Chapter 315: Stopping Point

This long voyage was somewhat different from the previous ones.

This time, Li Qingsong had also brought a large number of Deep Space Scientific Research Vessels with the fleet.

These research vessels had a total tonnage of around ten million tons and were internally equipped with 200,000 detectors of various sizes and functions, as well as several Hibernation Pods.

Inside each Hibernation Pod, one of the Clones was sleeping.

After accelerating the main fleet’s speed to 80% of the speed of light, Li Qingsong began to release these Deep Space Scientific Research Vessels. Their targets were limited to a radius of 100 light-years.

In other words, Li Qingsong would dispatch a Deep Space Scientific Research Vessel to every Interstellar System within 100 light-years of his fleet’s route.

Due to the immense distances, Li Qingsong obviously couldn’t control these vessels directly.

But that was no problem, as each vessel was equipped with a streamlined version of the Primordial AI and possessed an extremely high level of intelligence, at least when it came to Deep Space exploration.

They would autonomously begin deceleration as they approached an Interstellar System. After entering it, they would release all their internal detectors to survey every celestial body within that Interstellar System, as well as the broadest possible expanse of interstellar space, searching for any possible traces of intelligent life, especially those suspected of being left by the Purple Moon Civilization.

Right now, although his own technological level was somewhat inferior to the Purple Moon Civilization’s, there was no phase-level gap between them. Li Qingsong had reason to believe that the Purple Moon Civilization would also employ a similar method during their long voyage: traveling a certain distance, then finding an Interstellar System to stop, rest, and resupply.

What Li Qingsong needed to do now was find the Purple Moon Civilization’s next stopping point.

After that, he could use that stopping point as a new starting point and follow the general direction to search for the one after that.

If he could link all their stopping points together, his chances of eventually finding the Purple Moon Civilization would be much greater.

The stellar density around the Solar System is approximately 0.004 stars per cubic light-year.

Right now, Li Qingsong’s fleet was closer to the Galactic Core Region, where the stellar density was higher, at around 0.005 stars per cubic light-year.

Based on this stellar density, if Li Qingsong were to travel one thousand light-years, the volume of a cylinder with a 100-light-year radius and a height of one thousand light-years would reach 7.854 million cubic light-years. This would correspond to about 40,000 Interstellar Systems to survey, which in turn would require forty thousand ten-million-ton Deep Space research vessels.

Merely manufacturing them would be an enormous construction task for any Strong Core Civilization. The subsequent work of launching each vessel to its Interstellar System and then compiling and analyzing all the data made the entire survey mission unimaginably vast.

Even for a Strong Core Civilization capable of handling such a survey mission, there would still be one insurmountable obstacle.

How to retrieve the data?

Long-range communication was out of the question.

At Li Qingsong’s current level of quantum mathematics, he could only achieve communication over a distance of 200 billion kilometers. The previous Intelligent Mechanical Calamity could only manage about 110 billion kilometers.

The only other option was to find a way to retrieve the vessels themselves to get the data.

But one mustn’t forget that his main fleet was constantly traveling at high speed. It would be impossible for those research vessels to catch up. Even if they could, they wouldn’t have enough fuel.

But Li Qingsong had overcome this insurmountable obstacle through a method that was almost like cheating.

At least for now, Li Qingsong had not yet discovered the maximum range of communication between himself and his Clones.

While the connection speed was only the speed of light, the range appeared to be infinite.

‘Then I’ll just put some Clones on every Deep Space Scientific Research Vessel. When the Primordial AI finishes compiling the data, I’ll have it activate the hibernating Clones, and they can transmit the final data they see back to me.’

And so, this massive Deep Space scientific research mission began.

They traveled onward, dispersing Scientific Research Vessels along the way, searching for any possible traces of the Purple Moon Civilization.

Li Qingsong once again focused his main efforts on scientific research.

With the support of the Flying Star, as long as he wasn’t conducting ultra-large-scale fundamental physics research related to civilizational advancement, all other research was entirely feasible.

A little over a decade later, the Clone from the first Scientific Research Vessel sent back a message.

It was an ordinary red dwarf Star System, with no traces of intelligent life activity within it.

Once the survey was complete, Li Qingsong immediately issued a command.

After a time delay, the large Scientific Research Vessel, having retrieved all its detectors, would crash into the star, completely destroying all evidence and leaving not a single trace behind.

Then came the second vessel, the third, and so on…

Detailed data on one star after another, one Interstellar System after another, was laid out before Li Qingsong.

Large and small, bright and dim, single-star systems, binary, trinary, and even quadruple and quintuple star systems—all sorts of Interstellar Systems unfolded before him, broadening Li Qingsong’s horizons.

But Li Qingsong was still unable to find any traces of intelligent life.

The emptiness and vastness of the Cosmos, and the rarity of intelligent civilizations, made Li Qingsong sigh inwardly with emotion.

Although the list of extinct civilizations provided by the Recorder Civilization recorded a total of over 10,000 civilizations, that was the sum total over hundreds of millions of years. And the Milky Way Galaxy was so vast, containing hundreds of billions of stars.

Scattering those 10,000 civilizations within it was like dropping a single droplet of water into the ocean—utterly insignificant.

The long journey continued. Li Qingsong’s research went on day after day, and the intelligent beings of every race also passed their days working and living.

One day, Haimo Lan, the vice-chief of the Viller Race, finished a full day of meetings and dragged his somewhat weary body home.

After washing up and eating with the assistance of an intelligent robot, he lay down on his large, comfortable, and soft bed.

Though his body was exhausted, his mind was buzzing with excitement.

Today, he had finally convinced the chief of the Viller Race, Washilolo—a man who had once been nothing more than a petty, insignificant official but had now risen to become chief of the race—to completely change their development strategy, shifting its focus from applied physics to fundamental physics.

‘Hmph. Never mind Washilolo; even the chiefs of the other races are a bunch of short-sighted fools. They can’t even see that as the technological data from the Harville Civilization and Black Mountain Civilization is fully digested and absorbed, the research focus of Human Civilization will inevitably shift from its current emphasis on applied physics to fundamental physics.

‘There won’t be any more of those periods of rapid, daily technological advancement like before. Now it’s time to start gnawing on the hard bones, pushing fundamental physics forward bit by bit.

‘But I can’t blame them. They were all just bottom-rung figures in their own civilizations before. How could they possibly have a strategic, big-picture view like I do?

‘By shifting our focus now, ahead of everyone else, our Viller Race can seize the initiative in the next phase, make greater contributions to the civilization, and further elevate our status within it…’