The brightness of the Sun Tom saw at this moment was still about 4 times the brightest brightness of Venus as seen from Earth.

It was still so bright, so dazzling.

After looking at the Sun, Tom turned his head and looked ahead at the journey once more.

Considering the solar system's gravity boundary, the Oort Cloud is about 1 light-year from the Sun. Although Tom had been traveling for so long, he had only covered one-fifth of the solar system's territory.

The vastness and immensity of the universe could not help but make one feel despair.

But looking at the many spaceships under his command, and feeling the hundreds of millions of clones linked to his consciousness, Tom felt no despair in his heart, only determination.

He knew that as long as he persisted, he would surely reach his destination.

After traveling for some more time, Tom finally made a different discovery.

The many unmanned probes and reconnaissance satellites scattered around the fleet finally found the first macroscopic celestial body.

It was a rather large celestial body. Its longest dimension reached 78 kilometers, and its widest point was 22 kilometers.

It appeared entirely grayish-black, quietly suspended in space.

Undoubtedly, this was a star body that had never been discovered before. At the same time, it was very likely the target he was looking for.

A true Oort Cloud celestial body.

Tom suppressed the excitement in his heart and decisively dispatched a large scientific research vessel to leave the fleet. It then decelerated with all its might, and once its speed relative to this star body reached zero, it began reverse acceleration, chasing after it.

It ultimately took several years. By the time the main fleet had traveled another 2.5 trillion kilometers, it finally landed on it.

Because of the extreme distance and the long communication delay, Tom basically had no way to exert much control over this location.

But it didn't matter; the intelligent AI could complete that series of scientific research procedures on behalf of Tom.

So, after leaving numerous detection devices there, the scientific research vessel, carrying about 200 tons of specially mined samples, accelerated again to catch up with the main fleet.

By the time this scientific research vessel returned to the main fleet, the main fleet had already traveled another several trillion kilometers, truly reaching the gravity boundary of the solar system.

During these trillions of kilometers of travel, although Tom had maintained a vast area of search and scanning, he had not discovered any other macroscopic star bodies.

It was only now, as he truly approached the gravity boundary of the solar system, that Tom finally managed to find another one.

Compared to the previous one, this star body was much smaller, with its longest dimension only 200 meters.

Without hesitation, Tom once again dispatched a scientific research vessel.

However, it would take several more years for the scientific research vessel to complete the series of procedures: deceleration → acceleration → deceleration for landing → acceleration to catch up with the main fleet → deceleration to rejoin the main fleet.

Observing through a long-range telescope, Tom saw that this smaller star body looked similar to the larger star body discovered earlier, and its structure was also similar.

This meant that the samples from the larger asteroid also held significant reference value for this smaller asteroid.

The clones in the main fleet carefully collected these hard-won 200 tons of samples, placing them into various laboratories. Combining the data obtained from the on-site surveys, they immediately began observation and research.

Tom noticed that the material composing this star body was relatively loose. It was not like an ordinary rocky planet, made of solid rock; instead, it was somewhat like a sponge, sparse and porous internally.

Its density was only 0.5 grams per cubic centimeter, only half that of water.

It was mainly composed of substances such as water ice, dust, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide, but the connections between them were not tight.

Looking at these samples, and at the small asteroid in the distance, only 200 meters in size, suspended alone in the vastness of space with no other macroscopic objects within billions of kilometers, Tom's heart was filled with emotion.

It is highly probable that this asteroid migrated here from the early stages of the solar system's formation and has remained quietly here for billions of years.

The distance from here to the Sun is about 1 light-year, or about 9.4 trillion kilometers.

This is the true boundary of the solar system's territory, in every sense. Because beyond this point, it is unlikely that there would still be celestial bodies controlled by the Sun's gravity and orbiting the Sun.

Yes, even at such a vast distance, this asteroid still orbits the Sun.

The Sun, as seen from here, had its brightness reduced to about −2.74 magnitude.

Although much dimmer than before, it was still comparable to the brightest Jupiter as seen from Earth.

Across the entire sky, the Sun was still the brightest star.

However… it no longer had any fundamental difference from the other stars.

Although it was bright, it was not too bright. It had merged into the myriad stars, losing its uniqueness.

Yet, even so, its gravity still controlled all the celestial bodies here. Everything here had to orbit it.

Just like this asteroid now.

Its orbital speed relative to the Sun was only about 300 meters per second. At this speed, it would take a full 350 million years to complete one orbit around the Sun.

Since its birth, it had only orbited that star a dozen or so times.

The vastness and grandeur of the solar system, the boundless and infinite expanse of the universe, thus came rushing in, enveloping Tom's entire mind.

Looking at this asteroid, Tom silently sighed,

"This is the solar system, this is the universe…"

Over these years, countless stars exploded, vanishing from the universe as brilliant fireworks, and countless other stars were born from interstellar dust, igniting core fusion, blowing away the surrounding dust disks with powerful radiation, and scattering light into the cosmic space.

All these external changes seemed to have no effect on this asteroid. It remained quietly, preserving those samples from the early formation of the solar system, unaffected by the outside world and not affecting it, like a super-efficient "refrigerator" that, spanning billions of years, brought samples from the early formation of the solar system to the present.

Now, these samples, born from the early solar system, have come into Tom's hands, beginning to undergo the most advanced equipment and the most rigorous examination.

The mysteries of the early solar system's formation process were thus truly revealed before Tom, including the early solar system nebula collapse process, gravity perturbations, changes within the galaxy when the Sun first "ignited," the influence of Jupiter's gravity, the formation mechanism of Earth, and many other questions, all had their answers emerge before Tom.

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