Chapter 299: Escaping the Danger Zone

Words : 1754 Updated : Oct 7th, 2025

Once curvature flight was engaged and the speed exceeded that of light, the ship became invisible to any detection relying on electromagnetic waves or radiation. With Xiao Yu’s current level of technology, there was only one method capable of locating objects traveling in superluminal curvature flight: tachyon detection instruments. As for whether even more advanced civilizations possessed other methods, Xiao Yu did not know. “The matters here have finally reached an end. It’s time for me to set out on a new journey, to seek out low-level civilizations, bring them under my command, develop technology, and enhance my strength...” Xiao Yu contemplated. His course was directed toward the galactic core. The closer one moved to the galactic core, the higher the stellar density became, and the easier it was to encounter other intelligent civilizations. Of course, there were limits to this density; it was not simply a matter of the denser, the better. For example, in the core region itself, stellar density could reach the point where there was a star every few hundred million kilometers. It was easy to deduce that such regions were not suitable for intelligent life to survive. Moreover, the stars in the core region were mainly old stars, various white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, and other extreme stellar bodies. There were not many young or middle-aged stars there. Xiao Yu speculated that this phenomenon was likely connected to the supermassive black hole at the galactic center. Just as denser matter tends to sink while less dense matter rises, white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, and other dense objects would naturally accumulate toward the galactic core, while ordinary stars tended to drift farther away. The environment near the galactic core was extremely harsh. Black holes devoured other celestial bodies, and fierce phenomena such as stellar collisions were very common. If intelligent life could survive and evolve in such a place, that would truly be unexpected. In Xiao Yu’s estimation, a Level 5 Civilization could already be considered among the most advanced in the Milky Way Galaxy. The development of civilizations followed a pyramid structure: the more advanced, the fewer in number. According to probability theory, the existence of a Level 5 Civilization necessarily implied the presence of many lower-level civilizations. From this, it could be concluded that if he truly encountered an intelligent civilization, the likelihood it would be a Level 4 or lower civilization was much greater than the likelihood it would be Level 5 or Level 6. Indeed, Xiao Yu was actively searching for intelligent civilizations. With technology developed to this extent, he had fully come to appreciate the importance of exchange. Working behind closed doors, remaining stagnant, was not an option. Xiao Yu was making a deliberate change, whether by expanding the number of civilizations under his command or by proactively seeking out other civilizations to communicate with, everything was driven by this understanding. A complete system of intelligent civilization meant countless intelligent beings, tens of billions or even hundreds of billions. Once he brought them under his banner and nurtured them, how many scientists would emerge among them? How much momentum would they provide for his technological advancement? To Xiao Yu now, this was an unimaginably vast fortune, far surpassing the value of the entire body of a Level 4 Alien Beast. “Eliminate any targets within five hundred light-years completely. That’s too close to the Molian Civilization, and there could be danger. Once I’ve traveled beyond five hundred light-years, I’ll begin scanning all the stars along the route,” Xiao Yu thought silently, piloting the immense fleet to continue accelerating. At present, Xiao Yu’s travel speed had reached five times the speed of light. After a bit more time, it would climb to eight times the speed of light. Xiao Yu did not believe that the Level 4 Alien Beast would be capable of traveling at eight times the speed of light. In fact, he doubted it even had the ability to conduct long-range scanning during superluminal flight. Level 4 Civilizations did possess faster-than-light detection abilities, but those detection capabilities were not based on tachyon technology. Instead, they relied on reconstructing light waves. This detection technology was rather primitive and crude, essentially only able to detect massive targets like stars or planets. Using such means to locate a fleet was basically impossible, not to mention that Xiao Yu was currently in faster-than-light flight and emitted no detectable signals whatsoever. In other words, as long as he entered the superluminal flight stage, he was essentially safe and no longer needed to worry about being pursued by that creature. “At last, I’ve tied up all the loose ends here.” Xiao Yu let out a slightly contented sigh, gathered his focus, and began attending to other matters. There were always so many matters laid out before Xiao Yu, and the workload was always so heavy. But the persistent obsession buried deep in his heart, along with the longing to grow stronger, allowed Xiao Yu to face everything with the most vigorous energy. Continuing to delve into the technology acquired from the Molian Civilization, repairing the All Nations Pay Tribute ship, restoring the other damaged vessels, conducting all kinds of scientific research, the in-depth development of the negative matter cannon... The All Nations Pay Tribute ship still hadn’t been completely repaired. The scientists who had previously been stationed aboard had already been redistributed by Xiao Yu to several other City-Class and Province-Class ships. There, Xiao Yu had built some comparatively simpler scientific instruments for them so they could continue their research. The process of repairing the All Nations Pay Tribute made Xiao Yu feel deeply how incredibly complex the structure of a large ship truly was. A large ship wasn’t simply an accumulation of materials; it was a precisely coordinated whole, in which any minor alteration could impact the entire vessel. If repairing one All Nations Pay Tribute was already like this, there was no need to mention even larger ships. Only now did Xiao Yu fully understand that sentence, ‘The Guardian Civilization flagship, the Radiance, was severely damaged, and it is estimated it will take thirty thousand years to complete the repairs.’ If just repairing required tens of thousands of years, what about construction? How powerful must a ship be, forged with such tremendous effort? The Radiance was already so formidable, then what about the Neutron War Star that left the Radiance completely unable to fight back and forced it to flee in panic? “The road ahead is long and arduous.” In that moment, Xiao Yu’s heart was filled with emotion. But facing this endless path, bristling with thorns, Xiao Yu felt no fear at all. Instead, he was filled with a heroic determination. “Hm? What is that?” As he accelerated to maximum speed, racing toward the galactic core, Xiao Yu switched the tachyon detection instruments to full power, and then discovered an unusual phenomenon. Roughly sixty billion kilometers behind his fleet, there was a strange asteroid following tightly after him. The asteroid was about twenty kilometers in diameter, utterly unremarkable in the universe. But the most crucial detail was that this asteroid was traveling faster than light! Moreover, its speed was identical to Xiao Yu’s fleet, eight times the speed of light! It simply maintained the same velocity as Xiao Yu, neither drawing closer nor falling back, always trailing precisely sixty billion kilometers behind him. In an instant, Xiao Yu understood and felt unspeakably frustrated. There was no doubt, this was that Level 4 Alien Beast. It had curled itself up and was using some posture to conduct superluminal travel that far exceeded its apparent external capabilities, relentlessly pursuing Xiao Yu. “Why is this thing still following me? How can it reach such high speeds? And how is it able to find my trail?” Xiao Yu felt deeply helpless. The creature’s behavior once again exceeded all of his expectations. “If it insists on following, then let it follow... I only hope it doesn’t have the ability to fight in a superluminal state, or I’ll really be reduced to nothing more than a punching bag.” Xiao Yu thought. “As long as it doesn’t attack and lets me finish this stretch of the journey, once I stabilize within a star system, I’ll have plenty of ways to deal with it.” Xiao Yu had both the confidence and the strength to do so. Although the negative matter cannon still could not be miniaturized, building a large negative matter cannon was no problem at all for him. As long as he could find a star system rich in resources, he could use a planet as a platform to construct another large negative matter cannon. A single blast would be enough to severely wound this creature. “I suppose you don’t yet understand the power of a Level 5 Civilization. Since you’re eager to deliver yourself to death’s door, then I’ll be taking your body. After I kill you, I’ll use your remains to build a new Nation-Class ship.” Xiao Yu sneered coldly to himself. Superluminal flight continued. Over the initial five hundred light-years of the journey, Xiao Yu’s course remained essentially a straight line and would continue that way for over sixty years. During those sixty years, Xiao Yu thoroughly repaired the All Nations Pay Tribute and completely analyzed its technology, collecting every piece of valuable information. After finishing all that, Xiao Yu, together with the more than ten thousand scientists belonging to him, began the long process of experimentation, verification, calculation, and deduction. Xiao Yu’s level of technology was advancing at a slow but steady pace. Over those sixty-some years, the Molian Civilization did not reappear, and though the Level 4 Alien Beast continued to follow Xiao Yu closely, it made no unusual moves. It seemed simply to be waiting for Xiao Yu to stop before launching an attack. Everything remained calm and uneventful. Sixty years passed in the blink of an eye. Xiao Yu finally escaped the danger zone. From this moment on, his flight path could no longer remain in a straight line. Though tachyon detection could be used during faster-than-light travel, it still had its limitations, namely, it could not scan objects over too great a distance. Furthermore, because Xiao Yu was actively searching for low-level civilizations, whenever he encountered a suitable star, he had to alter his course to approach within eight billion kilometers. Only then could he use tachyon detection to survey the star system.

Chapter 299: Escaping the Danger Zone

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