The Path Toward Heaven

The zither music passed through the empty space and the alloy hulls of the battleship, reaching the ears of everybody, including Jing Jiu.

The zither music was very appealing, but it was not a piece of music from this world. The rhythm of the music was relaxing and cheerful, giving off a happy hint of spring rain, as light as water and as precious as oil.

“I don’t know anything about the music ‘Prelude to a Good Night’, so I composed the music myself. Do you think it’s kind of alike?”

Shen Yunmai lifted up his head and asked this while looking at Jing Jiu.

There is no air in the space. His voice, like his music, could be heard by the others or by their awareness, since it could ignore the fact that the medium for sound was lacking in the space.

“I’m not sure,” replied Jing Jiu.

The Young Master Li had played the music “Prelude to a Good Night” many times at the Three-Thousand Nunnery in Chaotian back then. Lian Sanyue listened to it wholeheartedly, but Jing Jiu only listened to it half-heartedly.

“You listened to the music played by Lian Sanyue at the Plum Meeting in the same manner. You’re truly emotionally insensitive.”

Shen Yunmai went on sentimentally, “The Young Master Li was truly miserable, and so was Lian Sanyue.”

“You understood freaking nothing,” snapped Jing Jiu after remaining silent for a while.

Shen Yunmai didn’t get upset, nor did he turn insane. He said slowly while brushing his temple, “I’ve read ‘The Path toward Heaven’ a few times carefully. Though the story is not unique but interesting enough; it’s because the lives in that world are interesting to begin with.”

Many people in the upper echelon, including Ran Handong, were all aware that this young master of noble status liked the ancient styles. The way he acted was also in line with the ancient style, even though he had mostly adopted the style in terms of being frenetic, carefree, tumultuous, murderous and shameless.

“It has something to do with the geometrical structure,” said Jing Jiu.

What he intended to convey was that there was no essential difference between Chaotian and the Federation of the Milky Way, except that the sceneries and the people were different.

Shen Yunmai remarked after raising his eyebrows slightly, “You people’s idea and fear of the outside world are a bit foolish, but the sense of safety due to the isolation of your world is something we don’t have here.”

Jing Jiu disliked talking to others, save for Zhao Layue and a few others. However, he appreciated Shen Yunmai to some extent, so he was willing to talk a bit more.

“That world has green mountains, and so does here. The feelings are basically the same so long as we don’t focus our attention on the outside world.”

Upon hearing this, Shen Yunmai was intrigued, with a faint beam in his eyes. “Those old guys told me that there were at least two or three sects as formidable as the Green Mountain Sect, like Cloud-Dream Mountain and Fruit Formation Temple. However, based on what you described in your novel, you had suppressed them all,” said Shen Yunmai.

Jing Jiu uttered “hmm”.

Feeling somewhat sentimental, Shen Yunmai remarked, “You have done what those old guys couldn’t achieve; you’re indeed more powerful than them.”

Jing Jiu consented, “Yes, I’m the strongest.”

This statement was even colder than the chilly space. If he were somebody else, Shen Yunmai would feel like being lost while gasping. The expression on his face showed that he took it for granted. During the fight in the building of the military headquarters, Shen Yunmai was being suppressed by Jing Jiu from the beginning till the end; he couldn’t find any opportunity to mount an effective counterattack. As such, it was natural that Jing Jiu was the strongest swordsman in the universe.

“That is the reason why those old guys have decided to give this world to you. But you have to understand, they gave the right of authority to you because they expect you to do things for them. The future leader of the human race must do something for humans, which is no different from the business deals.”

Shen Yunmai pulled his hands away from the ancient zither; but the strings of the zither were still quivering, making an ear-pleasing sound.

The dim light from the distant permanent star shone on the strings of the zither, turning into a pale fragmented glow.

“All I want to do is to go there have a look,” said Jing Jiu.

“The Jiali Star Region is not the destination for you. The Sea of Dark Matter is the place where you’re truly needed. But it’s very dangerous there…and you might die there.”

Shen Yunmai laughed out delightfully.

His laughing face looked a bit strange, like a joker with red lips; but he didn’t do it for the sake of cursing Jing Jiu. His face was full of joyful expectancy.

Jing Jiu realized that he had heard the conversation between him and Hua Xi. He remembered the conversation he had with the girl priest by the hot spring a few days ago and that Shen Yunmai began to mull over the issue of life and death when he was five-year-old. And he became the way he was because he failed to find a solution.

Jing Jiu said earnestly while staring at Shen Yunmai, “I’m not going to die.”

Shen Yunmai returned more earnestly, “Everybody will die.”

Jing Jiu had no intention to carry on the meaningless debate, so he asked, “What’s the matter?”

The remaining monsters of the outside world in the Jiali Star Region had already been vanquished; but why didn’t the Central Star Fleet return to the Main Planet region but wait for him here?

“The fleet will bring you to another place for a new task. Some material regarding the Sea of Dark Matter must be given to you ahead of time.”

Shen Yunmai took out an item and handed it to Jing Jiu, saying, “Less than five people are qualified to read these materials in the Federation of the Milky Way; keep them safe.”

…

…

The Scorching-Sun Battleship sped up; it didn’t take long for it and a few other battleships to join the Central Star Fleet.

It was hard to see the whole landscape of the mountains when one was among the mountains. When the people were among the fleet, the burning flying swords of tens of thousands turned into tens of thousands of bright stars as space became the background that moved backwards.

It was easy to get bored after watching the solemn and steady sea of stars for a prolonged time. Jing Jiu quit looking at the sceneries outside the window and turned his attention to the item Shen Yunmai gave him.

The large amount of data moved down on the monitor like a waterfall, with many complicated 3-D diagrams and micro-sized pictures flashing incessantly. They were the materials related to the Sea of Dark Matter.

The Federation of the Milky Way strictly guarded this type of material; one could hardly find them even in the hidden network. It was the first time Jing Jiu saw them.

The Sea of Dark Matter was an ocean for the dark matters; they had existed in the universe for more than one hundred thousand years.

The dark energies could swallow up the solar systems gradually, and they had turned all the lifeforms they infected into monsters.

The distant ancient civilization had been wiped out in such a disaster.

The new civilization that had revived from the ruins needed to have this issue resolved.

The frustrating and absurd thing was that humans, even after many years of study, still knew very little about the dark matter.

There were two major conjectures regarding dark matters.

One of the conjectures was that the dark matters were forms of weak particles, or the particles of slow speed. However, no one in the distant ancient civilization or in the Federation of the Milky Way could capture or observe these particles. The Federation of the Milky Way had spent a great deal of resources to build a magnetic accelerator encircling the nebula more than ten years ago, but they had found nothing so far, which made the scientists and the populace alike feel disappointed.

The other conjecture was that the dark matter or the dark energy was something that had nothing to do with the physical laws of the universe. The human logic and their brain structure were built on the physical laws of the universe; hence, they had a hard time understanding dark matter or dark energy. And yet, this conception, like the theme often seen in the science fiction, seemed to be sensible but exceedingly groundless and meaningless.

As such, the humans could merely learn about the Sea of Dark Matter indirectly through the monsters that were the lifeforms being infected up to now.

The materials given to him by Shen Yunmai were mostly about those monsters besides the history of the Sea of Dark Matter and the related scientific researches.

Those strangely formed, dark and gloomy monsters had a rather interesting name, which seemed to be picked from a classic script.

It didn’t take long for Jing Jiu to finish reading the materials.

His line of sight focused on the encrypted file among the materials, remaining silent.

Only five people in the Federation of the Milky Way were qualified to know the secret in the material.

The secret was a city.

…

…

Jing Jiu came before the window and looked at the stars filling the sky.

The Central Star Fleet had already arrived at the fringe area of the galaxy and was heading toward a farther place.

Without the aid of the warped passage, it would take seventeen days to finish the process of accelerating.

The battleships traveled increasingly faster. The visible stars were the lights coming out from the tails of the battleships because the real stars were left behind.

The siren of alarm suddenly burst out and soon ceased. The scene in front of the fleet appeared on the light screen accompanied by a few lines of words.

Three mining spaceships had shown up in front of the fleet.

Hundreds of laser guns fired at the same time, creating a bright light beam.

It was unclear which mining company these three mining spaceships belonged to, but they turned into a puff of green smoke in the vast space.

The people on the mining ships were all dead of course.

The route of the fleet was announced throughout the star region. It was unclear why those mining spaceships hadn’t gotten out of the route ahead of time; it was inevitable for them to have such a tragic end.

Tens of thousands of battleships were accelerating. They couldn’t change course or decelerate; otherwise, it would waste a great deal of resources.

Everything on the route in front of the Central Star Fleet would be destroyed.

The whole of civilization was moving forward, and any object or individual obstructing it would be crushed.

Facing tens of thousands of battleships, the swordsmen in the Inherited Night State of the Federation of the Milky Way and Jing Jiu would have to evade them, let alone these mining spaceships.

Jing Jiu was aware of the principle, but he thought of Zong Lizi’s father.

The mining spaceships invested in by that professor must have disappeared for this reason.

Though it was a trivial matter as far as the universe was concerned, it was significant for the girl who suffered an incurable illness.

…

…

Twenty-seven standard days later, the Central Star Fleet had arrived at the edge of the galaxy.

It was said that this area was the place where the distant ancient civilization started. Now it was an empty graveyard, so dark that any onlooker would feel exceedingly depressed.

Tens of thousands of battleships were waiting there in the dark space; they were the fleet of the star chain.

The two fleets joined together to become countless stars, signifying the brilliant human civilization in the universe.

The Federation of the Milky Way had no intention to engage in a decisive battle with the Sea of Dark Matter; it was merely a recital for completing the plan of sealing off the Sea of Dark Matter.

The Scorching-Sun Battleship slowed down along with the fleet and came to a halt after four hours and thirty-seven minutes standard time.

A dark permanent star hung quietly in the distant space. A glow could be vaguely seen on it, indicating that its surface was covered in condensed dirt; but it seemed that the glows could go out at any moment.

This place was the edge of the galaxy, as well as the edge of the Sea of Dark Matter. The permanent star was proof.

A planet orbited around the permanent star, and there was a city of the distant ancient civilization on that planet.

It was the place Jing Jiu intended to go to.