Voyage of the Stars.

Chapter 1496 Void Stealth
The universe is so vast, the starry sky is so expansive, and the darkness is so desolate.

The four fleets of human civilization, galactic center civilization, daya civilization, and awakener illusion civilization are more than a hundred light-years apart, moving at warp speed 2770 times the speed of light as they race through the void and darkness. However, compared to the visible galactic structures, their speed is not that fast.

Because the journey was mostly in the void of space without any star systems, this voyage was somewhat like the one when we sailed into the Great Hollow of Boötes. There were no stars that turned into streaks of light coming towards us, and even the light spots on the side windows seemed to remain still.

Because the reference point is too far away, the fleet at sea seems to be quietly suspended in the void. Gazing at the universe will give you a sense of emptiness, a sense of insignificance at your own insignificance and the vastness of the universe.

This was the first time the Four-Handed Serpents had experienced such a voyage. Before, they had only ever crossed galaxies, and although they had faced darkness and nothingness then, the sensations were not as intense as they were now.

It was once a vast galaxy, now it is the vast universe.

The four-armed serpents, encased in the warp bubbles of the Daya civilization's transport ship, were filled with emotion. They had painstakingly traveled for tens of thousands of years to cross the chasm between galaxies, while a cosmic civilization had done it in just seven or eight hundred years.

It only took seven or eight hundred years, yet it lasted for seven or eight hundred years!

While the four-armed serpents realized that a cosmic-level civilization truly lived up to its name, they were also amazed by the vastness of the universe. Just like this voyage, even four cosmic-level civilizations had to endure the loneliness of a slow, empty journey. Although they could travel in the void indefinitely, when faced with the cosmic starry sky measured in billions of light-years, they were just like ants, slowly crawling.

Viewing the universe from this perspective of voyage through nothingness, even the brilliant galaxies appear like fireflies, and one's own fleet seems incredibly small.

The brilliance of the stars is almost nonexistent from this perspective; all one feels is the coldness of the universe, the vastness that makes intelligent life despair, the indifference of the constant course of nature, and the ruthlessness of the heavens.

The Four-Handed Serpent Civilization has spent 50,000 years in the warp bubble of the Daya Civilization, and the fleet has also taken 50,000 years to travel 138.5 million light-years.

The entire journey took place in the void where there were no star systems, but now, this navigation has finally changed, as the fleet has finally approached a star system.

This was the first time in 50,000 years that the Four-Handed Serpent Civilization had witnessed a galaxy gradually approaching them, but they knew that the fleet was only approaching the galaxy and would not stop there.

If all goes well, the fleet will pass through the void 70,000 light-years away from this galaxy and then continue its journey.

Cosmic civilizations do not need to replenish themselves with matter from within galaxies; they can extract energy from the void and then convert that energy into the matter they need.

The energy resources used by the Four-Handed Serpent Civilization and its affiliated civilizations over the years have all come from the Daya Civilization.

The four-armed serpents watched the approaching galaxy and then watch it recede into the distance. Seeing this scene, they now understood why they had never encountered a cosmic civilization when they were invincible throughout the galaxy: because they rarely ventured into the interior of the galaxy!

Even if they enter the interior of the galaxy, it would be difficult for a level 6 civilization to detect them unless they choose to show themselves.

When they were far away from this galaxy, the four-armed serpents specifically asked the Daya civilization why they were going this way. The answer they received was that the area near this galaxy had been surrounded by the fourth phase transition catastrophe, and there was only this area tens of millions of light-years away that was passable.

It was this question that made the Four-Handed Serpent civilization realize that there was such a cosmic catastrophe as the Fourth Phase Transition. After understanding the horror of this catastrophe, they became even more convinced that they were incredibly lucky.

If he hadn't encountered four cosmic-level civilizations along the way, he would have surely died.

Along the way, because they were traveling far from the star system, the fleet did not encounter any other civilizations, and the four civilizations and the Star Guardians sailed quietly.

Fifty thousand years later, another fifty thousand years.

The silent voyage of 100,000 years even caused many four-handed serpents to have the illusion that they and these few cosmic-level civilizations existed in the entire universe.

This was their first experience of such a long voyage through the void, and their senses of travel changed over time. At first, the four-armed serpents were very excited about this voyage, being carried by a cosmic civilization. They thought they would encounter many dazzling starry rivers they had never had the chance to see before, many unknown celestial bodies, and unknown cosmic phenomena, and perhaps even be able to stop and study them.

But after ten thousand years, their excitement gradually cooled, for all they saw was vast emptiness. Another ten thousand years passed, and their cooled hearts grew indifferent, eventually becoming numb to the darkness and nothingness.

After a 10-year voyage, having traveled nearly 2.77 million light-years with four cosmic civilizations, the fleet still hadn't stopped, and the vast darkness ahead remained.

Afterward, the fleet continued to travel 330 million light-years between galaxies in the tree-like structure of the universe, taking 120,000 years to complete the feat of traversing the entire supercluster.

By this time, the expeditionary fleet was already outside the Laniacaia Supercluster, and had officially set foot on the Sloan Great Wall.

The Sloan Great Wall is not a real wall, but a large-scale cosmic structure formed by numerous galaxy clusters and superclusters under the influence of gravity. Because it looks like a galactic wall when observed from Earth, it is called the Sloan Great Wall.

It is about one billion light-years away from the Milky Way and is 13.7 billion light-years long. It is a cosmic structure larger than the Laniakea Supercluster and the Double Cetus Supercomplex.

According to the Simplified Civilization, the War Immortal Civilization is doing some work here to prevent the spread of the dimensional reduction space. If the fleet consisting of humans, Daya, Silverheart, and the Awakener Huan continues along the Sloan Great Wall, they might actually encounter the War Immortal Civilization, but the probability should be quite small, unless they conduct membrane broadcasts to search for them as they travel.

But doing that would be too risky.

Furthermore, even if we encounter the War Immortal civilization, it may not be their main civilization.

Of course, most importantly, the destination the long-distance fleet was heading to was not within the Sloan Wall, but in another part of space. The fleet's arrival here was merely a detour due to a cosmic catastrophe blocking the way.

Therefore, there is really no need to keep walking along the Sloan Wall.

However, after the fleet arrived, they did not rush to leave because they discovered that, just as the Simplified Civilization had said, the world was on the verge of collapse.

The Galactic Heart civilization plans to stay here for a while to study the mechanisms behind the near-world collapse.

However, because of the previous discovery by the Void Returners, the Silver Heart Civilization did not intend to approach any star system, but instead remained in the vast void.

The Galactic Heart civilization remained as cautious as ever; during their research stoppage, they didn't even send a single probe ship to the stars.

The other civilizations didn't actually have any objections to this stop.

Although this was proposed by the Galactic Heart civilization, and research on the fast world collapse mechanism is something they urgently need, other civilizations can also conduct research on it.

While the collapse of the fast world may not have a significant impact on the existence of civilization, it is still one of the cosmic catastrophes, and one of the few that allows civilizations to study it in the catastrophe zone, which is truly rare.

This is also a good opportunity for human civilization to explore information related to the fast world collapse record.

Not only human civilization, but other civilizations can also conduct various scientific experiments here to explore how the collapse of the fast world affects conventional wide-range strikes.

Most importantly, besides the collapse of the fast world, this wretched place also harbors other cosmic catastrophes, such as the spreading two-dimensional space. Even if one lacks the ability to study the elusive collapse of the fast world, one can still gather as much information as possible about the spread of two-dimensional space near the fragments.

Two-dimensional fragments exist in the void; there's no need to go inside a galaxy.

Studying two-dimensional fragments and developing two-dimensional coating technology would benefit all civilizations.

Each civilization had its needs, so they stopped as the Silver Heart civilization had suggested.

This pause lasted for over 30,000 years.

During this period, the Galactic Heart civilization indeed figured out the mechanism of the Fast World Collapse and successfully mastered the means to strike against it.

The Awakener Civilization, the Daya Civilization, and the Human Civilization also made significant progress. Based on the characteristics of two-dimensional space, they all developed flexible rule shields that resist dimensional reduction and equipped them onto their respective conventional warships.

This means that civilizations will no longer be wiped out in one fell swoop by a dimensional reduction attack. Even if they are hit, they can maintain their three-dimensional space rules with the help of flexible rule shields and then buy time to jump out of the dimensional reduction zone.

Of course, this only applies to conventional warships. The Lyra Dream is completely unafraid of such attacks. In fact, it even traveled to those two-dimensional space regions over the past 30,000 years.

Of course, it's not just for casual strolling; it's to go in and see how the macroscopic dimensions, which have been reduced to the microscopic level, will exist, and to see if we can analyze them and add dimensional reduction data to our civilization's database.

These things may seem useless now, but they are the foundation of a civilization.

For human civilization, this data may be the foundation for future counterattacks against civilizations with the ability to reduce dimensionality, and may also be a reference for the Lyra to launch a rule-based attack.

Yes, after the completion of the Lyra and the String-Based Computer, human civilization attempted to use the Lyra as a "lyre" to try to manipulate the strings of the universe and achieve rule-modifying attacks with different effects.

For example, a dimensional reduction attack!
Humans want to reduce the dimensions of space by plucking strings, so as to achieve the same striking effect through different means, giving the Tianqin spacecraft another means of attack.

After completing the Lyra Dream, humanity gained a flagship with almost maximum defensive capabilities, but also realized the Lyra Dream's lack of offensive power, so they have been trying to find ways to make up for this shortcoming.

Of course, this so-called weakness is relative to the defensive capabilities of the Lyra itself.

(End of this chapter)