First Taste of Flight, Starry-Sky Fortress!

Azure Star was an azure-colored planet similar to Blue Star from Lin Yuan's previous life.

Its atmospheric composition and tectonic movements were highly similar to Blue Star's, though parameters such as its diameter differed.

Azure Star's diameter was roughly 100,000 kilometers, ten times that of Blue Star, while its volume was more than a thousand times greater!

This gave it an incomparably vast land area, of which human civilization controlled only a tenth or two.

More territory belonged to the Wilderness Zone. Some regions had harsh climates and unbearable environments unsuitable for human survival, yet they bred countless ferocious beasts.

The Astral Realm, meanwhile, was an independent space.

It lay in the gap between the real and illusory dimensions where Azure Star existed. After passing through layers of spatial rifts, it had accidentally fused with Azure Star's space.

This was the so-called "Astral Realm Invasion Incident"!

Every Minor Astral Realm possessed its own independent space and world laws, and its size rivaled Azure Star's.

The power of space was truly wondrous.

As the saying went, Mount Sumeru could fit within a mustard seed, while a mustard seed could contain Mount Sumeru.

Though the actual space inside a Minor Astral Realm was incomparably vast, comparable to the entirety of Azure Star,

its carrier on Azure Star could be infinitely small—a valley, a massive boulder, or even a grain of dust...

One flower, one world; one tree, one Bodhi.

Lin Yuan suddenly thought of that saying.

Wasn't it the perfect description of the Minor Astral Realm's unique spatial form?

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—"

Streaks of light shot through the sky at extreme speed, swift as meteors, leaving behind dazzling multicolored trails of flame.

A closer look revealed that they were not meteors at all, but tiny human figures.

They were Lin Yuan, the Goddess Luo Squad, and the rest of their group of eight!

At that moment, they stood atop all manner of splendid personal aircraft, their speed soaring to six hundred kilometers per hour as they raced toward the distance.

"This feeling..."

Standing on a black skateboard-shaped aircraft, Lin Yuan sped freely through the cloudless skies. The headwind was biting, yet it could not disperse the excitement and joy in his heart.

Azure Star's high-tech aircraft really were something. Traveling this way gave him a bit of the feeling of riding a sword through the air from the legends.

"The entrance to Minor Astral Realm No. 216 is roughly 12,000 li west of Azure River Satellite City..."

At that moment, a gentle girl's voice sounded in his ear—it was Gu Yiyi speaking to him through the call system of her Stellar Communicator.

At an altitude where they were traveling six hundred kilometers per hour, even if they were right beside each other, sound transmission was greatly limited. They had to rely on communicators to talk.

"12,000 li?"

Lin Yuan did a quick calculation.

Their average speed was six hundred kilometers per hour, which meant that if they traveled continuously without food or rest...

it would take roughly ten hours to reach the Minor Astral Realm.

Ten hours was already quite fast. Minor Astral Realm No. 216 was relatively close to Azure River Satellite City; many other Minor Astral Realms were farther away and took much longer to reach.

Fortunately, they were all genuine Starry-Sky Warriors with outstanding physical abilities. A mere ten hours of high-speed flight was easy enough for them to handle.

Lin Yuan looked up and saw that every other member of the Goddess Luo Squad maintained an elegant posture and calm expression.

They had clearly long grown accustomed to this kind of long-distance travel.

Their personal aircraft were also distinctive. Rather than traditional black skateboard models like Lin Yuan's, they came in all sorts of colors and styles.

One was shaped like a dreamy pink magic wand, leaving behind beautiful orange flames as it sped along...

Another resembled a fantastical purple magic carpet, upon which a voluptuous mature beauty sat serenely as though she were out for a stroll...

There was even a girl standing atop an icy blue lotus, her robes fluttering like a celestial maiden...

Good grief, they had really made their aircraft into something else.

Lin Yuan's mouth twitched.

If he wasn't mistaken, these all seemed to be special aircraft, with even the cheapest costing more than 50 Contribution Points...

Women really were easier to sell things to. The same aircraft, the same speed—just changing the exterior to make it look more dreamlike could multiply the price severalfold, even dozens of times!

So looks really came first, huh?

While grumbling inwardly, Lin Yuan lowered his head and glanced at the traditional black skateboard aircraft he had bought casually.

He had thought it was novel and cool at the time, but now it suddenly looked unpleasant no matter how he viewed it...

"I've fallen!"

Lin Yuan hurriedly shook his head, clearing away the faint desire for comparison that had surfaced in his mind.

"The Great Dao comes first, the Great Dao comes first..."

"How could I spend precious Contribution Points on enjoyment?"

"That nearly disrupted my Dao heart..."

After thoroughly brainwashing himself, Lin Yuan dared not look any longer and simply buried himself in the journey.

Finally, as the sky gradually darkened,

they crossed thousands of miles of territory and saw a towering black fortress slowly emerge at the far end of the horizon.

"Starry-Sky Fortress..."

"We're here."

The boundless wilderness stretched as far as the eye could see. A Starry-Sky Fortress as majestic as a mountain rose from the ground before them all.

The fortress's main body was cast from dark Starfall Gold. Its walls were dozens of zhang thick, their surfaces glittering with starlight and covered in countless flowing silver-blue stellar rune formations.

Three rings of defensive barriers encircled its exterior, filled with sentry posts, aircraft docking platforms, and warrior guard booths. Countless energy turrets of every size were arranged throughout, brazenly exposing their sharp edge to every enemy.

Heavy!

Grim!

Mighty!

Awe-inspiring!

This was a terrifying weapon created entirely for war. It had once slaughtered countless Star Beasts and was the pinnacle achievement of human civilization.

"This is the Starry-Sky Fortress."

Captain Gu looked at the magnificent gigantic structure before her, and a trace of reverence inevitably entered her voice.

"Every Minor Astral Realm breeds countless Star Beasts, and the spatial passages leading to Azure Star suffer Star Beast assaults all year round."

"In the early years, no one knew how many Star Beasts tore their way out through those passages and descended upon Azure Star's lands, bringing endless pain and suffering."

"Later, human civilization rose and regained its strength, so the Starry-Sky Fortresses were built to suppress the entrances of Minor Astral Realms."

"It was from that time onward that the scales of victory gradually shifted toward human civilization."

"The proud Star Beasts never again descended upon Azure Star's soil..."

"The Starry-Sky Fortress is humanity's first line of defense against Stellar Behemoths, and its most important barrier."

Listening to Captain Gu's slow introduction, Lin Yuan felt as though he could see the countless brutal battles of blood and fire from bygone years through the heavy fortress.

That was the road human civilization had traveled to reach this point.

"Pay it our respects."

After a long silence, he spoke in a serious, solemn tone.

"Pay it our respects."

Captain Gu smiled, nodded, and repeated his words.

Then she led them onward at high speed, heading straight for the Starry-Sky Fortress's landing platform.

"Minor Astral Realm No. 216 is within this Starry-Sky Fortress."

"Your path of training will begin here..."