Chapter 1 Although Reluctant to Admit It

Although reluctant to admit it, Lily, with her wonderfully strange thought processes, could actually offer some reliable suggestions. Hao Ren felt her idea was reasonable this time: the current Ark Fleet didn't necessarily need to find a place to settle down permanently. For the residents of the Ark, they had long lost the concept of a "homeworld," and they would hardly be able to rebuild that history and concept for at least one or two generations. So, whether you gave them a planet or let them live on a planet for how long didn't matter much; at least, it didn't matter to this generation. The current Ark Fleet simply needed a temporary place to dock, so they could have the opportunity to repair those ancient systems that were about to crash, even if it took ten or eight years.

Hao Ren estimated that, based on his progress in the Dream Plane, it wouldn't be long before he found a new planet that met the conditions. When that time came, he could just let the Ark set sail again and have Lawrence and his people move house once more.

After hearing Lily's suggestion, Izhaks was a little worried: "Technically, there's no problem, but it's hard to control people's hearts. It's easy to send these people to Aio, but once they know the vastness of the world outside the Ark, it won't be so easy to get them back into space, will it?"

Vivian looked at Izhaks with amusement: "The Mad Demon King, who used to rampage across the land, now understands people's hearts?"

"These are all minor problems," Hao Ren grinned. "Anyway, the control of their Ark is still in Nolan's hands. Let me tell you, after getting to know Grandpa Lawrence, I now see those guys in the Ark who are fighting like dogs as a bunch of utter brats. Although I, as an outsider, shouldn't directly interfere with their social order, I have a responsibility to ensure that these brats don't mess with other people's things. If they can rebuild order and civilization, that's great, but if they continue to be so chaotic for a long time... it's the undeniable responsibility and obligation of every adult to throw the brats out the door."

Finally, he added: "Of course, the big premise is that the sirens have to agree. After I go back, I'll ask the Siren Queen about this and see if they're willing to let people live in their old home temporarily. We can't make the same mistake as with Tanagus. Until then... Nolan, you control these Arks to dock near the drone hive first, let the drones do some emergency repairs on these ships, and that place has defensive firepower, which can also protect the Arks."

Nolan nodded in agreement, and his figure disappeared from the bridge. A moment later, Hao Ren saw the Ark Fleet in space begin to turn slowly. Streaks of silver light flashed across the surface of those ancient black ships (that was the infiltration core glowing). A large number of engine groups around the Ark then underwent complex switching and resetting. Conventional engines dimmed one after another, while the grids of the warp generators slowly turned from a standby state of dark red to fiery white. As flashes of distorted space appeared around the giant ships, the Ark ships entered hyperspace one after another, disappearing into the universe in an instant.

Where they disappeared, long trails like distorted lenses were left behind. The starlight around these lenses twisted into bizarre shapes, and the center of the lens trails was pitch black.

After the Ark Fleet disappeared, Hao Ren didn't order a return to Earth. Instead, he had Nolan reset the course, preparing to go to the Core Research Station.

He was going to send back the third golden disc he had just obtained, and also inquire about some things with the three Guardian Giants.

Core Research Station, laboratory area.

In this magnificent crystal hall, the third suspension platform was activated. A new golden disc was hovering steadily above the suspension platform, slowly rotating under the action of the traction field. Several light clusters and crystal clusters flew around the disc, performing a series of initial tests and set-point measurements on this new test object. Next to this suspension platform, the other two golden discs stood silently in the air like two indifferent masks, expressionlessly watching their new "brother."

On the surface, the three golden discs were just hovering quietly in their respective positions, but in the nearby instrument tests, extremely high-speed information exchanges between the three discs could be continuously detected, and this exchange mode was several times more complex than when there were only two discs before. They were not only simply sending and receiving information from nearby discs, but also constantly reorganizing, compiling, and transforming this information. Each resonance would produce more than two changes, and the changed information would trigger new resonances, with information constantly being discarded and data constantly being created to supplement the resonance system of the three discs.

These "information notes" jumping between the golden discs could not be understood by humans, and could not even be expressed by specific symbols. Therefore, the laboratory's detection device simply depicted them figuratively as some jumping light spots presented on a holographic projection. Hao Ren looked at the signals tested on the monitoring terminal. He felt dizzy, as if he was watching a crazy fireworks display.

"Just adding one, and the resonance mode has been turned upside down..." Even the voice of the data terminal was a bit incredulous, "This machine can't imagine how many discs there are in total, and what will happen when they are all put together. Maybe these things are really as their name suggests. The information burst produced when they are put together is enough to describe the birth of the universe."

"So they are called the 'Creation Engine'," Hao Ren smiled and looked up at the giants beside him. "How about it? I said, I would bring back all the Goddess's legacy that I found. I keep my word."

Muru, Lementusa, and Sypha, the three Guardian Giants, immediately rushed over after hearing that a new golden disc had been found. They had originally been in the jungle of Tanagus checking the recovery of the plants, and they didn't even bother to tidy up their appearance when they came back. Muru and Lementusa's clothes were full of shrubs, and Sypha even had two small saplings in her long hair—yes, two saplings. Isn't it strange for a ten-meter-tall giant to have two one-meter-long "small sticks" in her hair? Although Hao Ren really couldn't imagine how this female giant got the trees tangled in her hair…

Muru shook off the "grass sticks and wood chips" on his clothes and smiled, "Of course I believe you—your actions have earned the respect of the Guardians. You have proven with facts that you are standing with us."

Hao Ren jumped around to avoid the stones and tree trunks shaken off by Muru and said, "You guys are too unhygienic. This is a scientific center after all. Couldn't you clean yourselves up before coming? Speaking of which, did you go to check the ecology or go to wilderness survival? How did you get so disheveled?"

"Doom was testing a new catalytic method, and there was a problem. A forest experienced a surge in growth, so we had to 'weed'," Sypha said in a gentle tone. "It's still not very familiar with the device you designed for it."

"Oh, that's why you need experienced 'gardeners' like you to help," Hao Ren replied casually, then looked at Muru. "Actually, I have something I want to ask you about—I don't know if you have any understanding of the name 'Starry Sky People'?"

"Starry Sky People?" Muru subconsciously exchanged a glance with Lementusa. "Is this a formal name?"

"Oh right, the Starry Sky People is the name given to them by the mortal races in the universe. You may not call them that," Hao Ren patted his head and summoned the data terminal to release a holographic image of the Starry Sky People. This image was actually not necessarily accurate, because it was entirely a three-dimensional model pieced together based on several ancient materials Hao Ren had obtained before, and there was a certain deviation from the actual Starry Sky People. But if the Guardian Giants had really seen this kind of creature, they would definitely recognize it. "It's like this, the appearance is like a cloud of amorphous light, there are energy nodes inside, the body size is also uncertain, probably from the height of one person to the height of you."

After seeing the flickering light on the holographic image, Muru's eyes did change slightly, and Lementusa and Sypha next to him also moved closer subconsciously. After a moment, Muru slowly said, "I'm not sure if it's them... Have I mentioned 'the Ancient Ones' to you?"

Hao Ren's heart stirred. The Guardians really knew something about the Starry Sky People: "You just mentioned the name before, but there wasn't time to talk about it in detail at that time, and I didn't bother to ask later because there were too many things. The Starry Sky People are the Ancient Ones?"

"No, these Starry Sky People may be one of the Ancient Ones," Muru said with a serious expression. "The Ancient Ones are not just one race."