Chapter 93: Arrival at the Olive Branch Civilization's Border City

Time flies like an arrow, and years pass like a shuttle.

This saying seems even more fitting in the vastness of space.

In ancient times, people dreamed of immortality and eternal life, and emperors were referred to as "Wan Sui," meaning ten thousand years. These were all beautiful wishes.

However, at this moment, the clock next to Yan Xia's hibernation chamber displays the time as 12,197 CE.

Since the Earth's shattering and their escape into space, Yan Xia has lived for over ten thousand years, to be precise, 10,160 years.

Although most of this time was spent in hibernation, he has also lived for several hundred years.

Yan Xia did not enter a deep hibernation state this time, but his brain maintained a certain level of activity, and he had a very long dream.

The Earth did not perish.

The gamma-ray burst was of low intensity, only causing the sky to appear with two suns, and the ground became slightly hotter.

Yan Xia spent a week with his family in a room, enduring the Earth's unstable atmosphere. Then, human society returned to normal, and Yan Xia resumed his daily life.

Yan Xia lived harmoniously with his family, and his parents, who had retired, enjoyed their retirement at home, occasionally going out to dance in the square or play cards.

His wife gave birth to a daughter, a firstborn daughter, which was great. The pressure wasn't as high, and daughters are so adorable.

Everything was like the life of an ordinary person.

Yan Xia immersed himself in this beauty and then woke up.

"Was it a dream?"

Yan Xia rubbed his slightly aching temples. As the saying goes, "daydreams lead to night dreams," and he had been missing his family on Earth.

Especially his wife, whom he had been with since his first year of college, and they got married. Before the destruction of Earth, his wife was already three months pregnant... But everything was gone.

Yan Xia tried to move on, but this pain did not diminish with time; instead, it grew stronger over the years. Even though he could no longer remember their faces, the emotions of longing were overwhelming, like a vast ocean formed by the gradual accumulation of rivers and streams.

"I wish the dream could have lasted longer."

But it seemed impossible from the beginning. When people dream, it means they have passed through deep sleep and are about to wake up. That's why people often feel like they were just dreaming right before waking up.

Yan Xia glanced at the time next to him, and he had only been asleep for a short while. Time no longer held much significance for him.

Then his gaze fell on a photo on the table, a family portrait. It was a picture of his family, generated by Ella based on his memories.

"Ella!"

Yan Xia called out, and Ella instantly appeared before him.

Ella appeared as a playing card, lazily lying on a red soft couch in the card, adorned with pearls and jewels, her voluptuous body exuding mature charm. The slit of her cheongsam revealed her snow-white thighs, and a ribbon tied around her legs accentuated her perfect curves. Two maids stood on either side, fanning her with banana leaves, giving her the appearance of a wealthy lady.

"A new character?"

Yan Xia was no longer surprised by Ella's occasional cosplaying, but this time, the sense of elegance was quite refreshing.

Ella sat up, and two cat ears appeared on top of her head.

"In the past 2,000 years, a gaming company in the Olive Branch Civilization's capital galaxy developed a card game similar to Yu-Gi-Oh!, which became popular in the capital galaxy. My outfit is one of the characters in the game."

Yu-Gi-Oh!?

Yan Xia had long forgotten about this card game, and the memories of his past life were now flooding his mind.

However, he quickly put these thoughts aside.

"We should have entered the border of the Olive Branch Civilization, right?"

Ella nodded inside the card.

"Indeed, 40 years ago, we received the Olive Branch Civilization's tractor beam."

"The Olive Branch Civilization is indeed advanced. They have established numerous satellites at the border of their star domain, and the ones we can detect number over a hundred billion. On average, there is one satellite every 0.91 light-years. These satellites have complete attack, defense, and signal transmission capabilities."

Yan Xia stepped out of the hibernation chamber and got dressed.

The surrounding environment began to change, and with holographic projection technology, his room instantly transformed into a control room.

Yan Xia saw a beam of light with a diameter of about 10 kilometers passing through the fleet.

"This tractor beam will guide us to the edge of the Olive Branch Civilization's border city."

"We are very close now; it's just ahead in the main-sequence star system."

Yan Xia checked the distance, which was about three light-years away, indeed very close. It would take only 33 years to reach it.

He needed to make some preparations.

First, he needed to investigate the military strength of the Olive Branch Civilization's border city, then confirm their attitude towards the Civilized Federation, and finally, prepare for any sudden attacks from the Olive Branch Civilization.

Everything needed to be done within 33 years, so time was tight.

Yan Xia immediately got to work.

...

30 years later.

The tractor beam disappeared, and their destination was within reach.

With the main-sequence star as the backdrop, Yan Xia saw a long, thin line.

This line almost divided the background stars into two halves.

It was 238 light-years long, 1.1 light-years wide, and had an area of 58.58 billion square light-years.

As they approached, Yan Xia was amazed because this thin line was the Olive Branch Civilization's border city, a massive space city with an area over 110 million times that of Earth.

Astonishing!

Only the phrase "unparalleled awe" could describe what Yan Xia witnessed.

The depth of the Olive Branch Civilization was crudely displayed before Yan Xia.

This was just the border city of the Olive Branch Civilization. How prosperous would their capital star domain be?

Yan Xia couldn't even imagine it, let alone Ella, who would need some time to calculate it.

"To develop such a massive megacity, the time required should be in the tens of thousands of years."

"The Olive Branch Civilization's existence is more ancient than we imagined."

The age of the universe is 13.9 billion years, and the Milky Way has existed for 13 billion years. After the universe stabilized following the Big Bang, it took several hundred billion years for life to form. Some civilizations might have a terrifyingly long history.

This long history has led to the strength of the Olive Branch Civilization. Although their technology and energy levels might not be as advanced as the Civilized Federation, their scale far surpasses that of the Civilized Federation.

At this moment, Yan Xia revised his previous estimation of the Olive Branch Civilization's level from 2.3 to 2.4.

"It seems our future plans will require more caution."

As the fleet approached this massive border city, countless eyes within the city also turned towards the Civilized Federation's fleet.