236: A shocking turn of events on the return journey and the true identity of the "traitor"

The Ark slowly sailed away from the boundary of the Phantom Light Nebula, those light-dusts that were once as brilliant as a dream gradually fading into distant background specks outside the observation window.

On the main display screen inside the bridge, the final flash data of beacon zeta was being archived, marking the milestone moment when they had collected all the power of the beacons.

Captain Li Wei stood before the command console, his hands resting on the alloy surface, his gaze calm as he looked at the navigation star map.

That winding route, connecting the coordinates of the seven beacons, had finally closed, converging into a straight path home toward "Homeland."

His temples were frosted with gray, but his spine remained as straight as it was fifty years ago when he first stepped onto this ship.

"Warp engine charging progress?" His voice was steady, carrying the composure cultivated from years of command.

"Eighty-seven percent, Captain." Vice-Captain Carter stood on the left side of the console, his fingers sliding quickly across the light screen. "We expect to reach the critical point in forty-three minutes, allowing for this long-distance warp."

Carter was the youngest Vice-Captain on the Ark, only thirty-seven years old, yet he had already served for fifteen years in deep space navigation.

He had neat, dark brown short hair, and a perfectly measured smile often hung at the corner of his mouth; those gray-blue eyes would narrow slightly when analyzing data, revealing a focused expression.

Many on the ship believed he would be the most likely successor after Li Wei retired.

Excellence stood by the energy monitoring station in the center of the bridge, eyes closed, feeling the flow of the seven beacons' power within him.

These energies of Order from an ancient civilization formed a delicate balance within him, like seven stars orbiting along established paths in a microscopic universe.

When he opened his eyes, a golden light flashed in the depths of his pupils.

"Energy Resonance is stable," he reported softly. "All beacon power has been initially integrated; the infrastructure for the The Weave repair program can be activated at any time."

Su Mu turned from the security chief console, her sleek black short hair shining with a healthy luster under the bridge's soft lighting.

"Internal circulation system check complete, all crew members' vital signs are normal. However..." She paused, her brows knitting slightly. "The infirmary reports that a small number of crew members have recently experienced mild insomnia and anxiety symptoms; psychological counseling has been arranged."

"A common reaction to deep space navigation." Carter took over, his voice gentle and reassuring. "We have been working continuously for seven months without docking at any port; mental fatigue is inevitable. Once we return to 'Homeland,' I suggest arranging a mandatory two-week leave for the entire crew."

Li Wei nodded, but his gaze drifted unconsciously toward the surveillance screen displaying the external environment.

Beyond the boundary of the Phantom Light Nebula was a vacuum of pure, heart-palpitating darkness, with only sporadic stars in the distance providing a faint light source.

This absolute darkness always reminded him of fifty years ago, the moment "Entropy" first appeared within human detection range—it was not some kind of creature or fleet, but a phenomenon, a chaotic contamination spreading like a wound in the universe.

"Stay vigilant," Li Wei finally said. "We are still three warps away from 'Homeland.' The closer we get to the destination, the less we can afford to relax."

What he did not say was that the intuition peculiar to a commander was ringing a faint alarm in his heart.

It was too smooth—from collecting the first beacon to the last, the entire process was unnaturally smooth.

The forces of "Entropy" seemed to have intentionally avoided their route, leaving only sporadic, almost perfunctory harassment.

This was not normal.

The roar of the engine room faded into a low hum outside the heavy alloy bulkhead.

Carter stood alone before the main reactor console, the cold light of the display screen casting sharp shadows on his face.

His fingers slid across the light screen, pulling up a set of non-standard energy flow analysis charts—this data would not appear in regular reports, nor would it be recorded by the bridge's system.

"Lord Morpheus," he whispered to the empty room. "The seventh beacon has been confirmed as recorded. Excellence's integration level exceeds expectations; he can already invoke all the beacon power with almost no loss."

A barely perceptible static interference flickered in the air, and then, a multi-encrypted quantum communication channel was activated.

There was no image, only sound—it was a peculiar synthetic voice, sounding both like multiple people whispering at once and like the echo of a single consciousness.

"The plan is moved forward. Seize control before the next warp. Excellence must be captured alive; his body is the perfect beacon container."

Carter's hand tightened slightly, his knuckles turning white.

"The ship's loyalty monitoring system was recently upgraded; the risk of direct action—"

"The will of Entropy is not to be questioned." The voice interrupted him, containing a chilling sense of oppression within its calm.

"You have been granted power, Carter Reynolds. Are you still hesitating? Still missing those colleagues who always viewed you as a 'deputy'?"

Carter's breathing hitched for a moment, and a trace of struggle flashed in the depths of his gray-blue eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a certain fanaticism.

"No, Lord Morpheus. I understand my mission. The limitations of low-dimensional life must be broken; the sublimation of Entropy is the true evolution."

"Very good. The independent control protocol for the engine room has been sent to your private terminal. Remember, capture Excellence alive, destroy the resisters, and the Ark will become our flagship for the march toward the core of The Weave."

The communication cut off.

Carter stood in place, took three deep breaths, adjusted his facial expression, and restored his usual gentle and steady demeanor.

He pulled a hidden data pad from beneath the console, quickly browsing the encrypted file he had just received.

The file detailed the backdoors of every security system on the Ark, every weak point in the defense, and even included a predictive model for Excellence's power fluctuation cycle.

This information far exceeded the authority of a Vice-Captain, and even exceeded the degree of understanding the "Homeland" Security Bureau had of the Ark's systems.

There was only one explanation—at the very beginning of the Ark's construction, or even earlier, the forces of "Entropy" had already infiltrated the heart of humanity's highest technological project.

Carter closed the data pad and hid it back in place.

He turned and walked toward the engine room exit, passing the observation window of the main reactor on the way.

The massive energy core rotated steadily within, emitting a faint blue radiance.

In that instant, Carter's reflection appeared on the observation window, and his eyes seemed to flash with an unnatural, dark purple light.

That was the imprint left in his consciousness by "The Whisper of Entropy"—not simple brainwashing or control, but a cognitive reconstruction, a mind virus that made him firmly believe that chaos and destruction were the ultimate truths of the universe.

Twenty-seven minutes before the warp.

The Ark entered standard preparatory procedures.

Most non-essential crew members had returned to their respective sleep pods or safe zones, with only core operational personnel remaining at their posts.

The interior lighting switched to a soft blue, signaling that energy was gathering toward the warp engines.

Su Mu had finished the final round of security patrols and was on her way back to the bridge.

Her boots made rhythmic echoes on the alloy floor, and the emergency indicator lights on both sides of the corridor were like a row of silent sentries.

When passing the third medical room, she stopped.

What shone from beneath the door crack was not the usual cold white light of the medical room, but a dark purple, unstable flickering.

Su Mu's hand immediately pressed against the pulse pistol at her waist, while her other hand opened the communicator.

"Bridge, this is Su Mu. There is an abnormal energy reading in the third medical room, requesting a scan for confirmation."

There was only a slight crackle of electricity in the communication channel.

"Bridge? Repeat, third medical room—"

"All communications have been taken over." Carter's voice suddenly rang out from the corridor's broadcast system, terrifyingly calm.

"Put down your weapon, Supervisor Su; you can remain unharmed."

Almost in the same instant, the bulkhead doors at both ends of the corridor slammed shut, trapping Su Mu in a thirty-meter-long passage.

That dark purple energy pattern seeped out from the walls on both sides, spreading like living vines.

"Carter? Do you know what you are doing?"

Su Mu backed against the wall, raising her gun to observe the front and back vigilantly.

Her training kept her calm, but a stormy sea had already risen in her heart—the Vice-Captain had defected, which meant that the Ark's system security had completely collapsed.

"I know it better than any of you." There was a fanaticism in Carter's voice that she had never heard before.

"'Entropy' is not destruction, Su Mu. It is liberation, the necessary path for life to break through low-dimensional constraints. Lord Morpheus will lead us into a new stage of evolution, and the Ark will become the vanguard of this process."

The dark purple patterns had spread to the ceiling and began to interfere with the corridor's gravity regulation system.

Su Mu felt her body becoming heavy, and every step required extra effort.

"You've been bewitched, Carter! That is not evolution; that is a virus that decomposes ordered life into chaos!"

She said, while quickly operating the personal terminal on her wrist, trying to bypass Carter's control and restart local communication.

"Virus? No, we are the virus." Carter's chuckle came through the broadcast.

"Trapped in fragile carbon-based shells, bound by limited senses, restricted by ridiculous moral codes. Lord Morpheus has granted me true vision, Su Mu. You should see—"

A loud noise interrupted Carter.

The bulkhead door at the front of the corridor was torn open from the outside by a massive burst of energy; the metal twisted and deformed, sparks flying everywhere.

Excellence's figure appeared at the breach, his body surrounded by a faint golden halo, which was a sign of the beacon power manifesting.

There was no usual gentleness in his eyes, only cold fury.

"Carter," Excellence's voice was not loud, but it drowned out the alarm.

"I give you three seconds to release all control and return to the bridge to surrender."

"Excellence!" Su Mu shouted. "Watch out, he has controlled—"

Before she could finish, the bulkhead door at the back of the corridor also burst open, and five fully armed crew members rushed in.

They were wearing standard Ark uniforms, but their eyes all flashed with the same dark purple light as Carter's, their movements unnaturally uniform, clearly having been subjected to some kind of enhanced control.

"Catch him!" Carter's voice suddenly became sharp. "Take him alive!"

The situation on the bridge was equally critical.

When Carter sent the signal to initiate the mutiny, twelve crew members who had been turned or controlled by him acted simultaneously, quickly occupying three key positions: the main engine control room, the weapon system center, and the energy distribution hub.

The equipment they used clearly exceeded the Ark's standard configuration—handheld energy jammers, neural pulse emitters, and even two sets of exoskeleton enhancement armor.

Captain Li Wei was blocked at the main entrance of the corridor by three rebels at the first moment.

The old man had no weapon in his hands, only an emergency data pad, but his gaze remained as sharp as an eagle's.

"Where is Carter?" Li Wei's voice was like ice.

"Let him come see me."

"Captain, Lord Carter is busy right now."

The leader of the rebels was a young engineer; Li Wei remembered his name was Derrick, and he had only officially joined the Ark half a year ago after passing the assessment.

At this moment, the young man's face was filled with a fanaticism inconsistent with his age.

"Please give up resistance; we can guarantee your safety. Lord Morpheus values talent."

"Morpheus?" Li Wei narrowed his eyes.

"So that's it, 'Entropy' has finally found a spokesperson name for itself. Derrick, look at your own hand."

The young man subconsciously looked down and saw dark purple, vein-like patterns pulsating beneath the skin of the back of his hand.

Those were not physiological features that humans should have.

"What do you think this is? Evolution?"

Li Wei took a step forward; despite the opponent holding weapons, his aura made the three rebels take half a step back simultaneously.

"This is parasitism, this is erosion! Your body is being reorganized by chaotic energy, and eventually, you will lose all self-consciousness and become part of the nutrients for 'Entropy'!"

A flicker of hesitation flashed on Derrick's face, but it was quickly drowned out by more dark purple light.

"You... you don't understand... this feeling... this power..."

"Captain! Get down!"

Evelyn's voice came from the side ventilation duct.

Immediately after, an electromagnetic interference smoke bomb exploded in the corridor, temporarily paralyzing all electronic equipment, including the rebels' energy weapons.

Li Wei didn't hesitate to bend down and rush toward the side maintenance passage, where a hidden panel had been opened.

The moment he slid into the passage, his previous standing position was hit by three energy beams, and the alloy wall melted into crimson liquid metal that dripped down.

"Evelyn, report the situation!"

Li Wei crawled quickly through the narrow passage, speaking into the short-range communicator on his wrist that was still working.

The AI steward's voice carried a rare tension: "Forty percent of the areas have lost control, Captain. Carter has implanted at least seven unauthorized control protocols; I am cracking them one by one, but it will take time. The most serious thing is that he has injected 'The Whisper virus' aerosol into the life support system, and twenty-three crew members are already showing symptoms of infection."

"What about Excellence and Su Mu?"

"They are currently fighting the rebels in the C-zone corridor. Excellence has activated some of the beacon power, temporarily suppressing the 'The Whisper' contamination in that area, but Carter seems to have targeted countermeasures—"

A harsh sound of interference drowned out Evelyn's voice, followed by complete silence.

Li Wei's heart sank.

If even Evelyn was suppressed, it meant that Carter had reached the Ark's core AI control system.

This situation had only occurred once in simulation drills, and the preset condition for that time was: the ship's AI had been completely taken over by hostile forces.

A faint light shone ahead in the passage, and Li Wei quickened his speed.

No matter how bad the situation was, he had to reach the backup command center—there was a console independent of the Main System, and perhaps he could regain partial control.

The battle in the C-zone corridor presented a one-sided situation, but the side with the advantage was Excellence alone.

When the five enhanced rebels rushed toward him, Excellence did not dodge, but took a step forward.

With this step, the power of the seven beacons within him completed the final Resonance adjustment, converging from scattered individuals into a unified whole.

Golden light burst from his body, not a blinding flash, but a halo as gentle as the morning sun, yet carrying an irresistible sense of oppression.

Wherever the halo passed, the dark purple patterns spreading on the walls vanished and evaporated like frost encountering flames.

The rebel who rushed to the front just entered the halo's range and let out a painful roar.

The enhancement effect on him quickly disintegrated under the washing of the Order energy, his dark purple eyes returned to the normal human brown, and then the whole person collapsed to the ground, falling into a coma.

"This... impossible..." The remaining four retreated in horror.

"Lord Carter said the beacon power requires a complex startup procedure..."

"What Carter knows is only what he wants to know."

Excellence's voice echoed in the light, as if multiple audio tracks were superimposed.

"And 'Entropy' can never truly understand the essence of Order—it does not need 'startup,' it already exists; it only needs to be 'awakened'."

He raised his right hand, palm facing upward. Golden light particles coalesced from the air, forming a slowly rotating, complex geometric structure—the materialized model of the power of the seven beacons, with each Node corresponding to a stable expression of a fundamental cosmic constant.

"Su Mu, go to Sector B and support the captain; I have things covered here." Excellence did not turn around, but his voice reached Su Mu clearly, "Tell all crew members who can still fight not to approach the energy hub or the engine room; Carter has set a Resonance trap there."

"Then you—"

"I am going to perform a ship-wide 'Purification'." Excellence's eyes were firm, "Since 'Entropy' uses The Whisper to pollute our ship, I will use the power of the beacon to return the favor."

Su Mu nodded and turned without hesitation, rushing toward the maintenance corridor. She trusted Excellence, just as she trusted that the sun would rise at the scheduled time—this was not blind obedience, but absolute trust built after experiencing seven beacon collection missions together.

After Su Mu's figure disappeared at the end of the corridor, Excellence took a deep breath and gently pushed the geometric structure in his hand toward the ceiling.

"Ship-wide energy Resonance protocol, initiate."

This sentence was not transmitted through the communication system, but echoed directly in every crew member's consciousness through the power of the beacon—regardless of where they were, or whether communications were interrupted, they heard this voice clearly.

In the next second, majestic energy of Order spread throughout the ship from Excellence as the center, like a supernova explosion.

This was not an aggressive energy shockwave, but a frequency-specific Resonance wave. It passed through every deck, every cabin, and every pipeline. For uninfected crew members, the sensation was like soaking in a spring with the perfect temperature; their spirits were refreshed, and their fatigue was swept away. For crew members affected by "The Whisper," it was like being thrown into a purgatory of ice and fire—Chaos and Order fought fiercely within them.

In the medical bay, three rebels attempting to inject an unknown liquid into unconscious crew members suddenly clutched their heads and screamed, the syringes in their hands dropping to the floor. The dark purple in their eyes flickered violently before finally extinguishing; they collapsed to the ground, with black, rapidly evaporating substances seeping from their mouths and noses.

At the energy distribution hub, two technicians who were adjusting energy flow to create the illusion of an overload froze in place; the control interfaces in front of them suddenly reset automatically, and all unauthorized operations were cleared with a single click.

In the living quarters, a dozen or so crew members who had been mildly infected and were trapped in hallucinations woke up one after another, looking at each other in confusion, completely unaware of what had just happened.

The entire "Purification" process lasted less than three seconds, but the effect was significant. According to the data provided after Evelyn recovered, ninety-three percent of "The Whisper" contamination on the ship had been cleared, and the remainder had been suppressed below the safety threshold.

However, one area resisted the Purification—the engine room.

The engine room's console was shrouded in a layer of dark purple energy barrier; Carter stood behind the barrier, his fingers operating rapidly on the control panel. The screen in front of him displayed the engine overload countdown: 4 minutes and 37 seconds.

"Excellence, you can purify the whole ship, but can you break through this barrier in four minutes?" Carter's voice came through the internal broadcast, carrying a trace of twisted smugness, "This is an anti-Order field personally designed by Lord Morpheus, specifically targeting the power of the beacon. You can try, but I suggest you don't—excessive energy impact will accelerate the engine overload process."

Excellence stood at the main entrance of the engine room, watching the constantly flowing dark purple barrier. He could feel that this was not just an energy barrier, but a conceptual defense—it was built on the fundamental characteristic of "Chaos is unpredictable," and any orderly attack would be randomly neutralized and dispersed by it.

"Do you intend to die with us, Carter?" Excellence's voice was terrifyingly calm.

"Die with you? No, this is the necessary price for ascension." Carter's fingers did not stop, "When the engine overloads, the resulting energy burst will be enough to open a small space-time rift. Lord Morpheus will meet me, and you... if you are lucky, you might retain part of your consciousness during the Chaos reorganization and become the basic material for the new world."

Excellence closed his eyes. Breaking through the barrier directly was not feasible, and closing the engine overload program from the outside had also been locked by Carter; all conventional methods seemed to have failed.

But he was not a conventional existence.

The seven beacons lit up within him simultaneously; this time, he did not release their power outward but converged it inward. Memories surged like a tide—not his own memories, but the memories of civilizations spanning millions of years stored within the beacons. He saw how the ancient races that built the beacons fought against the Chaos of their eras, saw the forms of expression of the laws of Order in different cosmic epochs, and saw a simple but long-ignored truth:

Chaos and Order are not opposites, but complementary. Chaos represents possibility; Order represents realization. Order without Chaos is a rigid cage. Chaos without Order is meaningless noise.

Excellence opened his eyes; the golden light in his pupils was no longer blinding, but had become as deep as the starry sky. He reached out his hand, not to push against the barrier, but to gently press it against the surface, as if stroking a flow of water.

"What are you doing?" Carter frowned; the overload countdown had entered three minutes.

"I am learning." Excellence's voice seemed to come from very far away, "'Entropy' taught you a lot, Carter, but did it ever teach you this: true evolution is not choosing Chaos or Order, but the art of mastering the balance between the two?"

The dark purple barrier began to change. It was not destroyed, but transformed—where Excellence's hand touched, the dark purple gradually faded, revealing the normal energy flow colors beneath. This was not a forced breakthrough, but frequency synchronization; it was incorporating Chaos back into the orderly wave spectrum.

"Impossible..." Carter took a step back, his fingers operating faster on the console, "The anti-Order field should... Lord Morpheus said..."

"Lord Morpheus was wrong." Excellence had already passed through the barrier, golden halos and residual dark purple energy intertwined around him, forming a strange, dynamically balanced mixed field, "Or rather, he deliberately did not tell you the whole truth. 'Entropy' does not need believers, Carter; it only needs carriers and nourishment. Your so-called 'ascension' is nothing but a beautiful illusion before being devoured."

Countdown: 1 minute 15 seconds.

Carter slammed his hand down on the red emergency button on the console—not to stop the overload, but to accelerate it. The countdown numbers jumped frantically, skipping from one minute directly to fifteen seconds.

"Then let's die together!" He roared, the fanaticism on his face finally disintegrating, revealing deep-seated fear and despair.

Excellence did not speak again. He simply raised his hands and made a motion similar to tearing.

Not tearing a physical entity, but tearing a concept.

In the last second before the engine overload hit zero, the concept of "overload state" for the entire engine room was temporarily removed from reality by Excellence. This was not stopping time—time was still flowing, but the event of "overload" itself was placed in a state of quantum superposition, both existing and not existing, both having happened and not having happened.

Carter stared blankly at the "Error: Target state undefined" prompt flashing on the console, then his legs went weak, and he collapsed to his knees.

Excellence walked to the main console and lightly touched the screen with his finger. The power of the seven beacons, like the most precise key, instantly lifted all illegal locks and reset the engine control protocol. The overload program was safely terminated, and energy levels steadily dropped to the normal range.

"It's over, Carter." Excellence turned around, looking at the collapsed former vice-captain on the floor, "Your rebellion, your 'ascension,' it's all over."

The engine room door was only then cut open from the outside; Su Mu rushed in with the security team, pulse rifles aimed at Carter. Captain Li Wei followed closely behind; the old man's face was full of exhaustion and anger, but his eyes remained sharp.

"Under the provisions of Chapter 3, Article 7 of the 'Homeland' Interstellar Navigation Code," Li Wei's voice echoed in the suddenly quiet engine room, "I declare you, Carter Reynolds, guilty of seventeen major crimes including mutiny, sabotage, and endangering navigation safety. You have the right to remain silent, but everything you say will become evidence in court."

When Carter was dragged up, he did not resist. He just stared at Excellence, muttering in a low voice: "You saw it, didn't you? That possibility... the dawn of Order within Chaos... you saw it..."

Excellence did not answer. He just turned and walked toward the observation window, looking at the boundless starry sky outside. During the conceptual operation just now, he had indeed seen it—not just the balance between Chaos and Order, but something deeper, a power that not even "Entropy" and the beacon builders had fully understood.

And that power seemed to be awakening in some corner of the universe.

The cleanup work after the rebellion lasted for three full days.

The damage to the Ark was more severe than initially estimated—not in terms of physical structure, but at the system and personnel levels. Carter and his accomplices had implanted at least thirty-nine unauthorized programs, seven of which had deeply penetrated the core operating system and required a complete reset to ensure safety.

Even trickier was the recovery of the personnel. Although Excellence's "Purification" had cleared most of "The Whisper" contamination, twenty-seven crew members suffered from varying degrees of psychological trauma and required long-term psychological intervention. Eight of them voluntarily admitted to having been contacted and seduced by Carter, but they had also been struggling and resisting before the rebellion broke out—their testimonies revealed how Carter had used his position to precisely induce each person based on their weaknesses.

"He told me that my daughter's condition had worsened at the 'Homeland' medical center," a middle-aged engineer wept during his psychological evaluation, "He said only the power of 'Entropy' could save genetic-level diseases, and if I helped leave a backdoor in the energy system, Lord Morpheus would cure her..."

The investigation showed that his daughter did indeed suffer from a rare genetic disease, but her condition was stable and had not worsened. Carter had exploited his fatherly love and dissatisfaction with the 'Homeland' medical system, weaving a temptation that was hard to refuse.

There were more than one similar case. Carter seemed to have a complete file recording the weaknesses, fears, and desires of every potential target, and then used the false solutions promised by "Entropy" as bait. The most terrifying part was that some of the information in these files was not even fully recorded in the highest security database of 'Homeland.'

"We have reason to believe that 'Entropy' has also infiltrated 'Homeland'." Li Wei said during the first all-hands meeting after the rebellion, his voice spreading throughout the ship via the repaired broadcast system, "This is not the end, but a beginning. When we return, we must immediately initiate the highest level of security review."

Excellence stood in front of the observation window on the bridge, listening to the captain's speech, but his thoughts drifted to a place further away. The rebellion had been suppressed, but Carter's final words still echoed in his mind.

"You saw it, didn't you? That possibility..."

Yes, he had seen it. When mobilizing the power of the seven beacons to fight against the Chaos barrier of "Entropy," Excellence's consciousness had briefly touched upon some kind of... background. It was not Chaos, not Order, but the source from which both were born, a more primitive, more fundamental cosmic substrate. At that level, the distinction between Chaos and Order lost its meaning, just like the distinction between waves and the ocean.

"What are you thinking about?" Su Mu walked to his side, handing him a hot drink. There were faint dark circles under her eyes; apparently, she hadn't rested much these past few days either.

"Thinking about what we are fighting against." Excellence took the cup, feeling the warmth from the palm of his hand, "If 'Entropy' is just some kind of natural phenomenon, why would there be a spokesperson like Morpheus? If there is a spokesperson, then does 'Entropy' also have some kind of... will?"

Su Mu was silent for a while. "The psychological evaluation shows that Carter started to show abnormalities three months before the mutiny, but it was very slight and could not be detected by routine checks at all. The medical officer believes that 'The Whisper of Entropy' is not simple mind control, but a cognitive-level infection—it doesn't change your memories, but changes the way you interpret your memories."

"Redefining Order as restraint, redefining Chaos as freedom." Excellence said in a low voice, "The most terrifying thing is not violent destruction, but the reconstruction of meaning."

Evelyn's projection appeared beside the console at this moment; the AI housekeeper's voice had returned to its usual calm elegance, but with a hint of heaviness: "Captain, all system resets are complete. Ninety-nine percent of unauthorized programs have been cleared, and the remaining parts have been isolated and will not pose a threat. The jump engine can be restarted at any time."

Li Wei nodded, but did not give the Order immediately. He walked to Excellence's side, and together with the two of them, looked at the starry sky outside the window.

"This incident will be recorded in the flight log of the Ark," the old captain said slowly, "but not as a stain of shame, but as a monument of warning. We explore the universe, seek allies, and collect power, yet we were almost swallowed by shadows from within. This reminds us that no matter what enemy we face in the future, the greatest threat may come from our own wavering beliefs."

He turned to face all the personnel on the bridge and raised his voice: "But we survived. Because even in the darkest moments, there are still people who uphold Order, uphold reason, and uphold responsibility to their companions. This is the spirit of the Ark, and the reason why the 'Homeland' civilization has been able to survive in the universe until today."

"Now," Li Wei returned to the command console, "set the course, destination 'Homeland'. Start the jump engine."

"Course set."

"Engine starting."

"Three, two, one—"

The starry sky outside the window stretched into lines of light, then converged into the milky white radiance unique to jump channels. The Ark set off on its return journey again, bearing scars, bearing lessons, and bearing the full power of the seven beacons.

Excellence took one last look at the direction of the engine room—it had been thoroughly disinfected and reset, and Carter and his core cohorts were detained in reinforced isolation cells, waiting to return to 'Homeland' to stand trial.

But what about after the trial? The threat of "Entropy" remained, and Morpheus and its "Singularity Project" were still advancing. And Excellence vaguely felt that his fusion with the seven beacons was far from complete, and some deeper connection was forming.

The war had indeed just begun.

And the battlefield for the next battle might be right in the 'Homeland' they were about to return to.