Stars See Me [Interstellar] | Chapter 159 | The Bottom of Spirits | Novela.app

Intelligent life in the galaxy had fully determined the objective existence of the soul centuries ago. It consists of two parts. The first is "Thought," which comprises ninety-nine point nine percent of the soul and encompasses all its complexities; its fate is to scatter into the vast stars shortly after death. The second is "Spirit," the purest point of power within the soul and the heavy supporting pillar for the former. Upon death, it inevitably sinks, passing through barriers that conventional matter cannot traverse unaided, arriving in the space-time where he now stood: the Void Spirit Plane. The chaotic and light "Thought" dissipates, while the core "Spirit" aggregates and descends until it reaches the very floor of space-time. This is the origin of the name still widely used by those in the know for the Void Spirit Plane: the "Bottom of Spirits." As the name implies, it is literally the bottom of all spirits. ... Lei Ting gazed at the frozen planet swarming with "Wraiths." As he descended toward it, he suddenly recalled the "Ghost Domain" campaign and the stories Evenheiler had told him about the "Star Stream’s" past struggles in the wind and snow. This caused him to subconsciously look toward the distance, in the direction of the Human Union—the direction of his own superpowered sun. After passing through the cold, heavy clouds, a snowflake landed on his black hair, then on his brow, the tip of his nose, and his pauldrons. The freezing wind could find no gap in his armor, but the black and gold could still be dotted or buried by the accumulating white. He knew that in the current Human Union—and indeed the entire galaxy—countless deaths were occurring. The mental constructs of the deceased dissociated and vanished; those tied to the mortal world remained there, while the purest and most serene fell into the perilous long night, like a never-ending snowfall. Perhaps among that snow were lives he had once watched, made eye contact with, or conversed with... or perhaps none of that had ever happened, and he and those countless dead had merely existed beneath the same starry sky, their greatest interaction being a passing glance in some corner of the universe. But at this moment, he could clearly feel invisible snowflakes falling from the material realm of the Human Union’s sectors into this "Bottom of Spirits." They drifted past the cracked eyepiece of the "Gazer," slipped over the pages of the "Recorder," were gathered by the gentle hands of the "Lover," and fell amidst the radiance of the "Radiant Exemplar." This was a never-ending process. From then on, the unconscious spiritual light of humanity had a destination—the "Radiant Exemplar." It would forever protect every human, even if they remained entirely unaware of its existence. However, what made Lei Ting pause was another phenomenon. To this day, he suddenly realized that ever since his sea of light—his sun—had formed, a few scattered human "Spirits" would slow their descent as they passed through its scorching light. Eventually, they would stop beside the "Sun," either floating quietly or orbiting it. Yes, a portion of the power that should have belonged to the "Radiant Exemplar" had been intercepted by the light of his "Solar Star." Even if the amount was so pitifully small that he had only just noticed it, it was a shocking phenomenon. Consequently, Lei Ting had to begin considering new questions: What were the laws and principles governing the projections between the material world and the "Bottom of Spirits"? Why did this "interception" occur, and how could it be stopped? This wasn't something he could simply "put aside if he couldn't figure it out," as he had with some past problems. If something went wrong with the "Radiant Exemplar," he would be a great sinner against humanity. In this regard, no amount of caution was excessive. Of course, right now, there was another unavoidable—and unnecessary to avoid—issue standing before him. At this moment, hundreds of millions of hollow phantoms on this planet had converged here. Beyond them, a pale phantom about thirty centimeters tall had approached his side. "A 'Wraith'?" Floating in mid-air, Lei Ting turned his head to look at the illusory paleness and the face beneath the hooded cloak, which was too blurred to identify its race. "Yes, Your Excellency 'Solar Star'." The "Wraith," which was almost certainly a temporarily shrunken form, appeared extremely humble. Its rapid bow was just short of a sliding kneel from the other side of the planet’s ice to prostrate itself before him and declare that he was its destined master... "The humble 'Wraith' and its tools praise and welcome your arrival—" "Cut the nonsense. What is the deal with these 'Wraiths'?" Lei Ting asked. "This..." The Wraith slowed its speech. "..." Seeing that it didn't actually want to cooperate, Lei Ting narrowed his eyes slightly, scanning the endless mountain ranges of ice and the Wraith sub-bodies standing silently upon them. Although it hadn't shown such tendencies yet, Lei Ting dared to say that the Wraith before him was not the main body, but a special avatar. The true main body was likely already prepared to flee; at the slightest sign of trouble, every Wraith on this entire planet would simultaneously release ultra-low-temperature gas and emit their signature mental shriek to cover the main body's escape. Of course, that didn't matter. Lei Ting calmly turned his head back. The eyepiece covering his eyes suddenly split and folded, retracting beneath his long hair at the side of his neck within a single breath. Then, his eyes—in which it was now difficult to distinguish iris from pupil—stared directly at the Wraith. "..." Eyes shining with brilliant golden light... like the sun. The doll-like Wraith felt as if it had been struck in the face by a heavy sledgehammer. It stumbled and flipped backward several times—the light, heat, and powerful superpowered radiation released from those eyes nearly melted its meager strength! It was as if a person were standing before a star in an overloaded state. This extraordinary power nearly melted through the Wraith's mental strength, instantly crushing this tiny sub-body until only a thin sliver of spiritual light remained. Meanwhile, Lei Ting’s gaze shifted toward the core of the planet. Amidst the shrieks of Wraiths from all directions, golden, sunlight-like energy erupted from him. The formidable force blew away everything in the vicinity and enveloped the Wraiths. As the power expanded, a sonic boom quickly took shape. The earth trembled, mountains collapsed, and the Mach waves ruthlessly tore through the ice and snow, rapidly melting them into rolling, high waves. The force leveled this newly formed sea, kicking up waves thousands of meters high in every direction. Until those surging, lofty waves crashed down, golden brilliance shrouded the entire planet. Lei Ting gave a light wave of his hand. Shortly after, the sea surface churned, and the waves surged... a silver-gray module several dozen meters high was summoned into the sky by him. As the seawater fell away, the fractured metal structure emitted a terrifying low groan—the rebellion of metal against its original user, and the echo of its oath of loyalty to its sole sovereign. It was an ancient life-support system framework. The technology it utilized far exceeded the current average level of the galaxy. Even Lei Ting couldn't make a precise comparison—after all, no one was a fool; the laboratories of various factions always hid things that weren't meant for outsiders. With one hand behind his back, Lei Ting opened his other hand slightly. The outer metal pressurized chamber of the life-support system began to automatically vent gas to balance the internal and external pressure. The internal defense and countermeasure systems were also cut off from their feedback loops under the logic of: "I don't need to understand every technical principle; I only need to know which line you use to transmit signals." A moment later, the hatch opened. Red entered his vision. A white-robed figure about four meters tall appeared behind a layer of transparent synthetic material. The figure was entirely immersed in a repair solution as red as blood and as clear as crystal, with seventeen or eighteen tubes connected to its body. The way it slowly opened its eyes was like a white snake awakening from a long slumber. Lei Ting increased his distance, bringing the opponent fully into his field of vision. It was a strange humanoid creature. Its facial features were "Carbon-Type I," but its skin was a pale silver with a texture like iron, lacking the softness of biological matter. It was entirely devoid of color or vitality. The opponent's eyes, like his, showed no distinction between white and iris; they simply emitted the light of superpowered energy from the sockets. His was gold, while the opponent's was a thin, silvery white. Furthermore, there was a small, perfectly circular indentation on the opponent's forehead, covered by recessed, shriveled flesh. Within it were faint, mottled marks, suggesting that some organizational structure belonging to him had once been embedded there, only to have its nerves and blood vessels severed and the organ removed. Judging by the shape of the tissue growth, it might have been a superpowered organ about three centimeters in diameter, functioning like an "external eye" or "auxiliary eye," similar to the "Heavenly Eye" of the Orion people. Lei Ting was thoughtful. At the same time, the opponent was also sizing him up with his own eyes. Setting aside all the external conditions he had already observed countless times, this was a young powerhouse. A powerhouse who was difficult to resist. He was so tall, radiating a golden light of terrifyingly high temperature, while the brilliance in his eyes was so scorching it made one feel a deep chill. This made him seem extremely difficult to approach. And the underlying reason was enough to make one vaporize in terror. "..." The Wraith moved its mouth with difficulty, regretting from the bottom of its heart that it had ever meddled in this mess with the Gach. If it had known this would happen, it should have just drifted across the star seas and slept for tens of thousands of years in another galaxy to try its luck. Anything was better than staring into such a pair of eyes across a fragile barrier! From those eyes, it could see that the temperature Lei Ting was currently displaying was only one-ten-thousandth of the terrifyingly high temperature of his true power... This was lethal! Wasn't this temperature, which reminded it of the environment of its home planet hundreds of thousands of years ago, a bit too much?! Lei Ting narrowed his eyes slightly. He sensed intense emotional fluctuations from this "Wraith," complex and difficult to decipher. It was as if he were trying to understand a high-end theoretical concept outside his field of expertise... Clearly, this fellow was a carbon-based organism, even suspected to be "Carbon-Type I." Why was this happening? Lei Ting was curious. Intuition told him this would be a significant secret. Of course, the opponent certainly wouldn't be willing to reveal secrets casually. He would have to reason with them. If reason didn't work, he could also talk about basic physics and high-energy physics. ***