Chapter 288: The Aging Star

Words : 1616 Updated : Oct 5th, 2025

The greatest gain from this war was this Nation-Class starship. The All Nations Pay Tribute ship, in terms of defense, combat power, size, mass, and technological level, was the most advanced ship Xiao Yu currently possessed. However, Xiao Yu did not intend to move in and live on it himself. This decision still stemmed from the caution in Xiao Yu’s heart. The reason was simple: things made by others were never as trustworthy as those made by oneself. Xiao Yu planned to carry out a complete overhaul of the ship, replacing its entire computer system and modifying all remaining components to suit his own control before relocating all the races under his command into it. A Nation-Class starship, calculated by Molian Civilization’s population standards, required a minimum operating crew of one hundred thousand people. But once converted into residential capacity, the number increased significantly. Xiao Yu estimated that this Nation-Class ship could house at least ten million people. “This is just a Nation-Class starship. In the future, I will have Continent-Class ships, Planet-Class ships, Star-Class ships, and even Galaxy-Class ships!” Staring at the still somewhat damaged All Nations Pay Tribute, Xiao Yu was filled with lofty ambition. Xiao Yu had now entered Faster-Than-Light Travel, speeding towards that star which had once been the dwelling place of the Specter elder, at seven times the speed of light. The All Nations Pay Tribute had already completed the modification of its control module, so Xiao Yu had no problem controlling its navigation. While traveling at FTL speed, Xiao Yu was also directing tens of millions of robots to carry out intense modifications inside the ship. Reaching that star would take several years, and during these years, Xiao Yu would completely transform it into his own ship. Aside from the All Nations Pay Tribute, his other ships were also undergoing intense upgrades and modifications. Xiao Yu had now accumulated a great deal of technology, and once all of it was fully applied, the combat strength of his fleet would advance to an entirely new level. All that was left was time. “After I obtain the Specter Heart, I will begin my voyage, traveling a thousand light years away, find some inconspicuous corner, and slowly advance my technology... Hmm, yes, during the voyage, I must also keep an eye out for traces of civilizations. If I discover a preliminary civilization, that would be ideal. A preliminary civilization has at least several billion people. Among such a population, with my education, countless scientists would emerge, providing tremendous support for the development of my technology...” Xiao Yu was calculating in his mind, filled with anticipation for the future. During Faster-Than-Light Travel, it was impossible to receive any optical or electromagnetic signals. Although the tachyon detection module could function aboard FTL ships and conduct physical scans while in FTL state, it could only detect objects, not gather information from optical or electromagnetic signals. To address this, Xiao Yu’s fleet made a brief stop in the void, released several hundred satellites, and then resumed Faster-Than-Light Travel. The location of this pause had been precisely calculated. According to Xiao Yu’s calculations, after this interval, the light signals from that star, which had suffered an attack from the Stellar Cannon, would just now be arriving at this position. All of these satellites were equipped with highly precise optical and radiation detection instruments. They would conduct a full range of scans on this star from this position, comprehensively assessing the effects of the Stellar Cannon attack, and then transmit the data directly into Xiao Yu’s mind via superluminal communication. While traveling in FTL, Xiao Yu was closely monitoring the star’s condition through these satellites. The light from after the Stellar Cannon strike had not yet arrived at this point, so the star that the satellites were observing still appeared calm and dim. It still presented only half of its body, like a crescent moon. “Three, two, one...” Xiao Yu silently counted down. As the countdown reached zero, the brightness of the star in the satellite’s observation suddenly increased by several thousand times. Here, several light-years away from that star, under normal conditions it would appear as nothing more than a dim speck of light. But now, it looked like a full moon! Even at such a vast distance, Xiao Yu could clearly feel the immense power contained in this eruption. As the visible light arrived, radiation from various other wavelengths followed. At this moment, Xiao Yu’s satellites detected radiation levels thousands or even tens of thousands of times stronger than usual. Through these satellites, Xiao Yu even observed clear signs of material ejection. Due to the star’s intense activity, countless amounts of matter were being stripped from its surface and scattered into space. Its outer atmosphere was even directly blown away by the intense pressure of the light. “My Stellar Cannon did not destroy this star. Its output is still too small. Hmm... perhaps just as the Specter elder once said, only by increasing the Stellar Cannon’s power by several hundred times could it be possible to completely destroy it.” Watching these phenomena, Xiao Yu thought to himself, “But even such a preliminary Stellar Cannon has inflicted significant damage. It... has already started to exhibit some characteristics of a red giant, such as atmospheric expansion, increased volume, and a rise in core temperature.” A red giant is a star that has entered its aging phase. Once a star becomes a red giant, it means its lifespan is nearing its end, just like the star Xiao Yu fought over with the Molian Civilization. A single shot from the Stellar Cannon had turned a yellow dwarf into a red giant. Although only some red giant characteristics had appeared, and it would recover over the next tens of thousands of years, this was still an extraordinary achievement. It meant that Xiao Yu’s influence had truly progressed from planetary-level to stellar-level. At this moment, endless streams of observational data were transmitted into Xiao Yu’s mind. He was intensely calculating and evaluating. Inside the computer, countless stellar models were being constructed, and the satellite data was constantly refining these models. Xiao Yu was trying his best to recreate the entire reaction process of this star after being attacked by the Stellar Cannon. A detailed 3D model had been established and was continuously being improved. Through computer simulation, Xiao Yu replayed the entire catastrophe. In the cross-sectional diagram, far in the distance, points of light representing the negative matter torrent rapidly approached, directly piercing through the star’s thin outer layers and reaching its core. There, the negative matter torrent annihilated with positive matter, returning to nothingness. With the loss of mass and energy in the core, the outer layers, under their own immense pressure, suddenly collapsed inward at speeds approaching that of light. Gravitational potential energy was converted into kinetic energy. How much energy would matter traveling near light speed carry? Xiao Yu didn’t need to calculate to know that it would be an astronomical figure. In an instant, matter from both sides collided at nearly light speed, releasing an incomprehensibly massive amount of energy. Under the turbulence of this energy, the entire star became unstable. Since the transfer of force could not exceed the speed of light, it took over two seconds for the energy to spread throughout the entire star. The violent collision also produced a strong reaction force. Under this force, some of the star’s surface material was flung hundreds of thousands of kilometers into space in an instant, reaching escape velocity and permanently leaving the star, becoming interstellar matter. Amid this violent disturbance, the star’s photosphere, chromosphere, convection zone, and core layers all fell into chaos. Heavy elements began to once again gather toward the core. Due to the immense energy, elements that could only form during supernovae or neutron star collisions were being fused within the core. At this moment, the star briefly possessed the capability of a supernova, instantly fusing all elements beyond iron on the periodic table. Normally, stellar fusion can only produce elements up to iron. This is common knowledge. Especially for a yellow dwarf like this star, it could normally only fuse a few light elements such as helium, oxygen, and lithium. But under the influence of the Stellar Cannon, Xiao Yu shattered this limitation. After the initial eruption came a long period of chaos. The wound inflicted upon this star by the blast would not heal for tens of thousands of years. Once the most violent phase of the explosion had passed, Xiao Yu keenly noticed that the aging Specter previously covering its surface had disappeared. It had once again returned to the appearance of a complete star. “Sigh.” Having once more reconstructed the entire stellar catastrophe, Xiao Yu let out a deep sigh, his heart filled with complicated emotions. Thinking of the deceased Specter elder, he did not know how to feel. The data collected from this observation would be enough to keep Xiao Yu busy researching for quite some time. With this task complete, there was nothing else to do during the voyage. Xiao Yu smoothly completed this segment of travel and finally arrived once again at the vicinity of this yellow dwarf. At this moment, he was still twenty billion kilometers away from the star. The star had yet to settle; its brightness remained several hundred times higher than normal. However, after filtering out the effects of the light, the scene before Xiao Yu made him suck in a breath of cold air. Xiao Yu faintly realized that he seemed to have overlooked something. And this overlooked detail would bring him great trouble.

Chapter 288: The Aging Star

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