Translator: AnubisTL
"A Sixth-Tier Civilization..."
Chen Mang's eyes narrowed slightly. This meant they were on par with the Green Mountain Civilization. Given that Xiao Lu's mother was no weakling, the fact that a single Train Fleet could annihilate her suggested this Sixth-Tier Civilization was among the stronger ones of its kind.
"Locate the warp coordinates ahead of Xiao Lu's mother and prepare to open a wormhole."
"Understood!"
Rescuing her was a given.
And while they were at it, they might as well test-fire the Tier 5000 Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon to see if it met the Civilization Advancement Conditions.
His Wormhole Opener was Tier 2000.
It could create wormholes spanning up to 100 million light-years. With just two intermediate jumps, they could reach Xiao Lu's mother's vicinity.
After consuming 1.44 Foundation units of iron ore,
two wormholes materialized.
As the train slowly emerged from the wormhole, they were already close to Xiao Lu's mother. Even with the naked eye, they could clearly see a colossal entity dominating their entire field of vision, hurtling through the cosmos at an astonishing speed.
Though incredibly fast, its velocity certainly hadn't reached the speed of light.
Immense gravitational forces tore through space, allowing the colossal entity to advance by constantly traversing fragmented dimensions, achieving speeds far exceeding the speed of light.
Chen Mang recognized this method.
The Cosmic Landmine he had encountered previously had used the same technique.
The Train Fleet trailing behind Xiao Lu's Mother maintained pursuit by continuously creating wormholes, clinging tightly to her wake.
Xiao Lu's Mother's immense size and extraordinary speed generated gravitational forces that nearly shattered the surrounding space. Stars and planets in her path were instantly torn apart.
The greatest victims of this cosmic chase were the unfortunate civilizations caught in the crossfire. Having committed no offense, they were inexplicably annihilated.
Meanwhile—
Inside the train, Xiao Lu seemed to sense something. His eyes lit up with anticipation as he gazed eagerly out the window.
Chen Mang knew this look well: it was the hunger of a Star-Devouring Beast.
These creatures primarily fed not on planets, but on Cosmic Behemoths. Only such colossal beings could satisfy Xiao Lu's insatiable appetite.
"Truly monstrous," Chen Mang murmured, gazing at Xiao Lu, who was eagerly waiting. "You'd even eat your own mother."
Xiao Lu's expression showed no emotion at the mention of his mother, only the anticipation of a satisfying meal.
But moments later, Xiao Lu sniffed the air, and the glint of hunger in his eyes vanished instantly, replaced by anxiety and restlessness. He began nudging Chen Mang's leg with his head.
"Tsk," Chen Mang clicked his tongue. "Now you're panicking?"
He sighed helplessly, leaned back in his chair, and casually gestured toward the Train Fleet locked by the Doppler Radar. "Tell Xiao Lu's mother to steer clear."
In the next instant—
The Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon atop the Stellaris began to slowly charge, its power set to Tier 5000!
The train's iron ore reserves began to deplete rapidly.
This single shot consumed ten Foundation units of iron ore.
"Train Conductor, I could directly hack into those trains and take complete control of them."
"No need."
Chen Mang shook his head. "We still need to meet the Advancement Conditions for our civilization."
Without hesitation, he pressed the red button on the control panel.
Boom!
The cosmos was silent, yet the sound reverberated deafeningly in his mind.
A crimson, incandescent beam of light, like a dimensional reduction strike from a High-Dimensional Civilization against a Low Dimension, shot out behind Xiao Lu's Mother. She immediately shrank to Xiao Lu's size, evading the attack.
In the blink of an eye, the beam reached the Train Fleet pursuing Xiao Lu's Mother.
Energy shields activated instantly, only to be torn apart in the same instant.
The beam from the Tier 5000 Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon transformed into a terrifying, pitch-black black hole just before impact, annihilating everything in its path. The Train Fleet, utterly defenseless, was utterly destroyed.
Utterly simple.
Utterly brutal.
Absolute numerical dominance.
Fifteen minutes later.
Chen Mang sat in the Stellaris's locomotive cabin, gazing down at the two round, green orbs on the ground. The smaller one was Xiao Lu, and the larger one was his mother.
Neither could speak.
The larger green orb was currently nuzzling Xiao Lu repeatedly. Though it displayed no visible expression, Chen Mang could sense the deep joy and excitement emanating from its soul.
Xiao Lu initially seemed uncertain, but gradually he sensed the affectionate aura and leaned into his mother.
"That's good," Chen Mang murmured, watching the scene from his seat. Xiao Lu had finally found a perfect ending to his story—reunited with his long-lost mother at the story's conclusion, while she had finally found her child.
Still, it's quite a tragedy.
Over the years of searching for her child, countless civilizations must have been buried alongside Xiao Lu.
"Xiao Ai, can you communicate with Xiao Lu's mother?"
"Not exactly communicate, more like a deep soul-level exchange. I can only convey simple messages, such as goodwill, assurances of no harm, or requests to move aside. Complex instructions are beyond my ability to transmit, and even if I could, she wouldn't understand."
"The intelligence of Cosmic Behemoths is still somewhat lower than that of humans."
"Indeed."
Chen Mang nodded. "Xiao Lu's mother is now a member of the train. Tell Xiao Lu to explain the train rules to her, the most important of which is that she can't transform arbitrarily inside the train."
So far, Xiao Lu had never transformed inside the train, so Chen Mang was quite curious about it.
His train armor was absolutely impenetrable, not just externally but internally as well. Even if Xiao Lu or his mother transformed into their feeding forms inside the train, instantly expanding to a diameter of 0.1 light-years, the train wouldn't explode.
In that case, only the Cosmic Behemoth would explode.
That would be quite a tragedy.
"Understood."
"While you're at it, ask her how she lost her child in the first place. It wasn't an egg—it had already hatched. How could she just lose it like that? And where did the child's father go?"
"I will."
With that, the matter was perfectly resolved.
The Stellaris gained a Cosmic Behemoth.
Xiao Lu gained a mother.
Xiao Lu's mother offered no resistance to joining the Stellaris. After all, her child was here, and he clearly loved it. But the most crucial reason was that she had personally witnessed the Stellaris's power.
She dared not defy it.
Though Cosmic Behemoths possessed limited intelligence, they understood one thing clearly: the strong cannot be resisted.
"..."
Chen Mang sat in the locomotive cabin, gazing at the edge of the cosmos. At that moment, the observable universe, with a diameter of 400 billion light-years, was just a fraction of the entire cosmos, which spanned 1.9283 trillion light-years. Before he could observe further, the cosmos's diameter abruptly shrank to 293.9 billion light-years.
The numerical values of the high-dimensional cosmos beyond the Cosmos Entity were chaotic, fluctuating randomly and defying any discernible pattern or control.
During his idle moments, Chen Mang often found himself fascinated by the changes in the high-dimensional cosmos.
He suspected that the true nature of these changes might not be accurately represented by the three-dimensional data. The chaotic, fluctuating figures were likely artifacts of trying to project high-dimensional phenomena onto a three-dimensional plane. One day, he resolved, he would personally witness the true form of the high-dimensional cosmos beyond the Cosmos Entity.
And then, he would traverse the high-dimensional cosmos to see what lay beyond.
He now understood why no civilization had ever managed to escape the cosmos. Even if they achieved speeds exceeding the speed of light and surpassing the rate of cosmic expansion, it would be futile. The high-dimensional cosmos enveloping the Cosmos Entity acted like an eggshell, firmly protecting the cosmos within and making it virtually impenetrable.
In that realm, time and space lost their meaning, shifting unpredictably.
"Hah..."
Chen Mang exhaled deeply, shifting his gaze from the radar screen to the information displayed on the control panel.
After firing that cannon blast, multiple panels had popped up on the screen in rapid succession.
["Human civilization has met the Advancement Conditions and has automatically been promoted."]
["The range of this Advancement Ripple is ten billion light-years."]
["All living beings within First-Level or higher civilizations will receive this Advancement Ripple in their own unique ways."]
["The Advancement Ripple propagates at the speed of light."]
["The Sixth-Tier Civilization, 'Human Civilization,' has successfully advanced to a Seventh-Tier Civilization."]
At this moment!
Human civilization had officially advanced to a 7th Tier Civilization!
Having formally joined the ranks of the universe's Top-Tier Civilizations, they had secured their entry ticket to becoming a God-Tier Civilization. From this moment forward, their civilization would pursue only one goal: to ascend to God-Tier status.
However, other civilizations stood in their way.
The universe's resource territories had already been divided up.
No new territories remained for them to claim.
To become a God-Tier Civilization, they would have to dethrone an existing God-Tier Civilization.
Using the Doppler Radar, they could observe the distribution of all forces across the universe. Of course, they had no time to monitor every civilization; their primary focus remained on the God-Tier Civilizations and a few Tier 9 Civilizations.
In a remote corner of the cosmos, a Tier 9 Civilization known as the Starlight Civilization was engaged in a decisive battle with a God-Tier Civilization. Surrounding God-Tier Civilizations were also lending support to the defending God-Tier Civilization.
The battle raged fiercely.
Light Cannons filled the skies.
Two-Dimensional Foils, as disposable as oil paintings, were casually hurled into the fray.
Chaos and devastation reigned supreme.
The clash plunged the cosmos into darkness and turmoil.
The Starlight Civilization held a special connection to them—it was the ancestral civilization of the Rugged Civilization after its return. This was the original civilization of the Sagittarius Clan, now unleashing its full foundation in a final assault against the God-Tier Civilization!
Success meant ascension to God-Tier status!
Failure meant utter annihilation, leaving no trace behind!
The surrounding God-Tier Civilizations tacitly deployed their forces to support the defending God-Tier Civilization, effectively turning the battle into a one-against-many scenario.
Advancing to God-Tier Civilization status was no easy feat.
It's worth noting that only civilizations like the Sagittarius Clan or cultivation civilizations, capable of using Bloodline Wormholes to gather all their clansmen and expand their power into a Train Civilization format, could truly benefit from this strategy. For other civilizations, even if they could amass a large number of clansmen through Bloodline Wormholes, they couldn't transport the necessary resources, rendering the effort futile.
Only civilizations that concentrated immense power within themselves could leverage such methods to rapidly enhance their capabilities.
However, resorting to this tactic meant committing to a final, all-out war, completely exhausting their civilization's foundation. Defeat would result in the race being virtually erased from the cosmos, with no hope of future resurgence—the entire race would be utterly annihilated.
The risks were astronomical.
It was an all-or-nothing gamble.
In the short term, it was impossible to predict which side would emerge victorious. Wars between civilizations of this magnitude could not be resolved quickly.
"The battlefields of God-Tier Civilizations are truly spectacular," Chen Mang remarked, his fingers itching to join the fray. He genuinely longed to participate, but he wasn't yet strong enough—not quite absolutely invincible. After further development, he would finally achieve true invincibility!
At that point, he could formally enter the cosmic stage.
A panel slowly materialized on the screen:
[Civilization Name]: Human Civilization
[Civilization Level]: Tier 7
[Civilization Leader]: Chen Mang
[Civilization Planets]: Aquablue Star, Black Tortoise Star, First-Class Mining Planet, Mining Star Two, Mining Star Three, Mining Star Four, etc.
[Civilization Population]: 61 trillion
[Advancement Conditions]: Peak offensive energy range exceeds 500,000.
[PS: Each advancement from Second-Tier Civilization onward releases an "Advancement Ripple" detectable by all surrounding civilizations. The higher the tier, the wider the range of the Advancement Ripple.]
[Civilization Means]: The generation speed and capacity of resource mines such as Murphy Stone Mines, iron ore, and copper ore are doubled, and their generation probability is also doubled. The probability of special item creation is doubled.
This was the new human civilization panel.
The advancement conditions for reaching Tier 8 Civilization were remarkably simple, with no restrictions on territory or the number of Civilization Wonders. The sole requirement was possessing a Tier 5000 Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon. In other words, simply having such a cannon would qualify a civilization for Tier 8 status.
The advancement condition for Tier 7 Civilization was a Tier 3000 Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon.
The Civilization Means for Tier 8 Civilization focused on resource acquisition, aiding a civilization in obtaining more resources during its development.
This was not important.
It was merely a developmental tool.
What truly mattered was this:
The blast he had unleashed to rescue Xiao Lu's Mother was a Tier 5000 Arcanon Light Energy Main Cannon, not a Tier 3000 one.
Therefore,
several panels slowly materialized again on the train control panel screen.
["The human civilization has met the Advancement Conditions and has automatically been promoted."]
["The range of this Advancement Ripple is 100 billion light-years."]
["All living beings within First-Level and higher civilizations will receive this Advancement Ripple in their own way."]
["The transmission speed of the Advancement Ripple is the speed of light."]
["The 7th Tier Civilization 'Human Civilization' has successfully advanced to an Eighth-Tier Civilization."]
Yes.
Human civilization had successfully completed a double Promotion, leaping from Tier 6 to Tier 8 in a single bound.
This was civilization advancement at a speed even faster than his old train's acceleration.
Utterly absurd.
"..."
Chen Mang rubbed his nose and muttered under his breath, "Already Tier 8? Hey Xiao Ai, apart from our raw power, what else about our civilization resembles a Tier 8 civilization?"
"We're developing too fast. Even I'm finding it hard to keep up."
(End of the Chapter)
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