Sha Yulan glanced at Xiong Wuji. Seeing that he did not object, she pondered for a moment and said, "The apocalypse was the greatest change in the Flying Star Sector in the past five thousand years. Before I was forced to land on Iron Plateau, I only knew a little about it. It was not until more than ten years after I was sent here that I began to analyze and sort out the whole picture of what happened years ago."
Li Yao's eyes were glittering. He said, "I grew up at the edge of the cosmos, and I had never heard of apocalypses before. I had no grudge against the qi-trainers. But for some reason, the qi-trainers of the Burning Sun Tribe seemed to hate me the moment they saw me. They did not even talk to me before they attacked me. It was truly outrageous. Even if I was going to die, I should at least know the reason behind my death. What exactly happened five thousand years ago? What is the so-called apocalypse?
Is it a meteorite shower? "Xiong Wuji sniffed and said," Apocalypses are the greatest calamities in a Sector. How can they be as simple as a meteorite shower? "
He waved his hands, hinting for Sha Yulan to continue. But he simply sat aside with a dull face, as if he was thinking hard about something.
"It's been more than ten years since I last saw a Cultivator from space," Sha Yulan said. "You saved Yan'er's life, too. It's not a big secret on Iron Plateau. It doesn't hurt to tell you about it.
"Although the qi-trainers, including those of the Burning Sun Tribe, were barbaric and bad-tempered, their hatred for the Cultivators was not entirely unfounded."
Sha Yulan cleared her throat and continued. "From the perspective of both the qi-trainers and the Cultivators, both sides have their reasons. I'll try to describe the process objectively without any emotion.
"Brother Li Yao, you should know that the Flying Star Sector used to be an important city in the Star Ocean Imperium ten thousand years ago. A lot of space fleets were stationed there. Military bases were everywhere on every planet. The Cultivation civilization was very advanced.
"During the Armageddon Rebellion, the Blood God, the commander-in-chief of the expedition army of the Imperium, rebelled and turned into a demonic Cultivator. Known as the Mad Armageddon, he raised a civil war. The flames of hundreds of years of war tore the Flying Star Sector apart and almost obliterated it.
"Even so, there are still a lot of ruins here that can be used. A lot of debris of starships can be repaired. The six remaining troops of the Emperor's Army, as well as their descendants, are struggling to survive on various planets and world fragments. They gradually turned into six major sects, leading the people to reunite and continue the civilization.
"The six major sects are all descendants of remnant soldiers. Naturally, they are much more organized than ordinary civilians."
"Debris and relics are everywhere in the Flying Star Sector. You can obtain a large number of inheritances and analyze countless divine abilities. "
"Therefore, the Cultivation civilization of the Flying Star Sector recovered very quickly. By about six thousand years ago, it had recovered to sixty to seventy percent of what it was in the heyday of the Star Ocean Imperium, except that it was on a smaller scale.
"At that time, the Flying Star Sector had already developed more than ten space zones and was able to permanently change the appearance and atmosphere of three planets with the energy of almost ten stars. As the home of humanity. "
"We've also opened up mining sites on a dozen other planets to collect precious Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures.
"The entire Flying Star Sector is thriving right now.
"Iron Plateau. It was the capital planet of the Flying Star Sector at that time, also known as the mother planet. It was the headquarters of the coalition government established by the six major sects and the origin of the human civilization of the Flying Star Sector.
"In space, the Flying Star Sector repaired a lot of starships of the Star Ocean Imperium and used them as the foundation. Newer, larger, and faster crystal warships that could break the void and travel in the sea of stars were produced.
"That was our golden age. Everybody had only one goal, which was to carry out expeditions and explorations across large worlds, to discover more brother human civilizations, to unite with them, to help them, and to rebuild a great alliance of human civilizations in the entire universe."
"At that time, everybody believed that the invincible human civilization would be able to achieve it."
Sha Yulan's face was full of hope, but there was a hint of bitterness on her face. She said, "One year before the expedition fleet set off, the astronomers of the Flying Star Sector suddenly detected an unusual wave coming toward the Flying Star Sector. After complicated observation and calculation, it was finally confirmed that it was three meteoroid showers, one large and the other two small, that were aimed at the three habitable planets that the Flying Star Sector had developed. The largest of the three was heading straight for Iron Plateau.
"If it were a normal meteoroid shower, how could it happen to be aimed at the habitable planets, and all three of them at the same time?
"Without a doubt, it was not a common astronomical phenomenon but a precise apocalypse."
Li Yao had been listening attentively. When he heard the word 'apocalypse', he couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
"Apocalypses are the most mysterious phenomena in cosmology," Sha Yulan said. "When an expert cultivates to a certain level, or when a civilization develops to a certain level, apocalypses may be triggered.
"In the era of the Star Ocean Imperium, human beings experienced many apocalypses, too. Sometimes, they were able to resist the Supreme Emperor and the twenty Guilds of Provenance together, but sometimes, there was no way to stop them.
"A single Heavenly Tribulation will often lead to the complete destruction of one, or even multiple Greater Worlds."
"The astronomers of the Flying Star Sector immediately performed the most precise calculations on the orbit, scale, and damage of the apocalypse. But the final conclusion was …
"Half and half.
"There was a 50% chance that the apocalypse could be resisted as long as all the resources of the Flying Star Sector were mobilized.
"But there was a 50% chance that no matter how many resources were mobilized, no matter how hard they struggled, they could not stop the apocalypse from destroying the three planets.
Li Yao was dazed. He asked, "Couldn't the calculations have been more precise?"
Sha Yulan smiled bitterly. "Apocalypses are the most inexplicable phenomena in the modern Cultivation world.
"The ancient Cultivators believed in the gods and the so-called heavens. The apocalypses were easy to explain. After all, they were arranged by the heavens to punish the good and promote the evil, or to test the evil. Karma, blessings, and so on. They were all mysterious and unfathomable things.
"The modern Cultivators do not believe in superstitions. We do not believe in the existence of the heavens, either.
"Over the past ten thousand years, the superstitions in the world of ancient Cultivators have been exposed one after another and the objective patterns in them have been found.
"But the apocalypses are still mysterious and inexplicable. They have become the fatal weakness of the modern Cultivation theories.
"According to the legends, in the last years of the Star Ocean Imperium, a Cultivator surnamed Liu, whose Daoist name was Master of the Star Prier's House, saw through the mysteries of the apocalypses.
"But he was soon mentally deranged and involved in the war. Nobody knew where he was.
"Therefore, it is already not easy to capture the orbit of such a mysterious thing as the apocalypse and predict when it will strike. Countless astronomers have exhausted their lives and burned their souls during the calculation of the apocalypse. In the end, they died because of the exhaustion of their souls.
"It is said that, in the end, the power of the apocalypse was determined by an unpredictable, inestimable number. If it was an odd number, it was possible to resist it, but if it was an even number, it was absolutely impossible to resist it.
"However, even though dozens of astronomers formed a great array and burned their life and soul together, they still could not figure out whether the number was odd or even.
"The specific details have long been lost in the river of time. All in all, you only need to know the conclusion."
There was a hint of mockery and desolation on Sha Yulan's face. She seemed to have drained all her strength just to tell the story. She took a breath and continued. "If there was a fifty-one chance that the apocalypse could be resisted, and if there was a fifty-one chance that the apocalypse could not be resisted, everything would be easy to deal with. However, the fifty-one chance was the problem.
"At that time, the Flying Star Sector was capable of large-scale space cruises and of providing absolute defense for a planet. However, both of them required tremendous resources.
"Faced with the overwhelming apocalypses, the Cultivators at that time were divided into two parties.
"The first group calls themselves the homers. They advocate abandoning all the planets at the periphery and concentrating all the population and resources on Iron Plateau, the mother planet. With the resources of the entire Flying Star Sector, they will build a super large stellar defense array outside of the mother planet and resist the apocalypse with the help of the array.
"According to the homers' calculations, as long as all the resources of the Flying Star Sector were concentrated, the apocalypse would definitely be resisted. As long as the mother planet could be saved, the mining sites and secondary planets at the periphery could be rebuilt in a hundred years.
"The other party called themselves the spacers. They believed that hiding on Iron Plateau would be suicidal and would only lead to the destruction of the entire civilization.
"Now that there was a large fleet, and the space cruising technology was highly developed, it was better to concentrate all the resources of the Flying Star Sector and modify the fleet. In the meantime, a large batch of space fortresses could be built.
"After all, the target of the apocalypse was the planets. So, they could evacuate everyone from the planets and live in space, becoming a space civilization.
"Each of the two parties had its advantages and disadvantages.
"The homers' theory was to risk everything. It would be great if the apocalypse could be resisted, but if the stellar defense array was broken, the entire civilization would be destroyed.
"However, according to the spacers' method, it is not easy to move everybody who used to live on the planet, from the white-haired old men to the babies in their swaddling clothes, to the starships in only decades."
"Besides, human beings originated from planets. To move away from planets and live in cold, narrow starships, they might not be able to step on real land for the rest of their lives. Such a change would be too cruel for a civilization."
Li Yao blurted out, "Then, we can live in space for now and move back to Iron Plateau after the apocalypse is over."
The moment he said that, he realized that he had not thought it through.
The resources of a Sector were limited. If they were all used to build starships and space towns, it would be impossible to build a stellar defense array.
Without enough defense, chances were that Iron Plateau would be blown up by the apocalypse. How could they move back?
That's all for today. There's still a lot of work to be done.
The weather had been getting colder and colder. Getting up at five or six in the morning to write was truly too much for me.
After all, I'll try my best, and I hope you can support me. Vote for me if you have any.
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