The Path Toward Heaven

The distant ancient civilization was indeed rather advanced. They could make good use of the energy resources of the permanent star and modify the planets completely.

As a result of the planetary modification, the Stargate Base had three famous canyons on the crust of the planet, looking like three scars as well as three flower petals.

The New Era Institute and Shou’er City were located near one of the canyons, which was also the only passage leading to the underground lab.

There was a canyon south of the equator, where the number of residents was lower and there were fewer cities. Most departments of the planetary fleets were stationed there.

The large ship docks for mooring battleships and the maintenance of the ships were located on the second level below the crust, which was called the Special Second District.

Tens of millions of people resided in the Special Second District, including many universities and technological schools and the companies with both civilian and military functions. The largest transportation company that had been owned by the Mo clan was confiscated by the government now. It was unclear if the mistress of the Mo clan still had an opportunity to attend the associated University of the Base.

Moored at the large ship dock, the Scorching-Sun Battleship looked like an exceedingly majestic mountain range.

In the planetary era, the battleships most often would opt to go through the maintenance in the space. They wouldn’t land on the planet for the purpose unless it was for a special occasion.

The residents of the Special Second District rarely had such an opportunity to observe a battleship of the latest model in a close distance. Since today happened to be a holiday, many people brought their families to the vicinity of the maintenance dock for the sightseeing, and some of them were having a picnic on the grass. It was quite a hustle and bustle.

Hidden among the crowd, Jing Jiu in a set of brand-new blue tracksuits approached the base. After passing through several check points, he came to the inside of the building on the maintenance dock.

He put the blue tracksuit into the black backpack in the quiet changing room and put on the uniform for a colonel in the Federation provided by Ran Handong. He pushed open the heavy metal door and stepped onto the ground as flat as the surface of the sea, heading toward the Scorching-Sun Battleship.

He had invaded the military network a few times so far, but he hadn’t reached their central part. The most he did was leave many fractured programs according to the instinct of his awareness, which couldn’t exert an effective control over the ship. And he grew more cautious after he heard a gloomy sigh in the deep end of the network on the battleship the other day.

Under such circumstances, he could still use the right of authority in his bracelet to check things out easily through the scanning system on the Scorching-Sun Battleship.

Few people could stop him, be it in Chaotian or in this world. The gravitational field was the only force that could achieve such a feat so far.

…

…

The Scorching-Sun Battleship looked ordinary when it was in space, but it appeared extremely large when it was on the ground. It felt like a palace for God when one entered it. And it was easy for a human being to feel small and insignificant in comparison.

The steady footsteps echoed in the quiet walkways; then they merged with more footsteps to become the drum-like rumbles in the end.

The living quarters of the battleship were noisy. Both the officers and the regular soldiers became more humanistic during their mealtime.

The air was filled with the odor of food and dishes as well as complaints. Officers and soldiers alike on the Scorching-Sun Battleship had been forbidden to leave the ship for more than ten days. After the battleship landed on the ground, their movements were even more restrictive, and they had to go through the investigations of various agencies. They felt like being suffocated to some extent.

Jing Jiu sat in a remote corner, wearing sunglasses, with the visor of military hat lowered as much as possible.

He couldn’t smell the odor of the foods and dishes, but judging by the staleness, he could guess why they complained so much.

“If the program didn’t go wrong, what has gone wrong then? On the other hand, the incident has nothing to do with us, the low-level maintenance soldiers? Why do they lock us up?”

“Keep your voice down…Ah, officer!”

A few soldiers with oil stains on their boots walked over with the dining plates in their hands. They saw Jing Jiu when they drew close to him. With a start, they stood straight and saluted him hastily.

Jing Jiu ignored them, his face expressionless.

The few maintenance soldiers turned around and left. “That colonel looked like a ghost there. Have any of you seen him there earlier?” asked one of them, still feeling dreaded.

“If I had seen him, how could I have dared complain?”

“Why did that colonel sit there?”

“Have you seen the shoulder pads? He is from the Internal Affairs. Maybe, he is here to investigate the case.”

As the discussion went on, more and more soldiers noticed Jing Jiu in the corner. Seeing the shoulder pads he wore and sensing the icy cold bearing he had, they thought he was a superior sent by the Internal Affairs to investigate the case; nobody dared approach him.

More officers and soldiers of the battleship came to the living quarters. They were on the ground now, so there was no need to be on alert all the time. As such, all the personnel came to the place to eat their meals. In fact, it was a request by the fleet, using the occasion of having meals as an opportunity to gather everybody and count all of them.

A tiny sword light flashed through the sun glasses that were as dark as the night.

Jing Jiu’s line of sight passed through the lenses and swept over every dining table.

He had examined all the personnel present in a very short time and then started the second round of observation after some filtering.

Hundreds of faces flashed like lights in front of his eyes. His gaze halted briefly on a face once in a while before moving away.

He found seventeen soldiers who had gone through face lifts. His line of sight passed through the skins of the faces and landed on the facial bones.

Some of these soldiers had suffered severe wounds on their faces, so they needed a medical face modification. As such, their facial bones were mostly fixed with alloy material.

The rest of them had the facelifts to improve their appearance; as such, some parts of their facial bones were removed.

Soon enough, he had found a suspect.

An officer sat at an unnoticeable, small square table.

The officer was silent and alone. He ate with his head lowered; and he didn’t eat much.

A true Cultivation practitioner had no need to eat food, Jing Jiu thought to himself.

He found that this officer had not gone through facial bone reduction, but his appearance was still ordinary. And a few key parts of his facial bones had been reinforced with high-quality alloy.

Most of all, this officer had a powerful energy hidden inside him.

It was impossible for someone with such powerful energy to have such an ordinary position on the battleship.

Hence, this person was suspicious.

…

…

Hundreds of pictures lay in front of Jing Jiu’s eyes, and then overlapped on top of each other.

He had resurrected the appearance of this officer based on the usual medical facelift process.

He removed the reinforced alloy and added some white material on the reduced bones.

The broken muscle fibers were reconnected and reinforced.

The dented facial skins were evened out.

About two minutes later, hundreds of pictures had turned into a brand-new face in front of his eyes.

As the ring on his finger glowed, he entered the hidden network and compared the data of the deceased personnel in the military with the face.

Soon after, he had found the answer.

…

…

The middle-aged officer was eating silently.

All of a sudden, he sensed that someone was watching him, and the gaze was not just a glance from the eyes.

He set down the fork on the dining table and wiped the corners of his mouth with a paper napkin; then he raised his head to look at the opposite side.

A young officer had already sat across from him; he wore a pair of sunglasses with the visor pulled down. It was impossible to see his face clearly.

“Zhou Keqing?”

“Yes.”

“A personal advisory officer at the central commanding room?”

“Yes.”

“Where were you during the incident?”

“I was off my shift at the time and sleeping in my own room.”

“Any alibi?”

“No.”

“Somebody saw you at the communication cabin.”

“That person had lied.” No change of expression could be detected on the face of the middle-aged officer by the name of Zhou Keqing. He continued calmly, “I’d like to know who you are. You’re not an investigator from the Internal Affairs. Why did you come here? Who gave you the authority to ask me these questions?”

“You’re not Zhou Keqing.” The young officer sitting across from him was none other than Jing Jiu.

The middle-aged officer had seen the pictures taken from the distant surveillance cameras and guessed his identity easily. “Who do you think I am then?” he snapped sharply.

Jing Jiu said, “Fang Xiang, a former officer of the elite assault team in the star chain fleet, in the upper state of the Star State; and you are supposed to be dead.”

The middle-aged officer said after a moment of silence, “Looks like you have a good relationship with the priest clan and could find me out in such a short time.”

“Given that you have attempted to kill me, you have to die,” said Jing Jiu.

The expression in Fang Xiang’s eyes was exceedingly calm, devoid of any fear.

“Who will die then? You have survived because of the protection of the gravitational field. How will you escape when we are face to face?”

No sooner had he finished talking than a powerful energy burst out from inside of his body.

A gust of strong wind occurred in the living quarters on the battleship. Countless dining plates were blown onto the floor, the leftover soups and foods all over the place, the greasy odor drifting with the wind.

The officers and soldiers had no idea what had just happened because the alarm didn’t go off. They looked in the direction of the origin of the wind instinctively.

The small square table had been torn to shreds, flying with the wind. Fang Xiang drifted in midair, a great deal of energy being sucked into his body constantly.

Jing Jiu stood on the floor, his line of sight fixed on this person after passing through the sunglasses.

Fang Xiang displayed his prowess in the air for a brief moment.

Jing Jiu could have killed this person more than ten times in the same period of time.

But he didn’t do so.

This was the first time he had met a Cultivation practitioner in this world, and this person was most likely to be related to that ascendant. He wished to make some more observations.

The observation was over after about seven seconds.

A dozen sword lights left his body and shot at the military Cultivation practitioner in the air.

A dim blue light illuminated a corner of the living quarter.

Snap!!! Snap!!! Snap!!!

A barrage of crisp and frequent cutting sounds broke out.

Fang Xiang, however, didn’t die.

His body was protected by a layer of peculiar alloy armor, a blue glow shimmering on his chest. It was unclear if it was a processor or an energy generator, which gave off powerful energy waves.

The surface of the armor had a dozen visible marks.

Those sword lights were merely the sword wills, not the real flying swords, which lacked the sharpness needed to the cut open the strong armor.

No matter what, he was the first person in this world who had blocked Jing Jiu’s sword lights.

Jing Jiu found it was rather interesting. He took off the sunglasses and put it in his pocket.