In the holographic projection, the perspective from the scientific research robot follows the surrounding ripples that rise and fall.

silence.

A long silence.

[Ten] made no response to the inquiries from human civilization.

Until the surrounding ripples completely disappeared.

Until a huge "wall of light" suddenly appeared in front of the research robot.

The "light wall" is very tall, reaching a height of one kilometer. Based on its imaging method, it can be determined that it is also a type of directional sign.

The meaning is simple and easy to understand—stop moving forward, or rather, prohibit passage.

The reaction speed of zero goes without saying.

Almost at the same time the "light wall" appeared, the scientific research robot was stopped from moving forward.

Before us, there was still an incredibly thick fog.

But the detector had already sounded an alarm.

The vast "land" abruptly ends a few kilometers away—there is no road ahead.

The message from [10] has finally reappeared.

This is the homeworld of the Tenth Empire, an ice giant with a diameter of 73,000 kilometers.

[Enroget civilization, you are currently in the upper atmosphere of this ice giant.]

Lu Yongchang's eyes flickered slightly, and a look of understanding appeared on his face.

Sure enough, it was exactly the same as the information he deduced.

Then, without making a sound, he asked [Ten] about this land.

This time, [10] responded to the question of human civilization with "frankness".

These are the corpses of countless silicon-based plankton.

Their bodies are very light and have a large number of porous structures, allowing them to float easily in the upper atmosphere.

When they are about to die, these planktonic organisms huddle together tightly.

As time passed, their remains formed floating continents high in the atmosphere.

Lu Yongchang stared blankly at the information in the holographic projection, his eyes filled with surprise.

Biological floating land.

He considered many possibilities for the formation of land, but he never imagined that such a vast landmass could be "made" by tiny silicon-based plankton!

At Lü Yongchang's instruction, Zero carefully guided a scientific research robot toward the edge of the floating land.

Just as the research robot was about to cross the "light wall," [Ten] did not send a message to stop it.

Clearly, this wall of light serves only as a reminder.

Lu Yongchang breathed a slight sigh of relief and instructed Zero to speed up the pace of the scientific research robot.

...

For scientific research robots, a distance of several kilometers can be covered in the blink of an eye.

It successfully reached the edge of this floating land.

Thick fog rolled and undulated.

Compared to the interior of the floating land, the dense fog outside the floating land is clearly more active.

It lowered its head and pointed the camera forward.

In the thick fog, there was no longer any solid "land".

The next moment, several micro-drones rose from behind it, circled in the air once, and then swooped straight down into the sky beyond the floating land.

Unsure of the extent of the so-called visitor privileges, and in order not to provoke the AI, the micro-drone did not conduct an in-depth investigation, but simply flew around the entire floating landmass.

As time slowly passed, the most basic surveying model appeared on the holographic projection.

This floating continent is very large.

Its surface area even far exceeds the land area of ​​the Earth.

The average thickness reached an astonishing twenty kilometers, with the thickest part even exceeding fifty kilometers.

The entire floating landmass resembled an irregularly shaped floating island, drifting slowly or quickly in the vast sky, following the surging air currents around it.

Under Zero's control, the robot tilted its head back and pointed its cameras and sensors at the sky above.

After combining and analyzing various detection data, Zero came to a simple conclusion—the orange-yellow light came from the "sky" above.

The massive outer shell of the ice giant has now completely taken over the role of the main star, providing this enormous planet with tremendous energy.

This technology is not difficult; in fact, human civilization could do it.

But Lü Yongchang was still shocked by the scene before him.

The reason is simple.

According to [10], this planetary fortress has existed for over 200,000 years.

Over the course of two hundred thousand years, the fortress has needed to consistently provide light and heat to the ice giant inside, while also maintaining its own normal operation and even withstanding the damage from supernova explosions...

Without a doubt, the energy consumed during this period was an extremely terrifying astronomical figure.

Lu Yongchang suddenly experienced firsthand the strength of a peak level seven civilization.

...

After a moment of silence, Lü Yongchang tried to ask [Ten] a deeper question.

"Could I inquire about the individuals within the Tenth Empire's civilization?"

Silence fell again.

[10] He did not respond to Lü Yongchang's request immediately, as if he was judging something.

Suddenly, a projection appeared in front of the scientific research robot.

They were dark gray, barrel-shaped objects, each over thirty meters tall.

Inside the Earth, Lü Yongchang stared blankly at the dark gray image, a look of confusion in his eyes.

No, that's not a barrel-shaped object!

That's a living thing!

When he saw dozens of long tentacles emerging from the bottom of those cylindrical objects, Lü Yongchang's eyes widened in surprise.

The tentacles reached over twenty meters in length, and supported by the tentacles, the barrel-shaped torsos, which were over thirty meters long, stood upright.

At this point, the total height of these creatures reached over fifty meters!

Dozens of tentacles swayed gently, propelling the barrel-shaped torso above forward slowly.

Although it was just video footage, Lü Yongchang could still feel the "graceful" movement of these creatures.

They... didn't seem to be walking, but rather "floating"!

Just as expected!

The next moment, the tentacles bent slightly and then pushed off the solid floating land.

The barrel-shaped body, spanning over fifty meters, detached from the solid floating land and flew straight into the sky.

Riding the turbulent air currents, they drifted swiftly beyond the floating land!

Yes!

Lü Yongchang suddenly realized!

How could creatures living in the upper atmosphere not be able to fly?!

The projection slowly faded away, and [Ten] sent another message.

[This is the video footage of individual members of the Empire.]

They feed on free electrons in the atmosphere, and thunderstorms are the best time for them to hunt.

The footage before us shows Imperial individuals traveling to the nearest thunderstorm site to feed.

Lü Yongchang swallowed hard: "So how did they communicate with each other?"

Electromagnetic waves.

[From the very beginning of the Empire's existence, it possessed electromagnetic wave technology.]

[We're all silicon-based life forms, aren't we?]