Voyage of the Stars.

Chapter 1427 Arriving at the Destination

Encountering this civilization tomb was purely coincidental. After packing it up and taking it away as backup supplies and fuel, the Great Voyage Fleet did not encounter any more civilization tombs for a long time on its way forward.

Even after encountering this tomb, the civilizations became more cautious and sent out probes to investigate during their voyages, but after traveling tens of thousands of light-years, they still found nothing.

Originally, everyone wanted to look around as much as possible along the way, not expecting to find any graves with valuable information preserved, even if they could be used as fuel. Unfortunately, the number of graves that can be preserved is ultimately limited, and the space here is vast, so finding a civilized grave is like finding a needle in a haystack.

However, the absence of tombs does not necessarily mean that few civilizations have entered this area in history, as the tombs of the past may have become fuel for later inhabitants, just as human civilizations may have stored away the tombs of this civilization.

Every civilization that arrived here was pragmatic and understood the importance of resources.

Afterwards, the two great expeditionary organizations, the Milky Way and the Abyss, comprised a total of 84 civilizations, continued their journey for tens of thousands of light-years, finally arriving at the region recognized by the Star Guardians.

The long-awaited civilization was finally able to unfold its potential, and the great research began.

Each civilization released the equipment it brought in, and factory-type spaceships resumed operation, producing components needed for various large-scale scientific research equipment for each civilization.

Individual lives in every civilization also awaken, from scientists at the forefront of technology and genius scientists who have insights into unique technologies to ordinary people living on their spaceships.

Within this civilization, all departments began to function.

But once they arrived here, ordinary people could no longer continue their normal lives in the previous relaxed manner, because all civilizations understood what they were about to face. Many civilizations issued various prohibitions and implemented various policies that had been prepared in advance, putting the entire civilization's resources into scientific research.

Unnecessary entertainment activities within the civilization were banned, and the saved energy was used for scientific research projects.

The ancient tomb they encountered earlier made all civilizations realize more deeply that this is a race between life and death; success means survival, failure means extinction.

The environment now is different from that of ancient times. There were no cosmic catastrophe zones chasing after us back then, but there are now.

However, to our delight, thanks to the "Star Accelerator" project of the Divine Matrix civilization, some of the planets that were brought in earlier are still there. Now, each civilization within the two major expeditionary organizations can probably still get one or two rocky planets.

In order not to waste resources, the civilizations did not slow down after reaching their destination, but instead allowed the fleets and the previously accelerated planets to continue drifting towards the center of the Boötes Hollow.

All civilizations continued to drift at a normal speed close to the speed of light relative to their starting point, carrying out various scientific research facilities construction work as they drifted.

Because of the principle of the constancy of the speed of light, although each civilization is traveling at the speed of light relative to its origin, the measured speed of light is still the speed of light. If we do not compare it with the state of the galaxy at the origin, each civilization can actually be said to be in a static state.

Anyway, drifting like this doesn't cause any problems. In fact, as it continues to drift, it can get closer and closer to the center of the Boötes Hollow over time, while maintaining its distance from the cosmic catastrophe zone behind it.

Of course, this drifting range is limited.

Based on the information that everyone has entered the appropriate area at this time, this range is approximately one million light-years.

In other words, everyone can only continue drifting for another million years before they have to slow down, allowing their timelines to align with the timelines of their origin—that is, the timelines of most matter and galaxies in the universe. If by then, civilizations haven't successfully mastered vacuum zero-point energy, then they will only have about 300,000 years left, because the edge of the cosmic catastrophe is currently 300,000 light-years away from them.

From this perspective, those civilizations that left the main force to conduct research back then would have been swallowed up by cosmic catastrophe if they had stayed in place, given how much time has passed.

However, they certainly wouldn't stand idly by and watch themselves be destroyed by a cosmic catastrophe. They would definitely set sail again, accelerating their fleet to near the speed of light, and continue drifting forward. In this way, they would have more time to conduct research, and therefore, they would surely drift to the center of the Great Hollow in the constellation Boötes.

If by then everyone still hasn't mastered the zero-point energy of the vacuum, they might end up dying together.

They may perish due to resource depletion, or they may perish when they have nowhere left to retreat and are swallowed up by the cosmic catastrophe zone.

If this were to actually happen, perhaps everyone would use their last bit of energy to accelerate the fleet to the speed of light and then continue drifting forward, out of the most suitable area for studying vacuum zero-point energy, to continue their research in a desperate, lingering manner until their demise, or perhaps to master vacuum zero-point energy.

Having traveled all this way to the vast void, everyone must still have resources and energy. They certainly wouldn't be willing to be swallowed up and perish by the cosmic catastrophe zone. So, the most likely outcome is that they will grit their teeth and continue on, clinging to life and hoping for a miracle until their energy is exhausted.

Things are different now. Due to the spread of cosmic catastrophes, civilizations that came here before could stay in place and continue their research until their energy was exhausted, but that is no longer possible.

Now everyone must race against time and complete their advancement before the cosmic catastrophe completely engulfs the central region of the Great Hollow of Bootes, otherwise there is a high probability that there will be no hope.

The previous civilization tomb explained everything, showing that even after arriving here, even with the influence of the rules minimized, and even with a long period of time, some civilizations still cannot find the secrets hidden in the universe.

This demonstrates the immense size and thickness of the barriers erected by a cosmic-level civilization.

Completing a long voyage does not signify success; it merely grants the qualification to truly challenge cosmic-level civilizations.

In light of this, the two major expeditionary organizations, the Galactic and the Abyss, immediately issued instructions to all civilizations in the name of their respective supreme councils, requiring all civilizations to share research progress and hold regular scientific research exchange seminars to discuss the details of their respective research progress and share research results.

Of course, the sharing only applies to research in the relevant field of vacuum zero-point energy, not all branches of science.

This makes sense.

To ensure that all civilizations strictly adhere to the treaty, the two major expeditionary organizations have also established various strict regulations. For example, any civilization that conceals its research progress will face annihilation.

If we succeed, we succeed together; if we perish, we perish together.

Having come this far, no civilization has any objections.

This is the only hope for all civilizations. We must unite and use our wisdom to overcome the towering mountain that blocks all civilizations.

The Great Voyage has reached its end, but the end of the Great Voyage is also the starting point of another new journey.

(End of this chapter)