Through the lenses of his specialized probes, Xiao Yu carefully observed the surface of the star. As the distance decreased, the brightness of the star intensified, and its apparent size grew larger and larger.

At a distance of fifty million kilometers, the star appeared like a millstone. At twenty million kilometers, it looked as large as a house and was so bright it couldn’t be directly looked at. When the distance shrank to three million kilometers, the star filled Xiao Yu’s entire visual frame. Of course, at that proximity, his probes had already maneuvered to the side of the star covered by the Specter, to avoid the terrifying energy radiated by the star.

Strictly speaking, a star, just like a gas giant, has no definite boundary. The farther from its core, the lower the material density; the closer to its center, the denser the matter. This density transitions gradually from low to high. Unlike rocky planets, stars do not have solid surfaces.

Xiao Yu speculated that at a distance of three million kilometers, if not for the shielding provided by the Specter, his probes would have already entered the star’s outer atmosphere.

At this range, the star’s radiation energy reached astonishing levels. Streams of high-energy charged particles, solar wind, were violently intense. Due to various forms of radiation and particle streams, any equipment relying on radio communication would be rendered inoperative here. The light was so overpowering it could practically drown out matter. At this distance, even if gravitational pull were excluded, the sheer pressure from the photons alone could accelerate Xiao Yu’s stationary instruments to tens of kilometers per second. It was a testament to the overwhelming luminosity here.

This was the phenomenon known as radiation pressure. Photons have no rest mass, but they carry energy as they move. Back in Earth’s era, humans had even planned to use solar radiation pressure for interstellar travel, although it was never implemented due to various reasons. Once Xiao Yu mastered controlled nuclear fusion, relying on radiation pressure became entirely unnecessary.

This star was merely a medium-to-small class star. In the universe, there even existed a class of massive blue stars whose luminosity could reach or temporarily exceed the Eddington luminosity limit, meaning the outward radiation pressure surpassed the star’s own gravitational pull. When this occurred, enormous amounts of stellar matter would be blown away into space by the radiation pressure. As matter dispersed, the star’s brightness would diminish again, falling back below the Eddington limit. These kinds of supermassive stars existed in a precarious and dangerous state of balance.

Just thinking about those mad stars sent a chill down Xiao Yu’s spine. During interstellar voyages, Xiao Yu would rather detour by over a hundred light-years than approach one of them. Those stars were truly untouchable, at any moment, they might explode without warning, instantly transforming into black holes while sweeping clean all life within hundreds of light-years.

Fortunately, such stars were rare in the universe, so Xiao Yu didn’t need to worry constantly about a supernova’s blast wave reaching him.

When the distance between Xiao Yu’s probes and the star narrowed to three million kilometers, he began to perform reverse thrust maneuvers. This was a necessary procedure; without it, the star’s gravity would continue accelerating the probes, eventually causing them to crash straight into the star.

Because of the angle, the star now appeared to Xiao Yu as a slender crescent. Yet even this small crescent-shaped sliver heated the surface of Xiao Yu’s probes which were two million kilometers away, to over 300 degrees Celsius.

At this range, in full-luminosity images, the crescent’s specific shape was completely indiscernible. The light was so intense it rendered the crescent into a blurry, irregular multi-pointed star. Only after reducing the brightness by several hundred to several thousand times could its true form be barely distinguished.

Fortunately, all of Xiao Yu’s probes used Superluminal communication and were equipped with top-tier radiation shielding. Only thanks to that had they remained unaffected by the crescent’s radiation.

This was the closest Xiao Yu had come to a star in over ten thousand years. The last time had been during a solar orbital mission in the Solar System. The previous binary star system didn’t count, since a brown dwarf couldn’t be considered a true star.

“The power of a star… if you don’t get close to it, you’ll never truly grasp it,” Xiao Yu thought to himself, awestruck.

Xiao Yu aimed the camera lens of his probe toward the half of the star that was covered by the Specter. What he saw was a vast black plain. That’s right, under the Specter’s shroud, the star’s surface had become an extremely flat, almost entirely featureless plain.

Even the stellar atmosphere on this side was gone. Due to the Specter’s coverage, only half of the star’s atmosphere remained. Xiao Yu speculated that the atmosphere on this side may have condensed into a liquid or solid state due to the cutoff from heat, eventually falling onto the surface of the star.

This was the handiwork of the Specter. A star, which by nature had no solid surface, had been forcibly compressed into one.

As he moved in closer, Xiao Yu realized that all his previous preparations had been for nothing. Just as the Specter had said, all heat and radiation had been completely sealed off. So on this side of the star, apart from the intense gravity, there was no difference from deep space, equally cold, equally silent.

When the distance narrowed to 200,000 kilometers, Xiao Yu could no longer see the full shape of the star. All he could see through the lens was an endless, boundless expanse of flat black plains. At this range, even the crescent-shaped portion of the star had disappeared behind the horizon due to the angle.

“Senior, I’ve arrived,” Xiao Yu transmitted via a radio broadcast to the star.

The Specter’s reply came quickly. “The surface of this star has already been compressed into a solid by me. You may land here freely. Once landed, do as you wish with your research, but do not disturb me again in the short term. I’m tired and need to rest.”

“Understood, senior. Please rest well,” Xiao Yu said respectfully.

For some reason, at this moment, Xiao Yu thought of the old cat he once kept on Earth. Every winter, the old cat would lazily lie next to the fireplace, eyes closed, refusing to move. It always had to be hand-fed by servants, and after eating a bit, it would return to sleep. Back then, Xiao Yu already knew the cat wouldn’t live much longer. And just as he expected, it didn’t even survive that winter.

“No matter how powerful you once were, are you now also facing a time of decay and death?” Looking at the once-mighty, once-glorious Specter who now resembled an aged elder in his twilight years, Xiao Yu’s heart was filled with complex emotions.

Thousands of specialized probes each selected different landing sites on the star’s surface. The gravitational force here was hundreds of times greater than Earth’s. If a person were to land here, their bones would be instantly crushed, their body flattened under its own weight. However, Xiao Yu’s probes had been designed with this environment in mind and were unaffected by the intense gravity.

Only after landing on the stellar surface did Xiao Yu discover the truth. Beneath the feet of his instruments was a thin-looking but incredibly resilient layer of black semi-transparent material. Through this layer, one could observe the surface of the star up close.

This material captured all of Xiao Yu’s attention. Opportunities to observe the surface of a star from this close, or practically zero distance, were exceedingly rare, and Xiao Yu naturally cherished the chance.

“This semi-transparent black membrane must be the senior Specter’s body. The Specter said it doesn’t conform to logic, that it doesn’t exist within this universe, yet a being with zero total mass and zero total energy has manifested a physical form, and one so resilient that even a star cannot damage it in the slightest. This is truly a miracle.”

“At the peak of its power, the Specter probably couldn’t even be harmed by natural neutron stars or white dwarfs. Makes sense, after all, even a severely injured, dying Level 6 exotic beast could survive on the surface of a white dwarf. A Specter who once fought the Neutron War Star head-on would be far more powerful.”

Xiao Yu thought to himself.

Through the semi-transparent black membrane, Xiao Yu carefully observed the stellar material below.

This black membrane seemed to possess exceptional light-blocking properties. Filtered through it, the stellar material appeared as a faint yellow hue. This aligned perfectly with Xiao Yu’s earlier predictions based on blackbody radiation theory. According to that theory, a star of this mass and temperature should indeed appear yellow.

These yellow, fluid-like stellar materials surged violently beneath the instruments built by Xiao Yu, like a furious sea. Yet no matter how intense their movements, no matter how vast their energy, they could not penetrate the black membrane. At most, they could lift the membrane into a small bulge no more than one hundred meters high, like a small mound on a black plain.

The might of the Specter was revealed fully in this moment.