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

Chapter 267 Four-Dimensional Divine Sense (4k)

April 203 of the Crisis Era.

Ding Yi, overjoyed, found Luo Qing in the courtyard of the wall-facers.

This two-hundred-year-old courtyard still exists. Ever since Luo Qing returned from the front lines in Kuiper, he has been staying in this room. Luo Qing often stares blankly at the white wall made of jade.

"Wallfacer, guess what technology I've mastered? Come and see my hammer! It's harder than your legendary sword, woohoo!"

Ding Yi, who had reached the Great Perfection of the Innate Realm, easily flipped over the five-meter-high courtyard of the Wallfacers with a somersault. He even held a huge hammer in his hand and landed lightly in the courtyard.

The courtyard is still the same courtyard, but the once ethereal flowers, plants, and trees are all gone, leaving only ordinary ornamental trees. Apart from that, not much has changed. Two hundred years ago, a small, low-grade spirit stone was buried in the courtyard of the Wallfacer. After so many years, this spirit stone has long since "evaporated," and due to the diffusion of molecular motion, the entire earth is now permeated with a very faint layer of spiritual energy.

The spiritual energy was not limited by gravity and even spread to Jupiter's orbit, but the density of the spiritual energy was almost non-existent.

It's like adding a grain of sugar to the ocean.

Apart from Luo Qing, no one else could taste the sweetness brought by this grain of white sugar, not even the most talented innate martial arts master.

Ding Yi carried a one-ton iron hammer and strode across the courtyard, only to find that the Wallfacer, who usually chatted with him, did not come out to greet him this time.

"Huh? Kiyoko, where are you? What have you been doing?"

Ding Yi, wielding a giant hammer, stormed into the meditation chamber.

He had assumed the Wallfacer wasn't there, but to his surprise, Luo Qing was standing there quietly. Luo Qing was facing a wall made of white jade, seemingly unaware of Ding Yi's intrusion, his gaze distant, lost in thought.

Ding Yi gently placed the giant hammer in his hand onto the prayer mat.

The crisp sound of the giant hammer awakened Luo Qing.

"Hmm, Ding Yi, what brings you here?"

Luo Qing then slowly turned around, and his gaze immediately fell on the hammer on the prayer mat.

"What a huge hammer! What's it for?"

Ding Yi was no longer as excited as when he first arrived. He cautiously asked Luo Qing, "Did I disturb your thinking?"

Luo Qing shook his head: "No, I had already thought everything through clearly during my seclusion. I was just reviewing what had happened."

Ding Yi hesitated and said, "But you don't look as relaxed as you said. Has something happened?"

Luo Qing nodded, picked up a futon and sat down opposite the hammer, and Ding Yi also found a place to sit down.

"Yes, there are some things."

"Can I tell you?" Ding Yi asked.

“Since Zhizi has left the solar system, what can’t be said?” Luo Qing smiled. “Actually, it’s not a big deal. It’s just that my other clone, the evil Qing clone that cut off all my childish desires, has unexpectedly lost contact.”

"Another one lost contact?" Ding Yi hesitated. "According to you, the quantum entanglement between you and your clone has been severed. Is it another four-dimensional space?"

Luo Qing nodded: "It's a fragment of four-dimensional space."

Ding Yi was somewhat surprised: "How could this be? Where did this clone disappear from? Was it also near the Giant Ring?"

“This time it’s not.” Luo Qing said helplessly, “E Qing disappeared when he was 8000 astronomical units away from the solar system, inside the Oort cloud. The connection between us was severed by different spatial dimensions.”

"Within the Oort Cloud?" Ding Yi frowned deeply. "How could a four-dimensional space appear within the Oort Cloud? This doesn't make sense. According to current theories of higher-dimensional space, a four-dimensional space can only exist with the continuous energy supply of the giant ring. Once it leaves the giant ring, it will evaporate rapidly... How could there be a wild four-dimensional space within the Oort Cloud?"

Luo Qing sighed, "This is also a question I'm thinking about. I realize that there seems to be a gap in my understanding of this universe."

Ding Yi pressed on, asking, "Why did you send your clone so far away?"

Luo Qing explained, "The primary purpose of this clone was to intercept the First Fleet and rescue Yun Tianming. Its secondary purpose was to deter the Trisolaran system and force the Trisolaran civilization to retreat. I expected that it might suffer a major setback at the hands of the Trisolaran civilization, but I did not expect that it would lose contact with the First Fleet without even seeing its face."

"Didn't you tell E Qing about the fragments of the fourth dimension?"

"I did tell you," Luo Qing sighed softly. "But as I just said, this clone is a being from which I severed my childish evil thoughts. It is extremely playful, especially after it was out of my control. Now that the emperor is far away, no one can control it. When it saw the spatial bubble that appeared near the fourth dimension, it rushed in without my advice."

"The point isn't that your clone is disobedient, but that a four-dimensional space will appear inside the Oort Cloud." Ding Yi stood up and paced back and forth in the room.

Luo Qing said, "This is indeed a very strange thing."

"No, no, no, Lao Luo, you've probably been misled by me." Ding Yi's expression was not good. "We may have been fooled by the Devouring Empire. The fourth dimension may be widespread in this universe, rather than being created by the Devouring Empire."

Luo Qing asked, "But didn't you say that four-dimensional space requires a large amount of energy to ensure it doesn't evaporate and disappear?"

Ding Yi waved his hand: "No, there is another possibility. If a four-dimensional space is ridiculously large, then it can withstand a long period of evaporation and continue to exist. I'm afraid that's the truth."

Luo Qing: "Then...why does such a large four-dimensional space exist?"

Ding Yi looked at Luo Qing: "Perhaps I should be the one asking you this question. You should have the answer, after all, you've spoken with the risk-reliever at the Altar of Truth."

Ding Yi sat back down on the straw mat. He picked up the hammer and stroked the handle as if he were petting a kitten, but his eyes remained fixed on Luo Qing without blinking.

Luo Qing: “…”

Luo Qing smiled wryly: "I did obtain some of the truth about this world through the Risk Remover, such as the origin of the universe, but I truly know nothing about higher dimensions. You see, the structure of four-dimensional space and higher-dimensional space has always existed only as a mathematical concept. Therefore, no scientist who went to seek the truth ever asked about higher dimensions, and I never did either. I obtained a brief history of the universe through the Risk Remover and learned about the changes after the birth of the universe, but the Risk Remover is very sensitive. When he told the brief history of the universe, the background was directly set in three-dimensional universe space, and he did not actively mention higher dimensions to me."

“So that’s how it is.” Ding Yi sighed. “No matter what, I made an empirical error by not assuming the existence of other four-dimensional spaces. Half of the responsibility for the loss of contact with Eqing lies with me.”

Luo Qing said, "You don't need to take the blame. It was my own fault for not being fully prepared. When I was traversing the giant ring with the expeditionary fleet, I actually connected with Shan Qing's soul and synchronized his memories. In his memories, the Devouring Empire's four-dimensional space was indeed able to exist only because the Devouring Empire was constantly supplying it with energy, which reinforced my stereotype. Not only you, but I also didn't expect that a four-dimensional space could exist."

Ding Yi sighed and held the hammer without saying a word.

The two were silent for a while.

The two looked at each other.

The two continued in silence.

Finally, Luo Qing broke the silence:

"After Eqing disappeared, I twisted my divine sense into a thread and then flung this thread of divine sense directly toward the location where Eqing disappeared at the speed of light. A month later, my divine sense arrived at the location where Eqing disappeared. Then I began to scan that area of ​​air repeatedly and finally found the spatial bubble that was suspected to have caused Eqing's disappearance. These spatial bubbles should be the entrances to those four-dimensional spaces. I directly probed into them with my divine sense."

Ding Yi asked, "And then?"

Luo Qing gave a vivid answer: "Divine sense is like a thin shadow, repeatedly sweeping across a three-dimensional room. My divine sense can barely make out the outline of the room, but knows nothing about its internal structure and space."

Ding Yi's expression was not good: "That's right. They are a higher spatial dimension. Assuming that a two-dimensional Luo Qing's two-dimensional divine sense is released, it is definitely unable to detect us in three dimensions. It can only extend infinitely on the plane."

"I realized this too, and then I came up with some solutions," Luo Qing added.

"As I explored that four-dimensional spatial structure, I gradually found some patterns. I combined them with the mathematical theory of four-dimensional space and tried my best to weave my extended divine thoughts into a four-dimensional structure, giving it some characteristics of four-dimensional space... It took me almost two months to form a four-dimensional divine thought hypersphere."

After I fully comprehended the four-dimensional divine sense hypersphere, I discovered that it could extend at ten times the speed of light. Taking advantage of this, I began searching for Evil Purity again. The divine sense composed of the hypersphere rolled around in that four-dimensional space… Then I vaguely sensed a ring-like structure, like a ring, but the next moment, my divine sense completely broke off.”

"Did it disconnect again?"

"Yes... In my perception, the entire four-dimensional space disappeared, as if it had fallen into the void. Since then, I have never been able to find any trace of Evil Qing."

"The more I listen to this universe, the deeper the water seems to become..."

Ding Yi carefully digested the information, and once he began to imagine the vast spatial dimensions of that four-dimensional world, he suddenly felt that his new hammer was no longer appealing.

Luo Qing then expressed his confusion about the hammer: "Ding Yi, what is this hammer of yours?"

Ding Yi forced a smile: "You should still remember Shan Qing's White Fish Sword, a sword made of material with a white dwarf star structure."

Luo Qing said, "I remember, but your hammer doesn't look like that. Its quality is normal."

Ding Yi brandished the hammer with one hand and said, "This is the charm of technology. The surface of this hammer is composed of a dense atomic structure that breaks through electron degeneracy pressure, with only one layer of atoms. Inside the hammer is a force field generator, which is the foundation for maintaining the dense atomic structure. This technology originated from the molecular-level force field generator given to us by the Trisolaran civilization, but I deduced it to the atomic level using the Grand Unified Theory of the Universe."

Inside, there is also a small, controlled nuclear fusion engine that powers the field generator, requiring the input of nuclear fuel at regular intervals via the position of the hammer handle. Its surface is absolutely smooth, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, it should be the hardest material currently known to humankind.

"I originally wanted to create a dense atomic nucleus structure to break through the neutron degeneracy pressure of a neutron star hammer, but that's not feasible. The current technology isn't up to par. I need more time to refine the force field manipulation technology. Currently, this hammer is very sturdy and can destroy any known man-made material, but it still can't withstand a nuclear bomb; the force of a nuclear explosion can overcome the internal force field."

Luo Qing pulled out a sword from somewhere.

"You take the hammer, I'll take the sword, let's practice together."

After saying that, Luo Qing unleashed the aura of a Nascent Soul cultivator at the Great Perfection stage.

Ding Yi also unleashed the aura of a Grandmaster of the Innate Realm.

Then Ding Yi immediately wilted.

"Forget it, let's call it a day... This hammer of mine is unique. My next step is to research the technology to miniaturize this hammer and see if it can be extended to space warships. The current warship hulls are too brittle; they can't even withstand some meteorites."

As he spoke, Ding Yi swung the hammer once more. With the blessing of a Grandmaster of the Innate Realm, the hammer even generated a sonic boom.

"But this hammer can definitely withstand meteorites. If the outer shells of future warships are made of hammers like mine, then humanity can basically eliminate the trouble of space meteorites."

"come on!"

Luo Qing's mind wasn't on Ding Yi's seemingly amazing hammer; he was simply filled with anxiety about the future.

Good Qing is dead, E Qing has disappeared, what does the future hold...?

What Luo Qing didn't know was that while he was talking to Ding Yi, the Carbon-Based Federation's interstellar fleet had completed its fifth space jump and reached the edge of the second spiral arm.

Because the distance between the second and first spiral arms is thousands of light-years, and the number of stars within those thousands of light-years is extremely sparse, barely forming a "single-plank bridge" of a few dozen stars, the Galactic Carbon-Based Federation fleet will be stuck in a long queue. However, once this slowest part of the journey is over, one million galactic-class warships will quickly rush into the central region of the first spiral arm to carry out the isolation mission of destroying stars.

Interestingly, as the Milky Way's carbon-based Federation fleet headed towards the central region of the first spiral arm, a beam of neutrinos, launched from the Devouring Ring and traveling a light-year, entered a high-dimensional space anchor point. This beam was then instantly excited to eight-dimensional spacetime velocity, traversing the entire Milky Way in a flash, reaching the other side of the galaxy, specifically the region of the fifth spiral arm.

A god-level entity residing in the Milky Way received this "distress" message from the Devouring Giant Ring. It wanted to leave, but was completely blocked by another god-level entity that sealed off the higher-dimensional space lines.

If you want to leave, you must first resign.

He glanced at the perfect star representing his own piece and couldn't bear to "place" it, as placing it would mean letting his perfect star fall into the massive black hole nearby. So he decided to continue the game of moves.

[I won't give up. I'll eat your pieces before I leave. It won't take many time particles anyway... I hope my little ring can hold on.]

(End of this chapter)