https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-415-News-of-Black-Holes-and-Antimatter-Sources/12920196/
Chapter 416: The Antimatter Source and a Glimpse of the Dazzling Black Light
Chapter 416: The Antimatter Source and a Glimpse of the Dazzling Black Light
What is the Nebula Star Zone?
As its name suggests, it is an entire star domain filled with a large amount of unique Star Sea mist energy. This mist energy could be a remnant from the Multiverse Era or a random product of the formation of the Broken Star Sea.
However, one thing is certain—this mist energy must have an extremely strong interference magnetic field, making it difficult for creatures or starships entering it to utilize the effects of radar and other technological products, easily leading to disorientation.
Song Chi's eyes flickered with uncertainty, but he did not directly enter this Nebula Star Zone.
It wasn't that he doubted the information provided by Kendall Hawk; through the Vow Contract component, he had already verified that everything Kendall said was true.
His hesitation was whether or not to leave a spatial anchor point in place. If he did, he would have to cancel the anchor point set up in the Celestial Ruin Heaven.
The advantage of doing so was to ensure that if he got lost, he could always return to the starting point and re-explore via the Ruin Market without having to go back to the Dragon Backbone Continent.
The downside, however, was that without the spatial anchor point in the Celestial Ruin Heaven, it would be difficult to freely enter and exit the Ruin Market once it entered the mist zone. After all, if the ship outside experienced even the slightest deviation, he, as the captain, might find himself directly trapped in infinite mist after leaving the Ruin Market.
As for leaving a spatial beacon using a spatial beacon component?
That was impossible.
Due to the unique rules of the Flame Human Civilization, only spatial beacons located far beyond the Flame Human Galaxy Cluster could be activated. All spatial beacons set up within the Flame Human Civilization domain, or even within a galaxy cluster adjacent to the Flame Human Galaxy Cluster, could not be activated.
This rule was established because of a crisis that occurred during the early stages of the Flame Human Civilization.
Some Flame Captains who were stranded in alien territories were enslaved by alien civilizations. They then returned through the spatial beacons left in the Flame Human Civilization domain, and after a long period of planning, they opened an ultra-long-distance spatial teleportation channel for an advanced alien civilization. This eventually led to a large-scale invasion by the alien civilization.
During that invasion, the four great empires of the Flame Humans paid a heavy price and only narrowly achieved victory. It was at this time that the Flame Human Civilization had not yet come into contact with the Octopus Demon Civilization; otherwise, with internal and external threats, it would have been difficult to say whether the Flame Human Civilization could have survived to the present day.
It was this painful lesson that led the four great empires of the Flame Humans to unite and create this rule.
After the implementation of this rule, no such incidents occurred in the Flame Human Civilization for the next 200,000 years.
In any case, Flame Captains with the Flame Seed guarding their heart spirits had formidable mental powers, ranking among the top in the Broken Star Sea. Even if they encountered star sea aliens skilled in enslavement, bewitchment, and illusions during their exploration in alien territories, it would not be possible to completely enslave a Flame Captain within a short 24 hours.
And once 24 hours had passed, the opportunity to return to the Flame Torch Ship would be missed. Even if these aliens succeeded in enslaving the Flame Captain, they would not be able to return to the Flame Human Civilization's domain, located billions of light-years away, to plot anything.
...
"Forget it, who knows how long we'll be lingering in this mist. If we get lost, we can always return to the Dragon Backbone Continent first. After all, the linear distance from the Dragon Backbone Continent to this Chaos Star Domain is no more than 10,000 light-years, so it won't take too long..."
As Song Chi muttered to himself, his eyes became determined. The ship's engines roared, propelling the Celestial Ruin Heaven into the mist ahead.
Zzzz!
As soon as they entered the mist, a strange buzzing sound came from the side-scanning radar, causing Song Chi to furrow his brows.
The Spirit Gaze Eye, which originally had an impressive detection range, now only displayed a radar map with a diameter of a mere ten million kilometers. This distance seemed not insignificant, but in the Star Sea, compared to the Chaotic Heaven Zone with a diameter of hundreds of light-years, a ten-million-kilometer distance was negligible.
Fortunately, the "Jump Star Map Collector" feature of the Aurora Warp Device component had not malfunctioned. Now that it had been enhanced to the Fifth Rank, the range of the star map it could generate was 240 times that of the scanning radar, meaning it could reach a diameter of 2.4 billion kilometers and a radius of 1.2 billion kilometers.
Compared to the Chaotic Heaven Zone, this detection radius was still insignificant, equivalent to just two light-years. However, overall, it was still decent, preventing the Celestial Ruin Heaven from flying around aimlessly like a headless fly.
Additionally, another alarm soon sounded within the ship.
"Warning: External corrosive energy is continuously eroding the energy shield. Current energy shield value is decreasing."
Song Chi wasn't concerned about this. When the alarm sounded, the Celestial Ruin Heaven had already been in the mist for several seconds, meaning it would take 5-6 seconds to erode 1% of the Five Elements Heavenly Energy Shield's value, which did not exceed the repair speed of the "Neutron Star Core Pulse" feature.
The ship continued to glide deeper into the mist, and Song Chi instructed the Skyward Intellect to notify him immediately upon detecting high-intensity energy fluctuations.
And then, he left a "Spirit Body" clone on the warship before entering the Multiverse Marketplace.
The Nebula Star Zone was vast, and it was unknown when they would be able to locate the traces of the small black hole. Naturally, Song Chi wouldn't just sit around and wait.
After breaking through the fourth rank in Guiding Art, his cultivation progress became increasingly slow, and he had to make use of every bit of time.
At that moment, he was preparing to use the last Crimson Blood Peach.
Over the decades, the number of Crimson Blood Peaches in his possession had exceeded a hundred, and he had even given many to his parents and other third-rank elders in the Pulse Fleet.
However, despite having so many Crimson Blood Peaches, he could only use one more now, after which it would no longer have any effect on him—a great regret.
At level 47, with the all-attribute cultivation chamber, Song Chi consumed a Crimson Blood Peach and then injected a top-grade body-tempering potion.
After that, he assumed the standard Guiding Art cultivation posture and began this round of rapid cultivation.
Nearly a month later, when he emerged from the all-attribute cultivation chamber, Song Chi's Guiding Art had advanced from level 40 to level 41.
However, it must be said that this breakthrough was also a result of some luck.
In fact, after Guiding Art reached the fourth rank, the Crimson Blood Peaches that took only nine thousand years to mature no longer had much effect on him. It was only because of his good luck and the previous decade of accumulation that he was able to break through to level 41.
This time, he barely managed to break through, and it would still take a long time to reach the peak of level 41, let alone level 42. Nonetheless, Song Chi was still quite happy.
Suddenly, his eyebrows twitched, and through the Spirit Body he had left outside, he immediately received information from the outside world.
"A giant creature has been detected. Is there really a Celestial Beast in this Nebula Star Zone?"
As soon as he returned to the warship, Song Chi looked at the radar map.
Just as the Spirit Body had seen, the radar map indeed displayed the silhouette of a creature with a body length of over 200,000 meters and an extremely fast speed.
Upon seeing this, the Skyward Intellect had already activated the "Mirage" characteristic in advance.
With a body length of 200,000 meters, it was most likely a sixth-class Celestial Beast. For a Celestial Beast of this rank, the best course of action was to stay as far away as possible.
As the Celestial Ruin Heaven and the creature grew farther apart, Song Chi asked the Skyward Intellect, "Intellect, can you analyze what kind of creature it might be?"
[Command accepted. Comparing with the database...]
[Known body length exceeds 200,000 meters, lives under the mist energy, extremely fast speed...]
[Speculation 1: Celestial Beast 'Fog Shark', probability 83.5%]
[Speculation 2: Celestial Beast 'Mist Fox', probability 12.5%]
[Speculation 3: Other, probability 4%]
"Fog Shark..."
Hearing the Skyward Intellect's speculation, Song Chi's heart skipped a beat.
The Fog Shark, a Celestial Beast with a formidable reputation, was extremely belligerent and excelled in scent tracking. Even if separated by several light-years, it could detect any unusual scents in its territory and quickly initiate a pursuit.
It was only because the Celestial Ruin Heaven had an energy shield and hull armor that blocked any unusual scents, otherwise, with the previous distance, the creature would have likely discovered the existence of the Celestial Ruin Heaven long ago.
Thinking of this, Song Chi was about to enter the Ruin Market again, but the Skyward Intellect suddenly gave another prompt.
[Attention, a relatively large circular void has been detected on the warp star map, possibly caused by a black hole.]
Song Chi's body froze, and his gaze quickly turned to the entire new star map displayed by the Aurora Warp Device.
On this star map, in the very corner, there indeed appeared a corner of a circular void belt in the star sea. Although the complete shape of the void belt was not yet visible, the circular corner shown on the star map indicated that it was indeed a circular void belt.
Based on this, Song Chi controlled the warship to warp two light-minutes in the specified direction. Immediately afterward, a more expansive corner of the circular void belt appeared on the star map.
At this point, Song Chi was certain that there was indeed a circular void belt ahead, and within the deepest part of this void belt, there was a high probability of finding the small black hole.
With this speculation, he eagerly controlled the Celestial Ruin Heaven to charge into the void belt.
This void belt did not contain mist energy, and after the warship entered, the corrosion effect on the Five Elements Heavenly Energy Shield completely dissipated.
This change further confirmed Song Chi's guess.
It didn't make sense for a special area like this to exist in a star domain entirely covered by mist energy.
Unless the mist energy entering this area had been swallowed by the small black hole.
To prove this point, he continued to control the warship to move deeper into the void belt.
Initially, there weren't many changes, but as the warship ventured deeper, the surrounding devouring energy continued to intensify. On the tenth day of their rapid advance, the energy shield value of the Five Elements Heavenly Energy Shield began to decrease continuously, but fortunately, it was still within the repair speed of the "Neutron Star Core Pulse" characteristic.
On the fifteenth day, the Celestial Ruin Heaven had undergone several warp jumps, entering the inner region of the black hole's radiation zone. It was also on this day that the terrifying devouring energy from the outside world finally reached a relatively balanced state with the 'Neutron Star Core Pulse' characteristic.
In other words, if Song Chi continued to advance the Celestial Ruin Heaven, this balance would be broken, and the energy shield of the warship would gradually weaken until it eventually overloaded.
When the energy shield overloads, the subsequent direct exposure to this terrifying devouring and tearing force would be the ship's armor and body itself.
If it were before, Song Chi would have definitely hesitated, but today his attitude was exceptionally firm. The Celestial Ruin Heaven did not linger and continued to advance.
The reason was simple; a few hours ago, the Antimatter Evolution Engine component emitted a slight tremor, sensing the presence of an antimatter source not far ahead.
This alone was enough for Song Chi to never back down.
As the warship advanced, the faster its speed, the faster the shield value of the energy shield on the ship's surface decreased.
[Warning: Affected by external devouring and tearing forces, the energy shield value of the warship has decreased by 26%. Current shield value remaining: 74%.]
[Warning: Affected by... Current shield value remaining: 51%.]
[Warning: Affected by... Current shield value remaining: 18%. Please repair immediately.]
When the shield value dropped below the 20% threshold, Song Chi quickly activated the Final Sanctuary component.
Now enhanced to the Sixth Rank, each activation of the Final Sanctuary could restore 80% of the energy shield value.
Note: The light emitted by the Five Elements Heavenly Energy Shield was almost completely restored.
However, this was only temporary. The warning sounds from the Skyward Intellect continued to sound, and the shield value, which had just been almost fully restored, was rapidly diminishing again.
Looking ahead, the distance to the location sensed by the Antimatter Evolution Engine was not far.
But even with this distance of less than two kilometers, it felt extremely distant to Song Chi at this moment. He wanted to initiate a warp jump, but under this terrifying compression and tearing force, the danger of doing so was extremely high. The slightest mistake could lead to the destruction of the ship and the loss of lives.
He could only continue to control the Celestial Ruin Heaven to slowly advance.
[Warning: Affected by... Current shield value remaining: 16%. Please repair immediately.]
In a short time, the shield value of the energy shield dropped below the 20% threshold again, and Song Chi could only activate the warship's repair function for the last time, instantly restoring the energy shield value to 95%.
At the same time, he also accelerated the speed of the Celestial Ruin Heaven.
Finally, the warship arrived at the location identified by the Antimatter Evolution Engine component as the source of antimatter. It was a special energy sphere with a pitch-black color, and if not for the recognition of the Antimatter Evolution Engine, he would never have known that this was a large portion of the antimatter source.
There was no time for him to think further. The warship's hatch opened a tiny slit, and the traction beam struggled to shoot out from this narrow gap.
Even so, the indescribable compressing and tearing force from the outside world still invaded through this tiny hatch opening.
Instantly, the warning sounds from the Skyward Intellect rapidly rang out.
In just an instant, the warship's body suffered considerable damage, but Song Chi couldn't stop. Once the hatch was closed, the traction beam would become completely ineffective, and they would have to start over again.
Song Chi's face was tense, his gaze fixed on the traction beam extending from the warship. It was evident that under the extreme compressing force from the outside world, even the traction beam was greatly affected. Originally capable of functioning effectively from a distance of several hundred thousand meters, the beam was now compressed to just over a hundred meters.
For this reason, even with Song Chi's efforts to control the warship to get closer to the antimatter source, the traction was extremely difficult.
In this situation, the outer energy shield of the warship was rapidly eroding.
When the antimatter source was finally pulled into the engine compartment, the shield value of the Five Elements Heavenly Energy Shield dropped below the 20% threshold for the third time, and this time it was worse, leaving only 11%.
In response, Song Chi gritted his teeth and activated the 'Lotus Meditation Seal·Inner Speed' characteristic, allowing the Final Sanctuary component to instantly complete a cooldown for its restoration effect. Afterward, he activated this silver repair component for the third time.
Instantly, the energy shield value returned to 91%.
At the same time, the Skyward Intellect began to rapidly turn the warship's body and headed towards the outer region at full speed.
However, at this moment, Song Chi's mind was elsewhere. His gaze turned towards the deeper part of the black hole. If the previous fleeting glance hadn't been an illusion, he had just seen a fleeting black light deep within this small black hole.
Originally, within the inner region of the black hole, everything was pitch black, with no other light present. But that fleeting black light was completely different from the pitch black of the black hole itself; it was more like a luminous black, emitting a glow.
However, time was of the essence, and he couldn't afford to think too much. If they didn't leave soon, the warship's energy shield would overload.
PS: Guess what it could be?
(End of Chapter)
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