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

Chapter 467 The Matchmaker Who Reaches the Heavens! (5k)

2221 AD.

Humans lived a very comfortable life during this period.

Life is getting better and better.

Externally, the Trisolaran crisis was completely averted; internally, the federal government was thriving. Without the shadow of the Trisolaran crisis, the cultural exchange between the dinosaur and mushroom species sparked a new Renaissance, and Earth's culture flourished, continuously injecting vital spiritual vitality into human society.

Similarly, since the lifting of the Sophon blockade in Crisis Era 200 (2207 AD), humanity has been racing ahead in a technological explosion for fourteen years, including the Trisolaran technology initiation and the capture of a light-speed spaceship, with technological explosions continuing to occur.

Not to mention the ultimate theories gleaned from the sensors of the risk mitigator that correct the direction of technological development, and even the white hole, a 'carbon-based billion-dollar subsidy,' lying in the Oort cloud waiting for humans to harvest it at will.

A cultural renaissance, a technological explosion, enlightenment from above, and unlimited resources below.

The future of humanity is beyond the reach of the Trisolarans in the eternal night, four light-years away, whose eyes cannot be opened.

The Trisolarans often huddled around a campfire in the darkness, gazing towards Earth, and, enveloped in the cold, fantasized about what kind of paradise it was.

Are humans asleep?
We were so cold we couldn't sleep.

Whether the Trisolarans can fall asleep is not a concern for humanity. What humanity is thinking about is how to keep the Trisolaran civilization asleep forever. At least Commander-in-Chief Qian has already begun to consider how to carry out the "Dark Forest Strike" on the Trisolaran system after the light-speed spaceship is developed.

Humans really can't rest easy until this good neighbor is completely dead.

Aside from the Trisolarans, the only real threat to the solar system is that retirement fleet. The refugee fleet is manageable with force, but those God ships are a problem—the impact of over 20,000 lunar-class ships is far too unpredictable.

The mission of the Seventh Fleet is to find a way to persuade the God Fleet to stay outside the Kuiper Belt, and then have human interstellar ships take these Gods to a designated retirement city.

Refugees or God, these are things that will happen in thirty or forty years. They are still far removed from most ordinary people.

In this new year, everyone is busy with their own things. For example, Luo Ji has been following up on the progress of the "Sunset Project" and witnessed the two Earth ships, "Sunset No. 1" and "Sunset No. 2", successively breaking through the 2900-kilometer mantle layer and entering the Earth's core.

Although the mantle layer has been penetrated, the core layer remains very thick.

The Earth's core is 3480 kilometers thick, with the outer core being about 2200 kilometers thick and the inner core about 1280 kilometers thick. Compared to the solid mantle, the liquid outer core layer caused the Sunset One spacecraft to capsize dramatically. The biomimetic swimming device, resembling a white dwarf starfish, immediately became trapped when it entered the liquid outer core layer. This 'earth fish' that was swimming freely in the solid was directly trapped in the liquid outer core.

The researchers at Project Sunset could only watch helplessly as this expensive spacecraft remained perpetually stuck at the boundary between the mantle and the outer core.

Four months later, the upgraded Sunset II spaceship began to descend, and it took two months to reach the outer core. Although the improved spaceship II had the ability to move freely in the solid mantle and liquid outer core, it still could not escape its fate of being trapped.

Shortly after entering the liquid outer core region, the Sunset II landship was caught in a vortex composed of a high-pressure and high-heat outer core layer. It lost control in the countercurrent and was like a jellyfish caught in an ocean current, spinning wildly in the vortex of high-density and high-pressure matter.

Deep geological experts have named this type of vortex "geothermal flow".

Humans never imagined that the Earth's core region would have a huge ocean current vortex similar to the uneven temperature caused by the convergence of ocean currents. This shows that the temperature in the Earth's core region is not uniform, and the temperature difference of several hundred degrees directly caused the liquid outer core region to form a huge high-density material flow of tens of kilometers.

Under the onslaught of this material flow, the propulsion system of Sunset II became as powerless as a butterfly caught in a storm.

But Sunset II eventually surfaced.

Shortly after Sunset 2 became entangled in the "Ground Current," and all the planned AI-operated self-rescue methods proved ineffective, humanity had prepared for Sunset 2 to suffer the same fate as Sunset 1. However, at this moment, one of the operators, in a "what's the use" mentality, took the Earth Ship 2 and started "drifting" in the "Ground Current," and was eventually thrown out at an incredible angle along the direction of the "Ground Current."

The experience of Sunset II led Shen Yuan, the technical head of the Sunset Project, to re-examine the reliability of remote control and AI programs, and to consider the possibility of human-driven operation.

After all, while the 'earth current vortex' may seem dangerous, it is actually just a slow flow of matter with a speed of less than 20 meters per second. A skilled 'ship's' can easily steer an earth ship out of the earth current. However, compared to that, using a thread called quantum entanglement to remotely control a ship three thousand kilometers away to break out of the earth current is infinitely more difficult.

After the successful return of Sunset II, Sunset III immediately began its research.

Regarding the idea of ​​manned Sunset III, Li Hao, the chief engineer of the Sunset Project, had already spoken to Luo Ji in advance. In fact, it was inevitable that a manned spaceship would be launched sooner or later, since the core goal of this Wallfacer was to pilot the spaceship to the Earth's core.

Li Hao explained: Considering the complex and ever-changing environment deep within the Earth, remote control and AI systems based on quantum entanglement are no longer sufficient for the Earth-based ship to overcome these complex and ever-changing environments; it needs to be piloted by humans.

The Sunset III landship will most likely be designed as a manned landship, which will take about a year—actually, that's already a very fast development speed.

Luo Ji didn't have much of a solution to this, so he could only wait patiently.

Luo Ji had already mentally prepared himself to wait for ten years.

He didn't have Luo Qing's cultivation level, which allowed him to easily dig through Mercury. Although the Golden Core stage was strong, at most, when he exerted his full power, it was only at the level of a small-yield nuclear weapon, which was worlds apart from the Nascent Soul stage.

He had only been cultivating for eight years since he awoke in the year 205 of the Crisis Era.

However, Luo Ji did ask Chief Engineer Li a question: Navigating the Earth-going vessel is extremely dangerous; a slight mistake could trap them in the Earth's core. Who would pilot it?
Li Hao told him not to worry, as their department had its own candidates.

Luo Ji also told them not to rush, and that the safety of the personnel was the top priority—exploring the Earth's core was an unprecedented undertaking. Even the Dragon Ant Federation during the Cretaceous period had never dug through the Earth's core, and humans should be the first Earth civilization to dare to try doing so.

Take it easy.

Aside from occasionally visiting the Sunset Engineering Department, Luo Ji didn't go into seclusion for ten days or half a month at a time like Luo Qing. Instead, he frequently visited his friends.

The two Wallfacer colleagues, along with their old friends who had been bound together since the Common Era by the PDC, all had their own things to do in this new era.

For example, Shi Qiang.

Two years ago, Shi Qiang's younger son, Shi Xiaoming, who was two years older than Shi Qiang, met a woman in her forties at a matchmaking event in the city. He fell in love at first sight, got married quickly, and had a granddaughter for Shi Qiang through traditional marriage and childbirth.

Every time Luo Ji brought two bottles of liquor to Shi Qiang, the other man was either cooking for his granddaughter or playing with her. He had stopped drinking and quit smoking. If it weren't for the fact that Shi Qiang was such an outstanding police officer that the police station couldn't do without him, Shi Qiang would have quit his job.

The two squatted together, Luo Ji talking about his cosmic morality, and Shi Qiang talking about his experience in raising grandchildren. They were completely at odds and couldn't talk about anything, but they could still chat for most of the day each time, which was strange.

Besides Shi Qiang, an ordinary person, Luo Ji also went to see the two Wallfacers. The government science team where Hines was located had recently been busy researching the "Thought Imprint Eraser" to make the thought imprint reversible, and his mental state seemed to be much better than when he was first broken through the wall.

Luo Ji asked, "Can't the imprint of thought be offset?"

Hines replied, “Thought imprints cannot cancel each other out. If a person has completely contradictory thought imprints on him at the same time, it will lead to serious mental disorder. The federal government hopes that my team can completely neutralize the thought imprints. The ‘eraser’ project is essentially surgery on the human brain consciousness—which is technically quite difficult.”

After all, humanity still hasn't fully grasped the mystery of consciousness. I once discussed the impact of the quantum uncertainty principle on human consciousness with Dr. Ding Yi, and he gave me a lot of inspiration… In short, this is a complex task. Could you perhaps talk to the federal government and tell them not to rush us? This is something that's not easy to produce results on.”

Hines looked very tired.

Luo Ji could understand the federal government's urgent need for a "thought stamp eraser".

The current solar system fleet is more concerned with preventing the Dark Forest split than with the Dark Forest attack, to the point that it has had to risk restarting the Belief Center Ideological Imprinting production line. Only after the imprinting is officially rendered harmless can humanity safely use this "Yuri Facility" that can control consciousness. Luo Ji said, "I'll talk to you about it later."

Hines: "Then I'll thank you on behalf of my colleagues. Alas, there's no way around it; there's a difference between Wallfacers and Wallfacers too."

Luo Ji couldn't help but chuckle.

Compared to Hines' side, the life of the other Wallfacer was completely different.

Mercury is too far from Earth, and Luo Ji only visited it once that year. Because in the public eye, Rediaz had already "died" in People's Square in Venezuela, he never appeared in the public eye. Even the people of the Mercury Void only regarded him as an early pioneer of the Mercury Void, a highly respected elder in the Mercury government.

When Luo Ji arrived at the city of the Mercury bubble to visit Radiaz, he unexpectedly discovered that Radiaz was playing chess with an old man.

And this old man... Luo Ji looked somewhat familiar with him.

The memories from his Golden Core stage cultivation quickly reminded him of the other party's identity.

'Is he... the commander of the Asian Fleet?'

Luo Ji frowned.

He was not familiar with the leader of the Asian fleet during the Fleet International era, mainly because he awoke in Crisis Era 205. A few months after his awakening, the Doomsday War broke out, and the once-powerful Fleet International was mostly destroyed by 10 droplets.

Even two of the three fleet commanders were reincarnated: the current commander of the Solar System Fleet, Qian Mengjian; the Jupiter government administrator, Grant; and the chairman of the Solar System Fleet Joint Conference. All three are new generation fleet members who survived the apocalyptic war.

Luo Ji thought that the commander of the Asian Fleet had also been reincarnated—not that he was deliberately cursing him, but that two water droplets had indeed changed their target to the core leadership of Fleet International.

Given the technological capabilities available to humanity at the time, protecting these leaders would have been an incredibly difficult task.

After all, even the European Fleet Commander-in-Chief Vitalis, who had already moved to a bunker 10,000 meters deep, was killed by the droplets that pierced through Europa's crust. These two droplets not only killed the leadership of Fleet International, but also destroyed the large space dock in Jupiter's orbit, directly destroying humanity's starship production line.

Moreover, after the final battle, he had not heard any information about the commander of the Asian fleet. Not only him, but most people also believed that the commanders of the three fleets had all died in battle.

It's astonishing that they're still alive.

How did you do it?
After much thought, Luo Ji could only attribute the cause to Luo Qing. Under the full-scale attack of the Water Drop, only he could forcefully step in to protect people.

"Oh, the Wallfacer who knows how to cultivate immortality has arrived." Radiaz stood up with a smile, prepared a spot for Logic, and then replaced the Chu-Han Contention version of Chinese chess on the table with the Wei-Shu-Wu Three Kingdoms version.

The commander of the Asian Fleet looked at Luo Ji, but for some reason, Luo Ji felt that there was a hint of inexplicable scrutiny in that gaze.
The main thing is that the strange sense of familiarity hasn't diminished.

Luo Ji exchanged a few pleasantries with Rediaz, then politely looked at the commander of the Asian fleet.

The kind old man was also looking him over.

The two shook hands, and Luo Ji could clearly feel that the other person was using some force, which made Luo Ji even more confused.

Rediaz had a good relationship with the old man and seemed to know some inside information, but he just smiled and didn't say anything.

The commander of the Asian Fleet smiled and said, "Dr. Luo Ji, I've long admired your name."

Luo Ji could only say, "Comrade Commander, I really can't believe you actually..."

The commander of the Asian Fleet chimed in: "Still alive, right? Thanks to Professor Tolo Ching, he once gave me a talisman... that talisman blocked the impact of the water droplets."

"So that's how it is." Luo Ji suddenly realized.

The commander of the Asian Fleet nodded: "While you were in hibernation, Luo Qing actually did a lot of work, but he never revealed it... Come, sit down and let's talk."

The three of them were seated.

But Luo Ji was clearly not there to play chess. Looking at the Asian Fleet commander, whose face was aged yet somehow familiar, Luo Ji asked cautiously, "Comrade Commander, have we met somewhere before?"

The commander of the Asian Fleet smiled and said, "Dr. Luo Ji, if I remember correctly, this should be our first meeting."

Luo Ji didn't believe it. He used his divine sense to go through his memories before hibernation and quickly found the face that had flashed by on the television—a face that was 70% similar to the old man in front of him.

During the macro fusion crisis during the ball lightning era, Number Ten gave a speech on live television. Subsequently, Lin Yun accidentally triggered macro fusion, and the chips of both sides were almost completely wiped out, and the macro fusion deterrent was unexpectedly established.

Macro-fusion deterrence replaced nuclear deterrence as the mainstream deterrence strategy after the Cold War—until after Operation Guzheng.

This was big news at the time, so Luo Ji was very impressed with it. The face of that leader was somewhat similar to that of the commander of the Asian Fleet.

But that happened more than two hundred years ago.

After pondering for a long time, Luo Ji asked, "Comrade Commander, I just remembered an old commander from the time of the macro-fusion crisis... Do you remember him?"

The commander of the Asian Fleet was surprised that Luo Ji had connected people and events from two hundred years ago, and his tone seemed to carry a hint of reminiscence: "That was my father."

Luo Ji never expected that this person, who was selected as a navigator at the beginning of the Crisis Era as an ordinary member of the Space Force Staff, drifted alone in the tide of time for more than 200 years, and finally became the Commander-in-Chief of the Asian Fleet in the 190th year of the Crisis Era through his own efforts, and was hailed as the mainstay of the fleet's international era, would actually be related to Number Ten.

Luo Ji knew Number Ten's surname, so he smiled and said, "Then I should call you Commander Zhuang."

The commander of the Asian Fleet waved his hand: "Forget about the commander title, I've already stepped down. If I have any other title, then I am now the captain of the research ship 'Emperor Yan of Ten Thousand Years'. Dr. Luo Ji, if you don't mind, you can call me Captain Zhuang, or just call me by my real name: Zhuang Yu."

Luo Ji had recently reviewed all the Earth data he had collected since his hibernation and learned that the Wan Nian Yan Di and Wan Nian Feng Xue were the first and second planetary warships of mankind, with a history of more than 100 years. He also knew that the commander of the Asian Fleet, as the navigator of the space force, happened to be the captain of the first interstellar warship in human history.

It turns out he retired and went back to his old workplace.

“Then I’ll call you Captain Zhuang,” Luo Ji said with a smile, then paused, pondering the name “Zhuang Yu,” before his expression suddenly froze.

Zhuang Yu?
Zhuang Yu?!

Before hibernation, Zhuang Yan had never mentioned her family to Luo Ji, who had always assumed that his wife was an only child. However, it wasn't until a year ago, after the Trisolaran crisis was completely resolved, that Zhuang Yan revealed some details about her family to Luo Ji during a drunken night. It was only then that Luo Ji learned that Zhuang Yan had an older brother.

And this brother-in-law, whom I've never met before, seems to also be named... Zhuang Yu.

Wait, he married number ten's daughter?
Da Shi, what the hell have you done?!

(End of this chapter)