Bai Xiu left the Guang Ming Bi Lei (Light Barrier) of Xiyin City with Gu Xiaoman.

But shortly after, Bai Xiu returned.

"Miss Meng, the person you are waiting for is not just Xiaoman, nor is it just me."

Bai Xiu took a deep breath, standing before the towering, blazing Bright God Seat, and earnestly asked, "I have come this time to ask a question... is that person still alive?"

Meng Xizhou's expression was complicated.

The scenes revealed by the Forbidden Book Tower varied from person to person.

And the word "fate" is wonderfully unpredictable.

Sometimes, because of a single word, the fates of countless people can be changed.

"I can't say."

Meng Xizhou pondered for a moment, then shook her head. She said solemnly, "Mr. Bai Xiu, who I am waiting for is not important. What's important is... I can feel that that day is coming soon."

That day... is coming soon?

Bai Xiu wanted to say something, but in the end, he stopped himself.

These past four years.

He had almost set foot in every 【Old World】 ruin along the northern continent's border. Mu Wanqiu had given him an extremely detailed and complete map. He had explored every point of suspicion marked on this map... Those places did indeed have fragments of starship civilization remaining, but no matter how he searched, he could not find any clues about 【Extinguished Candle】.

There was no suitable kindling.

He couldn't touch the origin.

Even someone as exceptionally talented as Bai Xiu was blocked by this insurmountable gap.

How could he not want to enter the Source Tower... but even Meng Xizhou, who had fused with the Guang Ming Huo Zhong (Light Seed), was not confident in facing Qinglong. What did he have to participate in this war of the gods?

"I want to go to the Forbidden Book Tower again."

Taking a deep breath.

Xiao Xiu looked at the Bright Goddess before her.

If fate truly had something to show him, if that legendary bow was truly fated for him...

Then he wanted to try again.

Try again, to see if he could find a ray of light in the endless darkness.

……

……

"How long has it been since we left our hometown...?"

"Four years and six months."

"Tsk, remembering it so clearly, do you want to go back?"

"Shh, be quiet! Bishop Lanville is coming!"

In the deep and vast sky, the stars were dim. A huge, azure blue starship sailed through the void. The turbulent airflow was completely blocked by the source energy shield, and there was only a slight turbulence inside the starship.

Several cabin cleaning personnel were whispering.

But soon, the sound stopped abruptly. Several figures walked down the distant corridor. Bishop Lanville would inspect this area every week, but today, Lanville stood respectfully behind a man with several believers, his attitude even more respectful and flattering than the cleaning personnel.

"Lord Hai Tong, our collection task for this week is still 20% behind schedule. Once the starship docks in the windless zone, the difficulty of collecting mithril will be greatly reduced. Can I apply for a postponement of delivery?"

Sage Hai Tong paused in his steps.

After leaving the southern continent, this starship had cut off its external energy supply.

Traveling in the 【Old World】 was not an easy task. Even though the starship had an independent energy production system, it was far from enough to rely solely on the internal ecosystem to self-multiply and supply the survival of ten thousand people.

The Storm needed to dock regularly.

The church's transcendents would take this opportunity to pilot airships from the docking port and collect enough mithril, as well as transcendent fuel containing source matter, in the windless zone.

The former was the raw material for repairing the cabin.

The latter was a temporary reserve in case the ecosystem could not supply it.

In case of an accident, these transcendent fuels could come in handy.

At the beginning of the voyage, the Storm could fully bear the loss of these energies, and even if it occasionally encountered small source matter storm attacks, there was no pressure... But as time passed, the people on board gradually experienced the difficulties of fleeing during the starship era.

Because the Storm Church only selected elites and dignitaries when selecting "fugitives."

So those who stepped onto this starship... were almost all young people.

They were able to work, were in their prime, but also brought a great burden to this starship.

In four years, the starship's population had increased by 20%. This was still the result of the church's best efforts to restrain it. The nature of any race was to reproduce, grow stronger, and leave behind its spark, but this additional 20% of the population had damaged the Storm's internal ecological environment.

The self-reproducing resources within the starship had begun to run short.

Several of the church's sages were each in charge of an area, and their archbishops and bishops needed to lead teams to collect "resources."

At first, the Storm would only dock in the windless zone.

Now...

There had been several emergencies. The Storm temporarily docked in the harsh, unknown void, dispatching church transcendents to collect resources. This behavior was certainly dangerous, but the church had no choice.

The "dignitaries" who were once of high status in the southern continent had lost all their halos here.

The Storm, which was as beautiful as a "utopia" at the beginning of its voyage, had begun to experience divisions and disputes due to resource shortages, and the sages were no longer as harmonious as before.

For all of this, the Storm God Seat followed the old tradition.

Ignoring it, turning a blind eye.

Indeed...

In the eyes of the Storm God Seat, there had never been the word "life." In his view, the transcendents on this entire starship were nothing more than toys to maintain his rule and status.

He wanted to build a giant ship that could brave the wind and waves.

Those believers who believed in him were the drops of water that lifted the giant ship.

There was an old saying that "water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it." This old saying was just a joke to the Storm God Seat, who controlled the entire sea. As long as he was willing, he could pluck every drop of water from the boundless sea.

So... in the Storm God Seat's view, the water in this world could not capsize his boat.

"We can't wait for the windless zone."

Hai Tong said coldly, "Bring back the remaining 20% today."

Lanville was stunned.

He looked out the porthole with a look of fear on his face.

The real world outside the porthole was different from the virtual ecosystem inside the Storm. It seemed like there was never daylight there. No matter when you looked, it was always pitch black.

Eternal darkness.

The environment in the turbulent zone was extremely harsh... For transcendents, if they wanted to carry out daily work, they either had to deploy their domains or wear the source armor from the Northern Continent Underground Research Institute. The Southern Continent's independent creation team, arranged by the God Seat, imitated the "exoskeleton device" manufactured by the source armor. The life-saving effect was very poor and could almost be ignored.

In this case, carrying out collection missions meant that out of a hundred people who went out, only a dozen or so would be able to return.

The efficiency was extremely low.

"I've already chosen the list for you."

Hai Tong took out a stack of paper from his arms and handed it to Lanville. He said calmly, "This collection mission is relatively heavy, requiring at least one hundred people... complete it as soon as possible."

"Lord Hai Tong..."

Lanville clutched the paper, wanting to say something more, but the latter simply waved his hand coldly, interrupting him.

The atmosphere in the entire corridor became cold and solemn.

Lanville was very unwilling, but he could do nothing about it.

Just as he was about to leave silently—

At the corner of the corridor, a figure suddenly appeared.

The man wore a hideous mask with exposed dragon teeth, carried twin sabers at his waist, and his long hair fell to his waist. Although he wore the same Storm Church sage robe as him, the other party's robe was bright red.

This was the person Sage Hai Tong least wanted to see, without exception.

"Red Dragon."

Hai Tong's expression was gloomy, and he said with disgust, "What are you doing here? Have you arranged the tasks that the God Seat ordered?"

The starship docking in the turbulent zone, allowing church members to go out to perform tasks...

Of course, it wasn't a coincidence.

The Storm's resources were beginning to run short. If you wanted to solve the resource problem, there were only two ways.

Increase income, or reduce expenditure.

Increasing income was impossible. Starship technology could not be advanced, and after many years of sailing, no docking area suitable for long-term mining had been found.

So... they could only consider reducing expenditure.

Those newborns who had been born in recent years had been placed in nutrient pods, and were being cared for at the lowest cost. Since the Storm God Seat was determined to leave the southern continent, he was naturally determined to continue and develop his church in the 【Old World】.

Then these babies became the spark for the church's faith to continue.

The cost of raising babies was very low.

But the cost of raising adults, especially those dignitaries... was very high.

In fact, the starship's reserves were quite sufficient. At least there was no major survival crisis at present, but in any case, appropriately "cutting" some people was always a good thing for the starship to reduce its burden.

Thus, there was the mining mission in the turbulent zone.

It was just that there were different opinions within the temple regarding this "downsizing" behavior... Some people believed that if they wanted to sail in the 【Old World】 for a long time, they were destined to pay a price.

Death was unavoidable.

Rather than having the church ask its people to sacrifice themselves voluntarily.

It was better to weave lies and conceal the truth.

Some people also believed that the current starship had not yet encountered a real energy crisis, and that the regular "downsizing" behavior was a bit premature. The growth of newborns would take more than ten years, and there would also be natural deaths within the starship during these ten years. If the scythe was wielded too harshly, there would be obvious gaps in the future.

In fact, the opposition and division of these two opinions mainly came from two people.

Chunli, and Red Dragon.

The Storm God Seat was in seclusion in the temple, recuperating from his injuries. In the battle with Bai Shu, he was seriously injured and had not recovered to this day. He had only appeared twice in four years, both to deal with unavoidable source matter storms.

So Chunli and Red Dragon became the executors of the God Seat's will.

Standing apart, confronting each other!

This was precisely the reason why the Storm God Seat recruited Red Dragon... He needed someone who, when he was in seclusion, could check and balance Chunli, could restrain power, and could keep the high levels of the holy city in balance.

The "God Seat's orders" in Sage Hai Tong's mouth were actually the will of Sage Chunli.

The God Seat was in seclusion.

Chunli, as the head of the holy city, managed many matters of the Storm.

It was just that...

In the past, Sage Chunli was a man of his word, and no one in the entire southern continent dared to confront him.

But now it was different.

"I'm here to pick someone up."

Red Dragon stopped, looked at the bishop in front of him, and said softly, "Bishop Lanville, from today onwards, you are under my command... This living area also belongs to me. Today's 'Turbulent Zone' collection mission is hereby canceled."

Lanville was stunned.

"???"

Sage Hai Tong's forehead bulged with veins, and his expression was extremely ugly.

Red Dragon directly snatched away his bishop and an entire planning area in front of his face. The words just now had no meaning of negotiation at all...

This was a notification!

"Do you know what you're doing?" Sage Hai Tong's voice was low and angry. "Red Dragon, are you trying to declare war on me?"

As soon as he finished speaking.

A punch landed directly on Sage Hai Tong's face.

This sage did not see Red Dragon's attack at all. He only felt a darkness in front of him, and the whole person was thrown out, heavily embedded in a mithril alloy plate, spitting out blood with a whoosh.

"What are you? You're not worthy of me declaring war?"

Red Dragon looked down at the man in front of him with a blank expression.

"Go back and tell Chunli."

"This living area has been taken over by me. This is the God Seat's will."

Hai Tong was completely dumbfounded.

After doing all this, Red Dragon slowly came to the cleaning personnel who had been frightened silly. He bent down, picked up a clean cloth, and said softly.

"Starting from the day we left the Five Continents..."

"Today is four years, six months, and three days since we left our hometown."