Chapter Sixty-Seven: Secrets of the Universe

Chapter Sixty-Seven: Cosmic Secrets

As the saying goes, “A man without windfall wealth will not submit; a horse without night grass will not grow fat.” At this moment, Liu Shaoyu truly felt… he had struck it rich. And not just a little—he was fabulously wealthy! Never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined that beyond the arched gate lay a massive warehouse—an ice ore warehouse! The ice ores here were mostly the size of goose eggs, neatly arranged in rows upon rows on racks that connected throughout the entire cavern.

The racks themselves were oddly shaped—at least in Liu Shaoyu’s eyes—but that hardly mattered. What mattered was their sheer number. There were so many racks, he couldn’t begin to count them…

Compared to the small, desolate mines those explorers had opened in the wasteland star fields, this ice ore storage was like the difference between a grand mining facility and a tiny, unproductive coal pit—a coal pit so negligible that all the mines combined couldn’t compare.

Happiness had come so suddenly… Of course, Liu Shaoyu was sensible enough to realize that without Carter, he would never have laid eyes on these ice ores. Even if he had discovered this place, he couldn’t have dealt with the creature below just now. The kind of weapon needed to kill that beast would require a warship too large to bring inside.

And even if you managed to bring one in, a single shot would destroy the ice ores along with the beast.

So Liu Shaoyu stayed prudent and kept silent.

“Fly your ship overhead. Take as much as you can load; the rest is mine.” Carter spoke with that usual, indifferent calm.

Liu Shaoyu was more than satisfied with this outcome! As much as he could carry! He could hardly imagine it—if he crammed every possible space aboard his starship, he could easily hold at least 3,000 cubic meters.

What did that mean? It was nearly the sum of all the ice ores Earth Federation had mined since the beginning! If he sold this haul at current black market prices, the phrase “wealth to rival nations” would no longer suffice.

But of course, the scarcer a resource, the higher its price. If he suddenly dumped a shipload of ice ores onto the market, prices would quickly drop. Worse still, once others realized he was the owner of this cache, endless trouble would follow.

Liu Shaoyu was well aware of the old adage: “An innocent man gets into trouble for carrying a precious jade.” He understood perfectly.

“Thank you,” Liu Shaoyu said sincerely. This was a tremendous favor, and Carter had given it freely. Yet Liu Shaoyu couldn’t help but wonder—why him?

Perhaps sensing the ripple in Liu Shaoyu’s thoughts, Carter smiled gently at his words of thanks and replied, “You feel… familiar to me.”

Familiar? Liu Shaoyu was puzzled by Carter’s words. Why familiar? He could have understood anger, but this sense of familiarity…

“Why?” Liu Shaoyu asked, true to his nature of seeking to understand.

Carter laughed. “I can’t say. You simply feel familiar. Sometimes I think I’ve met you before, or you remind me of someone. It’s been so long, I can’t remember everything.”

Liu Shaoyu found it hard to accept this answer. Can’t remember? Who wouldn’t remember such a thing? Yet Carter always seemed to let slip hints about her age—an age Liu Shaoyu could not even imagine. A thousand years? Two thousand?

“How long is ‘so long’?” Liu Shaoyu pressed, determined to keep asking.

“Hmm…” Carter truly seemed to be calculating, and after a pause, she said, “So long ago that the universe was still small.”

If what Liu Shaoyu had seen today had already shattered his worldview, this sentence smashed it to pieces, ground it into dust, and scattered it to the winds.

The universe was still small… My god! Isn’t the universe infinite?

Liu Shaoyu’s eyes nearly bulged from his sockets, though his helmet concealed his expression. Humans may be able to mask their faces, but not their feelings.

Carter sensed the enormous impact her words had had on Liu Shaoyu. But soon, she felt the strange mental ripple subside. Liu Shaoyu had calmed himself.

It wasn’t the revelation itself that shocked Liu Shaoyu, but the confirmation of his own suspicions. How many times had he gazed at the galaxy and wondered: where does the universe end?

He had always believed the universe must have boundaries, like a planet—humanity simply hadn’t reached its edges yet. Much like in ancient times, when humans thought the sky was round and the earth square.

His muddled eyes grew clear again as he regained his composure. Now that he knew his guess was right, he resolved that one day, he would see it for himself.

For the first time, Liu Shaoyu felt an inkling of approval for the “God Project” that had granted him infinite life. For only with infinite time could he reach that goal.

“And you?” Once calm, Liu Shaoyu turned to Carter, who was watching him.

Carter didn’t answer directly. Instead, her gaze grew curious, and she murmured as if to herself, “Humans truly are a fascinating species. To think they can consciously expand their own mental domain… I can hardly imagine what humanity in this universe might become if this continues.”

Liu Shaoyu didn’t understand Carter’s cryptic words, but he didn’t pursue it. Half-jokingly, he asked, “Will they become like you, perhaps?”

But he tucked Carter’s words away in his heart. The humans of this universe—the implications were staggering.

Carter merely smiled at Liu Shaoyu’s question, her expression giving him the sense that she could see through everything.

“There’s something I’ve always wanted to ask you,” Liu Shaoyu finally said, unable to hold back.

“Go ahead,” Carter replied, that gentle smile still on her face.

“Don’t you hate me for what happened to your star system?” Liu Shaoyu truly didn’t know how to bring it up, but this question had been stuck in his heart like a thorn. If Carter, Queen of the Fengtowers, still looked like the mother-insect he once knew, perhaps he would have felt no guilt. But now, with her appearing human and having been so kind to him from the start, he was utterly perplexed.

Carter’s smile didn’t fade at his question, but a trace of solemnity appeared in her expression. “Well, about that… Humanity is invincible. Isn’t that right?”

Her answer was not as grave as Liu Shaoyu had expected. Instead, it was as simple and decisive as a woman deciding whether to wear makeup before going out.

Yet Liu Shaoyu heard something else in that answer.

Humanity is invincible? But which humanity did she mean—the humanity of this universe, or another?

To the readers:

Forgot to set the timer, so today’s update is a bit late~