Chapter 510: Space-Time Shuttle, the Space-Time Transit Station, and Its Manager

Under the night sky, the clouds were like a sea, reflecting the bright moonlight.

Chen Shu traveled above the clouds, his figure like a blade, cleaving through the cold air of the high altitude; in the entire world, only the bright moon in the sky was above him.

"Crown Princess Zhusha reminds you: current speed, 5.25 times the speed of sound; flight altitude, 16,000 meters; landing is expected to begin in ten minutes. Please descend to 12,000 meters in four minutes. Your destination is in a no-fly zone; the optimal landing point for switching to other modes of transport has been planned for you..."

The voice in the bone-conduction earphones was very sweet, accompanied by "Your Name" sung by Wen Han.

5.25 times the speed of sound was already very terrifying.

One must know that Chen Shu had only just ascended to the Ninth Stage and had not yet stabilized.

After stabilizing, reaching a flight speed of six or seven times the speed of sound would be absolutely no problem. As he continued to cultivate and his Spirit Power Quality further improved, he would be much faster than this speed when he reached the mid-stage, late-stage, or even the peak of the Ninth Stage.

And as of now, among all people under the gods in the world, the fastest flyer was most likely the contemporary Sword Master; the Sword Sect's Sword-Leading Flight Technique was indeed very strong.

How fast was the Sword Master's flight speed?

There was no accurate data, only guesses.

Many military experts and ancient cultivation enthusiasts had concluded with estimates of a top speed of seven to eight times the speed of sound. In any case, no matter what, the Sword Master's flight speed certainly could not compare to mainstream Hunter Aircraft—although Hunter Aircraft were designed according to the specifications of top-tier Artifacts, had special materials, and carried extremely strong Defense Rune groups and Spiritual Energy Shields, they were still very fragile compared to Ninth Stage Cultivators. If a Hunter Aircraft could not be faster than a Ninth Stage Cultivator, then it had no meaning for existence in front of a Ninth Stage Cultivator.

Therefore, the Sword Master's top speed would not exceed eight or nine times the speed of sound.

However, it was foreseeable that if Chen Shu continued to cultivate like this, it might not be long before his top flight speed exceeded this number, until even the most advanced Hunter-34 in the world could not outfly him.

The world at this speed was truly quiet; the undulating sea of clouds looked like a glowing blanket under the moonlight, being pulled backward by someone.

Chen Shu began to descend in altitude according to the navigation.

By this time, he was almost back to Yujing—

Sure enough, after reaching the Ninth Stage, borrowing the Square Body Stone Tablet had become much easier; even the people at the local Historical Relics Administration did not ask him for a reason. If it had been the Eighth Stage him coming to borrow the Stone Tablet, even with the identity of half a "historian," it would certainly have been much more troublesome.

Seven Stone Tablets, gathered to form a complete route map.

It had taken almost no effort.

After returning to Yujing, Chen Shu continued to make preparations.

At the very least, he had to give the Spirit Sect a heads-up. Not only did he need to inform them that he was already at the Ninth Stage, but he also had to tell them that he would be disappearing for a period of time. He didn't want them to find that he had evaporated into thin air when they had something to notify him about, such as telling him to go to Nanzhou for training.

He didn't want them to think he had deserted in the face of battle.

He also had to find a plausible excuse to explain things to Xiaoxiao, Chen Banxia, Wei Lvshi, and Chen Jiaoshou.

As for others, posting a status update would suffice.

……

In late March, Qingqing was also breaking through to the Ninth Stage.

Chen Shu received a letter sent by the New Saint; it had been sent from his hometown and had drifted on the road for a long time.

The content of this letter was not much.

The New Saint roughly spoke of what he had seen and heard while traveling the world these past few days, seeing from the details how they from the Zhu Ti Wei Mian had changed this Plane, but how it had not had much impact on the historical process of the world in the past twenty years, controlling the butterfly effect to concentrate and erupt gradually after the year 5020. He felt deeply moved by the complexity of the work Ning Qing from the Zhu Ti Wei Mian had done for this, as well as her astonishing ability to control the world, and was filled with immense emotion for a time.

He then mentioned the trip Chen Shu was about to begin, and thus introduced that manager of the Space-Time Node in more detail, suggesting that Chen Shu bring him some small gifts, and asked Chen Shu to send him his regards.

It was clear that person was an old acquaintance of the New Saint.

An old acquaintance he would never see again in eternity.

Chen Shu had just finished reading the letter when the person beside him had also awakened.

Ning Qing looked at him calmly, her gaze dropping to aim at the letter filled with beautiful handwriting in his hand:

"Sent by the New Saint?"

"Mm! You aren't delirious this time!"

"Few people become delirious when ascending to the Ninth Stage; even Zhang Suannai didn't." Ning Qing glanced at him lightly, her expression as if to say that only a brain-dead person would still have their sanity affected when ascending to the Ninth Stage.

"Congratulations! You've become the third person of this generation to ascend to the Ninth Stage, even faster than those weakling netizens!"

"Boring..."

Ning Qing couldn't be bothered to pay attention to him, continued reading the letter, and asked, "What does the letter say?"

"See for yourself."

Chen Shu handed the letter paper to her.

Snow-white and thin paper, red lines, black ink; it hadn't been artificially aged, yet it possessed a sense of the era. This era was the era of the internet; few people used such a traditional and solemn way to convey language anymore.

Ning Qing scanned it and handed it back to Chen Shu.

"Finished?"

"Mm."

"So fast!?"

"..."

"Fine, fine, fine, I'm brain-dead." Facing her gaze, Chen Shu couldn't help but frown, then asked again, "When are we leaving?"

"Up to you."

"Let's prepare a bit more."

"Mm."

"No one-word answers."

"Can do."

"All... right."

One day later, March 22nd.

Chen Shu had prepared everything. Standing in the courtyard, facing the little girl and the little cat-girl standing side-by-side before him—who had a large height difference but almost identical expressions, both looking up and staring straight at them—he spread his hands and said, "There's no help for it, one of you has to go to work, the other has to go to school, both have proper things to do. Only Qingqing and I are idle, with nothing to do, so we can only go out for a birthday trip like this..."

"..."

"..."

"Xiaoxiao, remember to take good care of Taozi."

"Okay."

"Taozi, remember to take good care of Xiaoxiao."

"Okay."

"We're leaving."

"Okay."

"Okay."

"You two are so alike..."

"..."

"..."

"We're really leaving now."

Chen Shu and Qingqing walked out of the courtyard gate.

Two figures, one large and one small, exchanged a glance and silently followed them to the entrance, keeping their feet inside the threshold while leaning their bodies out, watching the pair walk away without blinking, then exchanged another glance.

Chen Shu turned back and waved at them again.

It wasn't that he didn't want to take them along; it was truly that bringing them would increase trouble and danger.

Chen Shu was currently not very proficient in his understanding and control of Space-Time Items and Space-Time Energy; if he brought them, it would first consume more energy, which might require using the Wishing Dragon, and after these days of getting along, he had developed some feelings for the Wishing Dragon and did not want to weaken it unless absolutely necessary.

Chen Shu even kept his belongings to a minimum, and had even left the Jinguan Secret Realm behind.

Furthermore, this was his first time doing something like this, so he lacked experience and felt uncertain and insecure about the process.

"Boom!"

The two shot up into the sky.

They broke the sound barrier in an instant.

About ten minutes later.

At the edge of the jurisdiction of Yujing, deep in the mountains and forests, the most primordial energy of the universe erupted, tearing through the cosmic barrier under the influence of the Space-Time Item, instantly connecting two universes, and a black hole appeared in the sky as a result.

Or rather, a black gate, a space gate.

The space gate connected to another universe; no light shone out from within, and any light that touched it vanished completely, to the point that it emitted an absolute blackness devoid of even a sliver of light, surpassing all pigments in the world that absorb light.

Profound, mysterious.

Chen Shu and Ning Qing exchanged a glance, stepped forward into the air, were enveloped by Space-Time Energy, and then stepped into this black "gate."

Silent and soundless, without light or wind.

It was as if "space" had also ceased to exist.

The world became extremely quiet all at once.

If there was still a "world" here.

How quiet was it?

There was no sound at all, not even the subtle sounds of one's own body; there was no sense of touch, no vision, no breathing, no heartbeat, and one could not even perceive the existence of one's own life. Every perception vanished at this moment, and even thought existed only in an indescribable way, as if the entire person had been completely annihilated in this instant, with no material existence remaining.

This was a completely different experience from the flashy, colorful space-time tunnels Chen Shu had seen in films and television works.

He did not know what it was like when he came over back then; he had no memories of this in his mind, which might be related to the fact that he did not travel over "alive," but rather abandoned his physical body and traveled over as nothing but a mortal Spirit Soul.

It might also be related to him being too weak at that time.

He did not know the specific reason.

Not long after, perception began to return.

There was still no light, no sound, and no physiological perception, yet he could receive information.

This information was very chaotic and varied, as if coming from different, bizarre, and ever-changing universes, Planes, and civilizations, most of which were difficult to understand.

Some information was as boring as a stone experiencing wind and rain, while other information seemed as magnificent as the rise and fall of a Plane, or the moment a star expanded, the sudden destruction of a planet, or the life story of someone, or a sentence, a song, a story, or the development and evolution of a certain object or even a galaxy or Plane within a civilization...

Fortunately, having a girlfriend who studied this field, Chen Shu was able to know that these were Spiritual Power, information leaking out from different universes and Planes.

This made him feel as if he had become an information-receiving device, traveling through the air filled with countless data, information, and electromagnetic waves, forced to receive it. Even though the vast majority just flashed through his mind and were quickly forgotten, it was still an incredibly wonderful, indescribable, and charming process.

"Wonderful, wonderful..."

Chen Shu felt deeply moved in his heart.

If a person often walked and traveled between universes like this, could they become a remarkable sage just by relying on these Spiritual Power that bumped into them?

It seemed like a long time had passed, yet it also seemed like only a very short time, and his perception gradually recovered.

It was as if he existed again and had arrived in a space once more—as a biological entity with a physical form, one naturally must be in a space to truly exist.

What reassured him was that the first thing to recover was his sense of touch; he felt the sensation of another hand against his own.

Immediately, light appeared before his eyes.

It was an upright, oval-shaped luminous object; it seemed to have no physical substance and was ethereal, with a faint mist swirling on its surface, and it was the only light in this seemingly boundless dark space.

With the help of its light, Chen Shu looked around.

Qingqing was standing quietly beside him, expressionless, seemingly still savoring the Spiritual Power she had touched earlier.

This space was very much like a Mijing, like the depths of a desolate space, with no end in sight; the ground he stepped on was also void space, yet it had a tactile sensation, as if there were a pane of non-existent glass. Even with the oval luminous object, the light it emitted could not reach the end of this space, nor was there any reflection, so as long as one lost sight of the luminous object while turning their gaze, the field of vision was pure, absolute darkness.

"Is this a Space-Time Node..."

"Probably."

"I can actually breathe here, but there is no air, and sound can actually travel..."

"It is the realization of a series of laws."

"I seem to have been weakened."

"Space-Time suppression."

"The weakening is not very significant."

"Protection from a Space-Time Item."

"You are a competent Secretary, Ning."

"Someone is coming."

A door opened in front of them.

Several figures walked in, talking as they walked; judging by their voices, it sounded like casual chatter between ordinary friends, not as serious as he had imagined, and this pure Mandarin—at least much purer than that of Yiguo—made him feel very cordial.

"I bet a meal of fish."

"That's not fair..."

"Woo!"

"How is it not fair? Whoever loses pays."

"You're the only one who likes eating fish..."

"Wow! It's a person!"

"Stop making noise..."

Chen Shu fixed his gaze on the figure in the middle, a man who was somewhat handsome but whose looks were far inferior to his own, with a very gentle expression and normal attire.

The two sides locked eyes.

Chen Shu smiled slightly, took the lead in cupping his hands in a salute, and said very politely, "Lord Station Master, greetings."

Those few people were stunned for a moment.