Bai Luan chuckled as he heard cheers and sobs coming from the communication channel.
"You all celebrate for a bit, I'll go handle the rest. Contact me if anything unexpected happens."
With that, Bai Luan cut the communication.
After being suppressed for so long, it was time to give them some time to celebrate.
During this time, they could fully immerse themselves in joy, without considering anything else.
After closing the communication, Bai Luan turned his gaze to the city left behind by the ancient civilization.
The ability to terraform a planet on this scale proved their technological level was not low.
From the mecha's scan results, there was oxygen here, and the temperature had been adjusted to a habitable level.
Even in the water, some creatures could be seen swimming.
But the city, which should have been full of life, was eerily silent.
A chilling stillness was evident at first glance.
Bai Luan frowned, looking at the city.
The ancient civilization within the city should have perished, otherwise, after The Swarm left, they should have returned to the planet's surface.
However, looking at the city from a distance, some facilities seemed to still be operating... but there was an indescribable sense of eeriness, and besides that, a strange sense of familiarity.
Where had he seen... this eerie feeling before?
Bai Luan slowly approached the city, eventually stopping at a certain distance in front of it.
After clearly seeing the scene inside the city, Bai Luan finally understood where that eeriness came from.
The state the city was in... was exactly the state Bai Luan saw after pressing the Time Stop Pocket Watch.
The entire city was now in a state similar to time stop.
Moreover, there was something extraordinary in this city.
Bai Luan saw The Swarm trapped here.
They were as if paused, their time frozen, maintaining their postures, having spent an unknown number of years here.
So, how did the ancient civilization achieve an effect similar to time stop?
Bai Luan pondered, and a portion of the nanobots on him detached, forming a small hovercraft, which slowly approached the city.
It finally stopped at a position slightly closer to the city, entering the eerie time-stop state.
Bai Luan looked at the data transmitted by the drone in the instant before it lost power, analyzing it bit by bit, and finally reached a conclusion.
This was an invisible stasis field.
It was a good thing he hadn't rushed in recklessly, otherwise, he would have to experience being trapped in time again, and Herta would have to pull him out once more.
As Bai Luan thought this, he simultaneously reverse-engineered the ancient civilization's stasis field, deducing a repulsive field.
Finally, he projected this deduced field onto the small hovering drone, and the drone regained its ability to move.
The experiment was successful; the countermeasure was effective.
Bai Luan covered himself with a layer of the repulsive field, then stepped into this city where the world stood still.
Signs of military and The Swarm engaging in battle could be seen everywhere, indicating that there was still a considerable number of The Swarm here.
Ruan Mei would likely be interested in this.
Bai Luan took out his phone and contacted Herta.
Bai Luan: [Video]
Bai Luan: I found some interesting things.
Bai Luan: Ms. Ruan Mei might be interested.
Herta: A stasis field?
Herta: You really like to delve into these strange fields.
Bai Luan: ... Herta: Is that... The Swarm?
Bai Luan: Exactly, and in large numbers.
Herta looked up at Ruan Mei beside her and said:
"My assistant found a batch of live Swarm samples. Are you interested?"
"The Swarm? Where?"
Herta handed her phone to Ruan Mei, waving her hand and saying:
"You'll have to ask him about that."
Ruan Mei looked at Herta's phone, then watched the video Bai Luan sent.
These Swarm... seem to be alive?
Herta: Where are you?
Bai Luan: Ms. Ruan Mei, I'm not entirely sure myself. My means of reaching this planet were rather special.
Bai Luan: There's no Star Network here. Perhaps you can track my phone to pinpoint the coordinates.
Bai Luan looked at his phone; Ruan Mei hadn't replied with a new message for dozens of seconds.
Just as Bai Luan was about to put his phone away, Ruan Mei sent a message.
Ruan Mei mei: I've locked onto your coordinates.
Ruan Mei: I want this batch of The Swarm. What reward do you want?
Reward?
He was helping her solve a problem, and she wanted to give him a reward?
Ruan Mei was still too polite.
Bai Luan: Consider it a favor owed to Ms. Herta, how about it?
Ruan Mei: Alright.
Ruan Mei returned the phone to Herta.
Herta glanced at the chat log, chuckled, and looked at Ruan Mei.
"So, you owe me a favor now?"
Ruan Mei nodded and said:
"That's right. Do you want to use it now?"
"Keep it. Perhaps it will come in handy later."
After confirming that Herta didn't want to use the favor now, Ruan Mei got up to prepare the spaceship to go to the planet where Bai Luan was.
"So eager?"
"That batch of The Swarm is useful for my research. Are you coming?"
Herta also got up.
"Why not?"
The Swarm problem was solved; the rest was to see how many living people were left inside.
There shouldn't be many left, otherwise, they wouldn't have chosen a method that was almost mutually assured destruction, trapping themselves and The Swarm here to die together.
Bai Luan's mecha's detection waves spread out, instantly locking onto the survivors.
Looking at the results of the detection waves, Bai Luan suddenly understood why the ancient civilization chose to perish with The Swarm in this way.
Because there was only one person left alive.
Bai Luan found the sole surviving member of the ancient civilization, and also found the source of the stasis field.
The Swarm outside was gnawing at the metal outside the facility, surrounding her here.
She still maintained the posture of pressing the activation button for this immense stasis field.
Her skin color was different from the somewhat darker skin of Sethlun and his people; it was a normal skin tone.
She wore a black, valiant military uniform, looking quite heroic, with many signs of battle damage on her body.
It seemed he would have a lot of explaining to do to her.
Bai Luan took out a portion of nanobots, attached them to her body, and then had the nanobots spread the repulsive field throughout her.
Then... this ancient person, from who knows how many years ago, came back to life.
She gasped sharply, like a drowning person surfacing, her body swaying slightly as her functions instantly restored.
She looked at her hands in disbelief, then abruptly looked up, instantly noticing Bai Luan, covered in his mecha, hovering before her.
Her eyes instantly became sharp and wary, and despite her weakness, she still carried the iron-blooded temperament of a soldier.
"The field... is disengaged?"
Her voice was hoarse and dry from the prolonged stasis, yet it still couldn't hide the calmness beneath.
"This equipment you're wearing... I haven't seen it... Did we... win? Is The Swarm... over?"
"Regarding that... we have a lot to talk about..."
Bai Luan took a moment to explain the current situation to the lady in front of him.
She listened quietly, the light in her sharp eyes shifting from initial hope, to shock, then to unspeakable grief and desolation, finally settling into a deep, deathly stillness that seemed to swallow all light.
During Bai Luan's narration, she also spoke, indicating that there was more than one such underground city, and asked Bai Luan if the other underground cities had made it to the surface.
Clearly, the answer was no.
These hopes hidden deep underground had, for various reasons, failed to return to the surface.
She was silent for a very long time, so long that it was as if she had been frozen in time again.
Finally, all her emotions coalesced into a long sigh, steeped in endless weariness and sorrow.
"Did we... ultimately not make it through?"
"You are still alive."
Bai Luan's voice broke the heavy silence.
"This means that the seeds of the past have not completely perished, and under your protection, resources have survived.
Now there happens to be a world awaiting reconstruction; perhaps you can sprout there.
A seed from the past may germinate new hope in the soil of the future."
The general stared at him blankly, seemingly touched by his words.
After a long while, a very faint, yet truly present, smile slowly and with difficulty appeared on her pale face.
"You're really... good at comforting people."
She said softly, a trace of an almost imperceptible choke in her voice.
"Thank you... I feel... much better."
"My name is Bai Luan. What's yours?"
Bai Luan asked.
The general was silent for a moment upon hearing this.
Then, she took a deep breath, striving to straighten her already weary spine.
Despite her tattered military uniform and numerous scars, she still tried to regain the proper demeanor of a soldier.
She raised her hand and saluted Bai Luan with an impeccably standard, solemn military salute, bearing the imprint of an old era.
She loudly declared her identity, the only thing the past had left her:
"General of the Eighth Legion, Tanaris Defense Force — Esdeath, reporting to you!"
Her voice suddenly rose, clear and powerful, as if she had used all her strength to declare to this desolate ruin, to the endless expanse of time:
"I am... the last survivor... of the ancient Tanaris civilization!"