At this mont, Xiao Yu had already arrived beside this quasar. At a distance of roughly several hundred billion kiloters from the edge of the quasar, he was observing this strange thing at close range.
A distance of one hundred billion kiloters was truly nothing compared to the might of a quasar. Here, Xiao Yu detected a radiation output equivalent to that of an entire galaxy combined. Violent energy surged outward like raging waves, even shaking space itself into vibrations. Conducting curvature flight here was a highly risky matter, because space here was extrely unstable. But for Xiao Yu, it was still barely within a range he could handle.
Another enormous threat was the tidal force caused by the quasar’s imnse gravity. Xiao Yu’s warships generally had lengths asured in kiloters, so the end farther from the quasar and the end closer to the quasar were subjected to greatly different gravitational forces. That enormous tearing force was enough to rip a star to pieces. Even with Xiao Yu’s current technology, he still had to be extrely cautious when facing a quasar.
A quasar could be said to be the most violent mode of energy release in the universe. When a supernova explodes, its brightness can overwhelm an entire galaxy in an instant, while a quasar continuously maintains a radiation intensity even stronger than that of a supernova explosion.
Xiao Yu observed this little thing, which had a diater of only slightly more than one light-day, that is, a diater of roughly more than twenty billion kiloters, and his heart was filled with shock and yearning. In such an empty and boundless place, the wonder and power of the universe were displayed before Xiao Yu in such a naked manner, making him feel that he was still so tiny.
Xiao Yu saw two bands of light erupting along the poles of the central black hole inside this quasar, shooting all the way into infinite distance. Far away, this jet stream had even connected with another galaxy. The matter and energy within the jet stream were colliding violently with the matter of that other galaxy, and countless strange phenona were occurring there.
That galaxy was a full one million three hundred thousand light years away from the quasar before Xiao Yu. Yet this little thing, only one light-day in diater, could emit jets that crossed a distance of more than one million light years.
That galaxy was orbiting their common center of mass with this quasar. A dium-sized galaxy spanning more than twenty thousand light years, in terms of total mass, could not even compare with this little thing only one light-day in diater. It and this quasar ford a structure sowhat like a binary star system. At the sa ti, a large amount of its mass was continuously being stripped away and drawn into the quasar itself, forming in the universe a stream of matter similar to the Magellanic Stream.
Infinite amounts of matter were whirling madly around the massive black hole inside the quasar. Their speed was too high, they were compressed too densely by the central black hole’s gravity, and their collisions were too frequent and too violent. The level of energy they possessed simply surpassed the limits that intelligent beings could imagine. Xiao Yu even saw a dwarf planet about the size of the moon rushing toward the quasar at a speed extrely close to the speed of light. Its extrely high approach speed slightly offset the tearing of the tidal force, but it still could not escape the fate of being ripped apart. When it was still nearly one trillion kiloters away from the quasar, it had already been stretched into an elliptical shape. It passed by Xiao Yu’s fleet and slamd headlong into the quasar’s accretion disk.
The matter density in the outer regions of the quasar was still sowhat thin, but closer to the quasar, the density of matter reached an unimaginable degree. The black hole’s gravity was too great. It had already compressed them beyond their normal material state. In certain places within the huge accretion disk rotating around the black hole, the form of matter there even bore so similarity to that of a neutron star. In other words, in certain areas of the accretion disk, if one could take out one cubic centiter of that substance, it would weigh several hundred million tons.
This was an almost unimaginable form of existence. The most important thing was that although matter had beco like this, it was still rotating around the black hole at extrely high speed. It was like a bowl of clear water. If you stirred it into rotation, it would not take much effort. But if you replaced that bowl of clear water with porridge, stirring it would beco much harder. If you replaced that porridge with molten steel, stirring it would beco extrely difficult.
But… what if you replaced that bowl of molten steel with neutron star matter weighing several hundred million tons per cubic centiter? What kind of scene would it be to stir neutron star matter?
Now, the central black hole inside this quasar was doing exactly that. It was frantically stirring up neutron star matter whose total mass had to be asured in hundreds of millions of neutron stars, and devouring it wildly. Majestic and incomparable extre stellar bodies such as neutron stars and white dwarfs were things even more insignificant than ants inside a quasar.
This could no longer be described as madness. This was a miracle, the greatest and most wondrous place in the universe.
That dwarf planet dragged over by the quasar’s gravity thus crashed into the quasar at extrely high speed, colliding with the frenzied matter inside the quasar’s accretion disk. Such a collision would be enough to pierce straight through several stars, yet inside the quasar, it did not produce the slightest visible sign. The quasar was too bright, and the energy radiation too violent. A re dwarf planet truly could not stir up much here.
Such mad scenes were unfolding here every mont. And the trendous energy carried by their extrely high speeds made Xiao Yu deeply wary. Xiao Yu was not a quasar and could not ignore such powerful energy eruptions. Even Star Cluster-Class battleships would suffer a certain degree of damage if struck by such insane things.
And so Xiao Yu remained beside this quasar, quietly and cautiously observing it, watching its two enormous jets that had blasted out for a million light years, watching the high-speed, frenziedly rotating accretion disk…
“Quasars are too rare, and their rate of devouring matter is too fast. Generally speaking, quasars can hardly exist for very long. If this quasar did not have a galaxy beside it supplying it with matter, it probably would already have consud all the matter in its accretion disk and dimd long ago.” Xiao Yu silently thought to himself. “I wonder what form a quasar takes after its accretion disk disappears? Just a single gigantic black hole with a mass several tens of billions of tis that of the sun, wandering through this empty space?”
A quasar was destined to dim, because the matter available for it to devour was not infinite. Once it lost matter, the black hole’s jets, brightness, and violent energy radiation would all disappear, and it would eventually calm down. A quasar existing outside any galaxy, wandering alone through such empty space, was a scene that made Xiao Yu feel cold just imagining it.
The black holes inside quasars were too powerful, and once they lost their accretion disks they beca extraordinarily silent. They were like peerless ferocious beasts hidden within this empty and void dark space. Encountering such a black hole during a long-distance voyage through the universe was obviously not a pleasant thing.
The quasar before him, because it had a supply of matter, was still in its pri. But just how many quasar black holes that had already cald down existed in this universe, where they were wandering, and where they would move next, Xiao Yu knew nothing about any of it. But Xiao Yu knew that such things definitely existed in the universe, and their numbers might not even be small.
During the long course of travel, such abnormally massive black holes might by chance approach a galaxy. At that ti, they would be activated once again and begin another gluttonous feast. Supermassive black holes of this mass scale were devastating even to galaxies. Whichever galaxy they approached, they would absolutely not leave until they had devoured that galaxy completely.
These were true destroyers of galaxies.
If, before Xiao Yu had beco a Level 7 Civilization, the Milky Way had encountered such a black hole, then Xiao Yu, along with all civilizations living in the Milky Way, whether Sweepers or Guardians, none would have escaped, and all would have died.
At that ti, first of all, through mutual attraction with the galaxy’s central black hole, the supermassive black hole would charge straight into the galaxy. It would first rge with the galaxy’s central black hole and beco an even larger black hole, and then it would begin the process of devouring the galaxy. Of course, before that, along its path inward it would already have thoroughly disrupted the order of the galaxy, and no one knew how much matter it would already have swallowed. After rging with the galaxy’s central black hole, the change in gravity would alter the orbital paths of the stars. They would fall madly into the supermassive black hole, and this would continue until the last star, the last planet, asteroid, dwarf planet, interstellar dust, white dwarf, neutron star, and so on had all been devoured.
At that point, this supermassive black hole might perhaps let out a satisfied burp and continue on its journey.
This was a magnificent event that made Xiao Yu’s heart turn icy just thinking about it. And now it seed that the pitiful galaxy forming a binary system with this quasar probably could not escape such a fate of being devoured. If life also existed within that galaxy, then they ought to hurry and develop as quickly as possible and leave that galaxy early.
“Getting close to this thing is just too dangerous. I’d better just stay nearby and take a look.” Xiao Yu thought silently, quietly giving up the idea of entering the interior of the quasar to observe it. Xiao Yu had no chance of seeing the true appearance of the supermassive black hole inside the quasar.
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