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

Chapter 452 The End of Literature (6k)

The affairs of heaven and earth are unknown to the people of this world.

Even though it's so close, less than 50,000 light-years from the solar system, "Shiyun" is still an extremely distant place for humankind.

Despite the Trisolaran fleet's continued approach, poets among humanity tirelessly created those repetitive verses and uploaded them to the internet, hoping to live on with the poet's fame.

In the digital world, life also has its own feelings, and it has stopped creating those trivial words.

From heaven and earth to the past and present, all writings are displayed in those brilliant poetic clouds.

Hell.

Shanqing, the ruler of the underworld, has always been concerned about the state of human death and has marked those who are about to die. But today, Shanqing welcomed a deceased guest who was not among those marked.

This is an old man with white hair and a white beard.

When Shanqing recognized the other person, she was very surprised.

The other party was equally astonished. His eyes were filled with shock as he looked at the Lord of the Underworld. Then he looked around at the Underworld, which was like a fairyland, and saw the dead singing and dancing around the bonfire. He seemed to understand something.

"No, how come you also..." The Lord of the Underworld was about to say something when the old man vanished in a flash, as if he had never existed in the Underworld.

"Huh? Where is everyone?"

Shanqing missed his target. He looked at the Bojiang girl floating beside him, his eyes seeming to ask: You saw it too, didn't you?

The girl from Pojiang held the large spoon and nodded blankly.

"Strange, this is the first time I've seen someone come out of the underworld... Could they be resurrected?"

Shanqing was very puzzled. He inquired about the earth's veins, hoping that the other party could provide an answer.

The earth vein sensed for a moment and then gave an answer: "It's possible that there's a bug in the logic of the underworld. After all, this is a new system and is incompatible with the universe itself. Of course, the most likely possibility is that the old human didn't belong here; he simply left in the form of death."

Shanqing reluctantly accepted this explanation.

But then the ley lines said, "I must remind you that just now, when I was spreading out, an entity that is suspected to be the Heavenly Dao of this universe targeted me. We are outnumbered and outmatched, so you need to be fully prepared."

“What do you mean by ‘thorough preparation’?” Shanqing asked.

Earth Vein: "Try to contact the government in the mortal realm and ask them to leave some seeds for humanity."

Earth Vein: "I feel very unwell."

Earth Vein: "However, it also encountered some problems."

Shan Qing wasn't worried upon hearing this. He explained, "This seed has already been left behind. They are from the starship Earth, which set off seven years ago."

Earth Vein: "In that case, let's not make our existence public. In any case, only that cultivator knows about us in the present world, and he won't talk about it."

Earth Vein: "However, I must hide now. I cannot communicate with that Foundation Establishment cultivator any further, or I will be detected a second time."

The earth's veins: "The more it perceives, the more it understands about us."

...

At this point, Earth indeed became the only hidden danger that the thinkers failed to solve.

Although Luo Qing's attack had rendered him completely powerless, the thinker's subconscious desire to "clear danger" still influenced the KBC bubble.

The edge of this vacuole forms a blurred wall of dark energy consciousness, subtly influencing the cognition of the civilization within the vacuole. The intensity of this influence increases with each layer of the structure of the Laniakea Supercluster, the Virgo Supercluster, and the Milky Way.

Meanwhile, the super-god-level civilizations in outer space that are transforming dark matter and dark energy are unaware that the focus of the universe has already shifted.

The fate of the universe hangs precariously on this speck of blue star, swaying, trembling, drifting, and appearing and disappearing.

However, some gods noticed the anomaly here. Neither the Truth Civilization nor the Cat Civilization participated in the conversion of dark matter and dark energy. Instead, they followed the clue that the thinker's subjective initiative had suddenly disappeared.

Ultimately, a God of Truth and a Cat God, by searching for traces of helium flashes and supernova explosions in stars, found the source of the disappearance of the stars' will and finally appeared in a remote space in the observable universe called the Milky Way.

These two Rule Gods stood outside the clouds of poetry, looking at the literary endpoint woven from dark energy, death lines, and higher-dimensional energy with apprehension.

If it's just a regular deadline, then the God of Truth and the Cat God can naturally...
They tried to break in, but the dark energy intertwined with the death line forced them to be cautious. Moreover, this dark energy and the death line itself were actually a god of rules.

Even though they are very knowledgeable, this is the first time they have seen the existence of a rule that combines dark energy, death line, and high-dimensional energy into one.

This cloud of poetry contained the deaths of at least two Rule Gods, the deaths of more than 1,300 various Energy Gods, and the total amount of dark energy left behind by the universe itself. Its power was so great that the cat couldn't help but bristle.

The God of Truth: "The Death Line will spread into a slow fog, and dark energy will cause space to expand. He uses the Death Line's [infinite curvature] to counteract the [negative pressure effect] of dark energy, and then uses [infinite gravity] to entwine it tightly. He also assists the matrix blocks condensed from the cores of 1325 energy gods to form an infinite cloud of literature, creating an eternally immortal cloud of poetry. Such a God of Rules is unique even in the universe."

"Why don't you go in?" Cat God asked, turning his head.

The God of Truth said: "Truth is infinite, while life is finite. It is not wise to use a finite life to pursue infinite truth. The pursuit of truth should be within the scope of one's ability."

Cat God: "Speak cat language!"

The God of Truth said, "I'm afraid of dying, I won't go in."

Cat God: "Perhaps something momentous happened inside that would make the Thinker somersault. Aren't you curious?"

God of Truth: "Aren't you curious?"

Cat God: "Cats are curious too."

God of Truth: "Then go in."

Cat God: "I can't beat Poetry Cloud God. It seems to be even stronger than the Risk Taker now. I'm not going."

The two gods pushed and shoved each other for a long time, neither willing to go in.

After a while, Du Fu, Gao Shi, Wang Lun, Meng Haoran, He Zhizhang, and Wang Changling appeared.

The six energy gods of the Poetry Civilization were somewhat surprised when they met the two powerful rule gods, the God of Truth and the Cat God.

However, both the Truth Civilization and the Cat Civilization are well-known light-sea civilizations in the universe, and they are not hostile to each other.

God of Truth: "Is it a civilization of poetry?"

The six poets looked at each other for a moment, and finally the Sage of Poetry stepped forward.
Du Fu: "Yes, truth and civilization actually recognize us."

God of Truth: "I once participated with another poet from your race in the siege of the will of the stars, the minions of the thinkers. It delayed the enemy for a long time, but unfortunately it was submerged in the river of stars and sacrificed itself."

Du Fu: "We already know about that clansman's affair. What is the purpose of your visit here with the Cat God?"

The God of Truth pointed to the poem in front of him.

Du Fu, Gao Shi, Wang Lun, Meng Haoran, He Zhizhang, and Wang Changling: "What beautiful poems! The end of literature, the limit of art, alas! It's done!"

The God of Truth and the Cat God exchanged a glance, recognizing each other's lack of understanding and respect.

“It seems that a Poet God has indeed attained enlightenment inside. I have verified this with the Fiber Rules Gods. This place was indeed the battlefield between the Star Will and its minions and several Light Sea Gods. This is a clue to the truth.” After saying this, the God of Truth pondered for a moment and then looked at the poets.

"Do you have a way to contact Shi Yunshen? The communication I initiated—including the supermembrane, longmembrane, mediummembrane, shortmembrane, intermembrane, and frequency-membrane—all failed within the deadline."

The six poets each set out in their own origami sessions, initiating a correspondence with Li Bai, a member of their own clan.

The God of Truth waits patiently.

Soon, the six poets put away their origami sessions and said to the God of Truth, "We were unable to make contact. This is the first time that a poet in our poetic civilization has preached the truth. We lack experience in communicating with the God of Rules."

Gao Shi stepped forward, lightly touching the poem that had captivated it with his own body, and then offered a supplementary answer:
"He's asleep."

The God of Truth said, "Then I will wait here until the God of Poetry wakes up. When we talk to it, we will understand what will happen inside."

The six poets took turns appreciating the poem cloud, and then left in a hurry. They also wanted to wait for their friend to wake up, but unfortunately, they still had their own poems to create.

Only two gods remained on the scene.

Cat God's eyes darted around: "Then you stay here and guard this place, I'm going to find the local God."

The God of Truth asked in confusion, "What do you want with the old man?"

Cat God exclaimed excitedly, "Cat treats!"

...

The Trisolaran crisis was like a fallen leaf, obscuring humanity's vision and turning the world before them into complete darkness, leaving only a faint glimmer of light visible in the corner of their eyes.

Currently, Luo Ji has confirmed the existence of the No. 1 and No. 2 deadlines, the Three-Body Problem black hole, half a mirror, an absolute rigid body, and a regular pentahedron. Although Luo Ji has never revealed the source of the information, humanity has begun to treat Luo Ji's information as fact.

From these messages, humans deduced an important piece of information:
Luo Qing and Li Bai's campaign was not successful, and an unexpected war between the gods broke out. This black swan event directly led the Second Fleet to decide to violate the "Treaty of the Altar of Truth" and choose to gamble everything.

Based on the consequences and threats of the God War, at Luo Ji's suggestion, the federal government began to reassess the possibility of the Wandering Mercury Project and the reconstruction of the Great Ring Engine...

After all, if humans really were to flee, the dinosaurs would certainly flee Earth as well, and Mercury couldn't accommodate so many dinosaurs, so rebuilding the engines of the rings was the best option.

But this is just an idea. Unless faced with a desperate situation, humanity will never abandon its home. The specific decision will have to wait until the electromagnetic waves from the Trisolaran system arrive three years later.

Now, humanity's first interceptor fleet, composed of one hundred new planetary-level warships, is about to make its first contact with the Second Fleet. However, compared to the grand live broadcasts and champagne celebrations held by Earth International and Fleet International before the Doomsday War, humanity is being exceptionally cautious this time, mentally prepared for the complete annihilation of the interceptor fleet.

In addition, a piece of news, not too big or too small, came from Earth.

Einstein has passed away.

Upon receiving this news, Luo Ji was taken aback for a moment, but quickly recovered and sent a message to Zhuang Yan: "Please convey my condolences. I will personally attend to all matters. I am on Jupiter, and the situation at the front is critical, so I cannot return for the time being."

Zhuang Yan's reply was just one word: "Okay".

After a while, Zhuang Yan sent over another picture.

The picture shows Einstein's residence, where a huge crowd of people came to pay their respects. A black and white banner reading "Deepest condolences and heartfelt remembrance of Mr. Einstein" was hung on the gate. Luo Ji even spotted Ding Yi wearing a black tie in the picture.

At Ding Yi's feet, a chubby gray striped tabby cat stood out conspicuously in the crowd.

"Go well."

Luo Ji silently recited in his heart.

Luo Ji composed himself and continued to closely monitor the situation of the frontline interception fleet with the Solar System Command. Currently, the Second Fleet was about two thousand astronomical units away from the Solar System.

The relative distance between the two fleets is less than one billion kilometers.

The solar system command headquarters.

The Solar System Council Chairman said: "Although the interceptor fleet is only a planetary-level warship, its strong interaction force armor, antimatter weapons, and more efficient nuclear fusion engines make its combat power far exceed that of the old star-class warships... I am very curious to know what unimaginable methods the Trisolaran fleet will use to destroy this 'powerful' new fleet."

Commander of the Solar System Fleet, Qian Mengjian: "According to the sophon, the Second Fleet is still gliding at a speed of 0.1C without making any reaction, which is a bad sign."

This is what humanity fears most: when our side intercepts and approaches, the other side makes no response whatsoever. This is the greatest contempt for humanity.

MOSS: "The frontline fleet is under my direct command. All battle preparations are in place at the optimal angle. Based on humanity's prediction of the Trisolaran Second Fleet's technological level, our interceptor fleet is sufficient to pose a certain threat to the Second Fleet."

MOSS said this, but the atmosphere at the command headquarters was clearly not relaxed—the final battle seven years ago had left too deep a shock on these commanders, even casting a shadow over them.

"At least they won't use the warp drive itself as an attack method, otherwise there really wouldn't be any way to fight them," Commander Qian said.

In the simulation, a light-speed spaceship instantly formed a total encirclement and annihilation of the solar system fleet. This simulation result not only terrified the group of fleet's international upstarts, but also silenced the command headquarters of that year for a long time.

The command has essentially made the Dark Forest Theory public, and everyone understands the implied meaning behind Commander Qian's words: due to the exposure of the warp drive trail, the Second Fleet is also unwilling to activate the warp engine at a location too close to the solar system.

MOSS: "The interceptor fleet has been authorized to unleash a barrage of stellar-class hydrogen bombs and electromagnetic cannon shells. These weapons are approaching the Trisolaran Second Fleet at a speed of 0.3C and are expected to hit the Second Fleet's sailing position in 3 hours."

Thanks to advancements in materials science, the maximum speed of electromagnetic railguns has increased from 0.03C to 0.3C. At this speed, electromagnetic railgun projectiles and stellar-class hydrogen bombs, if they were to fall onto the ring, could cause damage to the ring second only to a warship impact.

However, none of the commanders present believed that such an attack would be effective.

"Hopefully, the antimatter hidden inside the electromagnetic railgun shells might bring some surprises to the Second Fleet," said the chairman of the Solar System Congress.

"It would be best if it were effective, but I'm afraid it would be completely ineffective," Commander Qian said.

The political system of the Solar System Fleet adopts a three-track parallel system. The Solar System Fleet Commander, the Chairman of the Solar System Parliament, and the Jupiter Government Administrator jointly lead the fleet, with Commander Qian being responsible for direct combat deployment.

As for Luo Ji, he was present as a special advisor.

"Why don't we just launch a gamma-ray burst attack?" Luo Ji asked the soldiers.

Gamma-ray bursts are also one of the new technologies in human weaponry. Advances in materials science have freed human weaponry from the limitations of power and energy levels. Compared to past gamma-ray lasers, gamma-ray bursts are more like a directed supernova explosion. The energy level within a unit bombardment area is extremely high, enough to destroy the microscopic structure of matter. A continuous gamma-ray laser burst bombardment lasting several seconds is even enough to burn through the strong interaction force field and shatter atomic nuclei into protons and neutrons.

This is also the only weapon that humans currently possess that can destroy materials with strong interaction forces using "brute force." The energy consumption of a gamma-ray burst launch center even exceeds that of the "planetary engines" on the surface of Mercury. It requires a heavy nuclear fusion engine for dedicated power supply, so it can only be deployed on planets and cannot be deployed in space.

In just seven short years, only one such gamma-ray burst has been completed on Neptune, and the gamma-ray burst on Uranus will take at least another six months to be completed.

"The gamma-ray burst weapon will be activated when the kinetic energy strike weapon approaches the Second Fleet. It's too early now, after all, there's only one. It should be used at the most unexpected moment," Commander Qian explained.

Luo Ji: "Sorry, I don't know much about military affairs."

MOSS replied with great tact: "Dr. Luo Ji, you can express your views on the war without worrying about interfering with the command. On the contrary, through your perspective as a non-professional, we can better understand the overall battlefield situation—after all, formations are the main force in destroying the Second Fleet."

Luo Ji nodded.

Due to the inherently lengthy nature of interstellar warfare, as the dense barrage of electromagnetic cannon shells was being fired in the distance, the members of the command headquarters unconsciously began discussing other matters.

"Dr. Luo Ji, I heard that you discussed Luo Qing's situation with the Chairman of Earth and the Federation, as well as with Earth International. How is he doing?"

Luo Ji then delivered the prepared explanation.

"Luo Qing is temporarily trapped in the dead end. With his cultivation level, he can ignore the space where the speed of light is zero. However, it will not be easy for him to get out. We will not see him for the next hundred years."

Of course, Luo Qing wasn't on the list of those who died, and Luo Ji knew this in his heart, but unfortunately, that was all he could say.

"Two dead lines, a black hole appearing out of nowhere, the three bodies becoming four... these things are indeed too fantastical." A general shook his head and sighed.

"We can be fairly certain that a god-level civilization is at war near Trisolaris. Li Bai and Luo Qing are on one side, and the enemy could be that mirror, or something else," another general said.

Two hours passed quickly, and the time had come to a crucial point.

"Gamma-ray burst, unleash!" Commander Qian gave the order.

On Neptune, streams of light surged forth.

In a very short time, the technological brilliance represented by the gamma-ray burst even briefly suppressed the array's light pillars.

"They're not even trying to intercept us? Are the Second Fleet really going to ignore all our attacks?"

"Let's wait and see. The antimatter hidden in the electromagnetic projectiles can penetrate them."

...

Forty-five minutes later, the electromagnetic railgun, the star system hydrogen bomb, and the gamma-ray burst arrived at the Trisolaran Second Fleet almost simultaneously.

Then, a scene that sent chills down everyone's spines appeared.

The extremely strong force field completely enveloped the entire Trisolaran fleet, and all kinetic energy attacks were slowly deflected by this force field that had spread for millions of kilometers!

All missed the target!

Only the light-speed gamma-ray burst, the blind field, was deeply imprinted on the Trisolaran fleet.

Boom, boom, boom!
The warships of the Trisolaran Second Fleet glowed a uniform red light, directly confronting the torrent of gamma-ray bursts.

Three minutes later, the gamma-ray burst was completely exhausted, and the Trisolaran fleet was undamaged.

"The kinetic weapon missed its target, the antimatter embedded in the electromagnetic projectile failed to hit the enemy, and the gamma-ray burst successfully hit the enemy, but failed to cause effective damage!"

"Achieving a hit is an improvement. It seems that the next kinetic energy weapon should be designed to match the speed of light. Weapons like stellar-level hydrogen bombs are too easy to intercept and their power is not that great."

"We are already developing a sub-light speed electromagnetic gun with a kinetic energy level of 7, but the Second Fleet just didn't give us that much time."

"Turn the interceptor fleet around now."

At that moment, the situation suddenly changed. The entire command saw that the hundred unmanned planetary warships that made up the interception fleet transmitted distorted images for only a few milliseconds before exploding violently and being twisted into pretzel shapes by the invisible waves of space.

One hundred planetary-level warships followed in the footsteps of the Trisolaran "Redemption Day" spaceship.

Throughout the entire operation, all of the interceptor fleet's detection systems failed to react, and the commanders of the Solar System Fleet Command did not even know what had attacked the interceptor fleet.

Keep in mind that the interceptor fleet was spread out very far! The average distance between the warships was almost the size of an entire Earth.

"It is a research direction of four-dimensional space lines and four-dimensional fragments. This technology is not the focus of human research on four-dimensional fragments, but it seems that the Trisolarans have completed the weaponization of four-dimensional space lines."

MOSS analyzed the correct information in a very short time—humans could also deduce this information by clearly detecting the birth of the warp point, but not as quickly as MOSS.

"Excellent! I can understand what four-dimensional space lines are, which means we can understand the weapon technology used by the Trisolaran fleet. This is a huge step forward." Commander Qian clenched his fist.

These words weren't meant to be sarcastic. Compared to how clueless we were about water droplets back then, nowadays, when faced with the bizarre explosions of a hundred interceptor ships, humanity can at least correctly analyze the principles of the weapons used by the other side—the war theory between the two sides is no longer about monkeys versus spaceships, but rather the era of Type 59 tanks versus next-generation tanks.

Even the most powerful tanks have finally fallen within the realm of human understanding.

This encounter lasted approximately 752 hours of travel, with the human attack lasting three hours and the most crucial moment of combat lasting about 4.5 seconds.

Thus, the first clash between the Solar System Fleet and the Trisolaran Second Fleet ended with the Trisolaran Second Fleet remaining intact while the interceptor fleet was completely annihilated.

The command's morale wasn't low, given the considerable intelligence gathered from the probe. Firstly, a powerful force field existed near the Trisolaran Second Fleet, capable of evading kinetic energy attacks below the speed of light. Secondly, four-dimensional space lines were one of the Second Fleet's attack methods, capable of directly impacting space approximately 6 million kilometers away.

Based on the combat strength comparison just shown, the new solar system fleet is no match for the second fleet.

The command distributed the latest analysis of the Second Fleet to the entire army, and then gave a copy to Luo Ji. They then looked at the wallfacer with hopeful eyes.

The chairman of the solar system council asked a question:

"Dr. Luo Ji, do you have any ideas?"

(End of this chapter)