Chapter 401: Dark Currents Surge

The day's events, fresh from traversing the World Tunnel, involved such terrifying, unnatural phenomena that all the scientists aboard the mechanical spaceship were left deeply shaken, perhaps needing several months to fully recover.

For the Ishdars, the impact was unprecedented.

Regardless of the two theories, they invariably pointed to the Super Ancient God's intervention. They all leaned towards the idea that the Super Ancient God had met that vast giant and struck some kind of deal.

"I thought we Ishdars had already become a divine race, even possessing our own civilization's unique 'Divine Pattern' cultivation system, and had grown incredibly powerful. I never imagined we were still looking at the sky from the bottom of a well."

Caroline lowered her head, gazing at her fair, delicate palm.

This was a unique 'Divine Pattern' system, a fusion of technology and the supernatural, achievable only through the intricate precision of computers.

All the whorls of her fingerprints had been modified, transforming into individual totem formations. Upon closer inspection, her entire fair and delicate skin was covered with numerous array patterns.

The emergence of the 'Divine Pattern' system also granted the Ishdars their own unique cultivation path. Their combat power was far from weak, even among top-tier genius monsters of the same rank!

They had believed they reached a new height, but they never imagined that the Super Ancient God was still the only true god in this world. To this day, the Ishdars still could not comprehend his existence.

Caroline walked into the corridor and saw the Super Ancient God standing silently in place. Still unsure how to express her gratitude, she hesitated, then softly said, "Thank you for bringing us to this unknown world and giving us Ishdars the opportunity to confront our own weakness!"

Xu Zhi remained silent. Standing by the spaceship window, he suddenly interrupted Caroline and slowly spoke, "Look, it's appeared. The vacuum."

"What!?"

Caroline's beautiful eyes widened. She abruptly turned her head to look, and the shielded spaceship window seemed to open like a curtain, revealing a brilliant, vast, endless world.

What a beautiful and immense world it was!

Brilliant, vast, and boundless, with tiny stars scattered across the void.

The countless galaxies seemed to cascade across the sky like waterfalls, enough to make any life form feel insignificant.

At this very moment, as they continued their research and exploration, Xu Zhi's main body had flown up to the atmosphere, gently opened the woven bag, and used mental power witchcraft to launch the entire mechanical spaceship out.

"I'll pick you up in a while."

Boom!!

The entire mechanical spaceship left the atmosphere, slowly entering space.

"This is the vacuum world?"

Caroline gazed at the brilliant star sea and the vast vacuum of space, filled with excitement.

"We have successfully completed the world-crossing. We can now move freely. Let's open the mechanical spaceship's protective cloaking shield." Xu Zhi's words brought Caroline completely back to reality.

This world might contain unknown, terrifying life forms and civilizations. She originally had many questions she wanted to ask the Ancient God, but at this moment, she swallowed them back. She immediately communicated with the spaceship using her mental power.

"Everyone! We have entered the vacuum world. Activate the propulsion. Open the protective barrier to prevent enemy detection. Charge weapons and prepare to face any potential enemies! History will remember this moment!"

Instantly, the scientists throughout the spaceship began emergency work and adjustments.

"It truly is vacuum pressure! It's not artificial; there genuinely is a widespread natural vacuum environment!"

"Oh! Weightlessness has already begun!"

Amidst the exclamations of countless human scientists, the ornaments throughout the spaceship began to float, swaying up and down. Everyone also floated lightly, like balloons.

Xu Zhi had them cloak the spaceship themselves to prevent them from messing things up like Emperor Qi and repeating past mistakes, which would cause unnecessary disturbance and attract observation from Earth's astronomers and satellite stations.

As for Earth and its satellites, they remained cloaked from them, just as before.

"In a sense, this spaceship truly is a UFO to Earth. Modern humans wouldn't detect it at all."

Xu Zhi also slowly floated up. Through the corridor window, he gazed at the splendor of outer space, quietly appreciating the beauty of it all. "Outer space," he thought, "my first true entry into the cosmos."

He was only at the sixth stage. Previously, when sending Emperor Qi, he had only reached the edge of the atmosphere. Now, even he, like Caroline beside him, was filled with wonder, experiencing the unique weightless environment.

This was an entirely new experience, impossible to feel on Earth.

It's worth noting that even on Earth, astronauts capable of entering space are few and far between. It requires years of arduous training, which ordinary people would find unbearable.

"How should I put it?" he pondered. "Space? A major step for my Bug Tribe civilization?"

Xu Zhi looked at the vacuum landscape outside and chuckled wryly. "However," he thought, "this is just a brief four-year exploration and sampling trip to create mechanical mechas. Further regions are not being considered at the moment."

The spaceship continued to speed forward, exploring outwards.

It flew at an extremely high speed, continuously accelerating and transforming into a streamlined streak of light. Within the acceleration period, a month quickly passed. The scientists' emotions gradually stabilized, and they began to detect the entire vacuum environment from within the spaceship!

"There are large radiation sources!"

"This world is too strange! Boulders are floating in the sky, some even as huge round planets, comparable to entire worlds!"

"They're too far from us! Even if we flew our entire lives, we wouldn't reach them!"

"Is that fiery lava planet structured the same way as our lava rivers??"

They exclaimed, their voices filled with disbelief and excitement.

Xu Zhi turned his head to look. After a month of flight, Earth had already transformed into a small, vast blue planet!

Magnificent and grand, as vast as a myth.

He still had a strange, surreal feeling. Had he truly left Earth?!

"What are you looking at?" Caroline suddenly stood beside him. She followed Xu Zhi's gaze but saw nothing.

"How is the research progressing?" Xu Zhi asked.

Caroline's face was serious, but joy was barely concealed in her brows, and she was incredibly excited. "The ubiquitous radiation sources in this world are excellent energy sources!" she said. "Although the conversion rate is very low, it's enough to sustain our journey! Because this world is unique, with no resistance, we can theoretically maintain constant flight. As long as we don't stop frequently, we can almost break even on energy."

Caroline continued her analysis, then said with immense excitement, "This journey will last about three to four years, and we'll truly be living in a vacuum for a while. We've also brought many species from our world for survival experiments to see how they fare.

"We'll also conduct reproduction experiments for various species to see how infants born here develop. We've even tested live animals in vacuum environments for their 'bursting' thresholds. And now, we're opening the cockpit! To test our magic-powered vacuum mecha! Would you like to come?"

Xu Zhi nodded.

Caroline led Xu Zhi directly to the magic-powered mechanical mecha they had seen earlier. She opened the cockpit. The magic-powered mecha, model ZK004, was from the vacuum series—a mechanical mecha that represented the Ishdars' pinnacle of technology.

It had a capacity for two people, was over five meters tall, and featured a streamlined aesthetic.

They entered the cockpit. It was a two-person cockpit with one seat above the other. After they entered, the hatch closed. Gradually, following the mechanical spaceship's exit channel, a mechanical magic-powered mecha flew into the vacuum.

Amidst the brilliant starlight.

"You can try operating it," Caroline said, operating the mecha. "The basic mechanical operation procedures have already been transmitted to your memory."

On Earth.

After seeing the mechanical spaceship off, Xu Zhi gradually descended, returning to the orchard.

For them, time flowed much faster; they had already been flying in the vacuum for several months. Yet, Xu Zhi had only just landed back in the orchard, having completed his task.

He glanced at the small evolution sandbox by the door, then walked directly into the living room, resuming his dishwashing. He turned his head to look at the small black pet in the orchard, which was eating dog food. "You finally have a purpose," he said.

It was originally an aggregate creature, composed of many parts from the Cthulhu Evil God's Rubik's Cube. It was initially intended for the Land of Gods, but plans changed faster than anticipated. Now, it had found a good purpose: creating magic-powered mechanical mechas.

A Cthulhu Evil God version of a magic-powered mechanical mecha.

Furthermore, with the help of a wizard community's meditation, it could reach great heights in the future.

"Its role is now established," Xu Zhi thought. He smiled, his gaze gradually turning towards the lava world on the other side.

"While the powerful and domineering Caroline is temporarily gone," he mused, "the civilization of the ancient lava land beasts has also begun its revolution. Another societal form, resembling mechanical hard drives, has emerged, and they might even be a more perfect divine race." Xu Zhi looked into the distance.

In every world, he did not wish for an overwhelming dominance. Without competition, there would be no transcendence. The lava world was no exception. He had previously placed his hopes on Fenba to lead the beasts in resistance, but it had made no move at all.

"Fenba, I was mistaken about you," he thought. "I created too high a starting point for you. You have always possessed the greatest talent in the entire lava world, never losing it, but you've become too complacent. However, someone will eventually rise in your stead."

"The beast race, the Sea Nagas..."

Xu Zhi gently closed his eyes. Seeing this new, wild oceanic civilization, his heart pounded.

"Caroline, the Ishdars, might perish because of their dreams."