1543 The Prestige of Skywing!
Tamu wore a special combat suit and thick gloves. He had dressed himself up like a firefighter, exposing not even an inch of his skin, making him look rather odd.
“This is for safety precaution; after all, I am infected,” Tamu explained to them.
The Demonic Infection was indeed a problem. Though the degree of infection on Tamu was nothing too severe, he still had to be very careful.
Though Xia Fan had studied medicine, he was helpless against this Demonic Infection. Unless he successfully located the Skywing Clan, Tamu’s infection would only worsen over time, until one day he turned into a monstrous demon.
*Whoosh*
!!
Xia Fan piloted the Flicker-class warship right for the Cosmic Gate.
The Flicker-class was a warship built by the Fey, its exterior appearance like a razor, straight and sharp. Its propulsion was powerful enough to leave Xia Fan amazed. Compared to his Black Egg, the latter was nothing more than a child’s toy. In terms of defenses, sensors, and propulsion, there was basically no comparison.
Not long after, the Flicker-class stopped in starry space. The ship’s bow was like a knife, facing toward the Cosmic Gate. Its energy storage system indicated that it was currently accumulating energy. The moment the number hit 100%, the Flicker-class would explode with so much propulsion force that it would break past the barrier in one go, bringing them right into the world beyond the Cosmic Gate.
“The act of getting past the barrier has been called the shockwave movement. Only a handful of warships were equipped with the special Shockwave engines that could achieve such a feat. Every time they bust through, the engine would need to spend a period of time to recover energy, which is why we cannot just pass through a Cosmic Gate arbitrarily,” Tamu explained to Xia Fan patiently, taking on the role of a teacher.
The most special aspect of the shockwave engine lay in its huge energy storage, capable of storing so much energy that when it was released all at once, it would be able to create an effect that could break past dimensional walls.
The time it took for every charge was seven days, which meant to say that a shockwave engine could not be randomly used.
“The preparations to break through the dimensional wall are complete,” the feminine voice of the main computer reported.
Xia Fan took a deep breath, grit his teeth, and pushed the propulsion lever forward.
*Thoom!*
Flames burst forth from the Flicker-class’ thrusters as the entire ship shuddered from the intensity. In the span of a hundredth of a second, the ship reached its top speed, turning into a glaring blur that lit up the entire starry space.
The space outside of the ship’s window was completely twisted. Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha watched with their mouths hanging agape, incredulous. They were not traveling across space, but breaking past the dimensional wall!
To anyone who understood the theory of space-time, what was understood as the dimensional wall was an amalgamation of space, time and matter, a membrane that protected the individuality of each world.
Take the dimensional wall as watching a movie, for example. Jurassic World might be a thrilling movie to watch, but could anyone claim to be able to enter said world and fight against the dinosaurs?
Of course that was impossible!
That was because the two were from two very different worlds, but that was what the shockwave engine was capable of doing. It allowed beings to move about between two different worlds, requiring unparalleled technology and astronomical energy in order to accomplish the feat.
Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha were very excited. They were on the most incredible voyage known to the world, crossing from one world to another. This Celestial Pathways of the legends that connected the Great Chiliocosm was just ahead!
Light and shadow melded as the stars shifted. Time and space shifted, returning into chaos.
The Flicker-class sliced through everything like a sharp knife, piercing forward dauntlessly through the Cosmic Gate. The intense light was dazzling, and then it dimmed sharply.
“Have we already passed through the Cosmic Gate?” Traveling Buddha’s eyes were wide as he gulped audibly.
“Yes. We’re now behind the Cosmic Gate, in what is called the Celestial Pathways,” Bright Pearl answered cheekily.
“I don’t feel anything, like the entire process was very simple,” Traveling Buddha hesitated as he touched his chin.
Xia Fan shook his head and said seriously, “It’s not simple at all. The energy levels have already dropped to zero. We’ve just expended 7.9 billion G units of energy.”
Traveling Buddha wrinkled his brow. “Speak in layman terms.”
Xia Fan explained, “That’s approximately the energy produced by more than ten thousand standard stars, added altogether.”
Traveling Buddha was stunned. A star means a sun, giving off a seemingly endless amount of light and heat in their lifetime. Yet they had just used up over ten thousand of them all at once just now, which was a shocking concept to grasp in itself.
The scenery outside the window was very mundane. Like plunging into the deep sea, there was no glimmer of starlight anywhere, just endless Cosmic Gates, all gathered together, like a dense array of suction cups one might find on an octopus.
“Are these all Cosmic Gates?” Traveling Buddha asked in awe, his face plastered on the ship’s window.
“Yes.”
“How many are there?”
“Uncountable.”
Traveling Buddha was absolutely speechless. The Little Old Buddha had always been uninterested in everything, but today, he felt a great curiosity toward the Celestial Pathways. He kept asking questions, like a curious student. The unwilling farewell he had shared with Hidden Water had probably already been forgotten by the heartless cad.
Xia Fan frowned, and somewhat anxiously commented, “Given how desolate the Celestial Pathways are, just how are we going to locate Shaka and my family? We couldn’t possibly search every universe once, can we? That would probably take even more than our lifetime to accomplish.”
….
A Waystation, a large space station built on the Celestial Pathways where warriors wandering the Celestial Pathways could rest their feet and trade information and supplies.
Xia Fan spotted a round space station from far away. It looked like a mechanical planet, floating in a sea of darkness while emitting a dim glow of its own.
Entry and exit to the Waystation needed a navigator’s guidance, which was why Xia Fan had connected to the Waystation’s navigation channel. A big bearded man appeared on his screen.
“This is the Skydome, requesting to disembark on the Waystation.”
Xia Fan uttered the standard information which Tamu told him to relay. Skydome was the ship name that Xia Fan had given to the Flicker-class, as a homage to his family in the Ashen Moon Universe.
The bearded man inspected the information on the Skydome, abruptly startling himself. His eyes shone and said in a somewhat hoarse voice, “Ah, the esteemed lord has returned! Please berth on Dock Nineteen. I welcome your arrival on behalf of the station!”
Xia Fan was dazed. This bearded man was being overly friendly, sounding as if they were very familiar with one another. Bright Pearl and Tamu were acting very calmly about it. Xia Fan asked the two why the people of the Waystation were speaking so respectfully, but all the two did was smile and not say a word.
——
He had only just gotten his hands on the Flicker-class battleship, so Xia Fan was still not very familiar with this razor-shaped ship. That was especially true for its propulsion system. He made a slight error when maneuvering it, scratching the midsection of another ship that was also entering the Waystation at the same time as him.
It was a red starfish-shaped warship. It looked very strange from the outside, with sharp, clearly-defined edges and corners. Its workmanship was excellent and very unique. Xia Fan was lamenting to himself that he might need to compensate the other if he had caused any damages from the scrape.
He disembarked nervously, and so did the people from the ship next to him. They were a group of extremely ferocious men, each of them bald with red five-sided stars tattooed on their heads. They wore nose rings and did not seem friendly at all. Xia Fan could feel an energy fluctuation from their bodies, and he could tell that they were not weaklings. The majority of them had already broken past their first Law Barrier.
The man who appeared to be the leader of that gang of weirdos came rushing over with two of his underlings right behind him.
Xia Fan grit his teeth and looked beside him. Pearl, Tamu, and Traveling Buddha were on his side, and though the other party had the numerical superiority, they might not lose even if a fight were to break out. Thus, he straightened his neck and glared at the three.
“Ah, I can’t believe what a mistake I made. I had been in too much of a hurry just now that I failed to evade that in time!” the bald man, who was more than two meters tall, explained himself to Xia Fan sincerely.
Xia Fan was hesitant. He was obviously the one who had knocked into their ship, so why were they the ones apologizing?
Traveling Buddha scratched his head and then casually flicked his finger over his spatial ring, pulling out his ceramic tea set and taking a few tea leaves out. Aside from his fondness for drinking tea, he also had the habit of chewing on tea leaves.
The bald man’s eyes instantly shone as he raised a thick arm as he shouted to one of his underlings far away, “Quick, bring out our best tea leaves! Mengding, those picked from Ten Thousand Fathom Mountain from the Blue Peace Universe!”
“How much?”
“All of them!”
The bald man flashed a broad grin at Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha, “We happened to have just gotten some really good tea. The few of you should have a taste.”
Uhhh… Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha’s eyes widened, wondering to themselves just what sort of situation they had gotten themselves into.
With a frown, Xia Fan said, “I was a little careless while piloting my ship just now, accidentally knocking into your ship. How about this, if the Waystation is capable of repairs, I’ll foot the bill incurred.”
“What are you saying!?” The bald man was really flustered now, his ears turning a scarlet red, a look of anguish on his face. He even looked like he was on the verge of slapping his own mouth. “I swear to the gods’ above, I sincerely did not see your insignia. Had I done so, even if you gave me the courage of ten thousand men, I would not have dared to get anywhere near you.
“Please be a magnanimous lord and spare me this go round!”
Xia Fan looked toward the direction where the bald man had pointed, and saw he was referring to a small insignia on the Skydome. Before they departed, Bright Pearl had made Xia Fan draw it. It was a pair of open wings, said to be the crest of his clan, called the Skywings Breaching Nine Heavens.
Xia Fan finally understood the situation. This bald man was not afraid of him, but the prestige of the Skywing Clan. Seeing him break out in cold sweat from anxiety, he was not faking it, but really afraid for his life.
Xia Fan stroked his chin as he thought to himself, ‘It seems like the people of my clan are very domineering!’
That was when Tamu finally stepped forward and took the sealed canister filled with precious tea leaves in the bald man’s hands before saying, “All of you may leave.”
It was a simple line, yet it was like the bald man and his underlings had just received a pardon, nearly causing them to kneel before Tamu.
“Wait a moment!” Tamu suddenly yelled before they could take more than a handful of steps. Xia Fan could see that the bald leader was already shivering, his face going pale.
“Is… Is there anything else, my esteemed lords?”
“Have you seen any of our people recently?”
That bald man shook his head vigorously, “No, not at all.”
“I see. If you do, please help pass word that Xia Fan is back,” Tamu instructed him.
The expression of that bald man drastically changed right away. He was looking at Xia Fan with abject fear, almost as if he was looking at a monster. Had his underlings not dragged him away, he might very well knelt before Xia Fan.
“I understand, I will certainly do as I’m told!” the bald man said in awe. He looked absolutely terrible, like he was suddenly ill.
—
Walking along the corridor that brought them deeper into the Waystation, passersby all made themselves scarce and avoided Xia Fan and everyone. None of them looked directly in their eyes. Such a scene amazed Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha.
“Isn’t this a bit too ridiculous? Why does it seem like we’ve skyrocketed into becoming big shots the moment we came here to the Celestial Pathways? Look at how scared and pale everyone’s looking!” Traveling Buddha mused in disbelief.
