Run Away, This Civilization Is Cheating!

"Yes!" Dong Gong, whose mind had still been somewhat cluttered, felt as if he had found his mainstay.

Indeed, while this trial had somewhat exceeded expectations, the tasks they needed to accomplish hadn't changed much.

It was nothing more than staying vigilant and collecting information.

Even, when looking on the bright side, this trial might also present a tremendous opportunity.

Such a vast Extraordinary Universe would undoubtedly mean a vast amount of Extraordinary Resources!

Risk and opportunity always coexist.

Thus, in the shortest amount of time, a series of Observation actions commenced, especially concerning the surrounding star systems—they needed to understand their current position and whether there were any threats nearby that could directly endanger them.

Meanwhile, internally, the focus was on reassurance, delivering messages to everyone to stay vigilant while continuing most of their work.

Human Civilization was still in a state of rapid development; every moment was precious. As long as the enemy and danger were not directly in their faces, they would need to continue their Cultivation, research, and production.

However, it was clear that the social unrest would inevitably continue for some time since people had been preparing for this Trial for too long and were already very tense emotionally.

At the same time, Shen Hao looked to his augmentation.

As expected, the same moment the new Trial appeared, the augmentation entered into a self-checking state once more.

This time, it would take about twenty days.

During this period, all augmentations would be unusable.

Clearly, the augmentation interface was cautious, even though the current Civilization Trial was merely a mechanical process, it still possessed a self-checking mechanism. Every augmentation placed there must have gone through rigorous computation, and version information was of utmost importance.

"I hope the augmentation will be powerful this time," Shen Hao muttered to himself.

He already had a premonition that this Trial was indeed no small matter.

In fact, not even the fourth Trial previously experienced by Erin Ellie's civilization had presented the current situation.

Moreover, from Ellie's memory, although Human Civilization still couldn't compare to hers in certain aspects that required time to develop—such as the number of Chosen Ones and the strength hierarchy—its growth potential and development speed far exceeded theirs. If these could also be considered factors for assessment by the Civilization Trial, being thrown into an extremely dangerous trial was also possible.

The reason the Civilization Trial could make countless civilizations despair was precisely because the difficulty of the trials increased with the growth of the civilization.

"Twenty days; I hope nothing goes wrong," Shen Hao took a deep breath while also keeping an eye on the entire Universe, the entire Civilization, and countless Affiliated Civilizations.

Unexpectedly, eight days passed amidst the tense atmosphere without anything happening.

That's right, nothing happened at all.

There were no internal crises within the civilization, and the same was true outside the planets.

No one turned into a Monster, no one died, and there were no hidden viruses or unique powers lurking inside people.

"I think there are two possibilities under these circumstances," Erin stated in the Lingxiao Palace, expressing her opinion, "The first is that the crisis has already occurred, but is very hidden; the second is that this Trial is of the 'slow-paced' type."

"Just like your second and fourth Trials?" someone asked.

At this time, the Lingxiao Palace was nearly filled with over sixty people.

It was a small-scale summary meeting.

Leaders from various fields all gathered together for the collection and discussion of intelligence.

"Yes," Erin responded with a gentle nature, nodding slightly, "Not every Trial is very urgent. Sometimes they are slow, but from our experience, the slower they are, the more dangerous they tend to be."

Ellie's previous civilization had undergone four Trials, with the duration of these Trials spanning forty years.

This could be related to the fact that they had already been a twentieth level civilization before joining the Trial.

The difficulty of the first Trial was greater than the previous Trial of Human Civilization.

And the second lasted a staggering ten years.

The fourth, when facing a space beast horde similar to the "Insect Race," continued for a full seventeen years until the Angel Civilization perished!

Given such an extended duration, it was entirely possible for nothing to happen in a mere eight days.

For a moment, the attendees of the meeting buzzed with discussion.

"If it really is the second scenario, it's undoubtedly good for us."

"Not necessarily, our developmental potential could have been factored into the difficulty."

"I think we should take the initiative and send out spaceships for investigation."

"Why not just focus on development first? In just five and a half years, we actually haven't fully digested the current potential for development."

"..."

Shen Hao watched the discussion from his elevated position. It was evident that the possibility of a "slow-paced" Trial had allowed many to breathe a sigh of relief. After all, the fast pace of the previous two Trials left most of them feeling breathless.

Moreover, Human Civilization was very confident in the speed of its own development.

Under multiple foundational layers, indeed, the longer the time, the stronger the strength.

He glanced at Dong Gong.

"Quiet, let's start the next topic," Dong Gong immediately said.

The one who stood up to report this time was the head of the intelligence department.

Named Ding Jun.

He was in charge of all observation and investigation systems, both internal and external.

He directly reported at this moment, "We have focused our observation on all the star systems within a thousand light-years nearby, a total of thirteen thousand four hundred stars, and we have discovered thirteen planets that are suspected to harbor life. Eleven of them are gathered in one direction, and the distance between them is very close."

As soon as this statement was reported, it immediately caused a stir among the council members who were hearing it for the first time.

Just within a thousand light years, there are eleven planets that could potentially harbor life?

Isn't that too dense?

To think that before being selected for the Civilization Trial, human civilization had been observing for a long time without finding concrete traces of extraterrestrial life. There were only one or two planets that might harbor life, and they were in star domains far away.

The number now was clearly beyond expectation.

"The number of life planets in this universe is indeed far greater than in our primal universe," Ding Jun apparently guessed this response and reported in a deep voice, "We suspect that this may have something to do with the extraordinary powers of this universe. There might be some rules that allow planets to more easily stay in the right position, but more likely, it is related to the native civilizations of this world. After all, the distance between those eleven life planets is too dense, completely at odds with normal probability."

Following his words, a star map appeared in front of everyone.
Find exclusive stories on My Virtual Library Empire

It clearly marked the location of human civilization as well as the star domains within a thousand light-years nearby.

Thirteen points in particular stood out.

These were the planets observed that might hold life.

Everyone could clearly see that eleven of them were gathered at a position about six hundred light years from the human mother planet. The greatest distance between any of them was only about thirty light years.

Abnormal!

Anyone could see that this was definitely not normal!

There was a high probability of a native civilization existing in that area!

But, six hundred light years...

"Is our spaceship technology not enough?" someone couldn't help but say, "Six hundred light years. Even with our current most advanced spacecraft, it would take twelve hundred years to reach."

Indeed, the most advanced spacecraft at present was a Level 23 Purple Epic reconnaissance aircraft with a maximum speed reaching fifty percent of the speed of light, which is a standard sub-light speed.

But even so, on the vast scale of the universe, such speed was still negligible.

Even at a slower pace, it was impossible to consider thousands of years as a time span.

However, Shen Hao spoke up at this time, "This is not a problem."

As soon as he spoke up, he drew the attention of everyone present.

"Blake," Shen Hao looked at a certain researcher sitting below, "tell everyone about your research findings."

"Yes," replied the man named Blake, rising to his feet. He wore a magic robe, the standard attire of a mage, and appeared to be in his forties.

But his actual age had already exceeded seventy.

Originally, he was a world-leading expert in genetic biology, selected as the Chosen One during the second Trial, and, by chance, came to possess a Purple Epic Talent, which was one of the only three Purple Epic Talents at the time.

The Talent he acquired was named "Energy Control."

This was a talent similar to "superpower" and was very powerful in combat. But, at that time, Blake was already over seventy years old, and apart from his passion for scientific research, he had no considerable desire for combat.

Therefore, he chose to become a magic researcher.

In the second Trial, he could even control "yin energy" to some extent.

Unfortunately, that trial was too short, and before he could produce any concrete useful research findings, the Trial ended.

But now, as the new Trial began, he was immediately put to use, his research focus being the original extraordinary powers of this universe, and he had made significant discoveries!

Now standing up in front of everyone's expectant gaze, Blake's tone was clearly a bit excited, "Ladies and gentlemen, in the past week, I conducted a comprehensive study of the extraordinary powers present in this universe. I have made preliminary identifications of the source and characteristics of this extraordinary energy, which I have named 'Spiritual Energy', because it is full of spirituality and its characteristics lean more towards Spiritual Power!"

Spiritual Energy?

The expressions of all the council members present became serious.

It was evident to everyone the importance of this information.

For a world that had possessed extraordinary powers from the beginning, these powers were not just a type of energy; they would profoundly impact the development of the world's native civilizations.

The Great Yan and Sky Spirit civilizations were typical examples of this.