Mysterious Desolate Star

Four heads, three large and one small, crowded in front of the gate at the same time. They poked their heads out to look at the scene beyond it, then stared blankly at one another in speechless confusion.

Even Luna looked a little bewildered.

Outside the gate lay an unfamiliar alien world. A thick, grayish atmosphere covered the sky, while towering, treacherous mountains rose in the distance. Heavy snow seemed to blanket the gray-black rocky peaks, yet the "snow" had an eerie dark-blue sheen. Deep in the valleys, low rumbles sounded from time to time. Hot springs erupted from beneath the cliffs, and the moisture-laden columns of vapor were laced with pungent poisonous smoke.

There were no plants or animals in sight. Only the heavy clouds in the distance occasionally revealed a huge shadow moving slowly within them. The scene brought to mind some gigantic atmospheric plankton drifting across a sea of clouds. Yet the next moment, the shadow quickly dispersed with the shifting mist. The wind blew without pause through the jagged boulders between the mountains, its sharp, hollow sound deeply unsettling.

No matter how they looked at it, this place did not resemble a fully developed, habitable planet. The environment was even several degrees harsher than the "bottom of the nest" on Grey Dwarf Star.

"...You've got to be kidding me. This is what those cultists call the 'Holy Land'?" Eileen's eyes widened, the barren and treacherous mountains reflected in her pale-blue eyes. "Seriously, are we doing extreme survival out here? The doctrines of those fanatics don't look like they're about asceticism..."

"Something's wrong." Yu Sheng furrowed his brow. "I don't know what their 'Holy Land' is supposed to look like, but there's no way a fully developed capital planet would be this primitive. Never mind that—I opened