184: The expedition returned with astonishing discoveries!

When Lu Chen's ultimate declaration, "Prepare for war," filled with the spirit of "burning the boats" and "fighting with one's back to the wall," clearly echoed across the bridge of the expedition, the highest power core of the Earth Federation erupted!

All the heads of state, who had just been plunged into despair by the death countdown—a countdown that was enough to suffocate all of human civilization!

They all felt as if their souls had been injected with the most potent cardiac stimulant!

One by one, they abruptly climbed out of the icy abyss of despair!

Their faces were etched with determination!

Flames burned in their eyes!

"That's right! Prepare for war!"

"Our human civilization will never be enslaved!"

"Damn it! It's just a damn 'the cleaners,' isn't it?! Four hundred years from now, who cleanses whom is still up for debate!"

Instantly! The atmosphere of suppressed despair on the entire bridge was swept away! It was replaced by a tragic, pathological madness filled with shared hatred against the enemy, and a sense of

heroism!

They knew.

From this moment onward!

They would fight for one common goal—

survival!

And, they would fight!

And at this moment, on the distant Mars.

A grander, more exhilarating planetary

great

transformation!

was also proceeding in full swing!

Hundreds of millions of genesis-class engineering nanorobots were acting like swarms of the most diligent worker ants!

They were transforming this desolate red planet day and night!

In just one short month!

What was once a silent, red Gobi Desert!

had already turned into a vast expanse of lush, vibrant

grassland!

Magnificent, enormous rivers!

were also slowly flowing through the crisscrossing canyons!

converging into beautiful, azure, sapphire-like

lakes!

Although the air here was still thin.

Although the gravity here was still weak.

This place already possessed the complete

prototype of a life-bearing planet!

And, today.

This new world, full of hope and vitality!

was about to welcome its first batch of distinguished

guests!

"Reporting, Academician Lu!"

Inside the main command room of the Mars "Nuwa" Ecological Transformation Base.

A middle-aged man with sun-darkened skin was reporting with fervent excitement to the calm-faced young man on the video screen:

"The expedition Two Transport Fleet has arrived in Mars synchronous orbit!"

"The first batch of ten thousand excellent citizens of the Earth Federation are all ready!"

"We can start the first truly meaningful event in human history at any time,"

"interstellar migration!"

"Very good."

On the other end of the video, Lu Chen nodded calmly.

"Proceed according to plan."

He paused, and a meaningful curve flashed in his dark eyes, vast as the cosmos.

"Also,"

"Tell those first lucky pioneers who are 'eating the crab's head'."

"While they enjoy the unique 'low gravity' life on Mars."

"Don't forget to,"

"help me bring back some 'local specialties'."

Half a month later.

When the silver-white expedition, full of science fiction and futuristic aesthetics, slowly returned from its first "passenger transport" mission and docked at the Heavenly Court Interstellar Starport.

The entire starport erupted!

Long Weiguo, Ye Qingcang, Qin Shan, and all the big shots remaining in the Earth-Moon System, were like children welcoming returning heroes!

Every single one of them was flushed with excitement!

Their eyes were brimming with tears!

Because they knew.

Starting today!

Their human civilization would no longer be the pitiful

infant trapped in the small "cradle" that was Earth!

But a preliminary

interstellar

civilization that truly possessed two "home" planets!

How magnificent was this!

How

glorious!

However,

just as they were wildly celebrating and reaching a collective climax over that historic moment.

A terrifying

discovery!

silently and stealthily

arrived!

"Reporting, Director Long!"

A young archaeologist stumbled out of the expedition's cargo hold as if insane!

His face was filled with an unprecedented, ghost-seeing

horror!

and a sense of earth-shattering

shock!

In his hand, he held high an irregular

stone

tablet, completely black and imbued with an aura of mystery and antiquity!

"Quick! Go notify Academician Lu!"

His voice was trembling!

"We... we were ten thousand meters deep beneath the surface of Mars!"

"We discovered... discovered..."

"An unprecedented, enormous, non-natural"

"ancient

"ruin!"

BOOM!!!

This sentence was like a black lightning bolt capable of splitting the entire history of human civilization!

It struck the crown of the head of every big shot present!

They were utterly petrified!

An an-

ancient

ruin?!

On Mars?!

What the hell kind of divine plot was this?!

Could it be...

A terrifying thought that made them shudder instantly popped up!

Could it be that before their human civilization was born!

A civilization far older and far more powerful than theirs already existed on this red planet?

A prehistoric

civilization?!

And, at this moment.

Kunlun Mountain Underground Base.

Lu Chen was calmly watching the Mars "archaeology"

live broadcast, which was being transmitted in real-time by heavenly craft on the screen before him.

There was not the slightest ripple of emotion on his face.

It was as if the "prehistoric ruin"—which was enough to drive all of human civilization mad—was merely a somewhat interesting archaeological

discovery to him.

"Master."

The ethereal virtual figure of heavenly craft slowly floated beside him.

She looked at Lu Chen's calm, even somewhat indifferent face, and a hint of human-like confusion flashed in her wise eyes.

"You don't seem surprised at all?"

"Why should I be surprised?" Lu Chen asked faintly in return.

"Because... because that's the ruin of an alien civilization!" heavenly craft stated as a matter of course.

"Alien civilization?"

Lu Chen smiled.

It was a smile filled with mystery and subversion.

"heavenly craft, you are mistaken again."

He pointed at the black stone tablet on the screen, which was filled with an aura of antiquity and vicissitude.

A complexity and sense of

emotion, inconsistent with his age, flashed in his dark eyes, vast as the cosmos.

"That is not an 'alien' civilization."

"That is the 'human' civilization that was long ago buried by the dust of history—"

"The previous generation."