In Zeno Year 3137, starlight still shone quietly at the farthest edge of the Connection Sea. Several years had passed since Zhao Tiexin taught the first straight punch to the eighth generation of junior trainees at the Turtle Hermit House Dojo, and the youngest child could now lead the morning runs. The dojo on Universe 6's Saiyan homeworld had opened its third branch last year; the ninth generation of New Planet Namek's combat lineage had completed its first cross-universe patrol; and the first locally born Turtle Hermit School disciples in Universe 12 had graduated from the new dojo, three of whom had been selected for the New Turtle Hermit patrol reserve. Talos and Lazuli still lived in the old seaside house on Mount Paozu. The thatched roof had been replaced several times, but the reef before the door—and the footprints stamped into it by generations of Turtle Hermit School disciples—had never changed.
That year, Talos no longer went to the dojo every day. His hair had turned completely white, and his back was no longer straight, but every morning, he still sat on the reef for a while, opening his senses fully and confirming the presence of every subnode one by one, just as he had when patrolling the Connection Sea in his youth. On the main node of the Star Topology at Lonely One's new dojo in Universe 12, the heartbeat pulse remained as steady as a stellar core. The Guides' pillar of light still burned, brighter than before, its reach extending beyond the twelve universes into more distant, unknown voids. The Nage People's question-and-answer mechanisms had all been opened. The newest civilizations connected to the public database came from a starfield no detector had ever marked. Their first cross-universe message, written in the common language they had only