258: Chapter 258 The Battle of the Right Spiral Arm of the Milky Way

Jiang Chen entered the temple and immediately spotted Tiezhu sitting in the very center of the temple's spirit tablets.

Although Tiezhu had changed his skin and shrunk in size, transforming into a Taoist with an immortal air, Jiang Chen recognized him at a glance just by looking at that 'intellectual' gaze.

Jiang Chen was momentarily stunned.

So this was what Cuihua meant when she said Tiezhu had 'left home to become a monk.'

Wasn't becoming a monk about sitting on a prayer mat and devotedly chanting sutras while eating vegetarian food?

Why was he sitting on the spirit tablet himself?

Jiang Chen walked up, looked at the scattered bits of wood on the ground, and couldn't help but smile at Tiezhu on the tablet. "Tiezhu, you didn't become a monk; you're trying to canonize yourself as a god."

Tiezhu jumped down from the tablet and stood with his hands behind his back. As a breeze blew, his clothes clung to his body, and he spoke in a voice full of worldly wisdom, "First, I am very grateful for this silicon-based body you built for me. However, I was born extraordinary. From now on, you and I may no longer belong to the same world."

"???"

Jiang Chen sized Tiezhu up carefully. Once he was certain this wasn't a programming error, he threw a punch, knocking Tiezhu's head right off.

"Holy crap, where's my head?" Tiezhu cried out in shock. He hurriedly picked up his head and shouted angrily while reattaching it, "How can you be so dishonorable? You just hit people without warning? Do you have any idea that I am the Sect Leader Tongtian, one of the Three Pure Ones?"

Despite his words, his eyes were rapidly scanning Jiang Chen's body, checking the energy levels within him.

Since his consciousness particles had awakened, his combat power had recovered to that of a Level 4 Lifeform.

Logically speaking, even the top three on the lifeform rankings shouldn't be a match for him.

Even Jiang Chen, who was around a Level 4 Lifeform, shouldn't be able to one-shot him.

He had planned to show off and had everything ready, but he never expected his head to be sent flying before he could even start.

"From that wise gaze of yours, I could tell long ago that you aren't an ordinary mecha-man."

Jiang Chen remarked.

At that moment, Tiezhu also detected energy within Jiang Chen that far exceeded a Level 4 Lifeform.

Even that punch just now had reached a terrifying speed of a hundred miles per second. No wonder he, a mecha-man, couldn't react in time.

This damn guy had actually reached Level 5 Lifeform!

Although a Level 5 Lifeform wouldn't be considered a major deity in his past life, in this remote Solar System, it was truly a top-tier being.

Especially since he himself hadn't fully recovered yet.

But the problem was...

Half a year ago, Jiang Chen was still a Level 4 Lifeform. Tiezhu had collected all sorts of data on Jiang Chen's energy outbursts at the Dragon God Academy back then. His analysis showed that Jiang Chen was a solid Level 4 Lifeform at that time.

He should have been a long way off from becoming a Level 5 Lifeform.

Advancing each level of life usually takes at least ten years, sometimes decades. That was normal.

So, for Jiang Chen to become a Level 5 Lifeform, it should have taken at least ten more years.

Yet Jiang Chen's current display of power left him bewildered.

This guy was completely defying his estimations!

"No need to analyze it. The reason is simple: I've become a Level 5 Lifeform. You and I truly are no longer from the same world."

Jiang Chen saw that Tiezhu's eyes were spinning so fast they were practically smoking without yielding any results, so he just gave him the answer.

Smoke actually drifted from Tiezhu's head as he roared, "Impossible! Where could you have gone to absorb such terrifying energy?"

The jump from Level 4 to Level 5 wasn't a ten percent increase; it required doubling the absorption.

The Lightning Qi energy in the Solar System was simply not enough to support Jiang Chen becoming a Level 5 Lifeform within half a year.

"I went to another planet."

Jiang Chen explained. Last time he became a Level 4 Lifeform, he had almost wiped out all the Lightning Qi attribute users on Earth, preventing any of them from advancing. If he had continued absorbing in the Solar System, the other Lightning Qi users might have gone extinct.

So, as soon as he discovered the teleportation point of the Earth Hexagram, he tried to teleport immediately.

Unexpectedly, he really did find a planet with a much higher concentration of energy.

After Jiang Chen's explanation, Tiezhu finally learned that Jiang Chen had gone to a place called Shanhaijing Planet. The concentration there was extremely high, enough for Jiang Chen to absorb to his heart's content, and there was no one competing with him for it...

"Shanhaijing Planet? Is it a planet with many creatures like Yinglong, Taotie, and Qiongqi?" Tiezhu asked.

Jiang Chen nodded. There were indeed many such creatures there, but for some reason, there were only beings below Level 5 Lifeform.

"The concentration there is high, but there isn't a single Level 5 Lifeform."

"Furthermore, I found some crashed ships nearby. They were thousands of miles long, broken into segments. It was quite strange..."

Jiang Chen told Tiezhu what he had seen.

After a moment of thought, Tiezhu slowly spoke, "It seems it really is the planet where the Eight Immortals fell."

"Huh? You know about it?" Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow at Tiezhu. "You haven't even left the Solar System. How would you know about that planet? I suspect it's not even within the observable range."

Jiang Chen shook his head. There were no stars near that planet, and it didn't emit light. How could it be observed?

"I told you, I was born extraordinary. I am the Supreme Purity Lingbao Tianzun..."

Seeing Jiang Chen about to dismantle his head again, Tiezhu quickly covered his head. "Stop! I'm telling the truth. You kid have absolutely no concept of the Battle of the Milky Way's Right Spiral Arm."

"The Battle of the Milky Way's Right Spiral Arm? What is that?"

Jiang Chen saw that Tiezhu didn't seem to be making it up, so he looked at him with a half-smile and let him continue.

He wanted to see how badly this 'bug' had damaged Tiezhu's systems that he'd started making up stories.

"Simply put, the Battle of the Milky Way's Right Spiral Arm was a peerless war between the Southern Heavenly Gate—mind you, the original Southern Heavenly Gate—and the Qi God Tribe of the Milky Way. It lasted for a hundred million years and its scale spanned the entire right spiral arm of the Milky Way."

Tiezhu spoke with an ancient tone, drawing from the countless images sorted in his mind.

The right spiral arm of the Milky Way spans a vast ten thousand light-years.

The entire diameter of the Milky Way is only a hundred thousand light-years.

In other words.

The Right Spiral Arm Battle between these two great god-tribes occupied nearly one-tenth of the Milky Way.

"The previous generation's Southern Heavenly Gate?"

Jiang Chen, who had been smiling, suddenly remembered the Southern Heavenly Gate inheritance mentioned by the terracotta soldier when he heard this term.

Ancient times, Tang, Han, Song, Ming—every generation had its own Nantianmen Project.

Could the 'original' Southern Heavenly Gate Tiezhu spoke of be the Ancient Southern Heavenly Gate?

"This original Southern Heavenly Gate was that powerful?"

"They actually fought all the way to the right spiral arm of the Milky Way to scrap with some god tribe?"

Jiang Chen naturally knew how large the right spiral arm was. The entire Solar System placed inside it was like an ant in a desert; without a life detector, it would be impossible to find.

Tiezhu smiled proudly. "Of course. Although the Southern Heavenly Gate you've built is progressing quite fast, in terms of both overall and top-tier strength, it's about the same as a single grunt from the original Southern Heavenly Gate."

As soon as he finished, he saw Jiang Chen about to pluck his head off again.

He hurriedly added, "Of course, I'm talking about the original Southern Heavenly Gate at its peak..."

"Oh? And what about the original Southern Heavenly Gate now?"

Jiang Chen stopped his hand and asked.

Even though Tiezhu's words sounded like fantasy, based on the information Jiang Chen already knew, there might truly be an unimaginably vast human race on the distant shores of deep space.

Hearing this, Tiezhu sighed. "What else? A fallen tiger is bullied by dogs, of course."

"Hmm? Who are you calling a dog?"

"Cough, I was talking about the Qi God Tribe."

Tiezhu sighed, "The original Southern Heavenly Gate suffered heavy casualties in the final battle with the Qi God Tribe. Everyone preserved their consciousness particles and scattered across the Milky Way... Of course, the Qi God Tribe was also severely weakened and won't be able to hunt us down for a short while. We're safe for at least a thousand years!"

"Hunt us down?"

Jiang Chen's heart skipped a beat.

If a god tribe that even the original Southern Heavenly Gate couldn't handle ever came to the Solar System to hunt them down...

The Solar System might be destroyed before it even reached the black hole.

"Don't worry. Given the current situation, the Solar System will definitely die from the black hole, not the Qi God Tribe."

Tiezhu comforted him.

The Qi God Tribe is severely weakened and has to deal with other god tribes. They no longer have the power to deploy forces across the entire Milky Way for tracking.

Based on the current trajectory, there's a high probability the Solar System will enter the black hole and be neither dead nor alive before the Qi God Tribe even notices.

"So, the Solar System is doomed regardless?"

Jiang Chen felt a massive headache coming on.

Before, he thought that as long as they kept evolving, there would eventually be a way for the Solar System to escape the black hole ahead.

But now.

With this Qi God Tribe in the picture, he suddenly felt a sense of powerlessness.

The original Southern Heavenly Gate, which had flourished for who knows how many billions of years, couldn't handle the Qi God Tribe.

In his so-called Southern Heavenly Gate system, the strongest was merely a Level 5 Lifeform.

How...

...could they fight back?

No matter how you looked at it, it was a dead end.

"This universe is inherently full of danger. The survival of a civilization is never as simple as three meals a day."

"It requires iron and blood, conquest and cavalry, to manage to survive in this universe."

Even though Tiezhu had awakened the rich consciousness of one of the Three Pure Ones from his past life, he still felt a sense of sorrow when faced with the ruthlessness and coldness of the universe.

The evolution of this generation's Southern Heavenly Gate hadn't even lasted a hundred years. In the context of the Battle of the Milky Way's Right Spiral Arm, that was just the duration of a miniature skirmish.

It was almost negligible.

"Since there was an original Southern Heavenly Gate, what about the ones from the Tang, Han, Song, and Ming dynasties?"

Jiang Chen couldn't help but ask.

The Tang dynasty sailing ships and black porcelain were top-tier black technologies.

The Carbon-9 Molecule armor from the Ming dynasty still benefited humanity today.

And the Qin terracotta soldiers still couldn't be replicated.

"The Song dynasty Southern Heavenly Gate was swallowed by a suddenly exploding star on its way to the Right Spiral Arm Battle. Its expedition lasted two hundred years."

"The Ming dynasty Southern Heavenly Gate successfully reached the edge of a battlefield in the right spiral arm. They fought for over a hundred years before completely dissipating. Total expedition time: three hundred years."

"The Han dynasty Southern Heavenly Gate also reached a peripheral battlefield in the right spiral arm, but they fought for three hundred years. Total expedition time: five hundred years."

"Qin was the strongest. Aside from the original Southern Heavenly Gate, they were the only ones to successfully break into the central battlefield of the right spiral arm. They fought for a thousand years. Total expedition time: one thousand one hundred years."

Tiezhu reached this point.

He looked at Jiang Chen.

"Theoretically speaking, your generation's Southern Heavenly Gate should be the Final Southern Heavenly Gate."

"If you don't preserve the Solar System before hitting the black hole, then this Final Southern Heavenly Gate will be the most pathetic one. Total expedition time: 0 years."

Tiezhu gave a half-smile.

Although the Song Southern Heavenly Gate was weak, it at least went on an expedition for two hundred years, even if it was unfortunately swallowed by a star midway.

But this Final Southern Heavenly Gate was even more unfortunate.

There was actually a black hole right in front of them.

It was the ultimate stroke of bad luck.

After all.

The Solar System had orbited the Milky Way dozens of times without encountering a black hole, yet it ran into one this time.

"So, did this black hole just happen to drift there, or did someone put it there?"

Jiang Chen couldn't help but complain.

If given more time, he believed this generation's Southern Heavenly Gate would definitely not be inferior to the others.

Tiezhu smiled and said, "It might be related to the Right Spiral Arm Battle."

Although even the original Southern Heavenly Gate couldn't completely destroy a celestial body like a black hole, the top-tier lifeforms of the original Southern Heavenly Gate fought using gravitational waves. Once war broke out, even the seemingly invincible black holes would be affected by gravitational waves and have their trajectories altered.

It's like a person colliding with a car. Although the person can't really cause physical damage to the car, the car's trajectory will still be changed.

The black hole in front of the Solar System was most likely one whose trajectory was altered during the Right Spiral Arm Battle.

Otherwise, there was no way to explain why the Solar System hadn't encountered a black hole in dozens of orbits, only to run into one now.

Only a conflict on the level of the Right Spiral Arm Battle could cause a black hole to change its path and land in the Solar System's orbital direction.

"Remember that swallowed Ascension Star?"

"I suspect their high-level lifeforms had actually calculated that there was a black hole ahead, which had been pushed into the Solar System's orbital path during the Right Spiral Arm Battle."

Tiezhu said.

The Ascension Star, which was swallowed three and a half years ago, had the power to deploy life to the Solar System as early as a thousand years ago.

Their technology and life level were definitely sufficient to observe the black hole.

They wouldn't have just sat there stupidly waiting to be swallowed.

Jiang Chen was stunned. "You mean the Ascension Star knew long ago that there was a black hole ahead? Then why were they still swallowed?"

"The planet was swallowed, but their lifeforms might have all migrated away."

Tiezhu said.

So far, all they could see was that the Ascension Star was gone.

But there was no evidence to prove their civilization was destroyed along with it.

Jiang Chen shook his head and said, "That's not right. If the Ascension Star really had the ability to migrate its civilization, why is the Lizard Queen so weak, and why is she heading toward the Ascension Star in the Lighthouse?"

The Lizard Queen arrived on Earth a thousand years ago and had been pushing technology to build the Lighthouse just to leave the Solar System and return to the Ascension Star... Isn't that a contradiction?

"Is it possible that this Lizard Queen was deployed by the Ascension Star specifically to escape the black hole?"

Tiezhu suggested.

Given the Ascension Star's interstellar deployment capabilities a thousand years ago, the Lizard Queen might not be an invader, but a refugee. After all, the Solar System is behind the Ascension Star; the black hole would swallow the Ascension Star first before reaching the Solar System.

"As for why the Lizard Queen is running back... you'd have to ask if she's just stupid."

Tiezhu shook his head.

With the Ascension Star's powerful deployment capabilities, they could definitely observe the black hole ahead.

As for why the Lizard Queen was running back, he couldn't speculate.

Jiang Chen thought about it and felt it was possible. But soon, he raised an eyebrow. "By that logic, the news of the Ascension Star being swallowed should reach the Lighthouse soon."

"If they have been observing the Ascension Star, they should have seen it by now."

"But whether they'll stupidly keep going forward or turn back after seeing it, I don't know."

Tiezhu shook his head.

The high-level lifeforms of the Ascension Star went to great lengths to deploy her, and yet she's running back.

Now that the Ascension Star has been swallowed, if she keeps going forward, she'll obviously die even before the Solar System does.

"Of course, there's a second possibility: she might run back toward the Solar System after observing the Ascension Star's destruction."

Tiezhu stated the second possibility.

"Run back?"

"If she dares to run back, I'll definitely break her legs."

Jiang Chen naturally hadn't forgotten how the Lighthouse had attacked the Dragon Kingdom space station before leaving.

Even though he had already forced the United States to sign the humiliating Los Angeles Treaty...

...if the Lighthouse really came back, he would have to break her legs.