Chapter 515: A Wonderful Journey

"Uh..."

Chen Shu sat at the dining table on the rooftop. The table full of food prepared by the Station Master had been eaten clean. The night breeze blew in, exceptionally cool, yet the group of people waiting to hear stories refused to leave. They stared at Chen Shu with expectant eyes, leaving him feeling quite helpless.

Not only was there the group from the guesthouse, but also the proprietress of the bakery across the street—who was the Station Master's wife and the older sister of Yaoyao—as well as the former big star who had hidden her appearance to work as a clerk at the bakery.

There was even, damn it, a talking flower...

He hadn't expected to have so many listeners.

Fortunately, as half a historian, he was quite adept at telling stories.

"That has to be told from many, many years ago. Perhaps it isn't long relative to the lifespan of the universe or planets, but for a young civilization, it was an era so distant that not even records remain. So we don't know exactly how many years ago it was; perhaps tens of thousands, or maybe over a hundred thousand years ago. A plane with a civilization, which was like a neighbor to us, encountered a catastrophic disaster..."

A grand story, the survival of a plane, and a long-drawn-out war were recounted by Chen Shu into an epic spanning tens of thousands of years.

The group of creatures listened, completely mesmerized.

Some were focused, some full of yearning, some asked questions from time to time, some remained silent, and some lay on the table with blank, vacant eyes...

In Chen Shu's view, the girl named Cheng Yan was the most interested; she seemed to love history and the vast, heavy sense of weight contained within it. Besides her, everyone else was also listening intently, including the Nüxia who was sprawled on the table.

"That civilization's development was ahead of ours, but due to the Plane Origin, the existence of gods, and the advantage of home-field defense, we resisted their power invasion throughout the long war. After Shengzu traveled to their plane and defeated one generation of their gods, that plane was practically destined for destruction."

Chen Shu's tone was somewhat helpless.

Then, he changed the subject: "However, at the very last moment, Shengzu made a promise to them and left behind their plane's Biological Seed and Cultural Seed. The Biological Seed existed in the form of embryos and matching Incubators, while the Cultural Seed existed in the form of a Totem Pole. The Incubators would hatch the organisms, and the Totem Pole would subtly ensure that they would evolve into a civilization similar to their original one in the future. All I have to do is find a planet suitable for life to evolve and place the fire of that extinct civilization back down, allowing them to be reborn in another way."

These were simple words, yet they recounted the destruction of a civilization and the helping hand extended by an original opponent at the final moment. It was dusk when he started, but the sky had just turned dark by the time he finished. The grand story was condensed into these ten minutes of speech, blown away by the cold night breeze toward Dianchi.

Everyone was stunned for a moment.

The sunset glow at the horizon was like fire, and as the night breeze blew, it felt as if they had caught a chill, making their scalps tingle.

Standing from the perspective of a bystander, it was hard for them to judge who was right or wrong in this war. Even for the invaders, from a bystander's view, it was merely the instinctive, erroneous reaction of a drowning person. Shengzu's final choice confirmed this point, yet the ultimate outcome was the annihilation of billions of lives.

That is the charm of history.

Time, like great waves washing away sand, sifts out the most moving stories, refined to the extreme, showing you the vicissitudes of ten thousand years in a brief moment.

Only the Nüxia, who was sprawled on the table blinking her eyes at Chen Shu, was full of confusion and asked, "Why did they want to destroy you, but in the end, your Shengzu still agreed to help them pass on their seeds?"

Chen Shu smiled upon hearing this: "That is where the charm of Shengzu lies."

"Don't get it."

"It's fine..."

The others gradually came back to their senses as well.

The Station Master shook his head and said, "Actually, I have heard similar stories before, more than once, but I still cannot help but be moved by it..."

"Big shot!" the bakery clerk complimented.

"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare."

"Can I write this into my novel?" the front-desk lady asked.

"You are a writer?"

"Just a trashy web novel author who's a total flop..."

"A veteran flop," the Nüxia added happily. "She's been writing novels for over ten years. Nobody read them ten years ago, and nobody reads them now."

"Nüxia," the Station Master spoke up.

"What?"

"Shut up."

"Alrighty..."

The Nüxia obediently closed her mouth.

Chen Shu couldn't help but laugh and continued to say to the front-desk lady, "Of course you can."

Tang Laoban from the bakery asked, "But the universe is so big, even if you have the ability to traverse space, how do you find a habitable planet?"

The Station Master said, "I remember there was an interstellar fleet that visited before. They traveled through the universe for many years and visited many civilizations, and they also encountered some habitable life planets. They should have records. If you need it, I can try to help you look for it..."

As he spoke, he paused: "However, you should have relevant search technology, otherwise your new Shengzu wouldn't be able to accurately find other civilizations."

"Yes, I can screen for suitable planets through Spiritual Power."

"What is Spiritual Power?"

The Station Master's younger sister asked.

Chen Shu could see it; her thirst for knowledge was the strongest, and she liked to touch upon unknown things. This was an extraordinary personality, very suitable for research.

"That would take even longer to explain, and it would also be a wonderful and interesting thing," Chen Shu paused. "But it is already very late today. Let's wait until tomorrow night or next time, and I will tell you all about it slowly."

"Okay!"

Everyone stood up one after another and began to clear the bowls and chopsticks.

The clinking and clattering sounds rang out together.

The evening glow gradually faded, leaving only a streak of fiery red on the horizon. One could faintly see Dianchi, like a mirror, reflecting this fiery red.

The night breeze felt exceptionally comfortable.

Chen Shu couldn't help but stretch.

The environment on this rooftop was also very comfortable. There were several flower beds on it, a small tree planted in the middle, and the surroundings were covered with flowers, plants, and vines. Especially the vines, which climbed and grew wantonly along the rooftop railings, even spreading onto the rooftop floor. Being in the midst of it gave one a sense of comfort from being close to nature.

It was evident that some plants clearly did not belong to Earth; perhaps they were left behind by visitors from other planes.

"Do you drink?"

The Station Master's voice came.

"I rarely drink."

"A local specialty."

"Hm?"

"Sprite Wine."

A can of Sprite was handed to him.

Another can was handed to Qingqing.

Chen Shu sensed the Spirit Power inside, which seemed similar to the Spirit Wine technology of Dayi Shijie, then pulled it open; with a hiss, he had already caught that refreshing and pleasant scent in that instant.

Taking a small sip, it was similar to Sprite, but also had an excellent wine flavor.

It really was similar to Spirit Wine technology.

Then they stood on the edge of the rooftop, facing the direction of the sunset, drinking wine while feeling the night breeze, quietly waiting for the arrival of nightfall.

……

Qingqing began to search for suitable planets based on Spiritual Power.

Not only does the universe emit Spiritual Power, but Planes do as well, and even every planet does; Spiritual Power contains a massive amount of information, and to a certain extent, it also describes the level of civilization, evolutionary development, and even data characteristics of this Plane or planet.

The New Saint developed a set of methods based on this to screen for civilized planets and life-bearing planets.

What Chen Shu and Ning Qing wanted to find were planets that had just developed microorganisms, simple organisms, or primitive organisms, but had not yet given birth to intelligent species; such planets were relatively easier to screen, and they would then slowly look for one among them suitable for placing the Biological Seed of the Withered Plane.

The New Saint had been here and also provided the data he had searched through before, which saved them a large amount of preliminary work, so this process was not difficult.

Once both Space-Time Items were fully charged, the two set off.

They went to explore them one by one to conduct further screening.

The planet they visited on the first stop was too barren; most of it consisted of black, bald mountains, and water resources were scarce. Although organic matter clearly existed, Chen Shu was not optimistic about its future development.

The planet they visited on the second stop already had plants, and the planet was covered in lakes, but the gravity was too high, making it unsuitable for placing the Biological Seed of that Plane.

The planet they visited on the third stop was also very barren.

The planet they visited on the fourth stop was suitable in every way, except that the surrounding space environment was too complex; there was a nearby asteroid belt, the planet was riddled with holes, and its star also looked very old, so it was unknown how many more years it could last.

The planet at the fifth stop had an adjacent black hole, and the enormous gravity caused the flow of time to be very, very slow; neither Chen Shu nor Qingqing dared to stay here for long.

The sixth stop was not bad; it even had small animals, and the Space-Time Item still had sufficient energy, so they marked it as pending and continued to look around.

……

The eleventh stop.

The two stood on a small hill, one gazing into the distance, the other looking up at the sky.

Just like every time before, arriving in a strange star field with Earth unknown how many light-years away, knowing that the two of them were the only two intelligent beings on this vast planet, a tremendous sense of loneliness rose from the bottom of their hearts, as if they were the only ones left in the entire universe, which was hard to put into words.

And this planet was quite magical; it felt like gold and diamonds could be found on any exposed mountain, while there were lush forests in the low-lying areas, some relatively primitive creatures were moving about in the forests, and animals similar to pterosaurs were flying in the sky.

The effect of Spiritual Power.

These planets had similarities in life development to Zhanzhang Planet and Dayi Planet, but neither Zhanzhang Planet nor Dayi Planet was the source; the source might be in some corner of some universe in the endless universe, and hundreds of millions of years ago, it had long been submerged at the end of the long river of time; perhaps even a perfected Space-Time Master could not explain its origin.

Chen Shu took a deep breath; like the sixth stop, the oxygen content in the air was much higher than on Earth, but it was very suitable for placing the Biological Seed of that Plane.

"Which one should I choose?"

Chen Shu looked at Ning Qing beside him.

"Either is fine."

"I also feel either is fine."

"Then it's up to you."

"Emmm……"

Chen Shu lowered his head to think slowly, while kicking a gold nugget on the ground with his foot; the gold nugget immediately detached from the mountain and went bouncing down the hill.

It made a clanging sound.

"Don't you think these different planets are amazing? Later on, we can also slowly wander between different Planes."

"Hurry up and choose."

"I'm thinking."

"Then think with focus."

"You are so boring."

"……"

Chen Shu picked up two more diamonds, one as big as an egg and one as big as a palm; he casually threw the smaller one forward, and it easily flew into the dense forest at the foot of the mountain, inciting a painful roar.

"Keep this one and take it back as a gift for the Station Master and the others; putting it on their front desk as an ornament would definitely be nice, and surely no one would dare to think it's real."

"Have you chosen yet?"

"You help me choose."

"I'm not the one who promised."

"Sigh……"

Chen Shu let out a long sigh.

It was agreed back then that they would share weal and woe and not distinguish between each other, but now she always pulled this on him.

"Let's go take another look……"

Chen Shu leaped forward lightly, his whole body as light as a feather, and he drifted straight to the edge of the dense forest ahead.

Ning Qing followed him closely.

The earth began to tremble.

First, a huge herbivore ran out from inside, followed by a predator; both ran past Chen Shu and Ning Qing, but because the two's appearances were not on its menu, and it was in the middle of a vigorous hunt for prey, it completely ignored these two strange creatures that it didn't know if it could eat or not.

But there were also those with lower intelligence, or those who wanted to drive away these two strange animals; Chen Shu gave a slap through the air, and they ran away.

Chen Shu wandered around in the dense forest, saw huge insects like small airplanes, saw strange flowers, saw glowing moss, and also saw many huge fruits; he picked a few to taste, some were poisonous, some were not……

Every time he arrived at a planet before, he would also wander around like this for half a day.

The universe is vast, and each has its own scenery and wonders.

Chen Shu looked up at the sky and made his decision:

"Let's choose the sixth one."

"Why?"

"The sixth planet has a moon, while this one does not," Chen Shu said to Ning Qing. "I find it hard to imagine how, after their civilization is reborn, they will entrust their longing during so many lonely nights without a moon."

"Let's go."

The two returned to the sixth planet.

After spending some time finding a vast plain with an excellent climate, they first released the Biological Seed.

In fact, this was a massive incubation camp covering a very vast area; it was the Biological Seed that the Withered Plane had exhausted all its strength to create, coming with a Spirit Power Defense Barrier capable of operating for thousands of years, and it could also fine-tune biological genes according to different environments to achieve stronger adaptability.

Immediately afterward, they released the Cultural Seed.

This was a giant "Totem Pole," the technology of which even Chen Shu could not fathom; it seemed to have the same effect as Spiritual Power. In short, it would influence, or rather guide, the hatched creatures to rebuild a civilization similar to that of their original Plane.

It is said that it also hides a vast amount of information, completely recounting the war and destruction of their original Plane, as well as the matter of Shengzu helping to transfer the seeds.

Perhaps after a thousand years, or ten thousand years, when the civilization of the Withered Plane has gained a new life on this planet and the newborn people have sufficient ability, they will be able to learn of their origins from this Totem Pole—this is a typical thing that has little practical significance but holds great significance in thought. In every civilization, there are always people who pursue these seemingly ethereal things, unwavering until death, and the people of the Withered Plane, even at the moment of survival, did not forget to take care of this point, probably because they did not want their descendants to find that they could not find any traces of their journey on this planet after the civilization was reborn.

Chen Shu and Ning Qing stayed here for about a month, and only after confirming that both the Biological Seed and the Cultural Seed were operating normally did the two decide to return.

And this journey was destined to be special and wonderful; whether it was the starry sky and moonlight of an alien planet, the unique creatures and landscapes, the feeling of being far away from civilization in time and space and alone in the starry sky, or the experience of personally planting the Civilization Seed, all were enough for them to remember for a lifetime and cherish until they grew old.

"I have a premonition that after we go back, those curious babies will probably pester us again to tell them about what we saw and heard on this trip."

"We can leave the coordinates for them."

"Good idea!"

The two opened the space gate again and returned to Earth.

The wonderful journey ended here.