It would be a long time.
It began with their parting and would end only with an unknown reunion in the distant future.
Lei Ting knew this was no time for sentimentality, no matter how much he loathed to let go.
During another jump, using the impact of an incoming attack as cover, Ivanheller pushed Lei Ting away and turned to fly into a relatively stable chain within the chaotic currents of space-time.
Those chains, linked tightly like ropes, crisscrossed and "clipped" through one another as they spread and grew. A thick main trunk might sprout tens of millions of tributaries from a single link.
Ivanheller was not as conspicuous as Lei Ting, and he excelled at stealth and disguise. If he wished, he could vanish into a strange world and remain unfound by anyone.
Anyone else might have begun to worry—what if this was a betrayal, an abandonment, or a deception?
But the thought never even crossed Lei Ting’s mind.
He only thought...
"...Good luck, Ivan." The tall man closed his eyes briefly, steadying the mask that had been readjusted over the upper half of his face and tightening his armor.
"And good luck to us all."
He whispered softly, his tone gentle and flat.
But deep within those pitch-black eyes, a bone-chilling killing intent surged.
***
Inside the energy bay of *Crater 900*, Lei Li stared at the scene before him through his own eyes, struck by disbelief.
Exactly ten thousand hibernation pods surrounded the ship’s energy core. The only light in the entire bay was the faint green glow of the energy indicators.
After a sweep of mental strength, 'Yang Xing' remarked, "An exquisite design."
"...What?" Lei Li was somewhat dazed.
"Inside these hibernation pods, an esper is frozen in each one," Yang Xing said. He didn't seem to mind taking the time to explain things to Lei Li. "The power naturally generated by their bodies supplies the basic operation of the energy core.
"Aside from daily expenditures, most of the energy is accumulated in the energy convergence system. Every time the charge is complete, this ship relies on that power to temporarily leave the space-time turbulence and draw energy from massive celestial bodies in the material realms of different universes...
"At the same time, it collects powerful espers who have encountered trouble in various universes, sealing them in hibernation pods to further shorten the time needed to recharge."
"Wait, wait." Lei Li was startled. "Based on the energy figures required for a starship's warp jump, it would be difficult for these espers to finish charging in a short time, wouldn't it?
"And even with that astronomical figure, it shouldn't be so easy to drain the energy core!"
"Perhaps..."
Yang Xing rested one hand on a hibernation pod, wiping away the condensation on the viewport with his palm.
The tiny droplets quickly evaporated under his touch. The slightly damp air in the bay began to turn dry and normal.
"...Perhaps this process is measured in units of 'ten thousand years,'" he said.
Those eyes, brilliant with golden flames, quietly watched the individual sleeping inside.
It was a creature he had never seen before, yet felt familiar with. It had a slender, elongated humanoid form, pale all over, with eyes tightly shut. Its biological activity was maintained at a minimum, with only a flickering blue light in the center of its chest indicating it was still alive.
"A Commist..." Yang Xing murmured to himself.
Of course, he didn't actually have a habit of talking to himself; he was merely saying it for Lei Li's benefit.
As he spoke, he glanced at the mushroom-man. After a moment of contemplation, a hint of lament entered his tone. "The parasitic host is a Shayin."
"Huh?" Lei Li made a confused sound.
"It's nothing." Yang Xing changed the subject. "I need to release some of them—or 'it'—first."
"How?" Lei Li was curious.
"First," Yang Xing said solemnly, "we fill the energy core."
"You're going to pilot this starship out of—wait, what?"
Lei Li was halfway through his usual train of thought when he saw Yang Xing reach out and press his hand against the energy core, which stood hundreds of meters high.
He could feel a golden flash in his left eye, followed by a terrifying surge of energy. He instinctively tried to focus his mind to withstand the inhuman pain he expected.
But this time, things were different.
A warm, magnificent golden energy flowed from his left eye—which was now submerged in a sea of gold—turning into flowing, tattoo-like light that traveled beneath his skin in a continuous, torrential stream.
The energy output, which could have drained a person dry at any moment, had no effect on Yang Xing. He easily caused the energy reading of *Crater 900* to rise from 0.4% to 4%, then 14%, 40%, 64%, 94%...
As a massive amount of gentle, scorching energy—perfectly suited to the ship's requirements—poured in, the power supply to the ship's various systems was restored one by one. When the energy reading reached 99.92%, amidst a bay now brightly lit, Yang Xing disconnected the supply.
"Do you know why I didn't wait until it hit 100% to stop?" he asked Lei Li casually.
Lei Li’s mind raced for a moment before providing the correct answer: "Because during long-distance voyages or warps, the energy cores of starships and spacecraft might resonate with external high-energy bodies, causing excess energy to break free from containment.
"Generally, the safe energy reading for a starship is between 50% and 95%. The systems on an old-fashioned ship like this don't support being completely filled; it's extremely dangerous. A single fluctuation could cause the energy convergence to fail briefly, leading to a catastrophe."
"You've read *On Warp, Energy, and Redundancy*?"
"You... you've read it too?" Lei Li was stunned, followed by a flicker of pleasant surprise. "That's right, I adapted the words from those notes.
"I remember it being a unique copy? And very obscure... I only happened to see it in the classified section of the public reading network a few years ago when I barely managed to connect to the Human Union's local area network.
"If you ask me, the anonymous author's understanding of those three terms has reached a pinnacle! If that person had sufficient energy, they would definitely have the power to tear everything apart! As for small problems like the ones we're facing, they probably wouldn't cause that person any trouble at all!
"Oh, and just in case: I currently have the authority of a Human Union citizen."
"You *are* a Human Union citizen. 'I' personally signed the citizen information entry form," Yang Xing corrected him patiently. "As for those notes, I wrote them."
"..."
Upon hearing this, the words Lei Li was about to speak suddenly died on his lips.
After a long silence, he murmured, "...Huh?"
***
As expected, after Lei Ting made three more jumps, the transit nodes began to become intermittently chaotic.
During the first instance of chaos, he was sent back fifteen jumps. The second time, he ended up at a time node he had never visited before.
By the tenth instance, he had moved forward an unknown amount. By the hundredth, he was already finding it difficult to pinpoint his exact location in time.
Time travel relied on star maps to determine the current time period, but this technique was not entirely accurate.
The grandeur of the universe made it difficult for its appearance to be precisely turned into a ruler; every day in history, the stars followed trajectories similar to the day before.
As long as the stars used as primary references shifted to places where they could not be seen, Lei Ting would find it difficult to determine the specific time.
Of course, after so many attempts, he had also learned to record time points and perform directional jumps, no longer limited to passive and random movement.
During the chaotic transit process, he crossed paths with the enemy several times, and both sides fought until they were bloodied. He also sensed Ivanheller's aura from the space-time turbulence several times, but he did not know where the man was or what he had experienced by now.
But he knew that no matter what happened, those eyes would always be looking in the same direction as his own.
That was enough.
***
At a certain moment much later, after another jump was completed, Lei Ting was surprised to find upon landing that he had actually returned to the third planet of the New Solar System.
Based on the distance between the planet and its moon, as well as the starships packed like dark clouds in the sky, he realized he had temporarily returned to a time node he had never seen before—one closer to the 40th century than any previous node, yet still after the "modern" era.
Furthermore, judging by the alloy-clad buildings and the automated weapons currently pointing at him, Lei Ting determined that this time was exactly during the New Solar System War!
Even though he had done a lot of fruitless work, Lei Ting had actually left the enemy far behind by now. If it weren't for the fact that he still hadn't shaken off the lock of the enemy's time-shifting weapon, he could have long since returned to a non-combat state.
Therefore, facing the several figures walking out of the military base, he decided to speak little and observe more, staying for a while. He wanted to see if there was a chance to make direct contact with 'Gaze' and exchange some intelligence that he hadn't fully understood in the 40th century.
This period was neither long nor short. Lei Ting did not tell anyone his specific identity or information; he only told them that he did not belong to this era.
In response, the New Solar System Human Government, after verifying his claim, asked three questions:
"Is the future at peace?"
"Is the main body of humanity safe?"
"Is our path the right one?"
To these, Lei Ting's answers were:
"No."
"Safe."
"I don't know."
"Why 'I don't know'?"
"Because I don't know which path you are referring to," Lei Ting replied. "Nor can I promise whether the path I have seen is truly correct, or if the time to reveal its errors has simply not yet arrived."
The other party looked thoughtful and said no more, instead taking Lei Ting on a tour of the third planet of the New Solar System, which was currently being weaponized.
Passing by the underground space he had once visited and where he had conducted experiments, he noticed from a distance that at the site where the statue corresponding to the 'Gazer' stood, a construction crew was building the foundation for a fountain and the statue's base.
Among them was an ordinary-looking but reliable and optimistic middle-aged man wearing a foreman's hat, smiling brightly as he directed the workers.
From him, Lei Ting sensed a familiar yet strange energy.
It was power belonging to the 'Gazer,' yet not entirely the same.
Lei Ting turned his head back. He knew that the man's gaze had also shifted over, looking at his profile.
But they were strangers now, and they would never truly meet in the future.
—That foreman was likely one of the souls that formed the core structure of the 'Gazer,' and the most important one at that.
If 'Gaze's' power was based on a certain person's superpowered strength, it must belong to him.
At the same time, he was also the person who, in the 'Speaker's'—no, the 'Former Speaker's'—gramophone, had led people to speak with him across time and space.
If this person truly could see the future in some way, he likely knew the historical progression of the next several hundred to a thousand years the moment he saw Lei Ting.
...Or perhaps, the fact that the other party learned of the future's development was itself triggered by the key node of 'seeing something from the future.'
And Lei Ting's arrival, everything he had experienced, and even the enemy's choices and actions, were all necessary steps to complete this closed loop.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 环形山900 | Crater 900 | The name of the starship/facility. |
| 阳星 | Yang Xing | Lei Ting's persona/avatar in the current timeline. |
| 雷砺 | Lei Li | A character accompanying Yang Xing. |
| 科密斯特 | Commist | An alien race or type of being. |
| 夏恩 | Shayin | An alien race or type of being, often parasitic. |
| 《关于跃迁、能量与冗余》 | *On Warp, Energy, and Redundancy* | A technical text written by Lei Ting. |
| 凝望者 / 凝望 | Gazer / Gaze | A powerful entity or collective consciousness; also refers to a specific statue/monument. |
| 新太阳系第三行星 | Third Planet of the New Solar System | Earth (or its equivalent in the New Solar System). |
| 议长 / 前任议长 | Speaker / Former Speaker | A high-ranking political leader. |
