Chapter 1 "Professor Su, you have to know what you're saying."

Yu Sheng didn't reply to Su Zhou immediately. His electronic left eye emitted a red light, directly connecting to the central console of the ground command center. Electromagnetic signals transmitted a large amount of information directly into his modified left brain.

In that instant, Yu Sheng received all the information generated when the 'unknown signal' was sent and formed a 3D model of the Earth-Moon system in his mind, recreating the scene that had suddenly occurred.

Currently, the Earth and Moon were at perigee, 370,000 kilometers apart, about one light-second. Within the two seconds that the unknown signal was generated on the far side of the moon, the electromagnetic signals it emitted swept across the entire Earth, causing significant electromagnetic interference, even brief failures and channel interruptions, to all official television stations tracking and reporting in Zheng Nation and foreign media broadcasting the footage.

An electromagnetic signal of this energy level capable of causing anomalies across the entire Earth was undoubtedly given the highest priority, and this anomaly was highly likely to be related to the three dangerous elements: 'extraterrestrial spaceship remains,' 'lunar immortal relics,' and 'deep space caller.'

No one knew if the Deep Space Caller had caused this anomaly, and if so, how did it do it? What was its purpose? How much fighting power would it take to stop it? But regardless, apart from Su Zhou, the other three astronauts on the Yaoguang were not qualified in terms of strength. If they rashly participated, the outcome would likely be unpleasant.

But the most worrisome thing was the 'unknown signal' itself—this signal, which surpassed Earth's technological capabilities, was clearly being sent out of the solar system. Was it a distress signal from the ancient alien spaceship, or was it a positioning coordinate? Could it transmit information at faster-than-light speeds under certain special conditions, like spiritual power communication?

Although hundreds of thousands of years had passed, and the alien civilization might have turned to dust, if they still existed and arrived on Earth as a result, the current humans would likely be unable to resist.

Therefore, while constructing the model, Yu Sheng solemnly said to Su Zhou and the others still in Earth orbit, "Return to Earth now. In two days, we can launch another rocket—most of the Earth's Commander-level powerhouses will go together. This is a major matter, closely related to the fate of the Earth. We cannot risk failure."

But Su Zhou's answer was irrefutable: "Two days, plus the time it takes for the rocket to reach the moon, is nearly a week. Whether this is an accident or someone's deliberate act, that's enough time for us to be beyond salvation."

"My suggestion is to send Bai Jingtao, Gu Yaoluo, and Meng Jin back first, and I'll go to the moon alone to check the situation. In two days, you can launch a rocket to support me, and after this is resolved, just pick me up."

The other astronauts in the rocket heard these words. Bai Jingtao didn't reply, but his expression was slightly dissatisfied. Meng Jin had a 'listen to the organization's arrangements' look on his face, while Gu Yaoluo was a bit relieved but also a bit conflicted.

All human nature.

Su Zhou turned his head, signaling them to express their opinions.

"If you go to the moon alone and encounter an accident, no one can help you."

The second son of the Bai family said, "If we're there, at least you can get information and fire support in lunar orbit—whether it's the launch of intelligent machines or nuclear warheads, it's not something one person can solve."

Meng Jin said, "Me too."

Gu Yaoluo: "We still have to go." After a short thought, he was indeed a little afraid of death, but Gu Yaoluo also knew that if he didn't express his position at this critical moment, he would never be able to enjoy such a high level of resource allocation in the future—even if he died, at least his family would still have subsidies.

"Since you're not afraid of death, I won't advise you. Anyway, someone has to go see what's going on."

After confirming his teammates' attitudes, Su Zhou turned his head and continued to say to the ground command center, "I think I'm a good choice."

There was no time for meetings and discussions. Within a short three minutes, the high-level officials of all major forces around the world were aware of this matter. In fact, the American Federation's lunar exploration followed closely behind Zheng Nation, and this time they immediately stated that they would launch a rocket as quickly as possible, following closely behind the Zheng Nation team.

And the Central Committee held a brief meeting in cyberspace, which lasted less than five seconds in the real world, and passed the suggestion to support Su Zhou's immediate trip to the moon with a vote of 21 to 15.

Thus, in Earth orbit, after the astronauts' inspection, the rocket engine ignited again, and this time, their target was the moon.

With the thrust of the new rocket, the journey to the moon would take 40 hours. This speed was already very fast, after all, the rocket couldn't travel in a straight line, but rather cut in from the side along an elliptical orbit, and manned rockets prioritized stability and didn't need to pursue maximum efficiency.

For the astronauts in the rocket, the 40-hour process was just a long wait. The sudden dangerous mission and burden were indeed extremely heavy psychological pressure, but even Gu Yaoluo, who had the worst mentality, could at least maintain composure.

And although Su Zhou's expression was serious, he appeared very relaxed.

In addition to normal inspection work, he often took out his saber to wipe it. Although others couldn't see it, in his eyes, the Blade of Extinction (滅度之刃), filled with a large amount of light golden karmic power, was becoming more and more spiritual. Even the Spirit of the Wisdom Tree, who was often with it, said that when it was with the Blade of Extinction, it was a little afraid that the blade would suddenly fly up and chop it.

"Don't worry, even if it really flies up on its own, this blade will only chop up evil people and devils. You're so well-behaved and obedient, you won't be chopped."

Su Zhou comforted it in this way, and the Spirit of the Wisdom Tree, quite pleased with the description of 'well-behaved and obedient,' couldn't help but feel a sense of doubt—if that was the case, then why hadn't this blade chopped up the fertilizer officer? This was simply not convincing at all.

Su Zhou didn't know that the Spirit of the Wisdom Tree, while calling him master on the surface, actually regarded him as a fertilizer officer and secretly ridiculed him. If he knew, he would definitely use the Blade of Extinction to prune its branches and make it a tree again.

However, Su Zhou's rather calm attitude also calmed the others down, especially Gu Yaoluo. He suddenly remembered that this young man was the Demon Subduing Lord (降魔主) who had almost single-handedly wiped out all the core combat power of the Descending Spirit Society, and the Grand Duke (太歲神) who killed wherever he went. Putting aside other things, if Su Zhou wasn't on the side of Zheng Nation, then his actions around the world, in the Demon Beast Realm, and in the Beast God Realm wouldn't be more terrifying than that 'Deep Space Caller' who wasn't very present at all?

What people feared was actually the unknown. What Gu Yaoluo had feared before was the 'unknown powerful' enemy on the surface of the moon. He didn't know how to deal with them, so he felt fear.

But, as long as he thought that no matter how unknown and powerful the opponent was, his companion was likely to be even more terrifyingly powerful than any existing enemy.

Gu Yaoluo then experienced a long-lost sense of 'peace of mind.'

During the 40 hours, public opinion on Earth was controlled. The blame for the previous global electronic signal blockage was placed on the solar winds. Many experts stated on television that this was an inevitable effect of the spiritualization of solar energy, and similar situations were likely to recur in the next few days.

On Zheng Nation's civilian internet, some people naturally questioned why the lunar landing rocket wasn't recalled and why they were risking the danger of losing contact due to solar wind intrusion to continue the mission, but the official reply was always 'already launched, no turning back.'

At this time, Su Zhou, for some reason, felt a rare sense of 'excitement' and 'anticipation' rising in his heart.

"I have a hunch that whether it's the aliens or that Deep Space Caller, they'll give me a surprise."

Talking to his blade like this, Su Zhou held the Blade of Extinction tightly in his hand, and then looked out the porthole: "Waiting to get to the moon—this kind of life, completely different from before, is what I'm most looking forward to!"

At this time, the lunar landing command module was in lunar orbit 200 kilometers from the lunar surface and was constantly decelerating, approaching a stable low lunar orbit.

Although it was said to be the far side of the moon, that was just the side of the moon that was tidally locked and could not be seen by humans on Earth. The far side also reflected sunlight—with Su Zhou's eyesight, he could see the densely packed craters and cooling rock formations similar to volcanic terrain on the far side of the moon. Those were the results of a large number of meteorite impacts and lava cooling.

The moon had no geological activity. Except for a liquid iron-nickel core still in the lunar core, its crust and mantle had completely solidified.

March 13, 2017, 0:17 AM, the lunar landing rocket repeatedly decelerated and changed orbits, slowly cutting into the moon's near-Earth orbit, and in the process, flew towards its destination, the far side base.

"The moon..."

Muttering to himself in a low voice, Su Zhou stared at the craters and rock shell protrusions that were constantly passing by on the lunar surface.

But he didn't notice that his divine blade, placed aside, had very spiritually flashed a faint karmic power twice on its own.

"Be careful, everyone, the most dangerous moment is coming next."

At this time, Meng Jin, who was preparing to stay in lunar orbit, was inspecting the command module and the nuclear warhead launcher, while Bai Jingtao and Gu Yaoluo had begun preparing to enter the lunar lander.

But Su Zhou reminded them, "You should all be very clear about my strength—with my power, half a year ago I could directly use electromagnetic attacks from 700 kilometers away to blow up the Descending Spirit Society's base. That was still in an environment similar to Earth, with a thick atmosphere and air dust hindering me. If I were in the moon's low gravity and space environment, I could hit even further."

Everyone present understood the meaning of these words, and their expressions changed slightly—Su Zhou was a Commander-level powerhouse, and since the Deep Space Caller could come to the moon, its strength was at least also at the Commander level.

An attack range of 700 kilometers could directly attack the lunar orbit on the surface of the moon. If the enemy was prepared, then the time before the lunar lander landed was indeed the most dangerous.

Just as everyone was thinking about the possible dangers.

The ground communication also came at this moment.

Because it had to pass through the space station relay in Earth orbit, there was a four-second delay in the communication.

"Yaoguang, this is the Northwest Aviation Center. The far side base is ready and is connecting to the lunar orbit satellite signal. No Deep Space Caller has been found, and we have marked the 'unknown signal' source for you, over."

Su Zhou, who was already wearing a full-coverage spacesuit, had a lunar surface satellite map suddenly appear in front of his transparent visor. He could see that the target location they would land on later was very close to the lunar far side base located in the 'Sea of ​​Wrath' (a lunar sea name on the far side of the moon), but it was still more than 1,000 kilometers away from the unknown signal source, a lunar surface mountain range.

"This is Yaoguang, received. We are about to carry out the lunar landing operation. Are there any other instructions? Over."

"The second batch of lunar landing rockets is being prepared for launch. Because there is almost no life on the moon, Tianji calculations will soon be able to divine the location of the 'Deep Space Caller'. Do not act rashly, everything should be stable first. Over."

"Understood, stability first. Launch the lunar landing operation immediately, over." After agreeing readily, Su Zhou nodded to Bai Jingtao and Gu Yaoluo, and then took the lead in entering the lunar lander.

The design of the lunar lander was based on the design of classic spiritual energy flying shuttles. Compared to the purely technological lunar lander design, the lunar lander can actually be regarded as a small spaceship, which can land more flexibly and will not roll over during landing. The only disadvantage is that it consumes a lot of spiritual energy. If the controller is not strong enough, the lunar lander is actually no different from a coffin.

Su Zhou's strength was naturally sufficient, but the pilot was Bai Jingtao, who sat in the middle and was responsible for supplying energy to the lunar lander.

Soon, after everyone was ready, Meng Jin, who remained in the command module, executed the separation command. The lunar lander in near-Earth orbit began to separate from the command module, and the silver shuttle-shaped flying shuttle began to fall towards the ground along a curved line.

But just four seconds after the separation was successfully completed, Su Zhou's heart sounded an alarm, and the detection equipment on the lunar lander also lit up a red alarm light.

[Warning, high spiritual power reaction detected]

Then, a silver star lit up from the edge of a deep valley on the lunar surface. It rapidly grew larger, then turned into a stream of light, flying rapidly towards space.