Brother, just how powerful is our family?

The year 5120 of the Yellow Emperor's reign.

The Orion Arm has become the home of the Yanhuang civilization.

From the inner to the outer sides of the spiral arms, from the direction closest to the galactic center to the edge furthest from it, the footprints of the descendants of Yan and Huang are found in every corner of this vast star field spanning thousands of light-years.

Hundreds of millions of stars, tens of millions of life-bearing planets, and trillions of people—these numbers were unimaginable just a few hundred years ago.

But now, these are realities. They are the mundane realities that every descendant of the Yellow Emperor experiences every day.

A population of 1.5 trillion was still a number that Qin Feng could be proud of when he told his ancestors about the past five thousand years of the Yellow Emperor's era.

But more than a hundred years later, five thousand years later, this number has multiplied several times.

Not just a few times, but dozens of times.

The accurate figures are so poor that even the Executive Yuan's Statistics Bureau doesn't bother to calculate them.

Because new life is born every moment, new planets are developed every moment, and new population statistics are updated every moment.

It's impossible to calculate, and there's no need to calculate it.

Just know one thing: the population of the Yanhuang civilization was growing at an exponential rate.

Six rounds of gene optimization have extended the lifespan of every Chinese citizen to tens of millions of years.

Tens of millions of years, not thirty thousand years.

This is the result of the sixth optimization, the ultimate optimization completed at the edge of the God Realm Black Hole.

After six optimizations, the citizens of Yanhuang can survive in a vacuum, walk on the surface of stars, and move around at the edge of black holes.

Their physical abilities were ten thousand times greater than those of people in the old era.

Their thinking ability is a thousand times greater than that of people in the old era.

Their lifespan is 100,000 times that of humans in the old era.

They are superhumans, gods, and descendants of Yan and Huang.

Everyone is like a dragon.

These four words were merely a beautiful wish, an unattainable dream in the old days.

But it is a reality more than 5,000 years after the Yellow Emperor's era.

Every citizen of Yanhuang possesses the power, wisdom, and lifespan of a dragon.

They can travel in space without spaceships, fight in a vacuum without protective suits, and survive long interstellar voyages without food or water.

They themselves are the spaceship, the weapon, and the carrier of civilization.

The progress of technology is equally astonishing.

Stargate technology has evolved from the initial fixed, gigantic structures requiring massive energy cores to portable personal terminals.

Every Yanhuang citizen's personal terminal contains a miniaturized jump engine.

Simply by entering the coordinates, a personal-scale rift can be opened in an instant, spanning a distance of thousands of light-years.

It's not a warship, it's not a spaceship.

It's a person. A person can travel freely through the starry sky.

This is the highest achievement of the Yanhuang civilization in science and technology, and also the most basic right of every Yanhuang citizen.

The development of warships has reached a new level.

The Avenger-class was once the most powerful warship of the Yanhuang civilization. It was 500 kilometers long and equipped with star-destroying cannons and quantum foam bombs.

But today, the Avenger-class has been retired.

It's not because it's not powerful enough, but because there are more powerful ones.

The new generation of warships is codenamed "Pangu" class, with a total length of 1,200 kilometers, more than twice that of the Revenge class.

Its main weapon is no longer the planet-destroying cannon, but a space-tearing cannon named "Opening the Sky".

The principle of this cannon is similar to that of a stargate, but its power is completely different.

It does not establish a passage between two points, but rather completely tears apart the spatial structure of the target area, causing the entire spatial fragment where the target is located to fall into a higher or lower dimension and be completely erased from three-dimensional space.

No matter, no energy, no shield is meaningful in the face of spatial tearing.

Because what is being attacked is not the matter itself, but the space in which the matter exists.

If space is gone, matter is gone too.

The secondary weapon of the Pangu-class is an upgraded version of the quantum foam bomb.

Unlike the old version, the new quantum foam bomb has an blast radius of hundreds of kilometers and can precisely control the target coordinates.

It's not random teleportation, but targeted teleportation.

Targets covered by bombs will be precisely teleported to pre-set coordinates, such as the interior of a star, the event horizon of a black hole, or the blast radius of another quantum foam bomb.

This weapon, known as the "space trap," was the trump card of the Yanhuang civilization in dealing with powerful enemies.

The Pangu-level defense system employs multiple layers of spatial shields.

It's not an energy shield, nor a force field shield, but a spatial shield.

The essence of a shield is a folded space.

Any attack that hits the shield will be redirected to another direction or another dimension by the folded space.

Traditional weapons, whether projectiles or beams, cannot penetrate this spatial barrier.

Only weapons of the Space Tear Cannon level can pose a threat to the Pangu-class.

By the year 5120 of the Yellow Emperor's era, the Yanhuang civilization had built more than 100,000 Pangu-class warships.

They are distributed among the various node galaxies of the Orion Arm, guarding the territory of the Yanhuang civilization.

Their cannons are always pointed towards the center of the Milky Way. Because there, the unknown lies.

There may be new enemies there.

The vision of the Yanhuang civilization has never lingered on the land it has already acquired.

The Orion Arm, though vast and rich, and having become the home of the Chinese people, is merely a small spiral arm of the Milky Way.

The Milky Way galaxy has a diameter of over 100,000 light-years and contains hundreds of billions of stars.

The Orion Arm is only a small part of it. Beyond the arms, towards the galactic center, lies a much wider field of stars, many more stars, many more life-bearing planets, and many more resources.

And there are those unknown civilizations, unknown enemies, and unknown challenges.

After the destruction of the Qiong Beasts, the Yanhuang civilization learned from their remains and memories a disturbing fact: the Qiong Beasts were not native to the Orion Arm.

They were driven here from the center of the Milky Way by a more powerful civilization.

That civilization was known as the "Sovereign Civilization".

They possess technology far surpassing that of the Qiong Beasts, the ability to modify space and manipulate dimensions, and the absolute power to make the Qiong Beasts submit to them for hundreds of millions of years.

The Rift Technology of the Beasts was bestowed upon them by the Sovereign Civilization.

Without the equipment of the sovereign civilization, the beasts are simply unable to tear through space.

The distress signal sent by the Lord of Calamity before his death flew towards the center of the Milky Way.

It has been flying for hundreds of years.

Based on the speed of propagation in higher dimensions, it should have already arrived.

Perhaps the dominant civilization has already received the signal.

Perhaps they are on their way.

Perhaps they are already on their way.

The civilization of Yanhuang cannot wait.

Being passively attacked has never been in the character of the descendants of Yan and Huang.

Now that we know the enemy might exist, let's go find them.

Go to the center of the Milky Way, to the homeland of the sovereign civilization, and see what kind of being could make creatures like the Kujira Beasts submit to it for hundreds of millions of years.

If they are friends, then be friends.

If it's an enemy—then eliminate the enemy.

Spring, 5120th year of the Yellow Emperor's reign. Kuiper Belt, Superport.

A massive fleet is assembling.

Not a few thousand, not tens of thousands, but a hundred thousand.

One hundred thousand Pangu-class warships are lined up in the berths of the starport, stretching as far as the eye can see.

Their hulls gleamed with a cold metallic sheen under the starlight, their cannons were pointed toward the center of the Milky Way, and their engines were preheated and ready to fire at any moment.

This is the most powerful expeditionary fleet ever dispatched by the Yanhuang civilization.

It is hundreds or thousands of times more powerful than the fleet that expeditioned to the lair of the worms hundreds of years ago.

The fleet's mission is to traverse the vast, dark region between the Orion Arm and the center of the Milky Way, exploring star systems never before set foot in by the descendants of Yan and Huang, in search of traces of the overlord civilization.

Establish contact if possible.

If necessary, wage war.

The fleet's commander-in-chief, whose surname was not Qin.

His surname is Wang, and his name is Wang Yuanzheng.

An ordinary name, an ordinary citizen of the Chinese nation.

But his resume is anything but ordinary.

He participated in the final battle against the Beasts and commanded numerous colonization operations deep within the Orion Arm. He was one of the youngest and most outstanding fleet commanders of the Yanhuang civilization.

Wang Yuanzheng stood on the bridge of the Pangu-001, looking out at the starport.

One hundred thousand Pangu-class ships were lined up neatly, like a steel forest.

In his heart, there was only anticipation. Anticipation of the unknown, anticipation of challenges, anticipation of opening up new territories for the Yanhuang civilization.

"All fleet, final check." His voice echoed across every warship via the quantum communication network.

"Power system is normal."

"Weapon systems are normal."

"Shield system is functioning normally."

"The jump engine is working properly."

"Star map loaded. Target coordinates: Center of the Milky Way, approximately 25,000 light-years away."

"The route has been planned. It will traverse the vast, dark region between the Orion Arm and the galactic center. The warp drive will directly open a rift to the target area. However, considering the unknown risks, we will adopt a segmented jump, stopping to scout every thousand light-years."

Wang Yuanzheng took a deep breath and then gave the order: "All fleet, depart."

One hundred thousand Pangu-class warships simultaneously activated their warp engines.

Space was torn apart, and ten thousand rifts opened up in the void, like ten thousand open eyes.

Inside the fissure, there was a pale blue light, which was energy radiation from a higher dimension.

One warship after another sailed into the crevice and disappeared into the light.

In the observation hall of the starport, countless people watched the fleet depart.

They knew that this fleet carried the hopes of the Yanhuang civilization.

They knew that the fleet was headed to the center of the Milky Way, 25,000 light-years away.

They knew that many of the people in this fleet might never return.

But they also knew that this was the path they had to take.

The fleet leaped through the void.

One leap, a thousand light-years.

Stop the ship, scout, confirm safety, and jump again.

After repeating this process more than ten times, the fleet had moved far away from the Orion Arm and entered the vast, dark region between the Arm and the Galactic Center.

The starry sky here is completely different from that of the Orion Arm.

The stars have become sparser, the nebulae thinner, and the darkness has become purer and deeper.

Occasionally, a lonely star burns in the distance, its light appearing exceptionally faint in the darkness, like a lamp about to go out.

"Report: No anomalies detected 1,000 light-years ahead. Gravitational waves are calm, electromagnetic waves are calm, and space curvature is normal."

"Keep jumping."

The fleet continued forward.

It is getting farther and farther away from the Orion Arm, and closer and closer to the center of the Milky Way.

The points of light on the star chart are moving slowly, like an ant crawling on the map.

But Wang Yuanzheng knew that they were already moving extremely fast.

Each jump covers a thousand light-years, and dozens of jumps cover tens of thousands of light-years.

The distance from the Orion Arm to the Galactic Center is only about twenty or thirty jumps.

After the twentieth jump, the fleet had entered the outer region of the center of the Milky Way.

The star density here is much higher than in the Orion Arm.

The star chart is densely packed with points of light, like a luminous ocean.

In some regions, the distance between stars is only a fraction of a light-year, or even closer.

Navigating in such a region requires extreme caution, as the star's gravitational field can interfere with the accuracy of the jump engine, and a slight misstep could result in jumping into the star's interior.

Wang Yuanzheng ordered a slowdown and the use of shorter jump distances.

Each jump covers 100 light-years, and after each jump, the ship stops to conduct reconnaissance.

It's slower, but it's safer.

Then, they discovered the anomaly.

The sensor array of Pangu-001 detected an unprecedented fluctuation.

It is a kind of higher-dimensional fluctuation that cannot be described by existing theories.

The frequency of the fluctuations is extremely high, the wavelength is extremely short, and the propagation speed far exceeds the speed of light.

It originated from the direction of the center of the Milky Way and spread towards the Orion Arm.

"Analyze the source of the fluctuations," Wang Yuanzheng ordered.

"Analyzing... the source of the fluctuation, towards the center of the Milky Way, approximately 5,000 light-years away. The speed of the fluctuation... cannot be calculated, exceeding the sensor's limit."

"What about its wave-like properties?"

"Unable to determine. It does not belong to any known type of fluctuation. It may be... a spatial dimension fluctuation."

"Spatial dimension fluctuations?" Wang Yuanzheng frowned.

Spatial dimension is a more fundamental physical quantity than spatial curvature.

Spatial curvature is the bending of space, while spatial dimension is the number of dimensions of space.

The universe in which the Yanhuang civilization resides is a three-dimensional space plus a one-dimensional time.

However, if the spatial dimensions change, such as from three dimensions to two dimensions, then the physical laws of the entire universe will be rewritten.

This is an effect that no known weapon could produce. This is the power of God.

"Continue monitoring. Fleet slow down and proceed with caution."

The fleet advanced at a slower pace. For every light-year traveled, a comprehensive reconnaissance and scan was conducted.

The sensor array operates at full power, capturing every possible abnormal signal.

The intensity of the fluctuations is increasing, the frequency is changing, and the source is getting closer.

Three thousand light-years, two thousand light-years, one thousand light-years.

Then they saw it.

About a thousand light-years ahead of the fleet, a change in the void was taking place that could not be described in words.

It's not twisted, not folded, not torn.

It is a more fundamental and thorough change.

The space there is having a dimension removed.

Three-dimensional space has become two-dimensional space, and the three-dimensional world has become a sheet of paper.

The piece of paper was expanding rapidly, spreading towards the fleet at a speed far exceeding the speed of light.

Wang Yuanzheng's pupils suddenly contracted.

His brain was working frantically, searching every word in his memory, trying to find a name for the scene before him.

Then, he remembered.

That is a legendary weapon from ancient science fiction works of the Yanhuang civilization.

A weapon capable of delivering a devastating blow.

An ultimate tool of destruction that exists only in imagination.

His lips trembled, and his voice was hoarse and low, squeezed out from deep in his throat.

"Two-dimensional foil..."

(End of the article)

P.S.: Thank you all for your continued support. This book has disappointed many of you. Love you all, my darlings.