"Nothing will happen," said Jing Jiu as he headed toward the deep part of the icy land.
When the soles of the regular boots touched the hard ice and snow, they produced ripples soundlessly, like the petals falling on the surface of the water.
Looking at Jing Jiu's back, Ran Handong suddenly said, "I'll tell my father."
This was the second time she had said this.
Jing Jiu didn't halt his steps, nor did he heed her. He kept walking forward.
After a moment of silence, Ran Handong hastened her steps to catch up with him, saying nothing more.
As long as her father and the authorities of the Federation of the Milky Way didn't make a decision, she was still Jing Jiu's secretary and should do what she was supposed to do.
This was what Jing Jiu was most satisfied with about her.
They didn't walk too far in the icy land before they saw the entrance.
The bracelet gave off a detestable beeping sound as the passage was opened. The two of them arrived at the underground.
The underground was not a top-secret military base, but a regular long corridor.
The portraits and quotes of some famous people were hung on the walls on both sides of the corridor, with a brief introduction next to each portrait.
It seemed that most of the tourists here were the primary students.
"This is the Art Gallery of the Milky Way. Today is the first day of the month, the closing day." Ran Handong said after shooting a glance at him, "I don't know why you two arranged to meet here. It might have something to do with the inheritance of the priest of the Stargate; but there are indeed many precious remains here."
This art gallery was the most advanced place in the Federation of the Milky Way with the richest collections. Even the museums and art galleries in Shou 'er City couldn't compare to this place. Today was the day the library was closed. The usual stream of visitors and groups of students were nowhere to be seen. Only the dull footsteps of two people could be heard in the empty passageway.
It didn't take long before they arrived at the contemporary art gallery.
The space of the buildings here was more spacious and large. Outside the glass windows that looked like small hills was the monotonous icy land, and the sky in the distance had a dark blue color.
The works of art on display here were more varied than those in the previous galleries, and they were more difficult to understand and even a bit eerie for regular people.
Ran Handong introduced the origin of the works of art and the common sayings of the critics, fulfilling her duty as a secretary and acting as a tour guide.
Jing Jiu didn't stop in front of the works of art to appreciate them, but he appreciated this young officer even more.
It was not important whether Gu Qing could ascend or not.
…
…
Since more than one thousand years ago, the Federation of the Milky Way had ushered in an explosive period of technology and civilization.
There would be new discoveries and new results every day.
Every once in a while, a new mineral star would be discovered.
The problem of energy exhaustion had long been solved.
The difficulties of interstellar navigation had long been overcome by the rediscovery of the warped hole route and the comprehensive application of the gravitational field.
It was not an exaggeration to say that although the current human society was not as glorious as the ancient civilization, it was already qualified to be called highly developed.
As an accessory of the society, the arts had developed at a high speed. Coupled with the pressure from the Sea of Dark Matter on the other side of the universe, the art forms in the contemporary society had become more extreme and profound. If one were to abandon those forms of art, one might be able to discover the hidden richness and despair, the intense clash between life and death.
At the far end of the contemporary art gallery was a deep blue swimming pool that looked like a clear sky.
The pipes that filled the swimming pool poured out black oil stains. Accompanied by a low sound, the oil continued to hit the bottom of the pool, swallowing the blue tiles. Finally, it slowly sank into a hole in the distance, like a black hole swallowing everything.
The direction of the black oil stains was simple and clear: death or the Sea of Dark Matter.
It was said that the crude oil from a certain planet was formed naturally by the plants billions of years ago during the geological changes, and was an important energy source for the ancient civilization. It didn't feel dirty, and it kept piling up and dripping down. Instead, it seemed to have some sort of order or regularity.
"This art installation was installed here thirty-one years ago. It caused a great controversy at the time," said Ran Handong.
Jing Jiu signaled for her to stop talking.
Ran Handong understood something. She turned around and walked toward the Contemporary Art Gallery after taking a glance outside.
Jing Jiu turned around and walked to the other side.
…
…
The entire Milky Way Art Gallery was located under the ice sheet of the south pole, and the Contemporary Art Gallery was at the outermost part of it. There was a cliff outside of it.
The bottom of the cliff was the famous low valley of the south pole ice sheet. As far as the eye could see, there was endless ice and snow. The cliff itself was black, looking like the oil stains in the swimming pool.
In other places on the Main Planet, like the Capital City, the Priest Manor and the meadow behind the mountains, the sky was occupied by the light of the stars, making it hard to see the blue color. The sky here was evidently different. It was blue, similar to the color of the tiles in the swimming pool. It had a sense of classical beauty, more like that of Chaotian.
In places where the stars could be seen easily, people would look at the stars at night; but nobody would scream and scream in astonishment.
They were used to it, so they didn't think much of it.
In the eyes of Jing Jiu, who was used to seeing the blue sea and the blue sky, the world in front of him consisted of nothing but the white snow and the black mountains.
The black and white formed a perfect balance. Like the chess pieces on the chessboard he didn't like, they gave him a feeling that they were too stable, which he didn't like.
At this moment, an extremely bright red color appeared in the dark world.
The red color was not like the sword light of the Thoughtless Sword; it had a hint of blood.
And it was not like the lava under the ground, which gave off a warm feeling.
Jing Jiu thought for a while and remembered that it should be the color of the wild flowers by the cliff edge of Tianguang Peak.
As he was thinking of all this, the red color came close and drifted with the wind, making a whistling sound, as if it had turned into a flag.
The protective shield of the Art Gallery blocked the wind and snow outside. The red overcoat fell down, motionless.
General Li looked at the world outside the cliff, the expression in his eyes profound and calm.
He didn't say anything.
Jing Jiu didn't say anything either.
It was deathly quiet outside the cliff.
The sound of the wind and snow was heard outside.
The sound of the oil falling into the swimming pool was heard inside.
This was the cross-section of the South Pole Ice Sheet. The permanent star was on the other side of the black cliff. Though it couldn't be seen, one could still see the changes in the light it emitted.
The sunlight had gradually shifted, and the permanent star rose higher and higher.
It was noon, and the whole planet was at its brightest.
The cities near the equator, even with the protective shields, would become extremely hot. It was probably because of the hot air that the snow and ice outside the cliff grew more violent, and the color of the sky grew fainter. It was amazing that the blue sky became transparent, and one could see farther away. Standing by the cliff edge, they looked at the dark universe on the other side of the transparent sky, the space warfare and satellites that seemed to be right in front of them, the battleships, and even the nearest planet …
"You should know what's going on in this world since you've been here for so long."
General Li's voice was calm and profound, like the expression in his eyes, like the perfect sound of a bell.
Jing Jiu said, "According to the definitions in the science fiction and games, this is the main universe, and Chaotian is a time zone that drifts in the same orbit, but is independent of it."
General Li said, "Some people like to use the concept of a bubble as a space zone. I agree with you more. This has nothing to do with the difference in the flow of time; it's because there is no clear boundary between the two worlds."
Jing Jiu said, "What I'm concerned about is, was Chaotian discovered by the god of the distant ancient civilization, or was it created by him?"
"According to our understanding of the distant ancient civilization, that god didn't have the ability to create a world, so it should have been discovered by him in the universe."
General Li continued, "Since the humans of the two worlds are of the same origin, Chaotian must have been designed by him."
Jing Jiu pressed, "The boundary between the two worlds can't be broken; how did he achieve all this?"
General Li said, "The female priest didn't reveal any information about this."
Jing Jiu knew that the female priest General Li referred to was not the priests scattered on more than one hundred planets in the Federation of the Milky Way, but the one in particular.
General Li pulled back his gaze and said calmly to Jing Jiu, "I'd like to know what conclusion you have reached recently."
"More than one hundred thousand years ago, the dimensional barrier in the universe was torn apart due to the abuse of the gravitational field weapons or weapons of a higher state and the distortion of the warped holes, and the dark matter came to the main material world. The human civilization was on the verge of destruction. That god had to choose between leaving this galaxy or fighting the Sea of Dark Matter to the death. The distance between the galaxies was too far, and the distance was more dreadful than death. In the end, that god chose the latter option. However, he wasn't confident in his chances, so he wanted to leave a spark for the human civilization. It was then that he discovered the time zone where Chaotian was located, and he began to modify it. He brought the humans and some other lifeforms into that world, and … he also put some replicas of the lifeforms infected by the Sea of Dark Matter into that world, which are the monsters of the Snowy Kingdom. On the one hand, he believed that the humans and other lifeforms could evolve into more powerful races in that world, and he hoped that the humans could find a way to defeat the Sea of Dark Matter. "
This was the longest speech Jing Jiu had made in the last one thousand years.
His voice was devoid of any inflection, sounding like an emotionless robot making the most boring narration and talking about the most boring things.
In fact, these were the most important secrets of the human civilization, and the most secretive truths.
At least, they were close to the truth.
General Li said after a moment of silence, "That's the gist of it."
Jing Jiu looked at the distance.
There was a dark universe, planets, permanent stars, nebulae, battleships, and other objects.
Jing Jiu opened his eyes after closing them, saying, "In other words, we are all experimental subjects."
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