Chapter 298: The Great Biological Extinction: The Planet's Counterattack

Thinking of this, Baichuan raised his head and looked at the central table before him.

Following the information granted by his clearance, after a few operations, the starship's information repository opened itself completely to him.

One after another, glowing orbs of gentle light began to project before him; Baichuan thought for a moment, then directly selected the largest one, named "Records of Tianyuan Star."

Let me first see how this Fugitive Fleet managed to develop such a brilliant cultivation system.

As the thought stirred, Baichuan discovered that along with his confirmation, a stream of complex imagery appeared before his eyes, as if it were those hallucinations—or an immersive projection.

The next moment, his vision turned into a sheet of white, rippling like water waves, and then he abruptly found himself in a deep, boundless darkness with no up or down; not far before him was a beautiful blue-grey planet, and farther beyond it was a massive fireball dozens of times its size.

Before he could continue watching, a violent tremor occurred; a surge of smoke carrying sparks billowed out, and immediately after he saw that somewhat familiar starship, wrapped in smoke and sparks, plummeting toward that planet.

Boom!!!

An hour later, amid a tremendous explosion, that enormously vast starship pierced through the planet's continental plate like a sharp arrow.

An earth-shaking commotion arose, echoing across the entire planet, causing countless native beings upon it to tremble in fear.

Immediately after, orange-red magma continuously surged up from the earth, turning the once-vibrant land into utter devastation.

Only now did Baichuan understand what that crimson display he had seen in the cockpit was—it turned out that during the starship's fall, whether by ill fortune or great luck, it had directly pierced through the continental plate and plunged into the magma beneath, causing countless eruptions of lava.

And what he had seen before was precisely the cockpit's location, tens of thousands of years later, still soaking in magma.

Yet even so, this starship showed not the slightest leak or damage, treating the magma as if it were nothing.

After the great commotion, the countless humans within the starship finally emerged, both rejoicing in their survival and anxious about what to do next; they began piloting various tools to survey the specifics of this planet.

After a long period of exploration—Baichuan estimated roughly a hundred years—these humans finally finished surveying the specifics of this world, and with the aid of that mysterious Faba, made the astonishing discovery that this planet was extraordinarily special!

Not only was every environment perfectly suited to their survival, but there was also an unknown substance in the air.

Humans living under the influence of this substance would, over time, develop various supernatural abilities within their bodies; moreover, the mysterious manuals they had once carried from their motherworld could now be cultivated directly!

This was a stunning discovery—one must know that before this, to cultivate those manuals they had needed to rely on the small amount of spirit stones also brought out from the ruins; yet spirit stones were far too scarce, and had to be reserved for the Faba to absorb, so they could not be casually used for cultivation.

But here and now, none of that was needed!

They only needed to follow the methods and cultivate step by step!

No one understood what this meant better than these humans who had activated the mysterious Faba and knew its power.

Supernatural power is always so enchanting; thus, they decided to settle permanently on this mysterious planet and begin kindling the fires of civilization.

As one after another all the humans cultivated Spirit Qi, they not only became quicker of mind but also far stronger in body; the chain reaction this brought was even swifter development.

Unfortunately, the accumulation of Spirit Qi cultivation was always so slow, requiring the patient, persistent effort of grinding away bit by bit, yet time waits for no one.

As this band of fugitive humans accelerated their development and the regions they touched grew vast, they finally encountered the planet's hard-to-chew native beings—

It was a mountain-range beast of incomparably massive size, its entire body covered in scales and armor; its outer defense could actually withstand the large war mechas carried by this fugitive fleet—one must know those were technological crystals secretly exchanged with a certain Level-2 civilization using resources from the ruins.

After a bitter battle, they were even forced to deploy the only Star-Shattering Cannon aboard the ship—one strike capable of shattering a continent—only then did they bring down this mountain-range beast.

However, this act also caused these humans, in their subsequent observation of the planet from outside, to discover the appearance of an observation device from the "Luo" civilization.

This discovery terrified the Fugitives to the core; having only just managed to develop, they had once again found traces of that alien civilization, and their starship was also severely damaged.

Under such a crisis, the researchers among those humans, relying on their Spirit Qi-cultivated robust bodies, desperately burned the midnight oil researching ways to break the impasse.

After another hundred years like this, the researchers led by Tangboshi finally uncovered a tremendous secret!

Through the perspective of the Faba, they discovered that this planet was actually enveloped by a mysterious field!!!

And it was precisely because of this mysterious field that the planet was so extraordinary, giving birth to countless incomparably powerful beings, and even allowing them to cultivate the power called "Spirit Qi" from their manuals!

This was undoubtedly a massive breakthrough; once they understood exactly what had enabled them to cultivate Spirit Qi, the entire Fugitives' development was as if riding a rocket.

Continuously using the Faba, they artificially sought out and even warped the dense spots within the field's coverage, cultivating within them medicines that greatly enhanced the accumulation of Spirit Qi.

In an instant, what once truly required a hundred years of cultivation to accumulate in Spirit Qi cultivation was, with the help of these medicines, achieved in mere years or a decade or so; and as time went on, the aiding effect grew ever more pronounced.

Thus, these Fugitives truly entered an era of comprehensive transcendence; what were once considered great achievements—fifty years of cultivation, a hundred years of cultivation…—directly became the entry stage of Qi Refining, until upon reaching five hundred years of cultivation, they discovered that they would undergo a tremendous transformation, birthing a soul and spiritual force capable of perceiving the outside world, and only then did they establish the second stage.

And with the soul, aided by the clarity of mind and increasing intelligence it brought, their development grew ever faster; the once-headache-inducing mountain-range beasts, under the siege of countless experts, could only fall in regret.

But the good times did not last long; at this moment the alien civilization's probe appeared once again, and discovered them!

Yet they had lost the means to step back into Xingkong, for all their spacecraft had long since been damaged.

Fortunately, at this moment, the first expert with nine hundred and ninety-nine years of cultivation appeared!

His name was "Yi."

At this stage he could already be called no longer mortal; every gesture and movement carried unfathomable mysterious might, and his need for the external environment grew ever less; his strength made it a trivial matter to tear apart a Level-2 civilization mecha with bare hands; thus the danger that had just emerged was taken up by him with that mysterious Faba, and within a short time he stepped into Xingkong to resolve it.

Yet the probe, worthy of being a creation of the "Luo" civilization, though destroyed, still transmitted its information back, and at the moment of destruction delivered a fatal blow to this newly ascended expert Yi.

At this point, Yi, who had just broken through yet now hovered at death's door, in his final moments struggled to embrace his broken body back to the earth, solely to recount and preserve every sensation of his current realm as experience; in this process he also returned the Faba, and at the same time delivered a piece of good news—he could finally truly activate that mysterious Faba without external aid.

Under his narration, after he also spoke of the Faba's might as he had understood it while wielding it, those researchers, though deeply grieved by his death, also harbored a bold idea within—

To borrow the Faba's power and completely hide the entire planet within another time-space—a time-space belonging to the Faba!

From then on they would be cut off from the outside world, making the entire planet nonexistent within Xingkong, and henceforth their lineage could sleep soundly while slowly developing and rising.

Until they returned to their homeland.

But completely hiding the entire planet was undoubtedly a mad plan—not something a human of nine hundred and ninety-nine years of cultivation could accomplish—and the subsequent loss of sunlight would also bring various adverse effects.

Yet sticking out one's head is one slash, pulling it in is another—either way, it's death.

Under the crisis, these humans had in their bones the resolve of "rather die as a jade than live as a tile"; otherwise they would not have, surrounded by enemies, risked extinction to escape—one must know that because of the ruins, it was not as if no higher civilizations had extended olive branches to them.

So under these circumstances, those in power slapped the table and decided to go for it.

Afterwards they notified all the people, laid out the entire current situation, and then put forward this mad idea, letting all the people decide.

And those chosen to be members of this fleet could be said to include no cowards; moreover, in this period, at a critical juncture, what humanity lacked least were those willing to sacrifice themselves for ideals and for the greater good.

Therefore, all personnel declared "Let's do it!"

Human courage is the hymn of life!

At this point, the entire society began operating at full speed; vast resources were prioritized for those humans with strong talent, pushing them to the limits of their current cultivation.

Thus, another two hundred years passed, and these mad humans had actually accumulated a full thousand such later-generation Zhenren Peak experts; at this point, the plan began.

Vast quantities of Spirit Stones, countless powerhouses who had stepped into the Extreme Peak (999 years of cultivation), with a united will, burned themselves to finally unleash the might of the Faba.

Beneath a resplendent flash of light, a wave of Faba power sufficient to envelop the entire planet radiated outward; in an instant the planet vanished, entering a mysterious space, and evaded the later "Luo" civilization vanguard army.

From then on, the entire planet lost the light of its star and sank into darkness; the planet's heat rapidly dropped, and the realm of ice and snow began to descend.

Fortunately, those researchers who had dared to carry out this plan had not done nothing — the massive machines once used for war had their engines directly removed, and their energy Cores repurposed for warmth.

Moreover, relying on their own extraordinary powers, they developed countless methods of utilization — these were the Techniques that came later.

The various creatures raised earlier could also serve as a food source; combined with the fact that nearly the entire population possessed extraordinary power, although life was bitter, they persevered.

However, the fact that humans could rely on wisdom and extraordinary power to hold on for a short while did not mean that the many living beings across the entire planet could survive; in this harsh environment, countless creatures began to step by step fall into death and extinction.

Even the Mountain-Range Giant Beasts, the rulers among them, were no exception.

Because although these Mountain-Range Giant Beasts were powerful — their bodies nearly rivaling the True Monarch physiques of later eras famed for flesh and not using Spirit Qi — they had reached this realm through their bodies being nourished, evolving, and mutating over vast stretches of Time, not through cultivation; and such mighty flesh required an immensely vast amount of energy each day.

In a world before the Great Change this would have been fine, but unfortunately such a heaven-and-earth transformation had occurred.

Therefore, having lost the star's radiance and fallen into an incomparably harsh environment, even creatures as powerful as them began to decline step by step.

Thus, a great extinction sweeping the entire world slowly drew back its curtain.

This was a killing karma brought about by outsiders fleeing for their own survival; whether right or wrong, no one could say clearly.

However, having created such immense killing karma, a price must ultimately be paid.

The vengeful Spirits of the countless perished creatures ultimately required an answer.

Especially on this now-mysterious planet, every one of those creatures possessed "Spirit."

Perhaps when humans first fled here, their starship had accidentally pierced through the continent's plate and sunk deep into the earth, quietly giving rise to a peculiar change.

The existence of the mysterious field had long since caused this planet — shrouded by the mysterious field for ages — to accumulate a mysterious power; this power lay deep within the earth, preserved in a state of pure and untainted form.

Unfortunately, this incomparably vast energy was polluted because of the pierced earth, the countless wrongfully dead vengeful Spirits, and the human souls possessing Spirit Qi.

From pure, harmless energy, it transformed into Yin Qi that hated the living!

This was the source of this world's Yin Qi —

Born from the world's Vital Essence, from the unwillingness of the dead, mingled with the souls of the few Spirit Qi-possessing humans who perished.

Dense Yin Qi began to leak out, causing countless dead creatures to return to Ren Jian in another, hideous form; and moreover, because this earth-shaking great change was caused by human hands.

Because the initial pollution of the Planet Essence occurred near the starship — that is, near the gathering place of humans.

In this situation, the countless already-existing human Spirits possessing Spirit Qi took advantage of that astonishing piercing and drifted in.

Therefore, after learning of this matter through the memories of the human Spirits, countless vengeful Spirits went completely berserk; every creature that returned to the world through Yin Qi, whether intelligent or mindless, harbored hatred for the species of humans in the deepest depths of its consciousness.

This was the revenge of the countless wrongfully slain creatures against the originator; this hatred surpassed even resentment toward the living.

Thus, this planet from then on entered an extremely dark era.

Monsters and the human race slaughtering each other.

Survivors ambushing and killing the human race.

The brief moment of stability humanity had finally achieved collapsed once more, plunging into a situation where all the world was their enemy; one careless step and the race would be annihilated.

Fortunately, this hardship — a situation constantly facing challenges — was at the same time a kind of tempering and trial.

In the one hundred fiftieth year of the Lightless Era, a human who had stepped into the Extreme Peak luckily obtained an Essence Stone that had settled deep within the Planet Essence.

The birth of this Essence Stone may have been due to that mysterious field, and thus possessed a strong correlation with it; therefore, it contained a certain rhythm of the world's changes recorded by that field under the influence of Time.

Thus, this uniquely favored human, relying directly on this Essence Stone, comprehended a certain rhythm of change regarding this heaven and earth recorded by that field — Fire.

……

(End of this chapter)