bookcurios Chapter 1425: One step ahead
Chapter 1425: One step ahead
At a crucial juncture between Earth's orbit and the outer reaches of the solar system, we have deployed an unprecedentedly massive 'spacetime locking force field' that combines the most advanced technology of Yang Star with the energy characteristics of Earth's ley lines!
This force field is like a huge, invisible cage, completely sealing off the core region of the entire solar system, including the orbits of Earth and nearby planets!
Any information that attempts to pass through the force field and send outwards will be distorted and annihilated. Any spaceship that attempts to enter from the outside or force its way out from the inside will be subjected to indiscriminate energy annihilation by the force field!
The price was... we completely exhausted all our energy reserves, the Yangxing fleet became scrap metal floating in space, and we were trapped in this enormous cage of our own making!
A look of despair appeared on Xiao Ce's face.
"The confinement was successful. Xiao Dingshan and his remaining forces are firmly locked on Earth, unable to send any more messages into the universe."
Earth is temporarily safe, spared the fate of being divided up by hunters from all over the universe.
However... we Yangxing people have also completely lost the ability to leave.
The warship's core reactor has shut down, the stargate cannot be activated, and we are trapped in this star system that we just saved, yet which we ourselves have sealed off.
"What's worse is..."
Xiao Ce's voice lowered, filled with deep weariness and pain!
"At the critical moment of activating the 'space-time locking force field', in order to ensure the stability and coverage of the force field core, I, as the commander and the core node of the energy link, endured unimaginable energy backlash and mental shock."
My body... began to collapse at the cellular level, and my soul, like a candle flickering in the wind, could dissipate completely at any moment.
Yin Pan'er's heart clenched suddenly, and tears welled up in her eyes instantly.
"At that time, the surviving scientists of the Yangxing Fleet proposed an extremely risky, but perhaps the only way for me to 'survive'."
Xiao Ce cast his gaze toward the distant starry sky, as if recalling that difficult decision: "Star Network Hub... This core device, originally used for interstellar communication and strategic control, has a special information synchronization and consciousness carrying capacity in its underlying architecture. It is essentially a super complex 'consciousness matrix'."
They proposed to 'quantize' my shattered consciousness and memories, dividing them into multiple relatively stable information packets, and injecting them into the deep core matrix of the Star Network Hub for 'nurturing' and 'synchronization'.
This process is known as 'distracted anchoring'.
He tried his best to explain in a way that Yin Pan'er could understand:
"It's like... breaking down a lamp that's about to go out into several tiny flames, and storing them separately in a few of the strongest and most stable lamps."
In this way, each tiny flame, though weak, can remain extinguished within the powerful energy field and unique information structure of the Star Network Hub, and slowly undergo self-repair and synchronization.
As for my physical body... after the consciousness was injected, it was urgently sealed in the deepest layer of the Star Network Hub, in a 'stasis chamber' where the flow of time was almost stopped. It relied on the earth's ley line energy drawn by the Star Network Hub to maintain minimal metabolism, awaiting the consciousness to repair and merge before being reawakened.
Xiao Ce paused for a moment, seemingly sensing the real existence of his body at that moment.
"This plan is extremely risky."
Distracted consciousness can lead to personality splits, permanent memory loss, or even complete loss of consciousness in the flood of information.
Even in a stasis chamber, safety is not absolute. But at the time, it was the only way to survive.
I agree!
Before my consciousness plunged into complete darkness, I set the ultimate control and awakening key of the Star Network Hub to be triggered only by my core spiritual imprint.
At the same time, a contingency plan was also in place to ensure that the Star Network Hub, while concealed, could continuously and weakly draw energy from Earth's spiritual essence veins to maintain its own operation and monitor the confinement field and the planet's condition.
His voice carried a hint of remoteness.
"Then... came the long darkness and the wait. My fragments of consciousness drifted, repaired, and slowly synchronized within the matrix of the Star Network Hub."
Time has lost its meaning.
The outside world has undergone tremendous changes, and Earth, confined within the force field, has experienced reconstruction after the trauma of war. Various forces have emerged, and the landscape has changed dramatically...
The Eastern Federation collapsed, and the Western Federation evolved!
Although Xiao Dingshan was imprisoned, he was not idle... In order to maintain his rule and accumulate strength for a future break from his confinement, he secretly cultivated various proxies and eventually established the Xiao Kingdom...
And I, like a ghost slumbering in the core of a planet, can occasionally, through the sensory network of the Star Network Hub, vaguely 'see' the changes in this world, and sense every tiny fluctuation at the outer edge of the confinement field... until..."
Xiao Ce's gaze fell gently and deeply on Yin Pan'er's face.
"Until I came here... Pan'er, and all those unexpected encounters, ultimately guided me to be who I am now!"
They set foot once again on that island where the Star Network's core was hidden.
When I touched the core, when my spiritual imprint resonated with the fragments of consciousness nurtured over countless years within the matrix... the scattered flames finally reunited and merged into the complete me.
This sealed body was also revived by the infusion of pure energy accumulated over hundreds of years by the Star Network Hub.
A sea breeze swept by, dispersing the heaviness that had settled in the air...
Xiao Ce said that these things didn't seem so serious.
His words carried a sense of calm, as if he had already traversed countless mountains in a light boat...
Yin Pan'er was already in tears; she finally understood everything. She understood Xiao Ce's extraordinary sense of responsibility and burden, and she understood the suffocatingly terrifying truth about Xiao Dingshan!
I understand the origin of the Star Network Mechanism...
I understand the invisible cage that confines this world...
I understand even more now the miracle of Xiao Ce's struggle back from the brink of death...
She clung tightly to Xiao Ce's arm, as if to confirm his real existence, her voice thick with nasal tone and unwavering determination!
"Your Highness...no, Xiao Ce...you've suffered so much..."
None of this is your fault!
You are the guardian!
He was the one who brought the only hope in the midst of despair!
No matter what the future holds, no matter what storms may rage beyond those confines, Pan'er will always be by your side! We'll face them together!
Xiao Ce turned around and hugged her tightly, feeling her warm body temperature and unreserved trust.
Centuries of loneliness, guilt, and pain seemed to melt away somewhat in this warm embrace.
He looked up at the dazzling Milky Way, which was both the boundary of his prison and the path he had once taken home...
Now, his battlefield, his unfinished responsibilities, and the people he must protect are all on this blue planet.
"Yes, Pan'er,"
He sighed softly, his tone filled with unprecedented relief and renewed fighting spirit, and said, "I'm back. And what we need to do next is to put an end to all of this."
Open the manufacturing plant, restore our power, and then... go and end the reign of the 'Hyena' lord who has plagued the world for millennia! Fortify this protective cage, and let Earth truly possess the power to survive safely in the cosmos!
Upon hearing Xiao Ce's words, Yin Pan'er was quite certain...
"Your Highness, if you were able to defeat them once before, you can defeat them a second time..."
“You can definitely do it. You have returned from across the stars and rekindled the flame in the face of despair. This time, you can lead us to drive out these jackals who covet our homeland and eliminate them forever!”
Her trust was pure and fervent, like a warm current flowing into Xiao Ce's heart, which was slightly chilled by the heavy reality.
He tightened his arms and whispered, "Pan'er, with your words, I have a better chance of winning."
Yin Pan'er turned slightly to the side, looking up at his sharply defined face and deep eyes!
A crucial question came to mind: "By the way, Your Highness, you mentioned before that Yangxing's support fleet... When will they arrive? With their help, will we be more confident?"
She remembered that Xiao Ce had mentioned before that the Lord of Yangxing had promised to provide support.
Xiao Ce's body stiffened almost imperceptibly for a moment.
He remained silent for a moment, and even the sea breeze seemed to freeze in the brief stillness. He slowly loosened his embrace, his gaze fixed on the dark, boundless horizon where the sea and sky met, a place that seemed to conceal a suffocating danger.
"Yang Xing's support..."
His voice lowered, carrying an indescribable heaviness and self-reproach: "They...should have arrived soon."
Yin Pan'er's heart sank suddenly, and an ominous premonition came over her: "Originally?"
"Mmm." Xiao Ce's voice was filled with bitterness.
"The signal was on at first! Based on previous experience, they should have been able to arrive before we dealt with Xiao Dingshan, or at least simultaneously, to form a pincer movement against us. But..."
He took a deep breath, as if to expel the pent-up emotions in his chest!
"I was completely outmaneuvered by Xiao Dingshan... or rather, by that hyena leader."
I hadn't recovered that memory yet...
Therefore, under his influence, I shut down the Star Network Hub... During that period, all signals emitted by the Star Network Hub, including positioning beacons, assembly commands, and spatial jump coordinate synchronization... were completely interrupted.
Yin Pan'er gasped, her face turning slightly pale.
She instantly understood what this meant.
"so..."
Xiao Ce's voice was filled with deep self-mockery and frustration: "The Yangxing fleet, which should have been our greatest asset, lost the most critical guiding signal and the 'key' parameter of the spacetime locking force field of the target star system when it was about to reach the edge of the solar system and prepare for the final jump."
They were like ships adrift at sea, having lost their lighthouse, forced to repeatedly attempt to locate, calibrate, and even conduct dangerous low-speed cruise searches in the vicinity of that area... wasting extremely valuable time.
He paused, his tone becoming even more serious: "And at the same time, those damned space hyenas... their support fleet."
"Their support?" Yin Pan'er's heart jumped into her throat.
“Yes,” Xiao Ce’s eyes were sharp as a knife. “They have been lurking in the shadows, never giving up on this treasure planet. Xiao Dingshan (the Hyena Master) has been fighting me for thousands of years, and has long since used various covert methods to intermittently transmit the coordinates of the solar system and some information about the ‘spiritual essence’ mineral deposits into deep space in the form of encrypted pulses. Although the spacetime locking force field will distort and annihilate most of the signals, there are always some extremely weak and lucky ‘fish that slip through the net’ that can be caught by those hyena ‘scavengers’ who have been swimming in specific star regions. They are like sharks smelling blood, and they will quickly gather into an army and rush towards the signal source.”
He clenched his fist, his knuckles turning white from the force: "My previous estimates were too optimistic, and I underestimated Xiao Dingshan's cunning and the hyena civilization's tracking instincts. Based on the analysis of the faint anomalous gravitational fluctuations and spatial ripples detected from the edge of the force field after the Star Network Hub restarted... their support fleet, a sizable and well-equipped hyena raiding legion, has already locked onto the location of the solar system, and, taking advantage of the brief period of instability in our spacetime locking force field caused by the Star Network Hub's closure... successfully performed a precise long-distance jump! They... will arrive before Yangxing's support!"
"How much earlier?" Yin Pan'er's voice trembled slightly.
Xiao Ce's Adam's apple bobbed as he uttered the heavy answer: "At the most conservative estimate... at least six months."
"Half a year?!"
Yin Pan'er's pupils suddenly contracted.
Six months is such a short time for an impending interstellar invasion war!
Yes, six months.
Xiao Ce repeated, his voice regaining its cold calm, a sign that the general had entered a state of absolute rationality under immense pressure!
"Even... this timeframe might be shortened. And our support might be delayed..."
Space travel is full of variables, and the slightest mistake can cause the time to deviate by several years.
Perhaps their support will arrive late... all of this is unknown.
However, since we can't think about the best outcome, we can only think about the worst outcome...
Their technology is also improving.
We must prepare for the worst and make use of all the resources we have now, without any outside help!
Before they completely breach the weak points of the spacetime locking field and launch a large-scale landing, deliver a crushing blow and buy as much time as possible for the Yangxing fleet to arrive...
Looking at Xiao Ce's resolute profile, Yin Pan'er could sense the turbulent undercurrent beneath his calm tone, even though he spoke calmly.
The immense pressure, the heavy responsibility, and the vigilance against an unknown and powerful enemy. He said he "must do it," but in reality, he wasn't entirely confident.
In six months, they must integrate the remaining forces on Earth, reactivate and arm the ten major arsenals, train soldiers, and may even face a counterattack from the remnants of Xiao Dingshan's forces...
At the same time, they are fighting against a long-planned and ruthless alien plundering army.
This is almost an impossible task.
"Your Highness!!"
Yin Pan'er didn't offer any empty words of comfort, but instead held his hand tightly!