Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

…

…

Tens of thousands of battleships started their engines, turning into just as many burning flying swords and heading toward the deeper part of the universe.

The glowing dark-blue flames were not due to the burning of tangible objects, but was connected to some sort of flowing light. It didn’t take long before the burning flying swords vanished without a trace; it remained unclear where they had gone. Nothing but the dust created by the corpse of the heavenly demon could be found around the huge reddish fireball.

…

…

“Mother’s Nest. It’s the real Mother’s Nest! It has a very strong resistance. The force of the electromagnetic pulse can pass a thick alloy sheet easily. It’ll take at least a battleship fleet to destroy it. Therefore, I don’t believe it has been killed by a human being.”

“As I said many times before, he is merely a liquid metal robot, not a real human being.”

“I’ve also said many times that it’s impossible! The light frequency analysis tells us that his body is not made of metal but an unknown element, and look at his skin and hair…It’s impossible to have such perfect biomimetic material. If it were a liquid metal robot, why would it, judging from a logical perspective, mimic the appearance and inner organs of a human being? It’s rather illogical. Besides, where is his microprocessor? You people have already scanned it more than seven hundred times; have you found a processor and any information channel?”

“The Science Academy believes, after receiving the data, that he is most likely the remains of an ancient civilization.”

“Excuse me, how long ago has the ancient civilization been extinct? Even if our ancestors had belonged to such a high level of civilization, how could they keep a robot in such perfect condition?”

The sunlight shone down evenly from the blue sky, giving off a surreal feeling; but it was sufficient to brightly illuminate the empty laboratory. Two scientists were debating as they looked in the lab from the transparent protective shield. After a long while, the male scientist suddenly asked, “Have you received a reply for your last application?”

They had tried to cut the subject with all of their cutting tools they could lay their hands on in the Planetary Base, but failed to obtain any sample from the subject because its body was exceedingly dense and strong. They had no choice but to send an application to the Science Academy in hopes of having a dynamic field separator brought in.

They were reluctant to do so, but had no other choice. It was because they were fully aware that many colleagues of theirs would come with the dynamic field separator after the Science Academy approved their application.

No scientist was willing to miss an opportunity of observing such an astounding discovery.

The older and amiable female scientist shook her head while giving an unexpected answer.

“The president of the Academy has declined the application because he is worried that the internal structure of the subject might be damaged…But you shouldn’t feel relieved just yet; the president of the Academy will come by spaceship, maybe twenty days from now.”

The male scientist sighed; it was unclear whether he felt regretful or scared. Looking at the subject on the table, he remarked, “To be honest with you, I can’t even bear cutting off a piece of his hair.”

“What do you mean?” the female scientist pressed, feeling baffled.

“This is an artifact,” said the male scientist as he pulled back his gaze and looked at her. “This is a perfect art of the universe; it would be a crime to damage him, even if it were just a fingernail.”

Staring at the subject for a long time, the female scientist acquiesced to the view of her colleague, saying, “So it’s impossible for him to be a human being. No one could be born so perfect even if their genes were optimized ten times with the most expensive treatments and they were blessed by female priests.”

“He is a perfect artifact, but not an absolutely perfect one. The absolute perfection is actually undesirable. The most detailed scanning we did last time shows a tiny and thin mark by one corner of his eyes; it’s perhaps on the atomic level. You have no idea just how beautiful the thin mark looks under the electronic microscope.”

The male scientist kept on talking. As he turned his gaze to the operating table, he couldn’t help but say, “If he were a living person, I would definitely fall in love with him.”

The female scientist said, “Judging from any perspective, he would be a male if he were alive.”

“Is this fact important?” the male scientist shrugged with an indignant expression on his face.

The metal items were everywhere in the laboratory. The warm sunlight streamed in through the window from the blue sky, everything looking white under the sunlight; but it didn’t feel cold in the room.

There was a metal table in the middle of the transparent protective shields. A man was lying on it; he looked perfect, both in body or appearance.

All of a sudden, the man opened his eyes and looked at the two scientists outside the protective shield, his eyes devoid of any emotion as he uttered “Hmm?”

…

…

The meditation room at the New Era Institute was very quiet.

A dozen students were sitting on the ground with their eyes closed and legs crossed. They remained in the same position for a long time. The only exception was that their eyelids were quivering slightly, indicating that their eyeballs were moving, as if they were pondering something.

After a long while, a student opened his eyes and fell backwards onto the floor. “If it were not a book written by Zhong Lizi, I would have no way to keep on reading it,” he said while bringing his legs up in the air.

Another student also opened his eyes. He remarked while rubbing his numb neck, “Regardless, she could update her book with a hundred thousand words every day; at least we don’t have to worry about not having enough to read.”

The first student grunted once before saying, “I can write six hundred thousand words a day by employing the awareness input.”

“She didn’t misspell anything, nor did she use the colloquial language. Not to mention, her writing is devoid of any trace of correction by an artificial intelligence. It’s evident that she has used manual input.”

More students opened their eyes and joined the discussion.

“How can she write one hundred thousand words a day by manual input? When did she break through the state? Well, something is amiss. Even if she had moved up three states, she couldn’t have written it so fast by hands.”

“Her family must be very poor and in need of money; otherwise, she wouldn’t have white hair at such a young age…”

“She was my classmate in primary school. It’s said that her gene modification had gone wrong during the second procedure.”

“What you said is irrelevant. Updating the book with one hundred thousand words a day is not an issue here; the key is the content. I can’t believe she is writing a book on Cultivation in this era. It’s an outdated and tedious topic, just like the name of the book.”

“You’re right. The name ‘The Path Toward Heaven’ is too ordinary.”

“The name of the book and the plots are not too bad. The Giant is rather adorable; Shisui is lovable; Tong Yan is pitiful…But, the main male character is too boring. He is always emotionless, with a flat and indistinct personality.”

“What?”

Along with the crisp voice and the slight sound of a door being closed, a girl walked into the meditation room.

The girl looked to be about fifteen or sixteen years old, wearing a plain colored Daoist robe, her hair bound behind her back; she looked quite gallant. “How can you say Cultivation is an outdated topic and tedious,” she exclaimed irately toward her classmates. “A hundred thousand words can’t even shut your mouths. And you, what do you mean by ‘indistinct personality’? You should just keep on reading it; and I’ll offer an explanation, a good one. I’ve almost read…eh, written it in tears.”

A student couldn’t help but remark, “But, it’s easy to forget the first part as one reaches the end of the story. It’s useless no matter how well you explain things in the end.”

…

…

Zong Lizi, the young girl with silvery hair, was walking on a path on campus, feeling dejected. The Daoist robe she wore looked not as vigorous as before even though it was tousled by the breeze. When she came to the edge of the cliff, she lifted her head to look at the stars rotating at a high speed in the night sky and the high platforms enshrouded in the clouds and fog, her small face revealing an admiring and expectant expression.

After a long while, the admiring expression turned to tired and helpless one. She jumped off the cliff, turning into a dandelion as her Daoist robe ruffling in the wind.

Having drifted in the air for a long time, she landed softly on the ground after the speed of her descent reduced gradually and the light in the sky grew dimmer.

This place was a bit dimmer than the cliff hidden in the clouds and fog where the institute was situated. The lights in the buildings were so dim that it looked like the world in the last days of its existence described in movies, which was always damp, dirty and dangerous.

She walked into a building and entered her own apartment after scanning the code pad on the door. She threw herself onto a couch after taking out a cup of water and finishing it in one gulp.

Staring at the tightly closed door of the study room and thinking of the comments her classmates made, she couldn’t help but feel enraged, shouting, “Everybody thinks your book is boring. It’s impossible to make money even if I spent money buying a website for it. Don’t expect me to spend money on it, though.”

The study room was quiet and no response came from inside of it, as if nobody was in it. she came before the door and knocked on it, saying, “The network of the institute has updated the book with the plot in which Tong Yan went to see Jing Jiu and Liu Ci and asked them to steal the Green Sky Mirror; but the evaluation of the book is still lukewarm. What should we do next? I’ve already read the rest of the book you wrote so far; it’s not freaking exciting at all. Though I felt a bit sad when Lian Sanyue died, I couldn’t cry out. The description about ascension is quite dull. Your writing skill is questionable. You must write the events after the ascension with more care.”

The door was still tightly closed; the person inside didn’t give a response.

She couldn’t stand it anymore. She pushed the door open by force.

A youth, wearing the tracksuits with a hoodie, sat by the window, reflecting on something.

It occurred to her that he was indeed a strange guy since he wore a hoodie even inside the room. “I’m asking you. Tell me where he had gone to after his ascension.”

The youth, after a moment of silence, returned, “He has come to this world.”

Hearing this answer, Zong Lizi shrieked while holding her head after a moment of bewilderment.

“What a mess it is! Nobody would be interested in reading it if you wrote it this way. Do you really believe that it’s a new angle, mixing the world of Cultivation with the transplanetary era. You have no idea how many people have written it before. This sort of combination is the worst kind, like a deformed embryo. Why in the heck would you write a book this way? No matter what, this needs to be changed.”

Having said that, she closed the door behind her with a loud “pah”.

The youth didn’t heed her reaction, still looking at the outside of the window quietly.

This place was very low and far from the starry sky. All he could see was a corner of the universe from here. The starlight shining on the ground outside the window looked exceedingly faint.

His face, when being shone on by the starlight, grew more colorful, looking very handsome.

Jing Jiu had been on this world for more than one million and six hundred thousand breaths.

It had been twenty days if one was using local time.

He hadn’t figured out what had happened yet.

The only certain fact he was sure of was that this world had a low-level civilization in comparison to Chaotian.

He didn’t know the word “civilization” until he came to this world.

…