Voyage of the Stars.

Chapter 1443 Self-Destruction in Progress

The success of the Awakener civilization came suddenly, but the plot wasn't melodramatic; at least they didn't succeed just before crashing into the cosmic catastrophe zone.

If the success of the Awakeners was the beginning, then the research achievements of the Divine Curve Civilization have made the former research universal, providing a path that all civilizations can follow.

The 84 civilizations now are to follow this path until they succeed.

Having reached this point, we can say that all we need to advance to a cosmic-level civilization is a sudden burst of inspiration, or to keep exhaustively searching until we find the right answer.

But inspiration is unpredictable; no one knows when it will appear, and exhaustive search doesn't reveal how deeply the answer is hidden.

In this situation, the only way for each civilization is to keep moving forward and do its best to explore the mysteries of the universe.

The road ahead is unknown; the so-called exploration of the unknown is now the process of exploring the unknown.

Each civilization continued to advance and experiment based on the theory proposed by the Divine Curve civilization, until they found patterns in various experimental data, summarized these patterns, obtained universally applicable formulas, and then turned all research results into reality, that is, technological creation. Only then could they be considered truly successful.

Every civilization is striving, and human civilization is no exception.

However, the barriers of a cosmic-level civilization are simply too thick. Even with this or that foundation, and even with 84 Level 6 civilizations working together, the research progress is still slow.

In the blink of an eye, more than 10,000 years have passed since the Divine Curve Civilization proposed that theory. Logically speaking, after so many years, all civilizations should have already developed and expanded upon the foundations laid by the Awakener Civilization and the Divine Curve Civilization, and then found the correct answer. However, after 10,000 years, more than a dozen of the 84 civilizations have not only failed to make progress, but have also experienced a decline in their scientific research capabilities.

Yes, that's right, it's a decline in research capabilities.

The underlying reasons for the decline in scientific research capabilities of those civilizations are similar: problems have arisen within their internal societies.

I don't know if it's because they've been staying in one place for too long, or because of the slow progress of scientific research, but all sorts of strange ideas have emerged in these civilized societies.

For example, there is a civilization that, like human civilization, is a single race with two genders. However, as time passed, an ideology of absolute equality emerged within them. The aliens on their various spaceships were the first to deny their own civilization's history, denying the fact that all intelligent life in their civilization had died out, leaving only a gene pool. Then, they used various reasons for absolute equality to pressure their government, attempting to use powerful genetic technology to transform the two different genders of aliens into having the same physical characteristics.

They hold the extreme belief that only civilizations composed of life forms with the same sexual characteristics constitute the same race. To this end, they deliberately extracted aesthetic advantages from both sexes to artificially create a regionally neutral body shape. With the cooperation of some departments, they also developed targeted gene modification technology.

They claim that this is the right way to utilize gene technology.

The matter escalated to the point that new, aesthetically pleasing forms gradually emerged within this civilization. In just a few thousand years, the civilization underwent an internal transformation, and almost everyone except those in the gene pool became a new form.

What's most infuriating is that, during a symposium on science and technology across all civilizations, the representative of this civilization actually mocked the physical characteristics of other civilizations in public, saying that they did not conform to the aesthetics of intelligent life in the universe.

Logically speaking, no one should interfere with such internal reforms, but it is intolerable that they would bring their extreme ideologies to public occasions.

Unfortunately, we are currently in the research phase and it is not advisable to make any major moves.

However, the two expeditionary organizations also joined forces to conduct an investigation into the civilization's internal workings. They discovered that during the process of internal reform, the civilization had slaughtered countless of its own brilliant scientists. The reason given was that these scientists felt the reforms were a waste of time and that they would be better off using that time for scientific research. They refused the reforms on this grounds.

Then they were slaughtered by the new rulers.

Such an outrageous thing actually happened to a Level 6 civilization.

Their new leader actually believed that anyone with a different physical form than himself was an alien.

Upon learning of this, the Awakener Civilization immediately concluded that if things continued as they were, this civilization would inevitably head towards becoming a decadent civilization. After a long period of time, either a figure capable of turning the tide would appear, or it would perish.

Frankly speaking, this is the first time human civilization has encountered something like this.

However, the Awakener, the Divine Rule Civilization, and the Silver Heart Civilization were not so surprised by this. They told human civilization that this phenomenon was not uncommon in ancient Level 6 civilizations, because it was one of the reasons for the demise of Level 6 civilizations.

The Divine Cube Civilization finds this civilization extremely detestable. If it weren't for the fact that the flagships of various technologically advanced civilizations are currently unable to reach this point, and it's not suitable to launch a major offensive, they would have already sent the Neutron War Star to destroy this civilization.

This is just a minor incident on everyone's path forward. It's not a big deal that only one of the 84 civilizations has a problem. However, the problems exposed by this civilization at this time also tell all civilizations to take good care of their own internal affairs.

"Alas, you reap what you sow!"

On the Lyra, Yue Yuan, upon seeing this news, could only sigh. With his scientific literacy, he could have easily participated in various research projects, but he chose to stay on the Lyra, using his presence to maintain the internal stability of human civilization.

At least with him around, such outrageous things wouldn't happen within human civilization.

At the time, Yue Yuan was still conflicted about whether he should go to the research base, but now it seems that his choice was right.

Other civilization leaders made similar choices, staying aboard their own civilization's flagship. On one hand, they used their absolute military power to deter all civilizations that came to study them, and on the other hand, they acted as bodyguards for all civilizations.

The Lyra is no longer in its original location. Instead, it, along with the Neutron War Star, Falcon, Galaxy, Daya, and Abyss, has headed to a void to deploy probes, positioned between the cosmic disaster zone and the research base.

The purpose is to prevent those civilizations that left earlier from being driven here by cosmic catastrophes and resorting to desperate measures.

These detectors are placed at a safe distance, serving both to detect intruders and to monitor the spread of cosmic catastrophes.

Everything was designed to ensure that each civilization could continue its scientific research without worry after its ships were downgraded.

And so, another thousand years passed.

After a brief period of setbacks, the exploration of vacuum zero-point energy has finally made new progress.

(End of this chapter)