837 The Last Witness
Hidden mission... Han Xiao was stunned for a moment. When he then saw the mission reward, surprise appeared on his face. The second [Bold Explorer] Ability Shard‽
Han Xiao immediately turned to look at Feidin, who had all his attention on the Yasre Civilization recording. He gripped his shoulders and shook him vigorously.
“Wha... what are you doing?” Feidin stared at the overjoyed Han Xiao with a puzzled look on his face.
“You, amazing!”
Han Xiao was ecstatic. In his eyes, it was as if Feidin was emitting holy light from all over his body.
There was a slim chance that hidden missions would reward [Bold Explorer] Ability Shards. Over the past few months, the players had discovered quite a number of hidden missions and shared them with him. However, he had never triggered this reward—the goddess of luck loathed him as usual.
With Feidin along with him, the goddess of luck basically deliberately lifted her dress to show Feidin the holy light.
Han Xiao could not help but sigh in his mind. Overflowing charm, exceptional luck, a wife who he could sleep with in his mind, and the goddess of luck willing to be his mistress. Feidin was probably the biggest winner in life throughout the Black Star Army.
Although Nero also had the Advanced Luck Glow...
He was not handsome enough!
“You’re still the most reliable.” Han Xiao patted Feidin’s shoulder heavily with satisfaction on his face.
Feidin’s face was filled with question marks.
Seeing that everyone was looking at him with confusion, Han Xiao calmed himself down, coughed, and explained, “This civilization used its holy relic to build this kind of special amber. No one else other than us has visited this planet ever since. This means that this holy relic will be ours. I’m guessing that this is going to be another Universal Treasure.”
The others did not know that Han Xiao had come to this planet with a clear goal. They nodded and suspected nothing.
Han Xiao told the machines to search and found the database. Phillip copied all the data inside and finally deciphered the language of the Yasre Civilization.
Having updated the language packs of the translator, they returned to the black disc again and rewatched the recording. This time, they understood what it was about.
“I’m the leader of the Yasreans. Lucky visitors, when you see this recording, we might have already gone extinct. No matter who you are, please watch this recording till the end...”
The mission introduction on the interface had already explained the rough situation, so Han Xiao just filled in the details by watching it again.
The recording talked about the situation of the Yasre Civilization, which was within their expectations. At the end of the recording, the Yasrean hoped that the visitor could complete two things. One was to undo the effects of the Spacetime Amber, and the Yasreans shared their knowledge of the Spacetime Amber to make things easier. However, they had very limited knowledge about this extraterrestrial object that exceeded their understanding.
The second thing was for the visitor to preserve the information about the Yasre Civilization if the Yasreans were extinct so that the traces of their existence would remain.
The group of them had been traveling the universe for many years and were used to the end of civilizations long ago. This was what the universe was; new species were born, and old species went extinct every second. If they would easily be affected every time, they would have no time to do anything else.
However, every civilization was a miracle of life, so they would still respect the final wishes of a civilization when necessary.
Before that, Han Xiao had to first do what he had gone there to do.
With the translation, he knew the location of the Spacetime Amber. Han Xiao told the machines to bring out all of the ambers from every ruins and gather at the location of the Spacetime Amber.
...
Not long after, they landed at the ruins where the Spacetime Amber was.
Following the images, Han Xiao came to an empty room in the middle of this ruins’ central sanctuary. A mural entered his sights. It was about eight meters tall and thirty meters wide. The drawings were about the history of the Yasreans.
One of the images was a meteor-like black stone falling down from the clouds, with a group of tiny people below looking up. Han Xiao hovered up and came before this painting. He extended his hand and touched the meteor on this drawing.
His palm pressed onto the wall, and energy blew away the thick accumulated layer of dust.
Hu!
The dust was blown away.
Han Xiao pressed down heavily and cracked the meteor drawing open. Stones fell onto the ground.
Ka!
He dug out a dim white crystal from behind the wall, which had the same shape as the meteor in the painting.
Looking at the white crystal in his hands, Han Xiao’s eyes sparkled.
This ordinary looking crystal was the core of the Spacetime Amber. The Yasreans had hidden it in this mural.
_____________________
You have received [Spacetime Amber].
Spacetime Amber: A Space Wonder object with an unknown origin. It can freeze spacetime and form a solid layer with the appearance of amber around all kinds of things. Energy cost depends on the size of the amber formed. Current Energy Value: 0
_____________________
“I got it.” Han Xiao was thrilled.
This was the easiest to obtain Universal Treasure for him. After all, no one else knew about this thing’s existence other than him.
As he landed on the ground, the others surrounded him and sized the Spacetime Amber up with curiosity.
“This is the holy relic that can create amber that can block all kinds of attacks?” Hila sized the Spacetime Amber up. “Why does it not have any energy reaction at all?”
“This thing needs to be charged to be used,” Han Xiao explained. He then shot out a powerful flow of energy into the Spacetime Amber in his hands.
Boom!
An invisible impact wave exploded from Han Xiao’s body like a tornado. This was the aura that Han Xiao emitted when he released his energy at the maximum capacity.
The Mechanical Force flew into the Spacetime Amber as the dim Spacetime Amber started to gradually light up.
In the past four months, Han Xiao had completed the [Heber Stellar Furnace Cultivation] training. Having spent 3.9 billion EXP, his maximum energy had increased by more than 17,000, which was quite worth it for him.
The Spacetime Amber was like a bottomless pit that could devour an infinite amount of energy. Its energy value slowly grew.
Using the Spacetime Amber required a large amount of energy, but to a Mechanic who had mastered the psionic energy, there was more than enough energy.
Han Xiao thought about it and stopped using his own energy. He took out a few psionic reactors as batteries and linked them with the Spacetime Amber to keep charging it. It seemed like there was no limit to the amount of energy the Spacetime Amber could contain, so he did not worry about overcharging it.
After charging it, the Spacetime Amber finally showed an energy reaction.
With the Spacetime Amber in his hands, Han Xiao could feel the energy inside it. The method to use the Spacetime Amber was very simple; he just had to guide energy within it.
The way the Yasre Civilization used it was quite rough and did not have much to learn from, but Han Xiao recalled the better ways to use it, which the owners of the Spacetime Amber in his previous life had used. He could build a device that had the same frequency as the Spacetime Amber and put the Spacetime Amber in it. He could then connect to the device with Nerves Connection, so he would be able to control the Spacetime Amber with his mind and with greater accuracy.
Han Xiao would be able to easily build such a device, but now was not the time. He was not in a hurry to test the Spacetime Amber’s powers, so he decided to complete the hidden mission first.
The group of them walked out of the central sanctuary of the ruins. All of the Yasreans’ ambers were moved into those ruins. There were so many of them that they could not see the end of it.
Han Xiao came before a Yasrean and slashed the amber’s surface with the Spacetime Amber. The Spacetime Amber cut the translucent amber open with ease.
The Spacetime Amber could freely penetrate the amber created from itself and would not be affected by the frozen spacetime.
Pa!
Like a bubble, this piece of amber dissipated in the air. The Yasrean inside collapsed onto the ground.
Aurora hastily helped him up and said with joy, “There are vital signs. He’s still alive.”
“His soul has died. Although his body is still alive, he’s a living dead man.” Hila shook her head.
Unlike Aurora, she could sense the soul of lives, and she knew that the body of this Yasrean was just an empty shell despite it being still alive.
Han Xiao scanned through it. Due to the Spacetime Amber, the body of this Yasrean was maintained at the state it was in before being frozen. Although its brain had stopped working, it did not show any signs of deterioration and was still very much alive like his body. This meant that this person’s brain was frozen as well. However, if one’s brain was frozen too, there should not be any brain activity at all.
He made a speculation. Since one’s body energy would not be used in the amber, maybe it was their soul energy that supported their brain activity. This meant that soul energy being depleted was what caused their mind to die off. The stronger the individual, the more soul energy they had, so they could last longer.
That’s not impossible.
Having thought of the origin of the Spacetime Amber, Han Xiao did not think that this was a strange phenomenon.
The effect of the Spacetime Amber came from the Esper Ability of one of the Primordial Ones, whose Esper Ability was ‘Spacetime Freeze’, which was on the Super High Risk Esper Ability List.
Most of the abilities on the Super High Risk Esper Ability List had existed before, and this Primordial One was the first Esper who was discovered to be able to freeze space and time.
Such abilities were exceedingly rare. It was also a high-level forbidden technique in the Mage class.
Back then, this Primordial One was under the command of an advanced civilization and was killed in action. He had a Primordial One friend whose ability was to modify the properties of objects. That person turned his body into a crystal that would never rot and let it wander the universe as a form of burial. However, somehow, while wandering the universe, this crystal underwent a change that no one knew the cause of. It not only preserved the Primordial One’s ability to freeze spacetime, but its ability mutated too and became a Space Wonder. This was the origin of the Spacetime Amber, which the players only found out about in the later versions.
Pulling his thoughts back, Han Xiao used the Spacetime Amber to release all the Yasreans.
After checking through, none of their souls were still alive.
“Sigh, they’re all dead.” Feidin shook his head.
Han Xiao initially had a little bit of hope, thinking that maybe there would be a protagonist type character among the Yasreans who would make it. Sadly, there were none. In the face of time, it seemed like no one could escape death.
Seeing this, although they were used to seeing the ends of civilizations, they all had no mood to chat and kept silent.
_____________________
You have released all the Yasreans from the effects of the Spacetime Amber!
[Traces of Existence] Completed!
You have received 1,500,000,000 EXP and 780 Exploration Points.
You have received 1 Random Reward.
You have received 1 Legendary Point.
[Planet Legendary Point (Yasreans)—The Last Witness]: You witnessed the last moment of Yasreans with your own eyes. A civilization’s last sign of life vanished right before your eyes. Maybe, in the end, everything vanishes with time, but at least they existed.
_____________________
Han Xiao sighed. “Phillip, move these bodies onto the ship. Cremate them and release them in the universe.”
Feidin looked over. “Are you not preserving specimens using the Spacetime Amber?”
“Their souls dissipated with their civilization. Their bodies should be released too.”
Han Xiao had already scanned the bodies of the Yasreans, and there was nothing special. Furthermore, the Spacetime Amber had yet to be shown to the world, so he wanted to keep it as a trump card and not leave any clues behind.
He still remembered that he was a member of the Spacetime Research Council, which preserved the data of all the civilizations that had disappeared throughout history and shared this knowledge with others, so more people would know about these civilizations that had once existed in the universe.
Giving the data to the Spacetime Research Council was probably the best ending for this civilization.
“Master, hum... Do you want me to upload the data of the Yasre Civilization to the Spacetime Research Council database?”
“Upload it.”
Han Xiao nodded. He temporarily hid away the data regarding the Spacetime Amber.
With the Spacetime Amber in his hands, they returned to the fleet and headed back.
Inside different spaceships, the bodies of the Yasreans were cremated one after another and then poured into the universe. The fleet dragged along a tail of ash as it departed.
...
As the fleet entered hyperdrive, Han Xiao rejected Hadavy’s request to spar for the time being and locked himself up in the machinery modification room. He planned to first build the portable device of the Spacetime Amber.
As the devices were connected to the Spacetime Amber and detecting its perimeters, Han Xiao stood aside and looked at it.
“This is the second Universal Treasure I have obtained, which means it’s a new trump card. The Evolution Cube can make genes evolve, and the Spacetime Amber can freeze spacetime...”
The Evolution Cube could be used for networking, and the Spacetime Amber... could perhaps be used as a tool of intimidation.
This time, Han Xiao suddenly had a flash of insight.
Since the Spacetime Amber could block the transmit of energy, if he covered the Evolution Cube with amber... did that mean Psyker would not be able to sense it?
“Makes sense. Anyway, I don’t use the Evolution Cube all the time, and I can unseal it when I need to. But I’m not sure if this will stop Psyker from wanting to take it back... I know the Arcane Church most likely won’t give up.”
He planned to first give the Spacetime Amber a portable device and then test if this idea would work. After all, building a small device would only take him a few minutes.
Han Xiao temporarily placed this matter aside. He opened the interface and looked at his ability list.
With the two Ability Shards of the [Bold Explorer], this ability was activated. He could activate it when exploring the unknown or studying objects, which would give him partial information of these things.
Cooldown is seven days, and the side effect is decreased Luck for fourteen days. Hehe, not like that makes a difference.
Any side effects that were related to Luck were meaningless to him!
Han Xiao smiled with pride.
Wait a minute, this isn’t something to be proud of!
Han Xiao looked at the side.
He decided to use the effect of this ability on the Spacetime Amber.
He knew the origin of the Spacetime Amber, so he could use it to see the accuracy of this ability.