# Chapter 1: Three Realms, Nine Heavens, Land of Ashes (7600)
【As a disciple of Teacher Carlis, I feel both honored and humbled, for even if I exhaust my entire life, I cannot surpass my teacher in any field by even half a step.
But at times like this, Teacher Carlis's close friend, my direct superior, Royal Grand Scholar Lady Mycroft, would comfort me by saying, 'Among a group of people, someone has to be the foil, so why can't it be you? This is your mission.' To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what Lady Mycroft meant, but her tone was sincere, so I'll take it as encouragement from my superior.】
【Teacher Carlis has many disciples, most of them in the field of 'Mobile World City Design.' After all, the more advanced the technology of mobile world cities, the faster they can travel, allowing them to reach the next stable stellar domain in the shortest time after the local star sinks into the Steel Continent. Naturally, this also increases the chances of repelling attacks from Chaos Monsters roaming the dark zones between stellar domains. It is one of the most important disciplines in the entire Shining Region's Ten Thousand Nations, representing the future of civilization.
As for me, I am not one of Teacher's students in this field. To my shame, I was merely an assistant she hired during her explorations of the Steel Continent. That Teacher was willing to accept me as her student and teach me knowledge related to exploration was a stroke of immense fortune. I have benefited greatly from this, and now, neither too big nor too small, I am considered a somewhat renowned Bachelor of Exploration, having started my own family within the Shining Region.】
【But recently, my teacher encountered a small problem.
Her close friend, my superior, Royal Grand Scholar Mycroft Zeloya, mysteriously disappeared during an expedition into the 'Twilight Region.' Before her disappearance, Lady Mycroft secretly sent the maps and logs of her exploration to my elegant, wise, and morally upright teacher via a private psionic communication. Since then, my teacher has always seemed worried, occasionally even holding her head and muttering to herself in a low voice.
"Is that so? So that's how it is... Time flies, it's already been so long..."
Once, as I carefully brought Teacher her coffee with double sugar, I heard her muttering like this. Was she referring to how long she had known Lady Mycroft? It seemed Lady Mycroft's disappearance was indeed a great blow to her.】
【But even so, I never imagined that my teacher, already so accomplished, would embark on another adventure for this reason. After completely liquidating her assets within the Shining Region's Ten Thousand Nations Alliance, this renowned academic master purchased an Ark-class Continental Exploration Vessel. She removed the jewels from her hair and chest, tied her hair into a ponytail, shed her gorgeous and cumbersome formal gown, and changed back into a neat short shirt and trousers. Soon, hundreds of professional explorers, drawn by her reputation, joined her crew, ready to embark once again on an expedition to the 'Twilight Region' under the leadership of this legendary explorer!】
A middle-aged man's hand reached out, stroking the words on an old, worn journal illuminated by light.
A soft sigh could be heard. He stared at the passages on the page, seemingly lost in memory.
"Teacher..." he murmured to himself, then revealed a bitter smile.
【Three Realms, Nine Heavens.】 This is the name of this world. As the name suggests, the so-called Three Realms are the 【Central Realm of the Steel Continent】 where all living beings dwell, the 【Heavenly Sword Realm】 and the 【Earthly Axe Realm】 that intersect with the Central Realm. The Nine Heavens are nine colossal floating continents suspended above the Steel Continent, vast enough to obscure the sky. Unfortunately, due to the Steel Continent's terrifyingly immense gravity, no one has ever ascended to the Nine Heavens. Even the gods can only gaze from afar and sigh.
Countless suns rise and fall across the boundless continent, piercing through the nine layers of heaven and earth. Their dazzling light bestows vitality upon the countless billions of ecosystems on this endless land.
The Steel Continent is vast and limitless. To this day, whether in the 'Age of Gods' one hundred thousand years ago or the 'Age of Chaos' fifty thousand years ago, no explorer has ever reached its end. At its center lies an incredibly vast, bright 'ring-shaped belt' enveloped by a giant cluster of stars—this is the so-called 'Shining Region.'
The Shining Region is the heart of the civilization of ten thousand nations and races. In this bright ring, where one never need worry about the world plunging into darkness when a star sinks into the Steel Continent, all civilizations can eternally bathe in light amidst the cycle of stars alternating, falling, and rising. They also need not fear attacks from Chaos Monsters lurking in the darkness.
The 'Twilight Region' refers to the area outside the Shining Region where scattered stars exist, but where continuous illumination cannot be guaranteed everywhere. There, the sparse stars are also pulled into the earth by the Steel Continent's immense gravity. Even if the Steel Continent eventually creates new stars, that would be hundreds or thousands of years later. Unlike the Shining Region, the Twilight Region does not have dozens or hundreds of other stars to continue illuminating the area once one star falls to the earth.
Therefore, the 'Mobile World Cities'—the colossal colonies built by the Ten Thousand Nations in this region—must carry tens of billions of people, racing across the continent, chasing one rising and falling star after another to bask in their light.
It is precisely for this reason that all life living on the Steel Continent, regardless of how bizarre their forms, call themselves 【Light Chasers】.
Despite thorough preparations, due to various circumstances, 'Mobile World Cities' often fail to reach another solar region before their energy reserves are depleted, causing everyone in the entire world city to die from the cold or be swallowed by the Chaos in the darkness. After all, a 'Stable Stellar Domain' with a stable stellar cycle system is extremely rare and precious. Each one represents a living environment similar to the Shining Region, capable of sustaining hundreds of billions of people and over a dozen mobile world cities.
Thus, the Twilight Region is very dangerous. During explorations, explorers often discover the ruins of cities destroyed thousands or tens of thousands of years ago. Chaos Monsters living outside the Twilight Region, in the 【Lightless Zone】, occasionally lurk into the Twilight Region, attacking mobile cities attempting to relocate when a sun falls and the light fades.
Legend has it that one hundred thousand years ago, during the Age of Gods, the deities could create stars in the Twilight Region and build vast floating city clusters around them, or even massive energy arrays enveloping entire stars, creating stable zones of light and brilliant civilizations. But fifty thousand years ago, all the gods mysteriously lost their divine power. Countless floating cities fell. Even the energy cages capable of imprisoning stars, having lost their divine power, could not withstand the overwhelming gravity, collapsing and perishing upon the Steel Continent as the celestial bodies fell.
This was a dark age lasting nearly twenty thousand years. The extinction of countless lives, the destruction of countless civilizations, and the dissipation of infinite light caused the endless Chaos Monsters living outside the 'Twilight Region' in the 'Lightless Zone,' devoid of any starlight, to swarm forth. These greatest natural enemies of civilization and life gorged themselves on everything during that period. Bereft of the gods' protection, the masses were powerless against this sudden destruction and could only retreat from the Twilight Region back to the Shining Region. Even now, in some remote corners of the Twilight Region, one can still see the terrifying remnants of that war, with mournful winds howling through the ruins.
But at this desperate moment, infinite light descended from the 【Heavenly Sword Realm】 and the 【Earthly Axe Realm】.
It was a Holy Sword, a Divine Axe, and countless thousands of 'weapons' of various shapes. They fell from two unknown worlds that had remained unchanged since antiquity, intersecting with the Steel Continent, slaying endless Chaos. The Light Chasers, who had been powerless against the Chaos, picked up these 'Divine Vessels' that had descended from the ends of heaven and earth. The heroic sacrifices of countless champions ended the 'Age of Chaos' and drove all Chaos Monsters back to the Lightless Zone.
They believe these 'Divine Vessels' are the remains of the long-departed gods. Those capable of barely controlling the 'Heaven-Opening Holy Sword' and the 'Demon-Slaying Divine Axe' are the supreme leaders of the Shining Region's Ten Thousand Nations Alliance: the 'Heavenly Sword Empress' and the 'Demon-Slaying Grand Lord.' To this day, anyone—even the child of a criminal or an exile—who can master a Divine Vessel will have their sins automatically erased and directly become a noble of the Ten Thousand Nations Alliance, shouldering the responsibility of guarding the frontier.】
【The Heavenly Sword Empress personally bid farewell to my teacher. Her Majesty blessed Teacher's vessel, the 'Reignition,' wishing her a successful exploration and return. At that time, due to the birth of my eldest daughter, I could not follow Teacher to the Twilight Region. This was, I must say, a great regret. But my magnanimous Teacher Carlis did not blame me, her assistant and student, for my dereliction. Instead, she congratulated me on my daughter's birth and offered to name her—this was an honor for me and my wife, and a blessing for my daughter.】
【"Let's call her 'Siberia.' I remember she should be called that. I must say, this is quite nostalgic. You fellow, you really have a connection."】
【Although Teacher's words were a bit strange, her sincere tone and genuine blessings were not false. And so, my eldest daughter, Siberia Farster, received her name. Her smile as she bit her fingers was the greatest happiness of my life.】
【Over a decade passed. Teacher Carlis's explorations yielded rich rewards. Amidst the rising and falling stars, she discovered several ancient floating city ruins from the Age of Chaos and found a new Stable Stellar Domain. Teacher had a unique talent in this regard—a special nose for finding places suitable for life. To be honest, with some disrespect, I always thought this had little to do with Teacher's academic knowledge; it was a God-given gift!
During this time, my second child was about to be born—a boy. But just as I was thinking about what name to give him, bad news arrived.】
【It was a gloomy afternoon. The artificial sky of the City of Knowledge was slowly closing, beginning to fully absorb the sun's radiance. The many scholars living there finished their work and returned home to rest. I was reviewing several graduate students' theses when I unexpectedly received a communication from a senior fellow disciple. Only then did I learn, to my shock, that my teacher, full of the spirit of exploration, had returned to the embrace of light deep in the distant Twilight Region. A suddenly falling star had crashed into the Steel Continent. A torrent of blazing flames swallowed everything within three light-months. My teacher, hundreds of professional explorers, and two thousand five hundred crew members were thus dissolved in the overly brilliant light.】
【Teacher died in a glorious exploration. This was a tragedy for all the ten thousand nations and races of the Shining Region. The Heavenly Sword Empress and the Demon-Slaying Grand Lord jointly stated that the passing of Baron Carlis was a loss for all Light Chasers. All colonists living in the Stable Stellar Domain Teacher had discovered mourned her death for three minutes. For a scholar, this was the highest honor. But I still couldn't believe that the elegant and wise great scholar, the most famous stellar astronomer, could die from such a simple astronomical phenomenon. Yet facts were facts. Teacher was indeed never coming back. I was mad with grief at the time, even regretting not dying alongside Teacher in that great exploration.
But soon, even more shocking news arrived. Half a year after Teacher's departure, after all the turmoil had settled, I suddenly received an extremely secret psionic communication, along with Teacher's secret will!
It contained an advanced small exploration vessel, a large fortune, several information crystals packed full, and most importantly, star charts of all the regions Teacher had explored over the years! And on these star charts were several specially marked points. Coincidentally, the location of Teacher's 'death' was exactly within the area marked by one of these points! There were even several marked points and path maps located outside the current Twilight Region, deep within the Lightless Zone!
Teacher Carlis bequeathed all these properties to me unconditionally, and also left behind a meaningful 'prophecy.'】
【'On the day the fuel is exhausted and the fire is extinguished, the flames shall burn again.'】
My student, Alpha Farster, son of the Silver Fairy, an ordinary man who is not ordinary, you do not yet know your purpose for existence, but I do.
Go, to the edge of the Steel Continent, the frontier of the world. You must open that door, then go to the center of the continent, the core of the Three Realms, and extinguish the current flame—that is something only you can do.
【A month later, I left. I bid farewell to my wife and children, leaving them a great fortune, and decided to follow the star chart Teacher left behind to explore the unknown. Although I didn't understand what Teacher meant at all, I knew that this was indeed something only I could do. I wanted to become the greatest explorer on the entire Steel Continent—that was my dream, sealed away by love and responsibility. And now, because of Teacher's will, because of the reawakened curiosity, the selfish me decided to once again embark on a journey that belonged only to me.】
【No one else, just myself and twenty-five artificial intelligence crew members. I could vaguely sense the surging undercurrents lurking behind Teacher. I didn't even dare tell this news to any close friends. Publicly, I claimed I had suddenly gone mad and wanted to go out for a spin alone. There was nothing strange about that—explorers are basically that kind of person, struck by a whim, striding out the door, and not returning for over a decade.】
【The exploration vessel Teacher left me was truly advanced. Absorbing the sun's light, I quickly jumped out of the Shining Region and arrived in the Twilight Region. After decades away from exploration, I was a bit rusty at first, even misidentifying directions and taking tens of thousands of light-years of detours. But soon, I picked up my professional knowledge again and transformed back into the capable assistant beside that great explorer—but this time, I was the captain.
However, strangely enough, although decades had passed, the number of colonies in the Twilight Region had decreased rather than increased. I wandered through familiar areas for seven hundred thousand light-years, passing through hundreds of colonies, only to find that the number of stars had decreased by about a third compared to before. This was highly abnormal. Decades were very short compared to the thousands of years of a star's lifespan on the Steel Continent. Even if their ultimate fate was to fall to the earth, they shouldn't have perished by a third in such a short time.
I continued wandering. More and more discoveries confirmed my guess: the number of stars was rapidly decreasing—both those capable of nurturing life and those that were not. Originally, of the endless stars suspended over the Steel Continent, only about one in a hundred billion could be used by us as sources of life. This was even more true in the Twilight Region. Even within a range of hundreds of thousands of light-years, there were only a few hundred stars of suitable size and height that we could utilize. In the Age of Gods, the deities could move floating continents and freely adjust distances to make the most of the many suns. But for Light Chasers bound to the surface of the continent by gravity, we could only pray.
Perhaps because I had previously lived in the Shining Zone with its endless stars, I wasn't very sensitive to the number of stars. But now, in the Twilight Region where every star was precious, I could see it very clearly. Even so, of those mere hundreds of stars, a third had decreased. Many mobile world cities I was familiar with were now gone, their populations having vanished without a trace. I believed this was no coincidence. Leaving this colonial region for another colonial region millions of light-years away would likely be the same.】
【The disappearance of so many stars, and Teacher's death—no, disappearance—must have something hidden behind them! To uncover this truth, I began to delve deep into the Twilight Region, searching for possible clues. Around the colonies, all traces had been erased by someone. The trajectories of stellar movements no longer existed. But I believed that no one could erase all traces of these billions of stars. Deep in the Twilight Region, there must still be clues they couldn't erase.
Soon, following the star chart Teacher left behind, I followed a safe route deep into the Twilight Region. There were almost no colonies of the Ten Thousand Nations here. If there were any, they were just isolated frontier cities. And right here, I did find a clue! I saw the trajectories of tens of thousands of stars sliding beneath the Nine Heavens. The long space-time grooves left by their movement were so obvious that I could instantly see the direction they were heading.
And the direction they were heading was towards the ring of my homeland, the Shining Region.】
【I must say, I began to feel confused. Why? The Shining Region has endless stars and lacks no light. In recent decades, I had never felt any sign of dimming... In fact, many grand scholars had recently proposed moving stars from the Shining World into the Twilight Region to open more colonies. Otherwise, even the habitable zones within the Shining Region were about to be filled by the life that had multiplied over these tens of thousands of years.
Could it be that they planned to gather the stars of the Twilight Region to expand the boundaries of the Shining Region? But that was too much effort for too little gain. Moving stars was no simple task. Apart from the Heavenly Sword Empress and the Demon-Slaying Grand Lord, no more than twenty people in the entire Shining Region could accomplish this. Even if they joined forces, they couldn't move billions upon billions of stars in just a few decades! There must be an even greater mystery behind this!】
【With this doubt, I ended this exploration and returned home exhausted. But what greeted me was not the smiling faces of my wife and daughter, nor disgust at my long absence... I would have preferred disgust, because what I saw was an empty home and a letter left by the Ashes Order.
The Ashes Order is a mysterious religious order that appeared after the fall of the gods. They control a large number of Divine Vessels and claim they are the remaining embers left after the gods' fall. They nominally acknowledge the Heavenly Sword Empress and the Demon-Slaying Grand Lord as their leaders, but are actually controlled by the order's Council of Elders, responsible for managing the granting and retrieval of all Divine Vessels.
They and I were basically from two different worlds—one was a violent political group with real power, the other a scholar from the City of Knowledge. But today, I received their ruthless threat. The letter coldly informed me that my wife and daughter were currently imprisoned in a secret location. They warned me not to continue investigating the changes in the stars of the Twilight Region, and to leave the Shining Region, or else their lives would be in danger, and I would surely die.】
【At the same time, to prove their resolve, they sent a small hand bone—the bone of my son's hand. I imagine if I didn't listen to them, the next thing they'd send would be his head.
Besides anger, my heart was filled with fear. I woke from my overly grand fantasies and realized I was just an ordinary man. Stripped of the halo cast by Teacher Carlis, I was merely a somewhat known explorer, an ordinary Bachelor of Stellar Studies. Forget about opposing the Ashes Order; if they merely hinted to the leaders of the City of Knowledge, I would lose all my glory and become insignificant dust by the roadside.】
【I suspect Teacher Carlis's disappearance was also related to them. Those capable of moving stars, and that accidental starfall—if there was no connection, I absolutely wouldn't believe it.
But even if I didn't believe it, even if I was unwilling, what could I do? I was just a beaten dog, forced to flee in disgrace. I sat in the exploration vessel Teacher had given me, wandering aimlessly through the Twilight Region... But could I really let go of the truth? Teacher's disappearance, the shifting of the stars, the whereabouts of my missing wife and daughter... They threatened me with their lives, but gave no information that they were still alive. How could I believe they would spare them and merely keep them imprisoned?】
【But I could only go far away, far away, no longer paying attention to the changes in the stars. I could only go far away, to the frontier of the world, the deepest part of the Twilight.】
【I arrived at the Lightless Zone. I arrived at a marked point on Teacher's star chart.】
A middle-aged man's hand stroked the words on the journal. The ink of the last passage was very clear, as if written not long ago. Then, the hands closed the journal and placed it into a bag at his side.
"Teacher, I have followed your guidance and come to this place."
On a seemingly 'small' hill, beside an exploration vessel with a smooth, sturdy hull that looked very advanced, a middle-aged man raised his head to gaze at the distant light.
Standing on the Steel Continent, on a 'hill' that was 'merely' seventeen million two hundred and ninety thousand meters high, on top of an undulation of the earth the size of two 'Mobile World Cities,' a silver-haired, red-eyed man, known as the 'Son of the Silver Fairy,' looked wearily towards the bright distance.
He could see billions upon billions of suns rising and falling across the boundless Steel Continent, bringing bright light to the darkness. But at the same time, dark Chaos clusters moved with them, hiding in all the dark zones without suns, lurking, waiting, waiting for the day the suns fell and all the cities chasing the suns lost their protection.
Similarly, he could see, at the center of all this, in the very middle of these nine layers of heaven and earth, these three great worlds, these Three Realms and Nine Heavens, a giant star that could never be seen in the Shining Region or the Twilight Region!
It was an incredibly huge, incredibly massive star—a black giant that, by its mere existence, seemed to devour all sense of existence in this world, annihilating all light!
The entire Steel Continent was merely an accretion disk orbiting this black giant star. The infinite stars were merely specks of light mist surrounding this black giant star. And the Shining Region, upon which all civilization and all living beings depended for survival, was merely a thin, irregular, narrow ring-shaped zone surrounding it.
Was it truly a star? But how could a star be so massive! The black giant attracted everything, rotated everything. It turned, as if it were the axis of these Three Realms and Nine Heavens, this infinite world!
The middle-aged man could see that at its edge, where the Steel Continent contacted its boundary, an incredibly intense light was being released. Countless stars in the Shining Zone rose and fell within this light, releasing endless vitality... But, for some reason, any intelligent life, anyone at all, could instinctively know that this giant star that illuminated the 'Shining Region,' this 'radiance' that had nurtured countless beings, had actually long since died.
It had long been extinguished.
Everything now—the seemingly magnificent billions of stars, the endless light—was merely a tiny remnant of embers left from the most glorious moment of this world.
"On the day the fuel is exhausted and the fire is extinguished, the flames shall burn again."
Carlis's student, Mycroft's subordinate, Siberia's father, this ordinary man named Alpha Farster, was murmuring in confusion.
"Could it be... this black star..."
"Is it the one that is to be reignited?"