Chapter 1606: Second-Class Civilization Immortal Gate

Between the universes, light flickered.

Like all the light in the universe, this beam had traveled a long journey before reaching its destination.

The sunlight that had set out with him seemed to offer a greeting; these fellow travelers did not pause for any reason, continuing their flight toward the distant horizon.

Light-speed travel was now routine for the current Master of the Great Sun Sword.

Yet it remained the absolute limit, forever unbreakable—the limit and shackles of special relativity.

"Traveling at light speed, according to Kardashev's theory, the Immortal Gate is already a second-class civilization."

Jiang Ding thought silently.

Although this light-speed travel had been achieved only by him as an individual, the Central Group Army Fleet had yet to reach it, due to excessive mass and insufficient technological accumulation, making it still unrevealed.

He was not satisfied with this.

Beyond light speed lay the wormhole theory—a natural spacetime passage, and the Immortal Gate possessed one.

Long ago, before Jiang Ding was born, the Immortal Gate had fortuitously discovered this wormhole and put it to use as their ultimate escape route, inaccessible without authorization.

Another was the warp drive, which propelled fleets faster than light by compressing space ahead and expanding space behind—a method seemingly akin in principle to the legendary immortal technique of shrinking distance and condensing space; the Immortal Gate had already accumulated partial technology in this direction, but the energy demands for compressing and colliding space were too immense, still unmet.

When the Immortal Gate ascends to a Celestial-Level force, there may be hope.

Other theories, such as tachyons, were also excellent research directions.

If the Immortal Gate reached Celestial-Level status, it could steadily ascend to a third-class civilization, a supercivilization capable of controlling the entire galaxy.

Currently, the Immortal Gate stood at the peak of second-class civilization, striving to ascend to the third; for instance, the Great Sun Sword Master's ongoing antimatter research was one such hallmark of third-class civilization.

Antimatter was intimately tied to the strength of the Sword of Annihilating Space, representing the 'Yin' among the Five Elements and Yin-Yang that composed the material world.

Only when antimatter emerged would the Sword of Annihilating Space—the Star River Scroll—truly become complete in material form; with one strike, all heaven, earth, and living beings would perish.

Numerous research plans flashed through his mind and vanished.

Jiang Ding's attention returned to the star system before him.

It was a star system with one star and twelve planets.

Now, this star system had plunged entirely into darkness, its entire realm fallen into deathly stillness and ice, deprived of sunlight.

The culprit behind this was the countless puppet threads on the star.

They seemed to grow infinitely, even beyond the bounds of rules, endlessly extending without end.

Each puppet thread wrapped around the sun, desperately seeking to draw energy from it to restore itself, having already forcibly absorbed considerable solar light and heat into the artifact.

Yet, it was like a thirsty man in the ocean.

All was meaningless.

It could not utilize this energy at all—this energy devoid of Qi.

Still, visible on the artifact's material, the puppet threads had undergone slight adaptive evolution, now able to minutely resist the Qi leakage of the Qi-less universe.

"Celestial…"

Jiang Ding's heart tightened.

This had never occurred before!

Neither the previous Great Sun Sword Master, Zou Zou Xiyuan, nor the ancient god ancestor's avatar who had invaded the Qi-less universe had ever shown even the slightest adaptive evolution toward the Qi-less universe.

Yet this Celestial artifact, not even a true Celestial, had already developed such subtle traits within merely three thousand years.

Did this mean that adapting to the Qi-less universe was not an exclusive ability of the Immortal Gate's native inhabitants—that even the most powerful, most intelligent among the Immortal Dao could find ways to adapt to the Qi-less universe?

"No, not necessarily."

"This Celestial artifact has already failed; its Qi leakage is too great, and it lacks the capacity to evolve further."

"Yet the possibility remains: the Qi-less universe is no longer absolutely safe; beings beyond the Celestial may have ways to temporarily exempt themselves from the danger of Qi leakage."

Jiang Ding waved his hand; his vast spiritual sense and magic power coalesced into a Sun Hand, its intricate patterns clearly visible.

This Sun Hand reached the star entangled in puppet threads, found a thread's end without effort, gripped it, and yanked sharply!

Shhh!

Shhh-shhh!

Instantly, billions of bowstrings snapped taut and exploded; billions of puppet threads, carrying three thousand years of forcibly gathered solar energy, rained down like a storm of meteors, forming a cage that enveloped the young man in blue robes—this instant's temperature neared that of the sun's core.

The artifact possessed spirit!

Over these three thousand years, though continuously weakening, it had also been steadily brewing a final destruction strike, just as the Puppet Fate Rule had planned and sought to overturn all control over living beings.

Had the Great Sun Sword Master arrived here while gravely wounded, it might have succeeded.

But alas,

"A fine attack."

Jiang Ding said calmly.

Jing!

The sword drew forth; the sun rose in the east and fell toward heaven and earth.

For the first time in three thousand years, this dark star system gained another sun, radiating destruction.

Moments later, all explosions and light vanished.

The star, once sealed and entangled,

gradually revealed its glow once more, illuminating the starry sky and bringing light to the twelve lifeless planets.

Beside the sun, a dimmed aura of puppet threads shrank and shrank further, soon reducing from spanning the entire star system to the size of a fist, floating and sinking continuously.

It was astonishing—what material could possess such extreme elasticity?

Jiang Ding reached out, gently grasping the glowing thread cluster, resembling a crystal ball, and poured his spiritual sense and sword intent into it, beginning to unravel the artifact's seals.

This had been impossible before.

He might have destroyed the Celestial artifact while it was severely damaged, but he could never have breached its seals; in the realms of seals and rules, he still could not surpass the Celestial, and could not prevent its self-destruction.

But now, after three thousand years of weakening in the Spiritless Universe, this treasure has weakened in every aspect and no longer poses a significant threat.

Jiang Ding's divine sense and sword intent surged into it, breaking through one restriction after another; mistakes occurred from time to time, triggering backlash.

Under normal circumstances, he would have lost several lives.

But now, all the backlash felt like a gentle breeze brushing the face; Jiang Ding paid it no mind and could even spare a great deal of Shen Hun computing power to prevent its self-destruction.

Breaking through restrictions, breaking through restrictions.

Finally, decades later.

Crack!

Accompanied by a crisp sound, the final restriction of this Heaven-and-Man Treasure was breached, exposing its core. The core was blank; the Shen Hun Lao Yin of the Qiansi Heaven-and-Man had been forcibly shattered.

This Ben Ming Fa fell into complete silence.

Ben Ming Fa are always like this; at most, one can recover the materials, and it is nearly impossible for others to utilize them.

"Heaven-and-Man Treasure restrictions, forging..."

Jiang Ding carefully contemplated the various aspects of this treasure, and many realizations arose in his heart.

He knew that this fully deciphered and controlled Heaven-and-Man Treasure would certainly serve as a huge reference for refining the Central Array Spirit Computer Mainframe.