80: Star-arm level civilization

Pillar of Leaders, Jingsi Hall side hall.

Inside the side hall, almost all the Stellar-level Experts of the Human Federation were gathered at this moment.

Invisible Qi intertwined, and majestic life magnetic fields surged like undercurrents, causing space itself to slightly distort.

Everyone's gaze, some overt and some subtle, focused on the several closed doors at the back of the side hall, which were flowing with soft life energy.

Living there were the four mothers carrying the future of the Federation—Venerable Yuehua, Xuanji, Su Yao, and Liu Ruyan.

The Innate Sun Body nurtured by Venerable Yuehua was about to be born, and the other three Sun Bodies would be born a month later; all Stellar-level Experts would wait here for this month.

Dragon King of Prison Suppression Ao Wuji, Blazing Monarch Luo Mie, Heaven-Breaking Divine General Yang Polu... and so on, Stellar-level Experts who were usually as elusive as divine dragons had all arrived.

The atmosphere was heavy yet burning, like a volcano about to erupt, suppressing an inexpressible excitement and anticipation.

"It's close. I can feel the rhythmic resonance of the life Origin becoming clearer and clearer." Dragon King of Prison Suppression Ao Wuji's voice was low, and the faint flame patterns around him brightened slightly, revealing his inner turmoil.

"Four Innate Sun Bodies..." Under the command of the iron-blooded Marshal Xuanji, a battle-hardened Stellar Level Expert from the Military Department murmured to himself, his fists unconsciously tightening. "Once they grow up, our Federation legions will truly forge an invincible edge!"

"Hmph, those savages from the Empire are finally seeing the end of their good days." Another expert chimed in, his tone filled with the gratification of imminent revenge.

Even the few Stellar-level Experts from the usually cold and aloof Venerable Yuehua's faction could not hide the excitement on their faces.

An Innate Sun Body meant so much—not just a leap in power, but an absolute crushing advantage in Aptitude!

Yun Xi sat in the main seat, her plain white dress trailing on the ground, her bare feet three inches off the floor, suspended in the air.

Her eyes were slightly closed as if she were in quiet meditation, but her slightly trembling eyelashes revealed that her heart was by no means as calm as it appeared on the surface.

For a hundred thousand years, the Federation had finally seen the dawn of transcending the current situation, and this dawn was so dazzling!

"Hahaha!"

Great Emperor Panshi, Shi Yue's laughter broke the silence again as he slapped the shoulder of Nine Heavens Sword Venerable Li Qingshan beside him, his voice booming like a bell.

"I'm boiling with energy right now! I wish I could charge to the Empire's border this instant and sacrifice a few planets to the flag as a congratulatory gift for our future little princesses!"

The invisible Sword Intent around Li Qingshan hummed. Though he didn't speak, his eyes, sharp as swords, flickered with an unprecedented light.

He nodded slightly, acknowledging Shi Yue's wild words.

Chu Yueyao and Qin Pojun exchanged a look, both seeing relief and deeper ambition in each other's eyes.

They understood the significance of the Sun Body better than others; it wasn't just about military force, but a complete reshuffling of politics and the overall landscape.

Just as this optimistic, excited, and even somewhat flighty atmosphere was heating up, a slightly raspy yet rational and fanatical voice rang out—it was Mo Heng, the Dean of the Federation Academy of Sciences.

"Wonderful! Simply wonderful!"

Mo Heng pushed his multi-functional glasses used for auxiliary observation, holding a crystal plate that constantly refreshed complex data streams, his tone full of a scientist's awe.

"According to the feedback from the energy tide monitoring model, the Origin ripples emitted by the four Sun Bodies are resonating with Kunlun Star—no, with the deep space structure of the entire Capital Star Sector! This resonance pattern is not recorded in the database! It violates the known laws of life energy radiation!"

His excitement stemmed more from the desire to investigate unknown phenomena.

Another relatively calm voice, carrying an ancient and weathered tone, took over.

The speaker was Venerable Suyuan, who sat beside Mo Heng, silently fiddling with a compass engraved with spatial fold patterns.

"The phenomenon observed by Dean Mo Heng is no accident." Venerable Suyuan slowly raised his head, his eyes, which seemed to have witnessed the rise and fall of civilizations, scanning everyone present.

"While we celebrate and anticipate, perhaps we should think more about what the birth of Innate Sun Bodies truly means for this starry sky we inhabit."

His words were like a drop of cold water into a boiling pot of oil.

"Suyuan, what riddles are you speaking in now?" Shi Yue frowned. "Sun Bodies mean the Federation is invincible! Everyone here knows that!"

"Invincible?"

Venerable Suyuan shook his head slightly, an indescribably complex expression appearing on his face.

"Great Emperor Shi Yue, how large do you think 'the world' is?"

Without waiting for Shi Yue to answer, he gently flicked the compass in his hand. The patterns on the compass suddenly lit up, emitting a hazy gray light.

Immediately after, Divine Power surged, and in the Void Realm in the center of the side hall, a star map began to be constructed.

First to appear was the familiar territory of the Human Federation and the neighboring Tristan Empire, looking like two relatively bright bonfires in a dark forest.

"This is the world we are most familiar with," Venerable Suyuan's voice sounded like an ancient narration.

The next moment, the star map's perspective zoomed out rapidly!

The territories of the Federation and the Empire quickly shrank, turning into a blurred speck of light.

Beyond this speck, an incredibly magnificent, winding, and coiled brilliant belt of light, formed by countless stars, slowly emerged, spanning the Void Realm!

This belt of light exuded a heart-stopping sense of antiquity and vastness. Its scale was so immense that all the Stellar-level Experts present felt a sudden, inexplicable suffocation.

Venerable Suyuan looked at that belt of light, his eyes showing reverence and reminiscence.

"This is the Sagittarius Arm where we are located."

His voice was solemn and low.

"A river of stars with a diameter of over ten thousand light-years—it is the cradle that nurtured us and the cage that binds us!"

He pointed to the tiny speck of light at the edge of the arm's end in the star map, representing the Federation and the Empire.

"The territory we are so proud of occupies less than one-millionth of this arm. Civilizations like ours might number in the hundreds of thousands within this arm!"

"One-millionth?! Hundreds of thousands?!"

Although the Stellar-level Experts present knew the Federation was small in the Universe, "knowing" it and actually "seeing" those desperate proportions and numbers so directly were two completely different concepts!

Exclamations rose one after another, faces filled with disbelief.

The land they lived on, fought for, and cherished like treasure was actually so pitifully small on a true cosmic scale!

"One arm, over ten thousand light-years..." Chu Yueyao repeated in a low voice. As the Master of the Sky-Patrol Pavilion, she knew better than anyone the terrifying distance this number represented, as well as the resources and... dangers it might contain, far beyond the Federation's imagination.

"It's impossible for there to be so many civilizations!" Ao Wuji's surrounding flames flared up. "If there truly is such a vast starry sky and so many civilizations, why have we never detected a stronger one? Why is the strongest civilization we've encountered only the Empire?"

"Because both we and the Empire are located at the 'barren end' of this arm, and high-level civilizations have enough means to shield themselves from detection by low-level ones."

Venerable Suyuan explained calmly, with a hint of bitterness.

"Like two ants on the edge of a boundless forest fighting over a few fruits, they naturally wouldn't know that deep within the forest exist giant beasts that could easily crush them."

He paused, his gaze scanning the shocked faces of the crowd, and dropped an even bigger piece of information:

"Furthermore, based on my investigation of several ancient civilization ruins nearby, in the last few hundred million years, beyond this 'barren end,' in the broader regions of this arm, more than one powerful civilization has risen and fallen. Those that could unify a larger area were called by ancient inscriptions—Star Arm Level Civilizations."

"Star Arm Level Civilizations?!"

Another unfamiliar yet incredibly powerful-sounding term struck everyone's consciousness.

"Star Arm Level... does it refer to a civilization that can rule this Sagittarius Arm?" Yun Xi spoke for the first time, her voice ethereal yet carrying a hint of inquiry.

Clearly, even her knowledge of the arm was extremely limited.

"Teacher is perceptive." Venerable Suyuan bowed slightly to Yun Xi.

"Although no conclusive evidence has been found to prove that any civilization has completely unified the entire arm, ruin inscriptions show that those called Star Arm Level have territories and power far beyond our imagination. They were the true protagonists of this starry stage."

He looked toward the doors of the quiet rooms, his gaze becoming incredibly deep and burning:

"And the fragments of those ancient inscriptions invariably mention that whether a civilization can give birth to an individual with 'Moon' Aptitude is the key to whether it can touch the threshold of the 'Star Arm Level'!"

"Star Arm Level threshold?" Qin Pojun keenly caught the term, his breathing becoming hurried.

The magnificent outline of the Sagittarius Arm sketched by Venerable Suyuan was like a cold cosmic brand, deeply seared into the hearts of all the Stellar-level Experts.

Inside the side hall, the previous fanaticism and restlessness brought by the birth of the Sun Bodies had been replaced by a much heavier silence.

It was the dizziness and discomfort of facing one's own insignificance after one's perception had been forcibly elevated.

"One-millionth of the territory...? Star Arm Level Civilization...?" Nine Heavens Sword Venerable Li Qingshan repeated these two terms in a low voice. His originally peerless Sword Intent now seemed somewhat stagnant, as if his "sword" didn't know where to point in the face of this vast arm scale.

"Suyuan." Leader Yun Xi's ethereal voice rang out, breaking the suffocating silence. Her gaze, a mix of clarity and age, fell upon Venerable Suyuan.

"Where exactly is the gap between the 'Star Arm Level Civilization' you mentioned and us? You have always been keen on exploring ancient civilization ruins; you must know."

This was the question in everyone's heart. Asked by Yun Xi, it gripped everyone's attention.

Venerable Suyuan and Dean Mo Heng exchanged a look. Mo Heng pushed his glasses, his eyes flashing with a scientist's fanaticism, and stepped forward to take over.

"Leader, colleagues. To understand this gap, we must compare from the very Foundations of civilization—technology and state of existence."

Mo Heng's voice trembled slightly with excitement. With a wave of his hand, Divine Power constructed clear data models and comparison charts in the air.

"First, the conquest of space—leap technology!"

On the left of the chart was the label [Current State of the Federation].

"Our Federation's most advanced 'Star Shuttle Level' leap engine has a theoretical maximum single leap distance of 10 light-years. Moreover, after each maximum leap, the engine core requires a cooling and maintenance period of several months to a year. Overloading it causes the spatial module to collapse; even at a great cost, it can only be cooled down to a few days, which is too expensive to be used as a norm."

The chart showed a simplified model of the Federation's territory; a single leap was like a snail's crawl, taking years or even decades to cross the entire territory.

On the right of the chart, the label [Star Arm Level Civilization (Estimated)] appeared.

"A true civilization capable of ruling an arm of ten thousand light-years must have achieved a qualitative leap in spatial technology! Based on reverse induction from certain hyperspace coordinate fragments in ruins and the deduction of energy application models, we estimate that their capital ships might have a single leap distance of hundreds or even thousands of light-years! Cooling times might be measured in 'days' or even 'hours'!"

On the chart, arrows representing the Star Arm Level Civilization flashed across the massive arm model like teleportation.

"This means that from the northernmost to the southernmost tip of their territory—a terrifying distance of ten thousand light-years—their fleet might only need a year or even less to arrive! Meanwhile, for our Federation, traveling from the capital star to the most remote border outpost might take a generation! This is a world of difference in strategic projection capability!"

Mo Heng's explanation made the faces of all the Stellar-level Experts from the military look incredibly grim.

They instantly understood that in front of a true Star Arm Level Civilization, the Federation's so-called defense-in-depth might be as thin as a piece of paper.

"Secondly, the cornerstone of civilization—the state of existence and value of the common people!"

Venerable Suyuan chimed in with a deep voice, his words carrying a deeper humanistic concern and cruelty.

"In our Federation, ordinary citizens who cannot break through to the Warrior Rank make up over 95% of the population. Aside from reproducing and providing the basic population base for the civilization, their contribution to the Federation's overall technology and military improvement is minimal. They are the soil of civilization, yet they can hardly touch the stars."

He changed his tone, adding an indescribable yearning and shock.

"But in a mature Star Arm Level Civilization, the situation is completely different!"

"They must have already broken through the ultimate barrier of quantum technology, capable of modifying planets and even the internal structures of stars, transforming them into Celestial Body Computers with near-infinite computational capacity!"

"With the vast network formed by these Celestial Body Computers, they can allow the consciousness of every ordinary citizen to connect to a near-real, eternal virtual universe at any time!"

"There, they don't need to struggle for survival; all physical labor and material production are completed by highly intelligent automated technology and robots. The meaning of their existence, besides natural biological reproduction, lies in—providing inspiration!"

"Inspiration?" Chu Yueyao keenly captured the word.

"Yes, inspiration!" Dean Mo Heng added excitedly, his voice high.

"Breakthroughs in science and technology, especially disruptive ones, often originate from a single, accidental, leap-like spark of inspiration! A Star Arm Level Civilization with trillions or even quadrillions of citizens, having liberated all its citizens from the labor of survival, allows them to explore, learn, entertain, and create to their heart's content in the virtual network... This is equivalent to forming an unceasing Inspiration Storm Tide composed of countless brains!"

"Our Federation relies on the flashes of insight from a few Genius scientists. But they rely on the accidental inspiration of every individual in the entire civilization for big data screening and Breakthroughs! This is a crushing difference in orders of magnitude! Before such a civilization, the speed of our Federation's technological development is as slow as a glacier moving!"

"In a Star Arm Level Civilization, every ordinary person is an 'Interstellar Citizen' in the true sense. Their thoughts and inspiration together form the surging power for the civilization's progress! While the ordinary people of our Federation... sigh..." Mo Heng didn't continue, but the cruelty of the comparison was already self-evident.

Inside the side hall, the expressions of many Stellar-level Experts from humble backgrounds became extremely complex.

They thought of the hardships of their own rise from insignificance. If they were in such a civilization, perhaps... "So, from our Federation's mere hundred-plus light-year territory to ruling an arm of over ten thousand light-years—the length, width, and height are over a hundred times greater, so the gap in territory is more than a million times..." Qin Pojun asked with a dry voice, realizing there was a huge chasm they hadn't imagined before.

"This is the gulf between a Stellar Level civilization and a Star Arm Level Civilization!" Venerable Suyuan said decisively.

He then added in a low voice:

"However... such a powerful Star Arm Level Civilization is only a Level 2.5 civilization! Our civilization is barely approaching Level 2.1..."

...