The Path Toward Heaven

Countless digital symbols were drifting in the “room”, looking rather chaotic; no regularity could be detected among them.

Yet in the eyes of Jing Jiu, the drifting snowflakes could reveal a great deal of information.

The people in this room were all the most outstanding Cloud Ghosts, yet they found themselves shocked by the intrusion of a newcomer.

Nobody asked his origin and name, a sort of rule in the hidden network.

The only exception was that one of them had the ability to find his location.

None of them in the room had such an intention. They were afraid that they would end up like the Wild Rabbit if they provoked him.

The Wild Rabbit was the best among them at hiding traces of his having been somewhere. However, he was caught by this guy even though he had the protection of the military network, so there was no way they would risk it.

After a long while, a snowflake quivered slightly as a line of words appeared, “What’s your aim?”

No one could tell how this newcomer had entered the hidden network or how he had found the remotest room in the interplanetary network.

Most importantly, why did this newcomer come here?

“I have some questions I’d like to ask you guys.”

This was Jing Jiu’s reason for being thre.

A large amount of information and knowledge in the interplanetary network and the hidden network was useful, and their database was all-inclusive. However, some knowledge and experiences could only be found in people’s brains.

These people were highly intelligent and knowledgeable in the Federation of the Milky Way, so they were the people Jing Jiu could learn a great deal from.

The snowflakes started drifting around again after a pause, looking even more vigorous. It was evident that these people felt at ease now.

“I appreciate your ability a lot. Go ahead and ask your questions. But you’d better leave out those conjectures.”

“Right. Though we don’t know each other, we’re the outstanding ones in our respective fields. All the questions should be able to be answered by someone with the proper knowledge.”

“Now that you’ve revealed the identity of the Wild Rabbit, I’ll answer three of your questions.”

Looking at the symbols amid the snowflakes, and thinking of the girl with silvery hair, it occurred to Jing Jiu that the humans in the Federation of the Milky Way were much more enthusiastic in helping others than those in Chaotian.

Jing Jiu raised his question directly since he didn’t know how to spell “You’re so kind”. His first question was about the theorem, which was the knowledge he disliked the most and something he was not good at.

As time went by, he kept on raising questions, and the people in the room offered their answers after some serious considerations.

Half an hour later, the room grew quiet again; nobody spoke.

Though Jing Jiu still had many questions to ask, some of the questions he asked earlier hadn’t gotten answered yet.

“One, two, three, four…” Jing Jiu counted to twenty and was certain that these people couldn’t answer his questions anymore. He left the room after thanking them.

The snowflakes seemed to be frozen in midair for a long time, not making any sound.

Some moments later, the group left the room quietly as the snowflakes kept on falling down.

…

…

The main planet of the Federation had a laboratory that looked ordinary on the outside.

By the bathroom in the lab, there was an ordinary workshop with an ordinary-looking computer on a counter and some ordinary equipment. An ordinary-looking middle-aged researcher tapped the keyboard lightly a few times to make the data on the screen disappear. He took off the glasses and squeezed the nasal bridge between the eyes, revealing a wry smile.

He was unfamiliar with the most advanced scientific research since leaving the university a long time ago. He couldn’t find any clue regarding that issue. However…he wondered why those people couldn’t answer the questions, a hint of bewilderment showing on his face.

…

…

The rats and cockroaches could be found everywhere in the underground neighborhood of the Ten-Thousand Mountain Planetary Base. The sanitary condition here was evidently much worse than that in the Stargate Base. The torn flyers for military enrolment were drifting on the ground, sticking to the dirty water whenever they came in contact with it. Even the rats were not interested in using the paper that was made from a mixture of materials for their nests, to say nothing of anyone else wanting to use them.

There was a very narrow room near the end of the dark and damp alley, with a dim lamp that was no brighter than the light from a computer screen.

A thin person was squatting on a chair that was surrounded by microwavable foods, cigarette cartons, medicine bottles and the weapons of a magnified laser. He was staring at the computer in a stupor, his quivering lips revealing yellowish teeth when they opened.

…

…

The similar scenes showed up in a few places in the Federation of Milky Way and in the meantime in the universe.

A silvery spaceship was flying to the deep part of the space at an increasingly faster pace, its engine giving off an eerily blue but unreal flames.

The half-silhouette of the Stargate Planet looked like the buttock of a young girl wearing a silky pajama when it was shone on by the permanent star in the universe.

A white-haired old man stood up from the chair. He lit a hand-made cigarette with no regard for the rule of prohibited smoking during space travel.

The room was filled with smothering smoke after he exhaled twice forcefully.

The fire alarm on the spaceship had been readjusted with the highly advanced particle analysis system, so it wouldn’t mistake the smoke from the cigarettes for a fire. As a result, the fire alarm didn’t go off.

As the door was pushed open, a man clad in the lieutenant colonel uniform of the Federation of the Milky Way walked in. “President, the list of the candidates for the Star Awards is ready. It needs your signature,” he said to the old man.

The old man, who was the president of the Science Academy, rebuffed while waving his hand irritatingly, “Why the hurry?”

The lieutenant colonel said with a bitter smile, “The list had been ready twenty days ago. You were at the lab of the Stargate Base at the time and didn’t want to be disturbed. Now…”

“Fine, fine. I’ll sign it in a minute,” the old man interrupted him and drove him out of the room. He came back before the constantly flowing data and commented, “It’ll take a long time to calculate the formulas, but you left merely after twenty seconds. Why are people so impatient these days?”

…

…

A battleship floated in the deep part of the universe.

More battleships could be seen in the visible area of the dark universe.

This place was at the edge of the Federation of the Milky Way; it was many light years away from the closest permanent star.

The utmost dark space up ahead was the rumored Sea of Dark Matter.

It wasn’t until now that the humans had found true dark matter, which is why they couldn’t figure out why those monsters had suddenly come out from the Sea of Dark Matter. However, they had found a method to cordon off the patch of the Sea of Dark Matter where the monsters showed up most frequently, perhaps by means of a chain of electromagnetic fields.

These battleships were deployed to set up the electromagnetic fields and check out the Sea of Dark Matter. They were different from the often-seen silvery spaceships in the Federation of the Milky Way, with a black and elongated body and many dents on the surface, looking like a rusty sword after being eroded by the wind and rain for many years.

It was because the surface of the battleships was covered with distorted materials that could resist the invasion of awareness from the monsters of the Sea of Dark Matter.

The sealed-off battleships only had one message channel connecting to the outside world, which was located in the captain cabin at the bow of the ship. It was a square metal case painted with a bright red color.

The metal case was exceedingly strong and hard to damage, ensuring the transmission of the messages.

Yet, the red metal case had been broken in half, and the cables inside it were all pulled out.

A girl in military uniform stood by the case while heaving an ax with a flush face, panting. The sweat beads were trickling down from her temples.

Boom!!!

The door to the captain’s cabin was smashed open from the outside.

The captain and his subordinates rushed in and saw the above-mentioned scene.

“What is going on? Are you mad?” The captain came before the girl and roared in anger, “Even though you are…”

He trailed off. The subordinates backtracked out of the captain cabin silently, pretending that they hadn’t heard anything.

The girl handed the ax to the captain. Afterwards, she took a bottle of water and took a gulp, as she thought that the guy would have followed her onto the battleship if she hadn’t cut off the cables; they would be in big trouble if he had control of the battleship.

…

…

Jing Jiu’s awareness had left the room; then he left the library.

Standing on the landing of the stone steps of the library, Jing Jiu lifted up his head to look at the sky.

This place was different from the underground neighborhood, and he could see a patch of blue sky and white clouds here. And he could even see more clearly the high platforms and some single houses. As he trained his line of sight higher through the clouds and fog, he could see some battleships floating in the space as usual.

That person turned out to be an officer on a battleship who had used the military network, which is why it was a bit troublesome to deal with that person.

He had wasted some time when entering the network of the battleship. As he was about to control the ship, the message channel was suddenly cut off.

Jing Jiu could guess what that person had done, feeling appreciative of that person’s decisiveness.

He drew back his line of sight and headed to the row of trees on the other side of the grassy ground.

The noisy sounds could be heard nearby again. The whistling and sneers went up once in a while.

The silvery hair was quite noticeable, as if it were ablaze under the twilight.

But the willpower of the girl with silvery hair didn’t burn red-hot like a flame. She stood in front of the crowd with her head lowered, listening to the reproach of a teacher.

Jing Jiu saw her lips squeezed tight.

She was quite stubborn, but not at all feeble.

She reminded Jing Jiu of Zhao Layue and Liu Shisui.

“I heard that you’ve been writing a novel lately. You’re not focused on your study, to say nothing of your Cultivation. What are you going to do with your life? Or, is it that you’re quite confident in your ability to break through the state. Come on, let your classmates see what level you’re at now.”

The criticism that could be heard in any world echoed over the grassy ground.

Jing Jiu waved his hand.

Crack!!!

The apparatus for testing yuanqi had broken in half before exploding with a boom.

It was chaotic on the grassy ground; the scared screams broke out in tandem. The teachers and students fled in all directions.

The initial small fire had grown more violent in a short time; it, under the twilight, looked like the sun that showed up occasionally in the sky.

Jing Jiu arrived on the other side of the trees and jumped off the cliff without glancing back.

…

…

The ear-splitting sound of scratching echoed in the apartment of the residential building.

The yellow cat in the photo on the cabinet opened his eyes wide, wondering why his master acted like this today.

Zong Lizi scratched the remaining food in the container with a plastic spoon, her head lowered close to the container, though the noise was a bit better than when she had made in the canteen the other day.

She suddenly came back to her senses and raised her head to take a look.

Jing Jiu propped his head against the other end of the couch, asleep.

She thought that he was tired because he had been busy writing the novel and studying the materials recently. She pressed her hands together and said “sorry” soundlessly before she entered her own room.

Jing Jiu opened his eyes and looked at the tightly closed door, deep in thought.