Chapter 15: Warping Space
Milhabus, who had been kneeling silently at the side of the group, simply listened quietly. He did not feel ignored, for it must be understood that those currently conversing were the Mother of the Courtyard and several void beings powerful enough to single-handedly resist an entire fleet. As merely the strongest psionicist on a single planet, and a descendant countless generations removed from the Mother of the Courtyard, both his status and his strength were simply too insignificant. It was only natural that he could not join the conversation. However, even so, after Milhabus finished listening to Joshua’s words, a thought still involuntarily surged within his heart.
—Exposed!
—As expected, this void being has revealed its true nature! I knew it—how could that terrifying aura that eroded the psionic light pillar at the very beginning of the summoning only appear for an instant? I actually believed he harbored goodwill… I never expected it would erupt here. This creature that delights in destruction wants to watch us perish together with the void mother beast!
Believing he had guessed the truth, Milhabus remained silent. He did not even dare to change his expression, lest others discern his thoughts. The High Archon decided to keep this secret to himself, only telling a few close confidants.
On the other side, regarding the several suggestions Joshua had proposed, both the Mother Tree and Nostradamus remained equally silent in response. With their wisdom, it was not that they could not see the comparison of strength between the two sides, nor that they could not understand why the warrior had made such a judgment. However, both felt that there should be a better solution to the matter.
“It’s too simplistic… We don’t even know what kind of lifeform the void mother beast truly is. How can you make such a judgment so easily?”
Nostradamus said, one hand on his hip and the other rubbing his forehead. The old mage appeared quite troubled: “This world is strange. Beyond the sky, there isn’t a planar barrier separating the void from the world, but rather layers of thin atmosphere and vacuum. A spherical world uses gravity to cling life to its surface… The spatial scale of this world is too vast; many of my experiences are useless.”
“The only fortunate thing is that this world’s energy pattern doesn’t conflict with the Mycroft Continent. I’ve adapted quickly.”
As he spoke, layers upon layers of deep blue runes floated around Nostradamus’s body, indicating that he was modifying some of the spells he had mastered in real-time to cope with this unfamiliar world.
Joshua understood the other’s distress—a legendary mage from a small, high-energy, flat-earth world, upon arriving in a super-large, low-energy cluster world, would inevitably experience a series of shocks to common sense. Nostradamus naturally wouldn’t have his head explode over such a trivial matter, but there was no doubt that the vast majority of his combat experience from the past few decades had become utterly meaningless.
Facing warships several kilometers long and super-lifeforms spanning tens or even hundreds of kilometers, did it matter whether some minor spells were exquisitely crafted? A blink used to evade an enemy’s attack originally only needed to teleport a few meters to dodge, but now, if it couldn’t instantly teleport several kilometers, it might not even escape the enemy’s attack range. A large-scale buff aura covering several square kilometers naturally had divine efficacy in planar-level national wars, but on a cosmic scale, it was so minuscule as to be negligible. And so on. Because of the drastic change in scale, Nostradamus felt that his strength might not even be able to exert fifty percent of its original potential. This was the reason for his distress.
“…Your opinion, in fact, is not impossible to consider.”
On the other side, the Mother Tree’s will was silent for a long time. After a lengthy period of contemplation, it spoke thus, amidst the shocked gaze of Milhabus beside it—not only was the High Archon startled, but even Ying and Lin looked towards the direction of the Great Maelstrom Mother Tree’s main body with expressions of ‘how terrifying.’ However, this ancient aggregate will did not interrupt its own words due to the gazes of others. It continued: “Just now, we held a meeting within our body, and the conclusion was to prioritize the ‘continuation of Courtyard civilization.’ Compared to civilization perishing at the hands of a void behemoth, with our long history scattering like unknown dust in the vacuum of the universe, losing ninety percent of our population is not unacceptable. Self-destructing the mother planet is nothing to fear, let alone detonating the sun of a colony star.”
“You are right. We don’t have many choices left.”
The Mother Tree’s voice was slow, but exceptionally firm. It spoke with Joshua, making the warrior feel as if millions of eyes were gazing at him from the other side. He met the gazes of those ancient Courtyard souls without fear. Those souls spoke simultaneously, emitting a single voice. The Mother Tree said: “Since you all are unafraid of death, then my death is nothing significant. However, void beings, I still have a request. I hope you can agree to it.”
“Speak.”
Joshua responded: “I answered your summons, so naturally I will fight for you. Coincidentally, I also have some matters that require your assistance, but you speak first.”
“Then, please come to the Mother Tree Hall.”
The Mother Tree replied: “Only there can I unleash my true power, and only there can you truly help me.”
Joshua and Nostradamus exchanged a glance. Both were confident in their own strength and were not worried about danger or accidents, so they both agreed to enter the Mother Tree Hall. In fact, for two legendary experts, traveling to the vicinity of a star was not a difficult task. Unless it was an exceptionally extreme situation, they could freely roam the universe, or even the multiverse. Therefore, the Great Maelstrom, which was difficult for ordinary Courtyard people to pass through, was as flat ground to them.
In just one breath, Joshua brought Ying and Lin to the surface of the sea, with the old mage and Milhabus following closely behind him. In the next breath, the group had already arrived at the center of the Great Maelstrom. At that moment, a massive tree root, over fifty meters in diameter, had just emerged from the giant whirlpool. Only a few seconds later did a deep hole, large enough for several people to walk side by side, appear on the tendril.
“That… is the direct passage to the Mother Tree Hall!”
Milhabus, who had not yet reacted, took about a tenth of a second to think about how he had arrived at the center of the Great Maelstrom in one breath. But he was, after all, a supreme psionicist with an extremely fast reaction speed, so he instinctively introduced: “Just enter it… Aaaahhh!”
With a sudden scream, by the time Milhabus opened his eyes again, he had already arrived in a huge room entirely formed by the natural expansion of wood. In the center of the room was a peculiar plant structure resembling a flower. Above it, silver-blue psionic energy continuously surged from the core of the flower, condensing in mid-air into a small, anti-gravity silver sphere.
Undoubtedly, this was the legendary Mother Tree Hall. With the speed of two legendary experts, they could naturally reach their destination before Milhabus finished speaking.
Contrary to Joshua’s imagination, the Mother Tree Hall had no particularly striking features. Apart from the central flower and the compressed psionic light sphere, there was nothing else special. As if sensing Joshua’s confusion, the Mother Tree’s voice sounded again: “The so-called Mother Tree Hall is simply my interior. It is created anew each time, so it naturally has no decorations.”
“Now, Joshua, touch that light sphere.”
Hearing the slightly urgent tone in the Mother Tree’s words, the warrior raised an eyebrow slightly. He could tell that the Mother Tree’s mood was somewhat strange now, but Joshua did not care about such things. So, in the next instant, he was already before the giant flower, reaching out to touch the silver sphere.
The giant flower at the center of the Mother Tree Hall resembled a sunflower. Apart from the outer ring of petals, the flower disc was covered in densely packed crystal dots. Threads of materialized psionic energy emerged from the crystals, converging into the silver sphere. Joshua initially felt nothing unusual, but as he approached, the warrior suddenly realized that the silver sphere had already begun to possess a hint of the flavor of Steel Force!
“It seems that psionic energy in this world is not only related to pure will and soul but also has some connection to matter.”
This speculation was not strange. If psionic energy were truly pure spiritual power, then influencing matter would never be as easy as it seemed. It must possess some material nature. But now, this psionic energy, which only had the potential for materiality, was nearly condensing into the purest Steel Force. This could not help but shock Joshua.
However, shock aside, he still reached out and touched the Steel Force sphere.
And so, the light and shadows shifted.
In the void of the multiverse, a world composed of endless clusters of stars.
In a corner of the macroscopic world, within the spiral arm of a certain galaxy, in a star system illuminated by an orange sun, fifteen planets of varying sizes rotated in the vacuum. The massive main-sequence star generously spread its warm energy to its children. And because of this energy, on the fourth planet in its orbit, there were traces of life.
This planet, entirely composed of blue and green, had a satellite one-quarter its size orbiting it. Seventy percent of its surface was covered by cyan-blue seawater, while the land was entirely dense jungle. Whether on mountains, hills, cliffs, rivers, canyons, swamps, or mudflats, giant trees and shrubs tenaciously survived everywhere. They took root in rock or mud, mountains or hills. Even in the deserts, these plants would still stretch their branches and leaves every morning, bathed in the sun’s radiance, then absorb nutrients from the earth, allowing themselves to thrive.
Such a unique ecological environment would naturally give rise to unique lifeforms, some of which might be extremely dangerous predators. But contrary to everyone’s imagination, these seemingly ordinary plants were themselves the most dangerous predators. When the sun was still high in the sky, everything was normal. But when the sun set and the bright moon hung high, sharp thorns and serrated edges, or even huge, terrifying mouthparts, would begin to grow on the surfaces and branches of these plants.
These different species of ferocious plants would hunt each other in groups under the moonlight. They would use their serrated edges, toxins, and thorny roots to fight. The loser would become fertilizer for the victor. Weak plant communities were destined to be devoured by other plants. Only the strongest could survive.
The ‘Courtyard people’ race, in ancient times, was one of the members of this cruel natural selection. Those who stood out were not the strongest on this planet, but the smartest.
The ancestors of the Courtyard people were a group of plant lifeforms with gray fibrous outer skin. They had bodies similar to trees, but possessed two extra freely movable branches, covered in numerous dexterous tendrils evolved from roots. These plant lifeforms, capable of moving on the ground using their developed root systems, observed the world through a natural psionic vision. Their sensitive thinking centers could sense the abundant free energy in the surrounding atmosphere and migrated in pursuit of this free energy.
With psionic energy, with intelligence, with a method to observe the world, with the experience accumulated from using tools… the civilization of the Courtyard people developed slowly under the gentle sunlight. Until millions of years later, a group of sages, now called the Pioneers by the modern Courtyard people, unified their respective tribes and created the initial tribal system.
The development of civilization was explosive. It took the Courtyard people over four million years to evolve from mobile plants into a primitive civilization. But it only took them over a thousand years to progress from primitive tribal systems into feudal kingdoms. The next scene shift showed a Courtyard scholar, under the watchful eyes of the king and several nobles, adjusting the focus of his telescope, wanting to witness the glory of the gods in the heavens with his own eyes.
However, he saw nothing. Or rather, he saw far too much. When the gaze of the Courtyard people first pierced the atmosphere of their mother planet and reached the vast cosmic void, these plant lifeforms with gray fibrous skin were shocked to discover this: There were no gods in the sky. There were only one dead, silent, and massive celestial body after another. Undoubtedly, this was a colonial blow to the ancient theocratic system of the Courtyard people. Countless Courtyard people, who had longed to see the gods after breaking through the atmosphere, despaired, abandoned their faith, and chose self-destruction.
Then, there was a brilliant light.
Joshua watched this light. He was now within the Steel Force memory fragment gifted to him by the Mother Tree. While witnessing the past history of the Courtyard people, he thought the Mother Tree, believing itself doomed, intended to transfer a portion of its database onto him, ensuring that even if Courtyard civilization was completely destroyed, a spark of hope called possibility would remain. But unexpectedly, Joshua saw an even more important scene.
That was the arrival of the Sage.
The Sage’s arrival was nothing more than a brilliant light. He casually tore open a void portal and stood within the lens of a Courtyard astronomer’s telescope. This undoubtedly startled the other party greatly. The Sage, sensing this, descended along the starlight and blessed this fortunate world.
The process of the Sage’s blessing was complex. He led the divided Courtyard people towards unification and sublimated their civilizational structure, just as he had done in the Mycroft world back then. But aside from that, one thing was simple: the rise of a new theocracy. As the legends of the ancient Courtyard gods faded away one by one after their true forms were discovered among the stars, a new faith called the Void Sage appeared in this world. In fact, the ideological current of the entire Courtyard planet had been leaning towards materialism, but the appearance of the Sage directly elevated idealism to the highest level.
After helping the Courtyard people solve some problems and building a platform to leave behind a token, the Sage simply tore through spacetime again and continued his multiverse expedition. Courtyard civilization continued for thousands of years after that, until the present day.
The illusion vanished. Joshua frowned, thinking silently. The information the Mother Tree had sent him was far more than the illusion. He now saw the moment of every major invention of the Courtyard people: sensing psionic energy, the first psionic spell, large-scale selection of psionic apprentices, entering the psionic industrial age, warp gates and warp engines… and so on. These sharp technologies, after years of research, finally had the day of perfection. They even planned to build massive migration arks to cross hundreds or thousands of light-years of cosmic vacuum, searching for the traces left by the Sage in the past.
It had to be said that the Courtyard people possessed extraordinary power. Although the task of seeking the Sage ended without result, they truly succeeded in summoning the minions of an evil god through the Void Gate ritual, and even summoned Joshua and his group. This meant that their psionic system had extremely powerful potential.
“As you guessed… void being Joshua, I intend to place a portion of Courtyard civilization’s history upon you. That way, even if I am destroyed, a part of Courtyard civilization will remain within you.”
In the center of the Mother Tree Hall, the flower withered, and the silver sphere disappeared. Joshua felt the slightly enhanced strength and the vast amount of memory fragments within him. He shook his head: “It hasn’t come to that yet. You are too pessimistic.”
“This is prudence.” The Mother Tree was not moved by Joshua’s evaluation. It said calmly: “The psionic ritual has greatly enhanced your power, but this power will not last long, nor will it be applied to you in all aspects. Therefore, to be cautious, we must eliminate the void behemoth within a hundred days, at the peak of the psionic light pillar’s enhancement upon you, or escape its pursuit.”
“Undoubtedly, the probability of success for this action is extremely low. So I must prepare for the future.”
Joshua did not intend to refute the Mother Tree’s view. Everyone had their own opinions; there was no need to forcibly correct them. Moreover, weren’t the Courtyard people essentially stiff-headed plants? So he immediately changed the subject: “I promise you. If I do not die in this mission, I will definitely build a library of Courtyard civilization in my world, recording the history and culture you have given me, ensuring that you can leave a shadow in other worlds. And now, it should be your turn to help me.”
Saying this, the warrior suddenly startled. He suddenly recalled the *Continent of Strife* he had played in his previous life, and then remembered the words he had heard in the Sage’s memory not long ago.
- Don’t worry. The traces of the Mycroft Continent’s existence will not disappear. As for destruction, that is a matter for later generations. -
Such a definitive statement came from the mouth of the Sage, who had long since departed. And the disappearance of the traces of existence he mentioned, could it be…
“Please speak.” Just as Joshua was halfway through his thoughts, the Mother Tree responded: “I will fulfill your request to the best of my ability.”
“Then, give me the most advanced warp engine immediately.”
Suppressing the surging thoughts in his heart for the moment, Joshua frowned and said immediately: “I want to learn to warp space.”