The universe is so vast.
Despite the Snail People who had become a spirit's assertion that they had entered the Snail People's territory, Li Xingkong Luffy, crossing the influence range of three stars, and still did not see a single sign of human habitation.
"Is this really the Snail People's territory? Are you kidding me?"
It was another desolate galaxy, with the surfaces of its few satellites all being yellowish-brown, and there was not a trace of human presence throughout the entire galaxy.
"We are indeed within our sphere of influence, but this area is considered the edge, and because the resources here are not very good, we generally don't come here."
"It's Snail People artifact spirit," the snail said weakly.
This was the first time it had ever traversed a galaxy in this way. Although its soul was bound to the magical artifact, being carried by Li Xingkong was like being naked and running naked in the street. There was even a merciless solar wind passing through its body, making it feel chilly.
This vast galaxy was extremely desolate, and Li Xingkong had no curiosity about it. What he wanted to do now was to get to the core territory of the Snail People as soon as possible.
Fortunately, after traversing several star systems, Li Xingkong are getting closer and closer to the location of their next jump.
Although the Snail People's star destroyer can jump, its speed in space cannot reach the speed of light. Compared to the speed of a spaceship, Li Xingkong is undoubtedly much faster.
Squeezed out of the stellar bubble of this galaxy, Li Xingkong quickly located the position for the next jump by referring to the compass.
Upon reaching the jump node, Li Xingkong discovered that there was a small, operational device at that node.
Like a peculiar iron windmill, several long rods shimmering with light slowly rotated around the center, while the node in the middle of the instrument plunged into the void, its destination unknown.
"This is?"
Li Xingkong approached the machine, but it didn't react at all and continued to operate on its own.
However, upon seeing the Snail People characters on the machine, Li Xingkong turned to look at the artifact spirit.
"This is our inter-space communication device. In order to maintain communication with the galaxy even after jumping to extremely distant battlefronts, a pair of these devices are left behind during each warp jump to maintain the warp channel and enable rapid information transmission through the devices and the warp channel."
This is indeed an effective solution. Although the speed of information is the speed of light, it is still too slow in the context of the entire universe. If we rely solely on raw data to transmit information between battlefields tens of light-years apart, the information will be too late by the time it gets back.
"Then why isn't there one at the tunnel where we first teleported?"
According to this guy, this thing is set up in every warp portal, but I didn't see it when I warped before.
"Star Destroyers are designed to function as nodes, and this equipment isn't very well-defended; it's easily destroyed if placed on the front lines."
This thing is for communication with the front lines, and they're just not going to set it up because it's been destroyed? These Snail People really lack common sense.
Seeing Li Xingkong's confusion, the Snail People gave an awkward laugh.
"Mainly, the captain wants to control costs, so he avoids using these things if possible. They'll all end up being resold on the black market for a profit."
Very well, Li Xingkong has figured it out. Even aliens, when they get greedy, are just like some corrupt officials.
Even spacefaring civilizations can't solve the problem of corruption...
Li Xingkong reached out and rummaged around on the instrument, like undressing a child. With a few quick rips, he tore off the entire outer casing, exposing the various electronic components and circuits inside.
Li Xingkong had seen these materials before; the materials used on the star destroyer were exactly the same as those used on these instruments.
Since no one was going to recycle it anyway, Li Xingkong didn't plan to keep it. Li Xingkong reached out and pulled out a large bunch of wires, which immediately sparked and the entire device began to flicker.
Li Xingkong reached out and squeezed it a few times, rolling it into a tight iron ball, and then kicked it away with a powerful kick.
The iron ball crashed into a nearby planet at an extremely high speed. Although the sound was inaudible in the vacuum environment, the power of the impact was still evident.
The planet's atmosphere, directly facing Li Xingkong, was blasted open, leaving a huge hole. After the iron ball landed, the entire planet's surface looked as if it had been punched, creating a massive crater.
Suddenly, volcanoes inside the planet erupted from the hole, spewing endless lava even into space.
Since there were no signs of life on the planet anyway, Li Xingkong felt no remorse for taking action.
The Snail People in front of him, however, was trembling.
Can I really manage taking this guy back to my hometown?
I'm afraid I'm going to become a sinner for all time.
After dealing with the equipment, Li Xingkong, like a warrior, reached out with both hands and grabbed the entrance to the jump portal. Then, his hands exploded with power, using his Magic Power and strength to open the jump portal.
Then he rushed into the passage, leaving only a jarring entrance still emitting a strange light.
In a galaxy more than ten light-years away from the jump entrance.
In the originally empty space, a hole suddenly opened, and then a person seemed to be spat out and flew out of the hole.
It was Li Xingkong who emerged. He was a little curious about jumps the first time, but the second time he felt that they were just so-so.
Li Xingkong kicked the communication device at the exit away and rested for a while.
It wasn't that he was tired; it was mainly that the endless, repetitive scenery in this jump space was getting on his nerves.
Although Li Xingkong spent most of his time cultivating, he only looked at the scenery in the passage for a few days before he became somewhat tired of it.
The scenery in this galaxy is largely the same, but it's still much better than inside the jump tunnel.
The galaxy they reached this time was different from the ones before; it was no longer the desolate landscape of the past.
Li Xingkong leaped forward and glanced around briefly, only to see many man-made structures.
Above the nearest planet, a mechanical-looking satellite hung in the distance. When Li Xingkong saw it, it was blasting thick beams of light at the planet's surface, tearing it apart.
As the beam of light swept across, the planet's surface looked as if it had been slashed with a knife, leaving a deep groove.
Upon closer inspection of the planet's surface, one can see numerous aliens wearing exoskeletons moving about, along with a multitude of large-scale equipment and spaceships busily operating within the atmosphere.
They were continuously collecting minerals from the opening created by the laser, and the collected minerals were directly loaded into the spaceship and transported into space.
In the center of this galaxy, near the star, a portal-like structure has appeared.
The spaceships, carrying minerals, flew straight into the portal.
What is that?
Li Xingkong felt like Granny Liu visiting Grand View Garden; he had never seen any of the equipment in this star system before.
"That's the stargate of the suzerain state."
The Snail People spirit that accompanied him sounded a bit off, as if it had been bullied.
Li Xingkong noticed the key phrase: "Suzerain state"? So this was something the Snail People's ascendant state had come up with, but why was it set up here?