Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 168 100 Stellar-Class Warships
Crisis Era 120 Years.

Mars, Utopia Plain.

Ding Yi, who is over seventy years old, rides an electric bicycle, wearing a helmet, across the grassland.

Utopia Planitia is a vast and flat region on Mars, roughly the size of Australia. Located in the lowlands of the northern hemisphere, it has a stable geological structure and is a landform formed by a massive flood that occurred on Mars in ancient times. Liquid water resources that have not yet dried up have been discovered beneath it.

These unique conditions made Utopia Plain the primary settlement for humans on Mars.

Humans also planted grass all over the Utopia Plain.

In the core area of ​​the Utopia Plain, there is a thin ocean, about the size of the Bohai Sea. It is seawater that Luo Qing painstakingly transported to the Earth in his early years because he was worried about rising sea levels due to global warming. The amount of this seawater is roughly equivalent to fifteen Lake Baikal.

Utopian ocean + super grass + round soap bubbles.

The three elements form a complete ecological chain, and relying on Utopia Plain, humans began to try to transform Mars into an ecosystem similar to Earth.

As early as Crisis Era 38, China built its first scientific research base (including the Mars Hadron Collider) – Kunlun Station – in a pre-selected area in the southern part of Utopia Plain, bordering Utopia Ocean.
In Crisis Era 64, the United States, together with Russia and the European Union, established the first permanently inhabited Martian town with colonial significance—Wanderers Town—in the western part of Utopia Plain.

By the year 110 of the Crisis Era, the Earth United Government had built the first true Martian city—Starfire City—in the eastern part of Utopia Plain.
Kunlun Station and the Wanderers' Town have developed over the years and have become small cities.

Kunlun Science and Technology City, which originated from Kunlun Station, and Wanderer County, which originated from Wanderer Town, have become satellite cities of Xinghuo City. The permanent population of these three Martian cities, one large and two small, has exceeded 100 million.

All three cities are situated on the grasslands. Ding Yi is currently riding his electric motorcycle across the endless grasslands from the research center of Kunlun City towards Xinghuo City.

Although there are intercity trains between these Martian cities, Ding Yi doesn't want to take them. He prefers to be close to the vast, endless meadows, especially under the Martian sunset, watching the waves of grass on the Utopia Plain turn amber, and wandering in the Martian atmosphere.

This is his greatest joy since arriving on Mars.

Ding Yi can be considered a long-time resident of Mars.

Since the Altar of Truth disappeared, he led the Human Emperor Banner scientific team for more than ten years and came to Mars in Crisis Era 107, where he has lived ever since.

But today, he felt he might need to return to Earth, which is why he went to Starfire City.

The main docking area for planetary-level civilian spacecraft on Mars is the airspace above Starfire City.

Starfire City has built a space elevator that can take you directly to Mars orbit. By taking the Mars space elevator to Mars orbit and boarding a civilian planetary spacecraft, you can return to Earth in two months.

As for the reason for wanting to return to Earth, it was because Ding Yi wanted to hibernate.

Over the past twenty years, he has done more than enough. Through his efforts, one technical challenge after another regarding star-class warships has been overcome.

In particular, the breakthrough by life scientists in the "deep-sea acceleration fluid" technology has made it possible for manned stellar-class warships to cruise at 10% of the speed of light.

Regarding the "deep-sea acceleration fluid," this liquid is extremely rich in oxygen, allowing trained personnel to breathe directly in it, as the fluid can fill the lungs and various organs. When the spacecraft is operating at high acceleration, the crew is in a "deep-sea state" protected by the deep-sea acceleration fluid, which helps maintain the pressure balance inside and outside the body and prevents them from suffering from overload damage.

Without the protection of "deep-sea acceleration fluid," when the stellar-class warship activates [Advance 4], everyone will be crushed into a thin layer of blood by the enormous acceleration.

After overcoming this final obstacle, human civilization began its sprint, unleashing maximum industrial capacity to produce massive quantities.

In just twenty years, humanity has built twenty space docks in near-Earth orbit and Mars orbit, and with a production rate of one ship every four years, one hundred star-class warships have been built under the overall coordination of MOSS and the Digital Republic!
This space fleet, consisting of one hundred star-class warships, became the absolute main force of the Joint Space Force.

During the Wallfacer Project hearing, Luo Qing reluctantly admitted that he was no match for the Space Fleet.

Two years ago, during the Jupiter orbit exercise organized in the 118th year of the Crisis Era, Luo Qing suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the human fleet.

Faced with the onslaught of stellar-class hydrogen bombs, super electromagnetic kinetic energy projectiles, gamma-ray laser beams, unmanned space fighters, shipborne prism cannons, high-energy particle beams, and infrasonic hydrogen bombs, Luo Qing managed to barely defeat three stellar-class warships (simulated destruction) by boarding tactics, withstood three minutes of fleet bombardment, and was forced to surrender.

After being beaten into a state of depression, Luo Qing immediately chose to go into seclusion and said that he should not be woken up before the war, as he wanted to find a way to break through to the Nascent Soul stage.

During the exercise in Jupiter's orbit, Luo Qing's space escape speed was still only 1% of the speed of light. He could catch up with the space fleet in [Advance 3] mode, but he was helpless against the space warships cruising at 10% of the speed of light in [Advance 4] mode.

Humanity finally realized that human civilization had grown to a level that surpassed the Wallfacers, and that the Wallfacers, who had always protected humanity's growth, were not invincible after all.

The power of cultivators has its limits.

Of course, this did not diminish humanity's respect for the Wallfacer. Everyone understood that the Wallfacer was simply no match for the space fleet in a direct confrontation, not for the Earth United Government's ground forces.

The Wallfacers remain an important fighting force for human civilization.

The most distinctive feature of humanity's stellar-class warships is their extremely high maximum cruising speed, reaching 10% of the speed of light, which is almost close to the theoretical propulsion limit of controlled nuclear fusion propellantless engines. Compared to this, the Trisolaran First Fleet, cruising at just 1% of the speed of light, doesn't seem so terrifying.

Humanity is no longer worried about the Trisolaran First Fleet, but rather about the "tire" civilization that is still unknown from which direction it will head towards the solar system.

The Earth United Government has released its shipbuilding plan for the next eighty years.

The United Government believes that human civilization is still in a high-speed development stage after the technological explosion. According to the development of human productivity, in eighty years, that is, in the 200th year of the Crisis Era, humanity will be able to produce 2000 star-class warships. That would be a powerful and absolute force, enough to contend with the Trisolaran fleet and the "Tire" civilization.

With the confidence provided by a powerful space fleet, humanity still retains the belief in victory.

Of course, it wasn't all good news. In Crisis Era 99, eight new sophons launched by the Trisolaran civilization arrived in the solar system. Together with the four sophons already on Earth, a total of 12 sophons once again locked down humanity's scientific and technological development.

Luo Qing, the Wallfacer, attempted to hunt down these sophons, but was unsuccessful.

Microscopic particles moving at the speed of light are extremely difficult to capture.

However, during the three-year window of opportunity between Crisis Era 96 ​​and Crisis Era 99, when the blockade failed, there were enough scientific breakthroughs brought about by the human technological explosion.

Rather than continuing to break through cutting-edge theories, humanity now needs more time to develop, fully understand, and apply the latest scientific and technological breakthroughs.

The fact that cutting-edge theories were blocked by Sophon for the second time was also the main reason that prompted Ding Yi to decide to go into hibernation again.

Not counting the fifty years of hibernation, he was already seventy years old. Although Luo Qing extended his lifespan, it was unlikely that he would live to be 160 years old to witness the Trisolaran fleet's probes and the tire civilization.

Ding Yi plans to hibernate for eighty years and awaken in the 200th year of the Crisis Era.

In that case, his seventy-year-old bones will still be able to move.

Just then, Ding Yi's electric motorcycle had already crossed the vast grassland and arrived at Xinghuo City under the last rays of the sun.

Because Starfire City is nested with multiple layers of filtered soap bubbles, the air quality is much better than that of Utopia Plain, almost comparable to that of Earth. Ding Yi also took off his oxygen-supplied cycling helmet.

But before he could reach the space elevator, the group stepped across the soft meadow and hurried toward him.

Ding Yi recognized them: they were the Chief Executive of Starfire City, Starfire City officials, and the Governor of the Starfire City Colony.

The former refers to stateless new humans born in the space city, the middle refers to city officials who are Chinese, and the last refers to the colony governor who is American.

This kind of tripartite political system is not uncommon in current Mars bases. Politics is a troublesome thing, and it will take a long time to fully integrate it.

Behind these three leaders of Xinghuo City were officers from the Space Force and leaders from Kunlun Science and Technology City.

"you……"

Ding Yi hesitated.

What are these people here for?

“Mr. Ding,” the city official approached and shook hands with Ding Yi, saying, “Are you planning to return to Earth?”

"Yes, what's wrong? Can't I go back?" Ding Yi looked at the huge commotion and suddenly had a bad feeling.

“You can go back.” The city official smiled wryly, pointing to the governor and the chief administrator behind him. “But if you want to hibernate, that’s probably not possible. We still need you.”

“What else do you need me to do? I’m seventy years old. There are so many scientists in Kunlun Science and Technology City.” Ding Yi pointed to his full head of white hair.

“Let me explain to him.” The space force officer behind him stepped forward and gave Ding Yi a concise explanation:

"Mr. Ding, our solar system observation system has discovered a crystal that is flying toward Earth. The crystal has obvious artificial characteristics. The soldiers on the front line and the researchers on board the ship do not know what it is. We have captured the crystal and now we would like you to come and take a look. The Wallfacer is in seclusion and we do not want to disturb him easily."

"Something from tire civilization?"

"I don't know, but we asked that six-dimensional sophon, and it doesn't belong to the Trisolaran civilization."

"Quickly, why didn't you say so earlier? Prepare the spaceship and take me there quickly!" Ding Yi became excited, completely forgetting about the hibernation plan.

(End of this chapter)