In truth, Xiao Yu did not have the slightest bit of certainty at this moment. After all, he had no evidence whatsoever to prove his own speculation. The real reason he chose to speak these things out loud was mainly to ‘probe it’ and see how it would react.
Xiao Yu waited for its reply.
The unknown existence remained silent all along. After a while, Xiao Yu heard a faint, drawn-out sigh.
“The future you had already considered this possibility. In my reserved program, if I encounter such a situation, I should do this… Then, farewell. Whether you believe me or not is for you to decide.”
This was its final message.
After receiving it, Xiao Yu witnessed an astonishing scene.
The silver-gray small spaceship suddenly vanished without a trace. At the same time, Xiao Yu detected a faint fluctuation of tachyons. Xiao Yu knew very well what this meant.
That ship carried a sufficient amount of negative matter tachyons. Now, these tachyons had been released, and the negative matter and positive matter annihilated each other, both vanishing from the observable universe.
This was the most straightforward method of destruction. Just like that, it erased all traces of itself from the visible universe, leaving Xiao Yu only with question after question and countless doubts.
Xiao Yu had never anticipated such an outcome. In his expectations, after he uttered the words that it was Taihao, its reaction should have been either to defend itself, presenting new evidence to prove it had been sent by his future self, or to frankly admit it. Yet… after leaving this one message, it neither defended nor admitted, simply destroying itself so decisively. What was the meaning of that?“So… should I believe it or not?” Xiao Yu was at a loss.
“Either believe it completely, or don’t believe it at all. I can only choose between the two, without any room for wavering. Now I must make my decision.” Xiao Yu pondered quietly, gradually firming his resolve.
“Perhaps this was just another one of your clever psychological tactics. You must have understood that, once I made this speculation, any words of defense would only deepen my suspicion. So you chose not to defend yourself at all, and simply destroyed yourself. I choose… not to believe you. I will continue along my own path. After all, raising intelligent beings like this will, in the foreseeable future, certainly bring me considerable profit. As for the risks you spoke of, I believe I will ultimately find a way to resolve them.”
“Resistance comes from oppression. I believe I already treat these intelligent beings well enough. Moreover, the relationship between us is not a simple superior-subordinate relationship. We are more like a community of shared interests, when I profit, they profit. An alliance of interests is more solid than an alliance of emotions. As long as this state continues for one more day, they will remain loyal to me for one more day.”
“Damned fellow, so utterly baffling.” Xiao Yu cursed fiercely in his heart, deciding never to think of the matter again. Everything would proceed as before, business as usual. But his thoughts would not obey his will, and Xiao Yu ended up thinking about many things.
“If my speculation is correct, then what role exactly did the Taihao Civilization play in these events? If all of this was done intentionally, then what exactly do the 90s Model Spaceship and Zhang Shengya mean? What do they want to obtain? If they have been monitoring me since the Earth era, then…”
Xiao Yu thought of a possibility, one that instantly set his heart ablaze.
“Chen Mo… They know of Chen Mo’s existence. They also know how I feel about Chen Mo. Then, is there such a possibility… If they have a request of me, if they want to obtain something from me, could it be that they have already abducted Chen Mo in advance? After all, to me, Chen Mo is an extremely important person. Is it possible that before Earth’s destruction, they captured Chen Mo and kept her well protected, perhaps even preserved Chen Mo’s life through cryostasis, only to wait for some day in the future to use Chen Mo to exchange for something from me?”
“Very possible, very possible.” Xiao Yu speculated silently. “Besides Chen Mo, there is another very important thing. If my speculation is correct, and they truly are that Taihao Civilization hidden in the shadows, then I have noticed something, in these three incidents, these three times they attempted to make me abandon the practice of raising intelligent beings, they always chose to act covertly rather than appear directly. Then is it possible they too are under some kind of restriction, unable to interfere with my actions directly? Even when my development path has clearly deviated from the track they set for me, they still choose such secretive methods to influence me.”
“Quite possible indeed…” Xiao Yu let out a slight sigh. “I really have no idea what kind of secret lies behind Earth’s destruction and my birth. But since they cannot interfere with me directly, that is greatly in my favor. I have decided, I will continue advancing along my current development model.”
Once he made this decision, Xiao Yu’s mood suddenly felt lighter.
There were still about 140 years left until the scheduled time. In other words, after developing for another 140 years, Xiao Yu would set out to find the Molian Civilization, destroy it, and obtain the complete Level 5 Civilization technology tree. The Level 5 technology tree would fully make up for his technological shortcomings and be of immense benefit in laying a solid scientific foundation. The stronger the foundation, the more advantageous future development would be, this was a very simple truth.
The star system was as busy as ever. This sudden incident had affected only Xiao Yu himself; no one else in the fleet knew of it, nor did Xiao Yu intend to tell them. The delegation of civil affairs continued. Large numbers of food factories, clothing factories, toy factories, office supply production bases, and other facilities related to the daily needs of intelligent beings were returned to their own control. Large numbers of robots were withdrawn and replaced with manual production. Of course, Xiao Yu’s withdrawal was by no means complete, in fact, his covert control over these places had not weakened, but rather increased by several dozen percentage points. Xiao Yu had to ensure that whenever he needed, he could instantly take control of these places.
Starships suitable for intelligent beings to pilot were also being produced one after another. Xiao Yu had newly built a Nation-Class warship, the Heaven’s Kingdom, as the flagship of the intelligent beings’ military forces. In addition, there were twenty Province-Class ships, over three hundred City-Class ships, and the corresponding County, Town, and Village-Class vessels to go with them, totaling around five hundred thousand ships. Piloting these ships would require roughly one hundred million soldiers. Including corresponding logistics personnel, special operations forces, boarding troops, and so on, the total military strength would remain around two hundred million.
At present, more than three million intelligent beings had completed military training and become qualified soldiers. They had already been assigned to their respective ships and begun active service. Over the next 140-plus years, this number would continue to expand until it met Xiao Yu’s standards.
Although Xiao Yu had decided to ignore the strange ship’s message, the information it conveyed still had a significant psychological impact on him. Xiao Yu resolved to covertly increase his monitoring of all intelligent beings, especially the roughly five hundred thousand combat starships, which were a top priority for surveillance.
Although in wartime simulations these ships might be more than twenty light-years away and thus beyond his direct control, Xiao Yu had ensured, through pre-installed backdoors, that no matter how far they strayed or for how long, the moment they received his message, they would immediately return to his control. Xiao Yu believed that with such measures, the risks could be minimized.
Time passed slowly. A span of over 140 years was but the blink of an eye to Xiao Yu. During this period, all matters proceeded smoothly.
Through cycles of elimination and replenishment, the military gradually expanded to two hundred million personnel. The genetic modification project for the Dwarf Race was successfully completed.
Now the Dwarf Race had finally reached the same level as the Luka Race. Dwarf scientists began to appear and gradually secured significant seats in Xiao Yu’s Scientific Assembly, contributing to technological progress.
All construction tasks were successfully completed, four Nation-Class ships were equipped with space weapons, and all ships were outfitted with shipborne negative matter cannons, granting them the ability to fight even at Faster-Than-Light speeds. The total number of ships in the fleet grew to 4.5 million.
“Let us begin our journey. I know that in your hearts there burns a fire of rage. Now… the time for that rage has come.”
“Except for the Luka Race and the Dwarf Race, all other races have had contact with the Molian Civilization. I believe that quite a number of you still remember the days when you were detained by the Molian Civilization and sold off like merchandise at will. Now, the day of vengeance has come.”
“Defeat the Molian Civilization! Wash away the humiliation they once gave us with their blood and death! Let them know that anyone who dares to offend our Divine Ark Civilization, no matter how much time has passed, no matter how far the distance, we will find them and deliver to them a blow of utter destruction!”
“By my order, fleet, set out! Seek out the Molian Civilization and annihilate them! First target, Azure Market!”