The pale blue clouds in the sky have completely merged into clusters. These suspected "beings," the alien entities, are of unknown origin, only known to have chosen this ancient planet as a resting place. Countless blue halos surge and merge in the high skies, and now not a single gap can be seen. Shimmering radiance continuously dances within the clouds, with bright stars and lines moving widely, seemingly able to leap from one cloud cluster to another. This might be due to all light clusters merging into one entity, or... are they exchanging some kind of thing they carry among themselves? It’s beyond anyone’s comprehension.

"So beautiful..." Qianqian exclaimed as she strained her neck upwards, deeply absorbed by this marvelous and splendid scene, "It’s as though the sea surface has been inverted."

Qianqian’s observation wasn’t off. This scene indeed resembles an inverted sea, or perhaps a floating ocean overhead. The light clusters gathering and ebbing are nearly identical to the ocean, and the constantly hopping light points and lines amidst the clusters resemble glittering waves upon the sea surface. Without an atmosphere on the Mother Star, no sound can be heard, yet looking up at the inverted blue sky, I almost imagine the sound of waves rolling.

"These cloud clusters already shroud the entire Mother Star, and they continue to thicken," Sandora remarked, astonished as she glanced at the data terminal in her hand. The holographic projection above it displayed a bird’s-eye view taken by the Imperial Admiral from outer space, and in the image, the Mother Star had transformed into a shimmering blue light ball, cloaked in an illusionary robe, making us almost mistakenly believe the ancient oceans had returned. "The source of the cloud clusters has been identified, with two cosmic signals emanating from two star systems located 126 light-years and 130 light-years away. These cloud clusters space-jumped from such remote locations, like tribes from afar coming together for a gathering."

"What are they exactly?" Bingdisi pondered, tilting her neck in awe. Even this knowledgeable female hooligan seemed somewhat at a loss, possibly because the sight itself wasn’t considered peculiar to her, but rather the fact that it occurs in a hometown world supposedly dead and stagnant for years is astonishing. "Life? Can life indeed be born in this world again?"

"It’s life, indeed." A faint, tiny voice echoed in my mind, followed by a sensation of something prodding open my chest pocket. It turned out to be the stirring Dingdang, drawn by the external essence. The little thing peeked from the pocket for quite a while, then suddenly showed excitement, crawling to my shoulder along the clothing folds, waving her tiny arms toward the sky, and exuberantly announcing in the public channel, "Life! Life! Even though it’s primitive and frail, they are life forms! Even Sister Goddess hasn’t created such life!"

Dingdang emerging to define the light clusters substantiated their nature, leaving no doubt. Even though Taville couldn’t fathom how these entities, unlike spiritual beings, came into existence, it matters not. What matters is... they truly are alive.

A thought suddenly surfaced in my mind:

This is the homeland of the Xyrin Civilization, undying as its people, even in death, their souls must continue forward—life has been born here again!

"Dingdang intends to research how these life forms operate!" The tiny Life Goddess danced on my shoulder, suddenly adopting a serious demeanor. "Dingdang can hear their cries. They are perplexed by the bizarre state of the universe they inhabit, troubled by their inability to further evolve. They sense the power of the Life Goddess and thus call for help... Dingdang shall assist them!"

With these words, Dingdang had already flapped towards the sky: flapping wings in a vacuum means little, though Dingdang’s wing-flapping seemed an instinctive act, akin to Lin needing to spread wings during Void flight as well. As the tiny green light surged skyward, I was amazed to see the "Azure Cloud Sea" respond in kind, as though welcoming Dingdang. It does indeed resemble... er, I’ve forgotten who said it, but the gist is that the Life Goddess is the guardian of all life forms, be they carbon-based or silicon-based, whether tangible or spiritual. Any life that aligns with the deity’s definition is embraced within the Life Goddess’ protection. These blue cloud clusters clearly evolved in the hometown world, and within this stagnant Abyss World, naturally, they won’t belong to any known life forms, yet they eagerly rejoice at Dingdang’s power—a reminder that Dingdang, the unreliable little fellow, seemingly charges forth fueled by enthusiasm, lacking a concrete plan...

"So what do we do now?" I glanced around, sensing the heavenly anomaly wouldn’t conclude anytime soon, and while lingering here admiring the scenery was pleasant, it seemed our mission held significant weight. "It appears the Mother Star has been deemed a transit hub by these new life forms."

"It’s fine, I believe our ancestors wouldn’t mind," Sandora, the Empire’s ruler, surprisingly exuded openness and largesse at this moment, as she tucked away the data terminal, turned to open a teleportation gate, "There’s plenty for us to attend to, let’s get the startup terminal positioned."

Everyone teleported back to the Imperial Admiral, with the fleet quietly departing the ancient but seemingly rejuvenated planet, cloaked in invisibility. We returned above the Abyss Gate, commencing preparatory activities for bridge-building.

The data collection was nearly complete. Since the Abyss Xyrin had previously engaged with "Peace Core One," and the New Army inadvertently performed some beneficial actions during their bridge-building attempt, leaving us invaluable firsthand information, the expert team we brought could almost be considered skilled laborers—at least in the steps leading up to the startup terminal’s activation. We spent half a day deploying detectors manufactured during the journey across space, single-use yet efficient, specifically designed to gauge the inert state and stability of the Abyss Gate, with minimal power. Even if they exploded above the Abyss Gate, it wouldn’t compromise the safety of the test site. The finalized data would appear before everyone later today, as anticipated: before us lay an unprecedentedly perfect "bridge pier."

Inertness was never a concern from the outset; the Abyss Gate’s immense scale, yet tranquil persistence without self-collapse, underscores its exceptional inert state, while stability elicited mild apprehension: this gate has seen countless ages since opening, existing since Bingdisi’s ancestor roamed with an open-crotch garment—oh, why do I once again use Bingdisi’s ancestor as a reference? It’s challenging to declare that, over such extensive periods, the gate hasn’t endured any alterations, like diminished stability due to age... however fortunate, everything remains extraordinarily perfect.

The Abyss Xyrin candidly stated that even given a millennium or more, allowing the destruction of worlds to gather resources might not yield anything resembling the effectively functioning Peace Core akin to that of the hometown world.

Surveying the report before her, Sandora contentedly swallowed the last bit of spicy rice dumpling: "Though the civilization that failed in bridge-building got many things wrong, at least the quality of the gate they opened is commendable." Subsequently, she flagged the report as read and returned it to the working group: "Commence construction immediately, and kindly ask Harlan to coordinate communication with the other side, as we must maintain synchronized operations."

Only Sandora indulged on the officer platform, others lack the Queen’s hearty appetite, whereas Harlan, the diligent, big-brother type Empire leader, was distinguished. He focused entirely on tracking the engineering team’s progress, liaising as a senior technical advisor with Ivan Sein stationed at the construction frontline (displaying insider leadership superiority, with both bridge-building emperors being tech-savvy individuals). Upon Sandora’s directive, Harlan simply nodded, continuing his endeavors. Bingdisi remarked offhandedly: "Speaking of... that bridge-building civilization’s mixed reception is peculiar, does Sandora resent them or owe them gratitude?"

Sandora raised her eyelids to glance at Bingdisi: "That question lacks significance, for they are already extinct."

Bellavilla was in a rare period of clarity during the day. Seeing that Sandora didn’t want to answer directly, she took over the topic herself: "This kind of hatred really has no meaning anymore. Chasing after the dead for this is just a waste of time. Our revenge is over, and now it’s time to look forward—and to be honest, if it weren’t for the great catastrophe back then, there might not be the Xyrin Empire as it is today. Cause and effect, inheritance, time swaps places, that’s just how it is. The civilization that rashly built the bridge back then... it self-destructed due to its own mistakes; I guess that’s reckoning done."

Bingdisi shrugged and remained silent.

A large number of engineering ships had already built temporary workstations near the Abyss Gate. These stations were essentially the result of the engineering ships disassembling, transforming, and reassembling themselves, so it didn’t take much time. The Empire’s advanced battlefield deployment technology is truly a versatile means. Besides allowing those bastards from Shadow City to throw out a large stall with several square meters and complete with display racks and carts at any time and place, the best use is setting up bases on-site. Not long after Sandora ordered work to begin, we had a dispersed work field spanning tens of thousands of kilometers. Since construction in outer space doesn’t have such tight land constraints, and later we would need a large space to place those large facilities, the distances between buildings were quite far. This work field consisted of several hundred nodes like starports, each ’starport’ having a hexagonal central platform and a dozen or so alloy ’long arms’ extending into space. The central platform was where heavy factories and large calculation cores were housed, while those ’long arms’ were indeed docking ports for working spaceships to take off and land between them.

As mentioned above, each work station had a large calculation core because the bridge-building process required a staggering amount of data throughput—even Bubbles himself couldn’t handle all the data. So we had to load additional calculation units on all the workstations to form a forward calculation network. These extra calculation units consisted of a simplified version of the Xyrin Nest, a mass-produced Bubble, and two servers. To get them running, we prepared hundreds of mass-produced hosts before setting out.

The work field is now anchored in place fifteen thousand kilometers above the Abyss Gate (compared to the entire Abyss Gate, it’s as small as a pebble, with a five-light-year Abyss Gate! How many lanes does this bridge require?), and the mass-produced girls are ready to head to their ’battlefield.’ At the moment, Bubbles is standing on the upper deck of the Imperial Admiral, lecturing her hundreds of identical daughters. The one-meter-one mainframe wore a serious face: "My proud daughters, your moment of trial has come! This will be the most significant moment in the New Empire... No, in the entire Void, and you bear a supreme mission of honor! I will fight alongside you, undertaking high-intensity calculations for several days to half a month, depending on how much that startup terminal eats and whether our energy furnace holds up. Remember what your mother tells you now: Shadow clones are strength! Secret Technique: Multiple Daughter Clone Technique! Ura ^o^/!"

Then several hundred mass-produced Bubbles chanted in unison with expressionless faces and flat voices: "Secret Technique: Multiple Daughter Clone Technique! Ura ^o^/!" I wonder how you guys cheer out that emoticon at the end?

Watching Bubbles lead her daughter clones into the teleportation light curtain, I felt...this project is probably not going to fail. This comes from years of experience: when these family lunatics act out, whatever we’re undertaking will strangely succeed fully. I’ve yet to figure out the reasoning behind this, but most likely it’s because the Void is so unpredictably vast...

As the work field slowly started operating, the startup terminal was also transported to its designated position.

The current startup terminal is still in a ’dormant’ state but is already slowly awakening. It was not easy dragging it here all the way from the Imperial District; this thing, even when compacted, is equivalent to two-thirds the size of Earth. Due to its various bizarre properties, it can’t be folded, compressed, or stored by any spatial equipment. Therefore, Taville had to wrap it in a large, hideous framework and install a circle of void engines on it so the thing could deploy its own order field. Finally, it was roughly converted into a planet battleship capable of void navigation. It can be said that this enormous device was the main reason the Imperial Fleet took nearly a month to arrive here—a month! I can hardly imagine that an advanced Void Fleet would have a scenario where it takes a month to reach a station, all thanks to this big guy. But now that this thing is in place, let’s not complain about it.

The fully activated startup terminal is a radiant and magnificent white light ball, but now it’s in a ’half-awake’ state, so it looks more like a yellowish weak dwarf star. The ugly frame and various temporary equipment on the outside are being dismantled by workships, and it’s transforming from a crazy ugly dwarf star into a crazy ugly... rustic dwarf star. I don’t know why I want to mock this thing like that, maybe because I got blown up by it once, which wasn’t a pleasant memory. The adorable Sandora Ball was the only highlight during that month—I’m stopping here, can’t digress more.

The startup terminal is installed in the center of the Abyss Gate (or should it be called the Abyss Eye or Abyss Rift?), just a few hundred kilometers from the rift’s main body. You could say it’s pressed right against the crack’s surface. Although we know there won’t be any issues, Harlan still ordered a large number of anchor force field generators to be installed around it to prevent it from ’falling’ into the gate prematurely, just in case.

Well, if that really happened, it would undoubtedly be the most unfunny joke since the birth of the Void Realms. I’d end up crying, and I must admit Harlan’s considerations are reasonable: the space-time near the Abyss Gate is chaotic. Although it has no gravity, no one can say for sure it won’t scramble space-time enough to drag the startup terminal in. The pilgrimage path has been fraught with peril, and now we’re at the final hurdle—we have to navigate this last hurdle successfully.

The startup terminal, which is a bit smaller than Earth, has been placed in the center of the five-light-year Abyss Gate, appearing quite inconspicuous. Initially, I thought placing the spherical startup terminal at the center of the eye-shaped Abyss Gate would look like an eyeball, but now it seems more like a sand eye... But even with the huge disparity in size between the two, we successfully finished the installation work, and for now, it seems the system’s compatibility is good.

Meanwhile, as the startup terminal was being installed, Dingdang, who had been running around outside, finally returned and brought intelligence about those blue light clusters.

Those pale blue peculiar space creatures are still hovering over the Mother Star, and more ’clouds’ keep teleporting from the depths of the universe to join this gathering. These beings clearly have observational abilities. A portion of them slightly moved toward the Abyss Gate, seemingly very interested in the Imperial Army’s construction site, but evidently filled with dread toward the Abyss Power, so they didn’t approach in the end.

Dingdang called them "Entropic Walkers."

The returning Little Thing looked excited, seemingly thrilled by discovering a new form of life. She bounced around in my palm, leaving me with no choice but to refocus my attention from the work field (at the moment, I was observing the progress of the project at a Space Station with Sandora and others). Dingdang’s tiny, delicate voice reached my ears: "They are Entropic Walkers, named after their life form! They aren’t energy beings or physical entities but are associated with all forms of life—they were born many years after all species in this universe became extinct, created by the information turbulence triggered by the Abyss Gate. Essentially, they are massive entanglements of information, unique beings transitioning from purely mathematical space into physical reality. Dingdang hasn’t figured out how they sustain themselves, only knowing they take the Mother Star as their ’sunbathing’ spot. Here, they absorb the flow of information, and every sunbathing session results in new offspring..."

Sunbathing? More like sunbathing in the Abyss!

The world is truly full of wonders. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to go to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations, monthly tickets, your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)