CH 10

I widened my eyes in shock. When I looked at Chen Qiang, he nodded. Perhaps he had already suspected this way earlier. He had merely been keeping his suspicion to himself. From this one timeline with an infinitely low probability of occurring, we were able to glimpse the secret of this celestial body.

Team Leader Chen patted my shoulder before gesturing at me to be silent. He gestured that I shouldn't say anything. He then pointed at his weapon compartment, specifically at the warhead's compartment. The team leader had two warheads remaining. Coupled with the one I had left, there were three warheads at our disposal. Chen Qiang gestured at me to set up the three warheads in a triangular formation.

The team leader also reminded me through hand signals to ensure that the resulting explosion would create a pressure not exceeding the critical point of 1.5 million atmosphere. There was a possibility that we would never leave the five-dimensional space alive.

Thus, what we needed to do was set up a target before blasting the warheads into the five-dimensional space. As for what would result from it, well, that would be a gamble as to whether the timeline with infinitely low possibility of happening would actually happen.

We agreed to regroup three hours later at the location of the final warhead. We started moving. Following the plan, I ran toward the first point. The core was oval in shape. It was rather peculiar, but I constantly saw timelines involving Old Du and Zhang Bao'er while I was heading toward my destination.

I saw Old Du and Zhang Bao'er busy mounting a rescue operation with Mimas. They had arrived at the ice sheet zone, leaving the geyser zone. The enormous storm seemed to have passed. I also saw many other timelines where the rescue operation failed, the icy surface exploded, and many other possibilities. However, not one depicted the success of the rescue operation.

While observing the timelines as if watching a movie, I arrived at my destination. This was it. The very gamble that determined whether we could leave this place. I activated the warhead and tossed it into the five-dimensional world as per our plan. Instantly, the warhead sank into the world of infinite possibilities. After several seconds, the warhead appeared in numerous timelines projected by the core.

I then rushed toward my next destination. An hour and a half later, I arrived. Team Leader Chen Qiang was already done with his warheads and was there waiting for me. Communicating through hand signals, Chen Qiang nodded at me. We then activated our thrusters at the same time, shooting upward at the fastest speed possible. Our next target was the carrier-sized creature.

Searching for an aircraft carrier within an area 1,200 kilometers wide had exceeded the difficulty the US army faced when they searched for the Japanese fleet during the Battle of Midway. Fortunately, we had the help of our laser probes. As for the warheads, we had set them to detonate after three hours, which meant that we had to locate our quarry within three hours.

We searched madly, scanning our surroundings unceasingly. One second after another, time passed. The clock ticked, and the warhead detonation was near.

"What the hell? Where did that stupid fish go?" I cursed.

If we couldn't locate it, the timeline with an infinitely small probability of occurring would not come to be. Before we realized it, two hours and fifty minutes had passed.

"It's over. It's over. I, Li Canyue, am running out of time," I couldn't help but become nervous. "Looks like we won't be able to find it."

I shook my head at Chen Qiang to indicate the failure of my search. When the team leader sensed my mood, he patted my shoulder comfortingly.

I understood his implication. "The time has come for me to sacrifice for the motherland. As an interstellar explorer, I should be ready to die. I bid you eternal farewell, Father and Mother."

When I raised my head next, a massive shadow loomed above.

"Goodness, this joy has arrived so abruptly. It refused to be found when we were searching. Why is it suddenly here?" I wondered. "Invisibility. The invisibility ability must be the culprit. This fellow can turn invisible. I must make sure to not lose him again."

With five minutes left, the team leader signaled at me to follow the creature closely. We activated our gecko gloves and stuck our limbs on the creature's back, fixing us tightly to the monstrous creature. While the team leader wasn't paying attention, I took the chance to extract a sample from the back of the creature.

"Invisibility is such an incredible ability to have. I need to procure it for myself, hahaha!" Despite my still uncertain fate, I was able to laugh at myself.

Ten seconds before the explosion, we checked our energy supply: 16 hours left!

Then, a blinding sun bloomed inside the moon's core. The detonation of three nuclear warheads was bright enough to be visible to the naked eye. To be precise, it was the explosion of 3,000, or 300,000, or even 300 million nuclear warheads across numerous timelines.

The three actual, physical warheads exploded, damaging the five-dimensional space. The explosions tore across the many alternate realities, reducing the five-dimensional space into a four-dimensional space. In a four-dimensional state, time no longer existed in parallels, leaving only a singular timeline behind.

The timeline with an infinitely small probability of appearing had arrived! The core and even the entire Jupiter II shook violently. The calm sea churned, while the many tubes dropped down into the sea.

The invisibility of countless objects was dispelled. The previously empty space became filled with numerous objects, freshly reduced into four-dimensional objects from five-dimensional objects. The many creatures, big and small, started entering the objects in an orderly fashion, as though they were grains returning to the granary.

The entire world rocked as seawater, rocks, and chunks of ice rained down like rain. It was as though the moon was on the brink of crumbling apart. Numerous massive rocks broke off within the moon's crust and pierced through the surface. It was an apocalyptic scene, as though two celestial bodies had collided.

Both Chen Qiang and I turned our suits' defensive functions to the maximum capacity. Facing the detonation of countless warheads, our energy supply drained rapidly. In the blink of an eye, we only had less than 2 hours' worth of energy left.

"It's over, it's over. This explosion is too strong. We don't have enough energy to protect ourselves. Once out of energy, we will turn into vapor in less than 0.1 seconds. My god, I don't think a second miracle will occur," I told myself.

However, it would seem like I, Li Canyue, would not meet my end just yet. As massive boulders rained down all around us, rays of light appeared in our vision, and Jupiter itself became vaguely visible to us.

"The sky!" I cried out.

"Canyue, Canyue, can you hear me?" Old Du's anxious voice rang out in my earpiece.

"Yes! Yes! Old Du, I heard you!" I replied loudly.

I grew emotional upon hearing Old Du's voice. I could feel that help was not far away.

"The moon has suddenly exploded. We can hear you, but we can't pinpoint your location yet," Old Du said anxiously.

"Team leader, why can't they pinpoint our location?" I asked Chen Qiang.

"Because time has yet to realign fully. The critical point in time has yet to come. We're not actually on the same timeline," came the team leader's reply.

"This is too confusing for my brain," I grumbled.

Chen Qiang did not have the time to give me a more detailed explanation. Instead, he ordered Dodo and Old Du to keep trying to pinpoint our location. Suddenly, countless five-dimensional projections erupted from the core. The history of the universe and the Solar System played out before us in full glory.

I bore witness to the dawn of the Solar System and the growth of the various celestial bodies, including Blue. Then, 4.5 billion years ago, a young Blue collided against the ancient planet Theia, ultimately giving rise to the current Blue. Part of the debris from the collision also proceeded to form the moon orbiting Blue.

I saw the ancient Mars, a world lush with life, high mountains, and flowing rivers. On the other hand, the young Jupiter actually existed in the form of twin planets. Ultimately, the twins collided, creating massive shockwaves that swept through Mars, extinguishing all life on it. From that collision, the massive Jupiter we knew today formed.

Scene after scene appeared before me, memories from antiquity that had been faithfully recorded by the five-dimensional core, proving that the core had actually existed for at least 4.5 billion years. Suddenly, a dazzling ray of light appeared before us. The creature opened its mouth, and below its mouth was where the ray of light had come from.

"This is our chance! Canyue, stick with me!" shouted Chen Qiang.

I followed closely behind him as we rushed into the creature's mouth.

"Team leader, coordinates determined. We will arrive in 30 seconds," a voice rang out in our earpieces.

I felt my eyes glaze over while my body felt like it was passing through a layer of mushy substance. Only after the event did I know that the mushy sensation was the sensation of time made physical brushing against me. After traveling through time itself, we arrived at our initial timeline.

"The genius Li Canyue is back! Hahahahahaha!" Having survived the disastrous encounter, I couldn't help but shout in an exaggerated manner, completely forgetting that the crew on Saturn and Blue could hear every word spoken. That was embarrassing.

Mimas soon reached us. I saw the anxious eyes of Old Du and Zhang Bao'er, who were in the cockpit. Mimas's rescue arm then hurriedly brought us back into the vessel.

"Canyue, I’ve missed you to death!" Inside, Old Du and Zhang Bao'er jumped on me. The three of us hugged each other tightly, emotions filling our hearts.

"Dodo, leave immediately. This moon is in an extremely unstable and dangerous state," said Chen Qiang.

Dodo obeyed and brought Mimas back to the sky. Below us, icebergs crumbled and stones flew everywhere. Dodo and Maerdo, who were in charge of piloting Mimas, activated manual flight and moved the vessel deftly, avoiding the many debris flying about in the air. The vessel soared rapidly, quickly reaching an altitude of 30,000 meters above the surface.

At this time, I could finally see the entirety of Jupiter II with my naked eyes. Jupiter II started collapsing from within. It split open, and eight massive cylindrical stones split out of it, as though they were the pillars of the creation of legends. The north and south poles became massive geysers, constantly spurting out gigantic streams that reached far above the moon. The very end of these streams reached even Jupiter itself. The spherical moon transformed into an irregular shape akin to a wriggling worm.

And at the head of this "worm," I saw an eye. The eye was small when compared to the moon itself. The "eye" I saw was the massive creature we had used to escape. The spot where the eye was seen was actually the spot of a degenerated eye.

"The entire Jupiter II is actually a creature," I mumbled. 

"That's right. This is an ancient creature," Chen Qiang replied. "I started suspecting this soon after entering the inner part of Jupiter II. The many things we saw down there hinted at the fact that we had fallen into the body of a massive creature. Now, it is proven that the moon is a frozen creature that has been slumbering for many years. Utilizing Jupiter's gravitational force, it maintained the functions of its five-dimensional heart as the creature hibernated."

"This is not scientific at all," said Zhang Bao'er.

"Nothing is absolute in the boundless universe," said Chen Qiang. "The creatures we have seen in there are actually part of the biological system serving and keeping this creature alive. When we saw a scene with only one in a million chance of occurring, we forced it to occur with our warheads. After detonating the warhead, we escaped through its degenerated eye. Because the eyes had degenerated, the creature did not have any protective mechanisms. That was our sole path of escape."

Zhang Bao'er and Old Du were filled with astonishment after hearing the tale. Their mouths were stuck agape. At this time, a piercing hiss rang out as Jupiter II stretched its body and started swimming into the boundless universe, leaving countless debris, ice chunks, and rocks floating where the moon used to be.

Find the original at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

Just like that, a moon had transformed into a living creature before vanishing before our eyes. A moon was actually a living creature. I was having a hard time convincing my brain that all this was actually happening.

I was one who had seen the timeline with a one-in-a-million chance to occur, but Chen Qiang had forbidden me from revealing what I had seen. Zhang Bao'er, Old Du, and Maerdo did not have the luxury of seeing what I had seen. Thus, the sight of a moon-turned-creature swimming away into the universe was completely unbelievable. 

I slumped onto the floor. This trip had been too tiring. I almost felt like I had died. When I thought back to all that I had experienced, everything felt like a dream.