Chapter 150: 149 March Civilization – 4K, Please Subscribe

Jade Moon was the first city established by the ancient Xia dynasty during the era of cosmic expansion, covering an area of one hundred thousand square kilometers, vast and boundless, stretching as far as the eye can see.

It stretches from beneath Wang Wu's feet all the way to the horizon's edge; although the whole city is now dilapidated, its former splendor can still be seen.

"Is this… here?"

Yao Qing didn't ponder why a True Realm cultivator could breathe in space; at her level, as long as she has an oxygen supply, she can indeed survive in a vacuum for a long time.

As for a space suit, a True Realm cultivator's body is already a natural one.

But the danger in the starry void is not the vacuum itself, but something else.

Here swarms an incredibly bizarre element that constantly seeks to infiltrate human bodies, corroding and contaminating them.

Once stripped of a planet's atmospheric protection, a human body is left completely exposed to this strange environment.

For an ordinary person, the time from the Three Calamities entering the body to being plagued by the Eight Tribulations and fully transformed is about twenty seconds.

For a cultivator, it may be longer. Under the True Realm, the duration ranges from one minute to twenty minutes.

Above the True Realm and below Breaking Delusion, the time is twelve to forty‑eight hours.

Only after Breaking Delusion, when a Pure Body is attained, can a cultivator truly possess the ability to "resist" the Three Calamities and Eight Tribulations.

Consequently, survival time is greatly extended, up to seventy‑two days in the universe without protection.

At the Void‑Cavern realm, one can last about three years; after entering the Law, it extends further, roughly ten years.

After entering the Law, one can essentially achieve full resistance, so time ceases to be an issue, though without continual replenishment, about fifty years will still pass.

This is the limit attainable by the True Dao; as for the Demon Dao, well, it's not strong in this regard, so its performance is inferior to the True Dao.

Even cultivators of the Heavenly Communication Realm cannot remain exposed in space without protection for more than thirty years.

"Three Calamities and Eight Tribulations"—the Demon is one of them, being one of the Three Calamities.

"Um, I didn't mean to say here…" Wang Wu said awkwardly, "I wanted to bring you up there to look; didn't you say you were curious about the world above the heavens?"

"Um, huh?" Yao Qing was startled, then flushed.

Since confessing her feelings to Wang Wu and sharing their hearts, she sometimes feels embarrassed even with herself. After all, she never imagined she could have such a strong, um, desire.

But there's no way around it; that feeling is the tightest entanglement between two souls, the ultimate fusion of spirit and body.

That intense love, that overflowing happiness, truly made her unable to resist, causing her to sink into it.

"Qing'er, if you want to stay here, that's fine too." Wang Wu's awkwardness lasted only a moment; since Yao Qing made the request, he was naturally happy to oblige.

He glanced around; despite being in full view, he was also intrigued by the ancient city below and the bizarre cosmic space.

But since it was her husband's wish, she naturally was willing to give everything for him.

When together with Wang Wu, Yao Qing was no longer that cold, chilling sword.

She said nothing, moved up to Wang Wu, and at one‑sixth gravity, her clothes floated gently in the air.

This is the point where the flight skill, after being upgraded to mid‑third rank, becomes awesome, with functionality and mechanisms greatly enhanced.

It not only lets the user fly, but also enables those who cannot fly to follow under one's aid, and it can be controlled independently.

It does consume a bit more Qi, but for fourth‑rank Wang Wu, that's nothing.

One hour later.

Yao Qing floated down, bare‑footed, stepping onto the eaves of a jade tower within Jade Moon.

She picked up a tattered garment hanging there, then flew again, leaping toward the half‑ruined carved beams of another distant ruined building, where her belt lay scattered.

Although there was no wind, the clothes fell from several thousand meters up, landing rather randomly, but after a short time she quickly retrieved them all.

"Wu Lang, my shoes."

Yao Qing flew up to Wang Wu in the sky, blushing, and said:

"Help me put them on…?"

I must admit, after being with Wang Wu, Yao Qing also began to learn how to command him.

Yao Qing has no special background; she comes from a proper civilian family.

Her biological parents died when she was very young; later she was adopted by Li Shangxuan, so she can be considered his daughter.

The monsters within Jade Moon and Wang Wu in this world's region… let's call it that for now, are somewhat different from the monsters seen on Earth.

Because these beings have movement patterns with some logic behind them.

They seem to possess a certain intelligence, and their mood always appears fine, with a perpetual odd smile on their faces.

Their silhouettes are hunched and curled, using all four limbs to crawl swiftly on the ground, weaving through the city's ruins.

From rooftops to streets, they can be seen everywhere.

Some have rotting skin, some have sagging flesh, but without exception you can clearly see the spine on their backs.

Prominent, winding and twisted, like a centipede draped on their backs.

Logically they shouldn't see Wang Wu and Yao Qing, and indeed they cannot.

But when Wang Wu and Yao Qing stroll through this city, these strange "humans" within the city have almost everyone's eyes fixed on the two.

Not an instant did they look away.

"Wu Lang, they…"

Yao Qing, watching the monsters crawling around with no apparent movement yet their heads and eyes fixed on them, asked worriedly.

"It's fine." Though Wang Wu also didn't understand, he shook his head, "They actually can't see us."

Yao Qing nodded; though her face still showed worry, she unconditionally trusted Wang Wu's words.

"By the way, want to go to the edge of this world?" Wang Wu asked after walking in the city for a while.

There's nothing in this city, only endless ruins.

"Sure!" Yao Qing nodded, then asked curiously:

"But the Horizon Star must be far from here, right? Won't we run out of time?"

"Don't worry!" Wang Wu, smug, blinked, then extended his finger forward, drawing a cross in the air.

Tens of thousands of years ago, the Yin people launched a rebellion and replaced the Great Xia, and because those cities lost ground support, they could no longer be sustained.

Not everyone had the chance to return to the home planet, so after the planet's resources were exhausted they could only despairingly die on this world.

The same situation also applied to the other planets in this solar system.

Although the Yin people, after establishing their own state and dynasty "Great Shang," were very respectful toward the defeated Xia dynasty.

They not only refrained from treating them like human sacrifices as they did with other peripheral barbarians, but even paid tribute to the Xia kingdom in the capacity of "subjects."

Yet the later respect and preferential treatment could not erase what they had done: inciting rebellion and causing all extraterrestrial colonies in the solar system to be destroyed at once.

During the height of the Shang dynasty, the Yin people also contemplated rebuilding the former glory of Great Xia and launching extraterrestrial colonization. Thus, under the guidance of alien‑assisted starships, Great Shang began a grand space‑colonization campaign.

But in less than five hundred years they returned in disgrace.

Nevertheless, that Shang foray into space was not entirely fruitless; on the edge of the solar system they still established several frontier outposts.

Namely, Tianya Star.

It is the most distant celestial body from the Sun in this solar system, a dwarf planet located between the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud.

These two regions are called "Yajiao" (the Kuiper Belt) and "Tianmu" (the Oort Cloud) in this world.

It is not large, only a thousand kilometers in diameter, and lies 15 billion kilometers from the Sun.

Yet it is one of the only six extraterrestrial outposts remaining for humanity within this solar system.

The Tianya Four Stars are situated in the four regions of the ecliptic plane; their facilities are still maintained, and the oldest outpost has been operating continuously for sixty thousand years.

Back then the Shang dynasty sent several alien starships to its "Upper Country" Great Xia so they could continue observing space. Although Shang had abandoned outer‑space exploration, it still spent money to fund them.

Great Zhou did the same; although it no longer pursued cosmic exploration, it would fund Great Xia to do so.

East Tianya Star, within a massive hemispherical structure.

Although conventional north, south, east, west no longer apply in space, people still habitually refer to these locations that way.

This observation outpost, which normally houses only a few dozen people, today has some new faces.

And it is not only humans; there are also demons.

"The items sent from the March Realm and the information they have been transmitting in recent years—haven't you decoded them yet?"

Divination Officer Ji Dong of Great Zhou stared at all the scholars summoned to the base, asking with some displeasure.

"That takes time, and only this autumn did we retrieve the golden plates sent by the March Realm from the Tianmu, and using the decoded data we located the signal they have been broadcasting for a thousand years."

Facing the Divination Officer's mildly irritated query, the lead scholar replied calmly and without deference:

"All scholars of Great Xia are working hard on the decryption; this is already the fastest speed we can achieve."

"Can't it be any faster?" the Divination Officer frowned.

The Divination Officer is a senior official in Great Zhou who oversees divination, holding a prestigious position as one of the Six Ministers.

He also heads research‑related departments, belonging to the technocratic bureaucracy.

Ji Dong's abilities are high, but deciphering alien information is evidently not his forte.

"If you cultivators could devote half your time to studying the Dao of Heaven and Earth, perhaps we would already be communicating with the March Realm."

said the lead scholar.

Ji Dong said nothing, merely nodding.

Wang Wu was now wandering around the room with Yao Qing; no one in the base was surprised by their appearance.

In fact, the two had entered the base from outside; at that moment everyone was discussing matters here, and the base announced that someone was knocking at the door.

So after a while, Wang Wu brought Yao Qing inside.

No one found anything amiss about the arrival of the two strangers.

The base is enormous, after all it must dock starships and store vast supplies.

A spacecraft traveling from Earth to here takes three weeks, requiring a gravity‑assist slingshot using planetary fields for rapid acceleration; otherwise three weeks would not suffice.

After hearing the dialogue between the Divination Officer and the scholars, Wang Wu curiously walked over and saw the golden plates sent by the March Realm.

At first glance he almost thought this world was actually his home, and that he had merely been transported to another planet.

But on closer inspection he realized it was not.

Nonetheless, it did resemble the methods of his home's humans quite a bit.

The first plate depicts the March Realm humans—a man and a woman—looking much like the locals here.

In the upper left corner of the plate is a diagram of an atomic spin transition, apparently that of a hydrogen atom.

Combined with the binary numbers beneath the March figures, and the length indicated by electron spin up‑to‑down, one can infer the average height of March males to be about 182 cm and females about 175 cm.

Besides that, the plate also shows approximate coordinates where the March system intersects the Milky Way.

The second plate is a record disc; this is quite intuitive—there is an audio recording the scholars captured in the room. Wang Wu listened; the song is pleasant, but he understood not a single word.

The third plate contains March script and some strange mathematical symbols.

Wang Wu can only read these, and the scholars, being more capable, have already deciphered the mathematical language on the plates to extract the messages they intended to convey.

Through those messages they also captured the signals the March people have been beaming toward this side for millennia.

Outside the solar system, about three light‑years away.

"Bai."

It is a massive vessel, roughly five kilometers long, its shape very much like the sci‑fi ships from Wang Wu's home movies.

A woman in a tight suit looked at the man sharing the room, her expression solemn.

"What's wrong?" the man named Bai asked the woman, "Anything?"

"You still won't tell me the truth?" the woman walked up to Bai, placed her hand on the table before him, and stared at him intensely.

"What do you mean?" Bai's face showed confusion.

"There are military combat boats on the ship," the woman said.

"Those are only for self‑defense," Bai sighed, "Are you being a bit too sensitive? We also have escort cannons with even greater firepower…"

Bai's words were only halfway spoken when he stopped, because the woman projected a light screen onto his table.

It was a document, the text on it dense and cramped, and at the end of those tiny characters was the emblem of the March Civilization War Department.

(End of Chapter)