"But what was in the past is the past, and now is now, let's just call it Earthsea."

"In short, after confirming the existence of Earthsea, our scholars studied it, and the results were both exciting and frustrating."

Zhang Ze chimed in at this point, "Earthsea can change the form of matter, thereby affecting reality and causing uncontrollable consequences."

At this moment, Li was sitting across the long table in the meeting room. Perhaps feeling it was a bit far, it flew over and sat back on Zhang Ze's shoulder.

"That's right, scholars observed the rising of Earthsea, believing it would soon 'flood' the universe we are in, causing a split within the Empire."

"Some leaders believed that we were invincible, that the mere rising of Earthsea was nothing to worry about, the Empire could overcome anything, conquer anything, as long as we prepared well."

"Yet, other leaders thought we should move to other universes before the rising of Earthsea affects reality."

"So, did you have a fight?" Zhang Ze asked.

Li shook its head, "No, we separated peacefully."

"Because jumping to a new universe to expand the Empire's territory was part of the plan."

"Whether by coincidence or misfortune, just after we crossed the universe's boundary, Earthsea suddenly rose, 'flooding' the entire Empire."

"My home was destroyed."

"Didn't you resist?" Zhang Ze asked curiously.

Li, "We resisted, but it was meaningless." 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Li thought about those distant memories, and in this shared dream with Zhang Ze, simulated a piece of metal.

"Raman alloy, the hardest material our civilization could produce at the time, but in front of Earthsea, it was useless, no different than paper."

"It didn't take long for our universe to be flooded, the Empire no longer existed."

"And we found out about this a few years later when a surviving fleet caught up with us, bringing news of the Empire's demise, along with some precious information about Earthsea."

"After that, we began our wandering."

Li sighed; though it was a story from very, very long ago, before it was even born, speaking of it still brought a sense of melancholy. To soothe its own sadness, Li conjured a piece of pork elbow.

While gnawing on it, it said, "Although we escaped, that damned Earthsea is still chasing us.

"Its rising time is different in each universe, but it never stops. Once it reaches a certain threshold, everything in the universe will change, all civilizations will become nothing."

"To continue civilization, we jump from one universe to another. In the process, we've saved many civilizations; many others, as powerful as us, that discovered the danger of Earthsea, have joined us."

"But there are also those that were obliterated by Earthsea right before our eyes."

As Li spoke, the surrounding dream changed again.

The meeting room disappeared, Zhang Ze was taken by Li outside the starship.

Zhang Ze also got a clear view of the Exile Fleet in its entirety.

An eccentric fleet dominated by a giant golden ship, surrounded by various bizarre aircraft, vast and endless, like a river of stars.

At this moment, they were hovering above a planet.

Strongly observing that planet.

The civilization level of that planet was quite high, at least much higher than Blue Star in Zhang Ze's memory. Their star rings sparkled like hula hoops wrapped around the red planet.

Li's fleet seemed to be negotiating with this civilization.

Persuading this civilization to join the fleet and to set off with them.

But evidently, ignorance is fearless, and children never fear the sea.

Most thriving civilizations carry a bit of arrogance; abandoning everything and leaving is simply incomprehensible.

Perhaps because Li and them were too easygoing, the negotiation seemed to backfire.

The entire planet was immersed in a fervent fantasy of preferring death to a lack of freedom, absolutely refusing to become the lackeys of alien golden Big Guy.

In the end, as if just for show, only a few dozen small aircraft left the planet's atmosphere.

Aboard them were the criminals of this civilization, the losers of political competition, and religious zealots volunteering to sacrifice themselves.

They believed all along that this was the plan of some evil cosmic people, that Earthsea was a hoax.

But soon, Earthsea came.

And it came somewhat suddenly, somewhat prematurely.

Upon detecting the anomaly, the fleet abandoned the negotiation plan, the entire fleet began flashing warning red lights, and golden barriers spread, covering the entire fleet.

Then the fleet disappeared as suddenly as it had come, and that proud and stubborn civilization was also 'flooded' by Earthsea thirty minutes later.

As if it had never existed.

"In the beginning, this was the case most of the time, we could only save a small number of people.

"So in the late period, we abandoned negotiations. We only evaluated civilizations, saving only a random portion if the civilization level wasn't high enough.

"And those with a broken mind were abandoned."

Zhang Ze asked, "So, does my home count as having a broken mind or being not good enough?"

After finishing the pork elbow, Li casually wiped its hands on Zhang Ze's collar and continued.

"Don't rush, we haven't gotten to your home yet, let's talk about Earthsea first."

This time, the surrounding dreamscape changed again.

Zhang Ze and Li found themselves on a beautiful island, the sky was bright and sunny, and the sea waves were rolling.

At the center of the island was a small peak.

"To simplify it, you can think of the material universe we live in as this island, and Earthsea, true to its name, is the beautiful sea before us."