Voyage of the Stars.

Chapter 1357 The Place of Great Destruction
Inside the virtual meeting hall, the leaders of various distinctive technological civilizations were still listening with great interest to the story told by the defenders of the stars, but the probe ships at the forefront of the exploration area encountered something unimaginable.

That was news from the Aran civilization. Their leader was a super AI, but not everything was directly controlled by the super AI. Especially for things like exploration, they still dispatched many experts in related fields to conduct on-site exploration.

The same applies to various civilizations. Basically, each unmanned exploration team is equipped with a research vessel, which is specifically responsible for screening the exploration information. Only after the information is processed will it be transmitted back to headquarters.

However, the Aran civilization repeatedly lost contact during their explorations.

At first, they thought they had accidentally wandered into a chasm in the cosmic catastrophe zone, but as they used small probes to explore, they discovered that this was not the case.

They discovered that the expansion speed of the original disaster area's edge sometimes seemed to have abrupt changes. The edge, which was originally expanding at the speed of light, would occasionally suddenly cover a large area outside at an unreasonable speed, and many of the Aran civilization's exploration teams were wiped out in this way.

This situation was immediately reported to the headquarters of China Far East Shipping.

When the news arrived, everyone was still listening to the Star Guardian recount various cosmic disasters, so as soon as the news spread, everyone instinctively turned to look at the Star Guardian.

The Star Guardian is a five-kilometer-long colorful ball, and his appearance in the virtual hall is also a ball, albeit a smaller one, resembling a large basketball floating around. Furthermore, as a large colorful ball, the Star Guardian has no gender.

Therefore, when his words are translated into the human speech system, the timbre is neutral.

"What are you looking at me for? Do you think I'm an encyclopedia? Don't ask, I've never actually encountered this before."

The Star Guardian was also a little puzzled. He originally thought that the area in front of him was caused by vacuum decay, but he did not expect this to happen. How could the light speed expansion suddenly cover a large area?
Other civilizations' leadership and scientific teams also fell into deep thought. Like the Star Guardians, they had assumed that the expansion of the Cataclysmic Zone was at a constant speed of light, but now it seemed that this was not the case.

"Could it be the area nearing the collapse of the world?" This question came from the leadership of the Falcon Civilization, posed by their brilliant scientist.

However, no one responded to him, because before anyone could speak, the leader of the Galactic Heart civilization showed a solemn expression: "It is definitely not vacuum decay. Our probe fleet has also mysteriously lost contact. They were still fifteen light-years away from the edge of the catastrophe zone at the time."

These words sent chills down the spines of leaders from all civilizations.

Fifteen light-years!
It's important to understand that the headquarters of the Great Voyage Organization is currently only 100 light-years away from the edge of the initial disaster zone. If it were to expand by 15 light-years all at once, according to the leader of the Galactic Heart Civilization, and even then, it would be instantaneous. There's no guarantee that there might be other undetected areas expanding as well.

The unknown is indeed terrifying!
Retreat!

The members of each civilization's team exchanged glances and immediately came to the same conclusion.

Let's ensure the safety of the main civilization first.

In an instant, all civilizations left the virtual meeting hall and issued an order to all member civilizations in the name of the Great Voyage Organization's Supreme Conference: retreat three thousand light-years!
At the same time, each civilization will deploy more probes to expand the exploration network, and must find all the disaster zones.

Logically, in a situation clearly caused by a cosmic-level civilization, the Galactic Grand Expedition should immediately return the way they came. However, not a single civilization has suggested this. The Star Guardians also disagree with simply running away, because everyone knows that the catastrophe zone ahead is likely to be one never seen before. If they don't figure it out now, wouldn't encountering it again in the future be the same as the first time?
Experience must be learned.

Even if you don't know what type of disaster zone it is, you should understand its dangers and expansion methods so that you can have a better response strategy if you encounter it again in the future.

Moreover, all civilizations aspire to become cosmic-level civilizations, and broadening their horizons is beneficial to their future survival.

Thus, the Galactic Grand Expedition Organization retreated three thousand light-years like a frightened bird. Just as its headquarters completed its withdrawal, the probes at the front transmitted back the latest intelligence. First, the Galactic Heart Civilization, the technological powerhouses of the Grand Expedition Organization, had found a way to confirm, through their unique technologies, that the catastrophe zone was not a collapse of the fast world at the tachyon level.

After compiling the detection data from the Galactic Heart Civilization and other civilizations, each civilization also obtained the approximate extent of the catastrophe zone.

To date, the Great Voyage Organization has confirmed that the scale of the catastrophic region exceeds 10,000 light-years. While 10,000 light-years is indeed not large on a cosmic scale, this is a minimum estimate due to the organization's extremely short detection time.

In reality, the direction of the cataclysmic zone toward the Great Voyage Organization may be more than a million light-years away, or even deeper. If it was created by an ancient level 7 civilization, it may even be measured in hundreds of millions of light-years, because the time frame is too long.

In short, the Great Voyage Organization has not yet detected the end of the disaster zone. In other words, wherever the probe ships go, it is a disaster zone.

According to the latest updated star map, this catastrophe zone is like a vast ocean lying across the path of the Galactic Great Voyage Organization. The various civilizations of the organization have been circling around the shore for countless years, but they have not been able to find a way to cross the ocean. All they see are surging and turbulent waters.

"It may not necessarily be the work of a cosmic-level civilization. After all, as you know, some of the distinctive technologies of a Level 6 civilization are actually incomplete versions of Level 7 civilization technologies, only differing greatly in scope, intensity, and power."

After completing the withdrawal, the six distinctive technological civilizations and the Star Guardians returned to the virtual meeting hall. The one who spoke these words was the leader of the Galactic Heart Civilization. As he spoke, he glanced knowingly in the direction of the human civilization team.

After a pause, the leader of the Silver Heart civilization shared the latest intelligence with all the civilizations present and said, "The situation is not optimistic. It seems we have to turn back."

Upon inspection, everyone discovered that the latest intelligence was about the expansion method of the disaster zone. The Silver Heart Civilization truly lived up to its reputation as the leader in the Great Voyage Organization's detection technology, figuring out the characteristics of the disaster zone's expansion so quickly.

The expansion speed of the rule-based disaster zone is normally the speed of light, but sometimes it can expand suddenly like a tidal wave. New disaster zones will be created where the tide splashes. This is how the exploration teams that were inexplicably affected lost contact.

The Galactic Center civilization offered two explanations for this phenomenon: one is that it occurs randomly, and the other is that its boundaries may fluctuate due to the activities of various civilizations, leading to sudden expansion.

They themselves tend to favor the latter.

The Galactic Center civilization believes that warp drive disturbed a certain type of tachyon in the fast world, causing a chain reaction in the nearby catastrophe zone.

On the other hand, the Divine Cube civilization also made its own contributions in detection. After several experiments, they successfully detected the situation of the spaceships swallowed by the rule-causing disaster zone through their own unique technological applications.

Undoubtedly, the spaceships that entered the rule-caused zone were destroyed, but they did not turn into nothingness. Instead, they were decomposed into a completely new kind of matter. They still retained some of the properties of "matter," such as gravitational properties. This is why the reaction of the Divine Moment civilization when it discovered the dark matter island is still there.

Even the Star Guardian was baffled by this outcome, as he had never heard of such a situation before.

Clearly, this is a phenomenon beyond the comprehension of the civilizations that have embarked on the Great Galactic Expedition. It could be the result of war, or it could be something like vacuum decay, possessing the characteristics of a "random birthplace."

Its mystery has also led many civilizations to focus their attention on the "return by the same route" option.

The paper civilization is right; the road to the Great Hollow of Boötes is indeed more difficult.

(End of this chapter)