79: Chapter 78 The Black Pyramid

What appeared before Xia Xingchen was no surprise; there was nothing there, just pure blackness.

Xia Xingchen even looked out through the porthole at the entire universe, but not a single ray of light could penetrate through.

At that moment, the dream star seemed to be pulled by some incredibly powerful gravitational force, and it began to move forward on its own.

Zheng Hai made a swift decision and immediately activated the engine system to respond.

Whatever was ahead, colliding with it would definitely be bad.

Xia Xingchen panicked; he dared not let the dream star make any moves, just in case they collided with some planet.

Under Xia Xingchen's command, the dream star's lighting system was fully activated.

To Xia Xingchen's surprise, the moment the lights were turned on, a massive black sphere appeared before them not far away.

What was that thing?

Out of doubt and concern, Xia Xingchen ultimately dispatched several ships to investigate.

Soon, the investigation ships sent back information; the entire sphere was in a very strange state. The planet had a temperature, and it was radiating from within.

After thinking for a moment, Xia Xingchen finally decided to go and explore it himself.

After confirming that landing posed no danger, a transport ship was quickly prepared.

This time, Wang Ke, Nuwa, Leovitos, and Xia Xingchen set out together.

The moment the transport ship landed on the surface, the sound of steel colliding echoed.

As the hatch opened, Xia Xingchen officially saw the full appearance of the planet before him; the faint light source on this planet came from the warships hovering in the sky.

The moment they first set foot on this planet, an incredibly hard sensation traveled up from the soles of Xia Xingchen's feet.

In an instant, the entire planet suddenly began to emit a red glow. Looking down from his feet, Xia Xingchen saw countless cracks, with points of red light seeping out from within.

This scene was like the surface of the water suddenly beginning to shimmer in the dark ocean.

"It seems someone knew we were coming."

As soon as Xia Xingchen's words fell, the ground began to rumble and shake the next second.

A massive black pyramid slowly rose from the ground and finally appeared before everyone. (A product of the Dark Age of Technology, having nothing to do with the Necrons.)

Leovitos watched this scene, unable to explain it with his logic engine. All he could think of was that this was the power of the great Omnissiah.

Seeing this, Xia Xingchen quickly gripped his Plasma Pistol.

He then took the initiative to advance toward the black pyramid.

Meanwhile, the warships in orbit also discovered the anomaly; the entire planet suddenly began to emit a tremendous light.

Zheng Hai immediately and anxiously used the communication channel, wanting to contact the Commander, but discovered that the entire communication channel could not reach the people who had landed on the planet's surface.

Zheng Hai made a swift decision and prepared to dispatch another wave of personnel to land and search for the Commander.

"Captain, our ship has received an unknown communication message."

"Forget about the message! I'm busy right now. What could be more important than getting the Archon back?"

The communications operator said helplessly:

"The content says that if we act rashly, it will no longer guarantee the Archon's safety. It demands that we give it three hours. After three hours, it will return the Commander unharmed."

Upon hearing this message, Zheng Hai dared not gamble. He dared not gamble with the Archon's life, so he had to agree to the mysterious communication's demand and instructed the communications operator to send a reply.

"If our Archon encounters any mishap on this planet, all of us on the dream star will spare no cost to destroy this place and turn you and this planet into cosmic dust."

After the message was sent, all Zheng Hai could do was wait.

Meanwhile, on the black planet, Xia Xingchen had led his subordinates into the black pyramid.

Even he had not expected this black pyramid to be so massive. If Xia Xingchen were to describe it, it was ten times larger than the most famous Great Pyramid of Giza from his past life.

Xia Xingchen walked up the endlessly extending black stairs, climbing step by step.

Following Xia Xingchen's footsteps, lights began to turn on one by one, illuminating the path forward for Xia Xingchen, as if welcoming the return of an emperor.

After nearly half an hour of climbing, the group finally arrived before a huge golden gate.

Carved upon this golden gate were countless strange beasts, incomprehensible patterns, and mysterious inscribed languages.

When Xia Xingchen stood before the gate and observed it, his eyes saw dragons, angels, feathered serpents, eagle-headed monsters, and a giant serpent capable of encircling the entire length of the gate.

Just as Xia Xingchen walked to the gate, the existence inside seemed to know that Xia Xingchen had arrived, and it automatically opened the gate.

Xia Xingchen exchanged glances with the others and then walked inside first. Even though Nuwa and the others wanted to stop him, Xia Xingchen refused.

As soon as his left foot stepped inside, the lights in the entire palace instantly turned on.

The surrounding light instantly shone; it was a soft yellow glow that illuminated the empty hall.

Countless huge stone tablets stood around the hall.

The eyes of Leovitos and Wang Ke were instantly drawn to those stone tablets.

The two walked quickly to the stone tablets and observed them carefully, then discovered with shock that these were not ordinary stone tablets at all, but a special carrier for technological inheritance.

Wang Ke reached out and touched the stone tablet. The next second, the patterns on the stone tablet began to change rapidly, and countless analyses and different technologies emerged on each tablet.

Leovitos's brain could no longer perform logical calculations, because what lay before Leovitos were civilization ruins sufficient to shock the entire empire.

Such vast and infinitely filled technology could only come from the Dark Age of Technology.

"Could this be the complete collection of technology from the Dark Age?" Leovitos said, sighing as he spoke, "Praise the Omnissiah."

At this moment, Leovitos finally began to pray:

"101010101010"

Wang Ke was much calmer. He kept observing these stone tablets; this should be more similar to a kind of integrated technology storage mode.

Judging from the current situation, if one wanted to study these technologies, the price to pay would be enormous, unless a huge Academy of Sciences could be established here.

Just as the group was inspecting the hall, mechanical iron pillars suddenly extended from the ground.

Like a cage, it instantly trapped everyone inside.

Xia Xingchen looked around. Seeing his subordinates bound by iron chains and unable to move, he became instantly vigilant. He rushed to their side, drew his power sword, and slashed at the iron pillars.

With a loud clang, after the unknown metal collided with the power sword, sizzling electric currents instantly sparked onto the ground.

However, those iron pillars suffered no damage at all. Seeing this, the others also immediately tried to find a way to see if they could destroy the iron pillars from the inside.

Unfortunately, everyone tried many times, but ultimately without result.

It could not be opened from the inside either.

Seeing all his subordinates trapped in the cage, Xia Xingchen felt extremely anxious. At this moment, a mechanical voice also rang out inside the empty pyramid.

"Do you want to save them?"

Upon hearing this, Xia Xingchen became instantly vigilant. He looked around but saw no one; the voice seemed to come from inside the pyramid.

"Who are you? Don't play god and ghosts here; get out here right now!"

Xia Xingchen's voice was filled with vigilance and anger as he sternly accused it:

"I order you now to release my subordinates immediately!"

Facing Xia Xingchen's almost commanding tone, the voice was not angry:

"I will release them, I just need you to come in and have a conversation with me."

Xia Xingchen did not know what tricks this mysterious voice wanted to play, but now he had no other choice.

Upon hearing this, Nuwa immediately refused. She said to Xia Xingchen without hesitation:

"Master, you absolutely cannot go with it. There is no security guarantee there; you must stop."

Listening to Nuwa's words, Xia Xingchen felt no fear, only gratitude for Nuwa's concern:

"Don't worry, Nuwa, it's fine. I will definitely rescue you all."

Xia Xingchen told Nuwa to set her heart at ease, then looked toward the mysterious voice:

"Alright, I accept your condition. Where should I go to meet you?"

Xia Xingchen's voice fell within the empty pyramid, and then a door slowly opened.

The space behind that door was clearly leading upward, appearing to lead to a higher level, but it was pitch black inside, and nothing could be seen.

"Come in."

That cold voice rang out, still a mechanical sound, without any emotion.

Xia Xingchen glanced at his subordinates trapped in the cage, then glanced at the opened, bottomless door.

Xia Xingchen took a deep breath, calmed his mood, and then advanced toward that side.

When Xia Xingchen walked to the stairs, the lights inside the stairs also turned on immediately.

It was another endless staircase.

There was no other way; he had to climb the stairs again, step by step.

When Xia Xingchen reached the end of the stairs again, he looked up.

Before him was an empty area, only it was much smaller than the previous one. It should be similar to how the higher up a pyramid goes, the smaller the space becomes.

Arriving at the second level, the entire space was vastly different from the first level, or rather, there was no connection between the two at all.

How should one put it?

If the first level was technology, then the second level was life.