Chapter 686: Three Lifetimes, Three Worlds
"It's begun over there."
At the Federation's solar observation station, countless people began to bustle about.
Decades ago, after the Federation learned that the Land of White had initiated its plan to conquer the Sun, the corresponding observation department was established.
Even though the Federation had already achieved controllable nuclear fusion technology, and the lifeline of energy was no longer in the Sun's hands, this star illuminating the entire galaxy remained the focus of their attention.
For when the day the Sun fell arrived, it would be the moment for the main deep-space fleet to set sail.
...
Over the past few decades, the Federation had largely "digested" Mars, Mercury, and Venus.
This was digestion in the literal sense, not simple occupation, but destructive mining, the disappearance of entire planets.
All mineral resources useful to humanity were packed up and taken away; even the remaining sand and slag were not spared, all of them transformed into land within the internal spaces of the grand flagship.
"A battle in a fifteen-million-degree environment, truly insane."
The observer in space cautiously operated the Spirit Energy Sky-Patrolling Tunneling Mirror with their helmet.
This behemoth, comparable in volume to a skyscraper, could traverse a distance of two hundred million kilometers, pierce through the blazing corona, and directly observe the Sun's interior.
It was also one of the Federation's superweapons of spirit energy technology, in a sense, the ultimate psychic machine.
Without special protective measures, this Sky-Patrolling Tunneling Mirror could even "see" the internal structure of Earth's core from low-Earth orbit and then generate a corresponding three-dimensional model.
"One, two, three, four, five – five patches of mosaic. There are five seventh-tier cultivators on the solar battlefield."
High-tier cultivators all possessed extremely acute senses, easily perceiving the gaze of others.
At the level of a True Immortal, a seventh-tier cultivator, ordinary people might have their minds corrupted by simply looking directly at their true bodies, being invisibly brainwashed into dependents or madmen.
Therefore, to protect the relatively weaker observers, the tunneling mirror's operating system would automatically censor certain entities that could potentially harm their minds and encrypt the raw observation records, allowing only high-tier cultivators to view them.
In the era of spirit energy, looking around at the scenery also carried risks.
"One against four, huh? This battle must be thrilling."
"Are you perhaps overlooking the hundreds of millions of Solar Star Spirits beneath those four mosaic patches...?"
"Aside from those four mosaic patches, everything else is just cannon fodder, what's there to care about?"
"The problem is, any one of those cannon fodder could kill both of us ten times over..."
"..."
The conversation suddenly died.
Within the vast Federation, they were just two inconspicuous ordinary people who, after more than ten years of arduous study and nearly five years of space adaptation training, finally obtained the opportunity to become observers for the Spirit Energy Sky-Patrolling Tunneling Mirror.
This was not a comfortable job, as it required long periods spent in space, without contact with society or opportunities to return home.
They were constantly just facing a few companions.
Over time, mental issues were prone to arise, as were problems such as social anxiety disorder.
The only benefit was the high salary.
During this year working in space, they could earn an income equivalent to the average salary of a second-tier cultivator within the Federation – enough for an ordinary family of several members to live on for nearly ten years.
"Send the encrypted raw records to the main control room of Flagship Zero."
"Understood!"
...
"Thump." Bai Mo, locked in fierce combat, suddenly felt his body sink, his mind struck by a force. Even the four black wings he extended to suppress the few Solar Star Spirits were affected, allowing the spirits to struggle free by a few inches.
"Is someone else about to ascend to True Immortality?" This sensation was not unfamiliar to Bai Mo; he had experienced it many times before.
As the creator of the True Spirit Barrier, the method to evade Daoization, Bai Mo suffered a form of retaliation: with every cultivator who used this path to ascend to True Immortality, his own Daoization deepened an additional degree.
But Bai Mo felt no regret, for this was his silent path of defiance.
Following a certain ethereal connection, Bai Mo's gaze stretched all the way to the Manghuang Realm...
Fifty years had passed, and the Manghuang Realm had long since transformed. The efforts of thousands of transmigrators had brought the brilliance of industrialization and modernization to this plane, once steeped in a "golden age."
City after city rose from the ground; the wilderness, once teeming with demons and monsters, had been plowed over and over again by various hunters, and the blood-soaked barren lands had been converted into tens of thousands of acres of fertile fields.
The people of this world had long grown accustomed to a high and mighty "Divine Court."
Each year, a very small number of fortunate individuals would be selected as Divine Court reservists, and among these reservists, a select few super-lucky ones would be absorbed into the Divine Court, which was to say, into the Ark itself.
However, the other end of the thread connecting to Bai Mo was not in those shiny new metropolises, but in a remote village.
"This is the third lifetime... three years, then another three years, I've been waiting for over thirty years!" a certain exquisitely beautiful girl muttered to herself while listlessly chopping firewood.
Although her complaints were by no means quiet, the few adults less than ten meters away from her seemed not to hear a thing.
The one chopping firewood was the thousand-year-old loli, Yue Yu. As one of the first superhumans to awaken abilities during the Spirit River Autumn era, her true age had long since exceeded a hundred.
To await Yun Jie, her beloved who was undergoing the Reincarnation Tribulation, she had come to the Manghuang Realm and waited for fifty years.
During this time, the Yun Jie she was waiting for had died twice: once, he was struck by lightning while running out in a heavy rain to collect clothes; another time, he tripped on a stone on the road and died after hitting the back of his head on a rock when he fell.
Both times, Yue Yu hadn't been able to save him in time, and Yun Jie had died before awakening, so this was already his third reincarnation.
Normally, a cultivator at the peak of the sixth tier attempting to undergo the Reincarnation Tribulation could at most support one reincarnation. By the second reincarnation, their soul would dissipate, resulting in true, silent death.
However, Yun Jie, this genius, was clearly different from ordinary people; he could reincarnate one more time. Although it was only one more time, this was his last chance.
Yue Yu, who had gradually discovered these patterns, modified the memories of everyone in the village to become Yun Jie's sister in this life, protecting him silently day and night, never leaving his side, all to prevent the god of death from taking her beloved.
This process was undoubtedly excruciatingly difficult; she could neither reveal the truth nor fully protect her target, and what was even more unbearable was not knowing how much longer she would have to wait...
Perhaps the other party would live a peaceful life, never awakening their true self until old age and death, leaving the protector to toil pointlessly for decades.
...
"Still waiting?" A projection of Bai Mo, following that faint, ethereal connection, appeared ghost-like in Yue Yu's courtyard..
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