Chapter 310 The Sword Immortal Crosses 38 Kilometers
In the first phase of the Starry Sky Advance Base, the indicator lights outside the airlock flashed rhythmically in absolute silence.
The first batch of fully reorganized expeditionary force members had just completed the module docking, and each unit was methodically pushing life support equipment and cold-forged array plates into their designated workstations according to the new base layout. Outside the base, welding arms silently spewed out arcs of electricity, and the star-gathering nodes glowed with a deep purple light in the darkness.
Everything is meshing together steadily, following the gears of the large-scale infrastructure project.
However, within the central control hub of the base's core module, the scale of the holographic star map has been stretched to an extremely exaggerated level.
The blue halo representing Earth and its 200-kilometer-high orbit was pushed to the edge of the screen. A virtual link emitting a faint red light, starting from the high-orbit base, pointed directly to the gray-white, cold, dead star 380,000 kilometers away.
The high-orbit orbit is stable. The next step, naturally, is the moon.
This is not a rash and impulsive leap forward, but a long-planned scheme that has finally come to fruition.
Inside the airlock, the air pressure is being slowly extracted.
Chu Qing stood quietly in the center of the decompression chamber. He wore the latest deep-space tactical robe delivered by the Coordination Agency, the dark gray fabric surface flowing with micro-arrays for pressure resistance and insulation. On his back was an extremely wide, unsharpened heavy sword—a high-orbit-specific sword reforged from the core materials of the Peregrine-07 and the finest spirit gold from the Earth's surface.
As one of the military's top-tier sword cultivators, his current identity is that of the first true "Earth-Moon Crossing Trialer" in all of humanity.
"The gravity array link has been fully connected."
Lin Feng's extremely calm, slightly hoarse voice came through the earphones.
Humans would certainly not be foolish enough to let a sword cultivator withstand the pressure of 380,000 kilometers of deep space with only his physical essence. It was an extremely intricate array link—an invisible track laid out with Earth's massive gravitational field as the bow, the moon's gravitational well as the target, and the space elevator and the heavy pressure array on the outer edge of the forward base as nodes.
What Chu Qing needs to do is not to use his true essence to "fly," but to act as the first living beacon of this planetary array, following the nodes of the gravity array, step by step leveraging the momentum, dissipating the force, and leaping forward, to pave this path for all mankind.
"The high-orbit voltage stabilization is normal, and the redundant computing power of the satellite nodes has been switched to the navigation frequency band." Lin Feng looked at the fluctuating data. "Chu Qing, the thirty-six main gravity nodes along the route have been lit up."
"Received." Chu Qing closed his eyes, and the spiritual energy completed the final connection with the internal circulation system of the pressure-resistant suit.
"Lock the launch window and clear the exit." Qin Lie issued the final order from the forward base command console.
At the same time, in the joint control room of Kyoto on the surface, Wang Mingyuan looked at the green dot representing Chu Qing on the screen and said in a deep, steady voice, "Control room, cleared. Good luck."
There was no unnecessary chatter.
The outer door of the airlock slid open with a loud bang.
Absolute vacuum and icy cold instantly enveloped Chu Qing. Without pausing, he bent his legs slightly and stomped heavily on the titanium crystal deck of the base with his dark gray combat boots.
There was no sound of air being torn apart, no whistling of air currents. Chu Qing was like a cannonball fired from a gun, rushing directly out of the outer edge of the forward base and shooting into that deep, boundless darkness.
Two kilometers from the base, Chu Qing suddenly drew his heavy sword from his back, channeling his true essence into the blade through the hilt. The heavy sword didn't unleash a dazzling sword aura; instead, it emitted a low-frequency spiritual pressure vibration.
hum-
At the edge of Earth's massive gravitational field, the first invisible gravitational array node was activated by this tremor.
Chu Qing's combat boots landed precisely on the non-existent "step." Using the reverse thrust from the array nodes and the slingshot effect of Earth's gravity, he completed an incredible reversal acceleration in deep space, transforming into an extremely dim streak of light as he shot deeper into the void.
The Earth receded further and further behind, the massive blue sphere shrinking visibly in our field of vision. The lights of the forward base quickly blended into the chaotic background of stars, becoming indistinguishable.
This is the real deep space.
There was no wind, no sound, and even the refraction of light seemed extremely harsh. Chu Qing hovered alone in the vast wilderness 380,000 kilometers above, surrounded by absolute silence and nothingness that could drive an ordinary person mad instantly.
Every time he crossed 10,000 kilometers, Chu Qing would use his heavy sword to slash through the void, precisely cutting into the next gravitational node.
He didn't unleash his true energy wildly. Most of the time, he used his spiritual power to maintain his body's balance under weightlessness and high speed, as well as to resist the biting cold pressure from cosmic microwave radiation. It was like a traveler crossing a river by stepping on a lone rock in a turbulent undercurrent, using the tides of gravity to leap forward time and time again.
"A coordinate offset of 0.2% has appeared at the edge of node number 12. Beware of cold pressure fluctuations." Lin Feng's voice rang out in the encrypted channel, accompanied by a faint noise.
The next second, a chilling current of radiation mixed with tiny meteorite fragments silently swept past Chu Qing's side.
Chu Qing's gaze was like water. He slightly deflected the heavy sword in his hand by five degrees, using the repulsive properties of the starry sky material to create a faint ripple around him, easily deflecting the cold current. Then, he steadily stepped onto the corrected thirteenth node.
The situation was close but without major incident, and progress was made steadily.
People at both ends were staring at him.
Inside the high-orbit forward base, Lin Feng and the cultivators of the array sequence stared intently at the array plate. The star-gathering nodes were pushed to their limits, injecting strands of star energy into the array links, providing absolute stability for the increasingly larger nodes ahead of Chu Qing.
Inside the main control room on the ground, Wang Mingyuan and generals from various military regions stood in a row, looking at the green dot on the three-dimensional star map that had crossed the Earth's gravitational field and officially entered the Earth-Moon transfer orbit.
The entire hall was so quiet that you could hear the hum of the cooling fans on the instruments, and everyone was holding their breath.
Time loses its meaning in this void where there are no reference points.
After an unknown amount of time, Chu Qing's view ahead was completely filled by a huge, grayish-white disc.
Moon.
It was no longer the romantic, bright halo on the Earth's surface, but revealed its true, grotesque, and utterly desolate nature. Countless enormous craters resembled scars on the planet's surface; without any atmospheric refraction, the stark black and white shadows were as sharp as if carved by a knife and axe.
"Entering the lunar gravity well. Final deceleration using gravity; nodes 35 and 36 to open!"
Lin Feng's voice boomed across the channel.
Chu Qing's body plummeted downwards, the intense feeling of weightlessness instantly being captured by an extremely unfamiliar gravitational force. He reversed his heavy sword, frantically pouring his true essence into it, and in mid-air, he successively crushed two invisible cushioning pads constructed of arrays.
The immense recoil force caused his tactical robe to bulge violently, and his internal organs were subjected to a terrifying overload.
But he managed to dissipate 90% of the violent downward momentum.
boom--!
Without the transmission of air, the muffled sound only existed within the vibration of Chu Qing's own bones.
The combat boots slammed heavily onto the grayish-white moon.
Chu Qing knelt on one knee and plunged the heavy starry sky material greatsword into the dry, cold lunar soil, completely locking away the last bit of inertia.
Under extremely weak gravity, the grayish-white lunar dust rose silently beneath his feet like a very slow-moving mist, then silently floated and drifted down.
Chu Qing slowly stood up.
He drew his heavy sword, raised his head, and looked up at the dark sky above.
There, a tranquil, azure planet, its surface adorned with flowing white cloud patterns, floats quietly in the void, like a lamp that burns eternally in the darkness.
"This is the expeditionary force escort sequence, Chu Qing."
He pressed the communicator on the side of his helmet, and his voice, after passing through the array relay over 380,000 kilometers, was clearly transmitted back to the high orbit and the ground.
"First successful test crossing of the Earth-Moon line. I have reached the lunar surface."
Inside the forward base, Lin Feng let out a long breath and slumped onto the control panel. In the surface control room, Wang Mingyuan looked at the green dot on the star map that had finally stopped on the lunar surface, and slowly relaxed his clenched fists.
There were no cheers on the communication channel, only a profound sense of weight that transcended the boundaries of time.
For the first time, humanity has truly used its own formations, its own infrastructure, and its own swords to send living people 380,000 kilometers away.
High orbit is not the end point, and the moon is certainly not the end point either.
This is merely the first step taken by Earth's civilization after it has lifted its feet from the cradle.