Light Speed ​​War

Chapter 22: The Messenger of God

The eastern sky was tinged with red and yellow as the sun climbed over the edge of a distant black mountain range. In less than half an hour, the entire sun had risen above the ridge, a brilliant yellow. Zhou Yuan, along with the others, turned towards the sun. Could this sun hold some strange power? Suddenly, everyone gasped. A small white dot appeared on the sun's surface. The dot slowly grew larger, and soon it transformed into the outline of a super battleship, entirely silver-white, reflecting the sun's radiance. It gave everyone a sense of awe and reverence, as if bathed in a gentle breeze. In the blink of an eye, the super battleship came to a stop in the distant sky.

Zhou Yuan did some mental calculations and estimated that the silver-white warship was at least 320 kilometers away. Even now, Zhou Yuan had not received any warning information from the UFO, which surprised and worried him.

At this moment, people exclaimed again, and a bright light emanated from the warship, shooting directly towards the altar. The light then withdrew, and a young celestial woman suddenly appeared on the altar.

Yasuo led everyone to kneel and listen to the divine oracle.

"My people, we meet again." The divine messenger spoke in a voice that resembled a synthesized artificial intelligence. "Let me see what good news my people have to tell me after 200 years."

"Your Excellency, I am Yaso, the current Emperor of the Celestial Realm. Under the guidance and inspiration of the great god Thor and the other gods, and thanks to their instruction, we are now able to build our own interstellar warships, reaching a maximum speed of 50% of the speed of light." The envoy nodded in agreement. "To maintain the warships' power, we had to mine for nuclear fusion materials within our own star system. Later, we reached our solar system, 45 light-years away, and mined hydrogen on one of the planets. This led to a clash with the local Martians, escalating into a fierce war. Who knew the Martians would build a super fortress, and our entire fleet was annihilated. I hope the gods Thor will once again favor us and allow us to win this war." Yaso still harbored resentment towards the Martian civilization, like a child complaining to their parents.

The divine envoy lowered his head. "Yes, we've also noticed a massive fleet 0.5 light-years away, including the super fortress you mentioned. The situation has changed drastically; war has begun. The gods of Thor are planning to join the Super Alliance to fight the enemy together. Therefore, Thor hopes that the Celestials and the Martian civilization will set aside their past grievances and join the alliance to contribute to its cause. My people, you must know that the enemy is extremely powerful. Look at the sun, 45 light-years away, now a white dwarf. And this is just a small action by the enemy." Hearing this, Zhou Yuan sensed something amiss; this divine envoy seemed to have some ulterior motive. Yasuo and the others were indeed alarmed. If destroying the sun was just a small action, they couldn't imagine what a larger one would be.

"My lord, does that mean we should not seek revenge?"

"Yasuo, put that aside for now. Quickly withdraw your fleet. We will make contact with the Martian civilization."

"As you command." Yasuo was reluctant, but he had no choice.

"Yasuo, let me see your strength."

"Yes, Your Excellency."

Yasuo waved his hand, and the six warships hidden in the air appeared one by one. Each warship was more than 30 kilometers away, blocking out the sunlight, and everyone felt a sense of oppression.

The divine messenger smiled slightly, seemingly quite satisfied. "Very good, thank you for your hard work. To have developed to this extent in 200 years is quite impressive."

"Thank you for the compliment, divine messenger." Yasuo was also a little flattered, after all, being praised by a divine messenger was quite an honor.

"My people, according to the will of the great god Thor and the gods, we need to build many warships to fight against the enemy. The great god Thor hopes that you will contribute warships and manpower to form a heavenly expeditionary force."

“My Lord, we are willing to follow the gods of Thor.”

"Very well, I have left a miracle on the island. Go and see for yourselves. My people, that's enough for today. I'm going to meet the Martian civilization now." With that, the divine envoy vanished, and the silver-white warship gradually shrank, disappearing as if piercing through the sun.

Yasuo and the others knelt down to express their gratitude. Zhou Yuan was startled.

In the middle of the night, Zhou Yuan and his three companions were transported to a UFO.

Zhou Yuan opened his ring and projected the scene video holographically.

"What do you all think?"

"Dean Zhou, judging from the divine envoy's statement about the sun's destruction, the divine envoy must be hiding something from the Celestial Beings," Xiao Jian stated his suspicion first. Zhou Yuan nodded. "Anything else?"

Wei Shan chimed in, "There must be some ulterior motive behind it all."

"Everyone, remember when I was reading the last words of our ancestor Bellona on the moon? In her last words, she said, 'My children, please remember that the universe, like its background, is dark and full of dangers. Between civilizations, remember to always assume the greatest goodwill with the greatest malice.'" This was the first time everyone had heard Bellona's last words, and they pondered their meaning carefully.

"You must always assume the greatest goodwill with the greatest malice. That's the saying. You could say that our ancestor Bellona was warning humanity that the universe is dark." Zhou Yuan emphasized the word "darkness." "Since the war between advanced and super civilizations has already begun, Earth civilization and Celestial civilization, we lower civilizations are nothing more than cannon fodder for the advanced and super civilizations. I highly doubt that Thor and his so-called gods are using the Celestials."

"Academician Zhou, are you saying we should stop this?"

“Stopping this will probably be difficult. If we think about it the other way around, if we don’t stop it and follow Thor like the Celestials, we’ll just be cannon fodder, right?” Everyone nodded, but it didn’t seem easy to stay out of trouble either.

"This matter is indeed very tricky, and it's difficult to come up with a foolproof plan. Gentlemen, here's my suggestion: First, we must report to our Federation Fleet and the Academy of Sciences. One, the gamma rays that destroyed Martian civilization likely originated from Sirius, so it's necessary to send someone to investigate. Two, we should launch long-range communication and share today's video footage to warn Earthlings that the divine messenger will arrive soon, allowing them to make arrangements. Three, we should prepare for war against an advanced civilization or prepare to escape. Second, since the divine messenger said he wants to form an expeditionary force of the Celestials and left a miracle on the island, we must notify Caesar and Sakamoto to find this miracle as soon as possible. I estimate that this miracle is related to travel speed, and we need to acquire this technology. Finally, I will try to sow discord between the Celestials and the divine messenger. The so-called gods are nothing more than an advanced civilization. If things show signs of being exposed or failing, we must first prepare to escape from the Celestials."

"Dean Zhou, we understand."

Zhou Yuan compiled the information, and then added new information at the depth of the information. He then activated long-distance communication and sent the information out.

The next morning, Zhou Yuan was discussing with some scientists from the Celestial Ginseng Clan when a staff member on duty hurried over and whispered a few words in Zhou Yuan's ear. Zhou Yuan nodded and then went directly to Duke Rick's office.

After Zhou Yuan entered, Duke Rick carefully closed the door and drew the curtains. Then, the two sat down opposite each other. Zhou Yuan could clearly see that Duke Rick was preoccupied, and his face showed worry.

Zhou Yuan waited, remaining silent. After a while, Duke Rick, as if having made up his mind, finally spoke, "Rambo, what do you think of the divine messenger yesterday?"

“My Lord Divine Envoy?” Zhou Yuan lowered his head and pondered for a moment, as if he were recalling the scene. “It’s hard to say, but I feel like something is not quite right.”

"You think so too?" Rick's spirits lifted.

“Your Grace, I am of low rank and dare not speak carelessly.” Zhou Yuan deliberately gave the Duke face.

"Rambo, remember, this conversation today is between the two of us, you understand?"

"Little understands."

"Okay. Go ahead and tell me, what's wrong?"

Zhou Yuan carefully examined Rick's face, and after confirming it, he said, "That's right, I think the divine messenger is using us!"

“Yes, His Majesty Yasuo and I both think so. Anything else?” Rick seemed pleased, as if they shared the same opinion.

“I think we Celestial Beings have been misled.” Zhou Yuan probed further, his words becoming bolder. “Past myths all say that we were created by Thor, but we haven’t verified that.” Zhou Yuan paused again.

"Hmm," Rick lowered his head, deep in thought.

“Yesterday, the divine messenger asked us to form an expeditionary force. If the gods of Thor are truly at war with an enemy, we may very well be caught in the middle and forced to survive,” Zhou Yuan said tactfully, without directly mentioning cannon fodder.

"Yes, His Majesty Yaso said the same thing. But if we disobey the will of the gods, we might suffer annihilation."

“Let me think about it. As you know, this matter requires a decision from His Majesty Yaso, Your Grace, and some ministers; it depends on your resolve.” Zhou Yuan hesitated for a moment before speaking directly.

"I know that, tell me first."

"That's right, I personally think we can adopt a probing and delaying tactic."

"Oh, interesting. How to test the waters, how to stall?"

"Duke, we've made requests to the divine messenger, such as visiting the silver warship and hoping for his personal guidance. This is a test. If he refuses, we'll say that our technology is still underdeveloped and that in order to better assist the gods of Thor, we hope he can impart more advanced technological knowledge to make the Celestial Expeditionary Force more combat-effective. Delaying means outwardly negotiating with the divine messenger, saying that we are building warships and that the absorption and conversion of divine technology takes time. In secret, we'll accelerate the warship construction to prevent the divine messenger from suddenly launching an attack."

"what do you mean?"

"What I mean is, if the divine messenger attacks, we can use our numerical advantage in warships. However, we need to prevent the divine messenger from sending messages or leaving Tiancan."

Duke Rick was stunned. The idea was indeed bold, but it also seemed to make sense.