Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

In the next month, Li Yao acted quietly in the periphery of the mysterious world.

He measured and analyzed many planets and satellites, planning hundreds of shelters and routes of escape.

Judging from the information recorded on the navigation map of the Pangu civilization, this was a typical single-galaxy Sector, and most of the spiritual energy was concentrated near the star.

There were eleven planets altogether in the entire galaxy. Four of them were gaseous planets, two were packed with liquid constituents that resembled methane on the surface, and another few solid planets were unsuitable for the survival and reproduction of carbon-based life because they were either too far away from or too close to the star.

Only the fourth planet was at an acceptable distance from the star. It boasted its own atmosphere and two satellites and was a resourceful, habitable planet with plenty of spiritual energy.

It was also the essence of the Sector.

The diameter of the planet was around twice the diameter of the Heaven’s Origin Planet. Naturally, its surface was much larger. However, it seemed to be made of different materials, which were of a lower density, from what made up the Heaven’s Origin Planet. As a result, its mass was almost identical to the Heaven’s Origin Planet’s, and the gravity field there would be bearable for ordinary people.

It was reasonable, too. After all, the members of the Pangu Clan were often tall and strong. They were even less adapted to high gravity than human beings, who were much tinier in size, were. Since this place was the ‘provincial capital’ for them, the gravity here naturally could not be too high.

The navigation map of the Pangu civilization paid special attention to the two satellites of the planet.

It seemed that the two satellites were made of some uncanny materials, too, allowing them to mix some sort of mysterious force when reflecting the rays from the star. As a result, the spiritual energy from the star was even more dense.

Li Yao had been worrying that the dominator of the Sector would boast unpredictable space voyage abilities and be observing him quietly in the darkness while preparing itself.

Or rather, the Sector here itself might be a fatal trap. Everything here could have been fabricated.

Assuming that a powerful, enormous civilization intended to figure out the specific coordinates of many Sectors, study the civilizations of the Sectors, and eventually swallow them, it was absolutely possible for them to ‘dig out’ such a trap somewhere else other than their mother planet.

They would send out signals in various directions from the trap, attracting the explorers of other Sectors to draw close.

If they discovered that the explorer was rather weak after observation, they would show up and capture the explorer together with their starship. They would analyze the prey and decide the precise capabilities and specific coordinates of the explorer’s civilization before they made up follow-up plans.

If the explorer that they baited was too powerful for them, they could totally abandon the ‘trap’ and flee.

After all, this place was not their mother planet, and they would certainly not leave any trace of their mother planet here.

When Su Changfa told him the history of the Imperium of True Human Beings’ colonization, a lot of such cunning and unpredictable cases had been elaborated on.

Despite the low odds, he still could not be too cautious because it concerned the future of the tens of billions of people in the federation.

That was why Li Yao wasted his time and fuel wandering around in the periphery of the galaxy, like a shocked bird that would run away quickly at the first anomaly.

But after he made quite a fuss for more than half a month, he felt that he had been ‘flirting with someone blind’. The entire galaxy was as peaceful as ever, without the slightest sign of turmoil.

If the civilization’s technology was not so developed that they could completely conceal their existence, making Li Yao unable to see or hear them, the only explanation was that they had not broken out of the gravity sphere of the mother planet yet or that they had retreated after finding nothing of value in the universe.

If it was the first case-scenario, Li Yao’s every move right now must have been scrutinized by them. However hard he struggled right, he would still be nothing more than a fish in a water tank.

Thinking through that, Li Yao resolved himself to march to the fourth planet.

The closer he was to the center of the galaxy, the more vivid the traces left by the Pangu civilization were.

Li Yao discovered the traces of large-scale development on quite a few solid planets and the solid satellites of the gaseous and liquid planets.

They were enormous holes that could be hundreds of kilometers in diameter, leading to the core of the planets.

One of the satellites had been entirely emptied, with only a thin shell on the surface, but under the support of some uncanny force, it was still able to maintain the basic form.

It appeared that the Pangu civilization regarded all the planets and satellites in the galaxy other than the fourth planet as ‘resource planets’ and did not intend to colonize them. They were merely exploiting the resources inside and threw away all the planets that had been drained.

It was quite fitting for the status at the last years of the God-Sealing War, where both parties were trying their best and shedding their blood.

Li Yao noticed some existences that were suspected to be the Pangu civilization’s relics, too.

But he did not dare explore them recklessly while he was all by himself.

If he was caught in a perilous situation like the one on Kunlun, he would be killed for sure, all alone.

He could only scan and record the appearance and coordinates of the relics of the Pangu civilization for now. After he determined that the Sector was absolutely safe, he could send the coordinates and information back to the federation so that the mother planet could deploy a large-scale fleet for exploration.

A month later, Spark, which was pretending to be a meteor, finally drifted into the gravitational field of a satellite of the fourth planet.

Li Yao docked Spark at the dark side of the ‘moon’ to maintain a sense of safety, however thin it was.

He did three days of rehabilitative training there. Finally, he felt that his body and soul had recovered to the peak state before the hibernation. Even the invisible cracks in the deepest part of his soul were gone!

Everything was ready for exploration!

This exploration was different from his travels in the Flying Star Sector in that he had very clear targets.

Firstly, he had to sneak into the mysterious world without exposing his real identity. He would observe the development level of the local civilization, study their social form, make acquaintance with the core leadership of the civilization, and figure out why they ‘greeted’ the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Flying Star Sector without a reason.

Secondly, he would have to find out whether the civilization was malicious or kind.

If Li Yao determined that the civilization was ruthless, hostile one after studies, he would then have to figure out whether or not it was capable of launching a cross-world attack toward the Star Glory Federation.

If it was, Li Yao would try to learn the specific patterns of the attack before he left without a sound and brought all the intelligence back to the federation so that the federation could make preparations or even attack in advance.

Li Yao had been away from the federation for a hundred years. After a hundred years of booming development, the Star Glory Federation today should no longer be a fish on a chopping block at anyone’s mercy now, right?

He almost could not wait to establish the ‘space gate’ and see how magnificent the troop jumping out of the space gate was!

If the hostile civilization did not boast the cross-world remote attack ability, or it was even unaware of the existence of the Star Glory Federation and had simply sprayed the signals to the entire universe aimlessly, Li Yao would take different actions.

He would still bring the information back to the federation so that the federation would leave the mysterious world aside for now and focus its full attention on the expedition fleet of the Imperium of True Human Beings.

In the second scenario, if the civilization was not malicious, and it simply sent out the signals for the purpose of communication, the Star Glory Federation would definitely give a friendly reply, too.

Considering that the army of the Imperium of True Human Beings was approaching, and the dreadful people of the Covenant Alliance were haunting the universe like ghosts, Li Yao would try his best to persuade the Sector to join the federation.

If the civilization wished to retain part of its independence, the Star Glory Federation could still form a partnership with the civilization in order to resist the Imperium and the Covenant Alliance together.

As an adventurer galloping in the universe, Li Yao had been entrusted with great powers. He was allowed to get in touch, communicate, and sign eligible treaties with an unknown civilization before the authorization of the parliament in the federation.

In short, in the boundless sea of stars, Li Yao was not simply a ‘diplomat’ of the Star Glory Federation; Li Yao was the Star Glory Federation itself!

Other than the two missions with clear targets, there was a variable that might or might not be serious.

It was the expedition fleet of the Imperium of True Human Beings, made of the ‘Black Wind soldiers’, who were so brutal and infamous in the Imperium that even Su Changfa, Kou Ruhuo, and Tang Qianhe were scared of them!

Over the past hundred years, while the federation was developing fast, the Black Wind fleet had certainly not been resting, either. Chances were that it had already jumped to somewhere in the area.

After Li Yao’s personal experience, he doubted that the Black Wind fleet would be stupid enough to dive into the depths of the dark nebula directly.

However, even if the main troops stayed outside, it was still possible that a few scouts had been sent to explore the dark nebula on the super-tiny starships exactly like he did.

The space voyage technology of the Imperium of True Human Beings was much more advanced than that of the Star Glory Federation. Their efficiency would certainly be multiple times higher than Li Yao’s.

If the Black Wind fleet of the Imperium of True Human Beings truly discovered the mysterious world and even conspired with the local civilization to attack the Star Glory Federation together, it would be a terrible disaster.

Therefore, Li Yao had to stop such a future.

Should he run into an Immortal Cultivator in the mysterious world, he would have to try his best to sabotage their alliance with the locals and make the locals join hands with the federation!

All things considered, the stance of the mysterious world would have a huge influence on the outcome of the war to defend the federation!

Other than that, there was also a low possibility, which was that it was the blood descendants of the Pangu Clan and the Nuwa Clan who had been living on the mysterious planet all the time, like the ‘living fossils’ that had hidden and reproduced on a lone island for hundreds of thousands of years.

But judging from the environment here, the possibility was almost negligible.

If it were the Pangu Clan or the Nuwa Clan who resided in the place, their footprints should be all over the sea of stars, should they not?

Prepare to go!

Spark was too obvious a target after all. Li Yao did not intend to bring it with him.

He landed Spark on the first satellite of the fourth planet, remembered its coordinates, and set up the controller of self-detonation. He then stored all the assets other than the star beacons into his Cosmos Rings and put on his crystal suit, ready for the exploration.