Chapter 272: The Bloom of Destruction

"If we assume a weapon, we can set the direction and destination of the green light. This weapon can strike the enemy with the green light, and they will be shattered because the factors of the weapon destroy the factors of the struck material. The collision of these factors disrupts the system, and a disrupted system can no longer reconnect; they will scatter into their most basic units and cannot be restored."

Yan Xia was studying ancient data.

This data came from observations made before the destruction of the Cosmic Silk Road.

Based on research into the vocabulary of Olive Branch Civilization's language, Yan Xia found a similarity in something called "factors."

Factors are substances that can strike and decompose matter, disrupting an ordered system and causing it to enter a state of chaotic disorder.

For example, a substance needs weakly bound particles to form its shape and strongly bound atomic nuclei. This factor can shatter atomic nuclei and particles, causing beta decay.

However, the principles behind this require further research; these factors are particles not yet discovered by the federation, likely hidden in places not observed by federation machinery.

In language descriptions, factors appear alongside the green light.

The green light is an abstract linguistic description; Olive Branch Civilization's language mentions it multiple times separately, such as "I walk on the green light; it is so quick and convenient." Here, "road" is translated, but it may not be entirely accurate since a common road is described as "a line that can be flown upon," which suggests that roads in Olive Branch Civilization are perceived as lines.

Thus, the green light must be a type of light visible to them, distinguishing it from "lines that can be flown upon." In Yan Xia's understanding, "lines that can be flown upon" might refer to roads on the ground, while the green light could represent roads in the sky.

Yan Xia was stumbling through this understanding.

"Ella, do you understand the green light?"

Ella shook her head: "If we say the green light is a guiding passage formed by green light, then we first need to know what kind of color green is in Olive Branch Civilization. We cannot know if this light has multiple meanings like Chinese characters or if it is simply light."

"Furthermore, we all know that photons are affected by forces other than gravity. If the green light is indeed light, how do we understand 'setting the green light'?"

"Lastly, I cannot see this light. Perhaps I could see it, but my definition differs from that of Olive Branch Civilization."

This would be a long process.

Perhaps only by going back to Olive Branch Civilization and having them point at something saying this is the green light would Yan Xia truly understand what it was.

But that was fine.

Because compared to being completely in the dark before, Yan Xia now had a preliminary understanding of how this weapon operated.

They needed to truly see; they just had to assume that place had green light.

While Yan Xia was analyzing this, Ella was watching from the side.

She began to review information from those "infected" individuals using new language.

And indeed, she found something valuable.

These individuals were not merely interacting; they had been maintaining communication all along.

Since both life forms and machines in the federation understood Olive Branch Civilization's language, they had never realized it.

The language of Olive Branch Civilization does not exist within frequencies that humans and other federation life forms can receive; it is super high frequency—so high that even some machines cannot access it.

This language possesses many variations in rhythm and frequency compared to human languages.

It is incredibly complex and variable, making it seem like just disordered audio to machine recognition.

However, once Yan Xia grasped this language and used it to re-listen to this audio segment, they discovered it was filled with various communications.

They referred to the weapon capable of destroying the Silk Road as "the bloom of destruction."

In Olive Branch Civilization's language, "bloom" has a specific meaning—not like how humans think of flowers blooming; instead, this bloom symbolizes death and represents a specific manner of dying.

This manner of death feels more like withering rather than an explosion.

"The result brought by factors may not be an explosion but rather a dissolving dispersion," Ella noted critically.

"Letting factors reach marked life forms through green light will destroy their structure and reduce them to their most basic particles. The factors themselves are imprecise; thus they will also strike surrounding objects, which will be deconstructed entirely."

"Then these factors might be exotic matter or something very common in Olive Branch Civilization but considered exotic matter for us."

"Perhaps we should send people back onto the Silk Road for carpet-style contraction; we need some data on these factors."

If factors are fundamental particles, they must currently exist along the Silk Road.

If they are fundamental particles, there might be remnants left over from their aggregation or splitting into other fundamental particles.

These fundamental particles should include some previously discovered by the federation. Although finding them in the vast universe is like searching for a needle in a haystack, this remains the federation's only means at present.

"The green light can change and mark things; if it is a natural passageway, then it represents Olive Branch Civilization's technology."

"The green light used for 'the bloom of destruction' might just be a placeholder name. For instance, we might call a weapon Eagle-283; does this mean that such a weapon is an eagle?"

Yan Xia felt they were grasping something significant.

If these factors could indeed be found, then they could devise defenses against this kind of weapon.

Language brings forth so much knowledge.

"With just one term we can reverse-engineer; this is what knowledge carried by language entails."

The only concern Yan Xia had was whether Chu would truly leave this treasure for the federation or if Chu would unconditionally hand over this treasure to them?

"Send word for An Li and them to return immediately and start building Star City using mini-factories on-site. We must return to the endpoint of Cosmic Silk Road afterward; that's where we are closest to Olive Branch Civilization."

"Ella, are you ready for war?"

"We must engage with Olive Branch Civilization to understand what their language truly signifies."

In fact, perhaps rebooting independent glory would be better.

But Yan Xia's concerns were profound and heavy.

If federation languages assimilate others through communication, does that mean Chu is using language to make the federation its vassal?

Compared to current human languages in the federation, Olive Branch Civilization's language must certainly be more advanced—its embedded knowledge richer. Is Chu engaging in a linguistic game?

Yan Xia knew that relying on others for information could lead to arbitrary alterations of crucial data. 

What followed would be the federation's first proactive strike against Olive Branch Civilization!