The closer they were to it, the more they sensed the magnificence of the civilization of mankind to change the world and conquer the universe. To this day, two docks that completely circled the planet had been built, and the "third Uranian Ring" was under construction. The super dock and the universal city that looked like an arced longbow, which had just been started, left the deepest impression on Li Yao. It was because only when he saw the busy starships and workers around the circular dock in person could he completely believe that the two splendid celestial bodies in front of him, which were emanating their own brilliance even in the scale of the universe, were made by the human beings who seemed to be ants or even dust!
The carrier was getting closer and closer to the first Uranian Ring. They turned off their power and simply allowed themselves to be locked and captured by the first Uranian Ring's spiritual energy array and drifted to the port.
More and more starships appeared around them. They could even see the emblems and badges painted on each other's starships with their naked eyes. Compared to the super enormous carriers, engineering starships, and the main-force warships of the Federation's fleet, their carrier was rather thin. Sometimes, a few enormous starships fell at them like magnificent mountains, as if they were going to crush them into thin pieces. But then, under the guidance of the spiritual energy field, they passed by their heads unhurriedly like lazy white whales.
"Aya!"
Many people who had lived on Firefly for their entire life and were born, grew up, and grew old in the sea of stars alone, were deeply awed by the glamorous flames triggered by at least a thousand starships. They exclaimed in amazement at the loss of what to do.
In their exclamations, they passed by the second mother port of the "Burning Prairie Fleet", the Federation's trump card, as well as the largest starship production base in the "four new Sectors".
The solemn and inviolable starships all had brand-new armor that was even smoother than a mirror. There was not the slightest trace of being scratched by the scraps of the stars.
Illuminated by the sunlight and the flames of the thousand starships around, they were emitting deep, dark gold brilliance, as if they were continuous ridges that contained infinite strength.
Below the dock behind them, countless iron tentacles extended all the way to the atmosphere of the Uranian Ring Planet until they pierced into the mother lodes below the ground of the Uranian Ring Planet, directly extracting all kinds of metals and crystals into the dock.
There were also countless specks of light flying toward the Uranian Ring, too. They looked like meteors that had been conquered, controlled, and utilized by human beings. They were all artificially mined asteroids that were originally part of the resource planets. They were mined and refined on the resource planets, but later, a simpler way to utilize them was invented. A part of the resource planets was directly blown up, and power units were installed on it. They were directly pushed to the vicinity of the Uranian Ring. The mining, refinement, manufacturing, and assembly were all concentrated in one place, which greatly improved the production efficiency of the starships.
If the detection distance of the crystal cameras was shortened infinitely, some of the details of the Uranian Ring could be seen clearly on the blurred picture. At such a distance, the smooth, elegant, and integrated feeling of the Uranian Ring was completely gone. It turned into an intersecting forest of iron. Just like Firefly, which was undergoing major maintenance, countless' branches' made of super alloys were rising from the surface, and new branches were branching out from the end of the branches. In such a way, they 'grew' nonstop until they occupied every bit of space except the sailing route. At the end of the 'thinnest' branch, a starship that was being maintained or refined was connected.
From that point of view, the 'branches' were somewhat like umbilical cords. The planetary-level behemoth that was the 'Uranian Ring' was collecting and swallowing metals, minerals, crystals, and everything else from the Uranian Ring Planet and the hundreds of resource planets without a second of rest. After chewing and digesting, they were turned into new nutrients and transmitted to the starships incessantly through the 'umbilical cords', breeding iron behemoths that were about to raise surging tides in the universe.
Such a picture was not 'natural' at all, but it was very 'human'.
The carrier was slowly connected to a 'branch' that extended out of the Uranian Ring. It was the Uranian Ring War Museum, the first stop of the delegation.
War was the ultimate outbreak of all the potentials, kindness, and evilness of a civilization.
Through war, one could learn the real face of a civilization in the shortest amount of time.
That was why the people from the center of the cosmos had chosen this place as their first stop. An 'Communication Committee' made of the government, the military, the Cultivation sects, and the academics of the Federation received them warmly in this place.
Because of the subtle, if not awkward, relationship between the 'Star Ocean Republic' and the 'Xing Yao Federation', and because the Federation was in a state of intense preparation for war, both parties had agreed to discuss more practical issues in the communication and negotiation and to put aside the disputes on 'righteousness' for now.
Therefore, the level of the delegation was not high on the surface, and it was simply a 'Election Observation Delegation'. Correspondingly, the 'Communication Committee' that the Federation sent out also tried to downplay the color of the government and the military, at least at the beginning.
Li Yao did not find any acquaintances in the Communication Committee, which saved him the trouble of wondering how he should face his old acquaintances.
He observed the new-generation people of the Federation with great interest and discovered that, perhaps because they had completely transitioned from a planetary civilization to a universal civilization, the new-generation people of the Federation were even slimmer, taller, and lighter, as if they could swim freely in the sea of stars after a single leap.
Men, women, old, and young, they were all full of vigor. Their eyes were glittering, and their movements and words were so confident that they bordered on sharpness.
Judging from their attire, other than the uniformed military officers, who were difficult to distinguish, the civilians were basically all from different worlds, including the ghost cultivators from the Nether Realm. There were also many people who had some demonic characteristics left on them, such as agile rabbit ears, cat-like green eyes, and so on. The bystanders did not think much of it.
It appeared that the new Federation had carried out the integration policy very thoroughly in the past hundred years.
Under their guidance, Li Yao visited the Uranian Ring War Museum and experienced the war thirty years ago through the real objects, the war logs of the soldiers, and even the simulation games in the Grand Illusionary Land.
He had studied many details of the war on the Uranian Ring Sector carefully when he was on Firefly. However, he liked the way the New Federation described the war very much. It was calm, objective, and slightly restrained. They did not describe the ugliness and evilness of the 'Heavenly Light' but simply recorded everything dutifully like a sketch. In one of the procedures, they even came up with quite a few solutions that could completely avoid the war through the Grand Illusionary Land.
Only the real victors could be so calm and restrained. They were even confident enough to reflect on the war.
Seeing the pictures in the war museum, Li Yao finally believed that the Federation had completely integrated and assimilated the Uranian Ring Sector. The world had become an inseparable part of the Xing Yao Federation.
It was not until he saw a statue at the exit of the museum.
What was depicted on the statue was not the scene of a victor rejoicing. Instead, it depicted a young woman with a gloomy expression and a face full of desolation. She was holding the hand of a little girl in ragged and dirty clothes. The two of them raised their heads together and silently stared ahead.
Following their eyes, Li Yao saw a slowly rolling, never-ending list on the opposite side. Those who appeared on the list were all people who died in the war on the Uranian Ring Sector.
Just like that, the woman and the little girl in the statue seemed to be searching for the names of their family members wholeheartedly. Their uneasiness and complicated feelings were obvious.
The list was divided into three columns in three different colors. All the people of the Heavenly Light, the Earthly Brute, and the Federation who died in the war were recorded.
Li Yao stood before the statue and reflected on the details for a long time.
Seeing that he was so interested in the statue, the commentator who accompanied him introduced, "The sorrowful woman on the statue is Ding Ling Dong, who is regarded as a 'liberator' by the Uranian Ring Sector."
"Huh?" Li Yao exclaimed.
"After the war on the Uranian Ring Sector, the liberated members of the Earthly Brute wanted to build a high, magnificent statue for Ding Ling Dong, but she insisted on it. In the end, she finally agreed after much persuasion. However, she said that it was up to her to decide the shape of the statue herself. In the end, she did not choose the majestic, magnificent statue but chose such a small, inconspicuous statue. She tried to downplay her own appearance and did not even allow her name to be carved on it. It has been placed at the exit of the war museum. If it is not mentioned, few people can recognize that it is the God of War of the Federation."
Li Yao stared at the woman whose eyes were filled with gentleness on the statue in a daze. His mind seemed to have drifted back to that year in the Grand Desolate War Institution, when Ding Ling Dong had a nervous breakdown after she got drunk and hugged him and cried like a helpless little girl. He recalled the memory for a long time …
"The one next to her is her daughter," the commentator said.
"Ah!" Li Yao exclaimed.
"She is the adopted daughter that she adopted in the war on the Uranian Ring Sector. The girl's parents were her comrades in the uprising in the underground mines. Unfortunately, they were both killed in the war one after another."
"… Is there anything else?" Li Yao asked. "Can you finish it all?"
"I'm done," the commentator said. "Are you not feeling well, Representative Lin?"
After the tour of the war museum in the Uranian Ring Sector was over, the senior officers in the delegation were going to discuss the details of establishing the base camp with the leadership of the General Staff of the Union Army.
Li Yao did not know the first thing about troop battles. There was no need for him to waste his time there. Meng Chixin, Han Baling, Qi Changsheng, and Zhu Zongyou, on the other hand, were rather interested in the arts of battle formations.
Li Yao had arranged a few positions for them in the senior officers through Cui Lingfeng. They were sort of paying attention to the establishment of the base camp on behalf of the Speaker.
As for Li Yao himself, he had fields that were more important to him that he could not wait to learn more about. (To be continued.)
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