-- The Solar System --

Jupiter's orbit.

Io 'Io'.

A strange cylindrical spaceship less than 100 meters in size, translucent, is lurking in the surface of this extremely geologically volatile moon of Jupiter, a huge dormant volcanic crater.

The red moon, which is almost completely covered by silicate lava, is the interior of a dormant volcano, which can be regarded as a safe and hidden place.

The cylindrical spaceship, like a crab roll in a hot pot, fuses itself with the boiling lava in the crater, silently absorbing the heat and hiding itself in it.

And the interior of the spaceship.

A huge ten-meter-tall humanoid was staring apprehensively at the various feedback messages transmitted back from the ship's light screen.

Then he raised his hand and absentmindedly ate a large mouthful of high-purity tungstenite.

“…… All of them are completely lost. ”

Click. A crunchy voice rang out, a slightly lazy and helpless tone, coming from inside the ship, from the humanoid creature with a huge metal shell.

The whole body is composed of silver and black metal, an explorer from the distant galaxy, the only crew member and captain, the owner of the exploration ship "Feedback", and a member of the Senostian civilization.

The Prophet Tain was troubled by his work at this time.

Because his mission has not been smooth from the beginning to the present.

The universe is silent and dark, and if an independent exploration ship wants to explore an unfamiliar realm after departure, it may take more than ten years or even decades to wander.

Even if this is not a long time for the Senostians, the fact that they are naturally active, eager to fight, compete with each other, and be strong enough to endure solitary exploration alone is enough to prove that their 'soul' has its own special place.

Even, in the golden age of the past, there were many Sennostians, in order to prove that they really have special features, they rushed to the depths of the universe to venture and explore, and achieved the development of civilization.

However, Tain Prophet's reasons for choosing to become an explorer were not the same as those of the vast majority of ebullient Senostians.

He is mainly lazy.

Because he was too lazy to waste time with meaningless weaklings, comparing up and down, and too lazy to compete with that group of obviously overly enthusiastic compatriots, he chose to go to a distant place and use all things in the universe that really have the strength to challenge as the cornerstone for himself to sharpen himself.

- It's a nice thing to say, but it's actually a place to entertain yourself and have a quiet time.

However, although he may have been flawed in character, Tain Prophet was not weak.

A 'prophet' is an individual who possesses great powers of exploration, foreknowledge, guidance, and psionic abilities. Generally speaking, a professional prophet with a specific colony warship can increase the accuracy of the jump, the fluctuation of the cosmic energy sensed, and even the strength to about ten times the normal state.

They can sail exploration ships, navigate the darkest and most dangerous corners of the universe, collect the most mysterious and strange information, and lead the way of civilization in the future – hence the name Prophet.

Tyne Prophet is a powerful prophet in the entire Sennostia civilization, and his powerful spiritual power at the fourth level can even make him instinctively premonition of the result of this leap before each jump, as well as certain consequences and details.

It is precisely because of this that he was able to accurately select the only 'safe' region of this planetary system after hundreds of predictions, and jump to this planetary system that was previously recognized as a 'black forbidden zone'.

The fact that he was able to make the leap into this dangerous galaxy without losing his way was a testament to Tain's extraordinaryness, and if he succeeded in completing this mission and turning back, that alone might be enough to bring him glory.

But what happened next was quite annoying to him.

That is, the exploration of the core planet of the 'Black Forbidden Zone' has completely failed in this matter.

"The monitoring satellites - the fusion unit - the exploration brood - are all completely lost! Although it is only the lowest intensity of covert exploration, because of this, they are the most technical and the most difficult to detect! ”

Staring at the barrage of commands floating on the screen, Tain had to admit his complete failure: "On the third planet of the forbidden zone, there are indeed remnants of some former high civilization...... Relying on such a little information, there is no way to prove the results of my exploration! ”

The Black Domain Exclusion Zone, as incomprehensible as it sounds. But to put it bluntly, in the past, in the galaxy, all the 'galactic kingdoms' could not find out the inner truth, which was the 'black domain forbidden zone'.

What is going on inside, what creatures are there, what is going on, how is it happening...... It's not clear to anyone.

The Celestians clinged to the Holy Land, but they never gave up exploring the farthest land. The Age of Silence destroyed the bonds between most of their civilizations, causing the Celestian civilization to fall from its glory to dust, but it also turned all of its former forbidden lands to normal.

If there's ever been a better time to explore the Exclusion Zone than now, the answer is never.

There's never been a better time to explore these formerly forbidden places!

So, under the guidance of the Celestian Priesthood, a large number of exploration ships set out, and they galloped towards dozens of dark forbidden places that were far away in the past, hoping to discover some truth from them.

Although most of the explorations failed for various reasons, in the end, there were still two of the most powerful prophets who successfully broke through the obstacles and found the truth in the two forbidden areas of the Black Domain.

The first completely explored forbidden area is a rich galaxy with huge blue stars, far more psionic crystal minerals than normal galaxies, and a variety of special strategic resources, which can be found everywhere like stones.

And at the site of the first planet of the rich galaxy, the exploration ship found the corpse of an aether dragon - a behemoth that once amazed the galaxy, coiled around the rocky planet closest to the star, becoming a huge, super-mountain-like bump on the planet.

This aetheric dragon, which can easily devour the stars and enter and exit the stars, apparently died because of the cut off of aura, it used to guard its abode, devouring all the ships that tried to invade, but in the end it was helpless to wait for death in its nest.

The second forbidden area to be explored is a huge psionic anomaly.

The bizarre galaxy-nebula structure constitutes an astronomical-level super natural psionic pattern, which opens the door to subspace due to the huge natural psionic energy gathered by the nebula stars - and inside and outside the collapsed gate, there are countless wrecks of various exploration ships and fleets, which are piled up together, and even form several small metal planets.

Now, the anomalies are taking shape once again, but the Celestian Explorer's ships have gathered as much valuable information as possible during this period of safety.

Although only two forbidden areas of the Black Realm were explored, these two alone brought rich gains to the Celestia civilization, and those two prophets also received a lot of glory.

Tain is lazy, but that doesn't mean there is no desire to fight. He thinks that he is not inferior to those two explorers, and he also thinks that he is enough to complete the exploration of the forbidden area of the Black Domain.

This is what he used to think.

And now.

As the massive metal figure painstakingly grabbed a few sticks of high-purity tungsten pyrite and put them into his mouth to chew, the troubles in the Prophet's heart were almost written on his face like an armored helmet.

The third planet in the solar system has a superpsy reaction. The unknown psionic civilization above should indeed not be underestimated...... But now that psionic energy has only returned for about four years, theoretically speaking, no matter how developed psionic civilization was in the past, it is far from the moment of regaining its heyday.

As the technological pinnacle of the Celestian civilization, the monitoring satellite itself is a living psionic being, with the ability to shield almost all electromagnetic waves and psionic detection, and if it weren't for the special frequencies that Tain has dedicated to communication, it would have been difficult for the Celestias themselves to find it.

However, who would have thought that before this monitoring satellite could send back much valuable information, it would be captured by that unknown civilization neatly?

"How, exactly, did that?!"

This could not be said to be a shock to Tain, because even the elders and priests in the priesthood group, with their current strength, would need a lot of trouble to find a monitoring satellite that had completely converted into a stealth form.

But the natives on the third planet, from beginning to end, directly grabbed the satellite with just one blow, and the implication behind that action was obvious, that is, he had already known where the satellite was.

Besides.

It was supposed to be fused and assimilated with the local life, and from the perspective of the local life, the 'fusion unit' that explored the unknown place, but it didn't know what strange creatures it fused to, but it has been passing on 'error' reports all the time, as well as all kinds of worthless repetitive landscape images, and has done nothing in the past ten days.

Ah, it also often sends back some pictures of ordinary native plants, so what does that mean exactly?

And most importantly, it is used to coordinate the monitoring of satellites and fusion units, and can produce more exploration and combat units of exploration brood.

It was destroyed even earlier than the two above.

Thinking of this, even Tain, who had a bland nature, couldn't help but be a little annoyed.

Because, the day after the brood seed landed on the third planet and spread out in the uninhabited area, it was completely destroyed by the native life of the third planet - and the image it transmitted before it was completely destroyed directly caused Tain to fall into a complete daze.

Because it wasn't killed by a monstrous beast, nor by some powerful transcendent individual...... It's an ordinary female on the third planet!

Even, that individual, in terms of psionic strength and physique, may not be able to be called 'adult'.

Because the brood is not yet fully mature, the message sent before death is missing.

But even if he was just watching the clip, Tain knew very well that the ordinary female had completely wiped out the brood with only her own strength, combat experience, and superb spiritual power control skills.

The whole process can only be described as relaxed and freehand.

"What the hell is this? Civilization in this forbidden area is also terrible! ”

"Are the underage individuals in the forbidden area civilization all monsters?"

All in all, after receiving one blow after another, Tain's heart can be called overturned - worthy of being one of the highest psionic civilizations that could become a forbidden area in the past, and the recovery of the opponent's individual strength is really amazing.

Looking at it like this, I'm afraid that in a few years, the strength of the other party will be able to turn this galaxy into a forbidden area again.

"That's it."

Now that the detection had failed, Tain didn't want to venture any further.

Although the information collected so far is scattered, it is enough to prove that there is an extremely powerful super-psionic civilization here.

This information wasn't enough to bring glory to Tain, but it was at least a gain - there was no need to risk your life for work.

What's more, Tain knows very well that this black civilization is indeed not unfriendly to aliens like himself.

With the recent scanning of the entire planetary system, it was clear to him that the fourth and third planetary moons in the solar system were simply full of the wreckage of the exploration ships of the major civilizations, which were piled up together and even formed a large number of towering metal mountains.

Although it is said, in terms of quantity, it is far inferior to the spiritual energy peculiarity of the wreckage that has been piled up into a metal planet, but in terms of quality, it is not inferior to the other party.

As Tain alone could tell, there were many exploration ships that were once one of the same kingdoms on the galaxy, the 'Enterprise Alliance', the 'Ascension Empire', and the 'Federation of Thousands of Commonwealth'. And the 'Guardian of the Holy Land', the Celestians' own exploration ships are also quite numerous

"This civilization has always been stuck in this galaxy before the Silent Age, if it weren't for that, our race would have another powerful competitor in the galaxy of the past."

Thinking about this, Tain couldn't help but shake his head slightly: "What if this civilization chooses to leave its homeland and compete for the hegemony of this galaxy after experiencing the Silent Era...... That might be a real rival for us. ”

With that in mind, Tain reached out and grabbed another handful of tungsten ore strips and put them into his mouth—a snack for most Sennostians, similar to French fries.

"Ah, I'm tired from eating." He said with emotion: "Since the mission has failed, then I won't work today, let's rest first." ”

With that, Tain clapped his hands and called a group of strangely shaped flesh and blood minions to come and take the strip of tungsten pyrite from his side.

In addition to Tain, there are many strange-shaped flesh and blood aggregates moving back and forth in this translucent cylinder ship, repairing and inspecting various parts of the ship.

That is the servant and tool of the Serastiates, the 'servant of flesh and blood' derived from their own **.

The real population of the Celestias is very small, they have no blood parents, no relatives, all of them are directly born from the 'planet', they are a long-lived, the whole people are born with extraordinary and strong vitality.

Every Celestian is a child of the Holy Land, just as all Servants of the Flesh are their derivatives, and this strange ecology allows them to control a warship and sail the stars alone.

While it was not possible to continue exploring the Third Planet, it would not be appropriate for a prophetic explorer to leave just like that, and Tain decided that he would not be able to gather some more information about the system before leaving, but at least it would make him look dutiful.

However, at this very moment.

In the distance, around Jupiter's orbit, a circle of incomparably clear psionic energy shocks suddenly appeared.

The blue-blue light, like a pebble being thrown into a calm lake, turned into ripples, echoing in the pitch-black universe and the orange-brown background of the gas giants.

Without warning, the sudden precursor phenomenon of the jump startled Ta Yi, and he looked up, and the spaceship's scanning equipment, which was fully connected to his visual organs, immediately turned into operation, nervously scanning the star field.

"This Black Domain Civilization has discovered me?!"

It shouldn't be!

Now, Tain's mind is full of incredulity - the fact that he is near a gas giant is absolutely impossible to discover if he is not surveyed on the ground! And how big is an entire galaxy? Even if you scan with the most powerful Sentinel Array, you will never be able to find him hiding in a hidden form!

Originally, Tain had planned to wait until this dark civilization showed the slightest unusual movement and showed his intention to find the snoopers before leaving this star field...... This is already a very cautious idea, after all, who would have thought that the other party could directly lock their hiding place without any clues?

There wasn't much time for Tain to be shocked or to think.

Circles of blue concentric circles rippled and spread, and soon, a small spaceship, less than 100 meters long, passed through space and came to the other side of the universe.

The ship is blue drop-shaped, has no weapons or additional defenses, and looks so simple that it doesn't even have any ability to fight back, and is rudimentary like a transport pod rather than a ship battleship.

Seeing the appearance of this spaceship, Thain Prophet's heart was relieved.

"What, that's it?"

He thought it was funny, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that it was very reasonable: "That's right—this civilization has always been stationed around its home planet in the past, and it has no incentive to develop any warships and ships...... They should have started their research after the beginning of the Silent Age, and it wasn't slow to make this progress. ”

"Even, very fast."

However, no matter how fast he was, this kind of ship structure, which was so simple that he could see through it at a glance, was far from being comparable to the Colony Ship of the Sennostians.

The distance and speed of the jump alone are unimaginably large, and when it comes to the large number of various functions, there is at least a dozens of generations of generations between the colony spacecraft and the other party.

However, just when Tain's heart was relieved.

He suddenly sensed a breath from the waterdrop ship, which was supposed to have just finished the jump and was cooling its engines, so it stayed still.

Incomparably familiar, and incomparably sacred...... Breath.

What exactly is this breath?

For a moment, Tain fell into confusion and thought.

But soon, as the blue droplet ship was activated again, he remembered the source of the smell.

"Yes!"

Widening his eyes for his 'V' shaped observation organ, Tain muttered, "Isn't that what this is...... The breath of the Galactic Star?! ”

Two years ago, when Tain had just received the blessing of the entire Priestly Elder Body in the presence of the Galactic Star and a group of fellow Prophets, he sensed the breath of the Galactic Star and engraved it deeply.

Born of the planet, Tain Prophet is close to all the minerals, metals and steels of the earth, and his flesh can derive the strongest armor and feed on all inorganic minerals.

With the knowledge passed down in his bloodline, he can discern the essence of all metals in the world, and no matter how complex the composition of the alloy, he can accurately distinguish each composition.

But...... The Galactic Star is different.

It's metal, but it's not metal, it's life, it's not life.

The Galactic Star is the supreme steel of life, a séance that can activate metal, the earth, and even the 'planet'!

Its aura, even among the high-ranking Sennostians, can only be frequently touched by the most precious sacrificial elders, and an ordinary prophet like Tain who is gifted, but has not yet advanced in merit and glory, I am afraid that only the great celebration once every fifty years can look at and feel the aura of the Galactic Star from afar.

That's the taste that is engraved in the bones of all Senostians!

But now......

From the humble droplet spaceship, Tain sensed that it was almost exactly the same as the Galactic Star, with only a slight difference!

"Do you mean?!"

In an instant, Tain's demeanor became completely solemn.

As a member of civilization, no matter how lazy he is, in the face of information related to such supreme holy relics as the Galactic Star, he must figure out what is going on no matter what!

"The priesthood must be informed!"

Without any hesitation, Tain directly pressed the 'Emergency Notification' button in the Feedback Signal, which is usually used for the ship's dying destruction, to send out the final message, directly to the Sennostian Priesthood Presbyterian Church located on the other side of the distant time and space.

In just a moment, Tain relayed all the news about the 'Galactic Star' and the 'Forbidden Zone Civilization'.

-- The Center of the Milky Way - Shining Region --

In the brightest star field in the universe, even the starry sky is not the original darkness, but a hazy light white halo.

Countless stars shine brightly, spreading their heat and brilliance to infinity.

In a planetary system with a yellow main-sequence star.

A garden world that is quiet and peaceful, with a suitable temperature and harmonious weather at all times.

The three priests and elders who have settled on this planet are now engaged in daily spiritual practice and meditation in the huge and majestic temple converted from a coastal mountain peak.

The average height of the Senostians is more than 12 meters, and after the end of the Silent Age, the tallest natural individual can exceed 50 meters, so their buildings have always been very large and magnificent, not to mention that they are born with the power to use their own flesh and blood to fuse various elements and substances between heaven and earth to change the world, and they are born to be the best architects.

The bodies of the three priests and elders were covered with earth, metal, gravel, and plant foliage, all of which were 'armor' derived from their flesh and blood, and in addition to representing the different paths of their practice, they could also be regarded as some kind of natural exoskeleton.

The practice of the Senostians, in addition to fighting with each other, was meditation. As the children conceived by the 'Holy Land', they are born with a special affinity for all things in the world, and as long as they meditate to a certain level, they can gradually resonate with heaven and earth and enter a state of unity with heaven and earth.

The three elders of the Garden Planet have all reached the peak of the fourth energy level (Commander Level) in strength, and they are only one step away from entering the fifth energy level below the immortal.

At this point, every time you meditate, there is a possibility of a breakthrough, and it is an opportunity to go further.

However, just when the three elders were about to gradually enter a state of meditation with the assistance of the Planet Temple, they resonated with the planet below them.

Suddenly, a wave of psionic energy that had already been connected to the 'Temple' suddenly sounded.

“…… What's the matter? ”

Although disturbed, the elder who was covered in mud and metal at the head was not annoyed, he slowly opened his six visual organs, and sensed suspiciously: "Is it an emergency report from the Feedback - it has not been destroyed, but has it encountered something extremely important in the Black Domain Forbidden Zone?" ”

And it wasn't just these three—there were also dozens of less powerful priest elders on several other planets who sensed the message and continued browsing in confusion.

Soon, however, all the priests were shaken, and then there were bursts of 'shock' and 'disbelief'.

"Galactic Star?!"

"The breath of the last third relic...... Have you finally been found?! ”

"I see, apart from 'that place', the third holy artifact that has not appeared for a long time is actually located in the forbidden area of the Black Domain...... We should have thought of it a long time ago! ”

"Finally found it!"

One after another, the extremely excited spiritual energy fluctuations, like the big hand of an invisible giant, stirred the spiritual energy between several planets and heaven and earth into a whirlpool.

Soon, however, everything calmed down as the soul of a leader who had suppressed his excitement fluctuated.

"There is no need to be excited, although the treasures that have been searched for hundreds of thousands of years are now appearing before our eyes, but what is needed now is calm."

"Fellow citizens, let us enter the temple and work together to resonate with the Holy Land and sense the breath of the holy relics in the distance!"

The speaker, apparently of great prestige, spoke up, and the other priests said yes in unison, and then they all entered the temples on different planets.

Then, with the help of the subspace psionic channels that had been arranged before the Silent Age, the power that had accumulated in the various temples for thousands of years was brought together.

The light spans the starry sky.

In the planetary system, one temple after another built in key parts of the planet blooms, and the vast forces are connected to each other, carrying the will of the elders and priests.

Planetary Temple Resonance.

Based on the connection of the 'Feedback', this immense power was projected across the distant plane and on the other side of the plane, on the small blue ship that was being watched by Tyne Prophet!

Suddenly, the invisible will seemed to turn into a giant eye floating in the void on the other side of the universe, staring at everything in front of it.

Even the small blue spaceship suddenly stopped moving, and it seemed to feel an inexplicably powerful force snooping on itself.

There was a long silence and stagnation, and two waves carrying an approximate aura colluded with each other.

And then......

[Heresy! 】

Suddenly, all the priests opened their eyes—furious and indignant in their eyes, and their faces made of metal, earth, and all sorts of materials showed an almost distorted 'hatred'.

The one who was at the head of the group, who summoned the power of the entire temple to reconnoiter the Great Elder on the other side of the distant stars, issued a decisive order in a calm tone.

[That breath...... Those breaths from the 'evil gods of the other world'...... Tain Prophet! The presence in front of you with the aura of the 'Galactic Star' is not our ally! 】

[but our mortal enemy, the real heretic! 】

[Catch him—kill him!] 】

— and at this moment, in the orbit of Jupiter.

After flying around orbit for a long time, the blue droplet-shaped spacecraft seems to have finally discovered something.

"So here it is—hiding in the crust of a satellite, but it's really cautious."

Unaware that he was accused by a group of alien old men who didn't know where to come, a young voice sounded happily among the stars: "But now, I found you!" ”

So, at the moment when Tain was given the order, the Leaper turned and aimed in the direction of Europa's Io.

Then, it picks up.

Turned into a streamer.

With incredible speed, speed towards the Senostian exploration ship!