Chapter 315: Ruined Castle

In the void space, after several weeks of sailing, the piercing alarm suddenly shattered the silence inside the bridge of the Void Walker.

"Alarm! The spatial parameters ahead are undergoing violent abnormal fluctuations!"

"The spatial curvature index is approaching zero!"

"Warning! A high-intensity spatial distortion field has been detected; normal navigation mode will soon fail!"

Streams of red warning messages frenziedly refreshed on the light screen before Qin Hao.

This is the "Space Stagnation" region recorded in the archives of the two great empires.

The graveyard of Milky Way Galaxy civilization.

Looking out through the porthole of the Void Walker, a bizarre scene unfolded before the eyes.

Not far ahead in the void, dozens of colossal hulks hung motionless.

They were the flagship-class warships of the Biteen Empire and the Keluo Empire.

Each one's volume was enough to rival a small planet, their hulls bristling with ferocious gun emplacements and complex structures, filled with industrial violent aesthetics.

But now, these steel behemoths that once could dominate the galaxy assumed an extremely strange posture.

They all maintained a forward stance, the huge engine nozzles at their stern still glowing with a faint blue afterglow, showing their power systems were still operating.

Yet they were locked in place, utterly immobile.

They were like insects trapped in amber, eternally sealed in this space.

The probe of the ship fed back even more heart‑pounding data.

The energy cores of these warships were still outputting at maximum power, but none of that energy went to life support or weapons; it all went into fighting the invisible spatial drag.

This has been a struggle lasting tens of thousands of years, even hundreds of thousands of years.

A struggle doomed to fail.

The life‑support systems inside the hull had long since collapsed; the crew inside, who knows how many years ago, had already turned to cosmic dust in despair and loneliness.

"The spatial structure has become extremely viscous; any matter entering it experiences a huge drag force, and the faster the speed, the drag increases exponentially."

"The energy of conventional engines will be quickly depleted by the spatial resistance, eventually coming to a halt."

The system's analysis report sounded in Qin Hao's ear, devoid of any emotion.

"Host, according to calculations, a flagship of an ordinary Level‑4 civilization cannot last three standard hours in this region."

"But the structure and energy systems of these warships have undergone special modification; they have been trapped here for at least five hundred thousand years."

Qin Hao gazed at those huge metal coffins, saying nothing.

He could imagine how the fleets of the two great empires had entered this place full of confidence, only to be gradually worn down by this "slow" space, finally falling into eternal stillness.

"Continue forward."

Qin Hao issued the order.

【Command confirmed, will maintain current cruising speed and enter the Space Stagnation region.】

The Void Walker showed no sign of slowing down.

It was like an arrow released from a bow, shooting straight toward the star‑field that the two great empires defined as the "Absolute Death Zone".

At the moment the bow made contact with the edge of the stagnant space,

Hum!

All conventional instrument readings on the bridge instantly pegged out.

The alarm indicating engine overload turned into a piercing wail.

On the light screen, the ship's simulated structural diagram was dyed a deep red representing extreme pressure.

"Warning! The output of the conventional engines is being canceled out by spatial resistance to 99.99%!"

"Warning! The hull structure is bearing pressure three thousand times the safety limit!"

However.

The speed of the Void Walker did not decrease in the slightest.

Qin Hao sat in the command chair, his body feeling not even a hint of vibration or jolt.

The ship remained as steady as if it were moored in the safest harbor.

The "Immunity Space Stagnation Effect Device" integrated into the ship's core by the system began to operate.

There was no earth‑shaking energy burst, nor any violent reaction.

An intangible force that transcended known physics, centered on the Void Walker, spread outward.

From an external viewpoint, the terrifying spatial resistance capable of completely halting a top‑tier Level‑4 civilization fleet, upon contacting the Void Walker, was like gentle water flowing around a hard rock.

Those extremely viscous spatial structures were naturally pushed aside by a higher‑dimensional rule, opening a passage for the ship.

Qin Hao calmly piloted the ship, slipping past a massive warship belonging to the Biteen Empire.

That warship's bridge still had its lights on; through the glass, one could faintly see the pilot, long reduced to dry bones, still holding the operating pose.

"Scan that target."

"Scan command received."

An intangible data stream issued from the Void Walker, enveloping the entire trapped warship.

A few seconds later, the system's prompt tone sounded.

"Scan complete."

"Complete structural variation data of the Biteen Empire's Divine Envoy‑class flagship under space‑stagnation conditions has been obtained."

"The data has been stored in the database."

Qin Hao even had leisure to do these things.

The deeper one flew, the stronger the space‑stagnation effect became.

Eventually, the surrounding space almost solidified into a tangible substance.

Even light cannot propagate effectively in this environment.

Outside the portholes of the Void Wanderer, it had become an absolute pitch black, with no stars visible and no reference points.

This is truly a "nothing" in the full sense of the word.

The concepts of time and space become blurred here.

Only the ticking of the timer on the bridge proves that time is still flowing.

The Void Wanderer sails unhindered through this absolute darkness and stillness.

No one knows how long has passed.

It could be a day, or it could be a week.

Right in the deepest part of this darkness that could drive any lifeform mad.

A streak of unnatural light suddenly appeared at the farthest edge of the ship's detectors.

It was not the light of a star.

Nor was it radiation from any known celestial body.

It was a kind of condensed yet magnificent radiance, carrying an ineffable ancient aura.

Qin Hao's spirit was lifted.

He adjusted the course and headed full speed toward that radiance.

There, was the core region of the "Singularity Sea."

It was the site of the relics of a Fifth-level Civilization.

As the Void Wanderer continually approached.

The true nature of that light source also gradually unfolded before Qin Hao.

When he finally saw what it was, even Qin Hao couldn't help but hold his breath.

What appeared before him was a shocking sight capable of making any lifeform feel its own insignificance.

A shattered star city.

A massive artificial celestial body orbiting the supermassive black hole known as the Singularity Sea at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Its main structure is a broken castle-shaped ring, with a volume several times greater than that of the sun.

The star city is composed of an unknown metal with a dark gold sheen.

What surprised Qin Hao was that, even under the terrifying gravity of the supermassive black hole capable of tearing spacetime apart, this ruined castle still maintained its basic structure.

"Could this... be the creation of a Fifth-level Civilization? Indeed, it is extraordinary."