218: Chapter 218 Fifty Years

Half an hour later.

"Time's up! But Teacher Xiao hasn't come out yet."

Commander Jiang Qiuzhi was overjoyed.

The probability of her old man having turned into ash dropped just a tiny bit.

Xue Yao's heart also slowly rose into her throat; at Xiao Shuihan's walking speed, he could reach Area 51 in an hour at most.

If he could last for an hour, it meant he had truly reached the very center.

"Forty minutes!"

"Fifty minutes!"

"Sixty minutes!"

"It's been an hour!"

The three of them were overjoyed.

But!

After an hour and ten minutes.

The three of them, still not seeing Xiao Shuihan return, gradually took on solemn expressions.

Coming out before time was up meant he hadn't reached the deepest part.

But if it took too long, it was possible the person was simply gone...

"Mom, do you think Teacher Xiao might..."

...have turned into ash as well?

Commander Jiang Qiuzhi grew worried.

"..."

Tiny beads of sweat appeared on Xue Yao's forehead.

Just as the three were feeling anxious, Xiao Shuihan's figure was blown out along with the storm, swaying unsteadily as if he had run out of strength and could only drift with the wind.

"It's Teacher Xiao!"

Black Eagle dove down and pulled him up.

At this moment, Xiao Shuihan was cold all over.

There were still traces of lightning on his body, crackling and sizzling.

Lying on Black Eagle's back, he had completely lost the powerful aura of a Level 2 Lifeform he had before entering the ice sheet.

They only heard him say tremulously.

"The... the... base, I really couldn't get in."

"But!"

"I, I... I saw a tall figure at the entrance."

After saying that.

His head slumped to the side, and he passed out.

"Quick, back to the hotel!"

Commander Jiang Qiuzhi hurriedly ordered Black Eagle to take off.

Xue Yao, however, stood up and gazed toward the deepest part of the ice sheet.

"A tall figure at the entrance?"

Xue Yao remembered what Xia Zhongxun had said before about mecha-men blocking the entrance.

It's just that Xia Zhongxun later said the Longke Academy didn't have such mecha.

"That tall figure must be those clay men."

"If they're okay, then the probability of something having happened to my husband should drop a little..."

Thinking of this, a spark of hope was rekindled in Xue Yao's heart.

After all this time, those clay men had neither been blown out nor turned to ash, which meant they were incredibly strong.

"They should be protecting Jiang Chen well."

Xue Yao murmured to herself.

Following Black Eagle, they brought Xiao Shuihan to the hotel and called for medical staff.

Time flew by.

In the blink of an eye!

Another thirty years had passed.

During these thirty years, the Luan Bird, as the mothership for aerospace warships, had officially entered service and was currently cruising the Solar System.

The Luan Bird was exceptionally massive, with nine decks, and an aerospace warship was docked on each deck.

The former Dragon God, Dragon Cry, and Sister Li had also been converted into aerospace warships after being retrofitted with Controlled Nuclear Fusion and were now on the third, fifth, and seventh decks of the Luan Bird, respectively.

In the tenth year of those thirty, Jiang Haipeng broke through to become a Level 2 Lifeform, and his overall strength climbed steadily, now ranking ninth on the lifeform rankings.

Commander Jiang Qiuzhi had also become a Level 2 Lifeform, though she was slightly weaker, with an overall strength ranking around one hundredth on the lifeform rankings.

As for Xue Yao.

She was still stuck at the peak of a Level 1 Life Form.

Unable to break through for a long time.

Seeing more and more young people reaching her level.

Therefore!

She chose to apply to her superiors to resign from the Sister Li.

She planned to hand over the position of commander of the Sister Li to someone else.

After careful and repeated discussions, the superiors finally decided to let Commander Jiang Qiuzhi take over as the commander of the Sister Li.

By this time, Xue Yao had been out of the position of commander of the Sister Li for over three years.

It had also been over fifty years since Jiang Chen disappeared.

Calculating her age, Xue Yao was already in her seventies!

But fortunately, as a peak Level 1 Life Form, her lifespan was as long as two to three hundred years, so being in her seventies was equivalent to being in her thirties for humans who previously lived to a hundred.

Currently, she was on an Arctic whaling ship, standing on the deck and gazing at the Arctic Circle.

Her hair had turned completely silvery-white, draped behind her, each strand smooth and flowing as it was tossed by the rain, snow, and storm.

She looked like a goddess.

She had been standing here for four hours today, staring at the Arctic Circle.

Her silhouette from behind looked somewhat lonely.

"Mom, as long as you resolve the knot in your heart, you will definitely be able to break through to become a Level 2 Lifeform."

Commander Jiang Qiuzhi had once said this to her.

But how could she resolve that knot?

Although her parents had lived to be one hundred and twenty with the help of life no. 1, they had eventually grown old and passed away because they hadn't become Level 1 Life Forms...

Now, apart from her two children, she had nothing left.

But she was still waiting for Jiang Chen.

"Ms. Qin, ahead is the famous human forbidden zone, the Eskimo Ice Sheet. We should head back!"

Just then.

The whaling ship's captain sent a sailor to hurriedly inform Qin Xueyao.

Xue Yao looked up at the approaching ice sheet; it was still dominated by thunderous snowstorms, with both lightning and violent blizzards. Even a Level 2 Lifeform would emerge in a sorry state.

Ever since Xiao Shuihan's last attempt to enter, he had been bedridden for months before his vitality recovered.

Later, other Level 2 Lifeforms directly designated this place as a forbidden zone, not allowing people to easily attempt entry.

Nowadays, with humanity's development of the Solar System, planets like Mars and the Moon already had large bases suitable for human habitation.

More and more people were beginning to try leaving Earth.

This included Commander Jiang Qiuzhi, who was often away from Earth because she followed the Sister Li into space for missions.

Only her.

No matter the year, she still came here to wait and watch.

To see if there were any new changes.

To see if that man would suddenly walk out one day.

As time passed, this hope grew smaller and smaller, to the point where she suspected that the tall figure Xiao Shuihan saw back then was either a white lie or that the clay man had frozen into a statue himself...

"Let's head back!"

Taking one last look at the Eskimo Ice Sheet.

Xue Yao spoke.

"Everyone else can forget you, but I won't."

She thought to herself.

As the whaling ship left the Arctic Circle.

In space, within the command room of the Sister Li on the seventh deck of the Luan Bird, the 1.8-meter-tall Commander Jiang Qiuzhi, dressed in a starlight-colored commander's uniform, took advantage of some free time to pull up relevant satellite images of Earth.

They showed that Xue Yao had gone to the Arctic Circle again, and on a civilian whaling ship at that.

Now that a large number of Earth's population had migrated to various planets in space, Earth was slowly becoming a thing of the past.

"Mom's gone to the Arctic Circle again?"

Just then, Jiang Haipeng's voice came through the communication channel.

Commander Jiang Qiuzhi responded, "Yeah. I say, Jiang Haipeng, can't you hurry up and break through to become a Level 3 Lifeform, then go check out Eskimo to see if Dad really turned to ash or not?"

"Otherwise, with Mom going there all the time, she's about to get depression!"

"Level 3 Lifeform... it's not that easy. I've been stuck at the peak of Level 2 for a long time. I feel like I need an exceptionally massive amount of energy to support my breakthrough."

Jiang Haipeng shook his head.

"How massive? Do you have to swallow the sun whole?" Commander Jiang Qiuzhi asked.

"Not quite that much, but I'd still need to consume an asteroid-level amount of energy."

Jiang Haipeng estimated.

Commander Jiang Qiuzhi was about to jokingly scold him for not eating Earth instead when something suddenly occurred to her. She hurriedly asked, "Wait! At your current life level, roughly how long would it take to consume a planet-level amount of energy?"

"At least ten years. I'm not a Giant-Mouthed Beast; I'd definitely have to absorb it slowly."

Jiang Haipeng replied.

"According to what you're saying, if Dad was at the peak of a Level 1 Life Form back then and was consuming Earth's energy, it would be normal for it to take several decades?"

Commander Jiang Qiuzhi had a realization.

She knew about Jiang Chen throwing the gathering immortal flag onto the Antarctic continent in the beginning.

That was why a large amount of qi particles had appeared on Earth.

And qi particles had five-element attributes.

This included the lightning attribute.

Theoretically, the amount of Lightning qi particles on Earth should have been increasing over the years.

However, relevant data for Earth showed that over these years, Earth's Lightning qi particles had remained in a dynamic state of low concentration.

Through data simulation, everyone discovered that Earth's Lightning qi particles were all heading toward the Arctic Circle and then gradually decreasing, maintaining a concentration of less than 1%.

Meanwhile, others like Fire Qi particles and Water Qi particles were at concentrations of over 10%.

"Could it be that Dad has been consuming all these Lightning qi particles?"

Commander Jiang Qiuzhi speculated.

Previously, experts had speculated that these Lightning qi particles might have been absorbed by some equipment at the alien base. Since the Eskimo Ice Sheet was now a harsh forbidden zone, it was naturally impossible for a powerful lifeform based on Lightning qi particles to appear among humans.