The Path Toward Heaven

Chapter 767: Being Gazed At

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

The distant morning sun looked like a small red ball, a bit pitiful.

The permanent star was rather far away from this planet. As a result, it was somewhat cold on the surface of the planet. If a shield were not placed above it, it would be difficult for the regular humans to live on this planet.

Jing Jiu pulled back his gaze and walked toward the city up ahead. Later, he found out the truth about the mountain range.

As the sun rose higher, it illuminated the cliff wall of several thousand meters high. Some objects were glittering inside it, as if they were the stars buried in the mountain. It turned out that the mountain was a part of the crust of the planet and he was still on the second platform in the underground; the surface of the planet was above this mountain range.

A great deal of information appeared in his awareness.

As the Sea of Dark Matter invaded, those machines hidden in the walls of the crust would be activated; and all the machines would be connected to form a gigantic electromagnetic field.

The electromagnetic field and the modified crust of the planet would provide a strong and powerful protection for the underground world; and in the meantime, the buildings on the surface would be abandoned. And those residents who couldn’t retreat to the underground in time would be abandoned as well.

A few decades ago, the Sea of Dark Matter had broken through the defense of the battleship fleet and arrived on the Stargate Base, and destroyed ninety percent of the buildings on the surface and millions of people; but no damage had been dealt to the underground.

In a sense, this was a fair arrangement. The female priests living on the surface of the planet and the agencies of the government enjoyed the sunshine and best sceneries; so it was fair that they took more of the risks.

As time went by, many things had changed. The female priests still lived on the surface, but many agencies of the government had moved to the second level of the planet, where they could live a life as comfortable as those on the surface but it was much safer here. Jing Jiu was walking on this level. Some agencies even considered to move to the site close to the center of the planet, where the laboratory was situated.

The University of Stargate moved to the second level a few decades ago after the catastrophe. They claimed that they had moved to the second level to build an outside campus; but in fact, the vast majority of the administrators, teachers and students were on this outside campus. The main campus on the surface was occupied merely by those students in Cultivation responsible for protecting the planet and the Mecha faculty.

The ground on the second level was quite expansive, and the people here could enjoy the sunshine for about ten hours every day; and they had no need to worry about safety. It could be claimed that this place was the best site on this planet.

Jing Jiu headed toward the morning sunlight and the city. He saw many single houses with small courtyards by the road. The natural lawns in the small courtyards were much more expensive than the man-made lawns at the New Era Institute even though the latter were more uniform.

The closer he was to the city, the more people he saw. He saw middle-aged men with bulging bellies jog in the morning; but they would stop after a short distance to pant heavily. He also saw children play soccer on the grassy ground while laughing and talking cheerfully.

The morning sun was still on its way to peek over the mountains in the distance. A large part of the sun was blocked by the thick crust of the planet. Most of the city was not shone on by the morning sun yet; but the man-made lighting system was highly developed.

The buildings in the city were much higher than those at the New Era Institute and in the underground neighborhood. The skyscrapers of thirty or forty stories and even more than one hundred stories could be seen everywhere; but they were not so outstanding in comparison to the skyscrapers of more than a thousand stories on the space cities with the space elevators connecting to the ground, which were built on the Main Planet of the Federation and Jing Jiu watched on TV.

The distant ancient civilization had emptied the mantle of the planet when they modified this planet, constructing many working platforms for the purpose. The majority of the humans lived on these platforms. The higher buildings couldn’t be constructed on the platforms because of their limited height.

Jing Jiu was strolling on the quiet street and looking at the women walking their dogs. He saw a middle-aged man move his hand side to side in the air to watch the news, his face covered under the hoodie, showing no emotion. This city was indeed different from the underground neighborhood, but the difference was not so ostensible; and this city in essence was no different from the cities in Chaotian.

The sun had finally risen above the crust of the planet and above the city, illuminating all the streets and windows. The whole of city was awakening.

Jing Jiu got on a magnetic floating train after he paid the fare with the bracelet. He decided where he would go to first after he saw the slightly bumpy road and the residential houses hidden in the forest.

…

…

The Jabei Opera House was the biggest and most famous one on the Stargate Planet, where a few operas would perform every day. It was still morning; but the inhabitants of the city had already gathered here in formal clothing, and entered the Opera House one after the other through the tunnel underneath a water pond.

Jing Jiu followed the crowd to the ticket booth. He placed the bracelet in front of the sensor, giving off a “ding” sound. A man in suits came over and said deferentially, “Our honorable guest, please come this way.”

There were many audiences for the opera that day. He had no choice but to buy one of the VIP tickets that were the only ones left.

Jing Jiu learned the importance of money and knew that the expensive items were often better than the cheap ones back when he and Zhao Layue traveled the world.

The chairs for the VIP guests were much more comfortable as expected. Jing Jiu sat in the soft and bouncy man-made leather chair while watching the actors singing emotionally on the stage. He thought to himself that Shisui should learn how to sing like this if he could ascend.

This opera was modified from a story about a knight. The story was nothing unusual; it was about family, country, love and hostility, and separation from one’s lover, etc. However, it was said that the story was something from the distant ancient civilization discovered by the female priests. As such, the audiences showed a sense of holiness toward the story. None of them laughed even though the plots and conversations were evidently hilarious; instead, they pressed their hands in front of them, showing a sincere expression on their faces.

The sound system was almost perfect in the opera house, much better than that of TV in Zong Lizi’s apartment, though he had discovered that three areas of the system could be improved.

…

…

After listening to the opera for ten minutes, Jing Jiu believed that he had already learned enough information and knowledge. He left the Jabei Opera House and made his way out of the house through the tunnel underneath the water pond, heading toward the quieter street on the other side.

The Stargate Museum and a few buildings with outstanding designs were situated on the other side of the street.

To experience a civilization, the museum was definitely the best choice. Though Jing Jiu had seen the unearthed artifacts of the museum online, it was better to see them personally.

Though he couldn’t smell them, he could sense the oily scent on the mechanic weapons, the gas smell on the old-style cars, and the remaining cigarette odor on the paperback books…

He had another more important purpose by coming here though.

After arrival in the museum, Jing Jiu strolled five times faster than the regular visitors. He had gone by the exhibition halls of the recent history and the star chains; but he didn’t miss any details of the exhibited items. It didn’t take long before he came to a vast exhibition hall, occupying the largest space of the museum.

The exhibited items in this hall were those from the distant ancient civilization…They were all counterfeits of course. To put it more precisely, the items were all reproduced according to imaginations.

The remaining items of the distant ancient civilization were all in the hands of the female priests. To say nothing of the museum, the hidden network didn’t even have much information on them. It was evident that the humans of the Federation of the Milky Way had limited knowledge of their ancestors in the distant ancient times, which is why they had a limited imagination. The exhibited items were mostly the exaggerated reproductions of the modern technology.

Jing Jiu had no reason to linger around after he had found this out. He came to the end of the exhibition hall and pushed open a wooden door, making his descent along the stairs.

…

…

The third level below the ground floor of the museum looked like a common storage house without any protective device. It didn’t have the alloy gate as thick as a wall that was often seen in the movies.

The light was quite dim at the foot of the stairs, which protruded into the dark storage house, illuminating the figure of Jing Jiu.

Standing on the same spot, Jing Jiu fetched the map in his sea of awareness and compared it to the storage house. Soon he discerned his current location and the location of the place he was looking for; he drifted toward the place.

It was a wooden rack of about three meters high, being placed casually in a corner.

Jing Jiu landed on top of the wooden rack. He pushed his hand against the wall to sense the structure of it.

It was a hard alloy wall. Based on his current strength, Jing Jiu should be able to break through the wall easily; but it would take some time, which could alert the surveillance system.

The surveillance and control systems of this hidden storage house were isolated from the internet.

He didn’t dwell too long on the matter. Along with a sizzling sound, the tip of his finger pierced into the wall.

Click!!! Click!!! Click!!!

The surveillance system was engaged in focusing on an invisible place and recording the scenes according to Jing Jiu’s plan. In the meantime, he began to unlock the lock after he had dismantled the exceedingly complicated codes of thirty-six axles in the alloy wall.

He drifted into the wall through a crack that had just been opened. Then, he stopped the wall from activating the process of opening up.

A dry and vast space was behind the alloy wall. The white lights illuminated every corner of the room, which looked like an operating room in a hospital.

There was a metal door in the room, the surroundings of which were reinforced with stronger mixed metal walls. Nothing but a keyhole was on the metal door; the sensors for the pupils and fingerprints were nowhere to be found.

The people living in the era of advanced technology were fully aware that this sort of physical lock was the most secure type even though it looked simple. There was no need to worry that the data would be hacked; even the most formidable Cloud Ghost in the Federation of the Milky Way couldn’t unlock it.

Jing Jiu was rather pleased with such a concept. He aimed his finger at the keyhole.

A barrage of smooth and gentle sounds rang out, as if the mercury was injected into the complicated passages.

The heavy metal door let out a thudding noise as the lock was opened.

As Jing Jiu pushed open the door and walked in, he saw a cube of about ten meters high in front of him.

The cube was made of a transparent material, looking like a large cubic glass container, through which one could see the items inside clearly. The glass container was filled with a large amount of dirt. An old style dilapidated Mecha was seen in the midst of the dirt. It was rusty, and all of its paint had been peeled off. As such, it was unclear what color it had before.

It was evident that this old Mecha had been discovered in such a condition. The staffs of the Stargate Museum or the government brought it with the dirt to this site and had it sealed off because they were probably worried that they couldn’t preserve it in any other way.

It should be the relics from the distant ancient civilization.

Thinking of this, Jing Jiu came before the large glass container.

His figure appeared much smaller in comparison to the large glass container.

The contrast was even more obvious in this vast storage house.

He gazed at the old Mecha submerged in the dirt silently for a long time.

And the old style Mecha gazed back at him silently as well.