Chapter 26 The Ship That Can Grant Immortality!

"Medical ship!"

Academician Wang's voice echoed through the Command Center, every word charged with electricity, instantly striking everyone present.

"We might have missed a treasure chest filled with gold, but we may have just discovered a... temple that could grant us all 'immortality'."

"Immortality?"

Lin Yuan's brain buzzed.

He was a man of little education, but he understood the weight of those two words better than anyone.

Wasn't this exactly what Qin Shi Huang had gone to such great lengths for back in the day, sending Xu Fu out to sea to find? In the end, he didn't find a single thing.

And now, a ship that could grant immortality had just appeared before him?

"Academician Wang, are... are you kidding me?" Lin Yuan's throat felt dry; he swallowed, his voice trembling. "Can this thing really make people... immortal?"

"Not immortal." Academician Wang waved his hands excitedly. The biology and medical experts beside him had already rushed toward the holographic projection like madmen, eager to press their faces against the image of the tiny medical ship on the screen.

"Theoretically speaking, every living organism has a limit to its lifespan. However," Academician Wang took a deep breath, struggling to steady his voice, but the irrepressible tremor still betrayed his inner ecstasy, "a civilization capable of interstellar travel must have advanced their medical technology to a level we cannot even imagine!"

"Cancer, AIDS, heart disease... these ailments that we consider incurable might be as simple to them as treating a common cold!" A white-haired, top-tier domestic genetic expert stared intently at the Rod of Asclepius emblem, muttering to himself, "They might have even conquered the greatest challenge of all: 'aging'! Through genetic repair and cellular regeneration, they could completely maintain a living organism in its peak state for a long time!"

"My god..." Lin Yuan listened in stunned silence.

He thought of himself. Although he was currently supported by the state and had no worries about food or drink, he would eventually age and die. If he could stay in his current state in his twenties forever, how great would that be?

He then thought of Academician Wang, Chen Weiguo, and all those old experts in the base who were burning themselves out for the country. They were national treasures! If they could live another fifty or a hundred years, what massive contributions could they make to the country? To what extent could they research the black technology salvaged from the "Cosmic Graveyard"?

The value of this little wreck was infinitely greater than that super freighter that had looked so impressive just a moment ago!

That freighter was, at most, a tool to "sharpen the weapon." But this medical ship was a way to "strengthen the person"! It was a super miracle that could fundamentally elevate the entire foundation of a civilization!

"We must obtain it! At any cost, we must obtain it!" Academician Wang turned around abruptly, his bloodshot eyes fixed on Chen Weiguo, the longing in his gaze almost spitting fire.

It wasn't just him; all the aging experts in the Command Center had expressions similar to Academician Wang's at that moment. They had spent their entire lives pursuing scientific truth, and their greatest regret was not having enough time. And now, a "temple" that could grant them more time was right before them. No one could resist such a temptation.

For the first time, a clear expression of being moved appeared on Chen Weiguo's face. He knew better than anyone what it would mean for a nation and a people if they could truly master this technology.

It meant that the top minds would never wither, and the most precious experience would be passed down forever. A nation's decision-making layer and scientific core would possess an extraordinary level of stability and continuity. In the competition between civilizations, what a massive advantage that would be!

"Calm down!" Chen Weiguo barked, forcing himself and the excited crowd around him to settle down. "Don't forget the lesson from just now! That freighter looked like a treasure chest, but what was it? A deadly trap!"

His words were like a bucket of cold water poured over their heated heads.

Yes, everyone calmed down.

The "Ghost Route" was a hellish place, full of weirdness everywhere. A super treasure chest had been bait for a "Void Devourer." Could this "temple," which seemed even more valuable, be another, more insidious trap?

"Intelligence Analysis Department!" Chen Weiguo immediately ordered. "Conduct a top-level risk assessment on this medical ship and the surrounding area immediately! I want to know why it appeared there. Is there any 'clean' area around it like the one from before? Are there any abnormal spatial parameter fluctuations?"

"Yes!" The Intelligence Analysis Department immediately sprang into high-speed operation.

Lin Yuan also snapped out of his excitement and looked at the medical ship again.

It was quietly floating in a relatively dense debris field, surrounded by fragments of ordinary civilian ships. Looking at the thermal map, it emitted only a faint, stable green light, and the area around it consisted of cold blue dots. Everything looked so normal.

But the more normal it looked, the more Lin Yuan muttered in his heart.

"This place is a bit strange," Lin Yuan said, rubbing his chin while speaking to the Command Center.

"What's strange about it?" Academician Wang asked immediately.

"Look," Lin Yuan said, maneuvering the drone to fly slowly around the perimeter of the area while drawing a circle on the star map. "This medical ship is in a... 'depression'."

"A depression?"

"Yes. Look, the drifting trajectories of the surrounding shipwrecks all seem to be guided by something, avoiding this area. It's like a river with a big rock in the middle; the water flows around it. This medical ship is that 'rock'."

Although Lin Yuan didn't understand advanced physics, he had been collecting scrap for so many years that he had an innate intuition about the stacking and flow of various objects. This debris field felt very unnatural to him.

His words immediately caught the attention of the physicists.

"Quick! Build a fluid dynamics model! Input all the movement trajectories of the debris and run a simulation!"

A few minutes later, a young doctor in charge of the calculation looked up, his face pale, and reported: "Comrade Lin Yuan is right! There is a weak but real gravitational anomaly in this area! All the debris is being repelled by this anomaly! And the medical ship is parked right in the center of the gravitational anomaly!"

Gravitational anomaly? Repelling all matter?

Everyone's heart skipped a beat.

This sounded so much like... the opposite of a "Void Devourer"?

The "Void Devourer" devours everything, while this thing repels everything.

"Could it be... the 'egg' of a 'Void Devourer'?" a timid researcher speculated, trembling.

This speculation made everyone's hair stand on end.

"Impossible!" Academician Wang immediately dismissed this idea. "From the energy model, the 'Void Devourer' is a pure aggregate of 'negative energy'; its characteristic is 'entropy increase'—devouring and destruction. But this gravitational anomaly exhibits a characteristic of 'entropy decrease'—order and stability. The two are absolutely opposing existences!"

"Opposing existences..." Chen Weiguo narrowed his eyes. "Academician Wang, do you mean that this place is not only not a trap, but actually... the safest place in the entire 'Ghost Route'?"

"It's possible!" Academician Wang's breathing became rapid. "The 'Void Devourer's' characteristics are chaos and devouring; it absolutely cannot approach an area with a stable 'repulsion field'! The reason this medical ship has been preserved so well is likely because it stumbled into this natural 'Safe Zone'!"

This deduction was like a bolt of lightning, reigniting everyone's hope!

If this really was a "Safe Zone," they could not only salvage the medical ship with ease, but even use it as a... frontline supply station!

"Comrade Lin Yuan!" Chen Weiguo's voice held a trace of irrepressible excitement. "Maneuver the drone now, slowly, toward the edge of that gravitational anomaly! I want to verify this deduction with my own eyes!"

"Received!" Lin Yuan's heart was in his throat.

This was experimenting with his own life, after all.

He carefully maneuvered "scavenger no. 2," inching it toward the medical ship.

One thousand meters... five hundred meters... one hundred meters...

The drone successfully passed through the outer debris field and entered the "depression."

The moment the drone crossed an invisible boundary, a gentle but irresistible pushing force acted upon it.

[Warning: Unknown force field interference detected, drone control slightly affected.]

"There's a reaction!" Lin Yuan reported immediately. "There's a force pushing me! It's not very strong, but it's definitely there!"

"Continue forward!" Academician Wang shouted.

Lin Yuan increased the engine power, pushing against that force, and continued toward the medical ship.

It felt strange, like walking against the wind.

The further he went, the stronger the pushing force became. When he was less than ten kilometers away from the medical ship, the drone's engine was already emitting an overwhelmed buzzing sound.

"It's not working! Academician Wang, if I go any further, the engine will overload!" Lin Yuan reported.

"Good! Stop there! Now, listen to my order!" Academician Wang's expression became incredibly frantic. "Put the other 'ark reactor' we brought onto the materialization platform!"

"What?" Lin Yuan was stunned. "You want to..."

"That's right!" A gambler's glint flashed in Academician Wang's eyes. "I want to light another 'firecracker'! I want to see if I detonate energy in this 'Safe Zone,' whether that 'Void Devourer' will actually come!"