The mont of stillness passed, and with it ca the true beginning of their journey.
The ship hovered in the silent vastness of space, the Fox Scion world now a distant sphere below them, slowly rotating with quiet dignity. The darkness around them was imnse, yet it did not feel empty. It felt filled with presence, with distant lights, drifting bodies, and unseen forces that shaped the cosmos.
Lin Mu stood within the control chamber, his attention shifting from the view outside to the task ahead.
He reached into his storage and retrieved a jade slip.
It was simple in appearance, yet carried imnse importance. This was the guide given to him by the Rune Dwarves, containing the coordinates of the hidden base of the dwarves. The very destination that had drawn him away from the Fox Scion world.
Lin Mu activated it.
The jade slip responded imdiately.
SHUA
A projection appeared above it.
A three dinsional map ford in the air, rotating slowly, its structure layered with depth and complexity that surpassed any ordinary map.
ng Bai leaned forward, his eyes widening.
"What... is this?" he murmured.
He had seen maps before.
Many of them.
But they were all flat, drawn across parchnt or etched into jade, showing paths, regions, and landmarks in a way that was casy to interpret.
But this was sothing else entirely.
The map existed in space.
Points floated at different depths. Lines curved and twisted. Markers shifted as
if representing motion rather than fixed position.
And the symbols... They were cryptic.
ng Bai stared at it for a few seconds before rubbing his forehead.
"This is making my head hurt," he said.
Lin Mu did not respond imdiately.
Even for him, this was unfamiliar.
He narrowed his eyes, focusing.
The map required a different way of thinking. It was not ant to be read from
a single perspective. It required understanding of position, distance, and
movent across three dinsions.
Thankfully, Lin Mu was no stranger to such concepts.
Teleportation.
Spatial manipulation.
His mastery over these arts had forced him to think beyond flat
representations long ago. Even so, it took him a few minutes to fully grasp the structure of the map. Once he did everything began to make sense.
"The central marker..." Lin Mu said quietly.
He focused on the largest point within the projection.
A massive glowing sphere.
"The star."
It dominated the map, its presence anchoring everything else.
And around it were rings.
Fifteen of them.
Each representing the orbital path of a planet.
So markers were fixed.
Others shifted slightly, indicating movent along their respective paths.
"These are the planets of the system," Lin Mu said.
ng Bai blinked.
"There are so many..."
Lin Mu nodded.
"Fifteen in total."
His gaze moved across the map.
He identified their current position.
"The Fox Scion world is here," he said, pointing to the fifth orbit.
ng Bai followed his gesture.
"So this is where we are..."
Lin Mu continued.
"Out of these fifteen, only two are habitable."
He pointed to another marker further out.
"The seventh planet."
ng Bai leaned closer.
"What about it?"
"It has life," Lin Mu said. "But not the kind we are familiar with."
He paused briefly.
"There are no beasts. No intelligent beings. Only primitive plant life."
ng Bai frowned.
"That sounds... peaceful."
Lin Mu shook his head slightly.
"The environnt is hostile. Toxic gases fill the atmosphere. Energies that
would cripple even an immortal exist there."
ng Bai's expression changed.
"Then it's basically uninhabitable."
"Yes,"
Lin Mu's gaze shifted further.
"The remaining planets are barren."
Empty, silent and lifeless.
"And beyond the seventh..."
His eyes focused on the larger markers.
"Gas planets."
Massive bodies composed of swirling gases, their forms constantly shifting,
their surfaces impossible to stand upon.
One of them stood out.
Larger
all the others
Even from their current position, Lin Mu could faintly perceive it in the
distance. A colossal mass, its size dwarfing everything else in the system.
"That one..." ng Bai said, pointing.
"The largest gas giant in this system," Lin Mu confird.
It had no na.
No significance beyond its sheer scale.
Yet its presence was undeniable.
Lin Mu's attention returned to the map.
"There used to be another planet."
ng Bai looked at him.
"Used to?"
Lin Mu nodded.
"It no longer exists as a whole."
He adjusted the map slightly, revealing a region between the third and fourth.
orbital paths.
"This is where it was."
The marker there was different.
Fragnted.
Broken into multiple pieces.
"This was once a habitable world," Lin Mu said. "One of the three that
supported life."
ng Bai's eyes widened.
"The place we're going?" he rembered.
"Yes, but it was destroyed."
The words carried weight.
"Not completely," Lin Mu continued. "But enough that it broke apart."
The fragnts drifted within that region, forming what was now known as the
Runweld Barren World.
"The hidden base of the dwarves is sowhere within this debris."
ng Bai stared at the map.
"That sounds... hard to find."
Lin Mu nodded.
"It is."
He examined the coordinates embedded within the jade slip.
"They indicate a general region, not an exact point."
ng Bai frowned.
"So how long will it take?"
Lin Mu paused.
He calculated.
"At the closest alignnt, the distance between the Fox Scion world and the
Runweld Barren World would be over twenty million kiloters."
ng Bai's eyes widened further.
"That's..."
Lin Mu continued.
"If the target region is positioned on the opposite side of the star, the distance
increases significantly."
ng Bai leaned back slightly.
"So... it could take a very long ti."
Lin Mu did not deny it.
Before he could respond further, Daoist Chu spoke.
"There is no need for concern."
His voice was calm.
"Travel within space is different."
Lin Mu glanced at him.
"There is no air resistance," Daoist Chu explained. "The ship can accelerate
continuously without loss of speed."
He gestured toward the control arrays.
"Once montum is built, it can be maintained with minimal energy
expenditure."
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