Book 10: Chapter 36: Wormhole

“Sir, what do you think really happened to the Faith?” Watching Alex and the others frantically search through the wreckage for survivors, Huobiao moved closer to Qin Lun and asked quietly.

Because this was just a reconnaissance mission, Qin Lun had only brought three squads this time. The only fellow Apostles with him were Huobiao and Bowei.

The wreckage of the Faith was scattered widely across this region of space. However, with the capabilities of the Bingren Mecha, a rough check was enough to confirm there were no survivors here. Alex and the others just couldn’t accept it psychologically and didn’t want to give up.

“I don’t know. The Gospel World is different from our previous Quest Worlds; there are too many unpredictable accidents,” Qin Lun said, shaking his head with a grave expression. “The only thing we can possibly determine is that this wasn’t done by the Hismael.”

“Mmm, judging from the traces left on the Faith’s wreckage, it likely encountered an accident right after its jump. It was like it slammed head-on into a planet, shattering to pieces before it could even evade, followed by consecutive explosions of different sections of the ship’s hull,” Bowei nodded in agreement. He had observed very carefully earlier and drawn several useful conclusions.

“Even so, there shouldn’t be no survivors at all. The remaining Gith must have either been captured, or…” Bowei trailed off mid-sentence. Another possibility for the battle site to be cleaned up so thoroughly was that any survivors were all devoured by some entity.

The three Apostles exchanged glances. They thought of the Cosmic Octopus.

“This place is very far from the star system where the Cosmic Octopus resides. However, for a cosmic creature of that size, the vast distance we perceive might just be the difference between reaching out their hand and taking a couple more steps for them,” Huobiao said thoughtfully, his expression somewhat grim.

“It can’t be the Cosmic Octopus. A creature like that requires too much space; there wouldn’t be a second one in this region. Otherwise, we would have discovered it long ago!” Qin Lun’s eyes flickered as he pondered. “Captain Marx’s final message to the Advancing mentioned Hismael warships. But don’t you find it strange? The Gigius Insectoid, who should have appeared first, haven’t shown up at all yet!”

“Sir, do you think the Insectoid did this?” Bowei asked cautiously.

“I’m not sure! The Faith’s combat power was formidable. If it really was the Insectoid, they would have needed to commit their entire force.” Qin Lun frowned, his gaze profound as he looked deep into space. “Something else must have happened that we don’t know about. After the Faith’s destruction, two of the four Apostle teams have already become rootless drifting weeds. Soon, we will have no choice but to fight for our very survival.”

…

“Sir, you’ve worked hard!” Black glanced at the head Gan Luo was holding and stepped forward with a smile. “That fight must have been very enjoyable for you!”

“Pfft, it was alright,” Gan Luo spat on the floor. His corrosive saliva ate a small pit into the warship deck.

After transforming into the Mantis Blade, the Chaos Apostle was influenced by the Insectoid’s instincts. As a perceptive Martial Artist, Gan Luo’s reaction was especially intense. Under this psychological effect, he often felt a repulsion towards his own bodily fluids.

“My opponent had fought someone else before encountering me. He probably used some forbidden moves too, otherwise it wouldn’t have been so easy!” Gan Luo fiddled with the head in his hand for a moment, then tossed it directly into the incubation pool, where it bobbed up and down in the thick, murky blood.

“Sir, who is he?” Black tilted his head, studying the handsome face floating in the incubation pool.

“Wolfe Miller, deputy leader of the Tyrant City’s Divine Light Team, known as the ‘Spatial Manipulator’ or the ‘Puppet Dancer’,” A faint, almost-smiling expression appeared on Gan Luo’s face. “Actually, his combat profession specifically counters close-combat Martial Artists. He probably never expected to be defeated by me!”

“The deputy leader of a major team?” Black raised an eyebrow. “Sir, will this leave loose ends?”

“Haha, Apostles live or die by fate in the Quest Worlds. There aren’t that many rules. The Holy Light Team won’t start a team war over him. Besides… this guy isn’t even dead yet!” Gan Luo grinned, glancing at the pale, bloodless face. “What about the rest of the Holy Light Team?”

“Two died, the others lost their ability to resist,” Black replied respectfully. “We just don’t know which team they fought before?”

“We’ll find out!” Gan Luo looked at Wolfe’s head and said meaningfully, “Let’s go. First, let’s have a talk with our guests. They boarded the ship, but they haven’t bought their tickets yet!”

After Gan Luo and Black left the room, the head in the incubation pool, which had long lost any sign of life, suddenly trembled. Its eyelids slowly opened, revealing a pair of golden pupils.

…

“Junko, do you think Lady Mei anticipated the current situation long ago?” Looking at the slender girl not far away, a burly man, easily twice the thickness of a normal person, tugged at the Martial Artist girl’s uniform and pressed for an answer.

“This… perhaps she did,” Junko smiled wryly. Even after following Qin Mei for so long, she could never see through that girl’s thoughts. Remembering that equally inscrutable young man from before, she now somewhat believed they were truly siblings.

When the Hismael’s Cube warship first encountered the Faith, everyone had advised Qin Mei that there was no need for a fight to the death, since the actual combat power of the two ships was similar, and the outcome of a death struggle was hard to predict.

However, for some reason, Qin Mei insisted on doggedly pursuing and harassing the Faith. Even when the opponent entered faster-than-light jump, she actually chased them into it.

Her actions eventually drew opposition from the Hismael. However, just as the Cube warship wanted to turn back, they witnessed an astonishing scene.

“So beautiful!” Qin Mei stood by the warship’s window, gazing with intoxicated expression at the bubble-like sphere in the starry sky that shimmered with rainbow colors as if under sunlight.

This was a cosmic wormhole, comparable in size to a star!

Generally speaking, a wormhole is a narrow tunnel connecting two different space-times. Scientists believe that instantaneous spatial transfer or time travel might be possible through wormholes.

The space-time track used by cosmic warships for FTL jumps is actually an application of wormhole theory. One could consider FTL jumps a low-dimensional simulation of a wormhole. And the portals through which Apostles enter different alien space-time worlds from the Shattered Starry Sky are another form of wormholes at a higher dimension.

The wormhole now before Qin Mei was the culprit that destroyed the Faith. Moreover, it was a very unstable folded wormhole. Its position in the universe often drifted. Especially when a warship performed an FTL jump near it, there was a certain probability of pulling the wormhole over.

When the Faith, pursued by the Cube warship, crashed headlong into the folded-over wormhole, it had almost no ability to resist.

The only stroke of luck was that although this wormhole repelled non-living matter, sentient life could pass through it completely unaffected. A very small number of Gith from the Faith who didn’t die in the explosions reached the other side of the wormhole.

After that, the wormhole’s folding phenomenon subsided, and it disappeared from the disaster site, with only the Cube warship following to observe. This was also the reason why the Advancing couldn’t see the wormhole near the Faith’s wreckage.

When Qin Lun and the others analyzed the Main Quest earlier, most of their deductions were correct. However, their analysis about why the Star Void placed the convergence point for the four-team battle on the Cosmic Octopus’s surface was wrong.

Through calculation, the Shattered Starry Sky could naturally determine the existence of an unpredictable danger in this region of space – namely, this wormhole before them.

However, given the specific point in time the Apostles had entered, it couldn’t interfere with nor change the battle location of the four Sapient Races. It could only use certain hints to make the four races gather near the Cosmic Octopus during their conflict. Because the Cosmic Octopus was the only powerful life form in that star region unaffected by the wormhole, thus providing the Apostles with a stable foothold.

Qin Lun had been puzzled about the Shattered Starry Sky’s purpose for sending them into the Gospel World. It actually related to the wormhole, or more precisely, to things on the other side of the wormhole.

The Star Void’s original arrangement for the Apostles’ Main Quest was quite clever, but it was deliberately sabotaged by someone. On the surface, this person was Wolfe, because he had the Jannamer disturb the Cosmic Octopus, resulting in the Holy Light and Patroller Teams fighting each other, allowing the Chaos Team to profit.

In reality, the Cosmic Octopus’s disturbance was just a minor issue. Although it made the scene of the four-team battle more complex, the essence of the matter hadn’t deviated from the Star Void’s controlled trajectory… until the Faith was destroyed by the wormhole.

The person who truly threw the Star Void’s main plan into disarray was Qin Mei. Using the Cosmic Octopus as the center, and the star domain locations of Hismere and the Insectoid planet as the axes, she actually deduced the general routes the four major races would take to converge at the edge of the second spiral arm of the Scorpius Galaxy, and thus intercepted the Faith midway.

“Lady Qin Mei, it’s truly incredible. Your deduction actually came true!” Just as Qin Mei was observing the wormhole, a misty, illusory figure appeared beside her like a ghost. This was a true Hismael.

“Do you believe me now?” Qin Mei asked with a girlish laugh.

“Yes, but the other honored ones still cannot confirm your other deduction!” The illusory figure said with a smile. “Is the civilization left behind by the Gith Angel truly on the other side of the wormhole?”

“I don’t know. That deduction came from your ancient prophecy. However, since the first three major parts of the prophecy have been confirmed, perhaps it’s worth a try for you!” Qin Mei blinked slyly and said noncommittally.

The illusory figure fell silent. The Hismael’s ancient prophecy had four major parts. The first three had appeared: the Gold Gate referred to the wormhole itself, the Mighty Guardian should be the Cosmic Octopus, and the War probably referred to this conflict among the four races.

Even the disaster mentioned within it seemed to have occurred. The Gith were also part of the angelic legacy, so the destruction of the Faith could also be considered part of the Angel prophecy.

“If you want to gain, you must first give,” Qin Mei stared at the figure and said meaningfully, “Without taking a look, you’ll never know if the Angel’s Gospel truly exists on the other side of the wormhole!”