Chapter 1301: Your Spaceship Is Too Slow
With Ether’s assistance, it wasn’t surprising that the High Council approved Lu Yang’s proposal to dispatch personnel to aid the Cultivation World’s modernization efforts.
The Interstellar Alliance had its own established procedures for sending personnel to support remote regions, covering not only technology professionals, but also experts in economics, education, arts, and other fields.
The alliance first worked out the round-trip route, the duration of the support mission, and various other details, then issued notices down through the administrative levels and screened applicants.
All that took over half a month.
Knowing that the Interstellar Alliance was intrigued by spirit stones and spirit qi, Lu Yang gifted them several top-grade spirit stones before departing.
~~~
An enormous silver spaceship docked at the spaceport in the Eternal Galaxy. Its elegant lines and rounded edges cast soft shadows under the amber lights, as though recounting tales of countless interstellar voyages. Anyone standing beneath it would feel utterly insignificant and marvel in awe.
“It’s so big,” Lu Yang remarked as he stood beneath the spaceship, hands in his pockets. Compared to this spaceship, his crude wupeng boat was hardly any different from a weathered wooden plank.
This spaceship was called the Star Voyager. The support team would travel aboard it to the Cultivation World.
He had received word from the High Council that the support team would assemble here for departure. Since he arrived early, he took the opportunity to explore the unfamiliar spaceport.
The Eternal Galaxy served as the Interstellar Alliance’s capital, and its spaceport was naturally the most advanced in the entire alliance. It was larger than many cities, with tens of thousands of vessels docking, resting, and departing daily, traveling between galaxies through artificial wormholes.
By the time Lu Yang had finished his tour, the support team had arrived via a space elevator. These were all outstanding talents handpicked by the alliance. Each was renowned in their respective field, and even the least experienced among them had participated in an aid mission before.
They carried themselves with pride, radiating an air of superiority. For them, going to a remote region to provide assistance was no different from showing off the Interstellar Alliance’s cutting-edge expertise in every field. It was the kind of feeling one would want to experience again after experiencing it just once. Furthermore, their leader this time was the famous Dean Gao, the Interstellar Alliance’s Chief Scientist.
Lu Yang was taken aback to see Dean Gao leading the team.
“What are you doing here?”
Dean Gao replied with a straight face, “Self-imposed exile. Didn’t you say your Cultivation World is backward? Going there will count as punishing myself.”
Lu Yang. “...”
When Dean Gao had volunteered to go to the Cultivation World, the entire High Council was stunned. Never before had a council member personally undertaken an aid mission, let alone the Chief Scientist who possessed the knowledge of the Interstellar Alliance’s most advanced technology.
What they didn’t know was that Dean Gao’s plan to launch Ether’s Revolution had stemmed from his desire to advance science and technology. He believed that the Cultivation World was absolutely not as simple as Lu Yang had described and that it could help drive technological progress.
“Take this.” Dean Gao stuffed an iron case into Lu Yang’s hands.
“What’s this?”
“An avatar of Ether. You can treat it as a part of Ether that can synchronize with the mainframe through quantum communication.”
The iron case was actually the Interstellar Alliance’s most advanced quantum computer. Ether’s friendly smile was displayed on the screen. “Mr. Lu, we meet again.”
“Let’s discuss something... Can you use a different expression next time?”
“Ah?”
The aid team was surprised to see Lu Yang chatting so casually with the legendary Dean Gao.
“That’s Lu Yang, right?”
“Yes, that’s him. I heard he’s one of the most powerful figures in their Cultivation World.”
Although few aid recipients could interact with the Interstellar Alliance on equal footing, given Lu Yang’s methods in dealing with the production crew, the aid team could understand why.
Lu Yang glanced up at the spaceship. “We’re taking this?”
Dean Gao was surprised. “What else? Your wupeng boat?” It was perfectly normal for him to think this way. The wupeng boat could only fit five or six people. There was no way the entire aid team could travel in it.
Lu Yang slapped his forehead. I’d overlooked this. I forgot to tell the alliance they wouldn’t need a ship. I have my own methods to get them there.
“How long would it take to reach the Cultivation World on your spaceship?”
“Seven or eight years.” Dean Gao calculated. “We’ll be submerged in nutrient fluid to minimize metabolic activity. It’s essentially the same as stopping time.”
This was standard practice for the Interstellar Alliance’s long-distance voyages.
Just as Dean Gao was about to say more, Lu Yang suddenly drew his Qingfeng Sword, startling him. Dean Gao thought Lu Yang was about to attack.
Lu Yang opened the Qingfeng Sword’s small world and swept both the spaceship as well as the aid team inside. The aid team’s relaxed expressions vanished in an instant, replaced by unconcealable shock and panic.
“What just happened?”
“Where is this place?”
“Did we time travel?”
One moment they were at the spaceport; the next, they found themselves in a breathtaking world of lush mountains and clear waters so picturesque it seemed unreal. They rubbed their eyes repeatedly, trying to confirm if the scenery before them was real.
It was real.
“Get the ship’s positioning system and check where we are!”
“Bring out all the other equipment and record the data here!”
“Dean Gao, where are we?”
Dean Gao was also dumbfounded. Before departure, he had mentally prepared himself to stay calm no matter what happened. But we haven’t even set off, and I’m already facing something utterly incomprehensible?!
Lu Yang jumped into the Qingfeng Sword’s small world. At the sight of Lu Yang, Dean Gao hurried over to ask what was going on.
“Oh, this place? It’s the small world inside my sword,” Lu Yang explained offhandedly.
“Small world?” Dean Gao had never heard the term before.
“It’s an artificially created space. You didn’t know?”
I understand the words individually, but why can’t I understand anything when they’re put together? Dean Gao gaped. “So why did you bring us here? To show off your small world?”
“Your spaceship is too slow. If I take you there in my boat, we can arrive in a month.”
If it were only Lu Yang himself, he could use his Origin-Tracing Incipient Dao Fruit to reverse himself back to the Cultivation World. But with the aid team and Ether’s avatar in tow, he had no choice but to row the boat back the old-fashioned way.
“A month?!” Dean Gao’s jaw dropped. This speed is absurd.
“Can I not stay here? There’s still room in your boat, right?” he asked, swallowing his pride.
Dean Gao was itching with curiosity. The last time he rode in the wupeng boat, the distance was so short that they had reached their destination in the blink of an eye. This time, he was determined to study it properly.
“That works.”
Dean Gao explained the situation to the aid team, steadying their nerves.
Upon learning of Lu Yang’s capabilities, the scientists in the aid team also wanted to board the boat and see for themselves. But there was no way to fit everyone on board. Lu Yang came up with a compromise—he opened a window in the Qingfeng Sword’s small world, allowing those inside to see the outside. Only then did Dean Gao return outside with Lu Yang.
The control tower’s navigator hailed the Stellar Voyager. “Stellar Voyager, it’s time. Please depart the port.
“Repeat. Stellar Voyager, it’s time. Please depart the port.”
His colleague stared blankly and poked him. “Stop repeating. Where’s the Stellar Voyager?”
“What do you mean?”
The navigator looked up in confusion and saw that the massive Stellar Voyager had vanished without a trace, leaving only a tiny boat sailing into the pitch-black expanse of space.