After the Material Disintegration Beam test, Xiao Yu’s next attempt was with the most powerful Gravitational Bomb he could currently manufacture.

These Gravitational Bombs had been modified by Xiao Yu. Instead of focusing on area-of-effect attacks as before, they were now optimized to maximize energy density per unit volume. According to Xiao Yu’s estimates, within a ten-meter radius at the bomb’s detonation center, the gravitational force would reach the level of neutron star matter of the same volume. A force so powerful it could bend light, forcing it to follow a parabolic arc to escape.

Xiao Yu recalled hearing from Taihao that Taihao’s Four-Dimensional structure had been shattered by a collision with a Neutron War Star from the Sweepers Civilization, which had ultimately led to Taihao’s demise. So Xiao Yu wondered: would this Four-Dimensional Barrier also fracture under gravitational forces equivalent to neutron star matter?

For this, Xiao Yu held high hopes.

After enduring the failures of both the Elemental Decay Bomb and the Material Disintegration Beam, the more than two thousand Luka scientists had regained their spirits. They were now intently analyzing streams of data, preparing to assess the results of this new explosion.

The Village-Class starship carrying the Gravitational Bomb gradually approached the Four-Dimensional Barrier, stopping just one meter away. Once it maintained relative stability, Xiao Yu issued the detonation command.

With the command given, the Elemental Decay Engine immediately began producing immense energy. This energy, through a specialized converter, was transformed into gravity and then released with full force.

Faced with this overwhelming gravity, the first to bear the brunt was the Village-Class starship itself. Under the crushing gravitational force, it was compressed into a tiny sphere, its density increasing tens of thousands of times over.

But the Gravitational Bomb’s effects did not stop there. Xiao Yu observed that under the influence of the enormous gravity, interstellar dust from the surrounding area began to madly converge toward the explosion point. So much dust accumulated that it even formed an accretion disk, spinning rapidly around the detonation point while continuously spiraling inward. As these particles moved at high speeds, they collided violently. These collisions imparted extremely high energy levels, and some of the interstellar dust near the explosion point gained enough escape velocity to shoot out along the bomb’s polar axes, forming two jets that stretched for over ten kilometers.

At the same time, intense bursts of X-rays and gamma rays were emitted.

The entire scene was almost identical to the accretion processes seen in black holes, white dwarfs, and neutron stars.

During this process, Xiao Yu even detected the presence of hyperons.

Hyperons are extremely exotic particles that exist only for brief moments before decaying into other particles. Typically, hyperons are found only in the extreme high-temperature, high-pressure environments inside neutron stars. Yet, in the center of the Gravitational Bomb explosion, Xiao Yu had now observed these particles.

The appearance of hyperons was strong proof of the Gravitational Bomb’s immense power.

Under the influence of the bomb’s explosion, Xiao Yu was overjoyed to see the Four-Dimensional Barrier begin to show changes. Its surface was no longer smooth as before; instead, it started to bulge toward the explosion point, as if the barrier itself were being pulled by the overwhelming gravity. Moreover, as the bomb’s energy continued to radiate outward, the bulge grew larger and larger…

“Hurry up and break… come on…”

This was the shared thought of Xiao Yu and the more than two thousand Luka scientists.

But the result was another disappointment. The Gravitational Bomb maintained its immense gravitational force for a full three minutes, and after the gravity dissipated, the Four-Dimensional Barrier had not fractured; instead, it returned to normal once again.

The bulge disappeared.

In that moment, Xiao Yu felt an overwhelming urge to curse out loud.

As the gravity receded, other phenomena began to unfold. Xiao Yu saw that the matter that had been tightly bound by the gravity—compressed to an extreme smallness with density reaching the level of neutron star matter, exploded violently the moment the gravity vanished. The massive explosion swept across several thousand kilometers, producing an intensely bright flash at the detonation point.

But after this sudden compression and release, the Village-Class starship was gone. Not only that, but all the material that had comprised the starship, including all its internal instruments, whether metal, plastic, or anything else, had been reduced to the most basic matter: hydrogen gas.

This was because, under that level of gravity, even atomic nuclei had been torn apart.

The process was identical to what happens inside a neutron star.

This Gravitational Bomb proved that Xiao Yu now fully possessed the ability to create neutron star matter. Yes, while Xiao Yu couldn’t slice off a chunk of material from an actual neutron star, he could manufacture it himself.

It was an unexpected gain, but Xiao Yu couldn’t feel the slightest bit happy about it.

After the failed attempt, Xiao Yu and the Luka scientists began analyzing the experiment.

“Master, judging from the fact that the Four-Dimensional Barrier deformed under the pull of the Gravitational Bomb, it did have some effect. I suggest we continue building even more powerful Gravitational Bombs to attack the barrier,” one Luka scientist proposed.

“At present, that does seem to be the case,” Xiao Yu replied, “but we have to consider something. A single Gravitational Bomb of this yield already required converting nearly half the mass of a County-Class starship into energy. If we keep increasing the yield but still fail to break the barrier, how many more times can we afford to try?”

Another Luka scientist added, “That’s definitely a problem.”

Xiao Yu nodded. “We don’t have any better options for now. But there’s another thing we need to note: the destructive power of the Gravitational Bomb seems to have a certain upper limit. Its gravitational strength doesn’t surpass that of neutron star matter. Building a larger-yield Gravitational Bomb is worth a try, but I think we shouldn’t get our hopes up too much. Let’s do this: we’ll make another bomb with ten times the yield of the last one and try once more. If we still can’t destroy the Four-Dimensional Barrier, we’ll abandon this method.”

At close range, the previous Gravitational Bomb Xiao Yu had built could indeed be said to have reached the gravitational strength of a neutron star.

The universe is full of strange phenomena. Take, for example, a proton-scale ultra-microscopic black hole. It almost can’t affect any external matter, and just a small distance away, you wouldn’t even sense its gravity. Yet, despite its minuscule size, it still has its own event horizon. At its event horizon, the escape velocity is still the speed of light, identical to that of a supermassive black hole.

In other words, at the event horizon of both ultra-microscopic and massive black holes, the gravitational strength is the same. Similarly, within a certain range around the Gravitational Bomb that Xiao Yu had created, its gravitational strength was no different from that of an actual neutron star, the escape velocity exceeded 150,000 kilometers per second, and even light had to follow a parabolic trajectory to escape.

Real neutron stars in the universe exert strong gravitational pull from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, but Xiao Yu’s Gravitational Bomb was different. Not even at a distance of ten kilometers would you still feel its gravitational pull.

This Gravitational Bomb basically proved that even the gravitational strength of neutron star matter couldn’t break the Four-Dimensional Barrier. Moreover, the gravitational strength of the Gravitational Bomb seemed to have a hard limit, preventing it from exceeding neutron star levels. Building larger-yield bombs would mostly increase the area of effect rather than the gravitational strength itself.

Still, Xiao Yu clung to a sliver of hope.

“Maybe a larger-yield Gravitational Bomb will trigger some kind of reaction process that I haven’t yet understood. Maybe an even bigger bomb really can shatter the Four-Dimensional Shield,” Xiao Yu thought, and began constructing the second, even more powerful Gravitational Bomb.

These tests had already consumed five years of Xiao Yu’s time. During these five years, the radius of the Four-Dimensional Barrier had shrunk by another 250 million kilometers. Because of its shrinking volume, the central star could now heat the enclosed region more efficiently, causing temperatures within the area to rise at an accelerating rate.

Xiao Yu had already detected that at a distance of two billion kilometers from the central star, the temperature had reached 156 degrees, and even in the coldest regions, it had climbed to minus 130 degrees.

These data points were beginning to make Xiao Yu feel a growing sense of urgency.

At the current stage, Xiao Yu could still move farther from the central star to find areas with lower temperatures, conserving fuel. But in ten years, there would no longer be any region below zero degrees within the Four-Dimensional Barrier. And building such a massive Gravitational Bomb took at least a year per bomb, Xiao Yu really didn’t have much time left.

Thinking back to what Taihao had told him before dying, Xiao Yu couldn’t help but feel a twinge of doubt.

“Was Taihao truly benevolent or malevolent toward me? It said I had two hundred years, but at best, I only have a little over seventy years, and the Four-Dimensional Barrier it created is so incredibly strong. I really can’t figure out a way to break it.”

“No choice. Let’s try one more time,” Xiao Yu resolved, and quickly began building the second ultra-high-yield Gravitational Bomb. This time, the bomb would convert the total mass of five full County-Class starships into energy, detonating with a colossal explosion in space.

“Let’s hope… that this Gravitational Bomb can finally break through the Four-Dimensional Barrier…”