Chapter 139 Echoes from the Stars

The Sea of Aio finally receded back to the planet's surface, and the arms that had reached out into space slowly retracted, like a baby curling up in its mother's embrace.

After this cataclysmic upheaval, the planet's atmospheric circulation and ocean structure were completely renewed, and even the tilt of its axis changed slightly. After these changes, the persistent storms and torrential rains subsided, and a clear sky enveloped the heavens and the sea. Under the light of the star, the planet shone in space like a magnificent gem.

There would be no more storms, no more clouds kilometers thick that would not dissipate for thousands of years. According to the calculations of the shipboard mainframe, Aio had rebuilt its balance, and it would usher in a true, long-lasting clear sky. Perhaps there would still be some wind and rain from time to time, but compared to the Aio of the past, it would become a gentle water world, the last gift that Ieva left for this planet.

The Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace slowly flew over the calm and glittering Sea of Aio, past the line of day and night. Starlight dissipated behind the ship, while sunlight slowly rose from the other end of the sea. Some broken waves surged gently below the ship, and from time to time, surviving marine creatures floated up from the waves, as if to punctuate the first character in this newborn world. Hao Ren stood on the observation deck at the front of the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace, looking at the infinitely vast sea, and he thought of those arms that had reached into space before—after establishing a mental connection with Ieva, he seemed to be able to think like a siren, so he had a completely different, brand new understanding of those arms.

The truth was unexpected, but nothing complicated, just the simplest and most direct scene: a child reaching out its hands from the cradle.

"The survival rate of organisms is less than 10%, including microorganisms," Lily walked over from behind the observation platform. "That's what the data terminal says. The ecosystem of this planet basically needs to be reshaped. What are you looking at, Landlord?"

"A new world," Hao Ren smiled. "Ten percent survived? Then we should be thankful. With so many creatures surviving such a disaster, this planet doesn't need to evolve from scratch. It will rebuild quickly... and may even produce new intelligent creatures."

Lily grinned foolishly in response to the sea breeze: "That'll be at least ten thousand years from now."

"Speaking of which, today was exciting enough," Hao Ren said, still feeling a little emotional about the thrilling scenes not long ago. "Tsk, you really can't underestimate any race. Even a gentle siren can destroy the world."

Lily stuck out her tongue. "I was almost scared to death at the time. There was just nowhere to run..."

Hao Ren looked at her in surprise. "That's rare. You actually admit you were afraid?"

Lily puffed out her chest proudly when she heard this: "I'm very brave! It's just a strategic retreat at a critical moment!"

Hao Ren twitched the corners of his mouth and looked down at the sea below. The problems of Planet Aio itself had been solved. It was now a completely new ecological planet. The biosphere would be reshaped, and new life would be born from this calm ocean. As for Ieva... she had dissipated here, but as a collective consciousness, she would one day reawaken. As long as the sirens flourished again, Ieva would inevitably re-condense in the depths of all sirens' hearts. When the Dream Plane was peaceful, and the sirens returned to this ocean, perhaps a new Ieva who inherited the will of the old would be born.

And besides that, the problems outside Planet Aio had just begun.

He led Lily back to the bridge, gathered everyone, and prepared to discuss what to do next.

"I saw the process of the siren civilization's destruction from Ieva. To be honest, there are a lot of doubts, more complicated than we expected," Hao Ren said, sitting in his captain's seat, feeling like an old cadre giving a mobilization meeting, just missing an enamel teacup in his hand. "Let me start from the beginning... First of all, the origin of the species on this planet is different from what we guessed. The origin of the species on this planet has nothing to do with the eldest son."

Everyone looked at each other in surprise. Nangong Wuyue opened her mouth. "...The sirens were born naturally?"

"That's right. Initially, it was a special kind of elemental creature that had most of the characteristics of ordinary creatures. Your birth came from the power of the deep sea itself, and it has nothing to do with the eldest son's 'sowing'. So there is no Primeval Seed on this planet at all, and the doomsday that year was not caused by the eldest son," Hao Ren nodded and turned on the holographic projection beside him. It showed the pictures taken in the deep sea before, with the black, unidentified warship in the center of the picture. "The siren civilization was destroyed by this kind of warship more than 10,000 years ago. It was a global weapon similar to EMP, but with extremely strong power. I saw a thunderstorm sweep across the entire planet at that time, and the ecological extinction was probably similar to today. The sirens' immortality is not perfect. You will also die when you encounter soul-like attacks, but you can last longer than ordinary races—that's why Ieva remained after the species 'extinction'."

Lily looked at the holographic projection of the black warship with her mouth wide open: "...Landlord, you have something else to say, right? I don't like the look in your eyes."

This husky has a pretty good sense of observation.

"That's right, what I want to say is the key issue: according to what I saw, Planet Aio was not the target of this black warship at first!"

As soon as these words came out, everyone was silent.

Hao Ren recalled the scene he saw in Ieva's memory: "These black warships initially bypassed Aio directly. I can confirm that they had observed the existence of the siren civilization at that time, but they soon left here. But not long after that, the black warships suddenly turned back and circled in the solar system where Aio was located for half a month. At that time, the sirens tried to communicate with these warships, but all failed, so what happened inside these black warships is also unknown. I only saw that these warships seemed to have a civil war, and they started fighting each other, and the fighting was very chaotic—almost all the spaceships were firing at each other. After fighting like this for a while, they seemed to suddenly reach an agreement and stopped attacking, and then they destroyed the siren civilization. That's what happened back then."

Everyone on the scene was stunned as if they were listening to a heavenly book. Nangong Sanba scribbled formulas for a long time but couldn't figure out what the situation was back then: "I feel like...this is crazy?"

"Maybe it was infighting?" Lily began to reason with the logical thinking that a writer should have. "Maybe the black warship didn't want to destroy Aio at first, but after flying over there, they remembered this incident, and then the 'destruction faction' and the 'passing by faction' fought each other. After the fight, they reached an agreement—that's probably the process."

"But this can't explain why they circled in the Aio solar system for half a month, nor can it explain the chaotic situation at that time: they were not divided into two factions, but a dozen spaceships bombarded each other, and no one looked like they were on the same side. And in the end, they suddenly became united. I can't figure out what kind of factional struggle can be so chaotic. This multi-line relationship is as chaotic as a Korean drama."

"Circling for half a month may be the fleet negotiating internally, and all the spaceships firing at each other may be a factional split," Lily said, counting on her fingers. "Anyway, if you need it, I can write a dozen scripts to make everything look reasonable. What's more, reality is stranger than fiction. We just need to know that they had an internal fight. Who cares why they fought?"

Shakira probably understood what was going on and sighed a long sigh: "Who did we offend?"

"Ahem, the key now is to figure out where these black spaceships came from," Nangong Sanba coughed twice, sat up straight, and tried to make himself look more professional in this meeting. "Speaking of which, Landlord, is this within your responsibilities?"

Hao Ren spread out his hands: "The extinction of civilization is a major event, and at least the truth must be found out and recorded. But there are too few clues about those black warships. The sample we had has already exploded, and the wreckage of those spaceships sunk in the deep sea is probably already torn to pieces by Ieva when she was angry. It's probably very difficult to find out the truth. And I still can't figure out how the brain monster is related to this incident. That brain monster on Earth..."

Hao Ren was only halfway through his words when he suddenly heard the voice of the data terminal coming from the console: "Hey! This machine found something good in orbit. Do you want to take a look?"

Izhaks was sitting close and turned his head and asked, "What is it?"

"A piece of wreckage, it should have been blown off from the black warship," the data terminal's voice was very cheerful. "That sample was not completely blown to pieces. Some relatively solid compartments survived the explosion. According to the general rules of making warships: these compartments are either a power furnace, a core database, or... an escape pod storage!"

Hao Ren stood up suddenly when he heard this: "Go and take a look!"

(I have something to tell everyone. I'm very busy these days, and I can probably only maintain one update a day. As for what I'm busy with... Yi Chang Sheng Wu Jian Wen Lu is going to be adapted into a comic! I'm going to follow up on the whole process this time, so you will understand if I temporarily change to one update, right? =.=; In addition, I corrected a small bug in the previous chapter, that is, Lily didn't follow when Hao Ren jumped into the Sea of Aio. That husky was jumping around in my mind too conspicuously, and I accidentally let her appear.)