Thereafter followed a long, drawn-out war.
The scale of interstellar warfare was simply too vast; once the first shot was fired, few conflicts could be resolved within a single year. During wartime, soldiers were accompanied by the tedious repetition of routine work and the ever-present, yet always different, threat of death.
In the face of thermal weaponry developed to this level, even though the average Orion human could lift a 21st-century sedan with enough training, the daily front-line loss reports were always filled with cold casualty figures. For those living through it, the dividing lines of the era were always murky and indistinct.
However, the approach of the colossal celestial fungi, the shifting updates from various research institutes, the monthly fluctuations in battle statistics, and the increasing frequency of briefings from the direction of the "Ring World"...
As these changes unfolded, Lei Ting could clearly see that humanity was driving toward a chaotic, uncertain fork in the road. A fork that they—or rather, he himself—had encountered once before.
*Click.*
With a faint simulated sound effect, a Class-A Planetary Ecocide Application numbered "402505010228" was stamped with the "Sun Star - Authorized" label on Xihe’s vintage interface. It vanished from the screen, merging into the local area network data stream currently being reconstructed within the fleet, heading toward its intended destination.
In the year 4025, Lei Ting was forty-four years old—still a young man by Orion standards. On the day of his birthday, as he worked alone in his office, he realized for a moment that he had become a "contemporary" of the Yvenheiler of that time.
His previous birthday had been spent at a starport named "Mistletoe." Back then, he had only a small snack cake before him, topped with a candle Sandro and the others had scrounged from somewhere. He had worn a crooked, cartoonish golden paper crown—to this day, he still didn't know who had cut it out.
At that time, he was still a youth, earnestly clasping his hands and making a wish before the flame. He had never spoken that wish aloud. Yet, the outcome of that war had not allowed it to come true.
Four years ago, while inspecting the research institute, he had actually read the hidden anxieties in Lucas's heart. But he knew that the infiltration of the Federation was inevitable; the phase-one goal of those infiltrators was to destroy the foundation of the current Federal system.
And this... was essentially the same thing as the "Carbon-based Sanctity" ideology.
Both were pawns of the "Star" civilization. The former exploited the instinct of carbon-based lifeforms to admire the strong and revere the holy while each harboring a desire to rule the world; the latter... it was laughable, as those scriptures were merely adaptations of their own ancient religions.
No rush, no rush.
With the approach of "Commister," all these hidden pawns would one day be exposed by the "Star" civilization itself.
Currently, one side had thrown a master of mischief like Angye into the other's nest, while the other side was spreading their specialty—information pollution and emotional provocation—within the former's territory. Both held hidden cards; whoever revealed theirs first would lose. The one who remained more composed would be better positioned to strike second.
He had waited four years for this to ferment—perhaps even longer—but in any case, because he lacked emotional reactions, he always appeared exceptionally patient at times like this.
During this period, Angye had changed his identity several times to infiltrate the Ring World's management system again. From various information channels, he had fished out a great deal of classified intelligence.
For instance, "Why does Commister hold the title of the Silent Kingdom on the Star Net?" The answer was: "It was registered with that title from the very beginning. And that was many years ago, likely much earlier than the establishment of the Galactic Empire."
This proved that the giant fungus and its offshoots might have dealt with the Star Net or its creators long before the network was struck by rule-based weapons.
And some small questions Lei Ting had always kept in his heart now had vague answers.
—"Why did investigations show that none of the Imperial heirs back then completely failed to meet social expectations, each having their own base of supporters?"
Because every child of the "Emperor" possessed, to a greater or lesser extent, a portion of the power of the Empire's Transcendent Entities.
"The Crown," "The Shackles," "The Warning Bell," "The Keen Blade," "The Bastion"...
Among them, "The Crown" looked like a bouquet of flowers, yet "The Shackles" had grown into the shape of a crown. "The Warning Bell" was the heart of an Imperial citizen, "The Keen Blade" was a pair of giant armored hands, and "The Bastion" was now a city—though in records, it was an ever-changing Imperial silhouette.
In the chaotic and mostly destroyed history of the late Galactic Empire, "The Bastion" was coerced by some force into betrayal, suspected of being severely polluted from the start, and "The Warning Bell" was immediately destroyed by the former.
The vigilant "Keen Blade" slaughtered most of the power supporting "The Bastion," but to prevent the "Keen Blade"—which was likely to lose control after the loss of "The Warning Bell"—from destroying more things, "The Crown" perished along with it.
Now, only the remnants of "The Bastion" and the missing "Shackles" remained of the Galactic Empire's Transcendent Entities.
And Lei Ting knew that "The Shackles" actually followed a certain esper at all times—"Firewine." It likely bound Firewine through a connection with the Imperial remnants, ensuring it could not provoke any major trouble and that all its choices prioritized the safety of those remnants.
But at the same time, it could not fully control those people's actions or protect them in every detail, for one who wears a crown cannot look after every individual life.
If this hypothesis held true, the connection between the Galactic Empire's Transcendent Entities and the populace might be stronger than anyone imagined.
...A terrifying suspicion also arose.
—Was it possible that the reason so many first-class citizens of the Galactic Empire died out completely in such a short time... was actually because the infighting between the Transcendent Entities had easily snuffed out those people's "Spirit Thoughts"?
Furthermore, "The Shackles" had always followed "Firewine," and even...
Lei Ting recalled for a moment the source of that powerful strength from "last time."
...It was even hidden inside its jelly-like body.
This fact, along with the carrying of part of "The Bastion's" power to the Ring World by the Xenobeast Eibon, proved that Transcendent Entities could fully manifest in the material world under certain conditions, just as material world espers could briefly exist in the "Spiritual Depths"!
And Firewine's body likely held some secret; it might even simulate the environment of the "Spiritual Depths" to help "The Shackles" endure.
Then, what exactly was Firewine's identity...
Moreover, if the boundary between the material world and the "Spiritual Depths" could be broken to such an extent, what was the actual difference between the material world and that dark void filled with monsters?
It was said that Xenobeasts were the distorted reflections of the material world's negative emotions in the spiritual realm. But thinking in reverse, was it possible that it was precisely because the "Spiritual Depths" radiated its power outward for some reason that spirituality and intelligence were born in the "material world"?
Otherwise, how could one explain the iron law that the "Spirit Thoughts" of all living beings eventually sink into the "Spiritual Depths" upon death or are attracted by even more powerful "Spirit Thoughts"?
And if this hypothesis were true...
...Was the "material world" not itself the "Spiritual Depths" of the "Spiritual Depths"?
Lei Ting's many thoughts were known to no one.
Angye did not realize what the silent big boss was thinking; he simply reported other information in a businesslike manner. According to him, the territory of the Abrizak Empire was currently engulfed in the flames of war. Even though not a single star-gate there had ceased service, not a single ordinary person could escape. Before they could flee, the terrifying problem of route-loss and the crossfire from all warring parties would swallow them into a desperate end.
The reason Angye knew this was because the Collective had already acquired this intelligence.
As for the Collective's means of gathering intelligence, it was nothing short of miraculous: a monitoring system existed within the Ring World that could monitor the status of all eligible star sectors across the galaxy in real-time. To this day, Angye still hadn't figured out what those "conditions" were, only confirming that the Human Union's star sectors did not meet them and thus could not be observed.
This was new information for Lei Ting—"last time," when he had gained a deep understanding of the Ring World, the place had already been ravaged by fire. It was hard to say if even a third of the habitable areas remained, let alone precision instruments and systems...
That truly was a massive loss. The "Star" civilization was so enraged they had become like rabid dogs; they might maintain a facade on the surface, but in their hearts, they wanted to bite anyone they could catch.
Later, as the end of 4025 approached, the border finally grew quiet again.
Could this be considered a victory in war? No one knew. Only the shattered planets remained, floating as dense asteroid belts. Desperate scavengers arrived like vultures; it was said someone had found an expensive, top-tier civilian datapad chip inside. It had been mixed in with military junk, drifting with the stardust, nearly carrying someone's past browsing data on a long voyage.
Though compared to being found and read, its owner—whether still alive or not—would probably have preferred it just keep drifting...
On the weekend, Lei Ting took a moment to sink a thread of mental energy into his mental domain.
Upon entering, he saw half a city's worth of black mist and monsters dissipating with a roar. Amidst it all, a golden-haired figure stood tall, silently wiping a blade.
—Over these years, Yvenheiler's "Spirit Thought" had continued to wander within Lei Ting's mental domain.
Since that incident, the former seemed to have realized something and began to exert every effort to maintain his cognitive correctness. This persistence had allowed him to return, step by step, to the middle depths of this mental domain.
However, the pollution Lei Ting had allowed himself to suffer had now spread like a bone-deep canker. Normally, this would have worsened his mental state—
—Though in the face of "Immovable," it was utterly useless.
But Yvenheiler Kahn had also begun to face these threats... and chose to draw his blade to clear them when necessary.
Even though Lei Ting acted as if he could not be harmed by them, Yvenheiler still chose to fight.
Regarding this, Lei Ting could not even distinguish whether the man wanted him to lower his guard, or if he simply, purely, and earnestly wanted to protect the cold master of this cage that imprisoned him.
—Ah, if even Lei Ting couldn't tell, then perhaps it was both?
In the empty city where the black mist receded, the tall, blonde man turned his head. His azure eyes reflected a clear, golden light, and the fine lines at the corners of his eyes crinkled slightly as he gave Lei Ting a small smile.
"You're back," he said.
An unchanging appearance, a soul washed clean of misery... Beneath the lingering shadows, Yvenheiler carried these toward the silently landing Lei Ting. He reached out and patted Lei Ting's arm, his expression natural.
Lei Ting's eyes flickered. He allowed the man to immediately take his hand, glancing at the Xenobe
