NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 266:
Chapter 266: Ailei’s Journey to Cleanse the Starry Sky:
All along, the machine servant had possessed a strong sense of autonomy. She was loyal and capable, but everything she did, every decision she made, was always centered around serving Xu Xi. From the past to the present, her autonomy had never been applied elsewhere.
But now, with Xu Xi in “slumber,” the machine servant had to move forward alone, trembling with sorrow, yet pressing onward.
She could not accept that when Xu Xi resurrected, he would return to a universe still filled with danger. Even more unacceptable was that the creators of the prison—the ones who repeatedly took his life—continued to roam free without consequences.
She had to do something… she must do something.
Turning with a trembling body, Ailei took slow, difficult steps away from the newly built grave in the dreadful silence. She dared not look back, fearing she might hesitate and stay.
That was not an option.
Absolutely not.
Xu Xi had once worried that Ailei couldn’t see the stars clearly and would carefully wipe the camera lenses for her.
Now, it was her turn to replicate that kindness—to cleanse the starry sky for him.
“Master, Ailei will always protect you…”
The moonlight bathed the lush greenery along her path, but its beauty failed to touch the machine servant’s heart. She walked away from the light, stepping into the cold darkness, leaving only a monitoring device behind to ensure the grave’s peace.
Then, she activated all systems of the escape pod, scavenging materials to complete the necessary equipment and began the mass production of a new fleet.
“Please wait for me… Master…”
To maximize efficiency, Ailei abandoned her humanoid form.
Without Xu Xi, maintaining a human shape no longer held meaning.
She walked forward, letting her once beautiful form enter the machinery bay, lying down silently and closing her eyes.
From that moment on, all computational power, all processes, were integrated fully into her machine consciousness in a higher-dimensional state.
Copying, stacking, and producing endlessly.
Without Xu Xi, Ailei became colder than before—her mindset fully aligning with the mechanical precision of cold logic. In a remarkably short time, she had produced a massive fleet of warships.
Ailei left part of the fleet to guard Xu Xi’s “sleeping” planet.
The rest carried her machine consciousness into the vast starry sky.
…
Slaughter, destruction, plundering.
Enslavement, domination, war.
The dominant themes of the universe were never peace and friendship.
Among countless civilizations, there were indeed exceptions of goodwill, but they were so rare that they were almost invisible.
Whenever two civilizations came into close contact, the stronger one inevitably disregarded the weaker one’s will.
Technological civilizations, interstellar insectoid swarms, machine calamities, cosmic behemoths…
The endless cosmos, filled with uncountable galaxies, was always rife with conflicts.
But at some point, something changed.
Centuries later, a new force of machine calamities emerged—vast in scale and possessing technology far beyond the typical machine scourge.
Even more baffling was the fact that this new machine scourge specifically targeted predator civilizations—those known for aggression, plundering, and the destruction of weaker civilizations.
Could it be… that this machine scourge was a force for peace?
“How… how can this be?!”
“There are so many curvature starships!”
“Insane! These machines are lunatics! They’re detonating curvature starships at superluminal speeds!”
Many civilizations fell into utter despair.
What was supposed to be a rare and precious form of travel—curvature propulsion—had become nothing more than disposable tools in the hands of this unknown machine scourge. Whenever faced with an obstacle, they simply threw hundreds of starships at it to self-destruct.
Those brilliant explosions marked the terrifying destruction caused by gravitational distortions.
Weaker civilizations couldn’t even withstand a single round of attacks.
Before long, Ailei’s machine scourge expanded rapidly, reaching an unprecedented scale. Faced with such overwhelming force, many civilizations quickly became “friendly” and “cooperative.”
Just when everyone thought Ailei’s force was on the path to becoming a dominant galactic overlord, she did something that left all civilizations in shock.
She attacked the Stellar Ranches of the Caretaker Civilization.
The Caretaker Civilization was rumored to possess advanced spatial technology, potentially even dipping into dimensional manipulation. It had long been known for “farming” entire star systems to extract resources for its ascension.
They corralled new civilizations, harvested their technological advancements, and sustained themselves endlessly through such exploitation.
But now, an audacious act had been committed.
The seemingly invincible Caretaker Civilization was under siege by this growing machine scourge.
A massive fleet of curvature starships accelerated into their ranches, self-detonating with enough force to shatter the barriers that enclosed entire star systems—linking their once-separated domains to the wider universe.
“You dare! How dare you?!”
The Caretaker Civilization was furious.
Their rage turned into an all-out war.
They deployed a vast armada equipped with space-folding technology, including planetary fortresses and stellar energy reserves.
Even three neutron star warships were dispatched as vanguards.
Such a force was undeniably powerful, almost invincible.
Without suspense, they obliterated the machine fleet that was still operating on mere superluminal technology.
Reports claimed that even the core consciousness of the machine scourge had been wiped out completely.
The event sent shockwaves across the cosmos.
Some marveled at the Caretaker Civilization’s might, while others mourned the fall of the machine scourge.
However, four centuries later…
The signature fleets of the machine scourge returned.
This time, they wielded more advanced technology—armed with devices resembling the spatial weaponry of the Caretaker Civilization itself.
“Master once said, as long as I want to learn… I can master everything.”
Ailei had analyzed the previous battles, reverse-engineering aspects of their spatial weaponry and producing an even stronger machine fleet.
Her consciousness ascended to higher dimensions, observing the vast universe from an omniscient perspective.
The machine armada surged like an endless tide, engulfing the stars, bombarding the Caretaker Civilization’s ranches with unprecedented firepower.
Through sheer overwhelming numbers, they tore apart most of the space barriers trapping those star systems.
The war reignited, and the Caretaker Civilization, now filled with utter rage, unleashed their most advanced forces—including experimental dimensional weapons capable of erasing space itself.
Ailei’s spatial shields were no match for these weapons.
Her fleet was once again annihilated.
Yet, she accepted the loss with mechanical calmness, transmitting her core consciousness via quantum signals to ensure her survival.
Three hundred years later…
She returned again.
This time, the fleet was even larger, armed with deeper spatial manipulation technologies, bordering on dimensional mastery.
Massive galactic-scale computing arrays were constructed to support her immense processing power.
Centuries meant nothing. Millennia were of no consequence.
Ailei’s cold machine soul returned stronger each time, defying all logical expectations.
“Is this a cosmic wonder?”
“An experiment by a higher-dimensional civilization?”
“A transcendental entity’s project?”
The Caretaker Civilization continued to speculate, drowning in despair as they faced the relentless, roaring tide of the machines.