Ji Feihua asked, "Did she die?"
The old man said, "She could absorb other people's knowledge in a very short time and control their minds. The captain devised a trap for her, intending to eliminate her, but he never imagined she would seize control of most of the crew and attempt to take over the entire spacecraft. With no other choice left, the captain had to crash the ship."
Ji Feihua nodded. What happened next was what the murals in Dragon Spirit Wonderland depicted.
The old man said, "That disaster cost us our team's leader. The remaining nine of us escaped and scattered in different directions. Under our laws, we could not risk repairing the spacecraft, nor could we return home and expose its coordinates. At first, things were relatively peaceful, and everyone abided by our principles. But later, perhaps because our surroundings changed us, our dispositions gradually began to shift. Some grew fearful and uneasy, some suspicious and fickle, and others despondent and hopeless." His tone was utterly calm as he recounted the past, yet Ji Feihua found it harrowing. Though he had never witnessed it himself, he could still imagine the peril they had faced.
The old man said, "The seven who managed to escape had intended to rescue the captain. But shortly after their escape, word came that the emperor of Great Kang had ordered the captain and navigator brutally executed. Though their technology and civilization far surpassed those of this age, their strength was limited, after all, and the laws they had always followed would not permit them to act that way."
Ji Feihua silently wondered about this. The old man kept speaking of the laws they followed, yet if they had truly obeyed those laws, perhaps so many things would never have happened, nor would