Soon, Lei Ting left the *Sun* carrying the intelligence provided by the Principal.
There were many things the Principal did not know, which did not surprise him. After all, even the one known as "The Gaze"—also titled "The Standing One"—likely remained in the dark. The future that entity beheld was just like the "present" recorded by "The Recorder": both were subject to severe spatiotemporal limitations.
The future that being could see was likely not very far off. Otherwise, it would have known long ago that a portion of Lei Ting’s memories hailed from the future.
The tall man descended into the parliamentary hall, glancing at the person who came to meet him. "How is the situation lately?"
"Prosperous, Mr. Speaker," Yongdai’er said, before adding mentally: *[Angye has sent back word—the Ring World is in the midst of a civil war.]*
Lei Ting tilted his head and raised an eyebrow.
He had previously ordered Angye to the Ring World to carry out intelligence and assassination missions; the man’s abilities were certainly up to the task. To that end, he had promised that when the fellow returned to face judgment, his sentence might be lightened at his discretion.
Of course, neither of them believed a word of it. With Angye’s status, crimes, and inherent danger, a lightened sentence? It was a joke. The people he had killed over the years wouldn't want to see that. One might as well hope for the galaxy to implode tomorrow—if everyone died together, no one would need to go to prison or face execution.
Angye knew better than anyone that it was best if he never returned from this trip—and indeed, he never could. He was a pawn intended for a one-for-one trade. As for who he was meant to take down, Lei Ting didn't say, and Angye didn't dare ask.
However, before he left, Lei Ting had clearly heard the complaint in his heart: *What "all bark and no bite"? This is clearly a delayed reckoning, a line-up for the chopping block!*
Lei Ting hadn't cared then, and he didn't care now. He was merely contemplating certain matters.
Matters from the "last time."
In the "last time," after the *Sun* set sail again, it encountered the "Star Net Collapse" mid-voyage. After nearly two weeks of sailing blind and alone, it suffered an unknown attack. That attack came from a minor race of the Perseus Arm; the anomaly in the Star Net had driven them and their psionic entities mad.
The existence of psionic entities was built upon collective cognition. Once these things took root, they were difficult to move because they could not leave the "non-source population centers." At that time, the main forces of those minor races were fighting in the Orion Arm, and because the Star Net was severed, they couldn't even contact their homeworlds.
If they didn't want to die in despair on a foreign world—and let this now-stalemated war, along with everything they had sacrificed for it, become a total farce—they had no choice but to fight to the death to carve out a territory of their own. They had to purge all non-kin members and pray for their psionic entities to descend with power to transmit information and establish sanctuary.
But while the goal sounded simple, it was far from easy. When such a massive informational disaster occurred, every second of delay meant losing the initiative. They had to choose a suicidal offensive, and the defenders of the Orion Human Federation had no choice but to defend their gates with their lives.
Furthermore, when Lei Ting mentioned the Star Net being severed for thousands of years, he didn't mean it would automatically reconnect after that time. The parts of that thing outside the galaxy were likely reduced to nothing but debris, and the portion of the Star Net the galaxy had used for some hundred thousand years was merely a fragment of that wreckage. Once the shockwave passed, it would cease to exist entirely within the Milky Way.
The era of the Star Net was coming to an end; this was an undeniable fact. He had given a timeframe only because, with the technical foundation derived from years of reverse-engineering the Star Net, if the galaxy couldn't restore intra-galactic public network communications after several thousand years... then everyone might as well shoot themselves. Intelligent life couldn't afford to lose that much face.
Aside from that...
"Yongdai’er," Lei Ting said, "prepare for the first local area test of the new network system."
"Yes, but..." Yongdai’er looked somewhat troubled. "Your new base station system is too different from the previous one. Our technicians are still learning the new theories."
To the Federation, the base stations Lei Ting had previously deployed across their entire territory were something entirely new. Unlike normal base stations, connecting to the Star Net was only their secondary function. Their primary purpose was to construct a new Federation Intra-Sector Network.
"I know." Lei Ting nodded. He could fully empathize with the difficulty.
He had taken the time to write a manual for the base station system, but that thing was far from standardized—it couldn't even be considered particularly scientific. After all, the text was riddled with subjective terminology. The new system was still incomplete, and the most unfinished parts had been replaced by Lei Ting with ambiguous sensations brought about by his psionic senses. It would be a miracle if anyone could fully understand it before he revised it.
It couldn't be helped; he didn't remember the specific data for the interstellar LAN base stations used in the later stages of the Federation "last time." He had been far too busy then to notice or memorize such trivialities. Fortunately, he had at least read some related reports and papers, so he knew the principles. Beyond that, he only needed to use those principles as a foundation to cobble together something functional.
And the Federation, like any power with sane decision-makers, had developed more than one set of its own network protocol models while relying on the Star Net. Now, he just needed to snap the two together.
Of course, even with the base stations and protocols replaced, the Federation would still lose interstellar networking for at least three years. Space was too vast; universal implementation was no simple feat. Moreover, the latency of the new network would be higher than the Star Net by a staggering margin.
Lei Ting couldn't help but sigh inwardly. Ultimately, the technology tree of the Federation—and many other civilizations—had been led astray. From quantum information technology to super-dimensional propulsion engines, interstellar civilizations still needed to develop technologies that shortened distances.
"I don't require them to understand it, Yongdai’er, but by October, the operational qualification rate among them must exceed ninety-five percent." Lei Ting paused, then added, "Also, re-establish the research plan for quantum transmission technology. Allocate the highest-level scientific resources to them."
Yongdai’er nodded in acceptance, then dutifully asked, "May I know why?"
"If a man does not use his own eyes to see, he will be deceived. If he walks on the legs of others, he will eventually fall."
Lei Ting slowed his speech, uttering a sentence that sounded like something out of a primer. At the same time, he looked into Yongdai’er’s eyes, which shimmered with a faint blue-violet. In his mind, the images of Yolanda and others who had encountered "Star Beasts" and had their vital signs partially assimilated surfaced—they, too, had such violet-tinged eyes.
In this man’s confidential files, it was indeed mentioned... when he was young, his eyes were actually a clear, pale blue. But during a Star Beast capture mission, the ship he piloted crashed on a nearby barren planet. When rescuers found him ten days later, hovering on the brink of death, they discovered his eyes had changed color.
But unlike Yolanda and the others—if their eyes were symbols of a tragic disaster, Yongdai’er’s eyes were a key to the past.
"...Put this on the agenda immediately," Lei Ting said. His gaze remained fixed on Yongdai’er and those violet-flecked eyes shared by Yolanda and Shane, yet as always, he kept every great secret buried deep in his heart. "Then... inspect the shipboard AIs of every legion. Check them from top to bottom."
Yongdai’er was stunned. Inspect the shipboard AIs of *all* legions? That was a massive undertaking likely to provoke significant backlash.
"Forgive my reminder, Mr. Speaker," he said gravely, "but your insistence on changing the Federation’s internal network status has already caused your reputation to sour to the point where even the propaganda department can't wash it clean."
"Wash what? It's a waste of resources." Lei Ting waved a hand. "Let them do their normal jobs. Incidentally, tell the people that their enemies are beyond the borders, and we will settle the score with them sooner or later."
Yongdai’er watched him, then suddenly sighed softly and lowered his head. "Very well."
In an instant, the work was delegated—not through the optical brain’s internal link, but through the data pad in his hand.
He then asked, "Roughly when will the score be settled? I need to budget the required resources and funds."
"Soon. Probably... next year." Lei Ting looked at the nearby councilors, his tone meaningful. "Blood feuds cannot be delayed for too long. If we miss the opportunity... it would be too great a loss."
***
Over the next three months, Lei Ting hardly appeared before anyone. It wasn't until April that he allowed others to observe his golden light streaking across deep space again.
During this period, he had visited seventeen or eighteen ruins of the "Star" civilization hidden within the "Spirit’s Depths." He found plenty of useful data, but still hadn't obtained a single thing that could positively affect "Degeneration."
After all, although they were both Carbon-Type I and their genetic and physical structures were somewhat similar, those few points of dissimilarity made the difference between a human of Orion and a "Star" greater than that between a human and a cat. If he forcibly used things intended for the "Star" to repair a human, the result would likely be like the "Restoration Solution"—granting the wish in a twisted, horrific manner.
If Evenheiler were forced to live like that, he would probably demonstrate eight hundred different ways to end his own life.
Moreover, while his search for this knowledge was partly for Evenheiler, the greater reason was for the people currently threatened by the disaster of "Degeneration" without even knowing it.
Six hundred and sixty.
In these months, he had roughly surveyed the Federation’s territory according to his planned route. And "660" was the number of planets he would have to destroy if he were to "resolve the hidden danger" ahead of time.
Among these, fewer than a hundred targets were uninhabited. Those with residents were, without exception, vital administrative, commercial, cultural, or transportation hubs.
The enemy striking from the shadows... was truly vicious enough. If such subtle "pollution" didn't require several generations of residency to take effect, Lei Ting truly wouldn't even need to fight this war...
In a room in "Teardrop Garden 2202," the man wearing the golden crown set down a heavy copper plate, looking down at the dense, unfamiliar symbols upon it.
Using the knowledge he had acquired during those centuries of life "last time," he translated the characters on the more than twenty thousand copper plates, symbol by symbol. These symbols consisted of diamond dots and curved thin lines; there wasn't a single straight line in the entire text. The meaning was concise, rational, and possessed a solemn sense of ritual. A single copper plate looked like a star map—
These were the fragmented records of "biological experiments" from the "Star" civilization, a biological-tech society.
What surprised Lei Ting was that these records, from which time had been erased, contained no phrases like "those who resemble me shall perish," nor any descriptions of the benefits "Ascension" would bring. On the contrary, these documents were permeated everywhere with a denial of their own bloodline and a desperate craving for their life-form to undergo a transformation.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 屹立者 | The Standing One | An epithet for 'The Gaze'. |
| 记录者 | The Recorder | A high-level entity or role mentioned in relation to time. |
| 灵之底 | Spirit’s Depths | A mysterious location or dimension where ruins are found. |
| ‘星’文明 | ‘Star’ Civilization | An ancient biological-technology based civilization. |
| 堕变 | Degeneration | A corruption or biological disaster threatening the population. |
| 水滴花园2202 | Teardrop Garden 2202 | A specific location/residence. |
| 升变 | Ascension | A term used in the Star civilization's records regarding biological change. |
