashing data that would make anyone dizzy at a glance.
Kerasul stared intently at the projections, his hands continuously operating the main console at astonishing speed. As for what exactly he was doing, Shen Jun could not understand any of it.
Some projections abruptly enlarged, while others suddenly shrank. At times, several projections pressed together and combined into one or more nebulae.
"No, I'm too slow alone. Brahim, summon twenty highly skilled phase-smiths to my laboratory. You come too. Hurry."
Brahim was a phase-smith Kerasul thought highly of, as well as a renowned genius of the new Daelaam era. Although Kerasul had already passed away in the years when Brahim rose to fame, that did not prevent him from hearing of Brahim's achievements from Khalai engineers of the same era.
After Aiur fell to the Zerg, the surviving Protoss fled to Shakuras. Later, through Artanis's efforts, the two Protoss tribes were united, and the Daelaam emerged.
At that time, Brahim, a Nerazim, led Nerazim engineers and numerous Khalai engineers in developing new weapons of war. In particular, Brahim had contributed greatly to the design of the Void Ray.
"Yes, sir. I'll contact them right away."
Before long, twenty-one phase-smiths warped into the laboratory. Seeing Shen Jun there, they hurriedly greeted him. "Hierarch, you're here too. Has something happened?"
They realized that this was no simple matter.
"Kerasul is refining the Star Array. He can't handle it alone, so go help him."
Shen Jun gestured for them not to worry about him.
"What? We already have a Star Chart?"
Brahim was startled. He hurried to a secondary console beside Kerasul's main console, while the other phase-smiths took their positions as well. Kerasul granted access to their secondary consoles, and everyone began operating at incredible speed.
Sure enough, with twenty-one phase-smiths joining in, the process accelerated considerably. More and more projections overlapped at greater and greater speed, until they could no longer be distinguished by the naked eye.
Above the mechanical platform holding the Ian Crystal, everything looked like a hazy, translucent cloud.
About five hours passed like this. Just as Shen Jun was nearly falling asleep from waiting, the Star Array was completed!
"Hierarch, the Star Array is ready!"
Hearing Kerasul's voice, Shen Jun immediately woke up.
The container that had held the Ian Crystal had already retracted. Above the platform now floated a beautiful simulated projection of the universe. Countless scaled-down nebulae, star clusters, and star systems filled this model universe. They could be enlarged at will, their information queried, and their star systems located by searching for the names of civilizations.
Shen Jun searched for several civilizations in succession, but found nothing.
"As expected, the locations of god-creating civilizations can't be found through conventional means."
The only one he could locate was the Deno Star System. However, the great god Kiran was there, and no one in the Known Universe dared provoke him.
Not even the Trigonians dared venture deep into the Deno Star System.
"Kerasul, search all star systems within a hundred-light-year diameter centered on Aiur. Find a Resource Star closest to us."
Kerasul deftly manipulated the Star Array several times. The entire model universe changed; one star system continuously enlarged while all the others faded away.
Shen Jun did not need to be told that this was the Aiur Star System. After Kerasul set the hundred-light-year range, more than fourteen hundred star systems remained on the Star Array.
Only three of them contained civilizations.
There were only seventy-odd planets that met the Protoss standards for mineral planets. A planet could only be considered a mineral planet if Mineral Veins accounted for more than ninety percent of its geology, and it had to sustain mining for at least a thousand years without being depleted.
"Hierarch, this star system has an excellent mineral planet, and it is the closest to us, only 4.7 light-years away. We can reach it very quickly, but..."
Shen Jun was immediately delighted upon hearing this. At that distance, if the Protoss fleet initiated continuous warps, it could arrive in two days at most. Once a Time-Space Navigation Route was established, they could reach it in an instant.
"But what? Speak freely."
Kerasul paused before saying, "Hierarch, this system is called the Sien Star System. On one of its planets, there is a... God River Body civilization. It is extremely backward, having only just entered the Paleolithic Age. When we plunder resources from star systems inhabited by other civilizations, you once said that the Angel Civilization would stop such actions and might become our enemy. Angel He Xi is currently on Aiur. Should we..."
"Oh, I thought it was something serious." Shen Jun motioned for Kerasul not to overthink it. "We aren't invading their home planet. We just need to make sure the Sien People don't discover us. Besides, they're only in the Stone Age. They're primitives. They probably won't need the rare resources we need even in ten thousand years. Wouldn't leaving them there just be a waste?"
Shen Jun waved his hand. "Say no more. Our next target is there!"
Before you continue