High Martial Arts: Slay enemies to become stronger, forge invincibility from billions of corpses.

After Song Chen and his team's spaceship emerged from the seventh jump node, they joined the low-speed path into the Flowing Star.

Huge navigation buoys floated on both sides of the channel, each marked with the same information in multiple languages, including universal language, planetary script, and several symbols that the mission members had never seen before.

But after being translated by the spaceship, they all turned into the same sentence:

"Entry into the Flowing Star passage. All ships are requested to reduce to sub-light speed and queue for entry inspection."

The spaceship moved slowly forward in the channel, and the scenery outside the porthole became increasingly dense.

More spaceships came into view, some as huge as a city, some so small they could only fit one person, some streamlined, and some with bizarre geometric shapes that completely disregarded aerodynamics...

The materials and colors of the spacecraft's outer shell are also varied. Some are silvery white like a mirror, some are pitch black like ink, some are covered with some kind of luminescent biological tissue, and some are simply a whole piece of constantly flowing liquid metal.

Each time a new spaceship flew past the porthole, the mission members would let out a low gasp.

Chen Yuanzhou's tablet computer already contained more than forty pages of notes, the handwriting so messy that probably only he himself could recognize them.

Song Chen stood by the porthole, looking at the unprecedentedly bustling scene outside.

His gaze swept over the spaceships one by one, silently estimating the level of civilization and combat power that each spaceship might represent.

Then he saw a particularly large spaceship, estimated to be over twenty kilometers long, with an irregular rhomboid shape. Its outer shell was made of some kind of dark red crystalline material, which glowed faintly under the radiation of the meteorite.

The tail nozzle of that spaceship emitted a dense energy fluctuation. Even from hundreds of kilometers away, Song Chen's Eye of Truth could sense the intensity of that energy, which was at least at the Star Crown level.

"The Immigration Department of Liuguang Star has sent a communication request." Gu Qianzhi said, his voice carrying a hint of nervousness that Song Chen had never heard before. This seasoned diplomat was actually nervous.

Song Chen walked to the control panel, pressed the accept button, and the light screen lit up.

A symbol appeared on the light screen, a logo composed of purely geometric shapes:

A concentric circle nests within a regular hexagon, surrounded by three concentric rings of rotating text.

This is the official emblem of the Cangxing Alliance Investment Department, and it is recorded in the spaceship database.

The logo flashed once, and then a voice came from the communication channel.

"Blue Star Civilization, Level 1, ID CT-NB-3791, your purpose has been registered, investment confirmed."

"Please proceed to the designated parking area and wait. The signing ceremony will begin soon, and you will be guided to the Investment Department's administrative center by designated personnel."

Then the tone shifted from businesslike to a detached warning.

"Please note that, according to Article 72 of the Flowing Star System Safety Management Regulations, the main body of Flowing Star is a modified celestial body of a ninth-order true star-level war fortress."

"Although radiation output has been limited to one percent of maximum power in peacetime, its surface gravity, magnetic field strength and residual high-energy particle flow still far exceed the standards of ordinary terrestrial planets."

"Life forms below the seventh level are strictly prohibited from leaving the spaceship and entering the external environment. Violators will bear the consequences themselves, and the Liuguang Star Entry Management Office will not assume any legal responsibility."

The communication ended, and the emblem on the light screen slowly disappeared.

The cabin fell silent, then Chen Yuanzhou spoke first: "One percent? What does one percent of a neutron star mean?"

"The surface gravity is about a thousand to ten thousand times that of a terrestrial planet," Gu Qianzhi replied.

"The magnetic field strength is strong enough to pull iron directly from the hemoglobin in the human body; the radiation dose from the high-energy particle stream..."

"Standing three million kilometers away is roughly equivalent to standing next to a supernova."

"Then why are we alright now?"

"Because the spaceship has a protective shield, and we are still three million kilometers away from Meteorite."

"If the meteoroid has no output restrictions, and based on the standard radiation intensity of neutron stars in the database, at our current distance, the spaceship's shield wouldn't last more than three seconds."

"We will all be reduced to atomic plasma by the high-energy particle stream in the first second, leaving not even bone fragments behind."

The cabin fell silent again as the mission members gazed in silence at the dazzling neutron star outside the porthole.

It rotates quietly three million kilometers away, its radiation rings like rainbow ribbons fluttering in space, tens of thousands of magnetic field lines swaying gently, as beautiful as a meticulously crafted cosmic light show.

But everyone knows that behind this beautiful scenery lies a tamed war machine.

"I'll go out and take a look, and find out what's going on," Song Chen said, looking outside.

Zhou Wangyue turned to look at him: "Let's not go. This place doesn't look safe."

Song Chen shook his head: "Some things just have to be faced, teacher, don't you think?"

Zhou Wangyue opened his mouth, then closed it again.

"Actually, it's good to go out and take a look." Gu Qianzhi walked over, took out a transparent tablet and handed it to Song Chen. It was the information recording device equipped on the spaceship.

"Record as much as possible: the structure of the Flowing Star, the layout of its docking ports, the types and numbers of other civilizations' spaceships, the types of goods they trade outside—write down everything you can see."

"The information we have about the universe right now is all data provided by the Cangxing Alliance."

"We are passive; we need our own intelligence to rely on what they give us."

"Associate Song, remember to collect as much information as possible," Chen Yuanzhou added from the side.

"Especially in economic terms, the key to the repayment agreement is money. If we don't even know what a cosmic crystal looks like, we can only be slaughtered by others."

"And there are social aspects as well," interjected a sociologist in the delegation, a female researcher in her fifties.

"How do civilizations interact with each other? What are their etiquette and taboos? How do different life forms communicate? This information may be more useful than force at the negotiating table."

Song Chen nodded, put the transparent tablet in his pocket, and turned to walk towards the airlock of the spaceship.

"Okay, I understand."

"Be careful," Zhou Wangyue said behind him.

The airlock door closed behind him.

Song Chen stood at the entrance of the spaceship, with the silver-gray metal deck beneath his feet and the endless starry sky above him. Directly in front of him was the luminous star that occupied half of his field of vision.

He took a deep breath, even though the action would be meaningless in a vacuum.

The Northern Darkness Armor automatically generated a light golden psionic shield around him, isolating him from the vacuum and radiation, and then stepped out.