Once the relocation was complete, this life-bearing planet would lose its dominant intelligent species. It would be reclaid by all manner of wild creatures. The once-thriving cities would, as ti passed, gradually fall into ruin. Tall buildings would beco supports for climbing vines, their interiors turned into nests for animals. The elaborate underground transit networks would slowly transform into subterranean rivers. Plants would be the vanguard of nature’s advance on the cities. As the greenery spread, herbivores would follow, and the arrival of herbivores would in turn attract predators. In the end, the cities would beco a paradise belonging to them alone.
From this perspective, the Dwarf Race seed more like a brief passerby in this planet’s billions of years of existence rather than its true master.
Of course, among the forty billion Dwarves, there were always so who refused to move aboard the starships. According to Xiao Yu’s statistics, about 800,000 fell into this group. Toward them, Xiao Yu did not apply any coercion. After all, with so few individuals, treating them well would bring him very tangible benefits.
For this reason, Xiao Yu built them a complete living environnt, left behind large numbers of intelligent robots, and installed self-repairing energy systems. But with only these 800,000, it was impossible to fully sustain their civilization. They had already lost the capacity to create a flourishing culture. In Xiao Yu’s estimation, after several generations, their descendants would gradually lose all knowledge of technology and beco parasites who could survive only by depending on the robots. Once the intelligent robot systems Xiao Yu left behind eventually degraded and beca unusable, they would return to a primitive state. Without Xiao Yu’s genetic optimization, their intelligence and physical capabilities would also gradually decline back to normal levels.
Perhaps, over ti, they would slowly recover and redevelop, repeating the feudal era and the capitalist era, and eventually give rise to civilization again. But who could say how many tens of thousands of years that would take? One thing was certain: during that process, the many buildings left behind by their once-glorious civilization would remain a great unsolved mystery in their world. It was impossible to know whether they would ever realize that their planet had once been ho to a civilization with a total population of forty billion, and that this civilization had been entirely packed up and carried away by another, far mightier one.
This was a rise and fall on a planetary scale, an epic in its own right. Perhaps, many years from now, Xiao Yu would grow interested again, return to this world, and see what had beco of that little seed of civilization.
That was a matter for the future.
At present, Xiao Yu had just concluded the massive relocation effort that had taken three months. A total of forty Ho starships were now occupied by the Dwarves. These newly arrived Dwarves were in the midst of an initial period of excitent, every sight and object sparked their curiosity, making them as ecstatic as an old lady from the countryside stepping into a grand garden for the first ti.
“It’s ti to depart.”
Xiao Yu perford one final inspection of all his ships. His imnse computational power swept over every vessel, scanning them thoroughly. He cross-checked the inventory of supplies one last ti. Once he was certain nothing had been overlooked, he issued the departure order.
The industrial bases on the moon, in the asteroid belt, and on the gas giant’s moons would be abandoned. Given the varying environnts, so of these installations would remain intact for decades, while others might endure for several million years. These industrial bases had witnessed the prosperity of this star system and would also witness its desolation. Perhaps tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years later, Dwarves who had redeveloped a brilliant civilization would don heavy space suits, board rudintary spacecraft, and once again arrive to visit these sites.
Xiao Yu thought, when they first laid eyes upon these vast, intricate industrial bases, his most advanced technological creations, those Dwarf astronauts would surely wear expressions of shock and disbelief.
“The things I leave behind here might point you in a direction for your technological progress. Though…the gap between a Level 5 Civilization and a Level 2 Civilization is far too great. Whether you can comprehend these creations, I cannot say.” Xiao Yu reflected silently. “In any case, I wish you good fortune. If fate allows, perhaps I will return here again soday.”
The colossal residential starships, material transport ships, and warships, a total of three million vessels, rose together into the dark, empty void of space.
The conventional propulsion systems activated. The booster engines erupted with brilliant blue flas. Hundreds of millions of blazing exhaust plus ignited at once, bathing that patch of space in a deep azure glow.
A single ship could not be powered by just one engine. The larger the vessel, the more engines it required. Each set in a different position to serve different functions, maneuvering, accelerating, or auxiliary thrust. Another important reason for this arrangent was to ensure the forces were evenly distributed. Xiao Yu had no intention of seeing any of his ships crushed under the stress of their own propulsion.
Xiao Yu’s first Province-Class warship, the Hebei, had already been equipped with more than ten thousand engines. Now, whether it was the Ho-class ships or the China, each vessel started at a million engines apiece. Under Xiao Yu’s control, these engines worked together in precise coordination, enabling each colossal ship to perform all manner of agile maneuvers in space.
Three million ships were arrayed in an elaborate formation, organized into different fleets. The Ho starships, without question, had to be the most heavily protected, for they held all of Xiao Yu’s intelligent civilizations as well as his entire stockpile of resources. If he lost these, it would be a catastrophe.
The Luka Civilization and more than one hundred other civilizations that had long ago pledged allegiance to Xiao Yu had also now moved aboard the Ho starships. Within these ships, they enjoyed even better living conditions.
Their numbers were very small, so they occupied only a single Ho starship. This one vessel was also the most critical of all, Xiao Yu would rather lose every single Dwarf than allow any mishap to befall this ship. Consequently, it was afforded the tightest protection of all.
In fact, more than one million warships and five Nation-Class ship squadrons were guarding the 150 Ho starships. The remaining two million ships were divided into ten Nation-Class squadrons of varying strength, among which the China’s squadron was by far the most formidable.
This was Xiao Yu’s total power. Xiao Yu believed that he had now officially stepped across the threshold into Level 5 Civilization status and had truly beco a Level 5 Civilization. He finally possessed the strength and qualifications to confront the Molian Civilization. If he ever encountered a Molian fleet again, Xiao Yu wouldn’t mind showing them exactly what he was capable of.
The colossal fleet began slowly heading toward the star system’s primary star. After passing close to this star, Xiao Yu’s fleet would sail into the boundless, pitch-black void of the universe. Of course, this was all just for show, if, after a year of curvature flight, there was still no sign of activity at the site suspected to hold the Trolor Civilization’s relics, Xiao Yu would turn back and go see it for himself.
“Hm? That damned thing is following again? It stayed quiet for three hundred years, and now it pops up? Hmph. My strength is nothing like before. If you dare provoke , I’ll kill you and use your corpse for raw materials.” Xiao Yu gave a cold laugh in his heart and did not pay the creature any further attention.
The vast fleet continued to accelerate. At this mont, their velocity had already reached about twenty thousand kiloters per second. Under such relativistic conditions, the star’s color first shifted bluer, then gradually began turning red. The boundary point between these two color shifts was precisely when Xiao Yu passed closest to the star. He knew this was the blue shift and red shift effect.
Inside the Ho starships, countless Dwarves watched this process unfold via live video broadcasts, sighing with emotion. After all, this was their holand. Once they left it, it was almost certain they would never return in their lifetis.
A feeling of lancholy began to spread. But once they were far enough that the star could no longer be seen with the naked eye, the sadness dissipated. The novelty and excitent of a new life quickly replaced those emotions, and Dwarf society once again entered a state of vigorous renewal.
The gravitational influence of this red dwarf extended roughly five billion kiloters. Xiao Yu spent three days crossing that distance, then shut down the conventional engines and activated the gravity engines, once more entering curvature flight.
The mont they entered curvature flight, the entire fleet vanished from the visible universe. No visible light could be received or emitted. But thanks to tachyon detection technology, Xiao Yu could still communicate freely with the outside world. Xiao Yu believed that if, as a Level 6 Civilization, there really was an entity hidden in that ruin that wanted to send him any ssage, it would certainly have a way to do so.
Throughout the long voyage, Xiao Yu kept a constant watch on that ruin. If there had been the slightest unusual movent, he would have abandoned any greedy ambitions without hesitation, fleeing imdiately. In that case, what had begun as an exploratory departure would have turned into a genuine retreat.
What gave Xiao Yu so satisfaction was that, during his ‘escape,’ the ruin remained utterly silent. It seed there truly was no hostile presence there at all.
The planned one-year flight period had ended. Xiao Yu had traveled nearly ten light-years. During that entire year, everything there stayed completely calm.
“All right, it seems that place really is nothing more than a relic. In that case… I’ll go take a look and try to claim the Trolor legacy for myself.”
Having made up his mind, Xiao Yu directed his vast fleet to quickly change course, turning back toward the ruin.
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