Li Qingsong continued to pour all his energy into technological development.
Numerous large-scale scientific facilities, countless laboratories of all sizes, over a billion Clones, and several million blueprint scientists worked tirelessly, not daring to rest for a single day.
Time slowly slipped by, and in what felt like the blink of an eye, another six hundred-odd years had passed.
Through his day-after-day voyage, Li Qingsong had silently crossed a vast distance of 50 light-years.
By now, the fleet was more than 80 light-years away from the Solar System. From this distance, the Sun’s apparent magnitude had dropped to approximately 7.
The faintest star the human eye can see under ideal conditions has an apparent magnitude of about 6.5.
This meant the Sun was now invisible to the naked eye.
Li Qingsong gazed out at the star-filled cosmos. But among those myriad stars, there was no longer any sign of the Sun.
’A thousand years have passed in the blink of an eye...’
Li Qingsong sighed faintly.
Over the years, he still couldn’t develop technology without constraint, the way he could have within a resource-rich star system. However, the vast amount of supplies he had brought along had supported a certain degree of technological progress.
After a thousand years of tireless effort, Li Qingsong’s technology had made significant progress across various fields.
In terms of practical applications, nearly everything had seen upgrades compared to when the journey began—from ship hulls, radar detection, and Electromagnetic Cannon components to Thrust Devices, nuclear reactors, and even chemical engineering, metallurgy, and casting.
Li Qingsong had even upgraded the blueprints for his various ships through three full generations in the simulator. It was estimated that the overall performance of the latest generation of Space-Air Carriers would be a full 10% higher than the current models!
This was an improvement in overall performance, an undeniably massive gain.
Unfortunately, this was only an estimate. Limited by finite resources, Li Qingsong had yet to build even a single one of the new ships.
In terms of fundamental theory, Li Qingsong had integrated all his previous theories and accumulated a vast amount of observational data on phenomena like the Strong Core Force and quark-gluon plasma. This allowed him to better incorporate the Strong Core Force into the framework of the Standard Model.
He also made significant strides in condensed matter physics, quantum physics, and mathematical principles.
Advances in biotechnology were equally immense.
Thanks to the continuous iterative upgrades of the Nuwa AI and full-spectrum genetic analysis at the molecular level, Li Qingsong had experimented with creating a new batch of Clones. Through generation after generation of optimization, his maximum consciousness link count had slowly increased to about 1.5 billion—a full 50% improvement!
A maximum consciousness link count of 1.5 billion meant he could awaken nearly all of his three billion Clones.
After all, factoring in necessary rest and rotations, he needed a population of Clones roughly double his maximum consciousness link count to operate without pushing things to the absolute limit.
But, again limited by resources, Li Qingsong did not awaken that other billion Clones, instead maintaining an active population of two billion.
All in all, the technological progress during this thousand-year voyage was immense. However, he was still some distance away from truly unifying the Strong Core Force and breaking through to the Strong Core Level of civilization.
Now, a thousand years had passed. No matter how frugally he had used them, the supplies he had brought at the start of the voyage were nearly depleted.
He had to choose a star system to stop and resupply.
In fact, Li Qingsong had begun preparing for this hundreds of years ago, starting the process of selecting a suitable star system.
Once he had a target, he had spent the last several hundred years deliberately adjusting the fleet’s course, steadily closing in on it.
Now, the fleet was only about 1.2 light-years from its destination.
The destination was a stable, middle-aged star in its prime, steadily burning. It was slightly smaller and less massive than the Sun, with an age of about 3.5 billion years.
It possessed a vast planetary system, but one that wasn’t chaotic like the Oriental Star System, making it an ideal place to stop and resupply.
At Li Qingsong’s command, the fleet made its way toward the yellowish-red star.
Once the distance and heading were correct, Li Qingsong finally issued the first deceleration order in a thousand years.
In an instant, the main engines on tens of thousands of large vessels and Space-Air Carriers, which had lain dormant for a millennium, roared to life. They unleashed a fierce, simultaneous burn in the direction of the star. Pushed by these countless engines, the faint gravity of deceleration, absent for a thousand years, returned to the ships.
After decades of deceleration, the vast fleet finally entered the star system.
Gazing at the brilliant star, the massive gas giants, and the numerous rocky planets before him, Li Qingsong felt none of the excitement that should have come with arriving in a resource-rich star system. Instead, his heart was filled with melancholy.
He knew that no matter how abundant the resources in this star system were, they weren’t his to keep.
’During this stop,’ he thought, ’I won’t be able to perform a large-scale fleet upgrade. I can’t apply the technologies I’ve developed over the last millennium, nor can I conduct the kind of large-scale, resource-intensive scientific experiments I need to.’
’All I can do is gather resources as quickly as possible, build a decoy fleet, and maybe, just maybe, upgrade some of the fleet’s critical components. Then, I’ll have to set sail again, to flee this place.’
Li Qingsong had only allotted 30 years for the entire stopover.
There was no other way. The Intelligent Mechanical Calamity could catch up at any moment, and Li Qingsong didn’t dare waste a single second.
’It’s a good thing my maximum consciousness link count has increased to 1.5 billion. Otherwise, thirty years probably wouldn’t be enough.’
’Let the construction begin.’
Li Qingsong issued the order, his heart devoid of enthusiasm.
Despite his melancholy, the construction effort could not be delayed for even a moment.
Under Li Qingsong’s control, countless industrial ships descended upon the rocky planets and their moons. Swarms of Jupiter Planes plunged into the gas giants to collect deuterium. Directed by the Divine Craft AI, innumerable robots and intelligent machines sprang into action. One factory after another rose from the ground, their operations soon roaring day and night.
In just a few short years, this unfamiliar, dead star system began to bustle with activity. But this lasted for only twenty-odd years before it quickly fell silent once more.
The resource collection was complete.
Fleet repairs, the replacement of essential components, the construction of a hollow decoy fleet, and the deployment of Hydrogen Bomb traps throughout the star system were also finished.
Then, it was time to leave.
Like a traveler who stays in a hotel for one night only to hastily resume their journey at dawn, a total of six fleets once again set course, each heading in a different direction.
Watching the star shrink and dim behind him, the past thirty years felt like a fleeting dream.
Li Qingsong swore to himself, ’On this next voyage, I will overcome the theoretical barriers in fundamental physics. I *will* break through and become a Strong Core Civilization!’