Chapter 339 – Order Cube
In the highly stratified Federation, ordinary citizens at the bottom of the pyramid rarely had the chance to enter high society. The wealthy elites at the top formed strategic marriages, continually strengthening the kingdoms they had built, and kept the power firmly in their own hands.
In such a society, thirty years ago, there appeared a person who climbed from the bottom of society to the top of the pyramid through her own strength.
Her name was Chen Qiu.
An ordinary citizen of the Federation.
She had a tragic background.
Her mother died from complications during childbirth. Her father raised her until she was five, but was brainwashed by an extreme protest organization, joined them, and neglected her.
Starving and poorly clothed, she was sent to the Federation’s juvenile assistance center.
Because of her exceptional intelligence, which was evident at the age of five, she was quickly chosen by the head of the center to attend school.
In five years, she completed ten years’ worth of education that other children her age would typically have received.
At ten, she was admitted to the Federation’s top university’s advanced class through special permission, where she received systematic education. Five years later, she entered the Federation University.
Her university courses were broad and all-encompassing, earning her a rating as a super A-level talent.
At twenty, she graduated from university, and in a fierce competition with opponents in their thirties and forties with strong backgrounds, she fought her way through and entered the research institute, becoming a researcher.
She continued to rise through the ranks, gaining honor after honor with her continuous research achievements. At a young age, she became the director of the research institute, reaching the peak of her career.
In her first year as director, Xie Xie’ao sought to marry her.
Such an opportunity, enviable to ordinary people, was, for her, just a chain she could not escape, no matter how hard she tried.
With no background, she had no other choice.
At the age of twenty-eight, she became Xie Xie’ao’s third wife, a wife that could not be legally recognized.
Fortunately, her career was still thriving, and her desire to explore the unknown only grew stronger.
A space journey she initiated and organized brought Xie Xie’ao an explosive piece of news.
The cosmic order had been disrupted, and the various worlds were about to merge.
During the journey, the ship she was aboard inadvertently entered a star system called S•Erso.
The S•Erso Star System had been enduring a long-lasting war. The sacred artifact they had guarded for generations had been stolen. They had broadcasted a plea to the universe, hoping for assistance from other worlds, but unfortunately, no star systems responded, even as the artifact was taken and the final massacre was about to begin.
Chen Qiu and her ship landed on the largest star in the S•Erso system, right after the war had ended. The system was in ruins, its civilization nearly destroyed, with only a few survivors remaining.
From the survivors of the star, she learned that the so-called “Rulers” were a brutal, warlike, and ambitious race that had been S•Erso’s enemies for generations.
They desired to rule the universe.
They called themselves the rulers of the universe and named themselves “Rulers.”
They were strong enough to have the power to conquer the entire universe.
However, the various worlds of the universe hid in the dark, and they could not find them. So, they stole the sacred artifact— the Order Cube —and disrupted it.
The cosmic order collapsed in an instant, and the various worlds began to emerge.
When only one bubble remains on the surface of the water, no matter how strong it is, it cannot consume the other bubbles.
So, let all the bubbles rise to the surface.
As the density of the bubbles on the surface of the water increased, the original bubble could not swallow them all in time. So, it allowed the bubbles to collide with each other. The original bubble lay dormant beneath the water, waiting for the bubbles to annihilate each other. When only one remained, it would rise to the surface and consume the last survivor.
After the Order Cube was used, it was broken into eight parts, scattered irregularly across the corners of the universe.
One of these parts fell into the S•Erso system. The survivors of S•Erso knew that the Rulers would not let them off easily. If they kept the shard of the cube, it would be stolen again, so they handed it over to the outsider, Chen Qiu.
Chen Qiu, carrying the shard of the cube, with the help of the remaining civilization of S•Erso, found a “gate” to return to the Federation, successfully making her way back.
Upon returning to the Federation, Chen Qiu found Xie Xie’ao and detailed her journey through space, handing over the shard of the cube to him.
Chen Qiu proposed that the Federation should focus its efforts on building a complete space defense system.
The universe was not just one world—the Federation must enhance its crisis awareness, arm itself, and avoid the tragedy of the S•Erso system repeating itself.
However, her proposal was rejected by Xie Xie’ao.
At the time, the Federation’s top ten financial families were in fierce competition for the top three positions, with control still uncertain. Xie Xie’ao could not afford to be distracted by other worlds.
The Xie family could not provide the funding for Chen Qiu’s proposal, and the other financial families were skeptical about it.
Despite Chen Qiu’s urgent attempts to make her proposal seem valuable, it was all in vain.
Chen Qiu did not want to give up, so she used other scientific research projects as an excuse and went into space three more times, hoping to find traces of other worlds and more scattered shards of the Order Cube.
In the end, all of her efforts were in vain.
For her fourth attempt, she had prepared for two years, finally piecing together enough funding. During this time, she also created a higher-precision cosmic signal receiver, assembled an excellent team, and was eagerly anticipating the start of her fourth space journey.
However, on the eve of the spaceship’s launch, she was informed that she was pregnant.
Xie Xie’ao strictly forbade her from going into space, brought her back to the Xie residence, and replaced her with a researcher from the Wu family to lead the upcoming journey.
While confined at the Xie residence, her position as director of the research institute was undermined, and the vice director successfully took over.
Her meticulously planned space exploration mission, which had been designed to last a year, was cut short by the commander’s orders and returned after only four months.
What had been a mission Chen Qiu placed great hopes on ended in haste, marking a failure.
After giving birth, Chen Qiu returned to the research institute, but not as the director. Instead, she resumed her work as a regular researcher, becoming obsessed with developing a more sensitive cosmic signal receiver. She continuously adjusted and modified it based on the data collected from the fourth mission’s four-month journey.
Three years later, she fell critically ill, refused treatment, and passed away.
It was unclear whether the signal receiver she had dedicated her final three years of life to developing was ever successful. The principles behind her modifications remained a mystery, and no one could decipher them.
The massive equipment was left in a corner of the research institute’s storage, occasionally visited only by cleaning robots.
It wasn’t until twenty-four years later that the long-forgotten equipment saw the light of day again. It was moved onto a brand new spaceship, built with billions of research funds, carrying the most professional team. Led by Xie Xu, the ship journeyed into the depths of space, and the signal receiver successfully picked up a distress signal from the S•Erso system, one that had been drifting in the universe for over a thousand years.
Chen Qiu’s figure gradually faded from Xie Xie’ao’s memory, but her story did not end there.
•••
“Ugh!” Tu Ran angrily kicked Xie Xie’ao, who was slumped on the ground, to vent a bit of her frustration.
Xie Xie’ao’s body swayed, his face blank, showing no reaction.
Half-squatting down, Tu Ran held a hallucinogenic mushroom in front of Xie Xie’ao’s eyes. “You need to quickly convince the other financial families to stop invading other worlds and focus on the Federation’s security. The space fleet should be built, the measures Chen Qiu proposed back then should be taken seriously, and you need to stop always thinking about invading other worlds. Do you understand?” Tu Ran said impatiently.
Xie Xie’ao, still in a daze, nodded.
“Open your mouth,” Tu Ran added.
Xie Xie’ao complied.
Tu Ran pinched with her thumb and index finger, as if tossing something into his mouth, though she had actually thrown nothing.
“Alright, close it,” she instructed.
Xie Xie’ao shut his mouth.
Tu Ran continued to deceive him, “I just used my newly acquired ability on you. What you swallowed was my condensed mental power. If you don’t do as I say, I can make that mental power explode inside you at any time, tearing you apart from the inside out.”
As a precaution, Tu Ran added an extra layer of insurance.
Xie Xie’ao nodded, his face twitching.
Finally satisfied, Tu Ran turned around and returned to the display rack. She opened the glass doors one by one, and with a flick of her hand, she pulled all the wooden boxes into her space.
Her movements were quick, occasionally glancing up to check the status of the cameras. If anyone got close, Zero would control the surveillance to alert her.
The bodyguards outside didn’t suspect anyone would enter the collection room. Not a single person approached until Tu Ran had taken everything and left.
With security measures like this, Tu Ran couldn’t help but shake her head at Xie Xie’ao’s incompetence.
She stepped over Xie Xie’ao’s body and slipped into the pitch-black tunnel.
She walked through the tunnel, aware that she didn’t have Huo’s ability, so she couldn’t rush through the narrow space.
Halfway through, she encountered Huo, who hadn’t gone far.
“Has your brother left?” Tu Ran asked.
Zhuo was responsible for distracting the firepower by damaging Jie’s mainframe.
Huo responded, “He left.”
Tu Ran nodded, letting Huo take her hand and guide her out of the tunnel.
