Homeward Journey

The image cut out here. The screen flickered for several seconds, then returned.

Song Zhihan looked even more exhausted than before. Her hands rested on her knees, fingers tightly interlaced.

"I didn't cross over, because I couldn't answer that question."

Then she lifted her head, pulling a weary smile onto her lips.

"Three people came from your institute this time. When you go back, you'll probably write a thick report analyzing my cultivation data, energy characteristics, and depth of rules. Analyze whatever you like. What you analyze will all be facts, but they won't be the answer. The answer isn't in the data. It's in the question I couldn't answer."

The recording ended there.

Xu Wuyi leaned back in his chair and stared at the darkened screen for a long time. The question Song Zhihan had mentioned kept circling through his mind.

She had remained at the Divine Intent stage for centuries, cultivating herself to the level of a quasi-Celestial Being, just one step away from becoming a Celestial Being. Yet she could not cross that threshold, because she had no answer.

He rose and walked to the window. Outside, Azure's main city had already entered the dead of night. The streetlights had grown much sparser, and most of the buildings' windows were dark.

Only the searchlights around that distant statue remained on, bathing it in snowy white.

He was thinking about what his own answer was.

He had not practiced martial arts for any grand ideal, either. He had never possessed those lofty convictions—protecting the Federation, safeguarding human civilization, resisting the Star Beast Race.

He had never thought that way, at least not in the beginning. He had simply wanted to train, to grow stronger, to see how far he could go.

But was that reason really enough? Enough