The Flame Elf Queen smiled and shook her head. "It's a state secret, true, but in truth it isn't something I can't tell you. But I need your promise that until our Sacred Elf Empire makes this secret public, you won't tell anyone outside about it."
Zhao Chen nodded solemnly and gave his promise.
The Flame Elf Queen's gaze grew somewhat wistful; she seemed to be remembering something, and then she began slowly, "You're someone whose intuition is very sharp. I expect you'd already sensed before this that something about our Sacred Elf Empire isn't right."
Zhao Chen nodded; during his time in the Sacred Elf Empire, something had felt off to Zhao Chen, and after looking into the Sacred Elf Empire's records he had found still more that seemed strange.
"Tell me your guess; I'd like to see whether your intuition is especially sharp this time." Even now the Flame Elf Queen did not forget to look at Zhao Chen teasingly.
Zhao Chen thought a moment, then said, "Does it have to do with the World Tree, Order, and technological development? From what I've read in the Sacred Elf Empire's records, the Sacred Elf Empire entered the T6 technology stage thousands of years ago. But it seems there's been no breakthrough in research toward a T7 technological civilization for a very long time. The whole civilization's technological development seems to have stalled from some point no one knows."
The Flame Elf Queen's expression paused, then she could not help laughing. "Sure enough, your intuition really is sharp. Even if I didn't tell you now, with your abilities I expect you'd soon learn the truth."
Perhaps because of this, some of the color in the Flame Elf Queen's eyes faded.
Since Zhao Chen would learn of it sooner or later, telling him now was in truth no loss.
"What you just said is all correct; those three elements all have to do with the great secret the Sacred Elf Empire hides." The Flame Elf Queen said, remembering, "In the very beginning, Order attacked our Sacred Elf Empire too. Basically every means it has used in your Owl Dragon Empire's universe, it once used in our Sacred Elf Empire. And we, back then, resisted to the death, to protect our home. But resistance like that is bound to bring enormous losses. Almost every year we lost millions of interstellar warships in the war, and tens of billions of people lost their lives in it. And because huge amounts of resources, manpower and money all went into the war, our Sacred Elf Empire's civilian development at that time stood still, and even showed signs of going backward. And at that time, within the Sacred Elf Empire's upper ranks, two voices gradually began to split apart. One voice, naturally, was to keep making ourselves stronger, break through to T7 technology, truly defeat Order, protect the Sacred Elf Empire's existence, and protect the peace of the many universes too. At first this voice was by far the louder. But as the war dragged on year after year, seeing too many scenes of living beings ground into the dirt, and with the interests of more and more families and powers hurt by the long war……after all, a war like this offers those families no gain at all: no new domains appear, no war indemnities, and the enemy is something neither living nor dead that keeps coming without end. Gradually, fear began to spread through the Sacred Elf Empire. Not only among the lower ranks, but among the upper ranks too. A fear of Order began to fill everything. Once there's fear, you either choose to overcome it, or you sink under it. And at that time hedonism began to appear; some began to think that since we very likely couldn't win this war with Order, we might as well enjoy ourselves properly at a time like this. Otherwise, when we died, wouldn't we have lost out?"
At this point a look of scorn came over the Flame Elf Queen's face, scorn for what her ancestors had thought and decided back then.
But Zhao Chen did not think there was anything wrong with it; it was a thought and an awareness any civilization would give birth to when facing certain special situations.
Just as a person may be brave, but may also be afraid.
That was only human; but whether you overcame fear or sank in it was a choice each had to make.
"And then the second voice appeared: to seek a way to avoid being drawn into the whirlpool of war with Order, and so protect the Sacred Elf Empire's long existence."
Hearing the Flame Elf Queen say this, Zhao Chen's eyes narrowed; it seemed the heart of it was about to come.
"This faction was led by some of the Sacred Elf Empire's senior scientists of that time. They began researching without pause. And very soon they truly found a way, a way that, to their minds, could protect the Sacred Elf Empire. But…… protection…… how is it not also a kind of shackle?" The Flame Elf Queen's eyes were complicated; she sighed long and said, "Zhao Chen. I'd like to ask you a question."
"Go ahead."
"Suppose you were in a situation where, say, you lived in a house, and outside the house there were wild beasts. And before you now there were two choices. One choice is to go out the door and, under the beasts' threat, seek weapons, allies and the means to beat them, and in the end beat the beasts. The other is to lock the door tight and enjoy a comfortable life inside the house."
Hearing the Flame Elf Queen's question,
Zhao Chen fell silent; he thought a moment and said, "I think most people would choose the latter."
"And you?" The Flame Elf Queen gazed at Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen said with a light laugh, "I might be a bit different. I wouldn't want a pair of eyes outside the house watching me all the time, and I wouldn't know whether this house could protect me forever; if one day the door were opened and the walls fell, then before the beasts I'd be nothing but a delicious meal, helpless to fight back."
"Just as I thought. You'd make that choice. Only, the Sacred Elf Empire back then made the other choice," the Flame Elf Queen said, unwilling. "A group of the Sacred Elf Empire's scientists of the time, while researching some of the World Tree's mysterious technology, discovered a kind of factor. It's a very tiny universe; the scientists called it the Ring of Shelter, because in shape, they say, it's a ring structure like a planetary ring. But it's very small; only some extremely powerful scientific instruments can collect it. And this factor can be cultivated only by the World Tree. The scientists found that if this factor could be injected into the Sacred Elf Empire's universe in some way and some structure, it could make the Sacred Elf Empire's universe vanish from under Order's very eyes."
Vanish?
Zhao Chen was greatly startled.
For a moment he could not grasp just what this "vanish" meant.
"This vanishing isn't meant literally. We all know that Order's existence is very peculiar in itself; they're a kind of spirit body. And once this Halo of Shelter we made was injected into the space of the Sacred Elf Empire's universe, it could put our universe, before Order, into something like a state of feigned death. Neither those Pitch-Black Legion fleets nor Order could lock onto our position anymore. That way our war with Order could end. We couldn't defeat Order, but at the same time Order could no longer launch attacks on us."
Zhao Chen was very startled; from what had been described so far, this could certainly be called a marvelous technology.
But for it to make the Flame Elf Queen frown, unwilling, now,
it had to mean there was some great problem with this technology.
"But this technology is a double-edged sword. That too was found later, in experiments. You may not even believe it." The Flame Elf Queen looked at Zhao Chen. "Do you think the development of an interstellar civilization can be sealed off artificially?"
"Huh?" Zhao Chen paused; the topic had suddenly turned mysterious again.
The Flame Elf Queen saw Zhao Chen's confusion, and explained in detail: "I mean making an interstellar civilization never able to step up into a higher grade of technological civilization."
A technology lockdown?
Zhao Chen thought a moment and said, "To some degree it can be done, but it can only slow things down. For instance, if I found a lower-grade technological civilization and didn't want its technology to develop further, I could lock down its technological development in all kinds of ways. Either use force like Order, hunting down every civilization that becomes a T6 technological civilization one by one. Or by some means, like forbidding all high-grade technology from flowing into that universe. But these methods always have holes. Like us: aren't we the fish that slipped through Order's net?"
The Flame Elf Queen nodded in agreement, then said, "You're right. But we found a way to lock down a technological civilization's development almost a hundred percent. And we used this technology on ourselves."
Something occurred to Zhao Chen; he said in surprise, "Could it be that Halo of Shelter?"
The Flame Elf Queen nodded. "That's right. To this day the scientists can't explain the principle. But the fact is there. In one experiment at the time, the scientists found that once this Halo of Shelter covered an area, every experiment in that area concerning T7-grade technology would go wrong in some inexplicable way; in short, there was no way to break through to T7 technology! Mind you, at the time, to fight Order, we had a great deal of T7 technology under development. And if we used this Halo of Shelter on the whole of the Sacred Elf Empire's universe, the result would be this: Order could no longer harm us. But at the same time, our Sacred Elf Empire could never again become a T7 technological civilization!"