Chapter 60: The Elegant Universe

“Host killed the C-class Epic Beast Ancient Giant Falcon in cooperation mode. Battle rating: B-class. Level 3 Strengthening permission increased. Current progress is 31/100.”

This stream of information made Lin Lei feel incredibly refreshed. Not bad, it wasn’t a waste of effort. He also realized the power of “Combat Element Condensation,” a combat skill he had just mastered; it was simply heaven-defying.

Just as Lin Lei was feeling a bit intoxicated by this, Yan Qingming’s words entered his mind.

“Don’t stay here anymore. Get on the Galaxy Flight quickly and leave Black Prison Star!”

At the same time, Lucius also received a request from the Aostarian Yan Qingming, which was to let the Galaxy Flight enter the outer space of Black Prison Star.

“Although you are an Aostarian and just saved us, you have to give us a reason to leave. The supplies on the flight are low, and I’m afraid we won’t be able to hold out until rescue arrives in outer space.” Lucius had to think about the lives of all the passengers on the flight; this was his principle.

Yan Qingming did not show any impatience and simply explained, “The Star Alliance’s rescue will arrive in two days at the latest. Black Prison Star has become very dangerous. This time it was the Ancient Giant Falcon, which Lin Lei and I could barely handle. Next time, it’s hard to say.”

Hearing that the rescue would arrive in two days, Lucius hesitated no longer. He immediately ordered the flight crew to preheat the anti-gravity engine, preparing to activate maximum power to break free from Black Prison Star’s gravitational pull.

Of course, all this was for Captain Lucius and First Officer Annis to worry about. At this moment, Lin Lei and the Yan siblings were already in the most luxurious room on the Galaxy Flight.

Compared to ordinary guest rooms, the layout of this room was not vastly different, just a bit more refined and grand. This alone was not enough to make it the most luxurious guest room on the entire flight.

It had only one main selling point: safety. Even if the entire Galaxy Flight exploded, this guest room would be fine. It could automatically transform into an emergency escape pod with complete life-support equipment, and it even possessed low-level warp navigation capabilities.

There were only ten such rooms on the entire flight, and this one was the best. Naturally, it was provided for the heroes who had saved the Galaxy Flight to use.

Having fought together, Yan Qingming’s opinion of Lin Lei had clearly changed a lot. Lin Lei’s strength had earned his recognition and respect.

Not everyone could hold out for so long under the attack of a C-class Epic Beast and successfully provoke it. If he were piloting the Night Demon Mecha, Yan Qingming admitted he couldn’t have done it.

However, Lin Lei was feeling a bit depressed right now. The Ancient Giant Falcon was such a powerful Epic Beast; he didn’t believe it didn’t have a pure energy crystal inside. But now, he had been forcefully dragged onto the flight by Yan Qingming, leaving him no time to search for the crystal inside the giant falcon.

“Speak up. Why were you in such a hurry to drag me along?” Lin Lei’s tone was clearly not very good. Anyone who missed an opportunity for strengthening right in front of their eyes would be in a bad mood.

“I was saving your life! If it weren’t for Siyu, I wouldn’t even bother with you.” Although Yan Qingming had changed his opinion a bit, it didn’t mean he had no issues with Lin Lei at all.

His favorability rating towards Lin Lei was still negative, just closer to the dividing line between friendliness and dislike.

However, Yan Siyu, who was nearby, heard her brother’s words and her face instantly turned red. Her porcelain-white neck also flushed pink. She lowered her head, but out of the corner of her eye, she watched Lin Lei’s reaction.

Lin Lei fell silent for a moment, looking a bit confused. After a long while, he said seriously, “Although I don’t know what you mean by saving my life, I still want to thank you, especially Siyu. Come to think of it, this is the second time you’ve helped me. Thank you.”

Yan Siyu raised her head and squinted her eyes into a smile at Lin Lei. But as soon as she saw Yan Qingming glaring at her from the side, she immediately wilted. She lowered her head and shrank into her seat, avoiding Yan Qingming’s man-eating gaze.

Yan Qingming was currently fuming. As the sister who knew him best, Yan Siyu naturally made the wise choice to avoid his sharp edge.

Seeing his sister acting so obedient, a trace of helplessness flashed in Yan Qingming’s eyes. He turned to Lin Lei and said, “To explain this clearly, I think I need to tell you about the universe as seen by our Level 11 civilization.”

“I’m all ears!” This wasn’t something one could hear every day. For the reputation of the Level 11 Watcher Civilization alone, Lin Lei had to listen seriously.

Yan Qingming stood up, gazed at the brilliant starlight projected on the ceiling, and said slowly, “In our eyes, this universe is elegant and harmonious. It’s not just a feeling, but an overall impression accumulated bit by bit over millions of years of Aostarian history. And this elegance, this perfect harmony, only one thing in the entire universe can compare to: life, especially intelligent life!”

Intelligent life is the product of matter and energy evolving to the extreme under the regulation of Rules. Theoretically, its form should have great randomness, but that is not the case.

The fact is, in the Galaxy and in extragalactic Star Systems, almost everywhere we Aostarians have explored, the intelligent life discovered shares common characteristics. Just like us: I am an Aostarian, you are an Earthling. Our home planets are tens of thousands of Light Years apart, but miraculously, our forms are almost identical! Even our organs are the same!

One cannot help but be surprised; it is simply a miracle. But the word ‘miracle’ is used to mask ignorance. We Aostarians do not believe in that. Our scientists have conducted countless explorations, even synthesizing myths, legends, and anecdotes from various races.

Finally, we reached a conclusion: in our eleven-dimensional Universe, the way life exists is not singular, nor is it entirely in one dimensional space. And our Universe does indeed possess a Supreme Will, influencing the path of biological evolution at all times.

Intelligent beings are just one form of life; they live in the four-dimensional Universe. And in the Universe, every planet and every Star System is a form of life, possessing a consciousness body. They exist in other dimensions.

There are even some powerful lives that can freely travel between various dimensions. For these awe-inspiring creatures, we collectively call them: Pan-dimensional Creatures. (A term from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, borrowed here, hehe.)

Occasionally, we Aostarians can communicate with planets to learn about things that have happened, are happening, or are about to happen in this Universe. Our connection with our mother planet is much closer than that of non-Watcher Civilization races.

“So you mean, Black Prison Star also has this consciousness, and it was precisely this consciousness that sent the Red Shuttle Hawk, the giant beast in the sea, and the Ancient Giant Falcon to drive away the Galaxy Flight again and again?”

Yan Qingming nodded and said, “Yes, Black Prison Star is a special case. Its planetary consciousness body is very xenophobic. I think this was caused by it just being hit by an asteroid. For a living planet, the evolutionary completeness of this consciousness body is much higher than that of a desolate planet, and it can even think. I guarantee that if you go down to the surface, an Epic Beast powerful enough to kill you instantly will definitely appear.”

“Alright, I believe you. Consider me owing you a life!” The various abnormal behaviors of the creatures on Black Prison Star that didn’t fit wild beast habits could indeed only be explained by a planetary consciousness. And Yan Qingming had no reason to deceive him, so Lin Lei chose to believe.

“No, you don’t owe me. You helped me a lot before too. As a warrior of the Watcher Race, it is not appropriate to ignore someone in distress in a situation like this. If I had shirked this, I would have had to accept sanctions from the Star Alliance Committee afterwards. The Watcher Civilizations in the Galaxy are not just the Ao Star Civilization. So we are even.”

Lin Lei raised an eyebrow and said nothing, tacitly accepting this.

For a moment, the room fell silent, and no one spoke.

In the end, it was Yan Siyu who broke the silence: “Lei, where do you plan to go next?”

“I want to go see Earth. It’s been three years. Even if Earth has been destroyed and its ecology completely ruined, it is still my home planet.” Lin Lei felt it was time for him to go back and take a look.

Moreover, he also had a spaceship. That Tiansuo spaceship that flew away with the pirates had actually been hidden by Lin Lei and hadn’t gone missing. How could he bear to throw away such a good thing if it wasn’t destroyed?

When he first arrived in the civilized world, he was full of longing. But after so many days of contact, he had seen the faces of various Aliens. Wanting to find hope for reviving his race from them was simply a pipe dream!

Whether it was Lucius or Annis, all they thought about was how to persuade him to join their respective planetary citizenships to seek benefits for their own races. As for Earthlings, forget it. No one would do something so troublesome and unrewarding.

At this moment, he felt a bit lost regarding his direction. He didn’t understand interstellar civilization, nor did he understand the psychology of various races.

Besides the System, he couldn’t find anyone to truly communicate with. Before, there was Fuweili who could share his feelings, but now even she had left.

Although he was in the midst of the bustle of interstellar civilization, he felt even lonelier than on Blue Rain Star!