41 The Ultimate Weapon of Humanity
The heart of the forbidden zone.
The armored searchlights failed to dispel all the darkness.
Lu Chen could just make out a familiar silhouette.
A raised dorsal radar, massive wings inscribed with crimson runic arrays, and a pair of eyes that were themselves large laser cannons...
It was the Dragon-class Battleship from the game "Galaxy," the most dazzling vessel featured in the promotional trailers and opening cinematics, alongside the Soaring Dragon Cruiser and the Star Dragon Mothership.
A hundred thousand years ago, it was precisely these three Dragon-class ships that enabled humanity to step beyond their homeworld and, step by step, conquer the entire Milky Way.
Of course, the true trio that established human order was: the warp engine, planetary formation arrays, and the wide-area spiritual net.
According to the game's official lore, after a wave of spiritual energy revival and the development of cultivation technology, humanity became the only intelligent civilization in the galaxy to surpass Kardashev Type II.
Lacking warp engines, all other civilizations could, at best, conquer only their own star systems.
And a single Dragon-class Battleship was designed to be powerful enough to subdue a stellar-level civilization.
The Dragon-class Battleship was ten times the size of the Leonin, equipped with a first-generation Level 60 warp engine, and internally armed with secret weapons not yet revealed in the game.
Unfortunately, the Dragon-class Battleship, Soaring Dragon Cruiser, and Star Dragon Mothership were ancient relics, only appearing in flashback animations and museums within the game, never available for players to pilot.
Lu Chen finally understood.
The cultivators on the True Spirit Continent were not natives, but early human conquerors. The so-called Outer Demons were probably the indigenous inhabitants.
Humans, who should have enacted genocide, instead sealed away the Dragon-class Battleships, regressed to a cultivation civilization, and attempted peaceful coexistence with the natives.
The outcome was predictable...
It could not be called naïve; in fact, it was a kind of utopian attempt at peace.
At the very least, maintaining an external enemy kept humanity united—on the True Spirit Continent, the five great sects lived together in harmony.
But once the external enemy was gone, humanity turned on itself, just as it was now—brother fighting brother.
In other words, the war raging outside the forbidden zone was not a righteous-versus-demonic battle, but a civilization war that had continued from ancient times to the present day!
Through the ship's cameras, Lu Chen saw that reinforcements from the five great sects had arrived, joining Golia and Aili to defend the Forbidden Mountain.
Several thousand had come.
All the sect leaders were present, and the rest were all Foundation Establishment cultivators of at least Level 20.
The elders of each sect stayed behind to protect the lower-level disciples.
Outside the forbidden zone, the mountain-guarding formation was on the verge of collapse.
Sect masters and disciples alike fought hand-to-hand with millions of Outer Demons—spirit tools clashing, spells colliding.
Individually, human cultivators held an overwhelming advantage.
But the Outer Demons were simply too numerous.
Moreover, most of them seemed to have lost their intellect, adopting a hive-mind, mindless assault reminiscent of a swarm-like race.
They focused their assault on the forbidden zone, obviously aware that a terrifying weapon was hidden within.
The battle outside was fiercely brutal.
Lu Chen had no time to waste.
He had to activate the Dragon-class Battleship as quickly as possible to wipe out these Outer Demons in one fell swoop...
"Wait, am I here to save the world or to seek treasure? Aren't these Outer Demons just trying to reclaim their homeland? Is that a crime? Had it not been for humanity, would they have mutated like this?"
Since attaining the power of resonance, Lu Chen found his sympathy and empathy growing overwhelming.
He suddenly wondered:
Does morality truly exist?
The core of morality is the protection of the weak.
Its subtext: only the strong can protect the weak.
Therefore, one must first become strong, first win, to be qualified to even speak of morality.
The weak can only beg for mercy; they are not even capable of discussing morality.
"No matter what, with Golia holding the line, Leonin and Aili are in no danger. I'll board the ship and investigate—maybe there's some treasure to be found!"
With this thought, Lu Chen strode up to the Dragon-class Battleship.
He reached out to touch the ship's ancient hull, brushing off the dust—astonished to find not a trace of rust.
Though the technology of that era was average, the abundance of spiritual energy, along with the fusion of high-level beast bone and ancient wood, meant the ship's materials were of a higher quality than anything now.
"If I could pilot this Dragon-class Battleship—eliminate the Outer Demons and become a hero, while also gaining a priceless ancient starship—I’d be set for life!"
The Battleship's level was simply too high—even the thinnest laser blade could not pry open the hatch.
The defensive runes inside were too powerful.
Fortunately, the laser had at least sliced through the protective membrane outside the runes.
Lu Chen pressed his palm against the gap, channeling Level 10 resonance energy, quickly spreading it through the entire ship.
[Dragon-class Battleship from humanity’s homeworld, first-generation warp engine, Level 60 spiritual energy reaction, flight control system manually locked, locator deactivated.]
His resonance scan matched the ship's own status.
The ship was still in good condition.
No repairs necessary.
It showed that those who decided to seal the Dragon-class Battleship had still left humanity a way out.
Fortunately, the ship was only highly secure on defense; its anti-theft measures were limited by the rune locks of that era. After a hundred thousand years, even a car thief could probably crack them.
As long as he could channel spiritual energy through the entire rune array, Lu Chen didn’t even need a specialized decoder; he unlocked the ship manually.
The hatch opened, and the runic and electrical systems automatically reactivated.
Yes, humanity still used electricity back then...
Runic encryption not only required the correct logic, but the unlocking energy had to match the encrypted runes.
Electronic encryption, Lu Chen could bypass with a decoder.
Even quantum encryption could be solved with a bit more spiritual energy.
Thus, the most challenging part—the hatch—Lu Chen had already conquered with resonance power.
He entered the Dragon-class Battleship with ease.
A glance revealed that the design from a hundred thousand years ago...
Its general layout was the same as modern ships, but the styling was archaic and bulky, lacking the miniaturization and integration of today.
Also, the cockpit offered only a large screen, with no modern integrated five-sense holographic interface.
At the center, there was a sword-key!
It was an ancient sword, heavy and plain, covered in runes, planted upright in a slot before the control console.
Lu Chen guessed this was the manual helm for piloting the ship.
It was the captain’s sword—only the captain could manually fly the vessel.
He checked the solid-state spiritual battery; it was completely depleted.
Fortunately, there was a sealed backup cell.
Lu Chen, using his armor while the flight control system was still offline, manually retrieved the backup battery from the rear compartment and swapped it in.
The backup still retained a tenth of its energy.
A tenth after a hundred thousand years—not bad at all!
Lu Chen glanced at the battle outside the forbidden zone.
The five sect leaders and their disciples no longer split their forces for defense, but instead gathered at the entrance, joining Golia, Aili, and the Leonin to guard the gateway.
They had arranged their forces tactically, with the strongest leaders and disciples at the front, while the rear deployed healing formations to replenish those on the front lines.
Casualties had dropped sharply!
Lu Chen breathed a sigh of relief.
He promptly unlocked and turned the central sword, activating the ship’s control system.
The ring of lights flared to life, illuminating the cabin as bright as day.
The posters plastered on the walls revealed just how grand and passionate the Age of Great Voyages had been.
Nations and peoples united, abolishing all national distinctions, to form a single interstellar species—humanity.
Of course, to other interstellar species, humanity was nothing less than a demon.
According to the game’s backstory, humanity’s homeworld, Canglan, was a parallel version of Earth.
In the one hundred and twenty-first century, ten thousand years after the spiritual revival, humanity had mastered warp technology, assembled a space fleet, and prepared to explore the stars.
The plan was: if encountering advanced or equal civilizations, the fleet would steer clear.
If encountering less advanced intelligent civilizations, there were three options:
Annihilationists: Destroy all alien intelligent species on contact.
Conquerors: Subdue and enslave alien intelligence for profit.
Coexistence: Coexist with alien species and establish a Galactic Federation.
The coexistence faction was discarded from the outset.
At first, the conquerors had the upper hand.
But most humans soon recalled the resurgence of a certain great nation...
In the end, the United Nations Assembly called for a global vote, and the annihilationists gradually won out.
In other words, even the naïve and ignorant masses were naïve no longer.
During the Security Council vote, only that resurgent nation abstained; the rest voted for annihilation.
Afterwards, humanity spent decades developing secret weapons sufficient to destroy civilizations.
Lu Chen immediately unlocked the most critical weapon system in the controls, finally laying eyes on the legendary arsenal.
He finally saw the full form of the ultimate weapon, capable of annihilating an entire civilization.
"This is..."