The earth roared like thunder traversing hidden veins, mountains crumbled, and scarlet smoke rose from a thousand pits.
The hands of time seemed to have jumped straight to the apocalypse.
Terrified people strained their eyes toward the countless trails of light gliding across the dark horizon.
–Who’s the big star?–
–Of course, whoever has the biggest name!–
–Who else could it be? The one man lighting up all the Shibin Wastes tonight, you tell me who that is! It has to be…–
Two Hubvilles shot searchlight-like beams into the sky.
A speeding train felt two gazes locked onto it.
[Who the hell’s glaring at me.]
{Based on the impact assessment of the past three years, you, without any team packaging or fame, have been certified as a super celebrity shining across two Hubvilles!}
[What?]
The speeding train, sprinting to save lives, was a bit stunned.
{You are the brightest existence tonight.}
{You have been certified as a big star!}
{You have qualified for transcendence!}
Swoosh, swoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The reporter’s notebook, densely packed, surged toward the phantom train.
[I have been certified as a big star!]
The train attained supreme honor.
–Uh?–
Yang Zicang and the others stared dumbfounded at the countless snowflake-like slips of paper fluttering in. They seemed less like paper and more like tiny snowflakes—or even dandruff.
Narrow beams of light pierced through the shattered Eternal Night, casting gray-white columns of light, as if daylight itself was bursting through the midnight barrier, emerging directly!
{I, Matt Chao, am a big superstar?}
–No time left, hurry and get on, little Matt Chao!–
The train, filled with ghostly silhouettes, roared along its luminous trajectory, crashing towards a sky that seemed like a broken patchwork of light.
These cars held over a thousand people; for the first time, this subway was packed full of humanity, and for the first time, it soared tens of thousands of feet into the sky.
–We’re flying… we’re flying.–
People packed densely atop one another inside the train craned their necks to look out through the ghostly, translucent car body. The shattered earth below was covered in dark red scars, with lava even churning in some places.
But in the next second, yellow sand swirled as a broken, skeletal army howled and charged towards the train, tearing and slashing.
The small paper talismans inside the train erupted with energy, opening up a twisting energy course that spread across the inverted dome of the sky, like a labyrinth of crooked paths.
The shadow train wove through it at the speed of light.
In the sky, the Editor-in-Chief’s eyes blazed with a magnificent sheen. It seemed as if invisible blades were constantly hacking through the air, myriads of times, at a figure of bones that continuously dodged and shifted. She turned her head to look in the distance, where a phantom train was closing in at high speed.
{Have you come to die!}
She shouted loudly.
More skeletal armies emerged, slashing at the celestial labyrinth passages.
Though the passage wavered several times on the brink of collapse, it ultimately held firm.
Whoosh!
The train screeched to a halt, and inside the train windows, the people’s expressions were filled with shock, as if they were a tour group witnessing a battle of the gods up close.
Whoosh! Countless specks of starlight streaked through the carriage and gathered beside the editor-in-chief—it was those little papers.
They surged and converged, carrying vast amounts of unknown energy.
Just as the editor-in-chief was momentarily stunned at the sight of them, suddenly her other self appeared behind her.
–I am July. Sparkle Depths, and you are Dream-Mist. Coral Sands.–
Sparkle Depths whispered in her ear.
–Dear Dream Bubble, for a lingering remnant of a soul, you’ve done well.–
The woman’s form dragged phantom afterimages, her back twisting directly to face this duplicate body.
The five-pointed star Moxel on her chest blazed brilliantly; she thrust a palm forward, unleashing an aura that tore everything apart.
Sparkle Depths let out a soft sigh.
Just before this tattered figure was shattered by her, Sparkle Depths pierced the duplicate body through with a palm blow, but she too was instantly destroyed.
In the next instant, behind the flying editor-in-chief, a fragmented skeleton duplicate body reappeared.
–Nonstop clones, this was once my bloodline of Shattering Reflections?–
Xingmiao did not reply to her, but spoke gently:
–Growing up all over again as a solitary child all these years must have been exhausting. It’s alright—you can now leave in peace.–
The phantom train vanished in a flash, not daring to linger even half a millisecond. The moment those small papers flew out, it had already plunged into a psychic state, racing at breakneck speed toward –Popoli Station.–
Around Xingmiao’s head, a tumult of blurry apparitions appeared— all illusory visions of otherworldly realms, like fleeting dreams and dissolving bubbles.
At the same time, snowflake-like papers wove into a silver-white halo floating above the woman’s head.
The halo emanated a vast and majestic might.
{What is this!}
Beneath the mottled drifting clouds, the woman looked up at the halo with a hint of fear.
Countless murmurs and visions began to surface in the chief editor’s mind.
–These are the memories we once shared.–
Her mind and thoughts fell into disarray, as if awakening countless years of subconscious memories, bringing a tremendous shock to her body and soul.
A withered skeleton gently embraced the injured woman.
_-**It’s okay—you merely forgot. Forgot that incarnating into the earth was your own choice! Now, recall it all!
{No, that’s not true.}
The air beside him suddenly rumbled with a heavy roar.
A mountain-like figure charged forth—beneath his seat was a black sedan, nearly invisible from being crushed, which broke through the etheric space and appeared at high altitude, arcing downward in an assault.
–Chief Editor! Get in the car!–
The woman’s confused gaze suddenly sharpened; she violently whipped her head around, unleashing terrifying shockwaves from her eyes to bombard the person beside her.
{Yes, I am no longer her! So these memories are not mine. Get out!}
The instant those words were uttered, the halo-like circle of angelic light shattered silently.
The pieces of paper instantly coalesced into a white helmet-like hood, enveloping the woman’s head.
Its surface was crisscrossed with ravines while, on the land below, tens of thousands of murky Lethean streams resonated with the sky’s patterned channels, all turning white and emitting beams of light that linked heaven and earth!
Heaven and earth seemed to mourn.
Misty historical phantoms lit up the sky, unfolding nothing but her past.
{Ah!}
The beams shooting back into the firmament, like interlaced chains, trapped the woman who had fully transformed into a psychic form.
She struggled fiercely, summoning psychic phantoms to attack the light.
Xingmiao appeared abruptly behind the charging Mansley. Its head gave a slight nod, and instantly, Mansley’s massive figure, along with the sedan beneath his seat, detonated into nothingness.
–Turning her body into the great expanse of the new world was her own choice. I am merely executing her orders. And the final order was to eliminate the remnant soul born from her attachment to the past.–
{No! Xingmiao, can you really disregard our past bonds so heartlessly?}
–Unfortunately, you are not her. Naïve Ruirui believed that the world could have a beautiful future, but I am the blade she left behind to sever the past.–
The shattered skeleton, carrying world-shattering energy, charged toward the snow-white form bound by beams made of past memories.
In the midst of high-speed movement, several more bones appeared as if teleporting across vast distances, trailing close behind its body, leaving behind starlit after-images.
Boom!
The massive swarm of psychic phantoms struck the light beams, finally shattering them.
In the detached, icy eyes of the rapidly retreating woman, ripples of starlight pulsed and shot forward at high speed.
{I am the chief of all journalists, the true master of this land! I shall forge a new legend!}
–All people of the new world are their own chiefs—all except you and me.–
The two moved swiftly through the sky, one after the other, like twin comets blazing with fire.
Snap! Xingmiao’s body began to burn, emitting ethereal, phantom-like flames.
{What are you doing!}
–The new future has no need for us—this obsession should fade away.–
Xingmiao’s speed surged violently, the black-and-white figures converging together.
The sky exploded with a piercing, blazing white light.
A hurricane-like storm erupted from there, sweeping across the entire Shibin Wastes. Those thrown to the ground struggled to raise their heads and look upward.
High in the sky, countless fragments rained down like meteors, crashing far and wide across the earth.
A tattered cloth spun rapidly in the wind, carried away into the distance.
The spirits within the small luminous ball watched all of this in panic.
They were suddenly hit by a profound sadness, unable to explain what was happening—it felt as though they had lost a beloved family member.
And yet, they didn’t even know that odd figure.
Scattered fragments of dark, iron-like bones, adorned with delicate white patterns, plummeted to all corners of the earth like falling stars in a meteor shower.
As they struck the ground, the Forgotten Creek began to shift back to black. The energy veins of Hubville that connected to it also started retracting, the terrifying fissures across the land healing at an alarming rate.
All the figures vanished from the sky. Above the shattered clouds in the horizon, shreds of sunlight began to seep downward but were quickly swallowed again by thick clouds.
Dawn had broken.
Whoosh~~
Hoo~
The wind gradually subsided, sweeping across the barren, undulating ground.
The twin-tailed girl, gazing at the sky, lost her strength and thudded to her knees on the ground. After a long while, the girl wiped away her tear stains with her sleeve, picked up the Rubik’s Cube lying beside her, and followed the wagon ruts, walking alone step by step toward the far end of the horizon.
End of – covert-agent-yang Part One/ Ground Stars .
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