Chapter 1 The Intelligence

The information obtained from the Guardian Giants should have been accurate—at least regarding the events they had personally experienced.

So, as Vivian said, the Red Moon was probably not a simple projection of a certain historical period of the Creation Star, as Hao Ren had previously guessed. Its composition was more complex, and what was presented on it might not be logical. It was very likely that things from various historical periods of the Creation Star would appear on it.

However, research in this area could be put on hold for now. Now that the star map was complete, and the jump route to the X-Cluster had been finalized under the analysis of the drone swarm, Hao Ren decided to first investigate the mysterious unknown star region, and then study other things after returning.

Maybe the secret of the Red Moon would be solved in the X-Cluster? Hao Ren thought that as a self-proclaimed troublemaker, his constitution of causing trouble wherever he went should have some positive effect.

The giants heard that Hao Ren was going to a distant, unknown galaxy, but the latter did not tell them that the coordinates of this galaxy came from the information left by the Goddess of Creation (of course, it might also be a trap left by the "Goddess of Destruction"), because once the giants knew, they would definitely want to go and see. If it had been before, Hao Ren wouldn't have had any concerns, but now that there was the added complication of the "Goddess of Creation being schizo and ambidextrous," he could only avoid such uncontrollable factors as much as possible. The giants had a close relationship with the Goddess of Creation, not to mention that the Lemen Dusa trio and Loken and others were species created by the Goddess of Creation in two different eras. In case there were any traps specifically targeting them in the X-Cluster—such as a group of jumpers jumping around specifically to cut the giants' neck flesh—that would be a lot of trouble.

"Actually, I don't even plan to take you there," Hao Ren said to Vivian as he headed to the bridge of the Petrified Turtle. "No one can say for sure what the situation is there. Although the drones have been wandering around there for a while, what the drones detect is definitely different from what we will face when we go there ourselves. I am very worried that you will trigger some ancient seal or something, and that will be a big trouble."

Vivian had long known that Hao Ren was worried about this, so she was not surprised when she heard it, but just raised her eyebrows: "Do you think I will honestly stay at home and wait for you to come back?"

"Obviously, that's not your personality."

"That's it," Vivian waved her hand. "I have lived for ten thousand years. Although I don't like fighting with people, I have never flinched when things happen. What's more, this matter is my own, so there is even less reason to escape. Of course, I am not the kind of willful little girl who insists on you taking me there just out of curiosity, but... how should I put it, there is a feeling in the dark that the star map guides me to find something, and only I can find it, only I can open it. Without me, none of you can do it."

Hao Ren shook his head with a smile: "You have even used the words 'in the dark', it seems that no one can say anything."

In addition to temporarily entrusting the unstable factor, Little Chick, to Nangong's parents, Hao Ren brought everyone in the family with him this time, because he was not sure what he would encounter in the X-Cluster, so he simply brought everyone with him just in case. Anyway, even Roll could do a good job of taking care of himself, and as for Doudou... at worst, she could hide in the portable space without worrying about safety issues.

Standing in front of the console on the bridge of the Petrified Turtle, Hao Ren put Doudou in the water tank specially prepared for the little guy, and then called up the star map that had been calibrated long ago. While confirming the route, he talked to Nolan: "Is the information link connected?"

"The connection is complete. The host of this ship has established an unhindered link with the drone swarm. You can now directly control all drone nodes through the ship or directly receive information from any drone."

The X-Cluster was a strange place—as could be seen from its discontinuous spatial structure and the high-energy aggregates floating in the universe. It was difficult to say what they would encounter after arriving there, such as communication obstructions or delays with the Crystal Core Research Station. Therefore, it was necessary to use Nolan as a mobile forward information base. This ship had a good information processing module and antenna system, and the redundant data units could be connected to and control a large number of drones. After Nolan arrived in the X-Cluster, the gravitational network of the drone swarm should also be laid out. At that time, a large number of subsequent drones would jump into the X-Cluster and build a new large drone nest there, taking materials locally. The nest would develop into Hao Ren's base in the X-Cluster, and all subsequent investigations and explorations would be centered on the drone nest.

Hao Ren could directly control the drone units in the X-Cluster through Nolan, reducing the transfer from the Crystal Core Research Station, which would improve the efficiency of the drone swarm.

Lili lay listlessly on the seat next to her. This guy, who called himself the "Deputy Captain," actually knew nothing about starship navigation. Wearing a female officer's uniform was just for fun. At this time, the real navigation preparations began, and she became completely bored. After watching Hao Ren busy for a while, she suddenly broke the silence: "Landlord, why didn't you tell the giants the truth?"

Hao Ren didn't even look up: "What truth?"

"The truth about stopping the Creation Engine—of course, you didn't lie to them, the blueprint may indeed have hidden dangers, but you didn't tell them the whole truth, at least you didn't tell them what happened to the Goddess of Creation..."

"How should I put it? Directly tell them that their mother committed suicide? Or that their mother was the mastermind behind the Godslaying War? Or that the entire Guardian race was indirectly killed by the Goddess of Creation? Although that was done by the 'Goddess of Destruction' after the split, this matter is too sensitive," Hao Ren shook his head. "Of course, these may not be important. The Guardians' strong psychological quality can accept this worldview reshaping, but there will be a more sensitive problem after that: once we really find the Goddess of Creation, but find that the two split bodies have completely infected each other and cannot be separated, or simply merged into something more evil and darker, and the Goddess of Creation becomes the carrier of the Lord of Madness, won't the Guardian Giants go crazy?"

Lili opened her mouth and thought for a while, her ears drooping down: "It seems to be a bit of a problem."

"If I tell them the truth, they will have to start struggling and worrying about this problem from now on: their own mother has become one with evil forces and seems unable to be separated, so should they follow their mother on the path of destroying the world or uphold justice and let their mother die again? Although these are the worst predictions and may not happen, it is possible—those giants are already miserable enough, so don't let them face this life choice in advance."

"But you can't never tell them," Nangong Wuyue coiled himself into a mosquito coil and lay not far away, the tip of his tail poking out from behind the "mosquito coil" and drawing circles on the floor unconsciously. "We will find the Goddess of Creation sooner or later."

"So I plan to wait until I confirm the state of the Goddess of Creation before discussing this issue with the giants—if the Goddess of Creation is still two split bodies at that time, then everything will be easy to say. If the Goddess of Creation has been completely eroded, then at least we can study whether there is any treatment plan after seeing her situation with our own eyes. In any case, studying the plan after confirming the information is always more responsible than making a random guess now, telling the results, and then letting the giants worry blindly."

At this time, Nolan's sudden ship-wide broadcast interrupted everyone's conversation: "All systems self-check complete, beacon recheck complete, the route ahead is clear, we can depart at any time."

Hao Ren sat in the seat belonging to the captain and tapped the control panel in front of him lightly: "Initiate warp."

The magnificent universe began to move slowly, the starlight was gradually stretched in the movement, and gradually turned into blurred red and blue light and shadow, the light and shadow gradually dimmed, and finally, after breaking through the speed of light bottleneck, there was only a piece of darkness left outside the ship.

Since the drones in front had calibrated the inaccurate guide waypoints on the star map and set up a strong guiding force field, Nolan did not need to slowly crawl for several days in a super-space state like a pioneer—soon after, the closed space around the ship reopened, and when the turbulent light re-stabilized, Hao Ren was already in an unfamiliar starry sky.

"We have arrived at the spatial discontinuity zone," Nolan's voice sounded on the bridge a little later. "This ship will pass through this area at sub-light speed."

As the ship slowly approached the "border" marked on the star map, Hao Ren became slightly nervous.

The "border" was invisible, and although the space here was discontinuous, the spatial structure did not seem to pose any threat to travelers, except for the spatial dislocation of the starry sky observed at the moment of crossing the border. Therefore, the ship slowly approached the border on the star map, but the people on the ship could not see anything unusual appearing in front of them.

They could only see the numbers on the equipment decreasing little by little.

This feeling of nothing happening, but knowing that something was waiting for you in front, inevitably brought pressure.

But the ship finally crossed the dividing line safely: Hao Ren saw the starry sky picture transmitted by the external sensors suddenly blur, and then the entire universe seemed to be pushed hard and presented a new angle.

The starry sky became very different from what was seen outside.

A dark purple space appeared in front of everyone, and the galaxy emitting silver brilliance hung obliquely on this dark purple background. In the slightly farther places, several luminous star clusters could be seen scattered. They should be loose celestial structures, not yet called galaxies, but they also had a considerable scale.

"We have entered the X-Cluster. The state of this ship is normal. We are re-correcting the starlight... Automatic navigation is activated, heading to the nearest drone哨点 (shàodiǎn, sentry post)."

The fluff on Lili's ears and tail slowly calmed down. She exaggeratedly took a breath, leaned on the back of the chair, and pretended to be relaxed and shouted: "What! It's not exciting at all. I was expecting a big scene before!"

"You show-off," Vivian rolled her eyes at the husky spirit, "Your tail was straight just now—a husky can actually straighten its tail, and you still say you're not nervous."

Lili was immediately furious: "Bat, you..."

However, just as the husky girl was about to jump up, a piercing alarm suddenly resounded throughout the ship:

"Warning! Warning! High-energy reaction detected! High-energy reaction detected! Confirmed as attack type! Emergency shield enhancer is being activated... The first impact is coming!"