Sulun's nights were long and deathly silent. The planet rotated at an abnormally slow speed, resulting in days and nights that each lasted sixty hours. After a dizzying round of discussions and deliberations, Hao Ren went alone to the square in front of the temple. He sat down beside the enormous trident weapons and stared into the murky, gloomy night sky, lost in thought. The only things accompanying him were the lonely wind and occasional flames flickering in the distant ruins. On this completely devastated planet, he gained an even deeper understanding of the appalling destruction a war could bring.
He had seen Io after its ecosystem was reshaped, wandering planets after their life had withered away, and Tanagrus after it had endured the apocalypse. Yet the Firstborn's ecological extermination campaigns were nothing compared to the state of this planet. The rebels had destroyed this place with precision, completely and without mercy. Every inch of land had been scorched, every body of water either evaporated or heavily polluted, and the crust had been torn apart. The planet itself had nearly split in two. Standing amid such ruins, anyone could feel nothing but boundless desolation and loneliness. Hao Ren turned to look at the magnificent black temple and the enormous structures surrounding it. From their towering silhouettes, one could still glimpse the glory and splendor of this place in the past. Before Sulun was destroyed, what a mysterious and magnificent holy land must have stood beneath the stars of this world? But now, everything had vanished without a trace. Only flames, ruins, and billowing smoke drifting over from afar remained beneath the starlight.
Yet Hao Ren still felt lucky. He had found this place before the last clue disappeared, and whatever had caused the distortions in space-time around Sulun, he ought