Chapter 332: The Survivors of Civilization

"Wait!"

Qin Hao suddenly raised his hand, stopping the starship's jump preparation.

"What's wrong?"

Long Feng looked at him, puzzled.

Qin Hao didn't answer; instead, he closed his eyes and focused his mental power intensely.

After a few seconds, he opened his eyes, a hint of surprise appearing on his face.

"Qian Yin, perform an ultra-deep geological scan of Sai Lun Planet, scan depth…… one million meters."

"One million meters?"

Qian Yin froze for a moment, but still immediately carried out the order.

The starship's detectors emitted beams of high-energy particles, penetrating the thick crust and probing the planet's interior.

Soon, the scan image appeared on the main screen.

At a depth of about eight hundred kilometers below the surface, a weak but incredibly real cluster of life signals appeared before everyone's eyes!

"This…… this is……"

"There are still survivors!"

Inside the bridge, a chorus of exclamations rose.

In that huge underground cavity, there were about thousands of life signals.

Although they were extremely faint, like candles in the wind, they truly existed!

Qin Hao understood.

It turned out that after that "stage set" collapsed, not everything had disappeared.

Those imprisoned by the meme virus, the true survivors of the Sai Lun Civilization, are still alive!

And that malicious gaze is likely the "core" of the meme virus, preparing to strike these last "nutrients" after discovering its disguise had been seen through!

"Long Feng, prepare to rescue."

Qin Hao's tone left no room for doubt.

"This is too dangerous!"

Long Feng immediately objected, "We don't know what's down there! The virus's core is likely right there! We just escaped it!"

"I know there's risk."

Qin Hao looked at the faint life signals on the screen, "I'm not doing this out of kindness; these survivors are our most direct source of information about the Devourer."

"More importantly……"

Qin Hao's eyes turned icy, "That thing thinks it's the hunter, treating us as prey.

Now the prey has left,

it wants to return to enjoy its stored provisions, but I won't let it have its way.

"I want it to know that the Yanhuang Civilization is not something it can provoke whenever it likes."

Qin Hao's resolve was set; Zhang Feng said no more.

"System, immediately use the concept of the Absolute Logic Barrier to replicate a batch of personal equipment, named the Conceptual Protective Suit."

"Ensure that every landing team member is immune to the direct attacks of the meme virus."

One minute later, Long Feng led a squad of fifty elite troops,

All wearing the Conceptual Protective Suit, they boarded the landing ship and descended once more onto Sai Lun Planet.

This time, their target was that refuge deep beneath the planet's surface.

The landing ship activated its space-cutting drill, easily boring a passage straight down through the crust.

When the passage broke through, the refuge's massive door came into view, and everyone was stunned.

The door was covered in dense scratches and energy burn marks, clearly having endured countless external attacks over the long ages.

"Blast!" Long Feng ordered.

Accompanied by a dull boom, the door that had stood for who knows how many years was blown open, leaving a gap.

A stale gust of air welled up from the gap.

The marines filed in single file.

This place was like a gigantic hibernation chamber.

Thousands of Sai Lun people, whose forms resembled mantises, lay in rudimentary life-support devices, each emaciated and on the brink of death.

Their spirits seemed to be bound by something, their eyes vacant, devoid of vitality.

But when Long Feng and his group, these strangely armored "aliens," walked in, all the Sai Lun people's gazes snapped toward them.

In their eyes, first came bewilderment, then fear,

finally turning into endless despair and…… a faint hope.

"Qian Yin, is the purification device ready?"

Qin Hao asked from the bridge.

"Ready, we've produced a portable 'Purification Device' based on the principle of the Absolute Logic Barrier."

"It can emit a special frequency that neutralizes and clears the meme virus remnants within victims."

"Let's begin."

Soon, the marines placed each purification device in every corner of the refuge and activated them.

"Hum——"

A soft white light enveloped the entire refuge.

The Sai Lun people lying in the life-support devices began to shudder violently, emitting painful groans.

Black, eerie patterns appeared on the surface of their bodies, those patterns seeming like living creatures,

They crawled beneath the skin, as if making a final resistance.

But ultimately, under the light of the purification device, all the black patterns dissipated bit by bit.

This process lasted for a full several minutes.

When the light faded, the first Sailun to shakily sit up from the life-support device was an extremely elderly-looking female.

She looked at the marines before her, and two streams of scalding tears flowed from her cloudy eyes.

She opened her mouth, as if wanting to say something, but in the end she only let out a heart-rending sob that had been suppressed for too long.

Her sob was like a signal.

In the entire shelter, all the surviving Sailun came back to life.

They wept, howled, and released the pain and despair of being imprisoned for a thousand years.

Finally, they unanimously turned toward the marines,

knelt down, and expressed their gratitude with the most ancient rite.

That elderly female elder was brought aboard the Void Walker.

Before Qin Hao, she recounted everything that the Sailun civilization had endured.

"My name is Ailiya, I am the 37th Grand Elder of the Sailun civilization."

Her voice hoarse and weak, "That disaster occurred three thousand years ago."

"That day was no different from any other day in our past… until…… 'they' came."

"No fleet, no warning. A…… a plague of thought suddenly descended.

"We call it the 'Whisper'. Anyone who heard the Whisper lost their self within just a few hours,

"turning into…… turning into the walking corpses you saw earlier."

"Only less than one in ten thousand of our people, due to having naturally stronger mental barriers, resisted the first wave of infection.

"We activated the final refuge and hid deep underground."

"But that virus did not spare us.

"For three thousand years, it has ceaselessly eroded the shelter's barrier, draining our mental power to maintain that huge 'illusion' on the surface.

"We…… we are merely its captive batteries."

Ailiya's account made everyone present feel waves of chill.

"How much do you know about the Devourers?"

Qin Hao asked the most crucial question.

Ailiya shook her head: "Very little. Our civilization, in the Andromeda Galaxy, is only of medium standing.

"The records about the Devourers come only from scattered fragments left by even older, now-extinct civilizations."

She operated an ancient data terminal she carried, calling up a fragmented star map.

"According to ancient records, the Devourers are a vast symbiotic collective controlled by a single 'Overlord'.

"They subsist by devouring the 'essence' of civilizations—that is, what you call souls and knowledge."

"They are located in the core region of the Andromeda Galaxy, in a forbidden zone called the 'Abyssal Nest' by all civilizations."

Ailiya transmitted to Qin Hao the star map recording the approximate location of the 'Abyssal Nest' and some known Devourer activity routes.

"Alien civilization."

She looked at Qin Hao with pleading eyes: "I know this request is excessive, but if…… if you have the capability,

"please definitely eradicate this cosmic tumor for the countless civilizations devoured in the Andromeda Galaxy!"

Qin Hao looked at the star map in his hand; this was exactly what he needed most.

He solemnly nodded to Ailiya.

"I will."

"Moreover, you will also become witnesses."

Afterward, another decision was made.

"We will bring all of you surviving Sailun back to our home—the Milky Way Galaxy.

"There we will provide you a safe haven and help you rebuild your civilization."

Upon hearing this news, Ailiya was overcome with excitement, and she knelt down again.