The Path Toward Heaven

The Yinhai Nebula was very vast. The deeper the battleship traveled into it, the denser the dusty objects became and the blurrier the distant starry sky appeared; it was almost impossible to see what lay ahead.

The warped passage in such an environment of the space could hardly stay stable. For the sake of safety, the human spaceships wouldn’t enter it unless it was an emergency, and they usually flew at a reduced speed.

In other words, the flying routes of the spaceships, when they traveled in the nebula, could be easily calculated and as a result be attacked with ease.

Fortunately, this area was close to the most crowded section in the Federation of the Milky Way, and the space pirates were basically wiped out in the area; so it was rather safe to travel here. Moreover, the Scorching-Sun Battleship was the latest model in the Federation, who would dare to attack it?

As the trip dragged on and the scenery stayed the same, one would feel a bit bored.

Jing Jiu remained silent more often now. Zong Lizi didn’t know that he was prepared for the ensuing battle and thought that he felt depressed because of the boredom; so she asked if he would like to go to the gaming compartment gingerly.

“I don’t want to play games,” said Jing Jiu. “I’m doing the mathematical equations.”

As Zong Lizi recalled that Jing Jiu often looked at the wall-like floor-to-ceiling window and the distant glowing dusts in the night sky outside the window when he lived in the apartment in the underground, she suddenly felt ill at ease.

Her life had changed so much in such a short period of time. Now she was on her way to the Main Planet, which was like a dream for her.

All of these started with this youth in a blue tracksuit.

“I don’t want to ask who you are and what background you have, but I’d like to know…” Zong Lizi said while staring into Jing Jiu’s eyes, “why you have chosen me.”

Jing Jiu thought that if he told her the reason, he would have to tell her about the worry he had regarding the nuclear bombs and the weapons with fairy energy at the time and that the TV screen in her apartment happened to play the news regarding the issue.

The female priest of the Stargate had asked him the same question the other night, and his answer was that he didn’t care about it.

It was true that God had no need to worry about this sort of things.

Had Zong Lizi’s traits, be it her talent or even her appearance, been worse than what she had now, t would not have influenced his decision.

He would still have cured her illness and helped her cultivate, attend the University of Stargate and eventually become a female priest.

However, he had another reason in addition to the ones above.

As far as this world was concerned, he was a guest.

No matter if he admitted it or not, it was an unbearable thing to live alone in a strange place.

The loneliness was especially insufferable.

He wrote the novel in an attempt to promote it to the entire galaxy after it was changed into a game by the Twirling Rain Company. In addition to the feeling of insecurity, it was mostly the spiritual need for him to do it. Even though he might not need them, he was still more inclined to find those ascendants from Chaotian, especially those he knew, like the Immortal Tan, Cao Yuan and Jian Xilai. Among them, the Snow Girl was his favorite, of course.

Zong Lizi was the first person he knew in this world in a true sense, which was his first karma.

If this world was an endless sea of stars, she was an anchor in it.

It was enormously important for his spiritual need.

…

…

Zong Lizi waited for a long time but didn’t get his answer.

Yet, she noticed that his face covered in the hoodie grew brighter under the starlight, his handsome eyes and brows looking more amiable now.

She understood how important she was to him, narrowing her eyes in delight.

As she sat on the incline chair and was about to get closer to him physically and emotionally, a dreadful alarm burst out on the battleship.

It didn’t take long before the door of the room was pushed open rudely.

Ran Handong walked in, her expression grave.

She was followed by Jiang Yuxia, Hua Xi, and a few main preachers, all of whom displayed a somewhat troubled expression on their faces.

“Get out…”

Before Zong Lizi could finish the sentence, Ran Handong walked past her and arrived before the incline chair. She said to Jing Jiu rapidly, “Two battleships have appeared up ahead, and they refused to communicate with us. No military marks are found on the ships, and the preparation of the weapon system is done. Our battleship has already received their digital frequency.”

Having received the digital frequency meant that the Scorching-Sun Battleship was locked by the weapons on the other battleships, and they would launch an attack at any moment.

Jing Jiu got up and came before the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the space outside it.

Ran Handong followed him to the window and said, “The distance between us and them is one million and three hundred thousand kilometers. It’s difficult to slow down and change the course to evade their attack; and…it’s the entrance to the passage.”

Jing Jiu didn’t give a response while looking at the space outside the window.

It was impossible for someone with the fairy sword vision to see the scene one million kilometers away, yet he seemed to have seen the two battleships with no names.

The alarm on the Scorching-Sun Battleship changed tune. The slightly chaotic footsteps could be heard in the distance, followed by the sounds of heavy machinery and buzzing noise of the EM machines.

In a short time, the battleship had deployed the protective shield of the highest level, which looked like a glowing drill-head against the dark space.

Jing Jiu held his hands behind his back, the ring on his finger casting a faint glow.

Recalling the scene she saw in the storage cabin of the central area the other day, Ran Handong asked in a low voice, “Did you know this ahead of time?”

Jing Jiu didn’t heed her.

Ran Handong drew closer to Jing Jiu and demanded between her gritted teeth, “Since you knew this beforehand, why didn’t you inform us?”

Jing Jiu said, “This is my problem; I’ll solve it myself.”

“How are you going to solve it? By using the right of authority I gave you? Or by using those nuclear bombs you meddled with?”

Ran Handong couldn’t stand it anymore and yelled at him like a mad woman, “This is the space! Nuclear bombs can do nothing here!”

The nuclear bombs could cause damage in five ways: shock waves, the light radiation, the penetrating radiation, the radioactive pollution, and the EM pulse.

If they exploded on the ground, they could cause tremendous and destructive damage. But in a space with no atmosphere, the power of the nuclear bombs would be mitigated, and the damages of the light radiation, the radioactive pollution and the EM pulse would have no effect on the people on the battleship.

For the battleships that could pass through the warped black holes, the explosions of nuclear bombs several hundred kilometers away wouldn’t cause any damage to them, and they didn’t even have to deploy the shield of synthetic materials.

Jing Jiu was fully aware of all this. He still ignored her.

Ran Handong felt frustrated and said, “You shouldn’t do anything reckless if you don’t know anything about it. You could throw out those bombs if you intended to blast the monsters of the Sea of Dark Matter, but there is no point in doing so against the battleships.”

All of a sudden, the alarm ceased on the battleship.

The group in the room was speechless while eyeing one another, wondering what had just happened; was it the case that the two battleships were not hostile and it was a mistake to regard them as the enemy?

It was then that Ran Handong heard the sound in her bracelet and asked Jing Jiu, “What have you done?”

“Too noisy,” exclaimed Jing Jiu.

Zong Lizi guessed what he meant by saying that; she instinctively screamed in surprise, but covered her mouth with her hands hastily.

In the next moment, more and more surprised screams broke out in various places on the battleship.

The officers and soldiers on the battleship found that their operating counters were all controlled by the computer, even the right of authority of the captain was temporarily denied.

The slowing Scorching-Sun Battleship resumed traveling at the normal speed after shaking slightly.

With a slightly changed expression, Ran Handong rushed to the window and looked at the outside of the battleship, an incredulous expression showing on her face.

She saw more than ten nuclear bombs, giving off a cold and gloomy sensation against the dim nebula.

All of a sudden, those nuclear bombs emitted few desolate blue lights, and the propelling devices spewed out flames that were evidently different from before as they traveled forward at a higher speed.

Soon after, more nuclear bombs left the battleship and traveled toward the dark space while emitting flames.

He had indeed modified the propelling devices of the nuclear bombs.

“It’s no use,” said Ran Handong after she turned around and stared into his eyes. “Even though you have changed the speed of the missiles, you sill can’t change the size of the universe.”

Traveling sixty thousand kilometers per hour or six hundred thousand kilometers per hour was meaningless when it came to a fight between battleships.

The officers and soldiers of the battleship had also discovered it. They all rushed to the windows on the both sides to observe it nervously and in bewilderment.

Thousands of nuclear bombs left the battleship and traveled forward like a patch of metal rain; but they were on the brink of being swallowed by the darkness.

It was a remarkable scene; but it was useless!

It was then that a voice rang out on the battleship.

“The little friends on the Scorching-Sun Battleship have no need to feel worried. This is merely a test.”

The officer and soldiers on the Scorching-Sun Battleship, including the captain, looked in the direction of the voice, wondering if the speaker had connected communication with them.

The voice was calm and amiable. A middle-aged professor wearing glasses seemed to appear in front of everybody.

The battleships on both sides could in no way communicate with each other; it was because Jing Jiu had disconnected it.

The reason they could hear that person’s speech was because Jing Jiu wished to listen to what he would say, though he didn’t like to hear nonsense. “Hurry up,” he urged.

The voice said with a smiling tone, “Isn’t it annoying? I don’t like it either. Fortunately, it’s the last time.”

“Yes, it’s indeed the last time,” returned Jing Jiu.