Hardy stood among the tide of warriors, his tiger-like eyes fixed dead on the connection point. “Have the women and children been sent away?”
“Yes, they’ve been sent to the Ark’s core.”
Aside from the gene seed bank, the women and children were humanity’s hope.
Hardy took a deep breath and, through the Ark’s internal comms, gave his final speech.
“Brothers and sisters, I am Hardy of the Fifth Star Ring.”
He paused briefly, then continued heavily. “I believe many of you, like me, keep asking yourselves — why do we have to suffer all of this? Why can’t the extradimensional civilizations coexist peacefully with us? Why must we flee like stray dogs, driven from the Fifth Star Ring, wandering everywhere?”
“We were like frogs at the bottom of a well, thinking we were the masters of this star domain — only to discover we’re nothing but the most insignificant mayflies.”
“We’re lost, resentful, terrified. Some humans chose to pray to gods for protection. Some chose to wag their tails and beg from alien races.”
Hardy raised his voice. “But I can tell you — both of those paths lead to death! After the Lord visited the First Star Ring, he found it had become a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. Whether they were local residents of the First Star Ring, or believers of the Yanidam religion — all of them had become cold, lifeless bodies!”
Boom!
The moment this news came out, a wave of commotion rippled through the crowd. Basically, everyone had friends or family taken away by the Yanidam religion.
Their loved ones had departed the First and Fifth Star Rings with beautiful hopes, heading to distant lands.
But it turned out this wasn’t a road to heaven — it was a dead end!
Hardy waited for the commotion to settle slightly before continuing. “Our generational enemy — the Empire — whether traditionalist or evolutionist, has also been carved up by Jörmungandr and Chang Qing, reduced to their reserve rations.”
His voice was deep and low, like a volcano about to erupt. “In my most lost moments, I once asked the Lord — why must humanity be so lowly?”
Everyone held their breath, wanting to hear the Lord’s answer.
“The Lord said: because we possess something the extradimensional civilizations crave, but we lack the strength to protect it. Domestic pigs, in order to reproduce, choose to be penned in — no worries about food or drink, but they get killed and eaten. Plants, in order to continue, contribute their seeds or leaves and roots. The Empire… the humans of the Empire chose to become pigs and plants. But I refuse!”
“We’ve struggled to get this far, not to become reserve rations for extradimensional civilizations — we want to follow the Lord down a cosmic path that belongs to humanity alone!”
“Brothers and sisters, the enemy is about to break through. Please, join me — fight to protect humanity!”
“Fight!”
“Fight!!”
The Ark’s connection point was torn apart amid the roaring explosions.
Crystal Aura people surged in like locusts.
Hardy didn’t hesitate for even a moment, nor did he look back. Wearing his lightweight mechanical exoskeleton, his gaze firm, he let out a mighty roar and charged forward.
The crystal Aura people were stunned by this burning fighting spirit, hesitating for a brief moment.
The weapons of ordinary humans had no effect on them at all.
The crystal Aura people snapped out of it and raised their hands, firing beams of golden light.
Everywhere the light touched, flesh and blood flew.
Every attack from the crystal Aura people brought forth a wave of shrill screams.
Even so, ordinary humans kept pouring out from the breach — some using their bodies to block attacks, others trying to ram the crystal Aura people off the Ark.
Weak, stupid, futile, overreaching.
These were the labels the Aura mothership attached to ordinary humans and Stardust humans after observing the battle scenes on Planet Jiuzhou and the Ark.
[Once we’ve dealt with Planet Jiuzhou, we’ll go find Yanidam and recover Nüwa.]
[What a pity our Domain Lord didn’t come here. Otherwise, we wouldn’t need to worry about the world-ending crisis at all.]
[The Domain Lords are playing a critical role on the God War battlefield.]
[I know. We’ve already opened the Holy Gate passage. More companions will break free from their shackles and come here. Our power will grow stronger and stronger, until we finally break through this prison.]
[I never expected this black hole singularity to actually have an intelligent civilization — and not a low-level one at that. They even possess a Tier 7 civilization artifact like the Holy Stele.]
[Unfortunately, they were born in a black hole singularity. That alone determines the breadth and scope of their civilization — they can never become a true cosmic civilization.]
[According to full-domain five-dimensional scanning, there are no high-tier civilization ruins within the black domain.]
Almost in the blink of an eye, the Aura people completed their consciousness exchange.
They had only just entered through the Holy Gate and hadn’t yet obtained enough information — such as the foreshadowing and evolution left by the pioneers, or the star domain survey status. They needed to find [Nüwa] and complete a consciousness exchange to better understand this star domain and deal with the coming crisis.
The multi-faceted crystal ships slowly rose into the air. The arc-light vessels and the crystal Aura people on Planet Jiuzhou returned in batches.
Once they destroyed the Ark and killed all the creatures inside, they could leave this place.
This was a slaughter with no suspense — it was only a matter of time.
Suddenly, the star domain near the moon Taiyin twisted.
A figure seemed to step out from the long ages — fiery red battle armor, brighter than the most brilliant star.
Black pupils, visible through the mask, shot out a gaze cold, proud, and icy. The cold light flowing across the battle armor was chilling and merciless.
The humans on the Ark, and the wounded Stardust humans scattered across the star domain, were stunned for a moment when they saw this figure — then ecstatic, mixed with the grievance of “the parents weren’t home, and the children got bullied by outsiders.”
“Party Leader!”
“Lord!”
Lin Xiaohe had returned to the Third Dimension, and surprisingly felt a slight discomfort — like shoes that were too small.
She glanced at Planet Jiuzhou and the Vientiane Ark, and her heart nearly split with rage.
She had given up exploring the altar, single-mindedly wanting to come back and save people — and she had still arrived too late!
That gray, dust-covered planet shrouded in post-combustion ash — was that her most treasured Planet Jiuzhou?!
The ship, almost cut in half at the waist — was that the Vientiane Ark she had tightened her belt to modify?!
In the space around the moon Taiyin and Planet Jiuzhou floated the corpses of many Stardust humans and Giant Sound Whales.
Lin Xiaohe’s heart ached terribly. This little bit of family fortune was all she had — and those damned Aura people had cleaned her out!
“I’m going to kill you all!”
Lin Xiaohe flew into a rage and lashed out heavily at the multi-faceted crystal ship.
A cold blade of light — interwoven with purple lightning and black mist, capable of splitting the heavens and destroying the earth — slashed down. It split the stardust torrent, split the arc-light vessels, split the crystal Aura people in their guardian formation, and with incomparably majestic momentum, chopped toward the multi-faceted ship.
[Overreaching.]
The Aura people didn’t take Lin Xiaohe seriously. Although Lin Xiaohe was a Pivot, below the Domain Lord, all were ants.
The only ones the Aura people looked up to were Domain Lords.
The long whip traveled ten thousand miles in an instant, dimming the light of the stars. Like cutting through melons and vegetables, it actually sliced off a tenth of the multi-faceted crystal ship!
Finally throwing out this setting.
That’s right — human civilization is actually located at the center of an unimaginably massive black hole!
