Chapter 617 - 373: Li Family Treasure Vault and the Maiden Voyage of the First Exotic Beast Stellar Mother Ship
Chapter 617: Chapter 373: Li Family Treasure Vault and the Maiden Voyage of the First Exotic Beast Stellar Mother Ship
A global live broadcast.
This Aerospace Carrier, converted from the remains of an Exotic Beast, was named the "Profound Nether." Its origins gave it a ferocious appearance, and shrouded in the black mist, it looked all the more sinister, monstrous, and terrifying.
Even with numerous searchlights deployed and the first-generation prototype "Artificial Little Sun" launched into the sky, the black mist was so dense that the live broadcast footage still lacked clarity.
However, this turned out to be a happy accident. The resulting gritty, low-visibility footage only made the vessel appear more mighty, somber, and intimidating.
Li Xiang and Jiang Cai’Er stood together before the floor-to-ceiling windows of the command tower, gazing at the immense "Aerial Fortress." Converted from a Divine Tier Exotic Beast, it fused the pinnacles of both beast biology and human technology. On the ship’s bow, the gilt, seal-script characters spelling out "Profound Nether" flickered in and out of the darkness.
"All units, final self-check complete!" a voice crackled over the comms from the bridge.
Thirty thousand crew members in silver-gray G-suits bustled through the honeycomb-like bridge, holographic projections casting streams of data in colored blocks onto their retinas. Wang Lei, the engineer in charge of the engine array, repeatedly rubbed the City No. 03 insignia on his chest—it was the memento his father had clutched when he sacrificed his life during the third Beast Tide.
The moment the countdown hit zero, eight hundred anti-gravity units hummed to life in unison, and debris for miles around floated into the air, defying the laws of physics. Live cameras captured the historic moment from thirty-six angles: the hull, sheathed in Biological Armor, shimmered with a mother-of-pearl iridescence, while plasma streams from one hundred and twenty thousand vector thrusters tore the clouds into spiraling ribbons of light.
"We are witnessing a civilizational leap!" the commentator’s voice was hoarse with excitement. The camera cut to the eco-bay, where two hundred thousand Bixiao Vines, serving as the core of the oxygen recycling system, suddenly bloomed as one. In the artificial gravity field, pale gold pollen formed a vortex like a miniature Star River.
In a bar in a North American Underground City, the patrons in their AR glasses suddenly fell silent. "What the hell... this isn’t technology," the mechanical engineer, Tom, stammered as his beer mug shattered on the floor. On the holographic display, the trail carved by the mothership’s engines through the stratosphere was clearly some kind of energy matrix, something beyond human comprehension.
As the Profound Nether broke through the Kármán line, the Dragon Scale Armor Plates on its hull retracted in sequence, revealing a coating of Star Sand that shimmered with an ethereal blue light.
At that moment, in a Shelter in Africa, children cheered, pointing at the projection of the colossal ship that resembled a mythical titan. An old chieftain, however, knelt to the ground, playing an ancient melody of welcome for the gods on his ancestral Bone Flute. And in the central square of City No. 03, a hundred thousand citizens spontaneously began to sing "Sea of Stars," the sheer volume of their voices causing the city’s protective shield to ripple.
"Sub-orbital cruise mode stable!" As emerald-green Runes lit up on the main control screen, the command cabin erupted in sustained applause.
The global broadcast cut to the aft observation window at the perfect moment: against the backdrop of deep space, the mothership carved a dark-gold trajectory as it performed a gravitational slingshot around the Moon...
As the Profound Nether began its first orbital correction around Earth, the ship’s AI—Jiang Cai’Er’s Digital Life Clone—suddenly recited a poem to all of humanity in Li Xiang’s voice. The title was "To the Tune of Wave-Washed Sands: The Profound Nether’s Maiden Voyage."
Black mist binds the sky, Star Sand of ethereal blue; the Profound Nether roars, tearing the heavens anew. Eight hundred engines shake the cosmos, a fleeting grace past the Moon’s great bow. Spirit Plants breach the void, their roots serene; a civilization of ages, one bloodline flowing. Behold where the Starship cleaves the stellar sea—this is humanity in its ascendancy.
At that moment, from the gene-modded gamblers in the casinos of North America’s Underground Cities to the Spirit Plant Masters on the subterranean farms of Guanghan City, everyone felt their hearts begin to beat in a strange, powerful resonance with the Starship’s engines.