Chapter 173 - 172: Island

The massive fleet continued to advance at a speed of 12,000 kilometers per second.

Watching the asteroid recede into the distance, gazing at the Sun that remained bright but no longer stood out, a smile touched the face of the Clone containing Li Qingsong’s consciousness.

"Goodbye, my home."

Thirty years had passed since Li Qingsong’s departure. A long journey of approximately 400 more years still lay ahead for him to cross.

Time flowed by quietly, and throughout this process, Li Qingsong did not remain idle.

Because the fleet had departed with sufficient supplies, some scientific research that consumed fewer resources could now be conducted.

Thus, numerous shuttlecraft began to travel back and forth constantly between the many drum-shaped residential ships, large Scientific Research Vessels, and Space-Air Carriers.

Large numbers of Clones and Blutuk People journeyed between the various ships, communicating with one another. Supplies circulated between the vessels, and scientific research proceeded in full swing.

Li Qingsong intended to use these 400-odd years to shore up all his technological deficiencies.

Although Li Qingsong had already caught up to and even slightly surpassed the Blutuk Civilization in key technologies—such as ship structure, engineering, materials science, controlled nuclear fusion, and Thrust Devices—there were still many gaps when it came to the finer details.

The technological development of a normal civilization tends to advance on all fronts simultaneously, with every field progressing at a similar rate.

It would be like mobile phones entering the advanced smartphone era while computers remained old-fashioned, outdated machines with roller-ball mice.

However, Li Qingsong’s unique development path had led to a bizarre situation where his military technology was highly advanced, while other, more secondary technologies lagged behind even those of the original Human Civilization.

Now, with time on his hands during these years of travel, was the perfect opportunity to bring all those lagging technologies up to speed.

In the vast emptiness of space, an "island" composed of numerous ships thus appeared, floating silently.

Although the fleet was currently traveling at a staggering 12,000 kilometers per second, it appeared to be floating motionlessly, as there were no points of reference.

Even if a smaller ship were to leave a larger one, or if Clones and Blutuk People were to venture out into space in their Space Suits, they had no fear of being left behind by the fleet.

This was because every ship and every person in the fleet had achieved the same trajectory and velocity during the initial acceleration, making them all stationary relative to one another.

Aside from the absence of nearby celestial bodies, life within the fleet was entirely unaffected.

Thus, a wide variety of experiments commenced in the numerous laboratories. The experimental data and conclusions from hundreds of millions of Clones were constantly collated in Li Qingsong’s mind before being distributed and synchronized back into the mind of every single Clone.

Although few in number, the Blutuk scientists undoubtedly played a crucial role in this process, offering different perspectives and helping to eliminate intellectual blind spots.

This even led Li Qingsong to think privately, ’If a similar situation arises in the future, I might have to capture some more aliens. After all, the more intelligent life forms there are with different cultural and physiological attributes, the more reference points I’ll have, and the fewer my blind spots will be.’

However, this course of action seemed rather similar to that of unorthodox intelligent life forms, like the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity or the Parasitic Celestial Calamities.

Li Qingsong considered this, then resolved that even if he gained the ability in the future, he would never take the initiative to maliciously invade other civilizations. He would only capture a population and add them to his ranks if their civilization showed malice toward him first.

This wasn’t due to any moral absolutism on Li Qingsong’s part, nor was it a desperate attempt to distinguish himself from the Celestial Calamities. Rather, Li Qingsong hoped to uphold and preserve the noble qualities originating from Human Civilization.

’Only by doing this can I still feel like I’m human, instead of having turned into something... strange.’

’I suppose these cultural attributes are my only remaining connection to Human Civilization now...’

With the numerous Clones and Blutuk People working in concert—the uncooperative Blutuk People had long been marginalized over the years, their genetic lines not being passed on—the less critical technologies that Li Qingsong previously lacked the energy, intellect, or resources to develop also began experiencing breakthroughs.

These breakthroughs in secondary technologies even began to show signs of feeding back into and benefiting the primary fields of technology. In the process, Li Qingsong developed numerous hypotheses concerning more advanced Warship structures, more powerful Electromagnetic Cannons and Laser Cannons, and new methods of ship propulsion.

However, with insufficient resources, large-scale research was not yet possible. He would have to wait until they arrived at the Oriental Star System.

Every day, countless ships shuttled back and forth. Every day, vast quantities of supplies were dispatched from the warehouses. The millions of Nuclear Fusion Reactors consumed large amounts of deuterium gas daily. The food factories produced a steady supply of starch, meat, fish, and fruit.

It is worth mentioning that for this migration, Li Qingsong did not repeat his previous strategy of stockpiling vast amounts of food, which he had done for the voyage from Ceres to Jupiter. Instead, he opted to synthesize starch, building large industrial ships dedicated to converting carbon dioxide directly into starch.

This technology was not particularly difficult, and Li Qingsong had mastered it a long time ago.

The reason he hadn’t used it before was simply that starch synthesis was too rudimentary, capable of producing only starch.

Within a Star System, there was no shortage of resources or energy. Automated cultivation bases were not resource-intensive, didn’t require many Clones to operate, and could produce a wider variety of flavorful carbohydrates. Objectively, this was more beneficial for maintaining the Clones’ physical health and mental acuity.

Furthermore, certain industrial crops like cotton, hemp, oil-producing plants, and sugar crops still needed to be cultivated and could not be synthesized.

So, it was simply better to use cultivation bases, making starch synthesis technology unnecessary.

But now, during a state of Interstellar Travel with limited resources, he could no longer afford to worry about potential impacts on the Clones’ health. The use of starch synthesis technology had become a necessity.

And so, powered by the abundant energy from the Nuclear Fusion Reactors, a cycle was established. The carbon dioxide exhaled by the Clones and the Blutuk People was collected and converted into starch through a series of processes. A portion of this starch served as the staple food for the Clones and Blutuk People. Another portion was designated for industrial use, and yet another part was used as animal feed to produce meat. Ultimately, a significant amount of this starch was consumed by living organisms to sustain their life functions, which in turn produced more carbon dioxide to be synthesized again, completing the loop.