"Space jump. Countdown. Last ten seconds."
There was no telling how many times Li Yao had heard such a cold and peaceful voice, but he was still as excited and nervous as when he performed the first space jump.
Even though he had advanced into the Divinity Branching Stage, he still felt insignificant when faced with the boundless and unpredictable universe!
"Countdown. Last five seconds. Five, four, three …"
The almost transparent buffer gel protected every inch of his body and tried to prevent him from being hurt by the space-time ripples. But then again, if he did encounter a violent storm in the four-dimensional space, even if the thickness of the buffer gel was ten times thicker, it would still be useless. Such a buffer gel could only eliminate the discomfort after the safe jump and bring some illusory comfort.
The universe was never a gentle haven. The warriors who were bold enough to challenge it were destined to die.
Based on such considerations, Li Yao, Ding Ling Dong, and all the other experts had boarded different starships. Almost every starship had a complete exploration team made of commanders, firemen, combat specialists, doctors, and archaeologists who could carry out the work independently.
In such a way, even if 90% of the starships were destroyed in the cosmic storm, there was still hope for the mission to be accomplished.
"Two, one … Launch!"
The peaceful countdown suddenly became high-pitched. Li Yao felt that his soft brain had been kicked from inside brutally. Then, the decks and cabins around became transparent and turned into starry brilliance. The starry brilliance was rushing at a high speed into helical rays of light. He seemed to have revolved ten thousand times in one second before he was launched out brutally.
The feeling lasted for a minute or a million years.
He tried to release 'telepathic feelings', trying to stabilize his soul in the four-dimensional space and even explore the mysteries of the four-dimensional space. But it was all in vain. He could not focus his attention at all. There was only one or a million glittering stars in his eyes.
Before he could count the stars clearly, his brain that had been thrown to the sky smashed back into his skull heavily. His internal organs, nerves, veins, and every cell returned to their original position. He and the starship returned to the three-dimensional universe again. It was a clean 'landing' this time.
"This is …"
Li Yao connected to the mainframe crystal processors of the starships as well as the tactical network of the entire exploration fleet. Through the scanning of almost a hundred starships, he determined his location.
They were less than 0.1 light-years away from the Gemini Nebula.
This was a very wonderful long-distance jump. Judging by the vastness of the sea of stars, they had almost jumped to a place close to the Gemini Nebula. They had even gone deep into the edge of the Gemini Nebula.
A distance of less than 0.1 lightyears was already within the range of regular navigation. If they had enough time and patience, they could activate the power unit of the working medium and fly in slowly in one to two years with the injection of crystals. The advantage was that it was safe enough, and they could also scan and analyze the astronomical environment of the Gemini Nebula in detail.
"So … beautiful!"
Looking at the view of the Gemini Nebula on the virtual cabin window, Li Yao was somewhat dazed for a moment.
The supernova explosions of the two neighboring stars almost happened at the same time, leaving a heavy stroke on the dark curtain of the universe. It was truly like an overwhelming butterfly that was stretching its splendid wings to its heart's content. The infinite colors and the spiral patterns on the wings were something that the craziest artists had never painted in their deepest nightmares. Looking at it, Li Yao even vaguely had a weird feeling. It seemed to be alive — not the life defined by carbon-based intelligent life, but a life of a higher level.
Who said that it was impossible?
Who said that stars, planets, and nebulas could not be a life form, and that carbon-based intelligent life was just a flea or a speck of dust on such a life form in the universe?
But even if they were just fleas and specks of dust, since they had existed for one day, they should explore the meaning of their existence and see clearly how magnificent and beautiful the whole world they existed in was!
"Stainless Steel Mouse has arrived at the predetermined coordinates safely!"
"A Boxing Champion has arrived at the predetermined coordinates safely!"
"Kunlun has arrived at the predetermined coordinates safely!"
"Wings of Brilliance has arrived at the predetermined coordinates safely!"
"God Hunter has arrived at the predetermined coordinates safely!"
All the starships of the exploration squad had completed the first long-distance jump. None of them were hurt.
But the next precise jump would not be so simple.
Yes. If they had enough time, they could've approached the space zone where the Gemini Nebula was located in a safer, regular way.
But Lu Qingchen had already taken the risk to enter the mausoleum. The longer they delayed, the greater the risk that he would run into the mausoleum of the Supreme Emperor and awaken the Pangu or even the Flood Tide, which would escalate the situation beyond control.
If they had to push forward slowly for a year, chances were that the Pangu or even the Flood Tide would've marched out of the entrance of the mausoleum aggressively.
Therefore, they had no choice but to perform a second, more precise, short-distance jump and jump to the fifth planet of the Gemini Nebula in one breath!
It was a very risky gamble.
The scariest thing about a space jump was two things. Firstly, the astronomical environment of the destination was too complicated or full of radiation, interference, and high-energy particles. Secondly, the destination was too close to the massive, high-gravity celestial bodies such as giant planets, stars, neutron stars, and even black holes.
The former would interfere with the 'recombination' of the starship after it passed through the four-dimensional space. Even a tiny speck of dust, if accidentally 'embedded' into the recombined matter and triggered collisions on the level of atomic nuclei, could lead to disastrous consequences.
It was needless to mention the latter. If one discovered that they had jumped into the gravitational circle of a star or a giant planet after the jump, and all the power units were destroyed, one could only watch the starship being dragged into the swirl of super mass and density. It would be the most gory way to die.
Generally speaking, the safety of a space jump was rather guaranteed because the matter distribution in the universe was ten thousand times sparser than what ordinary people imagined. In a vacuum of a hundred kilometers in diameter, it was not unusual that there were no more than a couple of floating particles. The odds of jumping directly into a star during a random jump were even less than one billionth.
It was a whole different thing to jump directly at the center of a violent nebula.
It was like launching a hundred-meter sprint when faced with a high-speed heavy machine gun. It was equally risky, equally stupid, and equally crazy.
But it was their destiny.
The capture and exploration operation was also a war, a war that was a hundred times more sacred than the defense of the capital, the defense of the Federation, and the civil war of the Imperium. This was the first time in the past ten thousand years that the elites of mankind had joined hands and fought for the interests of mankind and the future!
"The second jump, activated!"
Helical rays of light appeared in front of Li Yao's eyes again, which looked like a narrow, long tunnel. His fleshly body and his soul were both dragged into an endless line as he rushed along the tunnel.
But the feeling only lasted 0.1 seconds before it was torn apart by the violent tides, chaotic storms, and sharp stinging pain.
Li Yao seemed to see that the tunnel of light was on the brink of destruction. All kinds of colors, waves, and ripples invaded in and invaded the internal structure of the starship. Even his internal organs were gnawing on his flesh and blood like a bunch of bloodthirsty devils.
It seemed that the intensity of the interferences and the amount of cosmic dust at the destination greatly exceeded their expectations and caused great interference for their safe landing and regrouping.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Li Yao seemed to hear deafening explosions everywhere inside the starship. Because he was still in the middle of the three-dimensional and the four-dimensional, he could even 'see' the status of some of the sealed units inside the starship. Those units were embedded with high-speed meteoroids. In such an unstable state, even a material the size of a grain of sand could completely destroy the units.
Li Yao had no other choice but to trigger his vitality field and attract the cosmic dust to himself in case the cosmic dust caused further damage to the crew and the main structure of the starship.
-----
Three thousand chapters were achieved!
For a moment, he was filled with mixed feelings. He didn't know where to start writing.
He remembered very clearly that three years ago, on March 1, 2015, he had officially started writing 'Rust Lake'. At that time, he hadn't even thought of the name '40,000 Years of Cultivation' yet.
When he uploaded it on March 15, it was just for fun. He didn't expect that it would cross three long years and reach such a distant place today.
Three years, more than a thousand days and nights. On average, there were almost three chapters a day, and at least two chapters a day. There was no rest all year round. Whether it was during festivals or when my children and I were sick, I never asked for a day off. I really poured all my passion and effort into it.
Was it tiring? Of course, when he looked back at the past thousand days and nights, it was hard to imagine how he had persevered. Still, if he had known that it would be so hard and tiring, maybe he would've given up on March 1, 2015.
But then again, what was the point of living a life if it wasn't hard and tiring? If he didn't burn his life to the fullest and push himself to the limits?
At the very least, with these immature but sincere and passionate stories, with the support of so many brothers and sisters, and with a world that belonged to all of us, no matter how hard and tiring it was, it was worth it. As for 'Old Bull', he was constantly perfected through the world of '40,000 Years of Cultivation' and obtained a 'reality'.
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