Only I Walk Alone - Luminary Novels

Wu Ge’s consciousness crossed the river of time, returning to the past, where he witnessed everything that had happened.

The time-sensitive reporter, merely the size of a palm, belonged to a civilization of exceptionally small beings, with an appearance difficult to describe as it bore no similarity to any life form within the Solar System, nor did it inhabit an environment similar to Earth or Mars.

The reason terms like desert, plants, food, and buildings appeared in his writings was because Wu Ge adjusted them based on the civilization of Earth; otherwise, these words would have been untranslatable.

Wu Ge saw the whole story. He saw the planet’s temperature rising, beginning to disintegrate, and he also saw the time-sensitive reporter rushing to the core control area of the divine artifact’s internal space.

“Even if my race must perish, even if the planet our race resides on must perish, at least let this metal plate be sent out. Send it out because it’s the only proof that our civilization ever existed. Our civilization really is just this metal plate now!”

In the final moments, what the time-sensitive reporter wanted to do was to send out the metal plate that recorded a hundred years of history. In these last moments, he wanted to leave something for the world. What else could he leave but this metal plate?

“I offer my soul as a sacrifice in prayer, oh God, please preserve this metal plate!”

A tremendously powerful fluctuation occurred. Although the time-sensitive reporter was praying to the gods, he actually sincerely activated a Grand Prayer Ritual at the cost of his soul and successfully controlled the artifact.

The artifact’s power erupted, almost reversing time and space, but the gravitational force of the triple sun alignment was too strong. Despite the artifact’s strength, stars are even more terrifying entities. While artifacts have various incredible uses, stars are the most common and most powerful artifacts, no, holy relics in the universe!

Stars are equivalent to holy relics, bringing endless light and heat, capable of destroying everything, but also capable of bringing life. Compared to stars, even a level nine divine artifact is insignificant.

However, merely pushing the planet away from the star was still within the artifact’s capabilities, requiring only its full force!

Thus, the artifact self-destructed. During the explosion, a force also protected the metal plate, so the explosion that caused the planet to fragment, even turning the artifact into pieces, did no harm to the metal plate.

The tremendous force started to break the planet apart, with one-tenth being directly destroyed and absorbed by the star, while the rest rapidly moved away from the star, still decelerating under the star’s gravitational pull.

But the three stars were no longer in a straight line; their alignment had shifted, preventing the gravitational tide from repeating, reducing the gravitational pull. Therefore, the planet, although slowing down, would not be pulled back before the next triple sun alignment.

This civilization was utterly obliterated, leaving behind only fragments of the divine artifact and an indestructible metal plate, protected by the Grand Prayer Ritual. Even Wu Ge couldn’t destroy it. Perhaps throwing it into a star or using the Golden Essence Sword might work, but Wu Ge would never do such a thing.

This is the entire truth, not at all shocking, but rather dramatic. After all, if this civilization had united to think about how to leave this planet, perhaps they could have created a spaceship and left this star system with the artifact.

However, they did not. Although they calmly accepted extinction, it was this very acceptance that led to their demise.

Humanity on Earth might react to sudden disasters with suicide or riots, but there will always be those who stand up to save the world. This represents the different decisions made by different civilizations, and Wu Ge has no place to judge them.

Nevertheless, Wu Ge couldn’t help but sigh, reflecting on how fragile civilization is before the forces of nature. A civilization perished just like that, leaving only a metal plate behind. The universe is indeed cruel!

The journey through time ended, and those present also learned of this civilization’s fate, leaving them deeply moved.

The reality often concludes without grandeur or stirring excitement, yet within this simplicity lies the greatness of the seemingly insignificant. Who else could persist in reporting time-sensitive news when they are the last individual of their civilization? Who else could decide to make a divine artifact self-destruct in the last moments to leave something behind for their civilization?

Such determination and soul strength are profound. Even a Grand Prayer Ritual, paid for with a soul, could not be performed if the soul was not strong enough.

However, what must end has ended. Scientists began to explore the planet, discovering rare resources absent in the Solar System, thus making the expedition somewhat fruitful.

Wu Ge plans to place the metal plate in a museum, preserving the only relic of this nameless civilization forever.

Besides, Wu Ge has another task: to create a new divine artifact from the collected fragments. He is aware that creating divine artifacts is not easy, and a new artifact made from fragments of a level four divine artifact might not even reach level one.

Much like divine equipment created from Divine Creation Particles, they are at best divine objects, far from true divine artifacts.

Still, Wu Ge wants to attempt it. After crafting the divine artifact, he plans to transform his own body into a divine artifact, though it would be more accurate to call it a Divine Body.

This represents Wu Ge’s next realm, the Divine Body realm. He currently moves through the universe by protecting his physical body with his mental force. Without this protection, his body would instantly perish due to the vacuum of space and cosmic radiation.

Thus, Wu Ge seeks to refine a divine body that can withstand various harsh natural conditions without the need for mental force protection.

Wu Ge, carrying the divine artifact fragments, returns to the Solar System to start his research on crafting divine artifacts, while Hu Kong’s exploration fleet sets off towards the Barnard’s Star system, the second closest star system to the Solar System at 5.86 light-years away. According to scientists’ calculations, Barnard’s Star system likely contains two planets similar to Jupiter, and its condition is more stable, not being a triple star system, so scientists believe there could be unexpected discoveries.

However, scientists were disappointed. Unlike the Alpha Centauri system, which had a harsh environment but still birthed a civilization, Barnard’s Star system harbored no civilizations on its planets, and their gravity was too great for colonization.

Barnard’s Star system was suitable only for resource extraction and as a tourist destination. After leaving a development team behind, Hu Kong’s exploration fleet returned to the Solar System for rest and maintenance, preparing for their next journey to Wolf 359, 7.7 light-years away from the Solar System.