Dongfang Qixing's blessing

When Jingxing stepped out of the tent, the sun was almost overhead, and the smell of lime from the factory area became even more pungent.

When Jingxing came to his senses, he realized that his right hand had been clenched into a pen-holding shape ever since he asked the question, and he didn't know how long he had been clenching it. Now his fingers were aching.

Back at the hotel, Jingxing pushed open the door and saw Fu Xuan hunched over the table writing.

He simply recounted his conversation with Louis Fleming, as well as his own conjecture—that the person from yesterday might be one aspect of the Aeon of Preservation.

"After you left, I secretly consulted a fortune teller," she said.

"What did you calculate?" Jingxing asked nervously. According to Fu Xuan's previous statement, divination should not be performed on the subject of Aeon.

"I originally wanted to find out who those two people were from yesterday," Fu Xuan said, "But my intuition told me I shouldn't do that, so I decided to give up."

"Then what did you calculate?" Jingxing, a little curious.

"I've calculated whether you'll achieve your goal on this trip." She tilted her head. "The answer is vague; it's probably only halfway there."

Fu Xuan paused for a moment. "So that's how it is?"

"More or less." Jingxing Xing sat down beside her with a wry smile. "Louis Fleming gave a vague answer to my guess, and as for Dongfang Qixing, he simply didn't answer."

"If he truly is His spokesperson, then I should be even more eager to help."

"Why?"

"After all, it was the Heaven-Mending Lord was once the mainstream faith in the Xianzhou." Fu Xuan grasped his hand. "After the Xianzhou Alliance's faith in the Yaoshi completely collapsed, it was the faith in the Heaven-Mending Lord's Restoration that maintained stability. Although we ultimately chose the Reignbow Arbiter as the mainstream faith, the Heaven-Mending Lord still deserves the respect of the Xianzhou native. Even if the Xianzhou Alliance didn't exist now, I would still do what Xianzhou native should do."

She reached out and turned the amber plaque on the table over so that the name was facing up.

"And," she said, "We want to stand firm in this era by doing enough; the more people who recognize us, the more solid our foundation becomes. Especially when it comes to their approval."

The spaceship that Dongfang Qixing was parked on a slope north of the quarry. He even ceremonially surrounded the spaceship with red light ropes.

The boat wasn't big, but it looked brand new, so new that it seemed somewhat out of place in Pier Point.

Dongfang Qixing stood by the ship, holding a scroll in his hand, his sleeves rolled up to his forearms, revealing a section of his thick wrist. When he saw Jingxing and Fu Xuan arrive, he didn't raise his hand, but only turned his head slightly towards the cabin door.

After taking a look around inside, Jingxing felt that this spaceship was even more advanced than his own Chasing the Moon.

"This place looks like it's been renovated. Did you do it?"

"Hmm." Dongfang Qixing nodded. "However, I've removed all the weapons from this spaceship—after all, you two probably don't need them. Instead, I've replaced them with more defensive equipment. Considering you're going to a place ravaged by the Swarm, these will be more useful to you."

"How long can it fly on a full tank of fuel?"

"That's enough for you to fly across the entire Pegana System," Dongfang Qixing shrugged. "Besides, this spaceship isn't picky about fuel. If you can get your hands on some insect corpses, refine them, throw them in, and it'll still fly."

Next, Dongfang Qixing led them into the cabin and pointed to the map nailed to the cabin wall. There were more than a dozen crosses drawn on it with a fine pen, each cross being very small and drawn in one stroke.

"This is the information I'm giving you," he said. "Don't go to the areas marked with an 'X' on the map; there's no one there anymore. The areas without 'X's are still under attack by the Zerg, and those are markets you can try to Trailblaze."

Then, as if by magic, Dongfang Qixing placed a roll of something on the table—it was the ship's registration slip, with the department field blank.

"I didn't fill this section in," he said. "You can write whatever you want."

After everything was handed over, Dongfang Qixing prepared to disembark, stopping at the cabin door. "I wish you all the best on your Trailblaze journey."

After watching Dongfang Qixing into the distance, Fu Xuan flattened out the Star Lane map, took out the cloth bag from her bosom, poured out a small handful of Amber Shards, and picked out the three smallest ones, gathering them in her palm. Having brought no copper coins, she seemed to be using these General Equivalents to perform divination.

"Let me do some divination," she said. "Where are the people still? Where is the most vulnerable? Where would be most beneficial for us?"

After speaking, Fu Xuan clasped his hands together.

Soon, she opened her hand, and three Amber Shards landed neatly on the map. They weren't scattered everywhere, but rather landed in a small circle on the east side.

Fu Xuan tapped the circled text with his fingernail: "Zeus Tehetra".

Jingxing leaned closer to take a look. Behind this small circle was a line of even smaller characters, probably in Dongfang Qixing's handwriting.

"Affected by the Swarm, the planet has lost its day-night cycle and is in grave danger." He read that line aloud.

"Let's go here," Jingxing decided decisively. "I'm curious what it means to lose the concept of day and night."

The ship departed Pier Point at dusk the following day.

Before coming here, the two were considered "unregistered" individuals. Now, they are carrying P47s and a full load of supplies, ready to set off for the planet that has lost its day and night.

As they lifted off the ground, Jingxing sat by the porthole in his study, watching the band of light on Qlipoth gradually shrink into a line, and then into a bright slit on the horizon.

"This single scene alone would cost 1.8 billion Credits to the company now," he said.

"So we've made 3.6 billion now," Fu Xuan retorted.

As we moved toward the area affected by the Swarm, the scenery on both sides of the Star Rail became increasingly desolate. For the first few days, we could still see planets with life, blue and yellow, which looked as small as sparks in a furnace when they passed by through the porthole; but later, there were no lit stars for the entire length of the journey, only a few half-eaten wreckages.

Fu Xuan compared the map with the navigation and added two more crosses.

Half a month later, the spaceship arrived at its designated destination, and a strange planet appeared outside the porthole.

One side was a dull gray, without even a trace of a mountain, as if someone had licked it with their tongue; the other half was still lit, but the lights formed a line stretching from the planet's North Pole to the South Pole. And beside the lights, there were layers of black.

That was Swarm wreaking havoc. They were relentlessly advancing the battlefront.

"How long can the people here hold out?" he asked.

"Without us..." Fu Xuan shook his head, "If we had been any later, we might have only been able to wipe out these Swarm for them as revenge."

"Luckily, we arrived in time." Jingxing no longer hesitated, his fingertips swirling with the transformed Path Energy. "Come on, it's time to warm up."