190 The Nova Empire

The dairy had an old rustic feel, worn out by an inestimable long time and threatened to crumble into dust at any moment. After flipping the diary open, Leon changed his mind and directly swept the diary with his divine sense.

The diary followed the life of Arden, a young aspiring cultivator in a declining world, where Transcendents were in abundance, but the realm beyond, the 'Celestial Realm' became increasingly difficult to achieve due to declining levels of spirit energy in the world.

Celestials became rare and revered existence. It was said that Celestials had the abilities to refine celestial bodies and gain absolute monarchy over the life and death of all creatures living on it

As such, each planet could have one 'Celestial Ruler'. Becoming a Celestial Ruler also grants them the ability to convert the astral energy of the universe into spirit energy. Also, the greater the size of the celestial body, the higher the requirement of their Celestial cultivation base to refine.

However, the planet Gaia did not have a Celestial Ruler to revitalize its spirit energy levels, despite its long history of producing Celestials. Every Transcendent that ever ascended to the Celestial Realm always leaves planet Gaia behind to transverse the vast unknown universe in search of a better celestial body to refine.

This is because once a Celestial refine a celestial body and become a Celestial Ruler, they are bound to the said celestial body, sharing life and death with it, and longer able to progress further in their cultivation nor leave its boundaries.

As such, although refining Gaia would still grant them great power and long life, any ambitious Celestial born on planet Gaia would selfishly leave in search of better places to further their cultivation and seek true everlasting life. No one wanted to clip their own wings and stay in a cage for near eternity.

Arden aspired to become the Celestial Ruler of Gaia, but his world was turned upside down when his talents for awakening cultivation was tested at the tender age of 16. He was bullied and discriminate for possessing a rare 'trash' body constitution that made him inept for awakening cultivation.

However, as a citizen of the great Nova country known for its great advancement in runic technology, he was not disheartened and chose to become a runic artificer. He soon showed immense talents and got personally recruited by the Nova Government.

One day, the world witnessed the birth of another Celestial, but like his predecessors, the Celestial left the world of Gaia to seek the distant stars, plunging the world into chaos. Spirit energy became too scarce to produce another Celestial, and all the crops and plants began to decline. The world began to die.

The genius artificer, Arden had lost count of how many powerful runic weapons of warfare he had produced to aid this inhuman cause, but the human population was drastically reduced, and the plants showed signs of recovery as a result of their efforts.

However, this moment of happiness only lasted a mere two years, before the plants resume declining and the people also began to grow weak and sick with clear signs of premature aging.

The Nova Government knew the cause, but the truth was hidden from the common mass. Arden, who had made a name for himself and became the head runic artificer of the Nova Government, quickly realized the cause when runic technology began to fail.

The one causing planet Gaia to decline had never been the Celestials that abandoned them, but the runic technology the Nova Country was so oh proud of. Their runic technology was powered by the world's spirit energy, and when it became insufficient, it drew on the lifeforce of its surroundings to make up for the deficit.

However, this wasn't what ended the ancient civilization that specialized in runes. It was far from it. Leon was engrossed as he continued reading. He was surprised that he hasn't found anything about artifact spirits or sentient spirits birthed by runes.

Arden received enlightenment in a moment of life and death when he began to age prematurely as a normal person without cultivation. He found a way to convert the sun's solar energy into spirit energy through runic technology. Contrary to the azure-color of true spirit energy, the artificial spirit energy took a light reddish color but mimicked many properties of true spirit energy.

This runic technology became the key to leading the Nova Country into an age of great prosperity. With many energy conversion plants built around the world, the dying planet was reborn with even greater vitality than the past. It was especially evident in the trees that grew to staggering heights.

Nova entered a period of rapid growth along with Gaia's restoration, but so was their appetite as they harness the limitless solar energy of the sun. Many dreams were realized as they built megastructures such as floating cities, colossal spaceships, and outer world elevators within merely two decades.

Without reaching the Celestial Realm, it was possible for Transcendents to traverse the stars with their runic technology. Their interstellar empire began to stretch across several stars.

Cultivation was easy with the endless supply of converted spirit energy and the Nova Empire gave birth to countless Celestials. However, that's when they noticed a new problem. The new Celestials weren't as powerful nor were their lifespan as long as the Celestials in the past.

A normal Celestial had around 10000 years of lifespan. This was similar to a Divine Origin Realm practitioner from the Divine Realm, but the new Celestials only had half as much.

At its roots, the problem lied with the artificial spirit energy they relied on. It still contains few properties of solar energy. Sunlight was essential for life, but too much of it will destroy life.

…

Towards the end of the diary, Leon found out why the ancient civilization fell. It wasn't due to some great enemy, but their own greed. Despite realizing that the artificial spirit energy, they use was problematic, they never stopped using it. It was the foundation of their empire.

Eventually, they were destroyed by what they couldn't control, the ownerless sun. A great solar storm was all it took to wipe out their civilization. All life exposed to the storm in the outer world mutated. The greater the exposure, the greater the mutation.

The storm directly killed all the weaker humans in the outer world, who couldn't support the changes, while the fate of the stronger ones was unknown.

The connection between Gaia and the outer world was cut as all runic technology malfunctioned from the surge of solar energy. This is especially fatal for megastructures that relied on anti-gravitational runes. All the floating cities dropped out of the sky and nearly wiped out all life on the planet.

Arden wrote this last part while he fell with the floating city to his imminent death.

Leon was shocked after realizing something.

…

While Leon was engrossed in his reading, he had unknowingly generated a small audience from the palace guards in one corner of the building. From the perspective of the palace guards, the prince was just staring at the first page intensely.

"His Highness has been staring at the first page for more than two hours. Do you think he is trying to decipher the ancient language?" A palace guard asked.

"Shh, keep your volume down. Don't interrupt the prince's reading. I have never seen someone, who could stare at foreign texts with such concentration for so long. It must be the case." Another one whispered.

"Holy F*ck!"

Leon suddenly jumped at this moment.

His sudden exclamation startled everyone. A palace guard rushed forward and excitedly asks, "Did you manage to decipher the ancient language, your Highness?"

"Hmm?" Leon glanced over and shook his head. "No, that's not important."

The palace guard's expression froze. It's not important? Then why were you staring at the foreign texts for so long? Was he mistaken? Was the prince actually exclaiming that he couldn't decipher the language and gave up?

Leon no longer paid the palace guard any further attention. If someone looked carefully, they would notice that Leon's body was shaking with cold sweats and he was feeling weak in the knees.

How could he not be? There was a fricking Sword of Damocles hanging over everyone's head!

The ancient civilization got wiped out by their own floating cities and these were just the ones within the world's atmosphere. The Nova Empire was an interstellar civilization. There were lots of megastructures in the outer world.

In the past, when Leon gaze into the night sky, he could see Gaia's asteroid ring and thought it might have something to do with the suppression in the sky, where the gravitational force was so much stronger.

But heck, it wasn't a naturally formed asteroid ring. It turns out to be the megastructure remnants of the ancient civilization! If one of these bad boys suddenly gets pulled into Gaia's atmosphere and drop, they can all say goodbye to their lives!

"What do you mean, Your Highness? Why isn't it important."

The palace guard asked with a perplexed expression after noticing the prince's silence. Leon could see the illusory question marks hanging over the palace guard's head, but he did not bother to explain.