On the Road

Standing atop the Golden Platform, feeling the immense power of the Tang Kingdom, Li Qi sighed as he used his train ticket through the terminal.

This thing isn't likely to be fake, because everything is verified by the terminal.

Shen Shuibi was also visiting for the first time, and she looked around at the scenery of Golden Platform.

"Wow, that's amazing... It's far superior to the Sun and Moon Flowing Light Gate of Mount Luofu," she murmured.

Li Qi could only see the surface of this thing, but she could see something much deeper.

There are similar Law Treasure in Mount Luofu, but they do not carry out the task of transporting ordinary people. One must visit them in person and leave a gift before the Sun and Moon Flowing Light Gate will agree to transport someone.

But in Chang'an, everyone can use the Golden Platform, and the price is even low. If the destination is not far, ordinary people can also travel to places outside the region.

Of course, Douxiu Six is too far away, as it is already on the edge of the Tang Kingdom's territory. The wild world group they want to go to is even further away, and ordinary people would not go there.

It's similar to traveling from Xi'an to Madagascar specifically to see its primitive culture.

Shen Shuibi stood beside Li Qi, watching him go through the various confirmation procedures.

He seemed to take it for granted that he should help pay off his debts and those of Mount Luofu, as if it were never a burden to him.

He was clearly the one with a bright future. As the young master of Wushen Mountain, he didn't need to shoulder any burdens. Wushen Mountain would clear obstacles for his growth, expecting them to become the new Great Shaman. All he had to do was keep climbing.

Thinking of this, Shen Shuibi leaned slightly to the side, tilted her head and rested it on his shoulder, watching him swipe back and forth on the terminal.

"What's wrong? Can't wait? Don't panic, we're verifying it." Li Qi smiled at the head that suddenly leaned in, then sped up.

"Mm." Shen Shuibi nodded and stood up straight again.

On Li Qi's side, after completing the operation, he reconfirmed the target.

The Douxiu Six.

A wild world located in the southern celestial region, specifically in the Douxiu Six area.

Safe, pollution-free, and full of pristine charm, this recently popular tourist destination is very close to some truly wild world.

There are still more than ten days until the start of the Imperial Academy, which should be more than enough time to make a trip to check it out.

"Alright, let's go." Li Qi checked all the formalities and then tapped the confirmation button.

Beneath the Golden Platform, a flash of light appeared.

Then, the Golden Platform in front of Li Qi and Shen Shuibi suddenly changed!

But then, the Milky Way stretched across the sky!

As if someone had stirred up the Milky Way, a beam of starlight fell from the sky.

The Milky Way is silent; the sky is vast, the clouds have dispersed, and the crashing waves have subsided.

The Milky Way hangs upside down, and my heart and eyes are blurred, making me feel as if I'm ascending to heaven.

A Milky Way hangs down, and on the vast waves, an unmanned raft slowly sails by.

The Milky Way is like light and water, with the vast starry sky pressing down beneath the boat.

Upon seeing this, Shen Shuibi sighed and recited, "The Milky Way is visible but unreachable. I wish I could ride a raft to inquire about its course, and even take the Weaver Girl's loom stone to visit the fortune teller in Chengdu... So, Golden Platform is actually the dock of the Star Raft. I see, I see."

Upon hearing her words, Li Qi suddenly realized what she meant.

He had also heard this legend.

The * Jingchu Times Record * records. "The Emperor sent Zhang Qian on a mission to find the source of the Yellow River. He traveled by raft for a month and arrived at a place where he saw a city and a prefecture. Inside the house, he saw a woman weaving and a man leading an ox to drink from the river. Zhang Qian asked, 'Where is this star?' The reply was, 'You can ask Yan Junping.' The Weaver Girl took the loom stone and gave it to Zhang Qian before returning." Only then did he realize that he had arrived at the stars of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl.

The envoy Zhang Qian, following the orders of the Emperor, rode Star Raft to find the source of the Milky Way and eventually found the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd.

But that was a very ancient thing. The Milky Way has long been explored, and places many times farther Milky Way can be easily reached, but it seems that the Star Raft has been preserved.

Golden Platform is the dock of Star Raft.

I will be riding Star Raft, sailing across the Milky Way, and finally arriving at my destination.

"That's really romantic," Li Qi exclaimed.

Then, he stepped onto the Star Raft first, and then extended his hand to Shen Shuibi, and said with a smile, "A message to the traveler who rides the raft across the vast sea: come back here and ask about the Milky Way. Would you like to take advantage of this autumn wind and ride the raft to the heavens with me?"

Seeing this, Shen Shuibi covered her mouth and chuckled, "Fireflies flit across the mandarin duck loom, a lone goose flies by the magpie bridge. How can I refuse your invitation, young master?"

The two held hands and boarded the Star Raft.

The Golden Platform shone brilliantly, its brilliance dazzling the eye.

The city walls of Chang'an stand tall in the sky, as I step into the long river of night.

However, to others, it was just an inconspicuous streak of light leaping into the Milky Way.

The Star Raft Chariot is extremely fast; it is said that it can reach Douxiu Six in just half Chen.

Li Qi felt that the speed of light was a joke in front of this thing.

Even so, crossing such a huge distance would require an immeasurable amount of time, perhaps hundreds of millions of years.

This was somewhat beyond Li Qi's expectations.

Therefore, Li Qi made use of his strengths.

That is to ask.

He decisively asked Shen Shuibi, who knew more, "This is too fast. How is it done? If it's really moving at this speed, the entire universe could be reached in the blink of an eye, right? Then why are there still places where it's difficult to march?"

It's not shameful to ask questions if you don't understand.

Upon hearing this question, Shen Shuibi pondered for a moment and replied, "Well, although I don't understand the specific principles, I've heard that being able to travel like this actually requires consuming the power of a first-rank expert."

Next, Shen Shuibi began to explain the principle.

To travel outside the realm, one must take advantage of the fact that the Heavenly Dao's suppression is not strong there.

Travelers can improve and reset the Heavenly Way Limit by modifying the Dao principles. The more they can modify and the longer they can do so, the faster they will be in the outer realms. However, modifying the Dao principles for a long time is actually very energy-consuming, so maintaining a speed of one or two hundred times the Heavenly Way Limit is already quite remarkable if they are moving forward normally.

Therefore, Li Qi's idea is correct. Even if one can break through the Heavenly Way Limit, the speed is still limited. For a place like the outer realms, which are almost endless, it would take hundreds of millions of years to cross the Milky Way.

This situation is extremely unfavorable for developing outside the domain, since a trip there would take anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of millions of years, which is simply too long.

Therefore, in order to solve this problem, the powerful beings of the highest rank created a corresponding world in which mass is an imaginary number and the square of mass is a negative number. Here, speed can easily reach unimaginable levels.

Shen Shuibi said, "You can imagine that... we have come to another world with different rules. Here, the natural speed of matter exceeds the Heavenly Way Limit. Moving around here, you can quickly reach any place in the known realm."

"However, such boundaries are limited. The star map you saw in Golden Platform was a section of these rapidly accessible boundaries. These rapidly accessible areas only account for a small part of the entire outer world. There are still a lot of wild worlds outside the outer world that have been explored but not yet developed."

Li Qi was stunned.

It wasn't the size of the outer region that surprised me, but rather Shen Shuibi's words:

Mass is an imaginary number, the square of mass is a negative number...

Tachyon? Fast Universe?

Holy crap, these guys have handcrafted a Fast Universe?! Have they created a faster-than-light travel mechanism?

"Won't this... cause confusion about cause and effect?" Li Qi asked.

If one exceeds the Heavenly Way Limit, then cause and effect chaos will occur, causing the outcome of an event to appear before its cause, and the causal chain to be completely disrupted.

"Therefore, it is necessary to modify the Dao principles. In reality, no one has surpassed the Heavenly Way Limit. We have only raised the Heavenly Way Limit. No one has ever broken through the limits. It's just that the position of the limits has changed," Shen Shuibi explained.

"I see," Li Qi exclaimed in admiration.

That is indeed a solution.

Shen Shuibi continued, "However, establishing such a symmetrical world must not be easy for those of the highest rank. Therefore, only certain beings can open the door to that world. For example, Mount Luofu has the Sun and Moon Flowing Light Gate, and Chang'an has the Golden Platform. Without such a thing, one can only travel slowly."

"How did they get a spot for this?" Li Qi asked curiously.

If only a few beings can obtain the key to enter the Fast Universe, how are these slots allocated?

"I don't know, I have no way of knowing about it." Shen Shui shook her head, indicating that she didn't know either.

"Since that's the case, how about this?" Li Qi became interested and took out a piece of paper to show Shen Shuibi: "Look, to get from point A to point B on the paper, it takes ten centimeters. But if we fold the paper up and make points A and B overlap, you see, we can arrive instantly."

Li Qi demonstrated the basic layout of space travel.

"If the sorcerers and sages can create a Fast Universe and then overlap it with the real universe, is it possible to bend the distance between two points to achieve the effect of instantaneous teleportation?" Li Qi asked.

Shen Shuibi looked at it, pondered for a while, and said, "It's a pretty good idea, but... it's a bit impractical. Look, Li Qi, you can draw the distance between two points on the paper and then fold it because the paper only has two directions."

"You folded it from a third direction, but there is no third direction on this paper. In other words, your folding action occurred outside of this paper."

Then, she started gesturing too.

"So, if you want to fold our current space, which has three directions, you need to fold it from the fourth direction."

Li Qi, of course, understood what she meant.

To fold the two-dimensional world, you must start with the three-dimensional world.

To fold a three-dimensional world, one must start with four dimensions.

"But look, if we can fold our current space from a fourth direction, it means that this person has already 'transcended'. He has already broken away from our current space. From his perspective, we have one less direction, so he can knead it at will, just like we knead this piece of paper. We can return to the state of this piece of paper, reverse the cause and effect on the paper, and turn the time on the paper upside down. Everything that happens on the paper happens simultaneously to us. Their time is just one direction for us."

"What need is there for such a being to pay attention to our world?"

Shen Shuibi tilted her head and asked.

"Even the top-ranking officials can't do that?" Li Qi asked.

"How would I know about the First Rank..." Shen Shuibi sighed.

Li Qi suddenly came to his senses.

Even for Shen Shuibi, those beings were unimaginable.

Let alone the first rank, even the fourth rank is already difficult to reach.

"Yes, even you don't know." Li Qi raised his head, looking at the flowing light around him and the Star Raft beneath his feet.

Then he said, "However, I... want to go and see."

Shen Shuibi leaned against him without saying a word.

However, Li Qi understood what she meant.

That's what it means to be on the same path.

The bond between companions on the Dao Path is stronger than any other relationship.

The two stopped speaking and leaned against each other on the Star Raft, watching the Milky Way flow by.

The Milky Way flows freely, and the wind rustles through the sky.

The Milky Way is hazy, and the stars are like fireflies.

The moon's shadow trembled, hazy and indistinct.

It is truly in the heavens, yet appears to be in the water.

This golden color lasted for a little over half Chen.

As the surrounding starlight gradually became more concrete.

The two of them stood up, only to see the surrounding light gradually fade away. Then, the Star Raft disappeared naturally, and the two of them stood together.

Beneath my feet lies the familiar Golden Platform.

But this Golden Platform is much smaller in scale; the one in Chang'an is a thousand feet high and incredibly wide.

The Golden Platform here is only thirty feet high, and its area is less than half the size of Chang'an.

There were several guards and some other tourists nearby.

It's natural to have other tourists; as a newly launched tourist destination, it's impossible for only two people to come and visit.

The guards were not living people, but rather Golden Armored Divine Generals crafted using Artificer Mechanism Arts. They looked imposing, but lacked intelligence and were probably only used for routine patrols. There were other people in charge here as well.

"We're here. Let's go outside and take a look." Li Qi pulled Shen Shuibi along and led the way outside.

As soon as I stepped out of Golden Platform, I saw outside...

Uh... there's not much difference between outside and Chang'an.

Did we go to the wrong place?

It wasn't as bustling as Chang'an, but the decor and street layout were exactly the same.

There weren't that many people, and there were still a lot of tour guides using loudspeakers to direct passersby, but everything you needed was there.

Beverage shops, hotels, and even fast food chains can all use the terminals normally.

"Uh... I should have guessed... This place is a tourist attraction." Li Qi covered his forehead.

Tourist attractions all over the world are the same...

How could they possibly just throw tourists into a primeval forest?

Clearly, this is a genuine scenic area.

We're here for the scenery, not to suffer.

Shen Shuibi pointed to the sky. "Hmm, it's alright. Look at the sky here. The Four Symbols are still there, but the scattered stars around are different, which means we are indeed in Douxiu Six."

Li Qi looked up at the sky and found that it was indeed so.

So Li Qi said, "In that case, let's leave the scenic area and head straight to the Wild World. We have Tang Kingdom tickets, a terminal, and Great Shaman token. There shouldn't be many people in the Wild World who would dare to mess with us."

"Let's take a look at the situation in this world, and then go to other world groups outside the realm to investigate what to do."

After changing the update time, my subscriptions dropped drastically, plummeting by 30%. I'll try reverting to the midnight update time today as a comparative experiment to see if the issue is due to the change in update time.