Chapter 530: The Method of Seizing the Highest Authority

After the Qixing Civilization achieved interstellar travel, it considered the possibility that it might encounter other intelligent lifeforms during extrasolar exploration.

But since it could not guarantee that any such intelligent life would bear goodwill toward the Qixing Civilization, it prepared a series of protective protocols.

For instance, the energy field that had earlier detected Zhou Kongming's divine-sense probe.

It had originally been designed to search for lifeforms beyond human cognition.

After all, the universe is vast, and the ways life evolves are all different; humans and other intelligent beings in the cosmos might pass each other by without ever recognizing one another.

And the 【Final Protocol】 was meant to deal with intelligent life still within human cognition.

To prevent, at the last critical moment, the leakage of human genes and the targeted development of genetic weapons by a hostile civilization…

For Heng, the 'trolley problem' was never a problem!

Creak~

An invisible, distorting pressure seemed to gather in the air; this planet's gravitational field began to warp, and a particularly massive surge of energy struck straight at the core.

Boom!

Rumble rumble rumble!

The entire underground space trembled without cease.

Even the planet itself had reached the brink of 'collapse'!

Back when it had first achieved interstellar travel, the Qixing Civilization had already mastered the technology to detonate a planet itself.

The shell, having lost its connection, stood dumbly in place; the conduits above had split open, and the pale-gold crystals inside were snapping one by one.

High-rises were collapsing, the earth was splitting apart.

A massive fragment of a high-rise came crashing down, about to smash the disconnected shell to pieces.

But the streets kept splitting open with one enormous chasm after another; before the fragment could even fall, the shell dropped into a bottomless fissure.

At this moment.

Inside a shelter facility, Zhou Kongming looked at the clones standing in neat rows—even though each of them was about to die in this disaster, their expressions remained calm and indifferent, with not a trace of emotion in their eyes.

"…" Zhou Kongming murmured softly, "Not even the will to survive left…"

This really is troublesome.

After a soft sigh, he stepped forward.

Hum~

With that step, a hazy formation diagram, as if wreathed in the breath of Chaos, unfurled beneath his feet.

In less than a hundred-millionth of an instant, it expanded to cover the entire planetary system.

Twelve boundless, colossal flying-sword phantoms stood at the twelve poles of the sword formation; seen from afar, even the celestial bodies themselves became mere ornaments of the formation at this moment.

"Twelve Primordial Stellar Light Sword Formation, activate!"

A clear cry rang in the ears of every living being across the star system—yet Heng, who controlled the entire Qixing Civilization, could not hear a single note of it.

"Reverse!"

In that single word, the orbital trajectories of the entire planetary system remained unchanged, but everything inside the celestial bodies began to flow backward.

Naturally, that included everything in the underground space!

The crumbled high-rises reassembled, the split streets healed, and even the shell that had fallen into the fissure after losing its connection to Heng returned to the neat, clean street.

The Twelve Primordial Stellar Light Sword Formation—a time-related divine ability!

Once the sword formation is deployed, it can, to a certain extent, reverse or accelerate everything that occurs within it for beings of the same tier or below.

Of course, if this were the Central Continent of the Grand Mystic Realm, he would never have been able to use it.

Even in the starry sky, it could not be so effortless and casual.

【¥#%! @#¥】

【Cannot comprehend! Cannot comprehend!】

【Suspected time technology! Reassessing the extraterrestrial civilization's tier…】

【Information insufficient! Cannot assess!】

【Allocating computing power, analyzing principles…】

【Analysis failed! Analysis failed!! Analysis failed!!!】

【Generating countermeasures…】

【Failed! Failed!! Failed!!!】

……

……

Not long after, everything had returned to its original state.

Beside the neat, open street stood the shell, having lost its connection to Heng, utterly lifeless.

Zhou Kongming's figure stepped out of the air, looking calmly at It.

After a long while, the dull light returned to the shell's faded eyes; its drooping head lifted once more, and it gazed at Zhou Kongming with a complicated expression.

Being able to reverse everything that had occurred across an entire planetary system—this was far beyond what It had anticipated.

At this moment It had already mobilized all of its computing power to calculate the odds of the Qixing Civilization defeating, or escaping from, this extraterrestrial.

But no matter how It calculated, there was only one result—

0

One must understand that creation is harder than destruction.

When even the collapse of a planet itself can be halted, facing an extraterrestrial whose civilization has mastered time technology, the current Qixing Civilization is still far too immature.

Not to mention that this extraterrestrial appears to possess the vast majority of the Qixing Civilization's information.

From the very start, the Qixing Civilization was at an absolute disadvantage.

After trillions upon trillions of calculations, Heng still found no possibility of defeating this outsider.

"Outsider, state your request. I shall do my utmost to fulfill your needs on behalf of the Qixing Civilization."

Its tone was cold and indifferent, as emotionless as its eyes, utterly devoid of any feeling.

Glory, spirit, dignity…

Before the survival of civilization, these were insignificant.

It was created solely for the survival and development of human civilization—an absolutely rational artificial intelligence.

Of course, if this outsider had never intended to spare the Qixing Civilization, it would resist to the best of its ability.

"Do you think the humans of the Qixing Civilization can still be saved?" Zhou Kongming asked. "According to the highest directive issued by the last controller, Kalufaers, before his suicide—prohibiting genetic optimization and wiping the gene database every three years—the humans will go extinct in 272 years."

Heng stared calmly at Zhou Kongming.

"What if the ban is lifted?"

"The ban cannot be lifted without proper authorization."

"Suppose it were?"

"If the ban is lifted and genetic optimization begins, due to the absence of original samples, genetic defects are estimated to be resolved within thirteen hundred years—but the optimization direction will be uncontrollable."

Thirteen hundred years…

Zhou Kongming's eyelid twitched.

His total mission time was only twenty-one years…

And from its tone, even after resolving the genetic defects, whether the result would still be human was uncertain.

There was another method—his own genes…

But that would be too stupid. He'd be insane to leave himself such a massive vulnerability.

"Is there a way to accelerate the process?"

Still, he had to try—after all, those clones were completely useless; from the moment they were born, they were destined never to cultivate.

Even those from Zhiqianxian Sect's Great Competition, the ones from Zhitui Xiancheng who had drained their flesh, bones, and marrow and lost all five senses, were better off than them.

After all, they were like buckets from which water had been drained—but water could still be poured back in.

But these clones? Their capacity for 'water' was already fixed.

Moreover, they had no thought at all of expanding their own 'container.'

"Authorization insufficient. Cannot disclose."

Hm?

Zhou Kongming paused.

So there was a method?

"Outsider, the Qixing Civilization has demonstrated its sincerity. The highest authorization content cannot be disclosed; otherwise, the final destruction protocol will activate."

"…"

Damn it, you've already destroyed yourselves—and left me such a massive mess.

"How do I obtain the highest authorization?"

"Authorization insufficient. Cannot disclose."

Zhou Kongming: "…"

Did he really have to go back and page through every single file in the Qixing Civilization's database he'd accessed?

But even if he accessed it, actually implementing the optimization would be another problem.

True, his cultivation level of Return to Void Peak granted him extraordinary learning ability—but a whole species' genetic optimization project…

Never mind other issues; the time alone would never be enough!

In an instant, his thoughts whirled—and he made his decision.

He still had to obtain Heng's highest authorization. Controlling a civilization's powerful artificial intelligence would greatly aid his future missions!

Thinking this, his form blurred—and he vanished entirely.

Heng watched all this calmly, unmoved.

…

…

When he reappeared, Zhou Kongming was in the deep void of space.

After glancing at the star system ahead, a sword-light surged, wrapped around him, and shot off into the distance.

He traveled for thousands of light-years before stopping.

Since this powerful artificial intelligence of the Qixing Civilization could detect his spiritual sense probes, it might have other means to observe him.

He couldn't destroy it, so he might as well keep his distance.

Landing on a desolate planet, he took out a crystal card and a card reader.

With his current means, it was nearly impossible to seize Heng's highest authorization without using Wu Li.

So he'd have to learn first.

This crystal card was given to him by Xiao Ling.

During their earlier exchange, upon learning his mission world was likely a spirit-dead world, she had sent him some materials.

Of course, he had also given her gifts in return—likely helpful for her own mission…

He inserted the crystal card into the interface—and a holographic screen instantly projected.

【Research on Mechanical Systems Without Spiritual Energy Structures in Spirit-Dead Environments】

As a prodigy of the Shenji Lianbao Pavilion, Qi Ling had once participated in a similar research project.

Primarily, market demand for mechanical systems without spiritual energy structures had been growing steadily.

Although the spiritual energy structure is intricate and durable, it is easily detected by cultivators with keen perception.

Moreover, most spiritual energy structures perform worse in spiritless environments than purely mechanical structures.

Added to this, the current Xuan Realm is filled with countless schemers, an era where even arrays require multiple layers of firewalls, so more cultivators prioritize secrecy.

Of course, purely spiritless mechanisms also have their flaws: they are rigid and fragile.

As the opening line of Modern Spiritual Energy Studies states—

Everything in the world has its limits; spiritual energy grants things the possibility of surpassing those limits.

After glancing at the title, he skipped straight past the middle content and scrolled to the very end—

Spirit-Mechanism Breakthrough Technique · Test Version (0.3.7)

Developer: Qi Ling

"I really owe you thanks, Xiao Ling," Zhou Kongming sighed.

Without her, his mission this time would likely have made little progress.

I wonder how things are going on her end—hopefully her mission goes smoothly… (End of Chapter)