The Martial Unity

Chapter 3544: A Cosmic Conspiracy

The air was silent.

Not a single person made even the slightest peep of a sound.

They were engrossed.

Engrossed in the web of mysteries that subsumed their entire world.

Distant, unconnected things seemed to offer connections beyond their wildest fathoming.

It reeked of conspiracy.

A grand, cosmic conspiracy from the very universe itself.

Despite being highly scientific and grounded rational people, for a moment, every single one of them let their curiosity and imagination run wild. They wondered if their planet was some sort of experiment or artificial creation by some third party or entity.

They wondered if some of the wilder theories and hypotheses about this universe, such as simulation theory, were true. There was no scientific grounding for any of these theories by any means, but there appeared to be no possible way that Gaia could be possible within the laws of physics as they had known them.

It defied everything that they had thought they had understood about the world.

The Esoterist indulged in the silence that hung over the scientific conference for several moments himself. He couldn’t help but think about the manifold and the manifold tree that gave rise to it.

He wished he could reveal its existence and the fact that it was an alien species.

But it was confidential information of the highest class, unfortunately. The Emperor of Harmony would flay him alive if he dared to reveal it on such a public forum.

In truth, the presence of the alien species was one of the greatest reasons that he secretly believed that the Xenological Origin Hypothesis had more weight to it than others could have imagined.

He simply could not bring himself to accept that it was a coincidence that the manifold tree had come from another world and trapped the Panama Continent in a manifold that consumed the entire world at the same time as the Epoch of Evolution in the true world.

It was too much of a coincidence.

He suspected that there was something truly grand and cosmic happening across not just Gaia and her depths, but also across the cosmos.

These suspicions and insights that he was only now making reminded him of the Divine Doctor’s mission: to cure Gaia of her illness. The Esoterist regretted treating that as nonsense, in hindsight.

The Divine Doctor had realized the truth long, long before all of them had even begun to gain an inkling.

’He truly is worthy of being considered the greatest Immortal Sage.’

Now, when they needed his insights the most, he had disappeared into the true world on his own in a quest to find the truth himself. The Esoterist had no doubt that with his brilliance, he had already found several answers. He would simply have to wait until the Divine Doctor returned to the Panama Continent.

However, he wasn’t the only Immortal Sage that came to mind regarding this matter.

His attention shifted to the Astromind, who was also due for his own presentation of his scientific paper. He was curious about what his old friend would offer in this context, given that it was not exactly within his field of science.

His attention returned to the audience that had begun to break out of their reveries and exchange thoughts and ideas with their colleagues.

”However, more than just scientific curiosity or even the technological applications of a core of negatron matter, one of the most important reasons we need to do this research is to understand the risks associated with this,” the Esoterist continued, drawing their attention. ”For example, is the planet still undergoing mild, slow expansion? Are we due for a much larger and greater enlargement of this planet? Is that even sustainable?”

His words chilled the air of the excitement as the very valid concerns he brought up put all the scientists in a thoughtful state of mind. Indeed, it couldn’t be that Gaia would expand forever, although they didn’t know whether it was expanding even now, it was very difficult to confirm it if the process was very slow.

”In fact, we might be endangering our planet and our very existence by mining negatron matter,” the Esoterist warned them. ”If negatron matter is the only reason that this planet has not become a star, then removing it from within the planet could finally trigger the transformation and destroy all life across every corner of this planet.”

Shivers passed through the spines of the various scientists as their eyes widened with shock.

”What...!”

”This... This is an existential risk!”

”We must find a way to stop those greedy politicians until we can assess the risk!”

Unfortunately, as someone who was both a scientist and a politician, the Esoterist knew that there was no chance of stopping the true world from scraping every last negatron particle from within the depths of the ocean.

It wasn’t just greed.

It was fear.

They were afraid that their enemies would become unstoppable if they got their hands on the negatron matter. They also sought to acquire enough negatron matter to keep up and ensure that they didn’t lose the race, while others were more ambitious, seeking to make all the negatron theirs.

And he had to admit, he was part of the problem.

He was the Esoterist.

Esoteric matter was his forte, and the more esoteric matter there was in the world, the more relevant and powerful he was. He was very delighted when he concluded that Gaia must have had a negatron matter core, because it meant that he could become the most important scientist in the entire world and the most powerful Immortal Sage.

’And with the negatron matter within Gaia, we could traverse the universe and find even more exotic phenomena.’

The universe was so unfathomably vast that the Esoterist had no doubt in his heart that it contained more exotic phenomena beyond his wildest fathoming.

It was a future he looked forward to.

It was a future he would ensure unfolded, even if he had to destroy Gaia in the process.