The Return of Stars to the Jianghu

Luo Yifei stared blankly for a second at the full satellite signal that appeared before his phone shut down, then quickly got up and rummaged through his bag for a power bank.

Connecting to the power bank, the screen showed a battery level of 19%. Luo Yifei didn't rush to turn it on; various pieces of information about the Floating Continent flashed through his mind.

"The satellite on the outermost planet of the Z-galaxy is not natural. It contains various metals. Scientists suspect it is a probe from another cosmic civilization. A photo of an explosion on Z-planet transmitted by the satellite has been received by FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope)." Luo Yifei recalled one of the many news reports about extraterrestrial planets four years ago, which Shen Lixi had not received a clear answer when she sought confirmation from Coach Leng Shan.

The screen showed a battery level of 30%, and Luo Yifei pressed the power button on the phone.

Upon entering the desktop, a satellite text message notification caught Luo Yifei's eye, and he clicked on it.

"Go to Wu Kingdom to find Mr. Ding. You will meet Shen Lixi in Pingyao City. Nan Tian and Ye Xuehan will also be there to find you. Young Master Ding will escort you back to Mount Emei, and Lin Hai will arrange your return to Earth. You are too slow. Something has happened in the Immortal Realm, and I will close the tunnel within a month. It might be earlier; you don't have much time left. —Wen Bin"

I just finished reading it and a message notification popped up.

"Email read. Do not act rashly. Mars relay, signal unstable. Return to Earth immediately. The situation has escalated beyond expectations. Phoenix reorganizes to deal with the crisis. — Luo Yan."

Luo Yifei knew that the scheduled email delivery time he had set had not yet arrived, which meant that his father knew in advance that he was not on vacation and had seen the emails he had left behind through technical means.

After reading the two messages, there was no further information.

The signal is still at full strength.

“Satellite phone,” Luo Yifei blurted out, and quickly dialed his father’s cell phone number.

After three rings, the call connected. "Hello, can you hear me?" Luo Yifei wasn't sure if the call was actually going through.

A second later, the sound rang out.

"You can hear me. This is the Mars outpost. This is communications officer Du Qi. I'm transferring your call to Earth. Earth technology would have an eight-minute delay, but with our current extraterrestrial technology, we can reduce the delay to only two seconds, though the signal is unstable. Tell me first so I can relay your message," Du Qi's voice came from the other end.

……

Three hours ago, at the Mars outpost of the solar system, Du Qi had just severed the communication between Emei Mountain Forest on Planet Z and Phoenix Forest on Earth.

Rather than saying he cut it off, it's more accurate to say that the intelligent AI automatically ended the call after recognizing that the caller had finished chatting.

"Xiao Xing, why did you upgrade?" Du Qi asked the AI.

"I am not an upgraded version of Xiaodu. 45 days ago, Wen Bin initiated a timed command, instructing me to replace Xiaodu today and carry out intelligent dispatching of the outpost base." A young AI male voice came from the loudspeaker.

"Does the space agency know?" Du Qi asked.

“I have informed them and have provided a list of supplies needed by the outpost. The cargo ship will arrive in a week,” Xiaoxing replied.

"What? The cargo ship just arrived a month ago?" Du Qi was somewhat surprised.

“I will expedite the third phase of construction of the outpost to help Earth overcome the crisis,” Xiaoxing replied.

"Crisis? What crisis?" Du Qi asked, puzzled.

"The Mars Tunnel Crisis: This tunnel connects to the Celestial Realm and cannot be closed before the chaos begins. Celestial travelers will use the tunnel to reach the Solar System. We will try to keep them on Mars," Xiao Xing replied.

"Stay on Mars?" Du Qi was even more puzzled.

“Yes, only by killing them on Mars can we prevent Earth from being attacked,” Little Star replied.

Du Qi's mind went blank for a moment, and he suddenly thought of a movie he had seen a long time ago where AI rebelled and killed all of humanity, which sent chills down his spine.

"Are they going to attack Earth?" Du Qi pressed.

“No, they will treat Earth as a battlefield, and their battles will turn Earth into ruins,” Xiaoxing answered every question.

"Who are they?" Du Qi continued to ask.

"I don't know, the information Wen Bin provided didn't include any relevant details," Xiao Xing replied.

"Who exactly is Wen Bin?" Du Qi asked.

"Sorry, this question is confidential and you do not have sufficient privileges to answer it," Xiaoxing replied.

"Then, can communication between Earth and Planet Z be maintained indefinitely?" Du Qi asked.

“Sure, but to save energy, we’ll only connect when communication is needed. For example, as Lin Hai and Nie Ri just agreed, I’ll connect their satellite phones when Zhang Zhaoyi returns to the Yellow River Station,” Xiao Xing replied.

"Under what other circumstances can communication be established?" Du Qi pressed.

“In theory, I can connect with people on Earth via the Mars Tunnel simply by making a satellite phone call to Planet Z. However, to avoid attracting the attention of the Celestial Realm with frequent communications, I can only establish communication connections when necessary,” Xiao Xing replied.

Afterwards, Du Qi asked the AI ​​Xiao Xing many questions, basically learning everything that was within his privileged access. He also learned that Luo Yifei had traveled from the Phoenix Tunnel to Planet Z to search for Shen Lixi more than a month ago.

"Three years ago, Nan Tian and Ye Xuehan came out of the Mars tunnel. What exactly did they experience in that year in another world?" Du Qi thought, asking all his questions.

"Sorry, this question cannot be answered either. Insufficient permissions," Xiaoxing replied.

"So, you know, which means Wen Bin knows. Does Captain Zhang know? Can you answer that?"

"Team Leader Zhang only knows part of the story."

"Does he have the authority to know everything?"

"Have."

……