After completing the test of the Stellar Barrier Field, the next thing Xiao needed to verify was the upper limit of flight speed.
Driving the Stellar Barrier, Xiao returned to the moon, compressed his body into a streak of light, and then accelerated toward the sun with everything he had.
With the assistance of the Underworld Sea, Xiao's figure seemed to teleport.
The entire journey took less than half a second.
In the blink of an eye, he had crossed the distance from the moon to the sun.
Light itself takes about eight minutes to travel that distance—
yet through the Underworld Sea, Xiao completed it in under 0.5 seconds.
The cruising speed of the solar sail…
was roughly one thousand times the speed of light.
"…Holy shit."
Xiao stared at the timer readout, his scalp going numb.
In truth, Xiao's subjective perception of time was completely different from reality. He clearly felt that he had flown for a short while—
yet the actual time elapsed was less than half a second.
The reason was simple.
His consciousness had been stretched, not his speed reduced.
And this was merely his normal cruising speed.
It wasn't that he couldn't go faster—but beyond this threshold, the energy consumption would rise exponentially.
The distance between the moon and the sun was simply too short to test the true upper limit.
No wonder Marty Linger had been able to launch a cosmic voyage using nothing but a sailing vessel—and then rule the known universe for tens of thousands of years with a medieval social structure.
This technology was simply outrageous.
In its standard operating state, it already reached FTL ×1000.
Any civilization lacking solar sail technology would be completely crushed by the Martilinger Empire.
No matter how advanced your weapons were, you still couldn't hit those shabby-looking sailboats.
To borrow Kizaru's immortal words:
"Speed is power."
When speed reaches the extreme, you become invincible.
Attack when you wish.
Retreat when you wish.
And even if you can't win outright—you can still wage eternal guerrilla warfare.
While other civilizations struggled to upgrade their tech trees, the Martilinger Empire only needed to focus on one thing:
How to punch through your armor.
Everything else was irrelevant.
A stellar barrier moving at a thousand times light speed—paired with a cannon capable of penetrating any defense—could annihilate entire fleets as casually as stepping on ants.
No wonder cosmic civilization had stagnated for tens of thousands of years.
From the moment solar sails were invented, the universe entered a brutal truth:
Only solar sails can fight solar sails.
All other technologies—no matter how advanced—are just ants beneath them.
…
…
After the speed test, Xiao turned his attention to the energy supply mechanics of the solar sail.
Reality quickly proved one thing:
Even the most unscientific black technology still obeys conservation of energy.
The core principle of the solar sail was simple.
More energy → higher speed → stronger stance.
As Xiao approached the sun, the energy output of the solar matrices engraved upon his solar wings surged violently.
Near the sun's surface, a single pair of solar wings could already reach saturation.
Opening one additional pair would be enough to tear his body apart.
Yet—
Driven by curiosity bordering on madness, Xiao made a reckless decision.
He opened all nine pairs of solar wings.
At the exact instant when energy absorption reached saturation—
He released everything.
Boom.
Riding on the terrifying influx of stellar energy, Xiao's speed instantly broke through the thousand-times-light barrier and entered an entirely new tier.
One second later—
He found himself beyond the inner solar system.
Another second—
He had crossed half the solar system and appeared near the outer meteor belt.
Nearly four light-years.
In one second.
This could no longer be called flight.
This was—
A time–space jump.
No wonder some cosmonauts had been able to absorb supernova energy and escape the gravitational capture of black holes.
That wasn't absurd at all.
If it didn't work, then the problem wasn't the pilot—
it was the sails.
However, as Xiao moved farther from the sun, the shortcomings of solar sails became apparent.
The further he traveled, the scarcer the available stellar energy became.
Near Neptune's orbit, Xiao already needed all nine pairs of solar wings just to maintain energy equilibrium.
Beyond the stellar boundary—
the solar wings could no longer keep up with consumption.
At that point, Xiao had only two choices:
Reduce speed.
Or rely on stored energy for navigation.
This was where the value of Arcturus Crystals truly revealed itself.
A mere 10 grams of Arcturus crystal could support Xiao flying at 1000× light speed for an entire day—enough to cross the Sun's galactic domain.
With 10 kilograms, he could leap into an entirely new star system in a single day.
Without Arcturus crystals, the solar sail's effective speed plummeted, and long-distance voyages became painfully slow.
That was why interstellar empires treated stars as jump nodes.
They absorbed massive stellar energy at one star, performed a super-accelerated jump, reached the next star, replenished, and repeated the cycle.
Only true cosmic adventurers dared to burn Arcturus crystals in bulk—
their journeys were aimless, driven by exploration rather than efficiency.
…
…
Due to the scarcity of Arcturus crystals, Xiao ultimately chose not to leave the solar system.
His body—no matter how powerful—was still insignificant compared to a full spacecraft.
If he ran out of energy mid-jump, he'd be stranded forever in deep space.
And besides—
Blue Star's benefits hadn't even been fully harvested yet.
There was no reason to gamble in the void.
"This is seriously fun…"
Relying on sheer speed, Xiao roamed freely across the entire solar system.
He admired the breathtaking beauty of space—
while simultaneously dispersing vast amounts of Cyber Aura throughout major planetary regions.
The aura quietly assimilated planetary matter, harvested usable energy, and began preliminary transformations.
Perhaps, with time and sufficient stellar input, these worlds could be turned into habitable planets through the solar matrix.
At the same time, Xiao gathered enormous quantities of meteorites and asteroids.
Rich in rare metals and unknown elements, they became perfect nourishment for the continued expansion of the Dimensional World.
The solar system—
was no longer just a neighborhood.
It was becoming his resource garden.
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