Li Yao did not know how he should describe what he was seeing. The universe deep inside the crab nebula was ten thousand times more splendid than the general sea of stars.
It looked like countless rivers in different colors were crashing into each other brutally, and hundreds of nebula beasts were grappling and fighting each other.
This was a silent and stormy sea. Every wave was red, orange, red, green, blue, indigo, purple … a myriad of colors.
There were carmine, salmon, tortoiseshell, conch, ruby, agate, coral, gold, iron red, rust red, chrome red, brick red, earth red, and so on. There were tens of thousands of different colors that differed in the slightest.
It was needless to mention the millions of other colors that were beyond the recognition of the naked eye.
What was even more amazing was that, every few seconds, an intense wave would spread out from the deepest part of the crab nebula. Like an even more overwhelming tide, the millions of colors in the entire universe would be stirred and collide, bursting out unparalleled mystic rays!
The mystic rays seemed to be alive. They extended toward Li Yao in fluffy but enormous arms and pressed down on his head brutally like the fingers of a deity in the universe!
There were also countless gaps in the middle of the mystic rays, which formed twisted faces that were smiling at him mysteriously.
Li Yao breathed fast. He felt that the billions of visual cells inside his retina were not enough at all. They would not be enough even if they were increased by ten times.
He even vaguely had the illusion that the crab nebula, which was even larger than a galaxy, was an overwhelming beast in space, and the tides of mystic rays were the breath and heartbeat of the beast.
"What's that?"
Staring at the depths of the nebula where the tides were coming from, Li Yao asked Professor Mo Xuan in a low voice.
Faced with such a splendid view of the universe, Li Yao felt that he was nothing more than a grain of dust or a bacterium inside the body of a beast. He could not help but lower his voice.
"It's a pulsar."
Professor Mo Xuan replied to him in a low voice. "The pulsar is releasing powerful spiritual waves and stirring the nebula, turning the entire crab nebula into an enormous vortex of spiritual energy."
Pulsars were a type of neutron star that would periodically release pulse ripples. Most of them were about ten kilometers in diameter and rotated extremely fast, tens of thousands of times faster than ordinary stars and planets.
Every astronomical celestial body had its own magnetic field of spiritual energy. Pulsars, on the other hand, often rotated countless times per second due to their extremely fast rotation. Their spiritual energy waves were particularly strong, and they were constantly releasing spiritual energy waves to the outside.
Under normal circumstances, this kind of fluctuation could not be seen with the naked eye.
However, at the periphery of the pulsar, there were a lot of nebulas made of star scraps and fallout of radiation, which left the most brilliant traces in the visible spectrum.
Li Yao, the Fire Ant, and Professor Mo Xuan sighed for a moment before they calmed down and returned to the topic at hand.
This pulsar was not their target.
With the technological level of mankind right now, even the Star Ocean Imperium could not make use of neutron stars for training effectively.
It was better to stay away from such a highly-dangerous celestial body.
Right then, the four star spirits released hundreds of probe balls to the space nearby and collected tremendous astronomical parameters. But the result was not optimistic.
"This area is filled with too much star scraps. Also, the cosmic tides released by the pulsar have blown the stone belts everywhere. There is no pattern at all.
"A small ship such as Sparkle, which is less than a hundred meters long, can manage to jump over. But a super warship such as Burning Prairie, which is dozens of kilometers long, can never jump to a place with such a complicated environment!
"Besides, it is impossible for us to establish star beacons here. They will be destroyed by the meteoroid showers before they are unfolded. Even if they are unfolded, it will be difficult for them to guide the direction precisely because of the interference of the pulsar. It is even more likely that they will lead Burning Prairie to the pulsar!"
A space jump was full of dangers. There was no protection at all during the moment of the jump.
Sparkle was a super small exploration starship. It was easy for it to turn around because it was small, and it was very agile. That was why it had been able to jump into the swirl of stars at the risk of its life.
Burning Prairie was enormous. When it was the most vulnerable moment after the jump, the odds of it being hit by the meteoroid showers were a thousand times higher than Sparkle's. Also, it would certainly be interfered with by the pulsar!
One of the most dangerous possibilities was that a large meteoroid directly embedded itself into the power unit or even the warehouse of crystals during the jump.
When two objects that were not in the same space were superimposed by brute force, a great explosion would definitely take place!
The other possibility, which was even more dangerous, was that they had directly jumped to the pulsar!
Once they were captured or even swallowed by the pulsar, the dream warship dozens of kilometers long, together with the hundreds of Yuanying and Core Formation Stage Cultivators on board, would be compressed into the size of a grain of rice instantly. Even their remaining souls would not be able to escape. They would not even know how they were killed!
Li Yao and his companions discussed with the four star spirits for a while. It was impossible to establish star beacons in this place. They had two options.
Firstly, they could fly in the opposite direction out of the crab nebula and set up star beacons at the edge of the nebula where the pulsar could not interfere.
The advantages of such an approach were that it was reliable and safe enough. The shortcoming was that it would be a waste of time. Even if Burning Prairie jumped over, it would still be outside of the crab nebula and would have to clear the sailing route and fly in bit by bit.
Secondly, they could fly to the depths of the crab nebula near Kunlun.
"The crab nebula is like a cosmic storm. The farther out it is, the more complicated the environment will be. But there is a relatively stable space zone at the center, which is like the eye of the storm!"
Analyzing the astronomical parameters that he had just collected, Professor Mo Xuan said, "Kunlun, the relic of the Pangu civilization that we are looking for, is right inside the eye of the storm!
"If we set up star beacons near the eye of the storm, Burning Prairie will pass the crab nebula and arrive at Kunlun directly. What do you think, everybody?"
Although the plan was somewhat risky, the odds of success were quite high under the delicate manipulation of the few star spirits. Right now, they were in a race against time with the Immortal Cultivators of the Imperium. They had to seize every second they had.
Sparkle activated the spiritual shield and the force field twisting system to the maximum. Like a glittering firefly, it slowly moved forward in the crab nebula.
They ran into meteoroid showers and turbulence of spiritual energy on their way, too, but they were all detected in advance by the probe magical equipment of Sparkle and avoided perfectly. The journey was more daunting than dangerous.
However, the closer they were to Kunlun, the denser the meteoroid pieces ahead were. There was no way to dodge them at all. They could only push them away by brute force.
"This is not normal. Those 'meteoroids' are in a weird shape. There are traces of artificial polishing!"
Manipulating two artificial arms, Professor Mo Xuan dragged a 'meteoroid' into Sparkle. After five rounds of sterilization, he examined the components of the meteoroid in person. It was indeed an alloy that could hardly be found under natural conditions.
"This is not a meteoroid but … a certain material that has been smelted artificially."
Everybody looked at each other in bewilderment, but they could only grit their teeth and press on.
In the voyage that followed for an hour, nobody dared to breathe heavily. They were like a ragged boat sailing in a notorious area of reefs. Everybody was sweating hard.
"Look!"
Very soon, they discovered the edges and corners of more meteoroids that had been polished artificially. Some of the meteoroids were even carved with complicated spiritual stripes.
Those spiritual stripes were a hundred times more chaotic than the most complicated spiritual stripes in the modern world of Cultivators. Even Li Yao, a knowledgeable specialist of spiritual stripes, had never seen such weird, chaotic spiritual stripes that contained infinite information before!
"Li Yao, what does the 'meteoroid ocean' remind you of?"
Professor Mo Xuan asked in a low voice.
"I remember the remnants of the space battlefields that I saw when I just arrived in the Flying Star Sector. I feel that this place is a relic of a 'space battleground', too, but not one from ten thousand years ago or forty thousand years ago. It is … a primeval battlefield that is much more ancient!"
Li Yao mumbled in a trance.
Right then, one of the star spirits exclaimed in shock.
The exploration rays of Sparkle had detected a certain object that looked like a human!
"Let's go there and take a look!"
The seven of them were excited. Professor Mo Xuan piloted Sparkle in person and dug a channel in the dense meteoroids with the drill of mystic rays. Very soon, they discovered a body floating in the cold universe!
It was a gargantuan ancient corpse wearing heavy armor. Its appearance was similar to that of the Crystal Suit, but it was much more majestic and intimidating, filled with the air of dominating the stars.
Counting the armor, the ancient corpse was more than twenty meters long. It was similar to a human being in general shape, except that it had six arms and a long tail.
The facial cover of the ancient corpse had been knocked off a long time ago, revealing a hideous face and tusks. Traces of scales could be vaguely seen on many parts of its face.
For some reason, it was still well-preserved and vivid after thousands of years. Even its fury, regret, and desperation were etched into Li Yao's heart like burning charcoal.
There was a hole more than three meters in diameter on the chest and abdomen of 'him'. All his internal organs were gone.
If the physiological structure of 'him' was similar to that of a human being, the blow would have been fatal.
Even though 'him' was dead, 'his' six arms were still waving different weapons.
Li Yao could vaguely distinguish a few sabers and swords with ancient structures. There was also some cylindrical magical equipment, but there was no telling whether or not it was a piece of remote attack magical equipment such as' guns'.
"This is a Pangu!"
Fire Ant's eyes were glittering.
They had once discovered the body of a member of the Pangu Clan in Ba Yanzhi's Mausoleum of Chaos. Although the member of the Pangu Clan was in the form of half human and half snake, which was quite different from the six-armed guy, the armor on the two of them that had almost melted with their flesh and blood were quite similar. It was obvious that they were from the same civilization.
"It seems that a fierce battle took place on 'Kunlun'. The Pangu were fighting against other primeval species. This sea of meteoroids is the debris of the starships! “
Piloting Sparkle, Professor Mo Xuan approached the Pangu carefully. He scanned the body more than ten times with mystic rays and made sure that there was nothing wrong. Then, he extended his mechanical arms, trying to draw the weapons out of the Pangu's hands.
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