Welcome to Yaxche, the Planet Where Problem-Solving Dragons Reign Supreme
On the third day after leaving the Herta Space Station, Chasing the Moon got stuck in a "quagmire".
At that moment, Jingxing was leaning back in the control chair, holding a few photos that Robin had sent through someone in Thousand Stars City. Just as his fingertips touched the edge of the photographic paper, the entire ship suddenly plummeted downwards.
Without any warning or gravitational storm, it was as if an invisible hand reached out from the void, grabbed the spaceship across deep space, and slowly pulled it downwards.
The green lights on the control panel flashed one by one into a jumble of red codes. The engine noise rose by half a degree, then suddenly went sluggish, as if it had choked on water.
The star map radar showed a completely white screen, with neither black holes nor massive celestial bodies. Jingxing pulled the manual control lever to its limit with one hand, and just as he tried to raise the bow of the ship slightly, the force was easily pushed back down.
"Fine, you're forcing me to agree, huh?" Jingxing released the lever and casually stuffed the photo into his inner pocket. "Then let's see where you plan to lead it."
Passing through a sea of leaden-gray clouds, Chasing the Moon steadily sank into a white wasteland.
A dry, cool breeze blew out as the cabin door slid open. Jingxing stepped down the gangway, squatted down, and grabbed a handful—not snow, but finely ground white sand that crumbled into powder with a flick of his fingers.
Five minutes later, Jingxing had tried everything inside and outside the spaceship.
Engine, warp drive, interplanetary communication—all locked down. The terminal screen was completely blank; not a single bar of signal could be detected.
Jingxing clenched his fingertips, and the Imaginary Energy rose up along the veins, obediently. He casually made a stroke, and a neat gap appeared in the sand beside the cabin door.
At the very least, safety should be guaranteed.
Just as Jingxing raised his hand to increase the intensity of the experiment, his entire forearm inexplicably shivered.
Instinct told him that if he used too much Imaginary Energy here, the reaction force would punish him.
Jingxing composed himself, hooked a fist-sized hard rock out of the sand with his toe, and lightly slashed it across with his hand.
The stone snapped cleanly in two.
Almost at the same instant the stone surface separated, his right palm felt as if it had been struck hard by a red-hot bamboo ruler, the pain drilling straight from the fascia into the bone. Jingxing looked down at his palm; the skin and flesh were intact, without even a red mark, but the throbbing pain remained firmly in his metacarpal bone.
"That's really unreasonable." He shook his sore and numb hands.
When Jingxing had circled the spaceship for the fourth time, a group of men in white robes arrived.
Their long white linen robes trailed to their ankles, the cuffs embroidered with silver thread in precise geometric arcs of the golden ratio. They walked slowly, their strides measured as if by a ruler, finally forming an arc about ten paces away from him.
"Mr. Visitor from Outer Space." The leader pulled back his hood, revealing a middle-aged man with a dull expression. "Jingxing, the roster has been entered."
"Holy crap, a box?" Jingxing's eyes widened. The last person this brave was Yaoguang. But there was no trace of Path Energy on this group of people.
"Vaksya's roster automatically records every variable that falls." The other person pulled a hardcover booklet from their wide sleeve, opened it, and handed it to him.
The names and dates of the drop were neatly recorded above, and the last column, which was blank except for two or three scattered lines at the very top marked "Pass" in red ink.
"What does this mean?" Jingxing asked.
The white-robed man said blankly, "Within Vaksya's territory, unproven machinery cannot operate. There's only one procedure to follow if you want to leave."
What's the process?
"Enroll, earn credits, and pass the graduation test sent down by Vaksya." The man in white raised his hand and pointed to the horizon.
Jingxing followed the direction of the gaze.
Through the gaps in the dispersed clouds stood a tree so large it defied categorization. Its trunk stretched across most of the horizon, and its silvery-white branches pierced directly into outer space.
"This is Yaxche, the nursery of 'Erudition'." The man in white closed the register. "The World Tree bestows challenges, and those who seek knowledge respond with solutions. A passing grade is all it takes to graduate and leave."
Jingxing stared at him for a few seconds. "I'm not going to take the exam anyway."
The man in white robes said expressionlessly, "Daily necessities will be provided according to basic standards. Please cooperate."
After much deliberation, Jingxing followed them to the Academy. From the outside, it looked like a cluster of pale, square buildings.
The corridors were straight, the windows were all the same width, and even the shrubs in the courtyard had been trimmed into flawless cubes. Students in white and gray robes walked by, each carrying a heavy hardcover book, without even glancing at each other.
Jingxing followed behind and tentatively asked, "Here... can art majors be transferred for academic credits? Like painting?"
If I could, I should be able to beat the game easily, right?
The white-robed man leading the way stopped, turned to look at him, and stared at him as if he were some kind of unrecyclable trash. "Art?"
"The artist," Jingxing gestured.
"Can you hand-draw an error-free topological manifold graph, or can you analyze Riemannian geometry freehand?"
"Never mind, I didn't ask."
"Unquantifiable emotional redundancy is worthless here." The man in the white robe pushed open the door to a single dormitory room. "But rest assured, textbooks, food, lodging, and study rooms are provided free of charge around the clock."
After the door closed, the room was so quiet that only the faint hum of the air circulation system could be heard.
A hardboard bed, a square table, and a stack of thick, hardcover books neatly piled on the bookshelf. On top was "Basic Number Theory," and below it were "Introduction to Celestial Mechanics" and "Foundations of Formal Logic."
Jingxing sat on the edge of the bed, took out his terminal, and glanced at it. The signal in the middle of the screen had shrunk to gray.
He placed the terminal face down on the table, lay back on the hard bed, and rubbed his temples.
"Ten days..." He stared at the bare ceiling and muttered under his breath, "I told Luofu I'd be there in ten days before I left. If I can't get out of here in a week, she'll be worried about me."
According to these old scholars' calculations, ten days would be enough for him to finish the preface of the first book.
"Puff--"
A light, airy laugh leaked down from above, like someone sitting on a roof beam watching a spectacle.
When Jingxing opened his eyes again, he was already standing in a familiar, illusory stardust.
Xuzhao sat cross-legged on the sofa, holding a steaming cup of coffee, his eyes crinkling with laughter. "I told you to stay away from Luofu a long time ago, but you wouldn't listen. Now look what happened, you took a shortcut and ended up in a dead end, didn't you?"
"Did you drag me into this godforsaken place?" Jingxing stood below, looking up at her.
"I don't have the leisure for that." Xuzhao blew on the steam from his coffee, his smile full of smug satisfaction. "Vaksya is the core of this outer realm called 'Yaxche,' and also a branch extending from the Imaginary Tree. You've probably heard of the Imaginary Tree theory, right? It's that powerful stuff."
"But since you were able to get in, it shouldn't be difficult for you to help me get out, right?"
"That's so boring!" Xuzhao raised an eyebrow. "Who told you not to listen to advice? Just stay here and go back to your student days and learn to Problem-Solving Dragon."