Chapter 907: Unable to Leave |
The quasar behind Xiao Yu remained dazzling and violent. Infinite amounts of ultra-high-energy matter were still rapidly revolving around it, constantly being devoured by it, while the matter outside the event horizon transformed into photons and various types of radiation and roared outward. In such a noisy and perilous place, Xiao Yu was quietly observing that County-Class spaceship formation, which was getting farther and farther away from him.
In the universe, motion or stillness is meaningless in itself. Every substance and celestial body in the universe is moving, or rather, every celestial body and substance in the universe is not moving. Motion and stillness are described relative to a reference object. Without a reference object, terms like motion and stillness lose their meaning.
In cosmic navigation, Xiao Yu also chose other celestial bodies as his reference objects. When traveling within a galaxy, he chose extremely stable neutron stars as reference objects. After leaving the galaxy and beginning galaxy-scale voyages, neutron stars naturally were no longer suitable as navigation beacons, which was why Xiao Yu found a method of navigating by measuring the angles formed by the lines connecting galaxies and his fleet. But… when these galaxies also became unreliable, what method did Xiao Yu still have to determine his position?
Although Xiao Yu had decided to trust those galaxies instead of trusting the bizarre quasar before his eyes, this judgment was made from reason. Emotionally, Xiao Yu still felt somewhat uneasy.
This County-Class spaceship formation moved farther and farther away from Xiao Yu. Everything still seemed normal. The observational data within the County-Class spaceship formation continued to match the observational data from the main fleet. This indicated that no unexpected situation had occurred. Yet Xiao Yu did not let down his guard. Because Xiao Yu knew that at some unknown moment, everything might suddenly be reversed.
“If an accident happens, then in what form will it appear before me, this ‘observer’?” Xiao Yu silently thought. “It cannot be that I will see the County-Class spaceship formation approaching me, while the instruments inside the formation indicate that it is moving away from me, can it?”
In Xiao Yu’s expectations, there were many possible scenarios. And what Xiao Yu was thinking about right now was the least possible, most absurd and contradictory one.
But the truth was precisely this absurd.
In Xiao Yu’s observations, at that very instant, in a moment so fast that Xiao Yu had no way of distinguishing it, that County-Class spaceship formation had suddenly reversed direction, changing from moving away from him to approaching him. And at that same instant, the observational data reported by this County-Class spaceship formation underwent a certain change. Their measurements of the galaxies indicated that they had changed from moving away to approaching, while their observations of the quasar indicated that they were still continuing to move away.
The truth was this absurd. Xiao Yu was clearly seeing from here that the County-Class spaceship formation was approaching him. Their measurements of the connecting angles also indicated they were approaching him. Yet, the ranging instruments inside those ships showed that they were still moving away from this quasar.
This contradictory phenomenon lasted for a short period of time. After that short time, things returned to normal. The three sets of observational data became consistent and all indicated that they were approaching. And at that moment, that County-Class spaceship formation once again observed the quasar from ahead.
Xiao Yu finally understood under what kind of circumstances his own direction had been suddenly reversed. Just like this County-Class spaceship formation, when he moved a certain distance away from the quasar, his course would suddenly be altered. During this alteration process, he would not detect the slightest abnormality. He would continue to believe that he was moving in the same direction the whole time. If, in this experiment, Xiao Yu had not been in the position of an observer, then he absolutely would not have discovered the abnormality within it.
But… how could this be? What kind of force could suddenly reverse the direction of his fleet’s movement like this? Xiao Yu’s warships also clearly had a bow and a stern. During the process of changing from leaving to approaching, they did not move backward. Instead, the entire spaceship suddenly turned around, and the speed was so fast that Xiao Yu had no way of detecting how they completed this transformation, as if they had naturally always been like this.
Rotating a warship by one hundred eighty degrees so that its bow moved to the position of its stern was itself a kind of motion. And according to the upper limit of the speed of light, if a warship was two kilometers long from bow to stern, then even moving at light speed, it would still need at least one hundred-thousandth of a second for the bow to reach the stern’s position. And if there were such a process and such a span of time, Xiao Yu would definitely have been able to observe it.
But Xiao Yu saw nothing.
It seemed to require neither time nor motion. It simply completed the transformation from bow to stern naturally, and then it began approaching the quasar.
A chill began to spread amid the brilliant light. Xiao Yu had personally witnessed how this force, whether natural or artificial, toyed with him. Most frightening of all, he had absolutely no clue and had no way of uncovering the truth or source of this change.
Just as Xiao Yu had expected, when the direction of this County-Class spaceship formation was reversed, all the instruments aboard it still detected no abnormality at all. Xiao Yu found it hard to believe. After the formation’s direction was reversed, he immediately controlled them to stop, turn around again, and try to leave this place, but at once, that unknown force reversed their direction yet again. Xiao Yu turned them back once more, and they were reversed once more…
Xiao Yu tried this hundreds of thousands of times, and this County-Class spaceship formation was reversed hundreds of thousands of times. Xiao Yu did not succeed even once. And in those hundreds of thousands of attempts, Xiao Yu never detected any energy fluctuation, nor any abnormality at the instrumental level.
Xiao Yu could only watch helplessly as the situation became bizarre to the extreme, while the instruments kept telling him the same thing: everything is normal, everything is normal…
He had been trapped in the vicinity of this quasar.
At this moment, Xiao Yu finally confirmed this fact.
“Then… how am I supposed to leave this place?” Xiao Yu murmured to himself, his mind in complete disorder.
Xiao Yu forced himself to calm down. At this moment, he set aside the thought of how to leave and began thinking about another question.
That was… why had he been trapped here?
At present, the possibility that this situation was a natural phenomenon had become quite small. In other words, it was highly likely that this situation had been intentionally caused by some existence Xiao Yu did not yet know. So why did they want to trap him here?
Xiao Yu thought of what he had experienced in the past, including the sudden reversal of time in the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy, and the virtual life that had shared the same year, month, and day of birth as him…
“What is all of this for…” Xiao Yu silently said. “Is it to kill me?”
If the reversal of time in the galaxy had been to kill him, and if encountering the virtual life civilization had been to kill him, then was it possible that the bizarre situation he was experiencing now was also to kill him? To use the quasar’s violent energy to gradually wear down his energy reserves? But the companion galaxy nearby was constantly supplying this quasar with enormous amounts of matter. By intercepting that matter, Xiao Yu could obtain abundant resources. He might even be able to establish huge construction factories here as his logistics base and support his survival needs.
In other words, if he simply continued living here, his life would not be threatened.
Then only two possibilities remained. One, some catastrophe would occur here after a period of time in the future, and he, trapped here and unable to leave, would be destroyed. Two, the purpose of that unknown existence was simply to confine him here and prevent him from leaving.
“The one behind this incident, is it the same existence that caused the reversal of time in the galaxy and created the virtual life civilization? As expected, after becoming a Level 7 Civilization, I have gradually stepped into the circle occupied by the high-level forces of the universe. I have gradually drawn their attention, even to the point where they are using such methods against me…” Xiao Yu sighed inwardly.
“According to my previous inference, this existence hostile to me may be unable to act directly against me because it is restrained by something, so it can only cause me trouble through these indirect means. Perhaps this is just another one of its attempts. There is only one point though, this time, is its purpose to destroy me, or to trap me?”
“If it is to destroy me, there is nothing more to say. But if it is to trap me… then what are they doing it for? Before this, my goal was to head to the Feiyuan Galaxy. Could it be that the purpose of trapping me is to stop me from going to the Feiyuan Galaxy? Could there be some secret hidden in the Feiyuan Galaxy that I must not discover?”
Xiao Yu’s mind was in complete turmoil. At this moment, he thought of many things. But in the end, Xiao Yu still let out a soft sigh and cleared all of these thoughts from his mind.
“There is no use thinking about those later matters right now. I should first think about how to leave this place…”