Air Disaster and Rebirth

The sky in June was cloudless, and a Boeing 747 was flying steadily over the Pacific Ocean.

Lin Yun sat by the window, gazing at the rolling sea of clouds outside, but his mood was not as bright as the weather. He had just finished a six-month academic exchange in Europe and was currently on a flight back to the United Kingdom. At twenty-five, he was a graduate student in the university's physics department, majoring in theoretical physics, with an almost obsessive passion for space structure theory.

"Lin Yun, still thinking about your thesis?"

His classmate in the adjacent seat, Wang Hao, handed over a bottle of water, interrupting Lin Yun's train of thought.

Lin Yun took the water bottle and gave a bitter smile: "My advisor says my theoretical model for space folding is too bold and lacks experimental evidence. But I feel that if space can truly be folded, then interstellar travel is no longer just a dream."

"Give it a rest, you're becoming obsessed with this theory." Wang Hao shook his head and rolled his eyes, "If you ask me, you'd be better off just finishing your graduation thesis and finding a job at a research institute; that would be better than anything else."

Lin Yun did not refute him, merely casting his gaze back toward the window.

Since childhood, he had been unusually fascinated by the starry sky, a feeling that was hard to describe—it was as if he did not belong to this world, and the depths of the starry sky were his true home. This thought was so absurd that even he found it ridiculous, yet it refused to fade away.

A faint warmth emanated from his chest.

Lin Yun subconsciously touched the Small Bronze Tripod hanging around his neck. This tripod was only the size of a thumb, covered in mottled verdigris, with some unrecognizable ancient patterns carved onto its surface. According to his grandfather, this was an heirloom passed down through the Lin family. No one remembered how many generations it had been passed down; they only knew that the eldest son of every generation had to wear it close to his body.

"You still haven't thrown away this piece of junk?" Wang Hao glanced at it and said disdainfully, "What era is this? You still believe in such things."

Lin Yun just smiled and offered no explanation.

He had once asked a professor from the archaeology department to appraise it, but even that professor could not tell which dynasty the artifact belonged to.

From that day on, Lin Yun knew that this Small Bronze Tripod was not simple.

But he never expected that in the next few hours, this tripod would completely change his destiny.

The incident occurred at 3:17 PM.

Lin Yun was flipping through a copy of A Brief History of Time by Hawking when the fuselage suddenly shuddered violently. The overhead luggage compartment popped open, and a suitcase tumbled out; Wang Hao reacted quickly, blocking it with his arm.

"What's going on?" Wang Hao rubbed his bruised arm and looked around.

The lights in the cabin began to flicker, and the flight attendant's slightly hurried voice came over the intercom: "Dear passengers, the plane has encountered severe turbulence. Please fasten your seatbelts and do not walk around—"

Before the words could finish, a deafening roar erupted from the right side of the fuselage.

Lin Yun looked through the window and saw thick smoke billowing from the right engine, with orange flames dancing wildly in the airflow. Immediately after, the plane began to tilt violently, and the screams of passengers echoed throughout the cabin.

"Engine fire! Engine fire!" someone screamed hysterically.

Oxygen masks dropped from above. Lin Yun scrambled to grab a mask and pressed it to his face. His brain was surprisingly calm at that moment—perhaps the rational thinking cultivated by his physics training was at work. He quickly analyzed the current situation: flight altitude of about ten thousand meters, both right engines failed, the plane was plummeting rapidly, and the probability of survival was almost zero.

"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" Wang Hao's face was pale, his whole body trembling.

Lin Yun held his hand, wanting to say something comforting, but his throat felt blocked, unable to make a sound.

He thought of his grandfather, the unfinished thesis, and that crazy theory about space folding.

The plane was falling rapidly, the clouds outside the window flashed past, and the blue sea surface grew closer and closer. Lin Yun closed his eyes, waiting for the final impact.

At this very moment, the Small Bronze Tripod on his chest suddenly erupted with a dazzling green light!

The light pierced through Lin Yun's clothes, through the seat, and even through the disintegrating fuselage. The entire cabin was shrouded in this mysterious light, and time seemed to freeze at that moment.

Lin Yun felt a massive suction force coming from his chest, as if his soul were being dragged out of his body by an invisible hand. He looked down and saw his body leaning powerlessly against the seat, his eyes already closed, while another "him" was turning into a Streamer, being sucked into the thumb-sized Small Bronze Tripod.

Is this what death feels like?

No pain, no fear, only a strange sense of peace.

The tripod spun in the air, the verdigris on its surface peeling away in flakes, revealing the deep, starry bronze color beneath. Those ancient patterns began to flow as if they had come to life, forming a Space Array of extreme complexity.

Then, a crack split open in the void.

On the other side of the crack was the endless starry sky, the vast universe, a world Lin Yun had only seen in his dreams.

The tripod carried Lin Yun's soul and plunged into that crack.

When Lin Yun regained consciousness, he experienced an unprecedented and strange sensation.

He felt as if he were floating in a warm void, surrounded by boundless darkness, yet dotted with countless starlight. He wanted to open his eyes, only to find he had no eyes to open; he wanted to speak, only to find he had no mouth to speak with.

He was merely a cluster of consciousness, a soul trapped within the tripod.

Time lost its meaning in this space. He did not know how much time had passed—perhaps days, perhaps tens of thousands of years—but Lin Yun gradually perceived changes in his surroundings. The tripod was traversing a space structure he could not comprehend, one whose complexity far exceeded any theoretical model he had proposed on Earth.

Space was like a sheet of paper folded countless times, each fold an independent universe. The tripod shuttled between these folds, moving at a speed that even light could not reach.

Finally, after a violent jolt, the tripod stopped.

Lin Yun's Soul Perception extended outward, and he "saw" a brilliant starry sky—it was the true starry sky, not the blurry points of light seen through the atmosphere on Earth, but a magnificent scroll composed of countless stars, nebulae, and galaxies.

Then, the tripod began to descend.

It passed through the atmosphere, through the clouds, and over the ruins of cities. Lin Yun looked down at the land below, feeling an inexplicable shock—those were ruined modern cities, with broken skyscrapers standing like tombstones on the earth, streets overgrown with weeds, and occasionally, he could see some giant creatures moving among the ruins.

Where is this?

Earth? Or another world?

The tripod finally landed over an oriental city. This city was more dilapidated than any city Lin Yun had ever seen, yet one could vaguely discern its former prosperity. The city walls were tall and thick, and there were many pedestrians walking inside, dressed in a style reminiscent of the early 21st century, yet with some differences.

The tripod turned into a Streamer and submerged into a low-lying residential house.

Lin Yun's consciousness followed, and he perceived a warm space—a woman's womb.

He was about to be reincarnated.

This process was filled with wondrous experiences, starting from the fission of a single cell, to the formation of organs, and finally the gradual awakening of consciousness. Lin Yun could feel the heartbeat of his mother, hear the sounds of the outside world, and even perceive the flow of energy in this world—a strange energy he had never sensed on Earth, permeating the heavens and the earth.

Ten months of pregnancy, one moment of birth.

When Lin Yun opened his eyes for the first time and saw this world, he couldn't help but want to wail.

Dilapidated residential buildings, yellowed calendars on the walls, scrap metal piled in the corners, and the ruined skyscrapers in the distance outside the window—as all of this came into view, a strange sense of familiarity surged from the depths of Lin Yun's subconscious, as if he had seen it somewhere before. But he was just a newborn infant, his brain unable to process such complex information, and that sense of familiarity vanished in an instant, overwhelmed by instinctive needs—hunger, warmth, and sleep.

"Why isn't this child crying?" an elderly voice rang out.

Lin Yun was picked up by a pair of rough hands; it was an old man in his sixties, his face covered in wrinkles and his hair streaked with gray, yet his eyes shone with love and resilience.

"Cry, child, it will be better once you cry." The old man gently patted Lin Yun's back.

Only then did Lin Yun realize he was still dazed, and he quickly opened his mouth to let out a loud, wailing cry. The cry was resonant, drawing the attention of the neighbors next door.

"Old Man Lin, is your grandson hungry? Why don't you bring him over to my place? Luo Feng just finished nursing, I can feed him a bit more," a woman carrying a child of her own walked out from next door.

"Xinlan, I'm troubling you again. This little guy is such a glutton; the milk we bought just a few days ago is already gone," the old man laughed until his mouth couldn't close, though his eyes brimmed with tears.

From the adults' conversation, Lin Yun gradually pieced together his own background: his surname was Lin, his grandfather was Lin Guodong, and his father had originally been an ordinary worker who had unfortunately perished in a Monster attack on the city not long ago. His mother, overcome with grief, had passed away shortly after giving birth to him. He was a posthumous child and the only hope for this broken family.

The place where they lived was a block of Low-rent Housing in Yangzhou City, Jiangnan Base.

There was a boy in the neighbor's house, two months older than him, named Luo Feng.

When Lin Yun first heard this name, his soul trembled.

Luo Feng—the protagonist of Swallowed Star, the future Universe Master, the strongest human!

And he had actually become Luo Feng's neighbor and childhood friend!

As the days passed, Lin Yun grew up slowly under his grandfather's care. He retained all the memories of his past life and knew that the Small Cauldron should appear again at the right time. He waited patiently while silently observing this world.

He could even feel a special energy permeating the air of this world—Gene Energy. Warriors strengthened themselves by cultivating and absorbing this energy, while Spiritual Masters manipulated this energy through Spiritual Energy. Because of the unique nature of his soul, his perception of Spiritual Energy far exceeded that of ordinary people.

But the Small Cauldron remained silent.

Lin Yun was not in a hurry. He knew the timing was not yet right.

He played with Luo Feng every day. Luo Feng was two months older than him, but they were about the same height. Luo Feng had a calm and precocious personality, possessing a tenacity that belied his age. Because Lin Yun retained the memories of his past life, his speech and conduct also revealed a sense of maturity, and the two children quickly became inseparable best friends.

"Lin Yun, what do you want to do when you grow up?" At the age of five, the two of them lay on the rooftop, looking at the towering city walls outside and the shattered world beyond them, and Luo Feng couldn't help but ask.

Lin Yun thought for a moment and said earnestly, "Become strong, strong enough to protect everyone I want to protect."

Luo Feng looked up, a flash of surprise crossing his dark, bright eyes, and then he smiled: "Me too."

The two children looked at each other, both seeing a determination that transcended their age in the other's eyes.

As the sun set, two small figures lay on the rooftop, their long shadows stretching out behind them.