Swallowing the Stars: Analyzing All Things

Barracks base, rest hall.

The rest hall is located in the upper structure of the barracks base and is the place in the entire base closest to "normal life".

There was the warmth of food, the aroma of fine wine, and the laughter of soldiers deliberately letting loose.

The hall is vast enough to accommodate millions of people at the same time. A huge projection screen hangs on the dome high above, showing battle scenes of powerful figures or star maps of the outside universe.

A corner of the restaurant area.

Lin Yan sat in a seat with a steaming drink and half a plate of uneaten food in front of him. Sitting opposite him was Nanxi, and next to him was his taciturn younger brother, Nanshan.

"You mean those freedom fighters..."

Nanxi took a swig of wine. "It's so enviable. I wonder when I'll be able to become a freedom fighter."

"Why don't you finish your military merit quota first!" Lin Yan glanced at him, then turned her gaze to the east side of the restaurant, looking through the glass at the endless "scenic area".

Those were the military bases that provided exclusive residences for freedom fighters, consisting of floating islands ranging in diameter from several kilometers to tens of kilometers.

Some of these islands are covered with dense forests and waterfalls cascading down cliffs, while others are covered with snow-capped mountains, deserts, grasslands, lakes, and volcanic landscapes...

Each island is like a condensed version of a planet.

That was the treatment reserved for freedom fighters, and the vast majority of them were immortal gods. Ordinary servicemen like Lin Yan could only look at them through the glass of the rest hall.

"I--"

Nanxi opened her mouth and took another swig of wine. Completing the military merit quota was not easy, and for space warriors like them, once the military merit quota was completed...

Most of them chose to retire and return to the space nation.

Only those warriors who want to climb the ranks and desperately improve their strength will choose to stay and fight on the extraterritorial battlefield after fulfilling their military merit quota.

Seeing Nanxi drinking alone in silence.

Lin Yan leaned back in his chair, listening to the noisy voices in the hall, and felt the taut string in his mind loosen a few times.

suddenly.

He heard two voices behind him.

Two tables apart sat two realm lords. One was burly with dark red scales covering his skin, while the other had dark gray eyes and two short, thick horns on his forehead.

Neither of them deliberately lowered their voices. World Lords were among the top-tier combatants in service; they didn't need to be polite to everyone, nor were they interested in eavesdropping.

Of course, I have no interest in guarding against others eavesdropping.

"It seems that Feng Lixing has already started ahead of schedule." The Scaled Warrior's voice was rough as he unscrewed a bottle of wine and poured the amber liquid into a glass.

"I've heard about it too."

The gray-eyed warrior tapped his fingers lightly on the table. "It was originally supposed to open in seventeen years, but it seems that something was detected, causing it to open ahead of schedule."

The two spoke in hushed tones. Although the hall was noisy, Lin Yan still caught a few key words: "Feng Li Star," "alien immortal gods," and "arriving from other extraterrestrial battlefields"...

Suddenly, Lin Yan stopped drinking, the gray-eyed warrior's calm voice continuing to ring in his ears, "Our commander has ordered us to withdraw from the outer reaches of the Windfall Starfield. I heard that the 476th Army..."

He didn't continue.

"What happened to the 476th Army?" The armored warrior stopped drinking, and the gray-eyed warrior remained silent for a few seconds before lowering his voice even further.

"They encountered an immortal king from another race, and..."

"completely annihilated."

……

Lin Yan fell silent.

He stared at the amber liquid in his glass, the noise from the lounge filling his ears, but those four words kept replaying in his mind, refusing to leave.

476th Army.

completely annihilated.

Although he wasn't very familiar with this corps, it was a brother corps to his own 477th Army, and they often cooperated in battles together. But suddenly, this corps was gone.

This world has always been so dangerous. The reason he has survived until now is not because of his strength, but simply because he has been lucky.

He was always very close to death.

"What's wrong with you?"

Nanxi sat in front of Lin Yan. Because of the distance and because she was drinking and talking with her younger brother Nanshan, she did not hear the conversation between the two realm lords, but she did notice Lin Yan's unusual behavior.

"It's nothing." Lin Yan stood up. "I'll go back now."

"Hey, you haven't finished your drink yet—"

"I'm not drinking anymore."

He turned and left the lounge.

Behind them, the two realm lords were still talking in hushed tones, their voices swallowed up by the noise in the hall and could no longer be heard.

……

The light in the meditation room is soft.

A faint sandalwood scent filled the air. Lin Yan sat cross-legged, his breathing gradually becoming steady. His thoughts, like the receding tide, receded from his consciousness layer by layer, leaving behind a clear, mirror-like lake of his heart.

hum~

With a thought

His consciousness instantly entered a vast world.

Lanyou Continent, Ningxuan Island.

In this vast virtual universe, the sky is crystal clear, with streaks of light occasionally flashing through the clouds.

On the bustling street, crowds flowed endlessly, and every now and then a figure would appear out of thin air. In one of the luxurious villas, Lin Yan's figure also appeared out of thin air.

"Owner!"

A round, orange shadow sprang up from the sofa with a "whoosh," landed precisely on his shoulder, and skillfully extended a paw to slowly lick its fur.

"Fat Cat, did you find the information I needed?"

Lin Yan reached out and grabbed the cat by the scruff of its neck, then casually tossed it around. The orange cat flew through the air in an arc before landing steadily on the sofa, sinking into a large dent.

This fat cat is his elven assistant.

Its appearance, habits, and even the little act of licking its fur were all designed by him personally, and even the laziness and arrogance of this feline were perfectly replicated.

"Master, we've found it!"

The fat cat rolled over on the sofa, comfortably sprawled out, its eyes narrowed to slits, and its tail swayed leisurely in the air.

next moment.

A light screen suddenly appeared in front of Lin Yan, displaying a dense array of information about the Qianwu Universe Kingdom and the public announcements regarding the past generations of genius battles.

"Is that all?"

Lin Yan's gaze swept over the area, and his slightly furrowed brows relaxed a little.

He did not directly search for information about Earth, because he only needed to investigate the Qianwu Universe Kingdom or the battles of cosmic geniuses throughout history to roughly determine his current timeline.

As he browsed through the information from previous genius competitions, all the names on the list were completely unfamiliar, and there were no familiar figures like Luo Feng or Bo Lan among them.

but.

The last Genius Battle was over four thousand years ago, and the next Genius Battle is less than 1000 years away, and it happens to be hosted by the Virtual Universe Company.

Although the amount of information is not much.

But with enough key information, Lin Yan had determined that his timeline was before Luo Feng's birth, meaning he now had at least 1000 years of buffer time.

A thousand years.

It's neither long nor short.

He knew the original story's direction all too well. If it were Luo Feng's generation 1000 years from now, barring any other unforeseen events, the creator of the giant axe would perish more than 100,000 years later, and humanity would face a catastrophe.

Although Luo Feng ultimately turned the tide, quite a few powerful humans perished during that period. If one's own strength was insufficient, one would still become cannon fodder among cannon fodder.

"Fat Cat, to the killing field!"

"Yes, Master!"

……