The matriarch had a lot of things to tell us, but the prerequisite was to confirm Sandora's identity. The Green Star originally had the ability to identify Shiring Apostles. Unfortunately, during the long years of exile, several accidents had destroyed this ancient equipment. Now, the only usable facilities on the Green Star were its structural support system, its energy furnace, as well as a portion of its defense and alarm systems. Furthermore, the control of these facilities was not in the hands of the matriarch. During the era of the old Empire, the Tree Elves were the last race that came into contact with the old Empire. The technological support they received from the Empire was too little, and they did not have enough time to digest it. Eighty percent of the equipment that was handed to them in a hurry was automatic equipment.
Fortunately, even if we were unable to obtain confirmation from the planet's system, we still had a way to convince the matriarch of our identities. The Shadow City's army was patrolling the skies of the Green Star. Even if this old Tree Elf elder had yet to learn how to sense psionic energy, she still had a vivid memory of those huge spaceships.
After confirming our identities, the matriarch of the Tree Elves told us everything she knew about the history of the Tree Elves.
The Tree Elves were once an advanced civilization that stood aloof from worldly affairs but had advanced technology.
However, in this Void where everything was possible, it was better for us to let go of the common sense that was fixed in books. Although the Tree Elves had elements similar to magic, what truly supported their continuous development was actually the power of technology. To the Tree Elves, magic was more like an individual talent that was passed down from their ancestors. It could accompany them for life and could be researched and developed. However, just like how humans didn't rely on their physical strength to reach the top of the pyramid on Earth, the Tree Elves didn't rely on their limited life talent to walk out of their home planet. In the judgment of the Empire, they were a technological civilization. Before the old Empire discovered these peaceful creatures, they had already developed mature space technology and a life support system that surpassed the level of their civilization (the latter benefited from the Tree Elves' talent in understanding the essence of life). These pointy eared fantasy world's protagonists drove their own spaceships and wandered around their star system easily. They even succeeded in creating teleportation devices and carried out various explorations within the Milky Way. They were filled with curiosity and loved to travel far. A Tree Elf family would never stay in a fixed place for more than three years. That would make them feel uncomfortable. To the Tree Elves, the most interesting thing in the world was to go to places they had never been to before and see sights they had never seen before, even if it meant spending years on the road. In the past, they had explored their entire planet. In the Space Age, they began to take a step towards the dangerous vacuum and radiation environment. They brought along seeds from their mother planet, hoping to grow lush forests on more suitable planets. However, fate played tricks on them. The disaster that almost caused the extinction of the Tree Elves came after one of their largest expeditions.
That was the first time they attempted to send an exploration team to the center of the Milky Way. It was the most daring expedition that the Tree Elves had ever done since they had mastered space technology. That expedition left a deep impression on the leader of the tribe. The stargazers among them used hyperspace equipment to observe a series of inconceivable strange phenomena happening in space at the center of the Milky Way. A large number of celestial bodies mysteriously disappeared from the sight of the observers. There were also some old stars that suddenly exploded with youthful vigor, crazily releasing shockingly powerful torrents of energy and matter. The rate of star formation in the star nests increased to an unprecedented level. The confused Tree Elf scientists sent out the most advanced deep-space spaceships and the bravest astronauts to investigate the matter at the center of the Milky Way. They hoped that these brave adventurers would bring back new knowledge or an unheard of energy model of the universe.
Until then, the Tree Elves had never come into contact with the Abyss. They did not expect that the chaotic phenomenon happening at the center of the Milky Way was not a Space Wonder, but a sign that the Milky Way was about to completely collapse due to the contamination of the Abyss.
The first exploration team quickly lost contact with them. They only sent back some messy and crazy phrases. They seemed to be having a party at the center of the Milky Way. Those crazy voice recordings showed a kind of hysterical mood. If the Tree Elves had immediately chosen to escape from their homeland after receiving these messages, they might have been able to avoid the following disaster. The power of the Abyss had appeared at the center of the Milky Way, and it was only a little bit leaked out. The weak power of the Abyss would require a very long time to break through the extreme environment there. The speed of its spread was slower than the speed of light at first, but it would continue to accelerate as the infection spread. If the Tree Elves had immediately fled, they would have at least delayed the disaster for a few hundred years.
However, they made a wrong decision. They sent out the second exploration team to see what happened to the first team.
After experiencing the same loss of communication as the first exploration team, one of the second exploration team's spaceships miraculously returned. That was the beginning of the disaster. The scientists and medical experts who went to the rescue found that the broken spaceship that seemed to have escaped from death was empty. All the crew members had disappeared, and the spaceship flew back on its own with the help of the autopilot system. In the following inspection, the returning spaceship was exposed one after another. There was an inexplicable damage to the outer shell, traces of intense fighting and bloodstains in the crew area, equipment smashed by the crew members, and crazy graffiti in the captain's cabin. The situation was pushed further and further in the direction of horror. Finally, the last anomaly they found was a video clip that lasted for a few minutes.
"I still remember that scene clearly. I was still a scientist on Tandani at that time, and I personally experienced that scene." The Grand Matriarch clasped her hands together. She was still trembling when she mentioned the history of that year. "The surveillance recorded the scene at the airlock. The captain and the commander of the spaceship pushed the bodies into the airlock compartment, and then planted a bomb in the spaceship. They set up a message to send to Tandani, and finally, they were pulled out of the airlock along with all the bodies. They committed suicide. "
"Individuals with strong wills will occasionally regain their sanity in the early stages of infection," Sandora said quietly. "It seems that the captain and the commander had already guessed that there was something in the spaceship that mortals could not deal with, so they wanted to destroy the spaceship. They were worried that they would lose their minds again before the bomb exploded and stop the spaceship from self-destructing. This was their last chance, so they chose to commit suicide first."
The elder sister sighed. "Unfortunately, they did not expect that the invisible force would also destroy the detonator of the bomb. The abyss destroys indiscriminately. The bomb was destroyed before it exploded, along with the spaceship's transmitter."
"Yes, later we found the message that could not be sent. There was only one sentence: Don't come, run!"
The infection of the abyss was very difficult to detect in the beginning, especially when it was still very weak. Those dim two-dimensional planes were hidden in the darkness. Before they began to destroy everything, no one would think that a piece of enchanting pattern could cause any harm. At first, people only found that there were many strange "graffiti" in some places on the exploration spaceship that had luckily returned. Later on, the lighting system and the power furnace of the spaceport frequently malfunctioned. Within a few days, the Tree Elves in the base began to be infected by an inexplicable depression. Violence increased day by day, and the military gradually lost control. When the capital finally realized that the situation was not right, their orders could no longer reach the border. Then, just like many other worlds infected by the abyss, the first batch of infected suddenly began to attack others, and then from the infected area, all kinds of creatures began to mutate. Giant beasts began to slaughter civilians, and the space cities that the Tree Elves built over thousands of years began to fall apart without being attacked. On the colonial planet, the ground cracked and magma spewed.
Facing this inexplicable "plague", the Tree Elves resisted for a full fifteen years. For a civilization that knew nothing about the abyss (Furthermore, they did not have a heaven-bestowed treasure like Mystical Iron, nor did they have a lost Goddess of Life who could turn the tide), this was a rather good result. However, in the end, they were still on the verge of extinction. The colonial planet was left with only one fortress, and their space forces were basically wiped out. That was when the Schilling Army appeared.
There was no way to find out which emperor's army it was. At the very last moment, they discovered the heavily infected Tree Elf Kingdom. Fortunately, the general of the Empire who carried out the cleansing mission was a meticulous soldier. He did not directly unleash the extermination weapons on the entire galaxy, but instead, slowly pushed the frontlines, and discovered the stubbornly resisting Tree Elf Civilization.
According to the timeline, it should have been less than two years since the calamity of the Empire's destruction (This was the conclusion based on the history that the Great Tribe Leader had mentioned). The Tree Elf Civilization was very likely the last vassal race of the old Empire.
"After becoming acquainted with the Empire, we first received permission to rebuild our society. At the same time, the Empire transformed our planet into a mobile fortress." The Great Tribe Leader continued after drinking a mouthful of water. In my heart, I thought, Isn't this the same as being directly expropriated?
The old Empire's way of doing things was really … Alright, what they did was actually a good thing. However, after completing the task, they immediately expropriated the planet of the Tree Elf Civilization and turned it into a space fortress. (It could only be considered a space fortress. During the era of the old Empire, this kind of starship that was created by hollowing out a planet didn't have the qualifications to be called a battleship.) This kind of behavior was really tyrannical. Fortunately, the Tree Elves had just escaped from the calamity of extinction, so they didn't have the time to care about such things. Or perhaps they didn't care much about it.
In any case, in the end, this matter developed in such a way. "With the help of the Empire, we used two years to cover the surface of our planet with a rechargeable armor. At that time, the general of the Empire suddenly came to visit. At that time, he was very anxious. I felt that something big might have happened. He brought with him a batch of equipment. It was a huge machine that could drive the planet to travel across worlds. These things were previously forbidden for races like us to come into contact with. He ordered the engineers to bury the new equipment in the planet's mantle. Then, he personally carried out the subsequent modifications and gave us a few things. In the end, he requested for all the Tree Elves to hide underground and started the engine of the starship. "
"After that, you just obediently carried out your mission?" Lin Xue felt that it was a little inconceivable. "Aren't you curious as to why he did that? Don't you find it strange to suddenly leave your own universe? "
"Leaving our own universe isn't a big deal. The Tree Elves don't care about such things." The Great Tribe Elder shook her head. "The general told us that the end of the world is coming. All of the universes are no longer safe. Some of the other vassal races are already on their way and some have already perished. The Tree Elves don't have the ability to stay behind and fight. Thus, we have to carry out other missions. That is to escape with the important information. The further we escape, the better. The journey will end when the Imperial Army catches up with us. However, the general also reminded us to be careful of the pursuit. There will be corrupted warships of the Empire chasing after the starship. They will tear the planet's mantle apart and destroy the information inside. "
I recalled the legends of the Tree Elves. Then, I shook my head. I felt that there were still many secrets that I hadn't unraveled. "The oasis is the small planet that we are currently staying on. What is going on? Is this the important information that the old Empire asked you to transport away? "
"No, the information is in the system. This small planet in the earth's core is only a part of the system's carrier. It was originally our moon."
Everyone, "… Ah?"
"The oasis was originally our moon. The Tree Elves' mother planet had two huge satellites. The larger one was destroyed in the flames of war. We used mass weapons to blow it up into a star ring to slow down the polluters' bombs. The smaller one was called the oasis. It survived the flames of war. When the decision was made to set sail, the elders of the Tree Elves felt that we should at least bring something from our hometown with us. Thus, the general agreed. He modified the mother planet's core and placed our moon in it. "
What kind of ridiculous modification method was this?!
After the Great Tribe Elder's explanation, we finally understood the ins and outs of the history of the Green Star and how the oasis came to be. I didn't expect it to be such a long and complicated story. At this moment, I thought of another matter. This matter seemed to be more confusing than anything else. "So, are the Tree Elves sleeping in those dormant pods in the earth's mantle or are they living on the oasis? What is going on with those mass projections outside? Also, the exchange of the villagers last night … "
"That was the solution that was adopted when the journey was too long," the Great Tribe Elder said helplessly. "After the mother planet set sail, we quickly lost contact with the Empire (I reckon that the situation within the borders of the old Empire had already gone out of control). We hadn't completely learned how to use the complicated operating system of the planet fortress, so we didn't have the opportunity to learn it. Thus, we could only continue to follow the automatic navigation system. In the beginning, we would stay on the mother planet for a short few years before coming to live on the surface. However, we quickly discovered that the world had indeed experienced a great disaster just like what the general had warned us about. The external environment had become incomparably dangerous. The flames of war and the aura of the abyss were everywhere. After a few consecutive dangerous situations in the universe, the Tree Elves finally gave up on the surface and moved to live underground. As time passed, the elder realized a problem: If the destination of the journey was too far away, then staying awake would be a catastrophic event. This would cause people to go crazy, and the consequences would be no less than the pollution of the abyss. The Tree Elves have a long lifespan. If they were to be trapped underground for such a long time, then it would only be a matter of time before they collectively collapsed. Thus, we entered hibernation in batches. In the beginning, we entered hibernation in batches, but as the situation worsened, the number of Tree Elves who could maintain their consciousness and maintain the system decreased. In the end, almost everything was handed over to the automatic facilities. Only 1% of the Tree Elves were still awake. However, the scientists of the Tree Elves who were awake discovered a terrible phenomenon: Due to the long period of continuous hibernation, the spiritual power of the Tree Elves was dissipating. Even if the physical body could be preserved in the hibernation chamber, the soul would not be able to live forever. The mission seemed to be about to fail. To the Tree Elves, this was something even more terrifying than death. Our racial imprint did not allow us to give up on our promise. Thus, in the end, the scientists, including me, came up with a plan to delay the situation.
Activate the oasis in the earth's core and let it form a world made of mass projections, simulating the most primitive environment of the mother planet. Let the Tree Elves enter this projected world in batches to dream … "
"Dream?" Big Sister suddenly interrupted the other party's words.
"Yes, dream," the Great Matriarch nodded her head. "Use the soul extraction device to transfer the entire spiritual power of a Tree Elf out and input it into the mass projection. Then, selectively seal a large portion of their memories and finally place them in the oasis. In this kind of dream, the damage to the soul caused by the long journey and continuous hibernation would slowly heal. Sealing a large portion of their memories was to make the dreamer forget about the journey. That way, when they leave the dream, they would be able to bring along a perfect and sweet dream that would be able to heal their wounds. Very quickly, we discovered that this method was very effective. The phenomenon of the soul dissipating in the Tree Elves completely stopped. Thus, we simply extracted everyone's soul and stored it in the gigantic database in the mother planet's mantle. Transferring the soul from the database into the dream was much simpler and safer than temporarily extracting it from the physical body. Furthermore, it also saved energy. Because of this, the bodies in the hibernation chamber in the upper layer of the mantle could also be stored at a low power level. After all, no one knew how long the journey would last. When the first energy furnace malfunctioned, we felt a sense of crisis. "
I sighed silently. Fortunately, the Green Star's energy furnace was still in good condition. However, they were right to prepare for a rainy day.
"Basically, everything matches up." Big Sister crossed her hands and placed them under her chin as she looked at the Great Matriarch. "Then, you are …"
"I am one of the navigators." The old Tree Elf smiled. "When the crew of the starship is in hibernation, there has to be someone to look after the navigator. The navigator is the pilot of the starship in name, but our authority is only to observe the operation of the system. Furthermore, this work was forced to stop after a malfunction a few thousand years ago. Until now, we still haven't been able to fix those things. We are just primitive people who were carelessly thrown onto the spaceship and the trainers suddenly left. Everything was so rushed that we didn't even have the time to learn how to brake the mother planet … "
The navigators, when the other Tree Elves entered hibernation and dream, needed to maintain their complete memories and clear minds. There weren't many of them and they had to be divided into many shifts. In order to observe whether the starship's aging system was still in good condition, they were under great pressure. Every time, only one navigator would appear in the Oasis' dream. In the name of the ancestor and the Great Matriarch, this was the only time they could rest. Furthermore, even during this rest time, they had to remain clear-headed. After all, there was still someone responsible for maintaining the dream.
Thus, I felt deep respect for the Great Matriarch in front of me.
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