Chapter 188 The Wormhole's Other Side

The interface notification "Bold Explorer" took effect, and Han Xiao's vision once again entered a phantasm. Knowing how the skill worked, he calmed down to watch this information fragment.

Two figures appeared in the illusion, surrounded by chaotic blue-black spatial energy, as if they were in a wormhole tunnel.

The two figures were very familiar; one was his past self, and the other was the Heterogeneous God's clone. This scene stirred Han Xiao's heart.

This set of wormhole data came from the wormhole the Heterogeneous God's clone had traversed. It was from their first encounter.

The scene changed. His past self escaped the wormhole as it had originally happened, but Han Xiao's perspective remained locked on the Heterogeneous God's clone, watching him bob and weave in the spatial turbulence.

"Here it comes, here it comes." Han Xiao's spirits lifted.

He had banished the Heterogeneous God's clone back then, and he didn't know what happened afterward. It seemed that he could finally find out what the Heterogeneous God's clone had encountered on the other side of the wormhole that made him so obsessed with its coordinates.

The next moment, the Heterogeneous God's clone finally passed through the tunnel and was spat out of the wormhole, appearing in a pitch-black expanse of space.

The Heterogeneous God's clone in the image did not see Han Xiao. Realizing that he had been tricked, he seemed a little annoyed. He lingered in place for a while before suddenly starting to teleport continuously in one direction. Han Xiao's perspective followed him.

Before long, the Heterogeneous God's clone suddenly stopped. A strange planet appeared in front of him. The outer space of the planet had many wormholes, and towering plant roots stretched out from the void, connecting to the surface of the planet. Strands of energy were absorbed by the roots, as if they were siphoning the planet's nutrients.

"This is..." Han Xiao's pupils shrank, and his heart shook violently.

He never thought he would see this thing here!

Before he could think, the situation in the image suddenly changed!

A dark spatial rift suddenly appeared next to the Heterogeneous God's clone. More than a dozen slender plant roots shot out from within, entangling the Heterogeneous God's clone tightly like vines.

Just then, the illusion vanished, and the scene ended abruptly. Han Xiao's vision returned to reality.

"Damn it, why did it cut off there?"

Han Xiao almost cursed. He was concentrating, waiting to see what happened to the Heterogeneous God's clone, and it just ended like that?!

So frustrating!

Taking a deep breath, Han Xiao recalled the previous information fragment, his expression uncertain.

If this information fragment were shown to someone else, they would only find it confusing and worthless. In the entire explored universe, probably no one but himself knew what this information fragment meant.

He was probably the only one who knew what those roots were: the World Tree Civilization, which had invaded on a large scale in the late-game version of his previous life!

"The World Tree Civilization is several versions away from the present. How could they appear at this stage?" Han Xiao subconsciously bit his fingernails, his expression extremely solemn.

He finally understood. This set of wormhole data was connected to the territory of the World Tree Civilization. The Heterogeneous God's clone had coincidentally traversed to that area!

The World Tree Civilization was located in an unexplored universe, far from the explored universe. The three major civilizations and the World Tree were unaware of each other's existence. For a powerful civilization, exploring unknown regions was a necessary task, and encounters were inevitable. In the later versions of his previous life, the World Tree Civilization discovered the existence of the three major civilizations and eventually decided to launch an invasion, triggering a super-large-scale universal war that no one could escape.

But at this stage, the two sides shouldn't have any contact at all!

"If it weren't for me, the leader of DarkStar wouldn't have attacked me with the Heterogeneous God's clone, so the Heterogeneous God wouldn't have encountered the World Tree Civilization. Damn it, this is probably the biggest butterfly effect I've caused so far..."

Han Xiao's face was heavy.

The information fragment contained a large amount of intelligence.

He knew that the World Tree Civilization was a special form of civilization. The World Tree was equivalent to their universal treasure, the highest grade, and was worshiped and nourished by the entire civilization. At the same time, it brought unparalleled benefits to the entire civilization, forming a symbiotic relationship.

The World Tree was rooted in the dimensions and had a keen sense of energy. The Heterogeneous God's clone was discovered by the roots of the World Tree. Although he didn't know what happened to the Heterogeneous God's clone afterward, it was clear that the Heterogeneous God was obsessed with this set of wormhole data. He must have done something, and the two had already made contact!

"The Heterogeneous God is studying this set of data, probably to find the specific location of the World Tree Civilization. He said this is the hope for the next stage of evolution... Could this bastard have been bewitched by the World Tree Civilization and want to become a traitor?!"

Thinking of this, Han Xiao's expression changed.

If the World Tree Civilization discovered the location of the three major civilizations in advance due to the visit of the Heterogeneous God's clone, then the invasion of the World Tree Civilization was likely to break out ahead of schedule, which would be a disaster for the entire explored universe!

When the nest is overturned, no egg remains unbroken. If the war of the World Tree Civilization broke out in advance, then the familiar plot development would be completely subverted, the advantage of foresight would be greatly reduced, and he would lose the time to accumulate his own strength.

Although he already possessed Super A-grade strength, even Super A-grades could not guarantee their survival in this super-large-scale interstellar war comparable to the Exploration Era.

After all, too many Super A-grades died in this war in his previous life.

"Fortunately, it was just a clone of the Heterogeneous God. With his personality, he may not reveal everything to outsiders..."

This guy wanted to find the location of the World Tree Civilization, rather than waiting for the World Tree Civilization to arrive, proving that the Heterogeneous God might not have revealed the information of the explored universe.

Now, Han Xiao could only pray that the Heterogeneous God hadn't told the World Tree Civilization about the existence of the three major civilizations.

However, if the Heterogeneous God continued to study this set of data, he would eventually achieve results and drag everyone into the flames of war, and no one would be able to stay out of it.

This was a time bomb that could not be ignored!

"I can't let him continue to study it..." Han Xiao gritted his teeth.

So far, he had only fought the Heterogeneous God twice. Although they were enemies, he knew that he couldn't do anything to the Heterogeneous God for the time being.

But today, Han Xiao felt an urgent killing intent toward the Heterogeneous God for the first time, wishing he could get rid of him immediately!

"The Heterogeneous God can survive in the cracks between the three major civilizations. It's probably useless for me to ask for the Empire's assistance, and I don't have any evidence to prove the existence of the World Tree Civilization. The Empire won't be determined to eliminate the Heterogeneous God..."

[Bold Explorer] could only work on himself and could not be shared with others. Even if he told the Empire, the Empire wouldn't believe in the existence of the World Tree Civilization. The only way to make the Empire believe was to interrogate the Heterogeneous God, this living witness.

However, to interrogate him, he had to catch him first, or the Heterogeneous God wouldn't reveal anything voluntarily.

"The Heterogeneous God deliberately told me about the anomaly of that set of data, wanting to use me to indirectly borrow the Empire's technology to complete the research on the data. No matter who finds the area where the World Tree Civilization is located first, it's a good thing for him... But since it's exploitation, the Heterogeneous God obviously won't actively reveal what he's seen and heard."

Han Xiao frowned. He found that he couldn't rely on much external help in this matter.

Unless... the Empire also researched the data and discovered the World Tree Civilization without being noticed by the other side. Then, in order to keep the existence of the entire explored universe a secret, the Empire would have a strong need to eliminate the Heterogeneous God.

"Difficult. The conditions are too harsh. Although the Empire has the experience of Exploration Era wars and knows how to hide itself from strange existences, now that there is Order, the Empire may also take the initiative to contact the other side." Han Xiao shook his head helplessly. If he had known that this set of wormhole data led to the World Tree Civilization, he wouldn't have handed it over to the Empire for research. There were too many uncontrollable factors. Once something went wrong, the universal war that would only appear in the later versions might break out ahead of schedule.

Now, only I know about this matter. It's too difficult to handle this matter properly by myself... Han Xiao felt heavy-hearted.

"Dealing with the Heterogeneous God needs to be put on the agenda. My current strength is not enough to fight the Heterogeneous God alone... Alas, the experience penalty period is so long..."

Han Xiao looked helpless.

...

After staying on Beacon Star for more than half a month, several new exploration teams from afar finally arrived in the Flickering World and reached Beacon Star.

Tarrokov received the leaders of these exploration teams at the base, and Han Xiao came over to join in the fun, meet the members of the second batch of exploration teams, and planned to make some new friends.

In the conference room, everyone filed in and saw Tarrokov waiting there at a glance. Then, everyone's eyes turned to Han Xiao beside him.

"Hello, Commander Tarrokov, hello, Your Excellency Black Star."

The commanders of the Star Cluster Civilization exploration teams present were no strangers to this new ally of the Empire who had mastered the Evolution Cube. They all cast curious gazes, and Han Xiao nodded with a smile.

"Haha, we meet again." Beyoni laughed and said hello, "I heard that the Arcane Church is going to attack you. It seems you need my help."

Before he could finish speaking, someone suddenly interjected and said, "It's 'our' help."

Han Xiao turned his head to look at this person. He saw a glowing energy body with fiery-red light flowing all over his body. His structure was that of a humanoid creature. He had no mouth or nose on his face, only a pair of bright golden dragon eyes.

"You are..." Han Xiao was stunned and didn't recognize him.

"Milizaus," the energy body said lightly. "Don't be surprised, this is just a mana avatar. My main body hasn't landed."

Han Xiao suddenly understood and shook hands with the mana avatar. "It's an honor to meet you, King of the Dragonblood Country, Patriarch of the Star Dragon Race."

At the same time, he secretly entered the quantum network vision and looked toward the outer space of Beacon Star through the base's monitors.

A giant dragon the size of a main ship was soaring in the outer space of the planet. The dragon's head was drooping with a gray beard, and its body was covered with diamond-shaped dragon scales, the smallest of which were several meters long. The giant dragon was covered in silver, purple, and cyan colors, as if there were bright stars rolling in the gaps between the dragon scales. Although its size was extremely large, it looked streamlined and agile.

This was a Star Dragon. Even among its race, such a size was extremely astonishing, and this was Milizaus's main body. He was a non-humanoid intelligent creature.

The Star Dragons were a Super A-grade legacy race. They were a bloodline branch left behind by a Magic Blue Dragon who had once broken through the limit and reached Super A-grade. They were born with powerful magical talent. Although their reproductive ability was not high, adult Star Dragons could reach at least Grade B combat power, and the proportion of Calamity Grades in the race was relatively high.

Milizaus was the second Super A-grade born in this legacy race, a unique dragon mage who possessed the characteristics of both a normal mage and a magical circuit mage. He could learn all kinds of spells, but when using the dragon's inherited spells, the power would be greatly increased. Currently, Milizaus was the leader of the entire legacy race, similar to the identity of Mannison, the leader of the Mechanical Race.

Moreover, due to the dragon race's strong survivability, Milizaus was also a member of the Ancient Ones Club. He was the other Ancient One among the Crimson Empire's allies besides Ravenlaude.

However, the Ancient Ones were a loose alliance, and his position was different from Ravenlaude's. They even had a bad relationship to some extent. Ravenlaude was also a mage, and the two had differences in their magic concepts.

Obviously, Milizaus had become a new species and was no longer a pure Star Dragon. Due to his large size, he generally used mana avatars to communicate with others.

"I've heard of your name for a long time, Undying Black Star." Milizaus's voice was hoarse and vicissitudinous, but his personality was very cheerful, not as aloof as Clotti—mainly because everyone was Super A-grade, and only those at the same level could communicate equally.

"With me here, you don't have to worry about the Arcane Church. Maybe when they see I'm here, they won't dare to attack."

"Haha, then I have to prepare the Evolution Cube for you in advance." Han Xiao laughed and suddenly rolled his eyes. "By the way, are you interested in doing another deal with me, still about the Evolution Cube?"

"Oh?" Milizaus was interested. "You know me very well. Okay, let's talk about it after the meeting."

Ravenlaude glanced at Han Xiao, his expression playful. He nodded to Han Xiao as a greeting and sat down with everyone without saying anything.

Because of Izo, Ravenlaude didn't want to get too close to Black Star. As a mage, he wasn't very enthusiastic about the Evolution Cube, and both of them were exploring the Goru Star Cluster, so there was a competitive relationship. Ravenlaude didn't intend to let their nodding acquaintance develop further—he wasn't someone who liked to engage in personal relationships.