Chapter 99: Ancient Echoes and Future Choices

The victory in the first Kuiper Belt battle was like a strong stimulant injected into Qiming City and the hearts of everyone who knew about it, but the joy of victory was quickly diluted by harsh reality—the enemy's bizarre abilities and advanced technology far exceeded estimates.

The wreckage of the heavily damaged, captured Hunter Dog warship, along with the active tissue samples that Han Qing's squad risked retrieving, became the Academy's top research priority. Kaiwen and his team practically lived inside a highly isolated research cabin.

"This thing… is a double insult to physics and biology!" A few days later, Kaiwen, with disheveled hair and deeper dark circles, reported the preliminary results to Chen Mo and others, his tone full of frustration and a hint of excitement.

"Its structure… cannot be defined with ordinary matter. It lies between an energy entity and biomass, and its interior is filled with a shadow energy that 'erodes rules.' Our conventional scanning methods struggle to penetrate it, and forced analysis would trigger the sample's self‑destruction tendency."

He displayed some fuzzy images and data: "Nevertheless, we still discovered something. First, this shadow energy possesses extreme 'exclusivity' and 'assimilation'; it seems to constantly try to negate everything outside its system and convert it into its own kind. Second, deep within its energy core we captured an extremely faint, twisted Luo Ya identification code similar to those in previous Deep Space signals, but this time clearer, seeming… like a 'tag' or a 'serial number.'"

"Serial number?" Su Yu keenly seized the key point, "Does that mean they are 'manufactured' or 'marked' individuals? Belonging to a larger sequence?"

"Very likely!" Kaiwen nodded. "More crucially, when we tried stimulating the sample with high‑purity order energy, we observed a strange phenomenon—the sample's interior, besides the shadow energy and twisted Luo Ya code, also contained a third… extremely ancient, almost dormant energy residue! This residue clashes with the shadow energy and even… subtly suppresses it."

Chen Mo's gaze tightened: "The third energy? Can its source be analyzed?"

"We're attempting it, but it's extremely difficult—the quantity is too small. However…" Kaiwen paused, his face showing an incredulous expression, "its energy decay model bears a high similarity to a 'primordial stardust' theoretical model we found in the Luo Ya database concerning the origin period of the Luo Ya civilization!"

Luo Ya's origin period? Older than the known history of the Luo Ya civilization?

This discovery made matters even more enigmatic.

Just as the Academy was fully analyzing the third energy, the department that monitors Deep Space signals reported a new anomaly: beyond the outer Solar System, in a distant void toward the Orion Arm, a extremely brief yet intensely powerful energy burst was detected, its spectral features… astonishingly matching the third ancient energy residue found in the Hunter Dog warship sample!

Almost simultaneously, Su Yu's True Knowledge Vision also caught a faint yet pure "call" from the same direction. That feeling differed from the Luo Ya civilization's orderly inclusiveness and from the cold maliciousness of a marked signal; it resembled a resonance that, after countless dormant years, was unexpectedly triggered…

"Something there… has been activated," Su Yu said confidently, "and that ancient energy seems… to be pointing the way."

Combining the possibility that the Hunter Dog warship was 'manufactured', its internal ancient energy residue, and the distant star region's homologous energy burst and call, a bold hypothesis emerges: in the direction of the Orion Arm there may exist an ancient relic linked to the origin of the Luo Ya civilization, perhaps even older. This relic might be connected to the makers of those Hunter Dogs and could contain the key to countering—or even restraining—them!

Go, or not go?

It is a difficult choice. Venturing into the unknown distant star region would require diverting precious defensive forces, a great risk. Yet staying put for reinforcements, facing potentially endless and even stronger Hunter Dogs and their hidden masters, offers little chance of victory.

"We must go." Chen Mo made the decision at the strategic meeting, his gaze sweeping over all core members. "Passive defense cannot win this war. Understanding the enemy, even finding the enemy's enemy, is our only way out. This may be the final clue the Luo Ya civilization left us, hidden in the dust of history."

After meticulous planning, an elite Expedition Fleet was assembled. The Qiming Ship, reinforced and equipped with the latest weapons, served as the flagship, supported by two fast escort vessels provided by the Guardians and a research vessel loaded with scientific equipment and engineering robots. The crew included Chen Mo, Su Yu (responsible for perception and communication), Kaiwen (in charge of scientific analysis), Han Qing (overseeing fleet safety and tactics), and a mixed elite marine unit. Zhang Yang and Wang Hu were left behind, together with Hui Jin, to handle planetary defense.

Before departure, Chen Mo handed a blue crystal imbued with his own order power to Wang Hu: "If… we fail to return in time and the enemy main force arrives, endangering Qiming City, crush it." This is a life‑saving trump card he forged after deeply linking with the planet's order lattice, capable of dramatically boosting local order stability for a short period, though using it would leave him severely weakened.

Wang Hu nodded heavily, saying nothing.

Under the hopeful and anxious gazes of countless people, the Expedition Fleet left Earth's orbit, engines at full thrust, heading toward the deep Orion Arm, that unknown and ancient star region, beginning a risky jump.

The long interstellar voyage was dull and tense. The fleet repeatedly performed short jumps, avoiding known hazardous star regions and gravitational traps. Along the way they witnessed the universe's grandeur and cruelty—newborn stars spewing massive energy, dying red giants slowly expanding, shattered asteroid belts recounting ancient collisions, and occasional faint yet distinct civilization signals, but they had no time to attend to them.

Finally, after enduring several near‑misses of minor spatial turbulence, the fleet arrived at the coordinates of the signal source.

The sight before them left everyone stunned and speechless.

There were no stars, no planets, only an endless, silent nebula of a silver‑gray "stardust," and at its center floated a… colossal structure beyond description.

It was not a conventional building; rather, it resembled a massive assembly of countless huge, smooth geometric crystal structures stitched together in a way that defied physical intuition, presenting a dim silver‑gray hue that merged with the surrounding stardust, its surface exuding a faint, ancient energy aura identical to that in the sample. It floated silently, as if it had existed since the beginning of time, radiating profound desolation and mystery.

This is the ancient relic!

"Energy readings… stable, but the level is unbelievably high!" Kaiwen's voice trembled. "Structural strength… incalculable! Who on earth built this thing?"

Su Yu closed her eyes, fully sensing: "Very… quiet. No malice, no welcome. Only… an endless sense of ages and… a waiting."

The fleet approached cautiously. The relic's surface showed no obvious entrance or interface. Attempts to communicate with energy signals of various frequencies vanished without a trace.

"Did we just waste a trip?" Kaiwen said, somewhat discouraged.

Chen Mo stared at the massive silent creation, his heart stirred. He walked to the bow of the Qiming Ship, slowly extended his hand, and the order power within him—originating from Luo Ya yet subtly resonating with this ancient energy—naturally emanated, gently rippling toward the relic like water.

A miracle occurred.

When the energy that fused Luo Ya's order with planetary life force touched the relic's surface, the smooth crystal wall suddenly rippled like water, silently opening an aperture just large enough for the Qiming Ship to pass through! Inside the opening was a gentle glow.

"It… recognizes this power?" Su Yu exclaimed in surprise.

"Or rather, it knows the 'source' of this power." Chen Mo took a deep breath, "We'll go in."

The Qiming Ship slowly sailed into the interior of the relic. Inside was a space so vast it defied imagination, as if a miniature universe were encapsulated within. Countless symbols and data streams flickered with a faint glow floated in the void, and at the center stood a massive platform seemingly woven from starlight.

When Chen Mo stepped onto the platform, the surrounding symbols and data streams instantly activated, converging toward him like countless rivers merging into the sea! Not an attack, but before him they wove into flowing scrolls spanning billions of years.

He saw… in an unfathomably ancient era, a glorious "Stardust Civilization" vastly different in form from the Luo Ya civilization yet equally powerful. They explored the universe's mysteries, sowed seeds of life, acting as gardeners of the stars… then they encountered an incomprehensible "Void Devourer" from beyond the cosmos, a terrifying entity that fed on order and life… a cataclysmic war, a lament of civilization, and ultimately the Stardust Civilization paid an almost annihilating price, sealing and exiling the Void Devourer's main force, yet exhausting themselves, leaving only this "Silent Witness" relic to record everything and await successors…

The Luo Ya civilization, it seemed, was a descendant of a branch of the Stardust Civilization or heavily influenced by it. Those Hunter Dogs, and the cold will possibly behind them, bore a striking resemblance to the Void Devourer described in the scrolls! Are they minions seeped out from the sealed entity, or creations corrupted and twisted by it?

A torrent of information flooded Chen Mo's mind, instantly illuminating many things while also bringing more questions and heavy pressure.

At the scroll's end, all the light converged, forming before Chen Mo a small crystal that constantly shifted with starlight.

An ancient, weary consciousness resonated directly in his mind:

"Later ones… inherit the seed of the Order's flame…"

"The key has been delivered… the keyhole still drifts in the void…"

"Find the Door of the End… stop… the return…"

"Otherwise… all things… fall into silence…"

When the words fell, the relic's glow began to dim rapidly, and the Starlight Crystal gently fell into Chen Mo's hand. Simultaneously, a gentle yet irresistible force propelled the Qiming Ship out of the relic.

When they returned to external space, the massive silver‑gray relic had completely lost all energy reactions, as if truly dead, silently drifting in the stardust, as though it had fulfilled its final mission.

Chen Mo clenched the warm Starlight Crystal in his hand, feeling the immense secret and responsibility it contained, concerning the universe's survival.

The Expedition found answers, but also uncovered an even larger mystery and a more terrifying foe.

The Door of the End? The return of the Void Devourer?

Humanity's fate has never been so directly intertwined with the rise and fall of the entire universe.

"Home." Chen Mo's voice carried unprecedented resolve, "We need to prepare for a… real war."

The Expedition Fleet turned around, its engines spitting dazzling exhaust, setting course for home. This time, they returned not only with a spark of hope but also with a weighty mission concerning the survival of all life.