Li Yao's sailing log, year nine.
"This is the first time that Spark has found signs of a star deep inside the dark nebula. It is also the first time that I have been woken up from the hibernation state.
"In the sub-lightspeed state, my perception of time is different from that of the outside world. Besides, when I am hibernating, my brain is in deep silence. I cannot even dream, let alone perceive the passage of time.
"For me, it feels like I just bade farewell to Professor Mo Xuan, Fire Ant, Fiend Blade Peng Hai, Lei Dalu, Bai Kaixin, and other best friends a few days ago. Yesterday, I was walking hand in hand with Ding Ling Dong on the Grand Desolate Plateau. This morning, I finally left my hometown on Spark in front of everybody's eyes and yawned.
"The specialists of the Federation have installed a special super-static timer on Spark. It can calculate the influence of Spark's speed on time precisely and infer the flow of time in the 'real world'.
"Through this special clock, I found out that nine years had passed during this' yawn '."
"However, in the boundless universe, especially deep inside the dark nebula that is filled with weird metal dust, I am quite lucky to have found the first star in 'only' nine years.
"Although the star is a typical 'lone star' that exists alone in the universe without its own planet or stellar system, it is impossible for us to make use of it.
"But its existence means that my speculation is correct. I have indeed jumped to the depths of the dark nebula. The hundreds of lightyears around me are actually full of stars and celestial bodies, except that they are all covered by the dark nebula.
"As long as the distance is close enough, I will be able to discover the celestial bodies!
"I have inputted the magnitude and trajectory of the star into the mainframe crystal processor and compared them with the navigation map of the Pangu civilization.
"Right now, I have only found one star. It is still difficult to locate it precisely. I believe that the navigation map will be of great use when more stars are found."
Li Yao's sailing log, year fifteen.
"Finding the second star so quickly, what a pleasant surprise!"
"This is a standard hybrid star. While it revolves around the most massive celestial body in the center of the dark nebula, it also has its own seven planets, which form a small stellar system. The seven planets each have dozens of satellites of various sizes. It is a world very similar to the Tian Yuan Realm."
"I spent a month examining this stellar system, but it's a pity that the mass and brightness of this star are not enough. Its planets are all cold and desolate pebbles and air masses. I didn't find any sign of water on them, nor any sign of the existence or past existence of life."
"In the fields explored in the sea of stars, such Sectors are usually referred to as' wastelands'. It is not that there is not the slightest spiritual energy here, and it is not that the planets cannot be modified into habitable planets. It is just that the investment to collect resources and modify the planets is too huge, and the cost far exceeds the benefits. There is no value in development or immigration."
"Even so, I am still very happy."
"After only fifteen years, I have found two stars in a row. After inputting their astronomical parameters and relative relationships into the crystal processor and comparing them with the navigation map of the Pangu civilization, I have a general idea about my specific location in the dark nebula."
"It seems that I am no longer unlucky this time. Even the gods are watching over the Federation. Chances are that I will discover the mysterious Sector in twenty to thirty years!"
Li Yao's sailing log, year forty-one.
"What a jinx!"
"That is why I say that one should not talk nonsense because of complacency. Many things will not come true after they are said out loud!"
"I have indeed found a third star. I even exceeded my mission and found a fourth. It is a binary star system. The two stars revolve around each other in a very stable companion structure.
"The problem is that I didn't know it beforehand."
"The other star of the binary star system is hidden deep inside the dark nebula. The mainframe crystal processor of Spark did not detect it immediately. I mistook it for another lone star.
"Because it is in a very stable main sequence phase, I was planning to cut into its orbit and make a 'stellar slingshot' with its gravitational field so that Spark could accelerate again without consuming any fuel. The exploration time would be shortened.
"But I didn't know that the gravity field of the binary star system was extremely complicated. It was like a fatal swirl area. Spark was involved in it and hit by a 'gravitational wave' brutally. I almost fell into the center of the star and was burnt into nothingness without leaving a single hair on me.
"Although I was lucky enough to escape, Spark was heavily damaged and seriously damaged. Not only did I run out of backup components, I even dismantled some of the components from the star beacons in order to maintain the flight at the sub-light speed.
"Things are getting trickier now."
Li Yao's sailing log, year seventy-seven.
"Thirty-six years have passed in the real world since the disaster in the binary star system."
"During the thirty-six years, Spark has been running short-distance space jumps half of the time, crashing in the depths of the dark nebula like a headless fly. The other half of the time, it has been flying at the sub-light speed to disperse the 'mist' on the star map bit by bit.
"I've found another five stars. Four of them have their own galaxies, but none of them have any signs of life or value of development.
"That's quite normal. Life itself is the greatest miracle in the universe. It's not so easy to find them.
"This is the first time that I've ever found a red giant in the twilight years of its life.
"When the last brilliance of its life begins to spread out after the core is burnt up, the star will greatly expand, and its brightness will be greatly improved, too.
"In terms of visual effects, the red giant that almost occupies the entire universe is definitely the most splendid view I've ever seen.
"Tiny Spark is not even a grain of sand in an ocean compared to it. It is like a tiny bacterium in an ocean.
"Looking at the red giant, I suddenly feel extremely lonely.
"Since I embarked on the space voyage, it has been about a year and a half for me to examine the few stellar systems and maintain Spark when I was awake. It was not particularly unbearable.
"But in reality … seventy-seven years have passed!
"Seventy-seven years is enough for a baby who has just learned how to speak to grow into an adult. It is also enough for a dominating expert to be turned into a tombstone, a scoop of dust, and a gust of wind.
"Ding Ling Dong once promised me that she would join the second wave of the 'Heavenly Road Plan' after I set off and explore the Sectors that are relatively close to the three Sectors.
"Did she arrive at the new Sectors safely? What kind of bizarre, soul-stirring stories happened there?
"Can she persuade the civilizations in the new Sectors to be integrated into the Federation?
"What is she doing right now? Is she as vigorous and brilliant as before?
"What about my three disciples, Jin Xinyue, Wu Mayan, and Xie Anan?
"Has Jin Xinyue distinguished herself in the politics of the Federation? Has Wu Mayan broken through the '1000th level of the Refinement Stage' that he has been dreaming of? Is Xie Anan still as sniveling as before? Has she made any achievements in the circle of refiners?
"What is the Xing Yao Federation like right now?
"Before I left, it was said that the Heaven's Origin Sector, the Blood Demon Sector, and the Flying Star Sector were going to be completely integrated to establish a 'new Federation' and implement the 'Federation calendar'. But at that time, the conditions were not mature enough, and the project was still being planned.
"Seventy-seven years have passed. The brand-new Xing Yao Federation should be rising at the edge of the cosmos, right? With the integration of the three Sectors and the development of Kunlun, the Cultivation level of the new Federation will certainly soar. All kinds of experts and experts will be popping up like bamboo shoots after a rain. Ha. Chances are that when I return to the Federation, I will be like a bumpkin who has just entered a city and know nothing about it!
"For a while, I've been thinking that it would've been great if I could've modified 'Spark' and designed it to be manned by two people. If Ding Lingdang could be with me, it wouldn't have mattered at all even five hundred years or a thousand years."
"But on second thought, the current situation seems to be better.
"On one hand, such space travel is too dangerous. I don't want Ding Ling Dong to take the risk with me, too.
"On the other hand, knowing that someone in my hometown is waiting for me to return, I feel that no matter how difficult, dangerous, and unpredictable the situation is, it is not a big deal at all!
"As time goes by, there seems to be a silver lining. There is more and more good news.
"First of all, after measuring the astronomical parameters and relative locations of almost ten stars, I have finally matched them with the planets on the star map of the Pangu civilization and determined my coordinates in the dark nebula.
"Secondly, I feel that the dark nebula itself has been thinning over the past few decades. The 'visibility' is getting higher and higher, and the transmission of information is getting smoother and smoother, too.
"The red giant is a good reference. I can choose to unfold the star beacons on its orbit, absorb the spiritual energy it emits, and send the coordinates of this place back to my hometown.
"However, the red giant is not our real target. It is meaningless for the Federation's troops to jump to this place.
"Also, I don't know the situation of the mysterious world yet. It will be terrible if they have certain techniques that can capture signals and trace back to the specific location of the Federation!
"For safety reasons, let's find the mysterious world first and figure out its civilization level and its stance before we send a signal back to our hometown.
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