Night Raid

It was late at night.

Yun Jingheng lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

It was not insomnia. The thought in his mind had simply grown stronger and stronger: he wanted to see the sky of this world—not with his eyes, but through a telescope.

With an astronomical telescope precise enough, he wanted to see what the stars of this world truly looked like.

Was the universe of Douluo Continent the same as Earth's universe?

Did it have galaxies? Nebulae? Black holes?

Was the spatial rift that had swept him in still there?

He turned over, then turned over again.

In his Sea of Spirit, Xiao Jiu was getting annoyed by all his tossing.

"Are you going to sleep or not?" Yun Jingheng did not answer.

He sat up and glanced out the window.

The Moon was huge, and the moonlight was bright.

A bold decision suddenly formed in his heart.

It was only while getting dressed that Xiao Jiu realized.

"You're going out?"

Yun Jingheng nodded.

Xiao Jiu froze for a moment. "Where?"

"The Soul Guidance Teaching Building."

Yun Jingheng pushed open his door and left Sea God Island.

His footsteps were light, so light they were nearly soundless.

Moonlight spilled over Sea God Lake, casting a faint silver glow across its surface.

He crossed the stone path by the lake, passed the training grounds, and reached the stone bridge connecting the Inner Court and the Outer Court.

The moment his foot landed on the bridge, two pairs of eyes opened at the same time in the direction of Sea God Pavilion behind him.

Ya Li woke from her sleep and rolled over groggily.

"Ming..." She nudged the person beside her, but the space was empty.

She froze for a moment and opened her eyes.

Yun Ming was already standing beside the bed, getting dressed.

His movements were quick but quiet, making not the slightest sound.

"What is it?" Ya Li was not fully awake yet.

"Jing Heng went out." Yun Ming's voice was calm.

Ya Li blanked out for a moment, then woke up completely.

She sat up and looked at Yun Ming.

"Where to?"

"I don't know." Yun Ming fastened his belt and headed for the door.

Ya Li hurriedly got out of bed, grabbed her clothes, and pulled them on.

"Wait for me."

By the time the two of them left, Yun Jingheng had already reached the Outer Court.

Under the moonlight, the small figure moved quickly and with a clear destination: the Soul Guidance Teaching Building.

Yun Ming and Ya Li followed from a great distance away.

With their strength, there was no way that nine-year-old child could discover them.

As she walked, Ya Li spoke softly.

"What is he planning to do?"

Yun Ming said nothing and simply followed.

Yun Jingheng stood before the Soul Guidance Teaching Building.

The building was tall and dark. Moonlight shone upon its windows, reflecting a cold, icy gleam.

He walked to the entrance and examined the lock.

A Soul Guidance lock. It required a specific Soul Power frequency to open.

He studied it for a while, pulled two metal wires from his clothes, inserted them into the keyhole, and fiddled with them a few times.

The lock did not open. He fiddled with it a few more times. It still did not open.

He stared at the lock for three seconds, then raised his foot and kicked it.

With a bang, the door flew open.

The door had not been locked at all.

Yun Jingheng stood there, looking at the door he had kicked open, silent for a while.

Then he walked inside with a blank expression.

In the shadows, Yun Ming's mouth twitched.

Ya Li covered her mouth, her shoulders shaking.

The teaching building was very dark.

Moonlight shone in through the windows, casting latticed shadows across the floor.

The hallway was long, with classrooms lining both sides. Signs hung on the doors: Basic Theory Room, Circuit Engraving Room, Core Assembly Room, Finished Product Testing Room.

Yun Jingheng went from room to room, pushing open each door for a glance before closing it and moving on.

When he reached the end of the hallway, he stopped.

Before him stood a pair of large iron doors, with a bronze plaque hanging above them—Equipment Storage.

He pushed the doors open and walked inside.

Then he stopped in the doorway, stunned.

The storeroom was enormous, far larger than he had imagined.

The shelves were packed with all kinds of parts. Some he had never seen before, some he had seen in books, and others he had only encountered in blueprints.

He walked over, picked up a core, examined it, and put it down.

He picked up another, examined it, and put that one down too. Then he began searching through the shelves.

He searched carefully, leaving no shelf untouched.

Anything he thought might be useful was selected and piled off to one side.

Level-one through level-six Soul Guidance cores, conductive wires, metal frames, focusing lenses, precision dials... The pile grew larger and larger until it formed a small mountain.

He looked at the little mountain, then at his pockets.

After thinking for a moment, he dragged over a crate from nearby and began placing the items into it one by one.

Halfway through, he stopped.

At the deepest part of the storeroom, against the wall, stood something.

A mecha.

Not the large kind, but a scrapped training mecha used for teaching.

It stood over three meters tall, with a gray-white metal shell and intricate transmission mechanisms exposed at its joints.

It stood there like a sleeping giant of steel.

Yun Jingheng walked over and looked up at it.

Then he climbed onto it.

Stepping on its joints and gripping the edges of its shell, he climbed upward bit by bit.

When he reached its chest, he stopped.

There was a cover plate there, engraved with complex circuits.

He reached out and touched it, then forcefully pried it open. Behind the plate was the mecha's core.

That core was larger than any core he had ever seen. It was entirely silver-white, with a faint glow of Soul Power flowing across its surface.

Yun Jingheng stared at it for a long time.

Then he jumped down, moved a little farther away, and looked up at the core.

After thinking for a moment, the Moonlight Sword condensed in his hand.

In the shadows, Yun Ming's brow twitched, and Ya Li was stunned as well.

Yun Jingheng raised his hand and slashed his sword at the mecha's chest.

Clang— Sparks flew everywhere, but the core did not budge.

He slashed again.

Clang— It still did not budge.

Crescent Slash, Flash, one strike.

Another Flash, another strike.

Sword light flickered through the dark storeroom, silver-white Moonlight illuminating the entire room.

In the shadows, Yun Ming's expression was complicated.

Watching his son swing a sword and wildly hack at a training mecha, he suddenly felt something indescribable.

Beside him, Ya Li whispered, "What does he want that core for?"

Yun Ming shook his head. "I don't know."

Yun Jingheng did not know how many times he had slashed before the cover plate on the mecha's chest finally cracked open.

He sheathed his sword, reached out, and tore the entire cover plate away.

The core was exposed, completely exposed.

He reached for it, but he still could not reach it.

He jumped up, clung to the edge of the mecha's chest, and hung there while reaching for the core with his other hand.

His fingertips touched the edge of the core. He pulled with all his strength, but it did not move at all.

Hanging from the mecha, he took a breath.

Then he let go and landed on the ground.

He looked up at the core and fell silent for a while.

Then he took a deep breath and lit up his second soul ring.

The radiance of Moonlight Protection spread from beneath his feet, but it was not aimed at himself. It was aimed at the core.

The pulling force rose upward, dragging the core out.

The core loosened slightly, and he pushed the pulling force to its limit.

Crack— The core popped out of the chest cavity and landed in his hands.

It was heavy, much heavier than he had expected. Hugging the core, he sat on the floor and panted heavily.

In the shadows, Yun Ming fell silent.

He watched his son sitting on the floor with a mecha core larger than his head in his arms, wearing an extremely satisfied expression.

He suddenly recalled the night he had gone to the Star Dou Great Forest. He had also been alone, and he had also returned carrying something.

Ya Li looked at him and suddenly smiled. "A true inheritance from you."

Yun Ming curled his lip.

Yun Jingheng put the core into the crate and searched through the storeroom again.

He selected a few more items and stuffed them into the crate as well.

The crate was packed full, its lid nearly impossible to close. Carrying it to the doorway, he suddenly stopped.

He stared at a small object above the doorframe for a long time.

It was a Soul Guidance camera, well hidden and embedded in the wall. No one would notice it without looking closely, but he had seen it.

He set down the crate and stared at the camera for a while.

Then he turned around and headed back along the hallway. At the corner on the first floor, he pushed open a door—the Monitoring Room.

Several screens inside displayed images from different corners of the teaching building.

One of the screens showed the entrance to Equipment Storage, where he had been standing moments earlier.

Yun Jingheng stared at that screen and fell silent for three seconds.

Then he raised his hand and thrust his sword forward.

The sword light pierced precisely through the screen and struck the core behind it.

The screen flickered and went black. One after another, the other screens went black as well.

All monitoring throughout the Soul Guidance Teaching Building had been completely disabled.

He sheathed his sword, left the Monitoring Room, returned to the entrance of Equipment Storage, picked up the crate, and strode outside.

At the entrance, he looked back once.

The door he had kicked open was still ajar. Moonlight streamed in, dragging a long shadow of light across the floor. He withdrew his gaze and left.

In the shadows, Yun Ming and Ya Li stood there, watching the little figure disappear into the moonlight.

Ya Li said softly, "What does he want those things for?"

Yun Ming was silent for a moment. "How would I know?"

He paused. "But it probably isn't anything bad."

Ya Li looked at him. "Do you think when someone discovers tomorrow that the surveillance is down and things have been stolen, they'll report it?"

Yun Ming: "..."

Yun Jingheng carried the crate back to his room and placed the items on the table one by one.

The core, conductive wires, metal frame, focusing lenses, precision dials... Looking at these things, a design had already begun taking shape in his mind.

The telescope tube would be assembled from the metal frame. The focal length needed calculating. The core would drive the automatic tracking system, and the dial would be used for positioning.

The telescope he had used at the observatory in his previous life had an aperture of 1.2 meters, a focal length of ten meters, and weighed over ten tons.

He could not possibly make one that large now, but making a smaller one that could clearly see the Moon's surface should be enough.

He picked up a pen and began drawing the blueprint.

In the Sea of Spirit, Xiao Jiu asked,

"You're not sleeping tonight?"

Yun Jingheng shook his head. "No. At my age, I'm full of energy. How could I sleep?"

He drew the first line on the blueprint.