Chapter 202: The Arrival of an Unknown Civilization

Qin Hao's mouth corner curled into a knowing smile.

He shifted his intention.

The space before him, like a sheet of paper, was easily folded up!

The walls that had been several meters apart instantly appeared before him, within reach!

Spatial rules!

He shifted his intention again.

The cup of clear water in the room, its water actually defied gravity and flowed upward!

Gravity rules!

He even felt that, if he wished, he could easily cause this hundred-kilometer-long Divine Dragon mother ship to instantly disintegrate down to the molecular level!

Strong interaction force rules!

This is the power after the breakthrough!

He, no longer merely 'uses' power.

but can, to a certain extent, 'formulate' and 'modify' rules!

Within the known range of second-level civilizations, he is an invincible god!

"System, what level am I now?"

Qin Hao asked in his mind.

【Congratulations, host, you have successfully broken through the life level and initially grasped the power of rules.】

【According to the cosmic civilization grading, the host's individual strength has officially stepped into the threshold of a third-level civilization.】

【Already possessing the qualification to directly confront an initial-stage third-level civilization.】

Third-level civilization!

This evaluation finally gave Qin Hao a hint of confidence in his heart.

Although it's only the initial stage.

Merely having the qualification to resist.

But this is already enough!

This means that, in the future unknown crisis,

humanity will no longer be powerless ants!

Time, is the least valuable.

In the blink of an eye, half a year has passed since the decisive battle that determined humanity's fate.

Half a year, to the vast universe, is merely a snap of the fingers.

But for the Human Federal that has just stepped onto the interstellar stage, it is six months of earth-shaking change.

The former Mo Yun Mother Star System has now been officially renamed the "Yanhuang Star System".

Here, it has become the first territory of the Human Federal beyond the Solar System.

The scars of war are being swiftly erased.

The dead mother-brain planet has been completely dismantled.

It is now being remade into an interstellar fortress.

Countless engineering robots and engineering ships shuttle through the star system day and night.

A massive spaceport capable of berthing five hundred thousand warships has been built.

At several key nodes of the star system, deep-space defense matrices have entered combat-ready status.

All gun muzzles face outward.

The entire Yanhuang Star System has transformed from its former bloodshed and chaos into a frontier bastion brimming with order.

And those thirty-seven liberated 'protected civilizations' have, over this half year, gradually adapted to their new identities.

Under the supervision and guidance of the Federal garrison, they began to exchange their labor for survival resources.

They mine ore, build factories, and engage in the most basic and arduous physical labor.

Although it's hard, no one complains.

Because they have obtained what they dared not even dream of during the Mo Yun Empire era.

Clean food, safe housing, and... most importantly, dignity.

The Federal did not regard them as livestock, nor arbitrarily deprive them of their lives.

This is enough.

For these civilizations that have struggled in darkness for too long, life now is paradise.

The Human Federal is efficiently and steadily digesting all the benefits brought by this war.

Everything appears flourishing.

……

Divine Dragon, Qin Hao's private lounge.

Qin Hao sat cross-legged, eyes tightly shut.

His deep purple eyes have now returned to normal black.

But only he knows that the world seen through these eyes is now completely different from before.

After breaking through the bottleneck, he spent a full half year familiarizing and consolidating his new power.

He no longer needs to deliberately sense; he can clearly 'see' the various fundamental forces flowing in space.

Gravity is a heavy river, electromagnetism a darting electric snake, and the strong and weak interaction forces are the bedrock foundation of all things...

He can easily pluck these 'rule strings,' causing matter to reassemble as he wishes.

He even tried, without any tools, to "create" a piece of high-purity gold out of thin air.

In the past, this was a power only gods could possess.

But now, for him, it's merely a trivial task.

"Still not enough."

Qin Hao slowly opened his eyes and murmured softly.

The surge in power did not give him much sense of security.

Because, that "death beacon" emitted by the mother brain before its death is like a Sword of Damocles, forever hanging over his head.

Half a year has passed.

Over the past half year, the depths of space have been utterly silent, with no anomalies.

But Qin Hao knows this is merely the calm before the storm.

He does not know when the enemy will arrive, or in what manner.

It is this uncertainty that is the most tormenting.

His current strength might allow him to run rampant within the scope of a second-level civilization.

But what about facing a true third-level civilization?

This little bit of power he has to bend the rules might seem as ridiculous as a child playing with mud before them.

"We must become stronger, faster!"

Qin Hao clenched his fists.

That black, diamond-shaped "rule fragment" has been completely absorbed by him.

To obtain again this kind of treasure that can quickly enhance one's comprehension of rules, he does not know how many years or months he must wait.

Must he really, as the system said, go to the edge of a black hole or the interior of a neutron star, risking his life to gain insight?

Just as Qin Hao was pondering his next plan.

Hum—

A sharp alarm suddenly blared without warning!

This sound signifies the highest-level threat!

Qin Hao's face changed instantly.

Have they arrived?

His figure flickered, and he vanished directly from the room.

Shenlong, Chief Commander's Room.

The moment Qin Hao's figure appeared, the atmosphere in the command room had already grown grave to the extreme.

All the soldiers had returned to their combat posts, their faces showing trained calm, yet a hint of tension lingered in the depths of their eyes.

On the massive holographic star map, a conspicuous red dot was blinking continuously.

The position it pointed to was the outer edge of the Yanhuang Star System, still about 0.2 light-years from the system's main defense perimeter.

"What's the situation?"

Qin Hao's voice made everyone's hearts jolt.

Zhang Xianzhong strode over to him, his face extremely grave.

"Half a minute ago, the long-range space detector at the system's edge detected an enormous spatial fluctuation."

"The energy level far exceeds any jump we have ever known."

"Based on the scale of the energy reaction, we preliminarily estimate the enemy fleet numbers at around ten thousand ships."

This number made Qin Hao's brows furrow tightly.

Ten thousand ships?

Could it be that a second-level civilization stronger than the Mo Yun Empire, drawn by that beacon, has come?