Resilient people rallied, working overtime to produce medical equipment, awakening dormant brains one by one. Those who had awakened immediately threw themselves into work, helping even more brains to awaken quickly.
Besides humans, most plants were also eroded by the Stellar Worm. In addition, the fleet exposed Earth Three to the low-temperature environment of space in order to completely kill the Stellar Worm, and all plants were frozen to death. Now that it has warmed up again, the environment of Earth Three must be restored immediately, plants must be replanted, various organisms must be cultivated, and humans can maintain a normal life.
After thousands of years of effort, the fleet finally revived every brain and restored the limbs of the civilians, including Luo Zhigao and Li Wenfei.
The fleet finally returned to its former state, but the billions of people were completely devoured by the Stellar Worm and could never recover. This disaster also caused the fleet to waste thousands of years, during which time technology made almost no progress.
The only gain was that the people became stronger and more united. Luo Zhigao felt that a raging fire was burning in everyone's heart, and no difficulty could defeat them in the future.
Subsequent research by Academician Gao Zhengyang and Academician Zheng Kaiping revealed that the Stellar Worm did not originate from space. Their origin was the riddled asteroid. After consuming all the organic matter on the asteroid, these worms went into hibernation, using the heat absorbed by the asteroid to sustain their lives until the arrival of Luo Zhigao's fleet.
The asteroid has very little gravity, allowing the Stellar Worm to easily escape. In addition, Earth Three was too close to the asteroid, and the Stellar Worm survived the low temperature and arrived at Earth Three in groups. Due to the scarcity of resources, the Stellar Worm have an unusually simple and special structure. Their material is even thinner than that of jellyfish, making them virtually undetectable in visible light.
Organic matter is essential for the reproduction of Stellar Worm. As long as there is a sufficient supply of organic matter, they can reproduce in large numbers in a short period of time. Even without organic matter, they can survive for a long time as long as there is a little heat.
Academician Zheng sent the robot back to the binary star system, where it captured and stored a large number of Stellar Worm. These worms, once deployed on a large scale, would be almost impossible to defend against and could cause fatal blows or turmoil to other civilizations. However, it would be impossible to destroy an advanced civilization with these worms unless one had an astronomical number of them. The organic matter consumed in cultivating so many Stellar Worm could accumulate into hundreds of planets.
Having replenished their energy and resources in this new planetary system, Luo Zhigao led his fleet on a renewed voyage, preparing to plunder any small, isolated fleets.
After the fleet had sailed for ten light-years, a familiar binary star system came into view, along with a small, cratered asteroid.
"Minister, it seems we've come full circle again."
Is there a problem with the navigation system?
"Everything is normal, there are no problems. It's impossible for all navigation systems to malfunction at the same time," Li Wenfei replied.
"Keep going!"
The fleet set sail again, and after traveling for fifteen light-years, a binary star system reappeared, including that familiar, hole-ridden asteroid.
"Minister, we seem to be lost; we've been going around in circles."
"Keep going, I refuse to believe it, let's try a different direction."
"Yes."
Three days later, the fleet returned to the airspace near the twin stars. The hole in the asteroid looked like an ironic smiley face, mocking Luo Zhigao and everyone else.
"Try again."
"Keep trying! I refuse to believe it."
"Where is Academician Gao? Call Academician Gao over."
"Minister, I already know about the situation." Gao Zhengyang rushed over.
" Old Gao, do you know why? Even if the fleet has navigation problems, it won't end up in the same place twice."
"We don't know yet; we need to test and verify."
" Old Gao, how can such a strange thing happen? No matter which direction the fleet heads, it can't leave this place."
We need more experimental data.
"Alright, let's split off a portion of the fleet and send them in different directions. Let's see which ship can get out of here, shall we?"
"Okay, let's try this for now."
Ten thousand warships were separated and sailed in different directions. Three days later, all the warships returned to their original positions without missing a single one, much to the surprise of Luo Zhigao and Gao Zhengyang.
" Old Gao, it looks like we're trapped."
"Minister, don't worry, perhaps this is an opportunity."
"Opportunity?"
"Although I don't yet know exactly why we're stuck in the same place, I'm certain there's something wrong with the space here. If we can figure out what's wrong, it might greatly improve our fleet's technology."
"Alright, there shouldn't be any danger for now. We'll stay here. The problem with the Stellar Worm has been solved, and we don't lack energy here. There are also two planetary systems nearby with planets we can use. You can take your time to study them."
After leaving Luo Zhigao, Gao Zhengyang immediately began collecting data. After multiple tests, he delineated a vast airspace with a radius of 10 light-years centered on the binary star system. This was the area where the fleet could navigate normally without returning to its original location. The area between 10 and 15 light-years seemed to be the Lost Zone. Once the fleet sailed more than 10 light-years, it would enter the Land of Lost. In the Land of Lost, no matter which direction it sailed, it would return to the vicinity of the binary star system.
Academician Gao Zhengyang began using conventional engines to test the curvature of space bit by bit, and even used sub-light speed gliding in the Lost Zone. Curvature travel has a significant impact on space, so perhaps conventional engines...
The warship glided slowly at 0.1 times the speed of light and soon entered the Lost Zone. The warships behind could only see the test ship sailing far away and disappearing from sight. Fifty years later, the gliding warship appeared near the twin stars as expected.
fail.
fail.
fail...
It was another failure.
Academician Gao has lost count of how many times this has failed. More than two thousand years have passed here, and the number of tests has been at least hundreds of thousands, if not millions, but not a single data point has been found to be abnormal.
Gao Zhengyang's aging process over the past two thousand years seems to have accelerated considerably. He has the appearance of a middle-aged man with a full head of white hair. Even in the spatial vortex, Gao Zhengyang has never felt so overwhelmed by his mental limitations.
The repeated failures tested Gao Zhengyang and the other academicians' patience. Another 3,000 years passed in the blink of an eye, and the time for their meeting with Hu Yu had arrived. After five thousand years of development, and with the countless technologies exchanged with Hu Yu, the fleet had successfully entered the Small Star Sector Junior Civilization, but it was still unable to leave this airspace.
Luo Zhigao knew that Hu Yu would be very worried about him if he broke his promise, but there was nothing he could do. The fleet couldn't leave this place at all, and even knowing that Hu Yu would be worried, there was nothing he could do.