Chapter 596: . Star gate and space power! (2)

Book 596: The Star Gate and the Power of Space! (2)

Upon boarding, the three of them were immediately escorted to their own separate, private quarters.

This chamber was vastly superior to the cramped rooms within the obsolete starship they had taken back from the Alien Battlefield.

It was, without a doubt, the finest single suite Lu Sheng had ever occupied in his entire life.

The sheer expanse of the room easily exceeded the size of a hundred grand stadiums combined.

Within it lay every single amenity Lu Sheng could possibly imagine, along with countless luxuries he could not.

It was far more than just a place to sleep.

One could effortlessly sustain and propagate a small sovereign nation within these very walls.

And this was merely the hospitality extended to him, the mere "disciple" of the Skeletal Pole Blade; the chamber assigned to the master himself was bound to be grander and more palatial by far.

Yet, when considering that the Astral Blossom itself possessed a mass comparable to more than a dozen Azure Stars, dedicating such a fragment of space felt entirely inconsequential.

Standing in the center of the chamber, Lu Sheng released his psychic energy, sweeping a cursory scan through the interior and exterior of the colossal vessel.

He discovered that the sheer volume of life sustained within the Astral Blossom far surpassed his initial estimates.

The starship was partitioned into millions of distinct sectors, each functioning with its own entirely independent ecosystem.

From the overheard chatter of several crew members, he learned that over ninety-nine percent of these millions of sectors were occupied.

Every single one of them was filled with the very "cargo" the Astral Blossom was commissioned to transport on this voyage!

Countless rare goods, and indeed many unique living organisms, required strictly controlled ecological environments to be preserved over the long journey.

This exact requirement dictated the truly staggering scale of the vessel.

Lu Sheng focused his attention heavily on assessing the military and defensive might of the Astral Blossom.

His investigation revealed a total of nearly fifty martial artists who had attained the twelfth rank.

As for the thirteenth rank, there were only two in existence onboard.

One of those two was the Skeletal Pole Blade himself.

Viewed in this light, the exceptionally high standard of treatment they received was only natural.

It was plain to see.

The merchant chamber governing the Astral Blossom placed immense reliance on the formidable power of the Skeletal Pole Blade.

They had even gone so far as to deliberately alter their course just to "collect" the three of them.

Lu Sheng located the astral network interface within his room; the network here was far more advanced than anything he had access to back in the Yamu Star Sector.

Its total coverage spanned across more than three thousand star sectors.

With effortless ease, he managed to unearth the precise information he had been seeking.

"As it turns out, the Hunting Bow is indeed the alternate name for the heart of the Heavenly Serpentine Galaxy."

To be exact, the very center of the Heavenly Serpentine Galaxy was designated as the Hunting Bow.

The entire domain of the Hunting Bow stretched across more than ten star sectors.

When viewed from the perspective of a macroscopic star chart, well...

Lu Sheng extended his hand to stretch out the holographic star chart before him, and the silhouette of the stellar belt did indeed bear a striking resemblance to a drawn bow.

Just as he prepared to delve deeper into records concerning the "Star Gate," the ceiling of the room rapidly materialized the pale, expressionless countenance of the Skeletal Pole Blade.

It was a notification signaling the master's arrival to visit.

"I really must alter the setting for this visitation alert when I get the chance,"

Lu Sheng thought silently to himself as he gazed up at the oversized face of the Skeletal Pole Blade hovering above.

Being greeted in such a manner was genuinely a bit difficult to grow accustomed to.

Opening the door, he watched as the Skeletal Pole Blade stepped inside from the outer corridor.

"I have made inquiries. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the Astral Blossom will only require five cosmic months to reach the Hunting Bow, arriving two to three months ahead of schedule."

The Skeletal Pole Blade wasted no words upon entering, striking straight to the heart of the matter—a style entirely characteristic of his usual conduct.

Hearing these words, Lu Sheng’s eyes flickered slightly as he replied, "Unforeseen circumstances? Star pirates?"

"Indeed."

The Skeletal Pole Blade nodded smoothly. "A journey lasting several cosmic months and traversing over a thousand star sectors."

The probability of avoiding star pirates entirely is practically non-existent.

"But you may rest assured; ordinary star pirates would never dare harbor designs against the Astral Blossom."

There was a deeper implication woven into the master's reassurance—

If the Astral Blossom truly did encounter star pirates, then the adversaries would inevitably be far from ordinary.

Judging by the current military complement aboard this vessel, any pirate faction daring enough to plot against the Astral Blossom would possess at least one thirteenth-rank martial artist to anchor their strength.

Reflecting on this, Lu Sheng could not help but sigh inwardly with emotion.

A man's true journey lies within the vast sea of stars.

How many hot-blooded youths had been lured by that very phrase to plunge headfirst into the boundless starry void, all for the sake of a romantic ideal?

Only to transform, in the end, into nothing more than... star pirates.

Perhaps concerned that Lu Sheng might grow restless during this prolonged period of relying on others,

the Skeletal Pole Blade took care to explain: "The path to the Hunting Bow is exceptionally long. We must rely on an Immortal-grade vessel or higher, one capable of traversing Star Gates, to arrive swiftly."

"Yet even the two Chief Star Governors of the Hundred Grand Star Sectors must share a single vessel of the Immortal grade."

"To prevent any sudden crises, it is simply impossible to deploy such a craft merely to escort the three of us to the Hunting Bow."

"Setting aside the immense consumption of the round trip, its safety is far lower than hitching a ride with a super-large merchant chamber like the Astral Blossom."

For a smaller crew did not mean a faster ship, nor did a smaller target guarantee they would avoid attracting powerful star pirates.

Lu Sheng signaled his understanding, and took the opportunity to inquire about the nature of Immortal-grade starships.

To this, the Skeletal Pole Blade replied directly: "A portion of the materials required to forge an Immortal-grade ship is harvested from exotic beasts of the fourteenth rank and above, making them exceedingly precious and entirely beyond the reach of ordinary people."

The "ordinary people" he spoke of referred to martial artists of the thirteenth rank and below.

Only a super chamber of commerce like the Protoss Flower Chamber of Commerce, possessing peerless and immense strength with one or even multiple fourteenth-level powerhouses standing behind it and conducting business across the entire galaxy, would have the qualification and the ability to afford it.

And only a cosmic spaceship of the immortal level or above would be sturdy enough to withstand the immense pressure of traversing a stargate.

Here, it was necessary to explain the meaning of a stargate.

This happened to save Lu Sheng the trouble of searching for the answer online himself.

Stargate traversal technology was also known as space leap technology.

Any cosmic spaceship that was even slightly high-grade possessed the ability to "space leap."

However, the "space leap" capability of the latter was vastly different compared to the former.

As everyone knew, cosmic space was an irregular, curved surface.

The void was also divided into multiple layers, much like a layer cake, stacked one upon another.

Before the twelfth level, the ability to break through several layers of the void was also an important standard to measure a martial artist's martial prowess.

It was also the concept that Lu Sheng had previously understood—the breaking of combat power limits.

An ordinary cosmic spaceship, when performing a space leap, utilized the gaps between the layers within space.

By passing through them, it achieved the goal of exceeding the speed of light and shortening the distance.

To put it simply, it was squeezing in from one gap and then squeezing out from another gap.

During this process, the spaceship ran faster than light.

On the other hand, stargate traversal, which was the true space leap.

Was the process of breaking the space at this location to arrive at another location in space.

If the void were compared to sheets of paper stacked together.

The former was passing through the gaps between the pieces of paper.

While the latter.

Was penetrating the paper, entering from the front side of the paper and emerging from the reverse side.

The difficulty and technical sophistication of the two.

Were entirely on different levels.

And the spatial hole generated by breaking the paper was called—a stargate.

Lu Sheng's previous judgment was not wrong.

What he had perceived, those "transparent" forces that seemed to melt like wax.

Were the most pure forces of space.

"Then, if one masters the power of space, would they possess the ability to traverse a stargate with their physical body?"

With a stir of his mind, Lu Sheng posed this question to the Haiji Blade.