331: How much do you know about the universe (two in one)

“You really are quite presumptuous.”

The Silver-haired woman’s words made Lin Yang’s old face flush instantly.

Just as he was about to explain that he didn’t mean it that way, he heard the Silver-haired woman say, “Kid, remember this: anything involving space and time is very special. These are the two most difficult powers to control. If you ever have the chance to encounter anything related to them in the future, you must acquire it at all costs!”

“Understood,” Lin Yang noted.

The Silver-haired woman didn’t say anything more, nor did she directly answer Lin Yang’s question.

Soon, Apocalypse arrived at the coordinates the Silver-haired woman had given.

It was the center of a vast ocean.

“Your Excellency, are you saying the interesting thing you mentioned is in the ocean?” Lin Yang looked at the surging sea below, feeling a bit confused.

“That’s right.” The Silver-haired woman nodded. “Take Apocalypse down.”

“Okay,” Lin Yang replied.

Although Apocalypse was a spaceship, it could also delve deep into the ocean, possessing extremely powerful waterproofing capabilities.

It was just that its speed would be reduced in the ocean.

However, the Silver-haired woman was clearly not in a hurry now, so Lin Yang controlled Apocalypse to plunge into the sea at a steady speed.

“Dive straight down. Stop when I tell you to,” the Silver-haired woman instructed.

“Understood,” Lin Yang complied.

Soon, Apocalypse submerged over 3 kilometers.

But the Silver-haired woman didn’t call a halt.

Even when it submerged over 6 kilometers, the Silver-haired woman still didn’t call a halt.

Lin Yang was a bit curious as to what exactly was in such a deep part of the ocean.

At a depth of 6 kilometers, normally only a very small number of professional diving tools could reach this place.

Even sunlight couldn’t penetrate here; it was completely pitch black.

Only the lights of Apocalypse flickered.

It was Lin Yang’s first time in the ocean at such a depth, and he marveled at some of the deep-sea creatures transmitted back by Apocalypse’s scanning system.

Deep-sea creatures were diverse.

Some of them weren’t even recorded in books.

Clearly, humanity on the entire Blue Star currently had insufficient exploration of the ocean, especially the deep sea.

Apocalypse continued to descend.

Soon, it reached 9,000 meters, essentially hitting the bottom.

“Stop.”

The Silver-haired woman finally spoke, calling a halt, and then said to Lin Yang, “You stay in the spaceship and don’t move around.”

With that, her entire being vanished directly from Lin Yang’s sight, reappearing in front of Apocalypse.

“…”

Although it wasn’t the first time he had seen this scene, Lin Yang was still somewhat shocked.

The Silver-haired woman’s strength was simply unimaginable.

Not to mention directly passing through the spaceship, simply being at such a deep seabed, the pressure was enough to instantly crush a person into a thin sheet of paper.

Yet the Silver-haired woman appeared outside directly, and her expression didn’t change, as if she were on the ground, which was truly astonishing to witness.

Under Lin Yang’s shocked gaze, the Silver-haired woman shattered a piece of reef at the bottom of the sea with a single palm strike.

Then, she lightly stomped her foot on the original base of the reef.

A deep pit instantly appeared.

The Silver-haired woman reached in and retrieved something, and a faint glow appeared in her palm.

Whoosh.

The next instant, Lin Yang only felt a blur before his eyes, and then he saw the Silver-haired woman return to Apocalypse, standing in front of him.

Not a single drop of water clung to her body.

“This is what I called interesting,” the Silver-haired woman said, placing the faintly glowing object in her palm before Lin Yang’s eyes.

It looked to be only the size of a grain of sand.

“What is this?”

Lin Yang looked at it for a long time, but he really couldn’t tell what it was.

In fact, if this thing weren’t glowing, it would probably just be a grain of sand.

“This is an extraordinary substance.”

The Silver-haired woman’s words were astonishing.

“What? This is an extraordinary substance??”

Lin Yang was instantly shocked.

There were extraordinary substances on Blue Star too??

“To be precise, this isn’t a complete extraordinary substance; it’s just something with a hint of extraordinary properties. Strictly speaking, it can’t even be called an extraordinary substance,” the Silver-haired woman added.

This statement immediately left Lin Yang a bit confused.

One moment she said it was an extraordinary substance, the next she said it couldn’t be called an extraordinary substance.

“I… I don’t quite understand.” Lin Yang scratched his head.

“But you know that extraordinary substances don’t appear out of thin air, right?” The Silver-haired woman looked at him.

“Hmm, I heard that extraordinary substances are specifically placed,” Lin Yang nodded.

As soon as he spoke, his scalp tingled.

He had been shocked just now that there were extraordinary substances on Blue Star, and now he realized.

“Someone specifically placed extraordinary substances on Blue Star?”

“Heh heh, your reaction is a little slow, little fellow.” The Silver-haired woman chuckled softly.

“This…” Lin Yang’s heart pounded.

Blue Star, had it actually been used to place extraordinary substances?

“Such a backward planet is actually worth placing extraordinary substances on?” Lin Yang was a bit confused.

However, he then remembered that Tian Wu and their even more backward and primitive planet also had extraordinary substances.

“Aren’t extraordinary substances very precious? Why would someone place extraordinary substances on a backward planet?”

Lin Yang grew even more confused.

“Extraordinary substances are precious, but this one can’t be considered a true extraordinary substance. Perhaps it wasn’t specifically placed here by someone,” the Silver-haired woman said.

“Uh… Your Excellency, I don’t quite understand what you mean,” Lin Yang said again.

The Silver-haired woman merely glanced at him and said indifferently:

“You can simply understand it as a derivative of an extraordinary substance. After this object is created, it is placed with a true extraordinary substance and then processed through some special means. This allows it to acquire some of the extraordinary substance’s properties in a very short time. Such things are usually manufactured in large quantities.”

“Uh… Manufactured in large quantities? What for?” Lin Yang asked.

“Naturally, for related extraordinary property experiments,” the Silver-haired woman said indifferently.

“Experiments?” Lin Yang’s heart tightened.

The Silver-haired woman nodded: “Yes, after these substances are manufactured in large quantities, they are scattered by their creators. They will drift in the universe, entering every Life planet they pass.”

“Entering every Life planet? Can they produce that many??” Lin Yang was greatly astonished.

There were countless Life planets in the universe; he couldn’t imagine how many would need to be produced.

Nor could he imagine how powerful the civilization behind the creation of these things must be.

“For you, it’s currently unimaginable, but for the creators of these things, scattering them across a universe is no different from scattering seeds across a field,” the Silver-haired woman said astonishingly.

“Scattering… a field??” Lin Yang’s mouth hung open.

These words were too shocking.

At the same time, Lin Yang noticed another question and couldn’t help but ask, “The universe isn’t singular; there are many parallel universes, right?”

The Silver-haired woman heard this and looked at him with slight surprise: “You know about the existence of parallel universes?”

“Yes, to be honest, Your Excellency, I’ve even been to another universe,” Lin Yang said truthfully.

There was nothing to hide, and he wanted to learn more information through the Silver-haired woman.

The Silver-haired woman was a little surprised: “You, you’ve been to other universes? When did you go?”

“Previously, when Gao Shui was chasing us, we accidentally passed through during a space jump.”

Lin Yang spoke, quickly recounting the previous situation.

“That universe, there was no news related to the Galaxy. Although it might be because we haven’t explored enough, based on the situation, that place and this universe should be different, so I guessed that it should be another universe.”

The Silver-haired woman listened, her eyebrow raising slightly: “Little fellow, you’re quite lucky. Not only could you successfully travel to another universe, but you could also come back. It’s truly astonishing.”

Lin Yang coughed dryly, not responding. He didn’t know how to answer that.

Being able to travel there and back wasn't just luck; it was mostly due to the system’s help.

But the existence of the system certainly couldn’t be revealed to the Silver-haired woman.

The Silver-haired woman didn’t ask further but said, “Since you have personally been to other universes, then I can clearly tell you that there are many parallel universes, and Maple and I are from other universes.”

“Indeed!”

Lin Yang was not surprised, as he had long suspected.

“How much do you understand about the universe?” the Silver-haired woman suddenly asked.

Lin Yang froze for a moment; the tone and question were somewhat similar to when she had asked him how much he understood about extraordinary substances.

After a pause, Lin Yang said, “Currently, I don’t understand much about the universe, only that parallel universes exist.”

“That’s not bad.”

However, this time, the Silver-haired woman didn’t laugh at his limited knowledge as she had last time; instead, she offered a certain degree of praise.

This made Lin Yang feel a bit amused.

Just knowing about the existence of parallel universes was considered good?

The Silver-haired woman glanced at him and said leisurely, “Since you know about and have been to parallel universes, it will be much simpler for me to explain things to you. Do you know the highest level of civilization in the universe?”

“Oh… The scholars of my Home Universe believe that the highest level of civilization in the universe is seventh-level, but in reality, there should be ninth-level civilization,” Lin Yang said.

“That’s right, there is ninth-level civilization. ninth-level civilization is also called supreme civilization. When technological advancement reaches ninth-level civilization, they gain the ability to govern multiple parallel universes.”

The Silver-haired woman nodded, continuing to explain to Lin Yang.

“Different universes have their strengths and weaknesses. Some universes only have civilizations up to the fourth or fifth level at most. Such universes are usually targets of invasion for other universes that possess advanced civilizations.”

Lin Yang couldn’t help but be startled: “Universes can also be invaded by other universes?”

“Of course, you wouldn’t think that invasion only happens within the Home Universe, with advanced civilizations invading lower-level civilizations, would you?”

The Silver-haired woman glanced at him and said indifferently, “Within the same planet, strong nations invade weak nations. Within the same universe, advanced civilizations invade lower-level civilizations. So naturally, universes without advanced civilizations will also be invaded by universes with advanced civilizations.”

“It’s just that invading other universes is more difficult because the spatial barrier isn’t that easy to break. Traversing the spatial barrier requires a great price, especially when a large number of warships traverse the spatial barrier. Maintaining the openness and stability of the spatial barrier requires an extremely huge price, which ordinary universe civilizations cannot afford.”

“Uh…” Lin Yang blinked.

The Silver-haired woman’s words somewhat opened up his new worldview.

The Silver-haired woman continued, “So, in some weaker universes, various civilizations will unite, develop together, and even seek out stronger universe civilizations as patrons to avoid their Home Universe from being invaded.”

“That’s possible!?” Lin Yang was stunned again.

This operation was truly…

Too awesome!

However, he immediately had a question: “Since that’s the case, why don’t powerful universes directly invade weaker universes instead of protecting them?”

“Heh heh, didn’t I just say? Invading a universe is not that simple; it requires a huge price. So, naturally, it’s better to enjoy the fruits of others’ labor and collect tribute resources,” the Silver-haired woman said leisurely.

“But that doesn’t make sense. Since invading other universes comes at a huge cost, shouldn’t the possibility of being invaded also be very small? Why bother finding a patron then?” Lin Yang felt there was a logical flaw.

“That involves a matter of probability. The purpose of seeking a patron is to be able to get rescue in case of an invasion,” the Silver-haired woman said.

“Alright,” Lin Yang had nothing to say.

After all, no one could say for sure about probabilities.

Sometimes, even with a 99% safety chance, an invasion could happen the next second.

This reminded him of a game from a certain company he used to play, where even a 99.9% success rate could still fail!

Here, he wanted to call out a certain game by name.

That would be…

…

“Ahem, Your Excellency, so to speak, it’s a good thing that our Home Universe is powerful,” Lin Yang put aside his jumbled thoughts and got back to business.

“You can understand it that way,” the Silver-haired woman nodded.

“Then, what level is the strongest civilization in this universe I’m in?” Lin Yang became curious.

“I don’t know. I haven’t explored other regions. However, from the appearance of this little thing, I can basically tell you that your universe probably doesn’t have a supreme civilization,” the Silver-haired woman said.

“Uh… Then what kind of experiment is this thing specifically used for?” Lin Yang also focused his gaze on the object.

“The extraordinary properties this thing is imbued with are very chaotic; it might be for a comprehensive experiment involving multiple extraordinary properties,” the Silver-haired woman replied.

“Comprehensive experiment? Is it good or bad?” Lin Yang frowned.

“None of these extraordinary experiments are good, so, kid, your Home Universe, and even this entire universe, are not in a very good situation!” The Silver-haired woman looked at him with a half-smile.

“Huh?” Lin Yang’s heart trembled, and he couldn’t help but say, “Your Excellency, do you mean?”

“My meaning is simple: this place is being used as an experimental field, and the origin is very significant. I can’t help you. If you don’t want yourself and your Home Universe to become experimental subjects, you can only find a way to save yourselves,” the Silver-haired woman smiled.

“Self-rescue?”

Lin Yang’s eyes narrowed.

If even someone with the Silver-haired woman’s strength couldn’t solve it, how could he save himself?

“You don’t need to be too anxious. The process of this extraordinary experiment is very long. Compared to this trouble, you should first prepare to meet that guy I introduced to you and try to get him to act and fold your Home Universe planet first.”

The Silver-haired woman said, blowing on the glowing object, making it extinguish, and then said:

“Swallow it!”

—

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