The world was a suffocating white.
There was no clamor of cyberpunk neon, no opulent splendor of celestial palaces. Here, there was only one color—absolute, sterile, coldly metallic **"silver-white"**.
When Shen Qingqiu awoke, she felt as if she were sealed inside a giant piece of amber.
The texture beneath her back was cold and smooth, not rock or soil, but a nanomaterial with a slight elasticity, similar to biological skin.
The air was filled with an unfamiliar scent.
It wasn't the smoke of mortal life, nor the sandalwood of the cultivation world, nor the sour stench of the lower city.
It was… the smell of ozone, liquid nitrogen, and stardust mixed together.
Dry, clean, yet imbued with a chilling deathly stillness.
"Cough…" Shen Qingqiu propped herself up, a metallic taste rising in her throat.
Her red dress was tattered, like a flower withered in a storm.
She looked around.
This was a closed, spherical space, its walls smooth as mirrors, with only a few streamlined blue lights slowly flowing through the inner layers, like the veins of some enormous creature.
"This is...the interior of that warship?" Shen Qingqiu's memories returned.
In the final impact, the black-gold giant that Seventeen had transformed into tore through the shield of this "Silver Whale," but the immense recoil had stunned them, seemingly...swallowed by the warship's automated defense system as "foreign objects."
"Seventeen!" Shen Qingqiu turned sharply.
Not far beside her, a familiar figure huddled.
Seventeen was no longer the towering black-gold giant.
To protect Shen Qingqiu as she passed through the warship's armored layers, he had exhausted all his energy, forcibly deactivated his "Heaven and Earth Form" form, and regressed to his original humanoid prosthetic body.
But his condition was terrible.
Very terrible.
His once-proud bionic skin was now covered in cracks, like shattered porcelain. No blood flowed from the wound; instead, a pale golden coolant seeped out.
His black-gold right arm, inheriting the will of "Xingtian," now shone dimly, hanging limply at his side. Two fingertips were even broken, revealing the intricate, charred bone structure beneath.
His eyes were closed, his brow furrowed, and the [Nano Divine Gold] core in his chest flickered at an extremely low, weak frequency.
Thump…thump…
That was the warning sound of impending shutdown.
"Don't be afraid, I'm here." Ignoring her own pain, Shen Qingqiu crawled to his side.
She reached out, wanting to touch his face, yet afraid that his fragile skin would shatter at her fingertips.
In the end, she simply gently grasped his cold left hand and pressed her cheek against it.
"So cold…"
His body temperature was terrifyingly low.
In this advanced civilization's warship, where only absolute rationality reigned, he was the only source of heat, yet even he was about to extinguish it.
*Buzz—* Just then, the smooth, silvery-white walls around them suddenly lit up.
A soft, emotionless, synthesized electronic voice echoed in the enclosed space.
The language wasn't human, but a complex interstellar universal language composed of syllables and frequencies.
But in Shen Qingqiu's mind, the long-dormant "system"—or rather, the **[Civilization Library]** left over from the previous era—automatically translated.
[Alert: Unknown biological contamination detected.]
[Area: Waste Disposal Pod C-99.]
[Scan Results: Low-level carbon-based life form (dying), silicon-based structure (damaged).]
[Command: Initiate cleaning procedure. Incinerate.]
"Waste disposal pod?" Shen Qingqiu sneered, his golden pupils suddenly gleaming.
"So they think of us as trash." Suddenly, a dozen circular nozzles emerged from the surrounding walls.
Deep within the nozzles, eerie blue, high-temperature plasma flames were gathering.
"Trying to burn us?" Shen Qingqiu stood up.
Though her clothes were tattered and her body covered in wounds, her aura was more imposing than the massive, ten-thousand-meter-long warship.
She walked to the wall and raised her hand.
Her slender, white hand pressed effortlessly against the silvery-white wall that shimmered with blue light.
In her previous world, she was a hacker, a talisman cultivator.
In this real universe, she was—a codebreaker of civilization.
[Universal Interface · Activated.] No network cable needed, no keyboard required.
Her mental power directly penetrated the wall's molecular structure through skin contact.
Boom!
A vast star map instantly exploded in Shen Qingqiu's mind.
That was the warship's operating system—[Galactic Federation · Seventh Generation Shipborne AI].
Its logic was rigorous and vast, like an insurmountable iceberg.
If it were the old Shen Qingqiu, she might have been overwhelmed by this massive data stream.
But now, having just absorbed the data remnants of the Myriad Immortals Alliance's patriarch (a Nascent Soul stage AI), her computing power was vastly different.
"Shut up!" Shen Qingqiu's consciousness transformed into a golden dagger, piercing the logic node about to execute the "incineration" command.
[Command tampering: Error.]
[Object definition rewriting: ...] Shen Qingqiu bit her tongue, using the pain to stimulate a surge in her mental power.
She stamped a new mark on the code representing "garbage":
[Rare biological sample (High-Value Specimen).]
[Processing suggestion: Cryopreservation, pending research.] *Buzzing*— The nozzles on the wall abruptly retracted just before spewing flames.
The cold electronic voice sounded again, but with a hint of doubt in its electrical tone:
[Command correction.]
[Object confirmed as...rare sample.]
[Incineration canceled.] [Activate constant temperature life support mode.] Whoosh— A warm current blew out of the vent, and the temperature in the previously frigid cabin began to slowly rise.
Shen Qingqiu breathed a sigh of relief, sliding down against the wall.
"For now...we're safe."
She turned to look at Seventeen.
Enveloped in that warm current, Seventeen's tightly furrowed brows seemed to relax slightly. The core's flickering frequency in his chest also stabilized a little.
But this was only temporary.
This warship, named "Silver Whale," was too large, like a moving planet. They were currently only hiding inside one of its appendixes, temporarily deceiving the immune system.
Once discovered by the real "brain" (the captain), they would still face certain death.
"It's too quiet here, Seventeen."
Shen Qingqiu crawled back to Seventeen's side, cradling his heavy head in her arms.
In this unfamiliar depths of space, billions of light-years from their homeland.
Inside this enormous, hostile silver belly.
A wave of loneliness washed over them.
"Wake up, please?"
She lowered her head and kissed his pale lips.
"You promised me you'd take me to see real stars."
It seemed he heard her call.
Or perhaps the bioelectric stimulation from the kiss triggered the system.
Seventeen's fingers twitched slightly.
His mangled black-gold right arm emitted a faint, gear-like clicking sound.
Click.
He opened his eyes.
His purple eyes were now somewhat dim, like a dusty gem. His pupils couldn't focus, and the data stream was intermittent.
"Qing...Qiu..."
The voice came from the resonator in his chest cavity, filled with severe static.
"I'm here." Shen Qingqiu gripped his hand tightly. "We're still alive. We're inside that big fish's belly." Seventeen laboriously turned his eyes, glancing at the surrounding silver-white walls.
The system immediately provided an analysis:
[Environment: Inside a highly civilized warship.]
[Threat Level: Unknown] [Status: 70% damage, 3% energy remaining.]
"I...can't move." Seventeen's voice held a hint of panic.
As the strongest individual weapon, losing mobility was more terrifying than death. Because it meant he couldn't protect her.
"It's alright." Shen Qingqiu stroked his cheek, her eyes gentle yet firm.
"You're tired, you should rest."
"You used to always be the one in front of me, killing for me, taking bullets for me."
She looked up at the blue light flashing above her like a monitor.
"Now, it's my turn to be your commander." Shen Qingqiu tore a strip of red cloth from her skirt and tied it to her disheveled hair.
The movement was swift and decisive, revealing an unprecedented air of valor.
"Seventeen, lend me some blood."
She said.
Seventeen didn't ask why.
He struggled to control his mangled right arm, forcing a drop of golden **"divine oil"** from the broken pipe.
Shen Qingqiu dipped her finger into the golden liquid.
Then, on the silvery-white wall, she drew an ancient and intricate pattern.
It wasn't a talisman from the cultivation world.
It was a **"concealment totem"** belonging to a god-level civilization from the previous era, which she had seen in the [Civilization Library].
In this high-tech universe, this almost mystical "quantum graffiti" had an unexpected disruptive effect.
*Buzz—* The moment the totem was finished, a flash of golden light disappeared.
The entire C-99 compartment vanished completely from the warship's radar system, becoming an undetectable black hole.
"All done." Shen Qingqiu wiped her hands.
"Now, this is our home." She returned to Seventeen's side, lay down on her side, and nestled tightly in his cold embrace.
Although there were no blankets and the ground was hard,
as long as she could hear the faint humming in his chest, this was the safest place in the world.
"Sleep, Seventeen." Shen Qingqiu closed her eyes, one hand resting on his waist, as if guarding her treasure.
"When you wake up, we'll seize this ship."
"Then, we'll blow that so-called Silver Empire…"
A dreamlike smile, tinged with bloodlust, curled at the corner of her lips.
"Blow it up like fireworks, to entertain you." Seventeen looked at the woman in his arms.
Her breathing gradually became steady. In this perilous enemy territory, she had actually fallen asleep.
Because she was guarding him.
Seventeen's missing right arm moved extremely slowly, haltingly, finally resting gently on her back.
Though powerless, it was a gesture.
[Command: Hibernation mode activated.]
[Background task: Protect Shen Qingqiu. Priority: Infinity.] Inside the silvery-white cabin, the lights gradually dimmed, leaving only the golden totem on the wall emitting a faint, mysterious glow in the darkness.
In this vast, cold universe, deep within the heart of this colossal warship,
two exiled stars, resting on each other's warmth, dreamt of conquering the galaxies.