Above The Sky

Chapter 2199: Chapter 5: EX Sky, Pioneer, and Pioneer Space (1w1)

Only, for that same colossal monstrosity created by Humans, that giant machine named civilization, even Artificial Humans without any parents, causality, family or descendants could be easily imprisoned by it.

Civilization. Civilization is a Cage; all life enjoys comfort because of it, and also because of it, always stops short and goes no further.

A civilization without Pioneers, even if it has "Guidance," will in the end contract back to its own domain and carry out stable rule, rather than open up outward, will it not?

"To lead an entire civilization into Exploration is indeed unfair to everyone. They finally manage to live a good life—why should so many resources be spent exploring the faraway, instead of everyone living happily and peacefully together?"

"So, if one wants to open up new frontiers, one must have freedom, must leave the Cage, leave one’s homeland, leave one’s warm home... If one wants to open up new frontiers, one must, to a certain extent, relinquish civilization and the collective; otherwise, it’s not only a matter of opening up, the difficulty will also become nearly unimaginable."

"Yes... I can understand that too... Perhaps, back then, the Silver Peak Sage stepped toward the far side of the Cradle with such feelings in his heart, and went alone into the distance."

Having finished his workout and breakfast, Aldo walked along the broad, empty streets of the Lunar City, raising his head to look past the virtual Firmament to the pitch-black cosmic vacuum beyond.

A silver star hung right in the center of the heavens.

That was the Star of Guidance, the star transformed out of the Silver Peak Sage’s eternal divine power after he left the Cradle—this star does not truly exist, yet it can link to infinite causality, allowing all who are willing to follow in his footsteps to tread, along its starlight, the road he once walked.

Gazing at this star, the black-haired youth could not help but stop in his tracks: "It’s said that in the first few years of the Federation, the Silver Peak Sage still had the strength to bless the Federation’s birth from afar, even to amend its laws... but afterward, messages from the Sage grew fewer and fewer."

"Is it because the Federation no longer follows his will? Or is it simply that he’s too busy and hasn’t had time to respond?"

"Just where is the Sage, the old gentleman... right now?"

"Is he Exploring stars in the distant beyond? Or is he still fighting against The End?"

"I really want to know..."

The youth’s eyes reflected the radiance of the star.

This was...

An instance of curiosity.

A question.

A mind turning toward inquiry.

A genuine longing.

Humans gaze straight into the Star Sea, and the Star Sea also gazes straight back at Humans.

So, where there is a question, there is "answer and Guidance."

That Path of the Dao named "Future"!

In that instant, Aldo saw—he saw a pair of watery, light-cyan eyes return from the endlessly distant other end of Space-Time and, from out of that profundity, cast a single glance toward him.

[Not a bad child—so, in the end, they still haven’t given up on making a "new me"? Just like Sio said; before she came to the Pioneer Space, she was already complaining that those officials always had thoughts they shouldn’t have... Well, it counts as a kind of Exploration too.]

Vaguely, the young Artificial Human heard this calm voice: [Using the entire Moon as a petri dish, using the difficulty of opening up and Immigrants as a pretext, all just to use my genetic material to manufacture Artificial Humans, to catalyze a Bloodline of my own, a Soul Spirit close to mine... Haha, they’ve got it wrong. Anyone can become a Pioneer; what matters most is the spirit. My Bloodline and Soul Spirit are instead the least important things.]

[No matter. I am about to depart for the "Grand Seal Region"; from this point on, it will indeed be very hard to keep watching over my homeland... So then, young one—]

[Before you become a "Pioneer," first try to become a "Prophet"!]

The Holy Spirit.

Silver light and the Holy Spirit descended from the star, pouring down into the youth’s Soul Spirit.

Endless light and shadow intertwined and glittered, countless ages sprouting and flowing forth in his heart.

Space-Time interlaced; the future flowed in reverse.

In that instant, he saw.

He saw the fires of war, strife, and destruction.

The Terra of now, and the Moon, still maintained peace and Tranquility, but this was only a surface appearance.

Ten years later, the conservatives would dominate all policy-making in the Terra Federation, but they would instead not continue the current "anti–cosmic Exploration" line. On the contrary, they would vigorously promote the construction of near-orbit Space Cities, because the space environment is indeed beneficial to the synthesis of large quantities of special alloys, and also makes it easier to harvest various natural Origin Qualities from the Terra Sun.

Another fifteen years later, the "Star Ring" would be completed; seven-layer Sky Ladder relics of the previous era’s civilization would have been restored to six layers, and although the seventh layer’s "Hyperspace Shuttle" already had finished models, at that time there would be no one capable of activating its operation—aside from the Apocalypse Armament on the Moon, which had already fallen into slumber with the sleep of the Duke of Steep Ridge.

By then, with the development of the New Continent, Magical Beasts that possessed Human forms through Path Mimicry along the Arcane Pathway would gradually fuse with Humans, and a large number of Path-mimicking Practitioners would actually not be fully suited to Terra’s environment. They would be the main force of space Immigrants, and by recasting the homeworld’s ecology in Space Cities, their clans and tribes would begin to recover at a rapid pace.

Another twenty years later, the Terra Space City Alliance would demand the status of a "special zone"—and many Colonial Cities around the Moon would also demand the Power of an "autonomous region."

Even the Colonial Cities around Jupiter, after enduring more than forty years of continual neglect and covert suppression, would gradually, through the True Dragon Technology they uncovered in the vicinity of Jupiter, bring about a wholly new form of life and a transformation in social structures.