Some of the universal social studies scholars believed that there were three factors of building a lawful galactic society from nothing. First, communication in the form of a galactic war where part of the civilizations survived and obtained knowledge of each other. Second, one or more powerful rulers that had the strength to forcefully decide rules for other civilizations, forming laws. Third, the reduction of distance achieved through hyperdrive, stargate, and quantum communication technology.
In the eyes of some scholars, these three technologies were the greatest inventions of the universe era. They allowed civilizations to communicate with each other while being countless light years apart. These were what formed the stable galactic societal structure of the entire known universe.
After pioneering in the Flickering World for four months, including Han Xiao, the Black Star Army started to agree more and more with this statement.
The Special Task Force led by Hadavy took four whole months to arrive at the east of the Garu Star Cluster from the south, while Han Xiao’s main ship fleet crossed that distance through the stargates built by the Special Task Force in less than two days.
At the eastern border Star System, two fleets rendezvoused in space. The Special Task Force spaceships returned to the main ship.
Han Xiao waited for a while in the command room, and very soon, Hadavy and his subordinates came from the dock.
“Army Commander!” Hadavy opened his arms wide and pounced over with excitement on his face.
Han Xiao’s mouth twitched. He hesitated for a moment but decided not to back away and gave Hadavy a hug.
“It’s been four whole months,” Hadavy said with an overjoyed tone.
“Do you have to be so excited?” Feeling Hadavy’s arms tightly wrapped around his waist, Han Xiao casually patted his shoulder and dragged him off with one hand.
What he did not know was that these four months had been extremely tough for Hadavy. His Harden Esper Ability could only be improved through powerful external stimulation. As a Beyond Grade A seed, he had become Han Xiao’s subordinate for the opportunity to spar with a Beyond Grade A. After he came under Han Xiao’s command, he had felt his Esper Ability grow again after being stagnant for an exceptionally long time. This made him overjoyed.
However, the sign of becoming stronger disappeared once again in these four months away. Furthermore, there was not even a Calamity Grade officer in the Special Task Force, so he could not even find a sparring opponent. To a battle maniac like him, this was unbearable.
When he saw Han Xiao again, in Hadavy’s eyes, it was as if a halo was hovering above Han Xiao’s head. He realized just how much he missed Han Xiao… ‘s fists.
Hadavy was in a particularly good mood. He looked at Hila, who was beside them, grinned, and opened his arms, attempting to give her a hug too.
“Try touching me.” Death energy appeared in Hila’s eyes as she glared at Hadavy.
Hadavy’s expression became stiff, and he awkwardly lowered his arms, thinking, There’s no way I, a Beyond Grade A seed, would treat you this kindly if not for the army commander.
“Come on, Hadavy is at least a Beyond Grade A seed. Don’t be so harsh with your words.” Han Xiao, however, was the one who felt that Hila’s attitude toward a member of the Black Star Guards needed improvement. He patted her shoulder and pressed her shoulder bone.
Hmm, quite nice.
Hila’s expression tensed up. She glanced at Han Xiao’s palm, and the overflowing red energy in her eyes vanished.
“Okay,” she said reluctantly.
Hadavy greeted Feidin and the other Black Star Guards. He then looked at Han Xiao and asked, “Following your orders, the Special Task Force has already set up the long distance stargates—what do we do next?”
Han Xiao did not reply directly but snapped his fingers and summoned the 3D star map in front of everyone. He carefully searched through the star map and finally confirmed the planet with the ownerless Universal Treasure that was in the desolate universe belt outside the Garu Star Cluster.
In his previous life, this planet was called Planet Amber. Now, it was still a planet with just a serial number and no name.
“Are we going to this planet?” Aurora asked curiously. “Is there anything special about it?”
Han Xiao nodded and randomly made up some reasons. “Some time ago, when a group of army members were exploring desolate planets, they discovered some information left by aliens. It seemed to be the travelling records of a certain explorer, and it had information about this planet, which stated that there was a civilization on it. Since we’re here, we shall go and take a look.”
This reason was completely logical. Since Han Xiao was the one who said it, despite the others being somewhat puzzled, they had no doubts. After all, given what had happened with the Great Cosmos Corps, the existence of natives in the Flickering World was no longer shocking to them.
Han Xiao did not exactly lie—Planet Amber was indeed the ruins of an extinct native civilization, and that Universal Treasure was in those ruins.
[Spacetime Amber] was the name of this Universal Treasure. It was not built by this native civilization but an extraterrestrial object that landed on the planet accidentally. This civilization had once viewed it as their holy relic.
In his previous life, as the dynasty’s allies steadily developed forward, the Spacetime Amber ended up in the hands of one of the dynasty’s allies who took part in the exploration. That person was Ravenlaude, one of the Beyond Grade As whom Han Xiao had met on the Crimson Dynasty’s mother planet, the member of the Ancient Ones who had a bad relationship with Aesop.
After that, Ravenlaude was defeated by another Beyond Grade A in the Calamity of the Supers version, and the Spacetime Amber was taken away. After many incidents, the owner of the Spacetime Amber changed many times, one of them even being someone from the World Tree Civilization. In the end, it landed in the hands of the Federation of Light.
The origin of the Spacetime Amber was very mysterious. The players in his previous life only found out about its origin at the late stages through special intelligence channels. It was not some shocking secret but involved the Primordial Ones and had a story to it.
As for the effects of the Spacetime Amber, only one word could describe it—’unique’.
It basically would not increase one’s strength at all, but its effects… were terrifying even for Beyond Grade As!
According to Han Xiao’s memories of the storyline in his previous life, after the Spacetime Amber was discovered, more than five Beyond Grade As were ‘defeated’ by it!
Since this thing had no owner, other than him, no one else even knew about the existence of the Spacetime Amber. He would be able to obtain it easily.
…
A few days later, the fleet arrived at Planet Amber and entered its atmosphere.
The Fixed Star was relatively close to this planet, and the burning sun shone from the sky. The surface of Planet Amber was mainly desert with everlasting dull gray sandstorms roaming across the land. No signs of any civilizations could be seen.
Han Xiao was just about to send out detection ships when Aurora closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head.
“There are no vital signs on this planet.”
“Your vital sign detection range can now cover an entire planet?” Shock flashed across Hila’s face.
Seeing that everyone was looking, Aurora gave a shy smile but said with somewhat a proud tone, “I’ve grown too.”
“Not bad, not bad.” Han Xiao smiled with satisfaction.
Every time Aurora became stronger, he would always be quite happy.
After all, this meant that Aurora’s healing power had become stronger.
The Aurora Character Summon Card’s effect was full recovery, but that came from the interface, and Aurora’s healing power was limited. The cost of her ability was her own life force. With the astronomical amount of energy in his cells as a Beyond Grade A, Aurora would most likely be drained just from fully healing him one or two times.
“Since there are no vital signs, the civilization you mentioned might have gone extinct, only leaving ruins,” Feidin said.
Han Xiao nodded. He looked at the yellow desert and sent out detection ships to collect information of the planet’s underground environment.
In the dynasty’s records, the civilization ruins that the Spacetime Amber was in were buried under the sand. As for the details of discovering the Spacetime Amber, there were no records. Therefore, he did not know its exact location. However, with the galactic grade detection devices he had, finding the civilization’s ruins was just a matter of time.
As expected, before Han Xiao finished spectating a match of Wayne Card between Hadavy and another Black Star Guard, he received a message from the detection ships—many city-like ruins had been discovered under the desert.
However, no special energy source was detected.
No abnormal energy signal detected? Hmm, the Spacetime Amber should be on this planet. Maybe it’s because it hasn’t been charged for a very long time.
Han Xiao looked at the ruins marked on the planet map and shook his head with resignation.
Looks like I have to search all of them… Tsk, why didn’t the dynasty record the details of discovering the Spacetime Amber? Now I have to spend time searching for it slowly.
Han Xiao told the fleet to standby outside the atmosphere.
Looking down at the ground under his feet, Han Xiao waved his hand. An enormous mass of Mechanical Force gushed out, stirring up energy ripples. A gigantic light gate opened behind him, and inside were countless mechanical soldiers. This was the secondary dimensional army base that he had with him at all times.
Clank!
Countless mechanical soldiers swarmed out, with Psionic Prime and the thousands of mechanical lives at the front. They all looked at Han Xiao.
After releasing millions of machines, Han Xiao then closed the secondary dimensional army base. The mechanical army aligned neatly in front of him, covering the sky.
“You guys, search through the ruins, report any special discovery to me, and also look for this thing.” Han Xiao drew out the appearance of the Spacetime Amber in the quantum network and sent out this order to all the machines through Phillip.
Hu!
The next moment, the mechanical army before him split up and dug into the desert to explore the ruins.
With so many helpful machinery assistants, Han Xiao did not want to waste time personally searching through so many ruins.
“Master, we’ve discovered something special.”
Not long after, Psionic Prime sent back some good news together with images.
Han Xiao glanced at it. On the image was a huge room like some sort of a hall. The walls and the pillars were covered in drawings. In the middle of the room was a gigantic black disc with circuit-like patterns on it. It might be a product of mixing magic and technology.
On the ground around the disc, there were many translucent spherical crystals, each about 1.5 meters tall with creatures of a certain species in them. Their bodies had no signs of rotting, but their expressions and movements were all completely still. They had no vital signs, like beings solidified by amber.
This phenomenon is the effect of the Spacetime Amber…
Han Xiao was surprised. He had visited Planet Amber in his previous life, but there were only ruins at that time, and these amber creatures were not there. These creatures must be the race that had once lived there.
Maybe when Ravenlaude discovered the Spacetime Amber, he took away those specimens.
However, this was good news. It meant that he was near the Spacetime Amber.
Han Xiao called the fleet down. The spaceships used their traction beams and sucked this area of the desert dry, exposing the ruins where Psionic Prime was.
The group of them quickly descended and landed in the ruins, following Psionic Prime’s signal deep into the heart of the ruins while observing the city on the way.
Although the ruins seemed to be ancient, the original look of this civilization could still somewhat be seen.
The patterns could still display their sense of beauty. This civilization seemed to be quite good at art.
“They must’ve been quite a beautiful civilization,” Feidin said.
“Maybe.”
Han Xiao did not deny it. Very soon, they came to the center of the ruins. This was an enormous fortress, like it was a gigantic safehouse or sanctuary assembled from tons of tough materials.
Psionic Prime’s team was in this fortress. Han Xiao and the others entered the hall in the image very soon. With a rough look, they realized that there were at least twenty thousand ambers.
“What are these? It looks like amber.” Hadavy touched a piece of amber beside him with curiosity. The texture was very strange. He could not feel any temperature on the amber, but his hand could not move an inch further.
Han Xiao causally came before a piece of amber and looked at the creature inside it. These creatures should be carbon-based mammals. They looked hairy and somewhat similar to sloths. It was about one meter tall, its eyes were wide open, and it had this constant anxious and uneasy expression on its face.
Han Xiao turned around and glanced at Hila. He then signaled with his lips and said, “Try attacking it.”
Swoosh!
Without hesitation, a wave of energy gushed out from Hila’s eyes and landed on one piece of amber.
The next moment, something strange happened. Although the amber was blown away, it was completely undamaged. The energy Hila released dissipated on the smooth surface of the amber completely.
“Hmm?” Hila frowned. Unconvinced, energy concentrated once again as she planned to launch a much more powerful attack.
Seeing this, Han Xiao hastily stopped her. “Enough, you don’t have to try again, or you’re going to destroy this entire room.”
Hila had no choice but to stop then wondered, “This thing is immune to my attacks. Even my spiritual attack could not penetrate it.”
“Not just that.”
Han Xiao pressed on one piece of amber, and Mechanical Force gushed out from his palm. However, the lightning only swam on the surface of the amber; the amber itself was not damaged at all.
“More accurately, this thing should be immune to all kinds of energy. It can’t be destroyed or damaged.”
Han Xiao raised one piece of amber up and weighed it; it was not heavy. He put it down, shook his head, and said, “Beyond Grade As, or even the strongest Planetary Obliteration weapons of universal civilizations, can’t damage this amber.”
Everyone was shocked.
“How can there be such powerful material in the world?”
“Even Beyond Grade As can’t destroy it? Impossible!”
“Could it be…” Hila had a flash of insight. “Is this another Space Wonder?”
Han Xiao caressed his chin and pretended to be thinking. “Hmm, possibly. It feels like the Evolution Cube, like a manmade product.”
He was not very clear on how this kind of amber formed, but Space Wonders were always difficult to explain. According to the data in his previous life, this amber seemed to have solidified the time and space of a small area.
Objects inside the amber would be isolated from reality, as if existing in another dimension that had no factor of time.
According to that logic, the bodies of beings covered in this amber should not change; they should have a long or even infinite life span, like sleeping in a capsule, and their mind should be frozen as well…
However, according to the NPCs who fought against it in his previous life, when they were trapped by the Spacetime Amber, they were indeed unable to control their bodies, and their energy could not escape it as well, but their mind was active. They could even see and hear what was happening outside the amber. They could even feel the passage of time in the outside world. It was like their minds were trapped in their bodies. This was what contradicted the logic and one of the important reasons this was one of the Space Wonders.
Only the minds of individuals trapped too long by the Spacetime Amber would enter stagnation and vanish in the end, giving up on maintaining thoughts. Stronger individuals would be able to last longer.
Therefore, this thing could create a cell that could trap any beings and not worry about the prisoner running away, while at the same time being a terrible torture.
Even if the target was a Beyond Grade A!
The only problem was that the process of activating the Spacetime Amber was quite long. It would be extremely difficult to trap a Beyond Grade A with it.
If this falls into the hands of an enemy, it’s very threatening to me. I will have one less thing to worry about if it’s in my hands.
All kinds of thoughts flashed past Han Xiao’s mind. He turned around and looked at the roughly ten-meter-wide black disc in the middle of the room. He observed the patterns on the disc for a while and roughly confirmed that this was some kind of pattern to transmit energy.
“Looks like this thing needs energy to be activated.”
Han Xiao waved. Psionic Prime obediently turned into many hovering guards and shot out beams at the disc, transferring energy.
Hum!
The disc suddenly shivered. As if some kind of device had been activated, the patterns lit up, and the dust on it fell off.
The next moment, this disc lit up entirely and displayed its real function… it was a screen.
A video started playing on the screen. A creature of this civilization appeared and slowly spoke.
At the time, their translators had yet to record this language, so they had no idea what it was saying. However, this did not prevent them from understanding the images. The images of this civilization before it went extinct appeared on the screen, as if it was displaying its entire history from the beginning. They started as primal beings, gradually learned to use tools. They invented airplanes and hovering cars, and they were trying to build galactic spaceships. The cities were beautiful, and the people were living peacefully.
However, due to the abnormal activity of their Fixed Star, the environment of this planet changed drastically. A disaster that was more than enough to wipe out all lives on the planet occurred. In order to preserve their civilization, they used their ‘holy relic’ to seal their people and saved all the information of their civilization in the database. There were databases in every ruin to make sure whoever discovered this would receive this information.
The appearance of that ‘holy relic’ was indeed the Spacetime Amber in Han Xiao’s memories. Realizing that he had come to the right place, Han Xiao was secretly relieved and continued watching.
A large amount of energy was needed in order to use the Spacetime Amber. This civilization had almost depleted all their energy sources just to charge it so that they could use it multiple times. There were ambers not just in this city’s ruins but in every ruin. While they were watching this recording, the teams that were exploring the other ruins discovered more and more amber as well.
At the end of the recording, the whereabouts of the Spacetime Amber was finally mentioned. It seemed to be placed in a huge city, but that was before the civilization went extinct, so they did not know which ruin it was.
I’ll have Phillip copy their database first. If their language is deciphered, I will be able to understand what this recording was talking about and find the ruins the Spacetime Amber is at.
Han Xiao was just about to act when a notification popped up on the interface.
_____________________
You have triggered the hidden mission [Traces of Existence]!
Mission Introduction: Due to the abnormal activity of the Fixed Star, a world ending disaster engulfed the Yasre Civilization. Before their doom, the Yasreans selected two paths at the same time. They wanted to preserve a small part of their race with their holy relic so that they could survive this disaster and rebuild their civilization in the future. So, they were waiting for someone to use the holy relic to release them in the future. However, if no one came, the Yasreans were willing to become eternal specimens and preserve all the information about their civilization, leaving the traces of their existence in the wide and endless universe. You are the visitor they have waited many years for. Sadly, time has already decided their final fate.
Mission Requirements: Using the Yasre Civilization’s ‘holy relic’, released all the Yasreans from the effect of their ‘holy relic’.
Rewards: 1,500,000,000 EXP, 1 Legendary Point, 1 Random Reward, 780 Exploration Points, and 1 [Bold Explorer] Ability Shard.
