121: Chapter 121 Arrival at Proxima Centauri

During the subsequent journey, Su Fan and the others visited Uranus and Neptune in succession, but they found nothing special nor any traces of life on these two planets.

The Tianyuan Mothership continued its flight out of the Solar System, and soon, they arrived at the Kuiper Belt.

The Kuiper Belt once held many dwarf planets, but now, these dwarf planets had been used for the terraforming of Mars.

Pluto, which was once ranked among the nine major planets, would never be seen again; it had also been integrated into the embrace of Mars.

The spaceship continued its outward flight; beyond the Kuiper Belt lay the Oort Cloud.

(Beyond the Oort Cloud, the real universe is no longer used as a reference; it is all original maps.)

...

More than a year had passed since the Tianyuan Mothership left the Blue Planet. The ship successfully flew through the Oort Cloud and officially exited the Solar System!

What was the universe like outside the Solar System?

Su Fan's description would be: dark, empty, and desolate.

In every direction—front, back, left, right, up, and down—only the distant, tiny glimmers of stars proved that this was cosmic space and not a void-like dreamscape.

“Red Queen, re-confirm the position of Proxima Centauri. In such a vast universe, once you take the wrong direction, it's very easy to get lost,” Su Fan reminded.

“The coordinates for Proxima Centauri have been confirmed; there will be no errors. Please rest assured, Master,” the Red Queen's voice was solemn.

“Very good!”

“Call the Grand Elder over; I have some matters to discuss with him.” Su Fan nodded.

“Yes!”

The Grand Elder soon arrived at the captain's quarters.

“Grand Elder, we have exited the Solar System. In about three more years, we will be able to reach the Proxima Centauri System.”

“This distance of roughly 3 light-years is very empty and doesn't have much to see. I was thinking of taking advantage of these three years to further develop Xia Country's technology,” Su Fan said with a smile as he brewed a cup of tea for the Grand Elder.

“Mm, you have a point. We can't waste these three years. With the Canglan Empire on the outside and the Star-Devouring Beast on the inside, I feel like Xia Country has always been walking on the edge of a blade.”

“Hemp rope always breaks at its thinnest point, and misfortune always finds the wretched.”

“Blessings never come in pairs, and disasters never come alone. Xia Country is surrounded by perils!”

The Grand Elder picked up his teacup, blew on it gently, and took an appreciative sip, even as he grumbled.

“I plan to establish a ring of defensive positions between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn to defend against foreign enemies.” Su Fan had the Red Queen display a simulation of the Solar System and drew a circle with his hand.

“Excellent! However, I think we shouldn't just build one defensive position, but several rings,” the Grand Elder nodded, approving of Su Fan's view.

“The Asteroid Belt has a large number of asteroids and meteorites. We can set up monitoring zones and disguise a large number of weapons in that area.”

“By the same token, we can use the asteroids and meteorites in the Kuiper Belt for cover to deploy massive amounts of monitors and weapons.”

“In that case, adding the defensive line between Jupiter and Saturn that you mentioned, there will be three layers of defense in total.”

Su Fan nodded and said with a smile, “As expected, the older the ginger, the spicier it is. The Grand Elder's considerations are more thorough.”

“No matter how thorough the considerations are, if the civilization level gap is too large, we'll still be finished. *Sigh*—” the Grand Elder sighed.

“Xia Country has developed fast enough recently. It's simply impossible to accelerate any further.” Su Fan shook his head.

“The population base is right there. Without a huge population base, it's very difficult for the number of scientists to grow too quickly, even if we already place enough importance on education.”

“But having a clever brain doesn't mean one is suited for scientific research. Research requires enduring loneliness first, whereas many smart people have very flighty minds and don't easily settle down to deeply appreciate the joy of research.”

“That makes sense. It seems the birth subsidies need to be increased further—increased until everyone can't help but have more children,” the Grand Elder said with a laugh.

“I won't be staying on the tianyuan for long periods next. Over the next three years, I want to raise Xia Country's technological level a bit more.” Su Fan's expression was somewhat solemn.

“Additionally, I think we can establish Mecha and Warship Command majors in universities to prepare for future interstellar warfare.”

“That's a good suggestion. I'll go suggest it to the head of the Ministry of Education later,” the Grand Elder nodded with a smile.

“Interstellar warfare... only when civilization levels are equal can it be called interstellar warfare. If there's even a one-level difference, it's called a steamroll,” Su Fan lamented.

The level gap between civilizations is massive at every stage—so massive that human wave tactics are forever useless.

Ten thousand kunpeng no. 1s could never break the armor of a single kunpeng no. 2, and a million or even more kunpeng no. 2s could never break the energy shields and armor of the tianyuan.

It was the same logic as primitive people never being able to breach a tank.

Just like that, Su Fan logged off, his consciousness returning to his original body on Mars, and Xia Country welcomed another small technological explosion.

...

Three years later.

A massive spaceship rapidly approached the Proxima Centauri System.

The Proxima Centauri System is a stellar system smaller than the Solar System, and its star is Proxima Centauri.

Proxima Centauri is smaller and dimmer than the Sun, belonging to the class of yellow dwarfs; it forms a triple star system with two other stars.

Su Fan logged onto the Tianyuan Mothership once again.

During these three years, besides developing Xia Country's technology, Su Fan would occasionally log on to take a look, but he returned disappointed every time.

The cosmic space between the Solar System and the Proxima Centauri System was too barren and empty; there was simply nothing there.

There were almost no meteorites!

If a person were to look at such a scene for a long time, they would definitely fall into depression.

“Red Queen, turn on the Quantum Radar at maximum power after encryption and scan the Proxima Centauri System ahead,” Su Fan ordered.

“Yes! Master!” The Red Queen immediately complied.

Once the Quantum Radar was encrypted, unless the Lizardman Civilization's encryption technology reached the level of the tianyuan, they would absolutely not discover that someone was scanning them with radar.

As the tianyuan was a Level 3 Civilization ship with powerful stealth combat systems, theoretically speaking, the Lizardman Civilization—which was most likely still at Level 1—could not possibly discover it.

As a supplement, Quantum Radar is still radar; it can only detect electronic products.

“Discovered a large number of electronic signals on Proxima b and its surroundings. Attempting to decrypt.”

“Decryption successful!”

“Invading the Lizardman Civilization network.”

“Invasion complete!”

“Attempting to decrypt data.”

“Decryption complete!”

“So fast?” Su Fan was stunned. These Lizardmen were too pathetic; their network was silently invaded just like that?

“The Lizardman Civilization's Quantum Communication technology lacks advanced encryption, so it is normal for it to be quickly decrypted and invaded,” the Red Queen explained patiently.

“Did the Lizardmen discover this network invasion?” Su Fan asked.

“No!” the Red Queen said with certainty.

“Then what level of civilization is this Lizardman Civilization?” Su Fan continued to ask.

“It is only a Level 1 Civilization, and it hasn't even reached its peak,” the Red Queen replied.

“Mm, very good.” Su Fan breathed a sigh of relief. “Call the Grand Elder over; I will discuss the attack plan with him.”

“Understood, Master!”

...