Chapter 1 After Discussing Many Things About the Starfarers with the Three Guardian Giants

After discussing many things about the Starfarers with the three Guardian Giants, Hao Ren realized that these guardians actually had a rather limited understanding of that ancient race. The Starfarers used to wander the universe, and even when the Goddess of Creation began to study how to knead little people, those light clusters were still common visitors to the universe. But shortly after that, the Starfarers gradually decreased their activity. By the time giants like Mu Lu were born, the Starfarers had almost disappeared. They became a mysterious race, similar to a "cosmic urban legend." The main responsibility of the guardians was to look after the mortal species created by the Goddess. They were originally not very concerned about the native races and the Ancient Ones, and after the Starfarers collectively went into seclusion, the guardians naturally became even less concerned about them.

According to the currently available information, the Starfarers had maintained a mysterious and low-key posture since then, until after the fall of the Goddess of Creation, they suddenly reappeared and began to clean up the mess left by the guardians all over the world.

And this didn't seem to fit their original "image" very well. As a group of reclusive creatures, they were originally very unconcerned about the material universe and ordinary races, and they themselves were not on the hit list of the doomsday natural disasters. Why did such hermits suddenly become enthusiastic about saving the world?

After Hao Ren finished discussing with the Guardian Giants, Izhaks opened his mouth in a muffled voice, "Have you guys noticed that those Starfarers seemed to have expected the 'Fall of the Goddess'?"

Mu Lu and the others didn't know much about the clues to the Starfarers that Hao Ren and his party had discovered, so they asked in unison at this time, "What do you mean by that?"

"The wandering planet, Holletta, the Ark Fleet, these three civilizations are separated by tens of thousands of light-years," Hao Ren said with his arms folded, "but they received warnings about the doomsday natural disasters almost simultaneously. And according to the existing information, there are many other races in the universe who received warnings. In addition, the Starfarers took the lead in providing various assistance and support—although it didn't produce complete results, their measures did have some effect. This shows that they had been prepared for a long time."

At this time, a very loud "creaking" sound suddenly came from above. Hao Ren was startled by the noise and looked up, only to realize that it was Lementusa clenching his fists. The Guardian Giant's face was full of anger: "Are you saying that they knew someone was going to commit godslaughter?!"

"It's just a guess, and the Starfarers act strangely, and their worldview is different from ordinary races. It's hard to say whether their actions are intentional," Hao Ren quickly waved his hand to calm Lementusa down. "Besides, we have too little evidence now. It's not good to casually define their actions, right?"

Lementusa took a few deep breaths. He knew that what Hao Ren said made sense, so he finally calmed down.

"The key now is that we don't know if the Starfarer race still exists," Vivian sighed. "Although they are powerful, they are not a match for the Mad Child, and self-preservation is difficult. Since they ran around everywhere to notify the races to take refuge after the Goddess fell, we haven't heard from them for ten thousand years. Where should we go to find them now?"

Hao Ren inexplicably had that sentence in his heart again: The borders of the stars are filled with dark sounds.

"The dark sounds at the borders of the stars..." Hao Ren looked at Lementusa, "Don't you know what that means either?"

"Most races have many fallacies in their interpretation of the universe. Depending on the level of their civilization, some very simple cosmic phenomena will be explained with very complex metaphors. The borders of the stars may refer to the edge of a galaxy or the boundary of a large galaxy cluster. It's even harder to speculate about the dark sounds—the universe is filled with darkness everywhere. Who knows which black hole or abnormal space phenomenon they are talking about," Lementusa shook his head. "But I think if you want to find the Starfarers, at least there is a general direction that is certain: move towards the oldest galaxies. They are the earliest awakened creatures in this universe, and their home should be located in the deepest part of the central galaxy cluster, which is the part of the universe that evolved first."

Hao Ren was very surprised: "Is there still a living environment there?"

"Only ashes. Although I haven't been there, I know that all the celestial bodies there have been burned out. Even the new stars that were reorganized after the collapse of the stars have been burned out. No new celestial bodies are born anymore, only a piece of hot, scorched material. After all, that is the oldest region of the universe. But the Starfarers should still be able to survive in that kind of place: they have survived from the very beginning to this day, and they should have adapted to various extreme environments long ago. Since they can't be found anywhere else in the universe, then go to the ash heap in the center of the universe and look for them."

"That's a dangerous place..." the data terminal muttered. "The machine swarm hasn't sent probes in that direction yet."

"Drones have never been to the central galaxy cluster?"

"Of course not. That's a cemetery of stars, the place where the universe burned out first. There is no life there at all. The Goddess of Creation didn't sow seeds in that direction either, so the drone swarm naturally wouldn't go there," the data terminal shook its body. "And to be honest, it's too far away. According to the speed at which the machine swarm is currently building bases and expanding, it will probably take many years before the boundary of the machine swarm extends to the range of the central galaxy cluster."

Hao Ren thought for a while: "Let the machine swarm send a few pioneer Weaver Nest over there first, and build a batch of branch machine swarms in the central galaxy cluster."

After talking about the Starfarers, Hao Ren let out a long breath, and then the corners of his mouth curled up slightly: "Speaking of which, our prisoner has been locked up here for quite a while, right? How is he doing now?"

Mu Lu snorted: "He's a tough nut to crack. I took a look at him from a distance the other day. He's still the same, without any sense of guilt or repentance, and any mental pressure doesn't seem to have any effect on him."

"No effect at all?" Hao Ren raised his eyebrows. "I designed so many things for him... I'll go take a look myself."

Crystal Core Research Station, Prison Area.

The security here was as tight as ever, and in the entire huge prison area, there was still only that one prisoner. In the prison cell formed by several beams of light, the captured "rebellious son" prisoner was lying quietly on the ground, sleeping soundly. He was still dressed in that flashy golden outfit. His days as a prisoner and his mental exhaustion didn't seem to have made him any more decadent or embarrassed. Some glowing arcane constructs and autonomous machines were floating around the prisoner, weaving a blurry net of light in the air that enveloped the entire prisoner.

Hao Ren and his party stood outside the prison cell, watching the situation inside. "Gollum" stepped forward and carefully scratched the light wall with its claws: "Big cat, what is he doing?"

"Undergoing interrogation," Hao Ren bent down, grabbed "Gollum" by the collar, and pulled the cat girl up. "I've told you so many times to walk upright normally—this person is undergoing various tortures, but based on visual inspection..."

As he spoke, he glanced at the crystal console next to him, which displayed the prisoner's mental state.

"But based on visual inspection, it's useless. This guy's spirit is as tough as steel."

"I think he's just sleeping," the cat girl muttered.

Hao Ren knew that this cat's comprehension ability was only slightly better than Dou Dou's, so he didn't bother to explain it to her.

The reason why they were using this method to interrogate the prisoner was because the other party was completely unafraid of physical pain, and even Izhaks's soul torture had very limited effect on the rebellious son, so Hao Ren had no choice but to transfer the interrogation process to the prisoner's spiritual level. He wanted to dig out some information from the depths of the other party's consciousness by opening up psychological loopholes. For this reason, he also asked Zorm for a lot of help, using the special spiritual power of the Mad Child to establish a complex system. So far, the system itself was working normally, the only problem was—that the prisoner was as stubborn as a rock even at the subconscious level.

On the crystal console next to the prison cell, a holographic projection was displaying the mental illusions that the prisoner was experiencing. He was in a purgatory, suffering the terrible pain of magma pouring into his blood vessels, and then he was placed on a never-ending battlefield, facing endless powerful enemies and the exhaustion that was enough to make ordinary people give up on life. Occasionally, he would be sent into a gentle and sweet dream, but this dream was fleeting and instantly turned into a nightmare in a more brutal and twisted way. But no matter how these illusions crushed him, the prisoner remained as firm as a rock, without the slightest wavering.

It was as if he had no heart.

"To put it bluntly... it's still the same old torture methods," Hao Ren shook his head slightly as he looked at the holographic projection. "There's no creativity."

The data terminal was also quite helpless: "But the space station host has used all kinds of desperate purgatories that have appeared in various myths and legends, and all the ideas of Izhaks, this great demon, have also been used."

Hao Ren frowned and reached out to touch a crystal prism next to the console: "Let me try—directly connect to this guy's spiritual world."

(Happy New Year! Now that it's a new year, why not cast a couple of monthly votes to celebrate?~~~)