CHAPTER 501: CHAPTER 500 SHORT SPEAR NEBULA

The most central region of the Universe, could it actually be a dazzling dead zone?!

Not only did the Antimatter Civilization entertain this idea, but the Wandering Alliance also came to the same conclusion after successfully entering the Cosmic Zone.

This was not a mere coincidence, since upon entering the Cosmic Zone, the Wandering Alliance immediately started to detect the nearby intelligence to be on the safe side. However, to their surprise, they did not find any traces of civilization.

At first, the Wandering Alliance suspected that the detection range was too small, so they expanded the detection area. But even then, they found nothing. If one were to disregard those spectacular nebulae in the Cosmic Zone, it would appear to be entirely a lifeless space.

It was as if one had inadvertently stumbled into a beautiful utopia abundant with everything but devoid of a single soul. Under such circumstances, one could not help but feel a certain eeriness, or even a chill down the spine when the wind suddenly blew!

Of course, the situation in the Cosmic Zone Universe was inevitably different from that of a fantasy utopia.

Though rare, utopias could exist in some locations with unique geographical features, but the Cosmic Zone Universe consisted of a three-dimensional star space with no special characteristics other than the material abundance within it. According to the probability of life evolution, the higher the abundance of material in a region, the higher the likelihood of life emerging there—even if it was just a one in a billion chance. Based on the material mass detected by the Wandering Alliance, at least one civilization should have emerged. Therefore, the current situation was particularly mysterious and unusual.

In light of this, the Wandering Alliance promptly convened an emergency meeting.

Constant Star Lu Chen, along with representatives from various Celestial Civilizations and biological civilizations, gathered to engage in serious analysis and discussion.

After considerable debate, several viewpoints emerged from the meeting.

The first viewpoint was that, given the material abundance of the Cosmic Zone Universe was much higher than that of the Star Zone and Sky Zone, it must have given rise to a number of civilizations. This could be corroborated by the memories from Green Star; but because the abundance was so high, the civilizations that emerged were likely not far from one another and could easily detect each other’s existence. This would have led to cosmic wars, with most civilizations being destroyed in the conflicts and only a few surviving to occupy the Cosmic Zone Universe, hence the current nondetection of any life forms.

The second viewpoint proposed that although the Wandering Alliance had not discovered any life forms, it did not necessarily mean they were nonexistent. After all, the Wandering Alliance had only recently advanced to a Level 5 civilization and their technological level was not particularly impressive compared to other seasoned Level 5 civilizations. Perhaps their detection technology was simply not advanced enough. It was possible that every move of the Wandering Alliance was fully exposed under the detection devices of those older civilizations.

The third viewpoint agreed with the first in that the Cosmic Zone Universe must have once been home to many civilizations. However, it diverged in the next part. This viewpoint did not think that the civilizations within the Cosmic Zone were all wiped out in wars. If large-scale wars had indeed occurred, there should have been remnants of battlefields, which they had not found. Considering the Entropy Wall at the edge of the Cosmic Zone, this viewpoint suggested that Entropy Civilizations, in an effort to slow down the rate of cosmic entropy increase, might have eliminated all the civilizations within the Cosmic Zone that fed on negative entropy and constructed the Entropy Wall. This would serve two purposes: prevent lower-level civilizations from entering the Cosmic Zone and eliminate surplus civilizations in the Universe by harnessing the rebounding shockwaves.

As for the lack of battlefield remnants, this detail did not conflict with the third viewpoint.

Before, the reason why battlefield relics were deemed certain was that the birth of civilizations followed the logic of civilizations’ evolution, which inevitably led to civilizations being at similar levels when they discovered each other, thus two equally matched foes would naturally leave behind battlefield relics, easy to understand. Yet, the Entropy Civilization is a fifth-level civilization, capable of easily annihilating lower-level civilizations, completely vanishing them without leaving any traces. Not to mention the Entropy Civilization, even the Wandering Alliance could accomplish that.

However, regrettably.

These three viewpoints, although each has its own argument, and sound quite reasonable, lack any evidence, and cannot convince each other.

Originally, the purpose of this conference was to discuss the danger coefficient of the Cosmic Zone Universe to further fine-tune the Wandering Alliance’s in-depth strategy. But after intense discussions that led to no substantive results, ultimately, the leader Constant Star Lu Chen could only decide to proceed according to the original plan, collecting intelligence along the way and timely adjusting the strategy with new information.

Under the leadership of Constant Star Lu Chen, the massive Wandering Star System moved at high speed within the Cosmic Zone Universe.

From a universal perspective, the massive Wandering Star System resembled a luminous disc, pulling a long and graceful tail of light during its faster-than-light journey, incredibly magnificent!

After flying for a while, the Wandering Star System encountered the first nebula within the Cosmic Zone, more accurately, this nebula was located on the flight path of the Wandering Star System. However, the Wandering Alliance didn’t plan to detour, only slowing down a bit, as they had already surveyed this nebula and made a decision.

This nebula was a globular nebula, not the kind with a complex structure made up of multiple star systems, shaped somewhat like a thick yet short spear, hence named the Short Spear Nebula. This Short Spear Nebula harbored no signs of life; it was a lifeless nebula with a mass of about 500 million Constant Star Masses, of which about 98 percent was Hydrogen.

Regarding the Short Spear Nebula, the Wandering Alliance’s decision was to slow down and absorb it.

After all, the Wandering Alliance had always been stockpiling matter, and now, coming across such a lifeless, massive nebula, they surely could not let it pass by.

Especially after Constant Star Lu Chen absorbed the matter of the Heavenly Nebula and the Black Hole Nebula, his current mass had reached 2.1 billion Constant Star Masses. Although this mass was already incredibly high, it had not yet reached the limit for a constant star, so Constant Star Lu Chen still planned to continue absorbing hydrogen from the Universe, to see what would happen when the Constant Star Mass reached its limit. How would it differ from a regular Supernova Explosion?

Under the control of Constant Star Lu Chen, the Wandering Star System slowly decelerated to sub-light speed.

When the Wandering Star System collided with the Short Spear Nebula at such speed, the Heliosphere on the edge directly cut the Nebula in two.

Even though the cutting process involved collisions and scattering of matter from both sides, from a macro cosmic perspective, minute details were not apparent, and the Wandering Star System looked more like a Golden Buddha Disc cutting through the darkness, neatly slicing through the Short Spear Nebula.

Later, the Wandering Star System slowed down further in the middle of the Short Spear Nebula until coming to a halt, allowing Constant Star Lu Chen to directly absorb the Short Spear Nebula. After Constant Star Lu Chen had entirely absorbed the Short Spear Nebula, the Wandering Star System set sail again, heading towards its own ocean of stars, towards the Cosmic Center!