The Path Toward Heaven

The sirens of the police vehicles could be heard vaguely on the distant streets in Capital City, but none of the police’s flying devices dared come close.

The remaining smoke came out from the gap of the building of the military headquarters. Once in awhile a broken piece of the alloy gate would fall down from above, causing some thuds and pebbles to jump up.

Hundreds of military mechas hovered in the air, looking like a dense flock of birds. The deep buzzing sound of their engines was similar to the sound of birds flapping their wings.

The barrels of guns and the weapons were all trained on Jing Jiu amid the thin smoke. No matter how the mechas moved, the aiming of their target had never been off; and the weapons could fire with a vengeance at any moment.

The few battleships outside the atmosphere had also locked on Jing Jiu, however, the most foreboding threat to him was the battleship on the ground, which was the building of the military headquarters.

The building of the military headquarters was severely damaged, but the weaponry system inside it was still operating properly.

The generating device of the gravitational field was ready to operate and segregate the area completely from the outside world.

When it was activated, the laser guns on the battleships were not needed, nor were the military mechas and the automatic weapon platforms. The nuclear bomb in the gravitational field would be enough to bombard and kill Jing Jiu at a close range. However, under the circumstances, Shen Yunmai would die with him.

No one was willing to pay such a price. The people only hoped that Jing Jiu would surrender.

Jing Jiu didn’t pay any attention to the mechas in the sky and that heavy weaponry that could pose a threat to him; he looked at this young lad in front of him quietly.

The few battleships in the space and countless soldiers of the Federation of the Milky Way were waiting for his response.

Jing Jiu was waiting for the response from his opponent.

Shen Yunmai coughed twice before saying, “I’ll release all of them. I won’t cause any trouble for you within sixty days.”

This was a genuine offer, without any hidden condition in words. Most importantly, he offered the term without any hesitation, as if he had had this idea from the very beginning.

But, the severely damaged building of the military headquarters had a different opinion on this.

Jing Jiu released his hands and turned to head toward the outside of the military headquarters.

The soldiers in armors parted a berth for Jing Jiu reflexively.

Ran Handong came up next to Jing Jiu undetected and handed a white damp towel to him.

Jing Jiu took the damp towel to clean off the blood on his hands. Even though he didn’t need it, he still felt quite satisfied with her performance.

Encountering such a turmoil, this female officer was rather calm except that her face was a bit pale; and she didn’t forget her duties.

Whether Gu Qing would ascend seemed to be unimportant anymore, he thought.

…

…

It was exceedingly quiet; the building of the military headquarters was as silent as a graveyard.

A great many gazes and hundreds of laser beams training on the man didn’t pull back until his figure disappeared after rounding the corner of the street and faced the rubble.

Shen Yunmai maintained the posture of raising both of his hands while sitting on the floor, looking like a surrendering soldier.

Nobody dared show a sliver of disrespect for him, and no one displayed any contempt toward him either.

As far as the military personnel of the Federation of the Milky Way, Shen Yunmai was like a true god to them. It was totally unexpected that he would have ended up sitting in the dust, which was a fact hard to accept.

The emotions the people had at the moment were more of bewilderment and anger.

They all knew Ran Handong, but who was that youth in the blue tracksuit?

Some of them recalled the scene they saw during the live broadcasting a few days ago.

Shen Yunmai stood up. For some reason, he still had his hands raised over his head.

What did he intend to achieve by doing this?

Some of them wondered if the young master intended to make use of his humiliation to incite their fighting spirit.

All of them stared at Shen Yunmai and waited for his command, waiting to launch an attack.

Time went by, and that person had already walked afar, but Shen Yunmai hadn’t uttered a sound yet.

The atmosphere in the building of the military headquarters grew rather depressed.

Shen Yunmai suddenly laughed.

His laughter echoed in the vast building of the military headquarters. Everybody could tell that this was neither a sneer nor an angry laugh; it was one of contentment.

Nobody was foolish enough to approach the young master and ask him why he laughed. A few secretarial officers hurried over, ready to check his injuries.

“Do you know why I’ve raised my hands over my head?” asked Shen Yunmai.

The officers could in no way come up with an answer, nor did they have the courage to make a guess.

“Idiots! It hurts!”

Looking at his bloody arm, Shen Yunmai added after a moment of silence, “Well, it’s a pretty good feeling though.”

…

…

Countless dark clouds rushed over in the sky, blocking the bright light of the permanent star and those battleships.

The huge battleship of the military headquarters had also disappeared behind the two of them.

No pedestrian could be found on the street, it looked like the discarded remains of a civilization rather than the capital of the Main Planet.

The windows on the buildings by the desolate street were all closed tightly. The gravitational waves could be sensed everywhere, indicating that the dangers awaiting them up ahead.

Jing Jiu halted his steps, took out a pair of glasses from nowhere and put them on carefully.

Seeing this, Ran Handong felt a bit puzzled, wondering if he intended to conceal his appearance at such a critical moment.

Lifting up his head and looking at a spot in the sky, Jing Jiu commented, “If I fought against one more battleship, would the effect be better?”

It was unclear how he found there was a battleship amid the dark clouds.

More importantly, what did he mean by saying that?

Ran Handong had finally figured out his intention, her face growing paler. “The government is exerting more pressure right now; please…be patient.”

…

…

She had actually guessed Jing Jiu’s intention correctly.

He could see the battleship behind the clouds clearly as well as the level mark of the battleship engine.

It had nothing to do with the sword vision but the pair of glasses with a silver frame on the bridge of his nose.

This pair of glasses became Jing Jiu’s after he killed the Immortal Chi Song. After some studying, he was certain that the glasses, like his finger ring, were a data terminal of some sort.

This data terminal could connect to the military network through a secretive channel, and there was no need to worry about being discovered by that person.

A great amount of data had entered the glasses through the network. After some calculations and adjustments, those data appeared in the concurrent tangible simulations. Jing Jiu could see clearly through the glasses the battleships, the laser gun platforms, the generating device of the gravitational field, the positions of those EM guns, and the mechas among many more of the military facilities.

Soon after, he had received more of the data flow. The mechas that had strong protective surfaces had sealed off the surrounding streets, and a few more battleships were on their way back to the Main Planet from the distant space. It was probably the result of the pressure of the government, or in other words, their genuineness.

Jing Jiu did nothing more than walk forward.

Ran Handong hurried to catch up to him. She began to tell him about Shen Yunmai in an effort to prevent him from coming up with those incredible ideas again.

She thought that Jing Jiu must be interested in learning about that man.

As expected, Jing Jiu listened earnestly when she told him about Shen Yumai’s brilliant past in the fleet and the Science Academy.

Ran Handong said, “In the beginning, many people guessed that he was a bastard son of General Li, but the rumor was soon proven to be false. It’s because many people witnessed that he showed nothing but disrespect toward General Li, a high-level official of the government who had such conjecture was killed in a banquet.”

The laws demonstrate their power only when a civilization is at a steady and peaceful stage. Though the Human Federation of the Milky Way had a comparatively high-level civilization, it was not steady in the least because of the threat from the Sea of Dark Matter. The peace as of the last few years was more like a preparation for a great turmoil.

“Shen Yunmai has been modifying his body. It’s normal for those Cultivation practitioners in the military. But the strange part is that he seems to detest the advanced technology, or in other words, to look down on it.”

Ran Handong continued, “The upper echelons have all learned that he likes playing the ancient zither and takes a fancy to…the sort of novels you have written, about the rumored fairy world.”

“He hails from there,” remarked Jing Jiu.

Ran Handong didn’t quite understand what he meant.

Jing Jiu started to appreciate that guy, Shen Yunmai, now.

In the earlier fight, Shen Yunmai had displayed an outstanding fighting prowess and talent in Cultivation; and he had a remarkable master of the sword work. To say nothing of the likes of Zhuo Rusui and Yuan Qü of the younger generation, he was almost on a par with the likes of the Immortal Guangyuan as far as the employment of the Green Mountain sword styles was concerned. Actually, Shen Yunmai might be a little more talented in that aspect.

Those seemingly chaotic attacks actually had a clear intent; so Shen Yunmai’s scheming ability was not inferior to Tong Yan. And his fighting will was as strong as Zhao Layue’s. Furthermore, as an offspring of the ascendant and human of the Federation of the Milky Way, he had the merits of both worlds and was a perfect combination of the traditional Cultivation and modern technology.

He used the sword style of the Snow Flow with the aid of the super-low temperature, and the Eight-Side Thunder with the aid of the laser guns; the actual execution of these combinations was much harder than it sounded.

One couldn’t achieve such a feat without a comprehensive study of the two civilizations.

According to Ran Handong, he was only twenty-six years old…

He indeed hailed from Green Mountain, Jing Jiu thought.

…

…

Ran Handong went on, “This person acts casually, as if he were a bit insane; in fact, he thinks everything is fairly boring.”

She felt a strong sensation of fear the moment Shen Yunmai squeezed her face and said he would rape her in the building of the military headquarters. But she was fully aware that he said that not because he was a sex predator.

It was because he found everything was rather boring, be it the sex, the violence, or the power struggle.

“Nobody can figure it out why someone like him thinks the life is empty and meaningless,” said Ran Handong.

To look at it from any perspective, Shen Yunmai was a perfect human in this universe and had a marvelous future and great cause awaiting him; but why was he ensnared in the predicament of nihilism?

“No aim in his life.” Jing Jiu offered an answer.

Ran Handong protested, “It’s indeed true that he has reached the peak status at a young age; but…the Sea of Dark Matter still has to be dealt with.”

Jing Jiu said, “It’s because the Sea of Dark Matter is still inside this universe.”

Ran Handong tried to figure out what he meant with wide-open eyes.

“He is not confident enough,” said Jing Jiu, feeling a bit dismal.

Ran Handong had a harder time wrapping her head around it, wondering if men would turn into a philosopher once they put on glasses.