The research notes of an Intelligentsia Guild member on Xianzhou.
Delves
I remember being in awe of the Xianzhou Luofu's enormity when I first saw it years ago.
The starship that we were on inched closer and closer to the "flagship," until the Xianzhou's outline became visible to us passengers. That was when I heard people gasping in awe behind me. Some of them even started cheering softly. The ship was so majestic in its enormity that it projected an aesthetic aura that was strange and yet splendorous. As seasoned a traveler as I was, I found myself helplessly enamored by the sense of wonder the Xianzhou had left on me.
But just before arriving at the port, I made a startling discovery. The Xianzhou flagship might be a bit too tiny to house any civilization of note.
Throughout the vast expanse of the cosmos, there exist innumerable civilizations entirely established on artificial entities. A massive building complex formed by linking an entire star system together, a sea of artificial planets that seem to have no boundaries, a ring-shaped metropolis built around a black hole... No matter what the specific case it might be, maintaining a habitat and ecosystem — which are prerequisites for supporting any living organism — requires a genuinely enormous infrastructure to be built.
Compared with these gargantuan creations that could easily span entire galaxies, the Xianzhou flagship is simply too tiny. Some historical records from the Intelligentsia Guild have vaguely stated how the Xianzhou ship was once part of a fleet of vessels that were sent to visit Aeons. But even going by the number of all the currently remaining ships, six such Xianzhou ships would still be far from enough to provide the necessary space for any powerful interstellar civilization to survive.
However, when we finally moved into the port, went through all those labyrinthine boarding procedures with the Sky-Faring Commission, and eventually set foot on the Xianzhou Luofu, all preconceived doubts about the viability of the Xianzhou ship suddenly became comically unwarranted.
When I got to the bustling skyport that is the Luofu's Starskiff Haven, I started to question if my spatial sense had gone completely haywire. Without a doubt, all this visible space in Starskiff Haven is enough to fill up the entire Luofu. Strange planets were hanging up high in the sky. Everything looked completely different from the view on the outside. What kind of sorcery was this?
An Amicassador from the Sky-Faring Commission welcomed me with a professionally-trained smile and told me that many outworlders were just as amazed on their visit. The marvel I had just witnessed was simply referred to as "delve" by the locals on the Xianzhou.
In the weeks that followed, I visited several other delves on the Xianzhou ship, or should I say, the cabins of the Xianzhou. These delves all varied in size and shape, but they were all on a scale that was just too large for any normal ship to contain. Some of these delves could hold up entire commercial districts, such as Exalting Sanctum, while others could even contain vast luxuriant prairies like the Ever-Hunt Plains.
By simple logic, I knew these people here would never disclose to me the exact principles at work in these delves. If this wasn't just a visual facade, then it probably was some kind of mind-blowing space-folding technology. "Delve." Hmph. They just called it a different name to make it sound more exotic.
Space folding is hardly anything new. On a large scale, it can be used for space travel, and when done on a smaller scale, it can be used as a means of storage. Many civilizations have developed their own methods of space folding. But it is still very rare to see such ubiquitous usage of space-folding technology on a scale so large that it has become a cornerstone of Xianzhou's daily life. The reason why this is particularly difficult to accomplish is surprisingly simple. The level of energy required to fold space grows in proportion to the volume of the space being folded. For most civilizations, the cost of pulling this off would just be too astronomical. But the people of Xianzhou have achieved this so effortlessly, the power behind which must have something to do with the Aeons.
By Nous, if given a chance to further examine this closely, I would perhaps be able to comprehend how Xianzhou managed to create such unusual dimensions. My discovery would definitely bring enormous economic benefits for the Intelligentsia Guild.