Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 984

Fortunately, after leaving the storm area, the Arus twin starships never encountered any fights between extraterrestrial disaster beasts on the subsequent sailing route, and even slightly larger natural disasters did not occur. The entire sailing process was extremely smooth, and soon they left the observable star field in the astronomical sense and began to sail towards the star field unknown to mankind.

Of course, the fast here is just everyone's subjective feeling. In the absence of a specific timekeeping method, no one knows how long it actually takes. Sailing in the universe is monotonous and boring. Perhaps at the beginning, you will be shocked by the magnificent and magnificent scenes that humans on earth cannot imagine, such as meteorites hitting the surface of the planet, countless shining high-energy rays directly igniting the chaotic atmosphere, and the dust covering the sky and the sun extinguishing in an instant after burning, disappearing like fireworks; or in the long night, tens of millions of comets streaking through the darkness, the burning flames gathered together, and the extremely brilliant light curtain almost covered half of the universe...

However, this is a scene that can only be seen in very rare cases. Most of the time, the universe is still vast and desolate. Looking around, there is only a dim sky, desolate planets, and dead star regions filled with meteorite belts, chaotic magnetic fields, and disordered magic flows.

It is rare to see other planets with active traces of life. It seems that Mirror Star is the only planet with life in this universe. But why is the goddess of universal love and selflessness unwilling to give other planets the vitality of life? In this vast, infinite universe that breeds countless miracles, if there is only one planet with life, it will feel lonely, right?

Lingge asked Saint Xia Liya this question. After pondering for a long time, the shepherdess slowly shook her head and gave a classic answer: "I don't know."

"Perhaps it's because Mirror Star is special." After a slight hesitation, she gave another answer that didn't sound like an answer: "As far as I can remember, Mother never mentioned this to us, because not long after He created us, He fell into a long sleep due to fatigue. But I can feel from His few words that He must deeply love the lives on Mirror Star, and feel proud and looking forward to them."

“Isn’t that just preference?” Alice came over and forced her way into their conversation. “Only allowing Mirror Star to breed life, doesn’t that mean it’s a decree? Moreover, since “He” prefers Mirror Star, why did He create so many useless planets to make up this universe? It can’t be just for beauty, right?”

Don't tell me nonsense like "astronomy no longer exists". In a different world where creationism is real, all science is given by God. It is because the goddess created the universe that humans developed astronomy to study the universe and the stars. If the goddess did not create the universe, but a world with a round sky and a flat earth surrounded by a crystal wall, would you still dare to say that the flat earth theory is anti-intellectualism? Young people should seek truth from facts.

She made some insightful remarks, which made Lingge fall into deep thought. Not only the universe, but also the extraterrestrial disaster beasts wandering in the universe, reveal a suspicious atmosphere everywhere. These huge star beasts, which have power but no wisdom, have a huge amount of magic active in their bodies. They are simply mobile sources of magic interference. The meaning of their existence seems to be to wander among the stars, and through their struggles, they bring magic to every corner of the universe. But the question is, without intelligent life, what is the use of magic?
The various celestial bodies in the universe do not seem to need magic to maintain their existence. The only group that can benefit from magic is intelligent life. So perhaps it can be considered that the goddess created magic for these imaginative and creative lives. In this case, why not concentrate the source of magic on Mirror Star, perhaps it can also take the magic civilization of Mirror Star world to a higher level.

Or is it that there are other planets with life in the universe, but Lingge and others have not discovered them yet - for example, have there been any in the past?

Upon closer thought, this seems to be a chilling result.

"Mother must have her own considerations." Saint Shallia said seriously, "Perhaps we cannot see through it for the time being, but that is because of our limited wisdom. It is our own problem, not her negligence."

Ah this!

What a crazy fan... Alice was speechless at the comments of the fanatical fan.

But it didn't matter. She didn't care about the meaning of the universe. She felt that only philosophers who had nothing to do all day would think about such meaningless questions. For example, Lingge was very suitable. As for herself as a pragmatist, she should think about some more practical problems.

"so boring!"

She threw her head back and fell backwards, lying on the metal floor in the middle of the cab, with her arms and legs spread out, looking very unsightly. "It's an interstellar voyage after all, can't there be some interesting developments? For example, there could be another fight between alien disaster beasts, and then Ultraman would come out to fight the little monsters, and we would watch the fun from the side, ready to transform into light at any time; or we could encounter some sloppy aliens who don't wash their hands before or rinse their mouths after eating and are robbing houses, and then we, the righteous interstellar pirates, would help them out when we see injustice."

Almost done.

Linger glared at the golden maid in a warning tone, saying, "Don't look for trouble. Isn't it better to live a simple life? If you are really involved in any troublesome incident, do you think the captain will throw you out first to set an example?"

As if they were in sync, Gloria gave Alice a malicious look at the right time, as if she was considering where to throw her out. After all, Alice coveted the captain's power every day, and she had a lot of conspiracies in her stomach. If she stayed on the ship, the captain would be unable to sleep or eat.

I'm being targeted! ?

Alice shuddered, and her premonition of crisis took effect at this moment. She jumped up from the floor and sat there obediently like a primary school student, with her hands on her thighs, blinking her big red eyes and an expression that said "I'm the most well-behaved", which made people feel physically uncomfortable.

Just when Gloria wanted to scare her a few more times to make this guy calm down completely, Yieta, who had been controlling the Arus binary starship, suddenly let out a soft "ah" and said in a nervous tone: "Everyone, it seems we are here?"

arrive?

At that moment, Lingge and Gloria didn't care about competing with Alice anymore. They looked up at the big screen above the cab. In their sight, the bridge of the star ring that spanned the sea of ​​stars and remained motionless in the tides and storms of the universe finally extended to the end. What appeared in everyone's eyes at this moment was a star field that was almost dead. There were no suspended stars, no meteorites that drifted slowly with the gravitational field, and no comets that were captured by the tides and swept through the interstellar space at super high speeds... There was not even dust and light. It was truly empty, and people even felt that they were facing a dark blue mirror curtain. The empty illusion seen by the naked eye swallowed up their sight. However, in the center of such a dead and desolate star field, a ball of rainbow light was quietly suspended. Its shape and outline were almost the same as those of a star in the general sense, but it seemed to have no mass, so it would not have any connection with this universe. It just floated there quietly, like a silent illusion in the dark blue sea.

Twelve huge translucent star rings were restrained by an invisible gravitational field and were regularly distributed around the outer orbit of the planet, just like the countless brass star tracks on the ecliptic celestial body model displayed in the hall of the Royal Astronomical Society of the Kingdom of Great Brittany, forming a natural barrier that prevented all external matter from entering the interior of the planet. Only the Ancient Star Road was unrestricted, running straight through this barrier, deep into the interior of the planet, and pointing out the destination for travelers from afar.

That is--

"The Holy Temple of Heaven?" Lingge whispered to himself.

"Yes." Saint Xia Liya nodded gently, confirming his guess: "This is the initial star field, where the mother was born, and where He opened up chaos and order, and brought light and darkness. It can be considered the origin of the universe. The twelve star rings you see are the barriers that the mother set up for the Holy Temple of Heaven. However, its purpose is not to prevent outsiders from entering, but to hide the existence of the Holy Temple of Heaven, so that it completely disappears from the origin of this universe and does not interfere with the progress of mortal civilization. For billions of years, only through the ancient road of stars can mortals glimpse a trace of it, but there are too few such people."

In the past it was Sheng Tumi, and now it is Lingge - of course, Lingge and Sheng Tumi are slightly different. The former came here to change the world, while the latter came here to get the world back on track.

It was unclear who was right and who was wrong in that incident. The young queens were certainly wrong, but Saint Tumi and the humans were not completely innocent either. Both sides were just standing on their own standpoints and sticking to their own beliefs. And Lingge was standing here now to make up for the mistakes they made back then. From this point of view, he might be the only human who had no selfish motives.

What made everyone feel sorry, but the young man himself felt fortunate, was that precisely because he had no selfish motives, no one knew of his achievements, and no one would push him to the altar and worship him as another saint like they worshipped Saint Tumi. This might be the realm that Alice wanted to pursue, but Lingge was not so vulgar yet.

"The second human in history to arrive at the Temple of Heaven, that doesn't sound like such an impressive achievement." Alice muttered, "If Ling'er is the second, then I am the third, and Metien is the fourth. By analogy, the proprietress can call herself the first fairy traveler to arrive at the Temple of Heaven, Shelia can call herself the second, Shemi is the third, and Nevi can also call herself the first vampire to arrive at the Temple of Heaven. Even the first sunflower to arrive at the Temple of Heaven, the first lamb to arrive at the Temple of Heaven, the first gray-feathered falcon to arrive at the Temple of Heaven, the first stone guard to arrive at the Temple of Heaven... these titles have become commonplace all of a sudden. They are not rare at all."

"Ah! I understand!" Alice clenched her left fist and tapped the palm of her right hand gently, saying something as if she had suddenly realized something. "No wonder Saint Tumi insisted on going on the journey alone. It turned out that he wanted to enjoy the achievement alone! Lingge, you came here to adventure with your family, which lowered your status a lot. Do any of the random people deserve to share this achievement with you? They don't deserve it!"

"Shut up." Ling Ge glared at her unhappily. As long as this guy was around, the atmosphere would never be serious.

Finally, we have come to the key point of the main quest, and are about to enter the climax of the plot. Although Lingge is useless, he is the protagonist of the game after all, and the young queens all listen to him. Arguing with him here may affect the subsequent plot, which is not a wise choice. For the sake of her own achievement of clearing the level, Alice thought about it and finally decided to swallow her anger. You will know your mistake when I clear the level!
"Has this place always been so desolate?" Ling Ge turned around and asked Saint Xia Liya: "Not even a planet?"

“Yes.” Saint Xia Liya nodded gently: “It seems that in my memory, the initial star field has always been in this state. There is not even the concept of time and space here. In other words, it is completely isolated from the real universe.”

That's really strange.

The goddess was willing to add so many useless planets to the vast universe, so why did she make the original star field where she was born so desolate? The dead star field isolated from time and space, plus the twelve star rings that could hide the coordinates of the Holy Temple of Heaven, the ancient road of stars that would be absolutely difficult to observe if it weren't for coincidence... All these measures seemed to be to isolate the Holy Temple of Heaven from the outside world, or to isolate the girl's royal power from the outside world?

If it is called a protective measure, it would be an exaggeration.

Ling Ge suddenly realized something and subconsciously looked at Saint Xia Liya: "Have you recovered your memory?"

Before this, the shepherdess had never mentioned anything about the initial star field and the star ring barrier. It was obvious that she had just remembered it.

Saint Shallia spoke the truth without hiding anything: "The moment I saw the Cathedral of Heaven, I seemed to recall some things... but they are all very vague. Perhaps I need to enter the Cathedral of Heaven to recall more complete memories."

Linger nodded slightly, and then asked the other young girls about their royal powers, but they showed no signs of recovering their memories. At most, they felt familiar with the Initial Star Region and the Holy Temple in front of them, but they couldn't tell where this familiarity came from. Linger speculated that this might be because Saint Shallia's royal power was special. The power of destiny was often connected with the stars, and various phenomena showed that this statement was not groundless.

The situation seemed to be developing in a good direction. Ling Ge was about to ask Saint Xia Liya for details, such as whether he could ignore the external barriers and directly enter the Holy Temple of Heaven. At this time, Yieta's nervous voice came from the driver's seat: "Everyone, something terrible has happened!"

"The enemy fleet appears ahead, ahead!"

　Give me some meow
　　(End of this chapter)