Ch53.1 - Hope for the future of us

Editor: Blurcoffee

When the location pin began to shrink rapidly and navigated outside of the Milky Way, Jian Mei was dumbfounded.

He was already a second-year middle schooler and had studied geography and a bit of astronomy. However, he had never expected that this would be outside of his knowledge. After leaving the Milky Way, there were small and big galaxies on the map. The big universe was divided into four large sections and the Milky Way was in the south. When the map began to minimize, it was like a tiny fish from the pond leaping into the sea, surprised by the vastness of the world.

The Milky Way was just an inconspicuous light in the southernmost part of the four large sections on the map. The part of the map where the Milky Way was could no longer be seen after it zoomed out.

The name of the place gradually appeared— Aurora Galaxy, a galaxy far from the Milky Way. There were two planets inhabited by human life in this part of the galaxy; one was the most prosperous Sunset Galaxy, in the south which was at the rear of the Aurora Galaxy. There were numerous planets here, both big and small. They all had their own numbers and names and all of them had signs of human activity.

Within the figurative image of the map, there were flight shuttle orbits between galaxies. Just like the flights of planes and subways on Earth, there were safe routes for spaceships between galaxies.

Jian Mei’s eyes widened. “Impossible…”

This was only the south part of the map and there were still countless of large constellations in the north, west, and east. The universe was extraordinarily vibrant and full of activity. The south wasn’t the largest among the four sections, that was the east. Lu Xingwang’s coordinate point was in the middle of the east. When the coordinate point stopped, it showed the planet where he was on, the Stan Star.

The map gave the distance between them: 30 billion star years.

Jian Mei couldn’t even calculate how long he’d have to sit if he took a plane.

Lu Xingwang asked him, “Have you seen it?”

“I…I’ve seen it.” Jian Mei stuttered a bit. His tone was flat and it was obvious that he hadn’t recovered yet.

Lu Xingwang asked, “Are you scared?”

Jian Mei honestly hummed in response.

Lu Xingwang asked him, “Are you scared by the distance?”

Jian Mei shook his head and replied, “I’m just a little worried that I’ll never get to meet you.”

Lu Xingwang’s breath stilled.

He was thinking that Jian Mei’s planet was very remote and far from their galaxy, so in his opinion, it was possible that Jian Mei had never seen how vast the universe was like before the existence of such a system on his phone. He thought that the first question Jian Mei would ask was about this new world, or at least ask him questions about himself. However, he didn’t expect that Jian Mei was most worried about whether they’d ever meet.

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“Huh?” It seemed like Jian Mei just came back to reality. “Oh, right. It’s quite strange. I didn’t expect WeChat to be this advanced nowah,the signal can be connected from such a distance ah.”

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Lu Xingwang looked at the communication terminal and said, “Mhm, we’re too far apart. Maybe one day if the signal isn’t good, we won’t be able to talk to each other.”

Jian Mei was slightly anxious. “What should I do then?”

Would… would you be gone by then?

He didn’t ask this out loud. However, it was as if he did after such a brief silence.

Maybe because his feelings were fluctuating wildly, Jian Mei began to cough nonstop after he finished speaking. At first, it was mild, but his body started to tremble slightly. He then covered his lips and coughed a few times.

Lu Xingwang frowned. Without him noticing, his face became anxious. “What’s wrong?”

Jian Mei became better after a while. He raised his head, opened his hand slowly, and saw red blood on his palm. The bright blood was very conspicuous and hard to ignore. He replied, “I’m okay.”

Lu Xingwang wasn’t that easy to fool. “You’re sick.”

Jian Mei opened his mouth to speak. His voice was a little hoarse and muffled, but even then, he still trying to comfort Lu Xingwang. “I’m alright. It seems to be a low-grade fever due to rain and cold wind.”

Outside the room, the parents who were guarding the door heard the commotion and wanted to come in.

Jian Mei hurriedly whispered into the phone. “I’ll talk to you later.”

The phone hung up a bit abruptly.

This was the first time that Lu Xingwang had been hung up on forcefully by Jian Mei but he wasn’t angry in the slightest and was worried instead. He recalled what the patriarch of the sorcerer’s clan had told him— his divine power would only seek out those who were terminally ill. So could this person be referring to Jian Mei? What’s going on now?

While he was thinking, someone came into the palace. Aruo saluted and said, “Your Highness, the major general has come and has urgently requested to meet you.”

Lu Xingwang said, “Invite him in.”

A person entered the hall and said, “Your Highness, tomorrow’s trip is canceled. I’m afraid we can’t go to the Witch Clan so soon.”

“Why so?” asked Lu Xingwang.

Zuo Qingshan was now in charge of the military, thus he was more informed than Lu Xingwang.

“Your Highness, you should know that several planets in the north have always been dissatisfied with some of our policies. Some time ago, a group of Stan Star’s merchants and traders was detained there illegally and until now, no one has been released. They were detained under the pretext of trespassing but in fact, the actual reason was because these merchants’ spaceship entered their military aerial domain due to weather problems. They didn’t go through the interstellar customs because they were smuggling goods through the military aerial domain.”

Lu Xingwang realized the problem. They were merchants of Stan Star, so this wasn’t simply a matter between two groups. If this matter wasn’t handled well, it might become a conflict between planets.

“Here’s the problem.” Zuo Qingshan pointed. “We sent someone two days ago to negotiate the release of the merchants, but the other party was unwilling.”

Lu Xingwang put down the document in his hand. The expression on his face turned colder. “And the reason.”

Zuo Qingshan sat down beside him. “Your Highness, it’s not like you don’t know that the crown prince and even some court officials are devotees of god, and their biggest problem is that they’re very opposed to technology. Our scientific research team has achieved nothing except for some warships essential for military use every year.”

Many of their high-tech warships were almost all dependent on imports.

Stan Star was indeed a planet where divine power reigned supreme. Of course, this hadn’t been a problem for thousands of years, but the point was that the surrounding planets have also developed over the past thousand of years. Although they had no divine power, they were armed with technology. Now, it was only expected to look down on planets that were technologically outdated.

“I discovered that the planet is now the first in the entire interstellar community to develop the A5 series of combat aircraft.” Zuo Qingshan said to Lu Xingwang, “You know that the subsidiary planets around Stan Star are rich in resources. I think detaining the merchants is only part of the reason, their goal is probably to fight.”

Lu Xingwang looked up at him. “What about you? What are you going to do?”

Zuo Qingshan replied, “I’m not afraid to fight and I’m not just here to see Your Highness. If my prediction is correct, His Majesty will probably issue a decree today for me to go into battle.”

Lu Xingwang said, “Certainly. It’s inevitable, you’ll have to go there personally this time.”

Zuo Qingshan said to him, “If it’s about the knowledge and usage of military weapons, even people from the Institute of Technology are no match for Your Highness. I hope that Your Highness can accompany me on this expedition.”

Lu Xingwang replied calmly, “It can’t be that simple. The crown prince has volunteered to join the army.”

Those who were smart, they would think this was a deliberate act to get close to the military or that they had ulterior motives. But either way, it wasn’t good for them.

Zuo Qingshan smiled mysteriously and spoke in a low voice, “Wouldn’t Your Highness know more about the current situation than me? Forget about anything else. His Majesty isn’t in good health this year and his condition is getting worse. The civil officials have collectively submitted a petition proposing that the crown prince should govern the country. Now the undercurrent in the court is turbulent. The ambitions of the crown prince’s faction are obvious to everyone. If His Majesty is fond of the crown prince, why would he delay transferring authority?”

Naturally, Lu Xingwang knew more about these matters than him.

His Highness stood up from the chair and walked to the window. He gazed at the sea jade flowers blooming in summer and said, “The crown prince’s character is truly unsuitable to be a monarch.”

If Stan Star was handed over to Lu Wei, it would be when this planet was going to end. Both Lu Xingwang and Zuo Qingshan understood this. Naturally, the emperor understood this better.

Zuo Qingshan laid it out in the open. “If I have to choose a prince to support, I’d rather have Your Highness take the throne.”

Lu Xingwang threw him a side-eye and smiled coldly. “If Major general’s words were heard by others, it would be enough to convict you and me of rebellion.”

Zuo Qingshan also stood up. This young man was a general and there was striking arrogance in him that couldn’t be suppressed. He feared nothing before and it was still the same now. “Is Your Highness afraid?”

Lu Xingwang raised his brows. “You’re aware of my physical condition as well. Even if I ascend the throne, what can I do?”

Zuo Qingshan’s eyes shone brightly. “So, Your Highness is just going to hide like a tortoise and let the crown prince succeed?”

“Let the crown prince succeed?” Lu Xingwang’s lips rose into an arrogant smirk. “Major general, you look down on me too much. As if the crown prince would be able to successfully ascend the throne because I’m willing.”

Zuo Qingshan’s breath hitched. “You…”

Lu Xingwang’s voice was indifferent. “What’s more, he’s still my eldest brother.”

“So…” Lu Xingwang dragged out his words. As he stood by the window, the bright moonlight shone through and gently fell on his body. The young man’s posture was upright and he carried an imposing aura around his body. His long slender fingers pointed slightly at the window and watched as the flower branches swayed outside the window. However, the coldness in his eyes gradually became even colder. “Since eldest brother likes being a crown prince so much, he can only be the crown prince as long as I’m present.”

Zuo Qingshan was shocked by the coldness in these words.

Moreover, things were indeed as Lu Xingwang expected. As soon as it was dawn, Zuo Qingshan was ordered to enter the Hall of Qinzheng. The only thing that surprised him was that aside from Lu Xingwang and Lu Wei, Lu Xinci was also there.

The emperor was sitting on the throne in front. As his health wasn’t good over the years, and his face was much paler. After reading the report, he opened his lips to speak. “I’ll have to trouble major general to rescue our people.”

Zuo Qingshan replied, “Your Majesty doesn’t have to be polite, this is my duty.”