Chapter 741

Chapter 741: Sailing in Person

In the year 6311 of the Xia calendar, the second batch of Space Mother Ships set off for a space voyage.

In the year 6316 of the Xia calendar, the third batch of Space Mother Ships departed.

That same year, the first batch of Space Mother Ships returned, with all 3,000 astronauts coming back safely and bringing back extremely valuable cosmic information, especially some space experiments, which were a first.

At this time, astronomical telescopes were also very advanced, capable of observing distant parts of the universe, but the observations from Shen Continent were different from those at the edge of the solar system.

In the year 6326 of the Xia calendar, after ten years, the fourth batch of Space Mother Ships set off. Each batch of Space Mother Ships has different purposes for their voyages, including mapping space flight routes, which is as precious as the sea charts created during the great geographical discoveries.

After the fourth batch of Space Mother Ships set out, plans for the fifth batch were initiated. The fifth batch will be a brand new Space Mother Ship, making it technically the fourth generation, with faster speeds and higher safety.

Time moved to the year 6340 of the Xia calendar, when the fifth batch of Space Mother Ships departed. A month before their departure, Lin Jiang and Cao Ying announced they would go into seclusion and positioned their trusted associates in key roles for protection.

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"This is Lunar Base."

Cao Ying and Lin Jiang took the teleportation array and arrived at Lunar Base. The two of them walked outside Lunar Base, and all they could see was a desolate area, nothing but sand and stones.

"This is Lunar Base. Haven’t we seen it before?"

"What we’ve seen are just images and videos. It’s not the same as seeing it in person."

"How does it feel?"

"Not great. There’s no life, it’s too empty. By the way, can’t we use current technology to make the moon a livable planet?"

"No, we can’t. The technology for ecosystems hasn’t advanced enough. We can’t turn the entire moon into a huge ecosystem, and the moon’s environment won’t allow it. Blue Star has life for a scientific reason."

Lin Jiang said that Blue Star is the planet where the cultivation world is located, and he named it. The same goes for Venus and Jupiter; this solar system is not the same as that one.

The technology for ecosystems is still not fully developed. Lunar Base has existed for over a hundred years, but it can only survive because of the constant support from Blue Star. Without support, problems would arise in just a few decades.

To turn a planet into a livable one, certain conditions are needed, like how far it is from the sun. If it’s too far, it won’t work; if it’s too close, that won’t work either. There are also gravity issues and other complicated matters that Lin Jiang doesn’t really understand.

"What will happen to this plan? Cape III Planet might not be able to…"

"Shh, we’ll talk about it later."

Lin Jiang shook his head, and Cao Ying quickly closed her mouth. She looked at the nearby Blue Star, which seemed close but was actually far away.

Lin Jiang and the others stayed at Lunar Base for about half a month to help the new crew adjust. This group of five thousand crew members had only about one thousand who had been on more than three long voyages, and many were newcomers. However, as the training system was completed, their training time would become shorter.

After half a month, the Space Mother Ship set off. Once it flew away from the moon, it began to speed up, eventually reaching nearly four hundred Mach. Four hundred Mach is not the limit, but generally, it won’t increase anymore because going faster would cause more wear and tear on the Space Mother Ship.

When the Space Mother Ship gets close to certain celestial bodies, it will use their gravity to go even faster. How fast exactly is still unknown and will be arranged by the captain.

The Space Mother Ship is very large, and with its gravity system, it usually feels no different from Blue Star.

"So beautiful!"

As they passed by a planet, Cao Ying saw a beautiful ring of satellites around it. It was a view that could not be seen from Blue Star.

"When space technology breaks through and we find a habitable planet, we can have real space travel."

"Do you really think there are aliens?"

"Yes, Yang Luo is one of them. She is definitely not from our planet."

Lin Jiang said, in fact, he was also an alien but did not know how to say it. If there was a chance one day, he might go back to see it.

However, Lin Jiang’s memories of Blue Star were fading, as he had only lived there for a little over twenty years, while here he had lived for thousands of years.

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On the Space Mother Ship, not everyone had to be on duty. Normally, only about one-third of the crew was needed. The rest had time off and could even sleep in a sleeping chamber, but besides the old crew members, no one else would sleep, as this was a rare life experience.

The others lived normal lives, going to work and back, and could practice too. The Space Mother Ship had plenty of spiritual energy provided by spirit stones.

Lin Jiang and Cao Ying quickly began their training, after all, even the beauty of space can become boring if you see it too much.

Three years later, the Space Mother Ship arrived at the edge of the solar system, still billions of kilometers away from the sun, but the temperature here was already much higher than that on Blue Star.

The Space Mother Ship continued to fly forward, their ultimate goal was a planet they named Cape III, located in the center of another star system and theoretically a habitable planet, though they had not found any signs of life.

In the eighth year, they arrived at Cape III and successfully landed; there was already a space base on Cape III, built from materials left over from the previous two space journeys.

This time, they brought more materials to expand the base, with a long-term plan to develop it into a scale similar to Lunar Base before their tenth journey, capable of supporting operations for over thirty years without any supplies.

And this was not the final plan; the ultimate goal was to turn this place into a relay station, where they could produce Space Mother Ships for even further space exploration.

"Personnel below Golden Core Stage are temporarily not allowed to leave the Space Mother Ship; there is a threat of cosmic rays in Cape III…"

"Engineers, put on your heavy space suits and exit the ship…"

"Command personnel, control the robots…"

The captain continuously broadcasted from the Space Mother Ship, mobilizing five thousand crew members. Besides Lin Jiang and one other person, there were several dozens of cultivators above Golden Core Stage who could move around freely, but they were not allowed to be away for too long.

Over a hundred engineers, wearing space suits, exited the Space Mother Ship and began working with the command personnel inside the ship to operate thousands of robots.

After half a month, the base expansion project was completed; mainly, there was now a protective shield outside to prevent harm from cosmic rays and similar threats.

With the expansion project finished, the interior factory started, focusing mainly on internal renovations, such as setting up warehouses and dormitories.

"Elders, I will be very busy from now on. The inside is a total mess. I still need to arrange the outer defense project and set up the surveillance for Cape III space, and I also need to…"

"Captain, I understand what you mean. You do your work; I won’t go down for now. I will go down in half a month; that should keep you busy, right?"

"Half a month is enough. Thank you for your understanding, elders."

"Go ahead."

"Yes."

After sending the captain away, Lin Jiang and Cao Ying glanced at each other, and then Lin Jiang took control of the Space Mother Ship.

They did not stay inside the Space Mother Ship but flew directly to the other side of Cape III.

"Uncle, did we bring everything?"

"Yes, we have everything, and the substitute has been made, so there’s no problem."

"Uncle, is it really okay for us to do this? Can we really trick the way of heaven?"

"To be honest, I don’t know. My understanding of the way of heaven and immortals is based on reasoning. I can’t verify if it’s true; we can only take a chance."

Lin Jiang said that many years ago, after Feng Jiu appeared, he had been reasoning about the words Feng Jiu spoke.

Becoming an immortal has been a trick since ancient times.

And Feng Jiu was the one who achieved Tao by embodying it, making up for the way of heaven. So Lin Jiang speculated that immortals might have some connection to the way of heaven, or even that the immortals are the way of heaven, and the way of heaven is the immortals.

This guess has no theoretical basis, but Lin Jiang couldn’t think of any other possibilities; other guesses are easier to disprove.

So Lin Jiang carefully planned this voyage. If his guess is true, then no matter what they say or do on Blue Star, they are being watched by the way of heaven. Therefore, far away from Blue Star, billions of kilometers out, should be beyond his watch.

Here, he refines a clone to prepare for future use; it might save his life one day.

"I have one more question. After you refine the clone, do you go back to Blue Star as your true self or as the clone?"

Cao Ying said that a clone is different from a transformation; a transformation is formed by gathering spiritual energy and spirit, which needs constant replenishment, or it will disappear.

A clone, on the other hand, is made from external materials that last for thousands of years. The spirit resides within, and it is very similar to the true self, making it hard for people to discover; if done well, they might not even notice.

Back then, the high-ranking officials of Yun State used this method when they lost their bodies in Qing State; in the end, they transformed because their lifespan was up; otherwise, they could still survive.

"Guess."

Lin Jiang smiled faintly, showing a mysterious expression. Can such things really be spoken aloud?