Determined to Explore the Sea of Stars

“All supernatural power in the world has vanished; a century of life is the mortal limit.” “Yet mankind’s eternal pursuit of the Dao remains unchanged.” “By studying, dissecting, and harnessing the laws of nature, even mortals can unleash world-shaking power.” ... In the blank expanse before Sun Erlang's eyes, a sphere suddenly appeared. The sphere rotated, and countless black specks representing humanity moved constantly across it at incredible speed. At first, the structures on the ground were only a zhang or so tall, but with the rapid passage of time, more and more towering skyscrapers rose from the earth. Before long, aircraft even appeared among the clouds. As Sun Erlang wove the world conceived in his mind, he recalled the teachings his master had imparted. “The plight of the Xuanhuang Realm is, in essence, identical to that of these worlds devoid of supernatural power. Ancient tomes often say the immortal dao is eternal. Perhaps that is not false.” “The so-called ‘immortals’ are those who exhaust the principles of the Dao and apply it to the absolute limit. Standing on the far shore beyond all living beings, on equal footing with the Dao, they look down upon the common herd, deathless and indestructible.” “Yet what if the Dao itself undergoes a change?” “The Dao remains the Dao. But those beings who cannot adapt to the changed Dao will inevitably head toward extinction.” “Unable to harmonize with the Dao, immortals are no longer worthy of being called immortals. They fall.” “From among the myriad mortals, new ‘wielders of the Dao’ will always arise. The power they command will only grow stronger and stronger.” “To become new ‘immortals.’” ... At that time, the Faceless Sacred Emperor’s words had been exceedingly profound and abstruse. Not only Sun Erlang, but none of the Sacred Emperor’s other personal disciples could comprehend the truth within them. Now, however, with the aid of the Fruit of Truth, having the privilege of tasting what it was like to be a creator, Sun Erlang looked at the world he had created before him, and a sudden realization dawned in his heart. Within that spherical world, through countless years of natural evolution, a race that conformed to the Dao of his created world would inevitably be born. They could discover the ultimate secrets of the world that other living beings could not perceive, thereby becoming this world's so-called "Dao-wielding" beings. Boom! Sun Erlang’s vision traversed the distance at extreme speed, descending upon the sphere he had forged. Inside an ordinary building, a young scholar sat beneath a lamp, frowning in deep contemplation. The blackboard before him was covered with complex formulas and diagrams. “No, no, no...” “Where on earth did it go wrong? Why is there such a massive discrepancy between my calculations and the actual trajectory?” “It’s as though some force is binding us, keeping us from ever leaving this planet.” The scholar tugged at his hair in anguish, then abruptly looked up and gazed out the window. Through the pitch-black night, his eyes seemed to meet Sun Erlang’s directly. ... Sun Erlang’s vision blurred, and the scene shattered with a crash. When he came to his senses, he was startled to find that several spacecraft on the sphere were already attempting to fly beyond the “boundaries of the world.” Yet beyond the world, Sun Erlang had not created anything; it was still an utter void. Naturally, they could not succeed. Sun Erlang’s thoughts whirled rapidly as he began carving out new territory. The white space gradually dimmed into darkness. In the starry sky, besides that original planet, tens of thousands of other celestial bodies began to emerge. The map expanded over a hundred thousandfold in an instant, and Sun Erlang’s Dao Transformation Stone suddenly struggled to bear the strain. To lighten the workload, Sun Erlang set nearly all of these planets to be barren, lifeless expanses shrouded in utter stillness. Moreover, to prevent the denizens of the primordial planet from expanding too quickly, he set vast distances between each planet— so vast that without the power of longevity, even exhausting nearly an entire mortal lifetime, one could never achieve the crossing between planets. ... Exerting every ounce of his strength, Sun Erlang barely managed to salvage the world that had been teetering on the verge of collapse. Yet soon, before he could refine and expand his vision of the sea of stars, the world fell into peril once more. After investigating, Sun Erlang suddenly understood: the denizens had actually begun to doubt the reality of their world. This was not only because they were unable to fly out of their world, but also because they observed countless planets in the sea of stars that had never been detected before. These planets seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, shattering their established knowledge. “One cannot crudely impose rules; rather, the manifestations of all things must be rooted in the fundamental principles of the world.” This phrase suddenly surfaced in Sun Erlang’s mind. He quickly made the corresponding adjustments. Next, in yet another persistent attempt by the natives, a spacecraft actually succeeded in breaking free of the planet’s gravitational bond and entered the sea of stars. The humans aboard the craft were astonished to discover a blue ring encircling their planet. It was precisely the existence of this ring that had interfered with their outward observations from within the planet and thwarted their previous attempts to break out into space. This was a monumental discovery of epoch-making proportions! Having survived life-and-death crises, the spacecraft finally returned to the surface, making the discovery known to all. Once the planet’s scholars incorporated the planetary ring as a variable into their calculations, theory and reality finally reached a temporary alignment. The people cheered, welcoming the dawn of a new era, while regarding the crew of the first spacecraft to reach space as heroes. With this successful experience, the long-suppressed natives experienced a massive surge in their pace of development. Fortunately, by this time Sun Erlang had largely finished depicting the desolate panorama of the sea of stars. Furthermore, thanks to the vastness of the created star sea, time and space temporarily kept these inhabitants at bay. Yet Sun Erlang knew this was merely an expedient measure. Someday, they would detect the anomalies within this sea of stars. “If I don’t want them to find out, I must continue expanding this sea of stars.” “And the speed of expansion must outstrip the pace of these little beings’ exploration.” His macroscopic perspective zoomed out tens of thousands of times once more. Endless nebulae and galaxies were born out of the darkness. The Dao Transformation Stone was being pushed to its very limit. “As the saying goes, pull one hair and the whole body moves. Every object in the sea of stars is interconnected.” “It is not simply a matter of tacking them on afterward; one must also account for the influence their presence exerts on the original planet.” “...” After some thought, sensing that the Dao Transformation Stone was in imminent danger of collapsing, Sun Erlang hardened his heart and crudely relied on the sheer expanse of space to minimize these influences. “By the time these little beings realize something is amiss, it should be a very long time from now.” The natives continued to advance by leaps and bounds. Studying the planetary ring, they invented retrograde craft capable of harnessing the ring’s binding force in reverse. Like a slingshot, it hurled the spacecraft outward at tremendous speed. Though there was no turning back, it vastly accelerated their exploration of the sea of stars. “Isn’t this too fast?” Dumbfounded, Sun Erlang watched as the first retrograde craft continuously accelerated using the planetary rings of passing celestial bodies, heading straight for the fringes of the sea of stars. “This won't do...” Sun Erlang pondered for a moment, then guided a meteor, altering its trajectory to hurtle violently toward the retrograde craft. To his surprise, the crew aboard the craft pulled off an evasive maneuver at the absolute limit, dodging it. Sun Erlang’s vision shifted, and the scene inside the retrograde craft appeared before him. “Sir, thank goodness for you! Otherwise, not even our bones would be left of us!” A solemn, long-bearded, middle-aged man did not relax his expression. “That piece of space rock came rather strangely. The starry sky is so vast, yet it happened to cross paths with us...” “Stay on high alert! Do not let down your guard!” ... Hearing the little being’s words, Sun Erlang felt a flush of embarrassment. He truly had been too clumsy about it. Yet in an instant, he thought of a remedy. Sun Erlang lightly pointed a finger at the planet closest to the retrograde craft. Shortly afterward, the planet disintegrated with a tremendous roar. It shattered into tens of thousands of fragments, raining down upon the retrograde craft like a torrential downpour. Luck might strike once, but never twice. Against such a dense shower of debris, precisely guided no less, there was naturally no way the retrograde craft could survive. In the collisions, it erupted into a ball of fire, disappearing forever into the sea of stars. However, a single disaster could not suppress the natives’ curiosity about the sea of stars in the slightest. Subsequently, ever larger and more advanced retrograde craft launched from the original planet in succession, embarking on expeditions in every direction. Though he sorely wished to destroy all these craft again using the old method, Sun Erlang knew that his previous intervention had already shaken the rules of this creation game. If he continued to intervene so directly, this world would only collapse even faster. Thus, Sun Erlang had to devise another method. Looking at the countless spacecraft slinging off the planetary ring, an idea soon struck him. With a thought, the planetary ring around the primordial world underwent a quiet, imperceptible shift. By the time the little natives realized something was wrong, a year had already passed. Record-breaking extreme weather swept the planet far and wide. Cold snaps and droughts raged across the lands. Crop yields plummeted, and even the natives’ birth rates began a slight decline. Sensing that something was amiss, the little people gathered the planet’s foremost scholars to investigate the causes of these catastrophes. In the end, they arrived at a conclusion: Although the planetary ring bound them and prevented them from venturing into the sea of stars, it was also a protective umbrella, insulating the planet from the harsh environments of the cosmos. In recent years, the excessive exploitation of the ring’s repulsive force had caused a minute contraction in the ring. Even if this degradation was negligible for the ring itself, the planet’s fragile ecosystem simply could not withstand the resulting consequences. After heated debates, the little natives ultimately chose to temporarily shelve their plans to explore the sea of stars. The retrograde craft were mothballed from that point onward. “I can hold out a bit longer now.” Sun Erlang could not help but breathe a sigh of relief. “I wonder how much time has passed in the real world outside.” Gazing at the galaxy he had shaped with his own hands, his expression grew somewhat dazed. Time flew by. In the blink of an eye, another century passed on the primordial planet. Starting from the third decade, vessels began approaching the ring one after another to collect samples for study. By the fifth decade, through the tireless efforts of all the little people, they finally discovered a way to mend the damage to the planetary ring. Sun Erlang watched with his own eyes as these little beings reproduced the power of the planetary ring inside a laboratory. His mind shook, and thousands of thoughts surged in his head. “The power of the planetary ring originates from the fundamental laws of the world I created.” “Yet these little people are also the manifestations of this world’s laws. As parts of the world themselves, they are capable of investigating its underlying essence...” “Because it truly exists, it can be studied and harnessed.” ... The changes on the primordial planet continued. After repeated experiments confirmed the effectiveness of repairing the planetary ring, the long-restrained people could no longer hold themselves back. An unprecedented golden age of exploration arrived. Countless retrograde craft departed from the primordial planet once again, venturing forth to explore the endless sea of stars. In the seventh decade, the little people invented a method of long-distance voyages using only a ring-powered engine without relying on the planetary ring’s slingshot force. From then on, the natives officially achieved two-way travel in their exploration of the sea of stars. From the eighth decade to the hundredth year, the little people ushered in a new era of interstellar colonization and expansion. By this point, Sun Erlang knew that it was only a matter of time before his world of falsehoods was exposed. Watching the countless little beings still willing to make sacrifices for this pursuit, Sun Erlang felt an inexplicable emotion stir within him. He no longer tried to expand the boundaries of the sea of stars, choosing instead to watch silently as the footprints of these little people reached toward the edge of the world. Five hundred years later. When a peculiarly shaped retrograde craft finally arrived at the edge of the sea of stars, the world before Sun Erlang violently shook. Boom! Like exploding stars, it erupted in brilliant radiance, then vanished. Yet Sun Erlang did not return to the real world. Before him remained an expanse of white. “Hmm?” Surprised, Sun Erlang looked around, unsure what had happened. “Tell me, did you find anything amiss with the world just now?” A voice suddenly sounded from behind Sun Erlang. Sun Erlang’s heart skipped a beat, and he turned around immediately. There stood a Daoist with long eyebrows and white hair, holding a horsetail whisk, smiling as he sized him up. “This is...” Faintly guessing the person’s identity, Sun Erlang gathered his courage and tentatively said, “Greetings, Heavenly Venerable.” The Daoist did not reply, continuing to look at Sun Erlang with a smile. Sun Erlang pondered for a moment, reflecting on the civilization of the little people on the primordial planet. After a pause, he said with a start of realization, “There is indeed something off. The little people on that planet...” “...were too united.” “They never fought major wars or engaged in infighting. Even when the planet faced a crisis, they could always set aside their differences and join hands to resolve it.” “...” “Compared to the state of the Xuanhuang Realm today, it is truly rather unbelievable.” Sun Erlang shook his head. The Daoist nodded, then asked again, “That is one thing. What else?” “What else?” Sun Erlang frowned slightly. “The little people’s obsession with exploring the sea of stars was somewhat excessively deep.” “Even after enduring multiple obstacles and perils, they never gave up.” “Even the highest strata of the entire planet shared the very same conviction...” Sun Erlang looked at the Daoist. “In the real world, this might be unimaginable.”