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

Chapter 443 The Death of Luo Qing (4k)

Deadline?
A dead line with a diameter of 10,000 kilometers? The thickness of the Earth?
Luo Ji almost thought the federal government chairman was telling a fairy tale, and repeatedly confirmed on the phone that the other party had not used the wrong unit.

The concept of the 'death line' was only introduced to humanity by the Carbon-based Commander during the Carbon-based Federation's visit to Earth. The death line is a unique phenomenon produced by high-powered warp drives. For example, some advanced civilizations' light-speed warp drives can produce death lines with diameters of thousands of meters. A death line of this scale would take hundreds of thousands of years to diffuse into slow fog.

Generating a dead line with a diameter of kilometers would require an extremely powerful warp drive, something the Trisolaran Second Fleet could not achieve.

A scale of 10,000 kilometers is too exaggerated.

Furthermore, the government suspects that Luo Qing is trapped on the death line?
Luo Ji gently touched his waist, and a delicately crafted jade talisman immediately flew out from the storage bag that Luo Qing had refined and given to him, its entire body radiating a lustrous glow.

Communication jade talisman.

There is a faint flow of higher-dimensional energy inside.

This was one of the things Luo Qing specifically gave to Luo Ji before he left.

Luo Qing told Luo Ji that if Earth encountered any enemy that its formations could not handle, such as the possible appearance of silicon-based imperial warships, he should immediately use spiritual power to irrigate the jade talisman. He would then immediately send Li Bai back to Earth, and he himself would return immediately.

The communication jade talisman contains a communication array personally carved by Li Bai, which can generate an eleven-dimensional neutrino beam and direct it to Luo Qing's hand, establishing a short-term, delay-free communication channel.

—That is to say, when Luo Qing left, Zhizi Technology had not yet been developed; otherwise, carrying Zhizi might have been more convenient than the communication jade talisman.

"Should we make a call and ask?" Luo Ji hesitated.

Luo Qing only left three similar communication jade talismans for it; they were disposable and extremely precious.

'The deadline is indeed a big deal. It would be good to ask him what's going on, otherwise it's really hard to feel at ease... Speaking of which, how could there be such a large-scale deadline?' Luo Ji had a thought and poured his spiritual power into the jade talisman.

The jade talisman gleamed with a lustrous sheen.

"It's done." Upon seeing this, Luo Ji immediately held the jade talisman close to his ear.

The jade talisman did not produce any sound.

"No response?" Luo Ji was startled.

He observed carefully and found that the jade talisman in front of him was still glowing, which was different from Luo Qing's description. Under normal circumstances, the jade talisman would only flash once, not stay lit all the time.

The continuously glowing jade talisman gave Luo Ji an absurd illusion, reminding him of his experience making phone calls two hundred years ago—the phone would stay lit up as long as the call couldn't go through.

"Calling?" Luo Ji sensed that things might be in serious trouble.

Eleven-dimensional communication is arguably the fastest signal in the universe. Even the expanding boundary of the universe should have been connected by now. How come this jade talisman is still lit up?

Seriously...did he fall into the death line?
Luo Ji then took out a white jade pendant from his storage space.
[Luo Qing's Destiny Tablet]

This life tablet was also given to Luo Ji by Luo Qing. Luo Qing said that if the life tablet was intact, it meant that he was still alive. If the life tablet suddenly broke, it meant that he was alive.

—Don't hesitate, stuff all of humanity into the Mercury bubble in the shortest time, then start the Mercury engine, attach the 'Swiftness Talisman', and wander into outer space.

If the life tablet is broken, it means that Luo Qing is dead.

If that happens, the highest survival rate for all of humanity is to immediately enter a state of wandering.

Seeing that the life tablet was safe and sound, Luo Ji was somewhat relieved, but the speculation about Luo Qing falling into the death line grew stronger.

After waiting for about half an hour, the communication jade talisman still remained in the "calling" state. Luo Ji knew he couldn't just keep waiting like this. He put the jade axe in his pocket, then looked around to make sure no one was there. He summoned the Canghai Sword, soared into the sky at an altitude of ten thousand meters, and flew towards Beijing on his sword.

This deep blue streak of light flew north at Mach 15.

Typical family-owned civilian vehicles only have a speed of Mach 3.

Luo Ji's speed at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment is roughly comparable to that of current mainstream military fighter jets. After all, the atmosphere is not like outer space, and it is very difficult to achieve higher speeds within the atmosphere.

Even at speeds as fast as a super maglev train, which approaches Mach 20, the air in the tunnel is evacuated beforehand to create a vacuum.

Eight minutes later, Luo Ji arrived in Beijing from Yunnan City, then landed in a deserted place, hailed a radish car, and quickly headed to the conference hall.

Luo Ji quickly spotted the little moss staring blankly at the entrance of the lobby.

This 22-year-old, graceful young woman (in bold) is standing guard at the entrance of the building, engaging in the human-like act of blanking out her mind, standing there expressionless, like a lifelike robot.

After all, it's a human body; no matter how much the 'soul' is a robot, it's still just a mortal being.

Luo Ji now suspects that the little moss has actually split from the facts of MOSS.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you with Tu Gong?" Luo Ji asked.

As far as Luo Ji knew, ever since Tu Hengyu massacred the remnants of ETO and was stopped by Luo Ji from assassinating Einstein, Tu Hengyu had fallen into a state of depression similar to Hines. Little Moss volunteered to take care of Tu Hengyu's life.

After being called out by Luo Ji, Little Moss reacted with an "Ah!" She smiled and explained, "Father recently went to Dahuan to research four-dimensional quantum computers. He's already immersed in his work."

Luo Ji understood.

Currently, humans have built several small four-dimensional spaces in space as technological research bases. The largest of these four-dimensional spaces is located in the central position of the large ring star, with a diameter of about twelve kilometers. It is continuously powered by heavy nuclear fusion technology to maintain the existence of four-dimensional space debris.

Human scientists and dinosaur scientists have already entered this four-dimensional space through the warp point. With the help of dinosaur scientists, human beings have made rapid progress in mastering four-dimensional space technology.

Research on technologies in higher-dimensional spaces has also made great strides.

Luo Ji nodded: "So what are you doing staying here...?"

Little moss: "Waiting for you."

"You've really had a hard time." Luo Ji took out two White Rabbit milk candies from his pocket and tossed them to Little Moss as if coaxing a child.

Little Moss took it with a serious expression, then, seeing that no one was around, secretly opened it and put it in her mouth.

Bribing artificial intelligence? Interesting. No wonder he's a Wallfacer.

They keep doing things that are hard to understand.

Following the little moss, Luo Ji quickly entered the West Hall.

There weren't many people inside; politicians made up a minority, including representatives from various countries and federal officials, but most were senior experts in cutting-edge physics. In addition, there were some relevant technical leaders. Ding Yi sat at the very back of the crowd.

These people had clearly been discussing this for a long time before Luo Ji arrived.

When Luo Ji arrived, a high-ranking official from his own country quickly pulled him to a seat. There was no time for pleasantries or feigned politeness; everyone was already acquainted. The director of the Sophon Technology Research Lab, who had first discovered the deadline, stood up and explained the current situation to Luo Ji.

"Dr. Luo Ji, you've finally arrived. To make a long story short, the dead line that Zhi Zi discovered is 10,000 kilometers in diameter, and the slow fog zone within it has spread for about 3000 kilometers. According to our calculations, this dead line should have appeared about a year ago."

Luo Ji asked, "How long is the deadline?"

The director of the Sophon Technology Research Laboratory gave a wry smile: "This is the most frightening part. Sophon has been flying along the dead line for about 17 hours, but it still hasn't reached the end. This means that the length of the dead line has exceeded 18 billion kilometers, and it is estimated to be far longer than that."

A member of the National Academy of Engineering added: "Because the dead line is located outside the light cone from Earth's perspective, we currently cannot detect its existence in any way except through the Sophons. However, we have consulted the Risk Eliminator Sensor, who said that a dead line of this level is beyond the capabilities of the Trisolaran world..."

Luo Ji nodded.

The Trisolaran world certainly couldn't do that. The deadline generated by the Second Fleet's warp drives was only a dozen meters wide and would evaporate into slow-moving fog within a millisecond. A deadline with a diameter of ten thousand kilometers was beyond human imagination of the limits of technology.

"Dr. Luo Ji, do you think this death line was created by the Carbon-Based Federation? Is its purpose to stop the war between Earth and the Trisolaran world?" a federation official asked.

Without prior agreement, everyone associated the appearance of the death line with the Carbon-Based Federation. In the existing knowledge of mankind, only a civilization of the level of the Carbon-Based Federation could create such a huge death line.

Placing a dead end between Earth and Trisolarans could indeed prevent a war between the two civilizations.

This is equivalent to having an insurmountable mountain between yourself and your neighbor across the hall, leaving you with no choice but to take a detour.

It's no wonder they think that way.

The most pressing issue for humanity right now is that Earth has no means of contacting the Carbon-Based Federation to verify this information. The Carbon-Based Federation's warships can travel two hundred light-years at a time, making all of humanity's communication technologies pale in comparison.

The neutrino signal beam isn't even as fast as some warships; how the hell are we supposed to communicate?
Luo Ji could only reply, "I don't know either, but I think if we really want to completely eliminate the war between humanity and the Trisolarans, the Carbon-Based Federation has many ways, and it shouldn't use a method like the Deadline, which is extremely polluting to space."

Ultimately, it's because the Carbon-Based Federation didn't pay much attention to the conflict between Earth and the Trisolaran civilization, which were considered to be of low caliber. Luo Ji didn't think the war between Earth and Trisolaran was worth the Carbon-Based Federation's considerable effort.

An astrophysicist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences lamented: "What did I tell you? This is unlikely to be something the carbon-based federation did. You know, a death line of this scale that has been spreading for tens of millions of years could swallow the entire solar system and cause endless trouble."

The Deadline is only two light-years away from the solar system. Over tens of millions of years, the slow-moving fog from the Deadline could indeed spread to the solar system, turning it into an insurmountable low-light-speed black hole.

"It's too early to worry about things that are tens of millions of years in the future. The issues we should be discussing are why the death line occurred and whether Luo Qing's current situation is safe," said a local official.

The director of the Zhizi Technology Research Lab asked, "Dr. Luo Ji, we would like to formally consult you on a question related to cultivation: Could this scale of death lines have been created by Luo Qing?"

Luo Ji shook his head: "Impossible."

Luo Qing definitely doesn't have that ability, but Li Bai, who's by his side, might.

But Li Bai had no reason to create such a dead end. Wasn't this guy completely captivated by Luo Qing's cultivation background?

Ding Yi, who was in the corner, suddenly spoke up: "It's obvious to anyone with eyes that this isn't the style of cultivating immortality. What's the point of asking these questions?"

"Dr. Ding Yi, what do you think is going on?" the director of the Sophon Technology Research Laboratory asked, turning his head.

Ding Yi said, "To shrink the curvature of space to infinity, only the Carbon-based Federation and god-level civilizations like the Risk Removers can do this. But no matter which one it is, it has nothing to do with the Trisolarans or cultivators. I think it's the work of a hostile god."

Upon hearing this, everyone present changed their expressions.

"How could there be hostile gods? What virtue or ability do we humans possess to provoke them?"

Ding Yi snorted: "Who knows? You can see from Li Bai and the Risk Taker that the gods in the universe are all fervent pursuers of philosophy. They might fight each other over some vague and ethereal idea."

Those who can reach this position naturally know that, including Li Bai, the so-called god is an abbreviation for a god-level civilization individual, and has nothing to do with the gods in Earth's religions. But precisely because of this, the existence of such a technology that makes gods even more frightening to humanity.

Ignorance is bliss, but it is precisely because people know what these gods are that they are even more frightening.

Ding Yi's words clearly made the atmosphere in the room somewhat tense.

Luo Ji broke the silence and asked the director, "Where exactly is this deadline located?"

A temporary holographic star map appeared in the venue, with a jet-black line appearing right in the middle of the solar system and the Trisolaran system. The black line on Earth's side was clearly visible, while the black line on the Trisolaran side was still extending.

The director of the Sophon Technology Research Laboratory said, "The two Sophons traveled a total of two light-years and a few days, specifically a distance of about 2.031 light-years, before encountering the dead line, which lies between the solar system and the Trisolaran system."

"Right in the middle?"

"Yes, it's located on the shortest path between two galaxies. Our biggest problem right now is that we don't know exactly how long the dead line is."

In the star chart, another dead line continues to slowly extend.

This is actually the trajectory of the sophon's flight path.

It can't fly to the end.

Luo Ji pondered. As a former astronomy expert, he was actually quite sensitive to distances in the universe. The standard distance between Earth and the Trisolaran world was 4.22 light-years.

The sophon traveled 2.031 light-years before encountering the dead line, which suggests that the dead line is actually closer to Earth than the two star systems. However, this is not necessarily the case, as the length of the dead line is currently unknown. If the dead line is long enough, it may be closer to the Trisolaran system.

Assuming the dead line is approximately as close to Earth as it is to the Trisolaran galaxy, then its length should be around 4.22 - 2.031 × 2 = 0.158 light-years.

It is exactly 10,000 astronomical units in length.

But the fact that this dead end lies on the shortest path between Earth and Trisolaris is quite intriguing.

Thinking of this, Luo Ji took out the communication jade talisman from his pocket again.

It is still shining.

Everyone looked at Luo Ji, completely bewildered.

He then took out the fate tablet.

The life tablet appeared in Luo Ji's hand, and then floated up into the air.

"This is..." asked the federal government chairman, who had remained silent until now.

"As long as Luo Qing's life tablet doesn't break, it means Luo Qing is not in mortal danger," Luo Ji explained, which put everyone at ease.

But just as he finished speaking, the life tablet suddenly flashed slightly, and then its surface burst forth with light that seemed to shatter into pieces, before everyone's eyes...

Luo Qing's life tablet exploded.

(End of this chapter)