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

Chapter 347 0.162 meters per Planck time

After receiving all the information about the Devouring Empire's invasion and consumption of the Eridanus system, the commander of this carbon-based civilization immediately understood.

It explained to Luo Qing: "The Pojiang symbiotic civilization was only at level 2C before the invasion of the Devouring Empire. After the invasion, Pojiang was destroyed, but some of the Pojiang people were captured by dinosaurs and abandoned on other planets. After about 60,000 years of development, due to the influence of the terrifying memories of the Devouring Empire, they multiplied and thrived on the surface of a surviving planet, resulting in a technological explosion. Now they have achieved planetary-level symbiosis, can control the atmosphere, and throw individual Pojiang people out of their first cosmic velocity and into planetary orbit. Therefore, they have also passed the 5B test and become a protected civilization."

No wonder the Eridanus star is protected; now I understand.

In any case, knowing that the Pojiang people did not completely perish is something to be happy about.

But Luo Qing hadn't expected the criteria for evaluating 5B civilizations to be so arbitrary.

By influencing the atmosphere to detach itself from it, it achieves a unique entry into space—is that what a 5B-class spacecraft is?
In comparison, Gagarin put in so much effort back then.

Lan explained, "In times of crisis, we have to act quickly. If we were to conduct a detailed assessment, their civilization level would certainly not be that high. But we are in a hurry to measure all the stars in the entire isolation zone, so we can't worry about that too much. We'll just do a random test and that's it."

Lan then turned to the chairman of the United Government and said, "Considering that the silicon-based empire has not yet been completely defeated, I personally suggest that humanity consider rebuilding a military force capable of protecting the solar system to prevent the silicon-based empire from carrying out stellar leapfrogging."

The old man gave a bitter smile: "Humanity can't even defeat a few probes from the Trisolaran world, yet we're going to fight a silicon-based empire?"

Lan said, "No, no, no, a Class 1A civilization invaded a Class 6B civilization and actually managed to hold out for 200 years. The more technologically advanced side even had one of their probes destroyed. That's already a miracle. In any case, building up some defensive capabilities is a good thing for the solar system. The carbon-based Federation fleet will return to the second spiral arm to rest after the isolation zone is completed. At that time, they may not be able to take care of this side."

The old man sighed, "I will do that, but starships will no longer be built. Next, I will have the scientific community focus on the development of warp drive and related technologies such as matter-antimatter annihilation engines."

Lan nodded: "I believe in the potential of humanity, but you shouldn't rely too much on Luo Qing. He's just an ordinary god."

Having gained the ability to fly at the speed of light with his physical body, Luo Qing is already a standard god-level individual, but even god-level individuals have limitations.

No matter how fast Luo Qing is, his flight speed is only the speed of light. If he wanted to cross the entire solar system at that speed, it would take almost a whole day. The combat power of a single Nascent Soul cultivator is not enough to protect the Milky Way.

The vastness of the universe severely limits Luo Qing's combat capabilities. Most of his current conventional attack methods are limited to the speed of light, and spells such as sword control are restricted to below 90% of the speed of light.

Luo Qing also tried to accelerate the flying sword to a speed that was almost as fast as light, but he soon discovered that the amount of mana required to accelerate the flying sword to this near-light speed was terrifying, and even a cultivator in the Tribulation Transcending stage could not withstand it.

The limitations of relativity are still too great.

A cultivator like Luo Qing could play a pivotal role in the Nine Provinces cultivation world, which is ten times the size of Jupiter's surface, but he would still be somewhat inadequate in the universe.

In fact, not only Luo Qing, but even the carbon-based federation whose territory spans most of the Milky Way, all its technological means are based on an architecture where the speed of light cannot be exceeded.

The speed of light is a fundamental law in the universe, and both carbon-based federations and silicon-based empires can only develop under this constraint.

Otherwise, the silicon-based empire wouldn't have come up with the stellar frog leap tactic, which allows them to jump across 200 light-years to launch an invasion.

The joint invasion war between the Andromeda Galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud against the Milky Way took the enemy fleet a billion years to travel, while the entire defense of the Milky Way only lasted twenty million years.

Traveling takes a billion years, fighting takes twenty million years.

After being thoroughly defeated by the God civilization, the invading fleets of the Andromeda and Large Magellanic Clouds were completely annihilated, and they remained peaceful for six billion years.

The speed of light limits the frequency of Dark Forest warfare between galaxies, making it relatively uncommon. The underlying dynamics of the Dark Forest primarily lie within galaxies themselves.

A three-dimensional universe has its own speed of light limitation, a four-dimensional universe has its own speed of light limitation, and higher-dimensional spaces have their own speed of light limitation.

Even if Li Bai could freely travel to any corner of the Milky Way, he wouldn't arrive instantly; he would still be within the limits of the speed of light in his dimension.

Li Bai told Luo Qing that there was once a fellow poet in his group, let's call him Wang Bo (Li Bai gave all his companions corresponding poet names after he came to Earth). Wang Bo once tried to jump to the end of the observable universe, 930 billion light-years away, in order to visit his father.

Wang Bo's leap process lasted approximately 0.000293 femtoseconds.

This seemingly instantaneous speed is actually not infinite.

After Wang Bo arrived at the edge of the observable universe, he apparently lost his footing and fell outside the observable universe. He never returned, and even Li Bai doesn't know where his friend went after leaving the observable universe.

(Note: The observable universe is viewed from the observer's own perspective, not from a fixed Earth perspective.)
In summary, Li Bai's stated standard speed of light in eleven-dimensional space is 0.162 meters per Planck time.

0.162 meters per Planck time.

This speed is the true limit of this universe.

It is comparable to infinity, but it is still not infinite.

Currently, all faster-than-light travel in the macroscopic three-dimensional universe essentially falls into only two categories:
First, high-dimensional light-speed travel in higher-dimensional space is basically a standard feature and exclusive to god-level civilizations, such as the Li Bai clan.

Secondly, they utilize wormholes in space itself. Stellar leaps and small-scale spatial jumps by warships are essentially the same, and are standard features of civilizations at level 10A and above.

Regardless of the configuration, all are subject to the limitation that the speed of light cannot be exceeded. Within a standard space, the speed at which a macroscopic object moves can only be the same as the speed at which a photon travels.

In the case of even faster speeds, it is either a higher-dimensional space or a folded space itself.

True faster-than-light travel does not exist.

Luo Qing, too, despite having mastered the ability to fly at the speed of light, has begun to worry about the future. He really wants to learn Li Bai's technique of hyperspace jump and has already asked Li Bai for advice, but unfortunately, he still seems unable to enter eleven-dimensional space.

The essence of Li Bai's hyperspace jump is to directly transmit the essence of his own information body to the target location through a temporarily constructed eleven-dimensional space.
However, Luo Qing is not quite right. It has a physical existence and is not a pure information body. Even when flying in light, it exists as a ball of photons.

It's even more impossible for Luo Qing to manipulate eleven-dimensional space with his bare hands. His only mastery of higher dimensions is four-dimensional divine thought, which can expand at 10 times the speed of light in a three-dimensional universe.

It's still far from perfect.

Li Bai, the Risk Taker, and Lan successively explained the basic rules of the universe and the limits of technology to Luo Qing, a god-level individual who knew nothing about it. As Luo Qing listened to these great figures, he gradually gave up hope.

Light speed is enough; in the present world, who can outfly him?

(End of this chapter)