Stars See Me [Interstellar] | Chapter 199 | Beyond All Understanding | Novela.app

What exactly did the ‘Solar Star’ want to do? This question had already taken root in the hearts of many. But Lei Ting had no intention of offering an explanation. After all, if he were to explain, there was simply too much information involved. Protection could not, and must not, be built upon the foundation of a single individual. He needed all of humanity to unite, to exert the productivity and combat potential befitting a trillion-strong civilization, rather than spending the entire year in fragmented self-sabotage. Understanding? Divided by power and perspective, espers were already a class unto themselves. It was impossible for low-level espers to understand high-level ones; why then should he, standing at the very pinnacle of all espers, crave the understanding of ordinary people? To ask a normal person to understand someone who could see the movement of energy and particles? To understand someone who held the past while gazing into the future? To understand someone who looked down upon the earth from the height of Mount Everest? That was simply asking too much of them. To put it arrogantly: it was impossible for a normal person to understand him. Nor did they need to understand him. They didn't even need to project their desires or emotions onto him; they only needed to regard him as a celestial body or a natural phenomenon. That would be enough. ……………… ………… …… …… Lei Ting stepped out of his light, his stride steady as he landed on the silver-gray floor of the starship. The airtight doors whirled open and shut; the scanning beams automatically bypassed him. Lei Ting walked alone through the unfamiliar starship, clearly sensing a heartbeat that nearly stopped in shock. Then, a powerful surge of energy erupted in the distance, and several formidable auras rose in alarm, converging toward his position. Lei Ting remained silent for a moment, arms crossed, looking out a nearby window. Through the porthole, he could see a small portion of a dark, lightless celestial body. It was the moon of some desolate planet, locked by gravity to its primary. No matter how it orbited, it could never truly escape those bonds. A ‘moon’ captured by a planet’s gravity since the moment of its formation... from birth to extinction, its fate was destined to be tied to the planet. And the planet was drawn by the star, while the star followed even greater laws. The universe swept all things along, forming a grand, swirling vortex. Lei Ting stood alone before the porthole. The perception of a ‘Limit-Breaker’ allowed him to clearly feel the sensation of being carried by gravity. It was an indescribable, subtle vertigo. Concepts of direction like ‘up, down, left, right, near, far’ became almost meaningless. In the vast, endless perception of space, only logic, wisdom, and memory could guide him in the right direction. Yes, his sense of space had already begun to differ from that of ordinary people. On the surface, he appeared to act normally... but in reality, he no longer possessed the most basic, common sense of space. No, it wasn't that he ‘didn't have it’; rather, he possessed a higher-order spatial sense. It was like a first-person ‘God Mode.’ As long as his computational power was sufficient, he could clearly grasp the trajectory of almost every ‘phenomenon’ within his range of perception. But because of this, he could no longer act naturally by instinct like a normal person. Instead, he had to ‘control his limbs to strike a reasonable pose.’ Was someone like this still human? Lei Ting didn't know, but he didn't care either. He simply watched the porthole and sighed softly. Following the clock in his mind as usual, he offered a greeting to the person dozens of meters behind him: “Good evening.” “...” Under the white lights, a tall, abyss-black silhouette stood alone. What a figure it was. No matter who it was, the moment they saw him, their soul would inevitably be seized for a moment, their very thoughts coming to a brief standstill. This included... the wary rebel espers. Standing at the very front with a light-blade in hand, Evenheiler glanced sideways at his comrades. His brow furrowed, and a fine, silvery-white light flashed in his eyes. Immediately, a starlight-like halo expanded. Those enveloped by the light snapped back to their senses, reclaiming their nearly vanished willpower in a state of horror. “This...” “It’s the original body.” Evenheiler stared at the back of the figure ahead, his eyes narrowing slightly as he gritted his teeth. “He came in person.” Hearing this, even though they were all well-trained warriors, the espers couldn't help but gasp. They had only just begun to approach the ‘New Solar System.’ They hadn't even made contact with the First Legion’s defense network stationed there. This abruptly appearing, terrifying enemy—their greatest threat in this sector of space—how on earth did he know the location of the rebel fleet, and how did he perform such an instantaneous teleportation?! Evenheiler said nothing to this, only taking a deep breath. “...Forgive our lack of a proper welcome, Excellency ‘Solar Star’.” He spoke with a somewhat stiff, formal tone, his politeness cold and detached. As expected... Lei Ting sighed inwardly. Evenheiler was trying to draw a line between them. After all these years, after everything that had happened between them. If he didn't discard that bit of sentimentality in his heart, it would be difficult to make a perfectly correct response. He wasn't even sure what he should say. And so, he silently watched that satellite. A strange, long silence ensued. The pressure in everyone’s hearts grew heavier in this terrible silence, as did the physical weight on their bodies. The pressure radiating from that silhouette grew greater, and greater, and greater... In just a few minutes, the air in this small reception cabin almost solidified. Under such pressure, they found it hard to breathe, hard even to stand. It was as if their lungs were reflexively rejecting air and their limbs no longer existed. They even began to lose all sensation other than suffocation, because their bodies had committed treason in the presence of that silhouette... ...Before that silhouette that seemed to exist right before their eyes, yet was as tall as the heavens and earth, like a giant god. Darkness... no, there was no darkness. It was as if they were approaching a sun. A golden radiance surged from the depths of their spirits, radiating a terrifying heat that submerged them, evaporated them, and reduced them to the smallest material structures to be scattered across the universe. It was that simple. When the first person among the espers nearly collapsed, Evenheiler could no longer restrain himself. His brow locked in a tight frown, he suddenly took a violent step forward and roared, “Solar Star! What exactly do you want?!” Though this level of pressure was still within his tolerance, if this continued, the rebels would likely be defeated before the battle even began. To fight and lose at the hands of an irresistible enemy, or to not fight at all... those were two entirely different things. He would never allow the former to happen here! Thus, under the worried gazes of the few who could still move normally, Evenheiler gripped his blade and strode forward. Naturally, the majority of the pressure began to shift onto him. “...Hah... hah... I...” With ‘Starflow’ shouldering the burden, some began to regain the ability to breathe, and cold sweat began to pour from their pores. “I...” Morgan turned and raised a hand, placing a finger in front of his lips in a shushing gesture. The person realized their mistake and quickly shut their mouth. As for Evenheiler, after venturing to within about ten meters of Lei Ting’s back, he came to a halt. For most espers, this was a safe distance... psychologically speaking. “To what do we owe the honor of the Solar Star’s presence?” Evenheiler spoke with a cold, hard face, an involuntary chill creeping into his tone. He didn't know why he reacted this way, but in his perception, Lei Ting had long since exceeded all boundaries, including the boundary of being ‘human.’ If the sun of the past still made one feel that a human figure might fly out from within it, the current ‘Solar Star’ made it difficult not to view him as one would a massive celestial body. In such a situation, ordinary espers might experience severe trauma and fear responses from the depths of their genes, but Evenheiler—he was a man who had cleaved a sun apart. Though he was not as powerful as Lei Ting, as a renowned powerhouse of the galaxy, he naturally would not cower before anyone! “...” To be honest, Lei Ting felt a slight urge to curl his lips, but not in mockery. It was because he truly liked Evenheiler’s steady, confident, and mature demeanor. It occasionally made him reminisce about the past, about the times when neither of them had to consider so much. His lover... so beautiful, so dazzling. The silver starlight—that was his sun. “Good evening... Even.” Lei Ting tilted his head slightly but did not turn around. He spoke as if no one else were present: “You’re standing too far away. Can you come a little closer? I want to hear every one of your heartbeats.” In his eyes, in this sword-drawn atmosphere, the other people nearby... didn't really have much of a presence. After all, though there were dozens of A-ranks there, including one guy radiating his ‘lover’s’ scent, whether in terms of will or the possibilities they could manifest in actual combat, they were all essentially negligible. “...” *Can’t you watch your words given the occasion?! And is this distance not enough for you to hear a heartbeat? Even if I were on that moon, you could probably ‘hear’ the sound of my blood flowing!* The corner of Evenheiler’s mouth twitched violently. He could clearly feel the eyes of everyone behind him. His face darkened. “...What exactly do you want?” When he asked this question again, he no longer held any hope of receiving an answer. But to everyone’s surprise, Lei Ting actually gave one. “To take you back,” he said. “And by that, I mean ‘all of you’.” Unsurprisingly, the moment those words left his mouth, various superpowered attacks arrived like a rain of arrows. Of course, such crude applications of energy were merely a cover for the greater crisis following behind. But Lei Ting... he didn't care. He didn't even move. The rain of light and the charging crowd were quietly frozen within the golden light that had filled the area at some unknown point. Then, he turned around composedly. With a flick of his finger, he caught the thin, ice-sharp silver blade with one hand and sighed softly. “You seem surprised... “I told you long ago, my thoughts have changed.” His thoughts had changed... yes... Evenheiler bit his lip hard. Yes! His thoughts had changed! This guy... had changed long ago! He knew it! Of course he knew it! It was just that after that, the illusion of peace, which was far more tranquil than expected, had caused Evenheiler to instinctively ignore those words, forgetting them like a nightmare... How weak. Irredeemably weak. Silver starlight exploded. The blade in Evenheiler’s hand shattered into a sky full of stardust like flying daggers. Simultaneously, his figure blurred as he moved to Lei Ting’s flank. He crouched and drew his blade in a single slash: “I have... nothing to say to you!” Reality was not a work of fiction. In the real world, no true powerhouse would abandon their ideals and their fight for the sake of personal feelings—because the kind of person who would abandon them could never become a ‘powerhouse’ in the first place. *‘We drink from the same golden cup, yet spare each other not with cold blades.’* This was their reality. “...” Even though he was prepared, Lei Ting’s heart still stirred slightly at the blade striking him in this moment. What kind of emotion was it? he wondered. Was it melancholy? Or something on a higher level? Or perhaps there was nothing at all, and he had simply... simply for the briefest of breaths, stopped maintaining his ‘Immovability’? But ‘Immovability’ was a passive skill. He had to actively deactivate it for it to disappear. So, what was it? Lei Ting pursed his lips. With a touch of innocence that was perhaps the only instance in his life, he said softly, “At least for now, I don't want to cross blades with you, Eve—” *Zheng!!!* *Clang!* Before he could finish his sentence, Lei Ting suddenly raised his arm to block the side of his face. A blinding spark flew from his bracer. An ordinary person couldn't even see the flash of the blade that produced those sparks, but he merely flicked his fingers to return all the kinetic energy of the frozen attacks back toward the enemy ranks. At the same time, he made a sudden backhand grab, catching the light-blade in his hand and—*crack!*—crushing its manifested energy structure. Fine starlight dissipated. Starting from the break, cracks sprouted into a mist of light, and the blade quietly crumbled. Only then did the fluctuations that hadn't had time to manifest in human vision quietly appear— The shattered shadows swayed. Pitch-black, terrifying spatial rifts flashed. At the waist, chest, arms, legs... by a conservative estimate, nearly three hundred and sixty fine blade wounds had landed on the ‘Solar Star’s’ armor—armor that had never before been scarred. Evenheiler had already returned to his comrades. He stared deathly at Lei Ting with eyes that were beginning to glow with a terrifying crimson. Gasping for breath, he slashed open the airtight door—whose structure had fused together at some point—and ordered everyone to evacuate immediately. And on Lei Ting’s visor, a deep, diagonal crack gleamed coldly. Crimson blood seeped from the wound on his other cheek, flowing down the side of his face. It gathered at the edge of the armor protecting his jaw, then slid along that sharp line to drop onto his chest. On the emblem of his breastplate, and within the scar on that emblem, a faint trail of blood landed. Lei Ting stood alone at the boundary of light and shadow, looking down at the stardust slipping through his fingers. He suddenly clenched his fist, and the starlight exploded. Amidst the starlight, the tall man’s expression flattened. He slowly turned his head to look at Evenheiler, his gaze dark and unreadable. Facts had proven that due to too many secrets and a lifeform that had changed too drastically, the concept of ‘being understood’ was, for him, already a false proposition. He thought. How tragic. Even now, even in this person... ...He could no longer find a trace of it. *** Glossary: