Chapter 442: Chapter 442 Mother Star

“Wow, Ah Jun, Ah Jun! Is this planet really your mother planet? It’s so beautiful!!”

This dramatic and startling way of speaking could only belong to Qianqian.

It seemed that ever since the mother planet had finished teleporting, this girl had been in a state of excitement. While we were busy reactivating various buildings on the mother planet that had been temporarily shut down for the teleportation, she took a shuttle and circled this planet, almost twice the size of Earth, at such a high speed–only a time-mastering superwoman like Qianqian could manage such serious observation while exploring the whole planet at that speed…

We landed the Glory Starship in the northern hemisphere of the mother planet where there was a vast plain next to the capital of the mother planet. The Glory Starship reassembled into General City here, transforming into a satellite city for the nearby steel metropolis. We, including Qianqian who had just returned from a world tour and was still buzzing with excitement, boarded the transport shuttle headed for the capital city that looked like a giant eye from high above.

“Ah Jun, Ah Jun!! The atmosphere of this planet is just like Earth’s!”

Even after returning to the ground, Qianqian maintained her excited state, incessantly sharing her discoveries with me.

“I get it…”

I responded absently, my focus outside the porthole. This was the world from my dreams… I never imagined that I would actually be standing here one day. Everything was exactly as I had seen in my dreams–the lush distant mountains, the forests, the mysterious buildings wandering within them emitting blue halos, floating in the upper atmosphere, just barely visible like hazy ghostly islands in the sky. These were all so familiar, yet seeing them in person felt somehow different. The sky was clear and glossy, clouds thin as veils draped over distant mountains. The only difference from my dreams was the absence of those massive celestial fortresses that had nearly scared me to death.

Now, I knew that the reason the Triple Star System was so close to the mother planet, even encroaching near its orbit, was completely my own doing: it was a phase when my spiritual power mutation was stabilizing. According to Taville’s analysis, that dream was likely a projection of my freely dispersing mutated spiritual energy on the surface of the mother planet, much like an information projection between worlds, only bidirectional. The dream in my mind was a projection of the mother planet’s information, and my spiritual energy formed a ghostly apparition on the surface–basically, I had entered the Emergence Stage back then. Ahem, that’s not really celebrated here, right?

Anyway, since the mother planet had been dormant for tens of thousands of years, a sudden appearance of an Emperor-level information assembly had partially activated the three Glory Starships stationed in outer space, in standby mode. Those starships inadvertently acted on a primal instinct to approach this point of information…

It was like when Pandora would sleepwalk into my room, or when Alaya, deep asleep, would sometimes fall out of my Spirit Sea and decisively wrap me up with her wings. These were all instinctive reactions–but having two cute girls lean towards you is completely different from having two planet battleships doing the same, damn it!

“It doesn’t matter. The gravitational alarm system of the Glory Starships is always on standby. If they’re too close to the mother planet, they naturally move away,” Lilina said nonchalantly. Pfft, I’d like to see you remain calm if you saw an entire sky of steel bearing down on you!

In the end, as Gaia explained the situation along the way and Taville, the super-genius, scientifically analyzed the principles for me, many of the issues that had long troubled me gradually became simpler.

“Ah Jun, Ah Jun! The gravity here seems the same as on Earth too! Even though it’s such a big planet…”

Qianqian quieted down for a few seconds before excitedly sharing yet another grand discovery.

“Fine, fine, the gravity here is the same as on Earth.”

I’ve always been helpless against Qianqian’s bursting energy and could only casually respond before continuing my discussion with Gaia about the Mother Star.

“This planet is entirely artificial,” Gaia said with evident pride. “Every part of it, from the core to the mantle, from the atmosphere to the oceans, was artificially created. This kind of custom planet construction was quite common in the glorious days of the Empire because natural planets often couldn’t fully meet development needs, and while custom planets were more expensive, they could perfectly fit our development plans. This planet was originally designed as a capital star. It is of medium size, capable of accommodating all the spatial needs necessary to set up the imperial capital. Its interior has an independently-operating gravitational core, capable of freely adjusting the planet’s surface gravity from zero to ten Gs. Furthermore, this adjustment can be applied not only to the entire planet but also to individual small regions. This feature is to facilitate some giant spaceships landing and refueling, effectively minimizing the vibrations produced during such giant spaceships’ landings (at this point, Lilina let out a long sigh and cursed, ‘Damn parvenus.’). Outside the Mother Star’s atmosphere is an ever-active planet fortress-level shield; the outer layer of this shield is a ghost energy barrier meant for defense, and the inner layer is part of the atmospheric control system. The sky we see now is actually the result of this shield’s effect, ensuring that the Mother Star still has orderly day and night cycles and seasons without a constant star. The ecological model of the planet is a typical carbon-based ecosystem. Although we always believe carbon-based life is quite fragile, its diversity and vitality are much appreciated by the Xyrin Apostles. Moreover, from what we have explored, carbon-based life is the most common form of life across the multiverse. Using a carbon-based ecological circle to decorate one’s planet is quite popular in many parts of the Empire.”

Sandora immediately showed an interested expression, came over, and hugged my neck, saying, “Um, Ah Jun, was that the trend back then? At that time, my mother star was into the steel theme, and those artists twisted the entire planet into something like a hedgehog.”

This… honey, not to mention me, even humans hadn’t been born yet.

But then again, the way Sandora and Gaia discuss what ecosystems are trendy on planet, it sounds like they’re discussing the latest trendy handbags… Why do I feel so out of the mainstream about this?

Now I finally know why there is no constant star here, yet the surface of the Mother Star looks sunny. It turns out this entire planet is under artificial control, capable of controlling the weather by human power–something Earth scientists have dreamt of for years, even gradually deeming it a delusion. But for Gaia, it seems as simple as adjusting the brightness of a desk lamp–even more than that. For the Xyrin Apostles, things like weather are utterly meaningless. Controlling the planet’s climate is solely to ensure the survival of the ecosystem here as a decoration, meaning that a weather controller, which appears only in sci-fi novels in the human world, is just an automatic irrigation system in the hands of the Xyrin Apostles…

When Gaia was wrapping up the current situation of the Mother Star, Qianqian, who had been quiet for a while, got excited again–not that she ever really stopped being excited. She was nearly pressed against the window, her voice full of longing, “Ah Jun, Ah Jun! Let’s build a house here!”

I had given up trying to understand this girl’s way of thinking long ago, but now I still have to complain: How on Earth did we jump to this topic, girl?!

“Wouldn’t that be nice? Ah Jun, Ah Jun! Let’s build a house here! This land all belongs to us; we could build a really big house here! A three-bedroom and one-hall with fine decorations~~~”

…Didn’t this girl realize that our property is already enough for seventy billion people on Earth to migrate to space? Any spaceship we hand could be made into a royal palace, silly!

“Ah Jun,” Sandora’s face was also bewildered for a while before she secretly came over and whispered, “Doesn’t Qianqian think it’s not a house unless it’s a three-bedroom and one-hall?”

I: “…”

Is that so? Did all the emperors throughout history appear homeless in Qianqian’s eyes–because they never lived in a three-bedroom, one-hall?

I couldn’t help but laugh and cry as I pulled Qianqian away from the window, forcibly putting this childlike girlfriend back in her seat, “Alright, alright, don’t you think you’re a bit too obsessed with three-bedroom, one-halls? The entire Shadow City is our imperial palace, and you’re still not satisfied?”

“It’s different!” Qianqian defended robustly. “No matter how big it is there, even a real palace doesn’t matter! A real home only needs a three-bedroom and one-hall where everyone can be together!”

I was stunned for a moment, but a faint smile gradually spread across my lips.

This was truly… a Qianqian-style innocence. So, what this girl truly wanted was a big house where everyone could live happily together? I remember having such a wish myself back in sixth grade but had since forgotten it…

However, I shamefully discovered that even such a simple wish was a luxury for us.

For the first time in my life, I eagerly yearned to eliminate all the Fallen Apostles and Abyss Power as soon as possible.

“This is the location of the Command Center of the Mother Star,” without realizing it, the transport we were on had already arrived at the “capital” of the Mother Star. Gaia opened the doors of the transport and explained, “This is the above-ground part of the Command Center, and its lower levels extend close to the mantle. Although the Imperial special defense system is extremely strong and no longer relies on the planet’s crust to enhance the security level of the control center, it has become a habit to establish copies of critical departments underground–of course, its underground part has never been used.”

That was, I reckoned, no race could be crafty enough to reach the extent of striking at the Imperial Mother Star.

In front of us was a massive pyramid-like structure. I say pyramid-like rather than pyramid-shaped because the structure was exceedingly complex. It seemed to be composed of numerous functional modules, a large number of energy spires, and purpose-unknown polyhedra forming a group close to the pyramid shape. It was like smashing a bunch of Gothic cathedrals and Egyptian palaces together into a strange combination. The scale was incredibly vast; I guessed the building’s side length might have surpassed twenty kilometers, and as for its height… well, it seemed immeasurable.

Its upper half was continuously transforming!

It was a collection of gigantic geometric bodies emitting a faint blue-white glow. The majority were slender cones and polyhedra randomly combining, growing or splitting, akin to abstract art freely sketched in the sky. These objects seemed to have fully reflective surfaces, and I could vaguely see the clear projections of distant mountains and the sky on their surfaces. These transforming geometric bodies moved without any apparent pattern, and just watching them for a while made me feel dizzy.

Honestly, it was the strangest building I had ever seen–Xyrin constructions looked bizarre to me too, despite their thick Sci-Fi feel and a solid, powerful beauty, it did not stop me from categorizing those buildings as odd. But the building complex in front of me was absolutely even more abstract than those weird constructions!

“Is this the control core of the planet?” I stood with Qianqian and the others under this unprecedentedly huge fortress, looking up in surprise at its continuously transforming upper layer, “Really… strange.”

“It’s so tall,” Dingdang perched on top of my head, also looked up and exclaimed, “The temples in the Divine Realm are this tall too!”

As for Pandora and Visca, standing beside me, both little ones kept their heads down in silence–speaking of which, are you two harboring such a grudge about your own height that it makes you antagonistic toward a tall building? At least, Pandora, show some joy of a traveler finally returning home!

“Speaking of which, Gaia,” I suddenly remembered something, “where are you now?”

“Eh?” The blue glowing body exclaimed in surprise, as if completely not understanding my words.

“Aren’t you a mass projection now?” I asked curiously, pointing at Gaia’s body that kept emitting a faint blue light. This body not only exhibited a translucent and ghostly state like Anwina but also occasionally shook as if disturbed, just like Taville’s mass projection. I figured Gaia’s true form must still be inside the planet’s control center, since she cannot stray too far from the Mother Star. It made sense to use a mass projection when coming into outer space to meet us.

“Emperor,” Gaia finally understood my meaning, her expression extremely complex, “this is what I am like, I don’t have a body, if I really must say, my soul is fused within the entire mother star.”

“Ah? You don’t have a body?” I exclaimed in surprise. A soul merged with the mother star? Was there such a branch among Xyrin Apostles? Or could it be that Gaia was actually the planet consciousness?

This was just too far-fetched, I thought. You can’t just twist things like this.

“Lord Brother,” the lazybone Alaya, who had always hidden in my spirit sea and refused to venture further, suddenly established a spiritual connection, “Gaia once encountered an accident; her body was destroyed at the conceptual layer. Since that day, she has been unable to possess any physical form of her own; she is essentially using the planet as a carrier, storing a segment of data, and she prefers not to discuss this topic much…”

Alaya briefly explained the situation in a fast and vague manner. I also noticed that Gaia’s expression was indeed very reluctant. Although her serious nature made her completely unwilling to violate the inherent obedience ingrained in the Xyrin Apostles, I still saw a hint of resistance and pleading in her profound eyes.

Damn, what had I just asked!

At this point, an apology or anything of the sort was meaningless; it would only make things worse. I simply changed the subject: “So, about activating the Arbitration Institution, is there anything else that needs to be prepared?”

The blue-light girl looked visibly relieved and answered earnestly and respectfully, “There’s nothing left to prepare. The data that had been lost due to a prolonged dormancy has been fully restored through backup data, and we can start working at any time.”

I smiled and nodded my head, then gently patted Pandora’s little head next to me: “Good girl, you’ll grow taller soon… ah!”

Pandora’s headbutt was still as succinct and powerful.

But soon I realized that Pandora’s headbutt was not just because I had touched a sore spot about this perennially shorty’s height, but more importantly…

Even transformed into the form of a planet battleship, Pandora was still the shortest among their trio of lilies… How miraculous her stature truly was!

Temporarily anchoring the mother star near the asteroid belt naturally brought up the issue of meteor showers. Under the influence of the immense gravity, the asteroid belt where we had originally been stationed was gradually falling toward the mother star. However, with the massive scale of the meteorite attack underway, we didn’t have to go through great lengths like last time in the Magic Prohibition World: the mother star possessed a genuine planet-level shield, the strength of which was several times that of the Imperial Fleet’s joint shield, and there were hundreds of thousands of anti-air firepower arrangements in the mother star’s atmosphere and near-Earth orbit, all adequate defenses against the approaching swarm of meteorites.

This powerful legacy from the Empire’s glorious era was incomparable to the hastily produced reduced-specifications interstellar fleet of today. According to Taville’s analysis, even with her and her entire research team’s efforts, it would be difficult to replicate the mother star’s various critical technologies in a short time, meaning, at least for now, this Imperial Mother Star was irreplaceable. Thus, while Alaya and the others entered a synchronous orbit to unfold into the Glory Form, Sandora and I had already begun discussing how to fully utilize the mother star after this incident was over.

We must recognize that now, each of us was bracing to catch that bastard Occam and tear him to shreds, and to wage war against the markedly superior Fallen Apostles, our greatest reliance might still need to be sought from this ancient artifact.

(New month, let’s make this month’s tickets even stronger, shall we?) (To be continued. For more details, please visit www.wuxiaworld.site, where chapters are updated frequently, support the author, and support genuine reading!)