Chapter 390: The Desperate Battle for Galactic Passage

Ge Ya paused before continuing, “They won’t know our true intention behind besieging Base 11. Besides, an artificial intelligence controlled by the consciousness of intelligent beings doesn’t need to guard against the Dominant’s invasive control.”

If our main fleet no longer has to worry about the arrival of the Dominant’s consciousness, our chances of victory in this war will greatly increase.

After a moment’s thought, Du Qiu asked, “Didn’t you just say that the Pleiadians have refined the genes of five civilizations? Perhaps those five civilizations have already given rise to intelligent beings with strong consciousness?”

“Then why don’t you send a fleet back to the Milky Way to search for these five great civilizations?”

Ge Ya fell silent for a moment, his voice turning sombre as he replied, “We can no longer return to the Milky Way!”

Du Qiu was taken aback; this answer was completely unexpected.

As a peak Level 6 civilization that had only just stepped into Level 6, even being able to travel from the Milky Way to the Andromeda Galaxy via a Level 2 channel, how could we now be unable to return?

“Why?”

Ge Ya responded, “After luring the Dominant Civilization into this river system, we destroyed that Level 2 channel.

We had to ensure that those five civilizations could develop, because if the channel remained intact, the Dominant Civilization would undoubtedly find them.”

Du Qiu was momentarily at a loss for words at this answer.

He made no move to reveal his identity; expressing gratitude seemed impossible.

“Didn’t the Dominant Civilization leave behind some branches? With their ability to descend, they could easily control across the river systems.”

Ge Ya explained, “Originally, a squadron similar to Base 11 was left behind, but we quickly expanded the Ge Ya Alliance, using the Dominant Civilization’s act of annihilating entire civilizations in this river system.

The Dominant Civilization faced the most severe crisis in its history, and thus was forced to reassign all its forces remaining in the Milky Way for reinforcements.

It wasn’t until I confirmed that all of the Dominant Civilization’s forces had been pulled into this river system that I dispatched a fleet to carry out the mission to destroy the channel.”

Upon hearing this, Du Qiu felt a strange relief; nearly ten thousand years ago, such a calamity had struck the Milky Way.

All intelligent civilizations were either annihilated by the Dominant or fled with the Ge Ya Alliance. No wonder the Milky Way now seemed so quiet.

This was the true face of the Great Silence.

For a Level 6 peak civilization like Ge Ya, without a river system channel, the vast gulf between systems was insurmountable; once there weren’t many interstellar civilizations within a river system, quiet would naturally prevail.

“Ge Ya, you’re on the brink of reaching Level 7. But you still can’t cross the massive gap between river systems?”

“Without a Level 7 civilization, no one can truly cross the gulf between systems. Any civilization below Level 7 cannot achieve genuine freedom to roam the cosmos.”

After a moment’s thought, Du Qiu asked again, “You destroyed the channel from the Andromeda Galaxy to the Milky Way, but there are still many river systems surrounding the Andromeda Galaxy. Can’t you evacuate further?”

“It’s too late. The channel entrances to the Triangular River System, Aether River System, and Taiyi River System have all been seized by the Dominant Civilization. In the one-third of the river system we now control, no new channels have been discovered.”

Du Qiu hadn’t expected the Ge Ya civilization’s situation to be so dire. No wonder the Dominant dared to delay its offensive and instead focus on researching consciousness duplicates.

It turned out that the Ge Ya Alliance had nowhere left to escape.

“Why didn’t you evacuate the Andromeda Galaxy as soon as the Dominant Civilization attacked the channel entrances?”

Du Qiu was puzzled; knowing that their escape route lay there, they should have fled immediately when the Dominant attacked.

“At that time, the Ge Ya Alliance was in a strong position, and the Andromeda Galaxy’s civilization was the alliance’s pillar. They weren’t willing to abandon their mother river system before the situation worsened.”

Oh, so it was the Alliance that held things back again.

In such a state, it was impossible for the indigenous civilization of the Andromeda Galaxy’s river system to flee in haste.

It was equally impossible for the Ge Ya civilization to abandon these civilizations and escape alone; after all, the Dominant Civilization was a demon created by the Pleiadians.

Nevertheless, this move revealed the Dominant’s strategic foresight.

Once the route back to the Milky Way was severed, seizing control of other river system channel entrances meant they could both attack and defend.

Attack, leaving the enemy with no escape; retreat, allowing them to withdraw quickly.

One could say that once the Dominant Civilization had grabbed several river system channel entrances, they had already gained an unassailable position in this conflict.

“Ge Ya, I’m sorry, but I can’t help you summon a large force of intelligent beings with strong consciousness to seize the Dominant Civilization’s fleet bases.”

Ge Ya fell silent for a moment before asking, “Won’t you tell me where in the universe you’re from?”

Du Qiu had already deduced that the other party truly couldn’t return to the Milky Way; otherwise, they would have long since fought their way back.

Thus he replied, “I’m from the Large Magellanic Galaxy, the system located 160,000 light-years from the Milky Way.”

“Oh, so it’s the Taiji Galaxy. Do you have many intelligent civilizations there?”

“Taiji Galaxy?” Du Qiu was taken aback. It was odd that the Ge Ya civilization used the term Taiji—it must have originated from the Pleiadians.

The Pleiadians had evidently spread the term on Earth as well; with China’s long history, it was only natural they had come under the Pleiadians’ influence.

“Here is our star map. I’m sending it to you now—it might help you travel from the Taiji Galaxy to the Taihao River System. Oh, by the way, that’s what you call the Andromeda Galaxy.”

As Ge Ya spoke, he actually transmitted the star map via a burst of compressed electromagnetic waves. When Du Qiu decoded it, he discovered a map centred on the Milky Way with the surrounding river systems all duly named.

Du Qiu noticed that the language of the Ge Ya civilization had undergone some changes compared to that of the Dominant Civilization, though he could still recognize most of it.

To put it crudely, if the language of the Dominant Civilization were Chinese, then that of the Ge Ya civilization would be Japanese—sharing many words in common.

However, the pronunciation in the Ge Ya language had changed significantly—a result of integrating so many foreign words through exchanges with other intelligent civilizations.

Sensing that the dream was nearing its end, Du Qiu said, “Thank you, Ge Ya. I will soon conclude this descent, and development here will continue.

I promise, once I have grown strong enough, I will join forces with you to take on the Dominant Civilization.

Especially, I will find a way to infiltrate the Dominant Civilization and seize control of as many of their fleets and bases as possible.

I hope you can act as if you haven’t discovered this place, so that the Dominant Civilization’s spies won’t detect my presence and jeopardize my infiltration.

Hearing Du Qiu’s words, Ge Ya’s tone brightened as he exclaimed, “Excellent! I will fully support your infiltration. Leaks are all too common within the Alliance.

It seems you really are not of the Dominant or one of its consciousness duplicates. In that case, our attack on Base 11 is now meaningless; to conserve strength, we will withdraw immediately.”

Du Qiu recalled the difficulty of infiltrating Base 11 to seize the technologies of its intelligent manufacturers—it was no small feat.

At present, the Ge Ya civilization was also a peak Level 6 force, evenly matched with the Dominant Civilization, only lagging in productivity and execution.

If we could obtain a complete technological system from the Ge Ya civilization, it would be a huge leap forward for Dream Technology.

Moreover, that would completely dispel Ge Ya’s suspicions about me—her words earlier clearly showed some lingering unease.

With that in mind, Du Qiu immediately said, “Dear Ge Ya, my current technological level barely reaches Level 5. Just look at the replica Dominant Civilization warship I’ve built here; it proves I haven’t deceived you.

I wonder if you could impart some Level 5 and Level 6 technology systems to me, so that I might develop faster. With that, I might be able to create an elite force to help you turn the tide against the Dominant Civilization.”