Chapter 34: A Successful Crossing: Blueprints for the Future

The viscous, twisted, and chaotic colors—capable of devouring perception and reason—receded rapidly from the massive observation windows of the "Homeward" like an ebbing tide.

The century-long, grotesque visual deceptions and mental whispers came to an abrupt end.

Suddenly, the field of vision widened. A deep, vast, yet remarkably "normal" cosmic starry sky unfolded slowly before the bridge, like a long-awaited tapestry.

No longer the sanity-shattering trickery of the Boundary Sea. This was a real, cold, and physics-abiding deep space.

Darkness was the primary theme, yet it was dotted with an ocean of stars far denser and more radiant than any known in the previous universe!

Countless massive galactic spiral arms, like diamond dust sprinkled upon a slab of black jade, emitted soft or searing light.

Vast supercluster structures loomed in the distance, their scale and complex architecture far exceeding the records of the known universe!

As far as the eye could see, stars were as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, signaling the boundless expanse and vibrant vitality of this unknown universe.

*Hum—*

Internal communication channels on the bridge instantly regained clarity.

"Flagship 'Ark' calling 'Homeward'! Repeat, flagship calling tail-ship! Boundary Sea interference has vanished, all fleet communication links are restored! Signal clear! Repeat, signal clear!"

No longer the arduous relay of physical signals that had defined the past century, clear and stable electromagnetic waves instantly traversed the length of the massive fleet.

Hefeng stood at the very front of the "Homeward" bridge, his tall, straight frame once again clad in his Celestial King armor. Beneath his chest, the wound had faded into a faint, barely visible pink scar, thanks to top-tier medical technology and his own powerful regenerative abilities.

With his hands clasped behind his back, his brown pupils reflected the brilliant and alien star-sea outside the porthole. An indescribable torrent, a mixture of relief, exhilaration, and ambition, surged through his heart—a heart that had been silent for a hundred years.

Finally... we are out!

The century-long passage through the Boundary Sea had been like trekking through a viscous nightmare.

Every visual distortion, every deception of perception, had been accompanied by constant vigilance against the unknown and heavy contemplation of the fate of their spark. Now, the nightmare had ended, and before him lay an unprecedented, vast world!

"Heh..." A low, powerful chuckle escaped Hefeng’s throat.

He lifted his chin slightly, his chiseled profile catching the starlight, giving his skin the appearance of cold, hard metal.

The suppression of a century, the gloom of exile, the memories of pain—at this moment, they were washed away by this vast, infinite, and potential-filled star field!

This was the land of rebirth!

This was the cradle of the new civilization he would create with his own hands!

On the bridge, all officers and staff held their breath, their eyes burning as they gazed at the radiant star-sea, then looking with reverence at the back that stood like a pillar of stability.

The ecstatic joy of having survived and the longing for the future filled the air in silence.

Hefeng’s thoughts churned violently, like a supernova in eruption.

Scale! Potential!

The scale of this unknown universe was no less than the one they had left behind!

Those dense, countless supercluster structures meant innumerable superclusters, innumerable galaxy groups, and innumerable... cradles of life!

Resources? Here, they must be inexhaustible!

Space? Here, there was enough to accommodate thousands, even tens of thousands of glorious Angel civilizations! The foundation for development was already in place!

Race! Future!

A cold thought flashed through Hefeng's mind, carrying the ruthlessness of absolute rationality. The Angel race? No! Absolutely not!

The fatal weakness of the Angel civilization appeared clearly in his mind: a long growth cycle and inefficient natural reproduction.

An average Angel couple took a thousand years or more to produce one infant. This was... too slow.

And how many Angels did he have now? Over three million!

Sounds like a lot? For a civilization aspiring to surpass the past and dominate the star-sea, this population was not even enough to fill the gaps between their teeth! It was a drop in the bucket!

The old Angel civilization’s doctrine of pure-blood supremacy and isolationist racism? That was a self-binding act of folly! It was a shackle that even that fool Hua Ye and later Kaisha had failed to fully shake off!

Hefeng’s thinking, like a cold blade, instantly severed this dead end.

Diversification! Integration!

A clear and grand blueprint quickly took shape in his mind—a Pan-Shenhe (God-River) super-civilization!

Core race: Angels (as the civilization’s leadership, high-level combat force, research elites, and spiritual symbols).

Primary races: Absorb, integrate, and assimilate all races in this unknown universe that possess high intelligence, great potential for development, and meet the "Shenhe" (humanoid) standard!

What were their advantages? Rapid reproduction! Large base numbers! Strong learning capabilities! They could quickly fill the industrial base, agricultural foundation, logistics support, grassroots management... all fields requiring a massive population!

Use their quantity to support the quality of the Angels! Use their cultural diversity to inject vitality and resilience into the new civilization!

Intermarriage? Encourage it! It must even be promoted as a national policy of the new civilization! Accelerate genetic fusion, optimize the potential of descendants, and fundamentally solve the population bottleneck of the Angel race! Let the blood of the new civilization flow ceaselessly!

As for those who were not Shenhe-type?

A cold arc curled at the corner of Hefeng’s mouth, like a god looking down upon ants.

Beast-types?

Those who fit his aesthetic, had a mild temperament, and decent intelligence? Keep them in captivity as pets, laborers, or even as scenery for certain special planets to add some "wild charm" to the new civilization.

Those who were grotesque and ugly, had low brain development, and could not be assimilated due to reproductive isolation?

Or those who posed a potential threat and attempted to challenge the status of the Shenhe-type?

Heh... Eliminate them! Without mercy!

If they occupied planets rich in resources? Direct planetary bombardment!

The resources of the universe are only meant to be dominated by the highly intelligent Shenhe-type! Inferior races have no room to survive!

Benevolence? That is a facade left for future subjects, never an excuse for tolerating potential threats!

"Besides, do I, Hefeng, have benevolence?"

"The lives of the male angels under the lords!"

"Or the lives of the female angels of Meiluo!"

"I have killed no fewer than Su Mali!"

"Tri-body?"

Hefeng’s gaze turned into ten-thousand-year-old ice.

Although this unknown universe might not contain such disgusting things, if these trash creatures existed, one must be prepared.

Those marine soft-bodied monsters that deluded themselves into ruling, destroying, and enslaving all Shenhe and Beast types were his natural, irreconcilable enemies!

Once their tracks were found, there was only one policy: slaughter and expulsion! Use all power to completely erase them from his sphere of influence!

He would never allow such a twisted, anti-civilization tumor to exist!

Power! Efficiency!

The new blueprint required absolute execution! It required a highly concentrated will! Hefeng’s thoughts jumped from macro-racial strategy to the core of the power structure.

The Three Kings Era? Hefeng sneered in his heart.

Kaisha’s ideas of "separation of powers and checks and balances" and "learning from Hua Ye's authoritarian lessons" were, in his view, purely overcorrecting and a waste of time! It was a hotbed for internal friction! It was the root cause of low development efficiency!

He knew history too well (the advantage of a transmigrator was like a beacon here). In the original animation, how long did the so-called "Three Kings Era" last?

In the end, didn't it return to being dominated by one person under Kaisha’s absolute power and prestige? Separation of powers? That was just her needing to find the right path for the future of female angels, and it was the biggest stumbling block in the civilization's rising phase!

"Authoritarianism is not wrong!" Hefeng declared firmly in his heart. "What is wrong is that piece of trash Hua Ye who was controlled by his lower half! A wise, powerful, and goal-oriented dictator is the optimal solution to lead a nascent civilization to carve out a bloody path and develop rapidly in a cruel universe!"

The new civilization was in its infancy, everything needed to be rebuilt, and strong enemies lurked (potentially). Time was life!

Efficiency was everything!

Any pointless debate, check, balance, or buck-passing was consuming precious resources for survival and development!

Moreover...

Hefeng squinted slightly, feeling the surging power within his body and the reverent, dependent gazes of everyone on the bridge, as if they were looking up at a god.

Prestige? He, Hefeng, had planned and executed the breakout from the Sea of Rage, the Great Plunder of the Heavenly City, and the passage through the Boundary Sea!

He was the undisputed creator and savior of this "spark" fleet! His prestige had already surpassed that of a "Legion Commander" and reached the height of a "Father of Civilization"!

In this fleet of exiles, his will was law!

Ability? A ten-thousand-year god of war, a grandmaster of swordsmanship, a strategic master! Whether in battlefield slaughter or macro-layout, he had already proven his irreplaceable value with countless victories!

The new civilization needs to develop technology? He had the top team of scientists!

Need military power? He had battle-hardened veterans tempered by blood and fire!

Need resource integration? He had emptied the essence of the Heavenly City! His ability was enough to support the authority of a dictator!

Name and reality? He was now the supreme leader of this fleet!

Both in name and in reality!

Declare a dictatorship? It was not usurpation, but a logical step to give an existing fact a more efficient and legitimate form! Let the gears of power rotate without any unnecessary friction!

"I am destined to be this great dictator!"

Hefeng’s heart surged with unquestionable determination, and a majestic aura of controlling everything radiated invisibly, causing the officers behind him to instinctively straighten their backs.

"The new civilization I founded can only, and must only, be shaped by my will!"

This was a requirement of efficiency! A requirement for survival! It was the only guarantee that the spark of civilization could turn into a prairie fire in the shortest possible time!

He did not need constraints, he did not need checks and balances, he did not need endless arguments.

His will was the will of the civilization!

His strategy was the direction of the civilization!

Any behavior that dared to challenge this absolute authority or hinder the efficiency of the civilization's development would be ruthlessly crushed!

This was both for his personal desire for power and for the lives of the more than three million followers behind him.

He was power-hungry; that was a fact, and he never hid it!

"Only absolute power can ensure that my blueprint takes root and sprouts in this alien star-sea with the highest efficiency and minimum loss, until... it covers the sky!"

The top priority: Home Planet!

A grand blueprint needs a foundation to land on. Hefeng’s gaze, like a cosmic probe, swept across the brilliant and alien star-sea outside the porthole.

A planet! A super-giant life-bearing planet capable of carrying the takeoff of the new civilization!

It must satisfy:

Huge: Capable of easily accommodating the explosive growth of a future population in the hundreds of billions, with vast lands, oceans, and atmospheric space.

Rich: Containing abundant conventional resources (water, minerals, biomass) and rare strategic resources (high-energy crystals, rare metals), sufficient to support initial industrial explosions and future interstellar expansion.

Stable: Geologically stable, suitable stellar illumination, with a stable atmosphere and magnetic field, and no frequent extinction-level natural disasters (such as supervolcanoes, orbital disturbances, or extreme climates).

Potential: Possessing a complex and diverse ecosystem, capable of providing valuable samples for genetic research and biotechnology, and potentially even containing unique, undiscovered energy or rule characteristics.

"Scan!" Hefeng’s voice was cold and clear, breaking the silence of the bridge with an unquestionable command. "Activate all deep-space detection arrays! Maximum power!"

"Scan all star systems within a radius of 100 million light-years! Search for super-giant terrestrial planets that meet the criteria! Evaluate their life signal intensity, resource abundance, and environmental stability!"

"Yes, General!" The bridge instantly became busy, the humming of various instruments sounded, a huge holographic star map unfolded in the center, and countless detection beams shot into the deep starry sky like invisible tentacles.

"Order all resource exploration ships," Hefeng continued to command, his thoughts meticulous, "simultaneously mark all valuable resource points along the main fleet route: high-concentration energy veins, rare metal asteroid belts, and collectible deep-atmosphere gases from gas giants."

"Whether we can use them now or not, mark and catalog everything! This is a strategic reserve for the future!"

"Yes! Mark all resource points!"

Hefeng’s gaze became deeper, carrying the caution of a seasoned politician.

"The fleet will maintain silent navigation mode. If any nuclear-pre-civilization, feudal civilization, or primitive civilization (those that have not mastered interstellar navigation) is discovered on the route..."

His tone was flat, yet carried the indifference of a higher civilization looking down on ants: "No contact, no interference, no attention. Just record their coordinates and approximate civilization level."

"Our goal now is the home planet, not to be interstellar nannies or cosmic conquerors. That is a waste of time."

"Conquering the unknown universe is something for later!"

"What if... we discover traces of a God-making civilization (those that have mastered gene engines, dark energy driving, and other god-level technologies)?"

Hefeng’s brow furrowed imperceptibly; this was the worst-case scenario.

But he immediately regained his composure: "Maintain the highest level of alert! But still take peaceful avoidance as the first principle!"

"Unless the other party attacks first, never initiate hostilities!"

"Report immediately, adjust the fleet's course, and stay away from their sphere of influence! The resources and technology we carry cannot be lost; now is not the time to clash head-on with an opponent of the same level!"

He paused, adding with a tone of unquestionable confidence: "Of course, given the rarity of God-making civilizations in the known universe, the probability of encountering one is slim. But a contingency plan is a must."

The officers on the bridge received the orders solemnly. The General's instructions were clear, calm, and goal-oriented, full of pragmatism and foresight, which greatly soothed everyone's anxiety about arriving in an unfamiliar star field.

Hefeng took one last look at the boundless, star-studded universe outside the porthole, his heart surging with immense passion and heavy responsibility.

The unknown universe is boundless.

The seeds of the new civilization have already been sown.

The shackles of the past have been severed by the Boundary Sea.

The road ahead is a sea of stars, a path of arduous struggle, a pioneering journey of iron and blood!

With absolute will, he would steer this Ark carrying over three million sparks and, on this brand-new canvas, personally paint a magnificent blueprint of a Pan-Shenhe super-civilization—one that far surpassed the past and belonged solely to him, Hefeng!

The dictator's scepter was firmly in his grasp, and the great ship of civilization had officially set sail!

"Continue sailing, target: Deep Space!"

Hefeng’s voice, like a horn for an expedition, echoed through the bridge.

"Set off!"