Rebirth of the Super Battleship

Chapter 435: The Ruins

The existence of a strange neutron star here was not surprising. On the contrary, if everything here had been normal, that would have been what Xiao Yu found strange.

Xiao Yu’s fleet had already entered the orbit of the two planets and settled there. All the scientists were mobilized, using instruments to gather all sorts of data and probing this peculiar binary system.

What Xiao Yu saw next once again left him bewildered.

He witnessed a scene that felt very familiar. On the surface of the white dwarf, tens of millions of kilometers away, Xiao Yu saw protrusions resembling artificial structures. Through high-filter optical lenses, the image became clear.

There were massive factory buildings, tall structures rising skyward, and several cylindrical towers pointing straight into the void. They looked like engines or similar facilities, Xiao Yu guessed.

These things were familiar to Xiao Yu, because during his first experience in a danger zone, when he encountered that alien beast on a white dwarf, he had seen similar structures on its surface. But that time, it was an illusion created by the beast. This time, Xiao Yu could not tell whether it was real or false.

This sight left all the scientists staring at one another, speechless.

“Again?” Xiao Yu thought to himself with a trace of irony. “But I suppose this time, there won’t be a beast appearing, trying to tempt me with advanced technology in exchange for helping it escape its plight, will there?”

“Perhaps this really is a ruin.” Luka Three said with doubt. “Some advanced civilization may have once carried out activities here, but for unknown reasons later abandoned it, leaving the place to become a danger zone. Judging by the fact that even a Level 6 Civilization is wary enough to classify this area as Extremely Dangerous, the civilization that left this ruin must have been at least Level 7.”

“A Level 7 Civilization’s ruin?” Xiao Yu repeated silently, unsure how to feel.A Level 7 Civilization was completely beyond Xiao Yu’s imagination. Until now, he had never obtained any concrete information about such a civilization. He couldn’t even confirm whether one existed in the current universe. If this place truly contained remnants of a Level 7 Civilization, then things were far more complicated.

But risk meant reward, and danger meant potential gain. There could very well be extraordinary discoveries here.

For the moment, Xiao Yu set aside the strange image on the white dwarf. He deployed landing-type robots from his ships, sending them down to the two planets.

“Uh… what’s this now?” Just as Xiao Yu dispatched landing robots to the planets and released communication satellites and probe satellites to begin full surveillance of the binary system, another sudden discovery made his entire mind tense.

It was a spaceship. Not very large, by Xiao Yu’s classification standards, it was a County-Class ship. This ship’s design was entirely different from anything Xiao Yu had seen before, its overall construction emphasizing a layered appearance rather than the smooth curves commonly used. At the moment, it was orbiting one of the planets at a speed of 13 kilometers per second, as though it had already been captured by the planet’s gravity.

From its exterior alone, Xiao Yu could not determine the ship’s exact technological level. But to find such a vessel in this strange binary system was itself something deeply alarming. Almost the very instant he saw it, Xiao Yu mobilized his entire fleet and prepared for battle.

But contrary to Xiao Yu’s expectations, the spaceship made no move at all. It continued orbiting the planet at a constant speed. It gradually drew close to Xiao Yu’s fleet, then drifted away again. After several hours, it once more approached his fleet, then once again receded…

Only then did Xiao Yu realize that in this binary system, the number of such objects was not small. Some looked like fragments of warships, some still retained mostly intact forms, but they had clearly lost all mobility and now only circled slowly along fixed orbits.

Xiao Yu attempted to attack one of the ships. As expected, his strike blasted a large hole into it. He then dispatched robots to board and investigate on-site. The information they transmitted back made Xiao Yu draw in a sharp breath.

These ships had completely lost their energy supplies, broken beyond repair long ago. Under the combined radiation of the magnetar and the white dwarf, even their technology could no longer be reconstructed. From the faint traces that remained, Xiao Yu could only barely deduce that the ship must have been the creation of a Level 4 Civilization.

Inside the ship, Xiao Yu also found what looked like biological corpses. But there was something strange, all of the corpses exhibited unusual characteristics. Specifically, all their organic structures had been destroyed.

Organic matter was the basis of life. On Earth, simple organic compounds had formed first, and only later had life taken shape. Carbon was the defining element distinguishing organic from inorganic, which was why living beings were generally called carbon-based lifeforms. All life on Earth, whether human or bacteria, was carbon-based.

These corpses clearly bore traces of carbon-based life. In other words, when they were alive, they too had been carbon-based. But now, no organic matter could be found in their remains.

And that was just one ship. Xiao Yu investigated many more shipwrecks and fragments. He discovered that these derelicts did not all come from a single civilization. Among them were vessels of Level 4 Civilizations, Level 5 Civilizations, and even Level 6 Civilizations. Unfortunately, the harsh environmental conditions here had erased their technological content, leaving Xiao Yu no way to reconstruct any technology from the wrecks.

In total, Xiao Yu identified remains from more than thirty species of alien lifeforms. All were carbon-based, and all their corpses showed the same characteristic, their carbon-based structures had been completely destroyed.

Besides the shipwrecks, Xiao Yu discovered other structures, several massive, fortress-like constructs. They too showed no trace of life, all their components long since ruined. But Xiao Yu could still roughly recognize them as some kind of processing bases.

“This Level 5 Extremely Dangerous zone has long had visitors. I am not the first to come here.” Xiao Yu thought to himself. “Only… they all died here, for reasons unknown.”

Further observations confirmed Xiao Yu’s suspicion. His landing robots had descended to the planetary surface and conducted wide-ranging scans. The results shocked him. On the planet’s surface were many unmistakable technological constructs, massive processing bases, habitation structures clearly meant for living beings, and even resource collection facilities…

All of them shared one feature, they were all destroyed.

Through basic material analysis, Xiao Yu quickly drew a conclusion.

These things were at least one billion years old.

Against such a span of time, their technological level was striking. Though their destruction was too thorough to yield any concrete technology, Xiao Yu could still infer broadly. The conclusion was that, with his current scientific level, these things were far beyond his ability to create. They had to be the works of a Level 6 Civilization, or even higher.

Standing upon the planet, Xiao Yu felt a deep and ancient desolation.

“One billion years. A billion years! Older than the Sweepers, older than the Guardians. Over a billion years ago, this unknown existence had already reached at least Level 6. Where are they now? Why did they abandon this place? Were those strange constructions on the white dwarf left behind by them? Did they slow the neutron star’s rotation?”

Xiao Yu did not know the name of this ancient race, nor any details about them. The vast gulf of time had buried everything. Their legacy was so weighty that Xiao Yu could not peel back the fog of history to glimpse the truth. Looking at the ruins, at the bizarre phenomena of this star system, Xiao Yu felt countless emotions stirring in his heart.

Now before him stood a colossal palace-like structure. Inside, Xiao Yu found many statues.

These artifacts displayed a consistent architectural style, unified and distinct, like the Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum on Earth, clearly the work of one civilization. The statues varied in form but were sculpted with lifelike detail, every feature visible. Yet each statue radiated an aura of pain and despair, chilling to behold.

The statues were not arranged neatly but scattered chaotically. Many were broken. The great hall was filled with crumbling walls and shattered remnants. Under the landing robots’ lights, the entire scene exuded a bleak and ruined atmosphere.