On the 142nd-floor Observation Deck of the Sea Sky Cloud Capital, Ronan stood at the edge of the battlefield where he had once clashed with Snake Language and the others. From there, he gazed at North Shore Gear in the distance.
It was late autumn in October, with a high sky and thin clouds. He needed no telescope to see it clearly. In the Wetland Jungle north of Zhiyuan Academy, North Shore Gear stood amid winding river water, marshland, and small lakes, all bathed in sunlight. Even the birds soaring above the trees and the wind passing through them, stirring the branches, seemed to turn into gears of every shape, meshing across heaven and earth, still and yet in motion.
Surrounded or driven by those other "gears," the one real gear-shaped building seemed to roll along the riverbank. Or perhaps it had borrowed the gleam of the water beside it to gaze silently back at Ronan.
Ronan seemed to fall into a dream. If he reached out, he could touch his mother's warm cheek.
He did reach out, but his hand swept through empty air.
Ronan jolted awake and drew back his hand. He opened and closed it twice without thinking, finally shaking off the illusion.
I need to be more rational than I thought.
Ronan looked around. Seeing that he was still in the material world of Inner Earth, he gave a self-mocking smile and resumed studying North Shore Gear over the railing, which stood nearly as tall as a person. He watched how the building fitted into its natural surroundings.
It was the weekend, and foot traffic in Yundu Shuiyi had risen. Plenty of people were on the Sea Sky Cloud Capital's Observation Deck.
Because of what a certain someone had done here, the 142nd-floor Observation Deck had