Chapter 6: Life Is A Ruler For Measuring The Universe
“For dragons, during superluminal jumps through space, there’s a process that allows them to regain vitality. What it does to you is hard to say.
If the journey is short, you’re lucky. If it’s long, you’ll watch yourself revert to the most primitive state of carbon-based life…”
Ao Bing took another bite of the eggshell under Yun Ce’s fiery gaze and said.
“I have a courtyard in Langpao Water Village. It’s very quiet there. If you stay here and get bored, you can live there. After all, you can’t walk in the human world in your dragon form.”
“Those old men prepared several nests for me…”
“One that belongs to you, very different from what others give. It’s like living with your mother now—do you find it convenient?”
“I don’t like quiet places.”
“I also have a house in the city. It’s not big, just a few dozen square meters, but the area is lively with lots of people. In human form, you’ll live very conveniently, especially since a new roast whole lamb shop opened downstairs. If you can accept human world food, that house is a good choice.”
“For me?”
“Dragons can be big or small, rise or hide; big, they stir clouds and spit mist; small, they hide shape among scales; rising, they soar between universe; hiding, they lurk within waves. As a noble dragon clan member, would you want things given to you?”
1 As Yun Ce spoke, he naturally took the half-eaten eggshell from Ao Bing’s hand, put it in his mouth. This thing melted in the mouth, instantly turning into a warm current that fused into his limbs.
1 Ao Bing watched Yun Ce with interest and took another piece of eggshell from his stomach band to hand to him.
1 Yun Ce ate the eggshell again.
1 After eating three pieces of eggshell in a row, Ao Bing slowly said: “You’re a very greedy person.
1 I hatched from an egg with this kind of shell. All dragons hatch from this kind of eggshell.
1 Dragons are formed from the essence of weather, originally formless and shapeless. The dragon clan uses heaven and earth essence to forge such eggshells, allowing us formless essences to nurture true bodies within. Because of these essence-forged eggshells, we achieve the form best suited for traveling the universe.
1 By the way, after all this nonsense, what I want to tell you is that this thing isn’t really suitable for you humans. After all, your life level is too low to enjoy it.”
1 Yun Ce looked up at the low clouds, listening to the terrifying sounds from above the dark clouds, and continued staring at Ao Bing’s stomach band: “Help me. I don’t want to die.”
1 Ao Bing’s very childish chubby face let out a human-like scoff: “You’re about to die.”
1 “Our agreement with the dragon clan isn’t like this.”
2 “What agreement? We’re just doing the routine travel to make our aged bodies young again. You’re just thinking of using him as a beacon to light a path for your universe exploration.
2 Whether it’s the dragons’ travel goals or yours, they’re all quite important. Only your life isn’t.
2 So, whether you’re alive or dead makes no difference.”
2 “What is life in your eyes?”
2 “All life is meaningless, just nature. Experience is what’s most important. Our lives are long but limited. Compared to humans, we’re ancient pines, you’re little grasses that live in spring and die in autumn. Pine trees don’t care about the life and death of little grasses.”
2 “I’m worried that even more powerful beings will treat you dragons as little grasses.”
2 “Very possible. So, what do you want to do?”
2 “I want to be a powerful little grass.”
2 Ao Bing smiled, and under Yun Ce’s gaze, fished out a bead emitting brilliant light from his stomach band, then reached to pry open Yun Ce’s mouth and stuffed the bead inside.
2 The bead was ping-pong ball sized. Yun Ce couldn’t swallow it, so Ao Bing stroked his neck forcefully with his hand. Yun Ce seemed to hear a crisp metallic clash in his stomach, then his stomach burned hot with pain.
3 “What’s this?”
3 “Seed. Oh, you call it dragon pearl.”
3 “Isn’t it true that one dragon has only one? You’re so generous?”
3 “Who says one dragon has only one? Whose seeds are only one?”
3 “You’d better mean something like wheat seeds, not that thing.”
3 “Same thing.”
3 “Why give me the seed?”
3 “Now, you’re a big seed.”
3 Ao Bing took his left hand and placed it on the salvaged backpack and that saber. In an instant, the backpack and saber disappeared.
3 Ao Bing let go of Yun Ce’s hand: “To get these things out, just tell the bead.”
4 “Can I go in and hide?”
4 “No, you can’t hide in your own stomach. That’s a paradox.”
4 After speaking, Ao Bing looked up at the pitch-black night sky: “Let’s go!”
4 Yun Ce stared at Ao Bing’s stomach band: “I think you can strengthen me some more.”
4 Ao Bing shook his head: “No time.”
4 Just as the words fell, a series of thunderclaps exploded in the sky, and a gale suddenly rose. The thick dark clouds instantly opened a round big hole. Then, a claw like a thousand-year ancient pine covered in scales emerged from the cloud hole. The huge claw grew smaller as it neared the ground, accompanied by intense thunderstorm, seizing Yun Ce in its palm, then swiftly returning to the clouds above.
4 The cloud hole shrank rapidly and vanished in an instant. The thunderstorm rose again, but after rumbling once above Ao Bing’s head, it headed west.
4 “2014 tracking normal.”
4 “Xishan tracking normal, telemetry tracking normal.”
4 “203 tracking normal.”
5 “Xishan optical radar tracking normal.”
5 “Xishan 211 telemetry tracking normal.”
5 …
5 Yun Linchuan’s courtyard was piled full of instruments, constantly reporting Yun Ce’s coordinates to him.
5 Yun Linchuan sat upright, even the buttons on his Zhongshan suit fastened to the top. Listening to news of Yun Ce crossing the Kármán line, the light in his eyes gradually dimmed.
5 “He can’t come back alive, right?”
5 Yun Linchuan’s voice was low, sounding without confidence.
5 “If the dragon didn’t protect him, he should already be dead. Leader, we should have given him more time to prepare.”
5 The man in black hunched slightly, lowering his voice next to Yun Linchuan’s ear.
5 Yun Linchuan’s hands, full of age spots, gripped the rattan chair armrests with bulging veins.
6 “Bravery is just a moment of hot blood. Many people can do something the first time but not the second. Yun Ce is the same. Better to push him out directly than let him hesitate back and forth.”
6 The man in black sighed: “We want the coordinates. It doesn’t matter who goes. Yun Ce, what a pity.”
6 “No pity. As part of the grand narrative, this is his glory.”
6 “Yun Ce didn’t fully understand your good intentions.”
6 Yun Linchuan glared with ring eyes, silent for a long time.
6 “Launch!”
6 The man in black glanced at the monitor’s waveform turning into a straight line, ignored the buzzing from the monitor, and quietly stayed by Yun Linchuan, looking up at the gradually brightening sky.
6 The sky at the transition of light and dark was very beautiful. The sky overhead was still black, while the sky near the ground shifted from black to deep blue, light blue, white.
6 Yun Linchuan’s eyes stared wide at the dim and bright sky, as if chasing Yun Ce’s figure. A morning breeze brought some dust, some landing on Yun Linchuan’s eyeball, making his originally sharp wolf-like gaze turbid and lifeless…
6 He died with regrets. Even at the moment of eternal farewell, Yun Ce still refused to understand him.
7 “What you owe others must be repaid. I’ll go repay it now.”
7 This was Yun Linchuan’s last sentence after learning Yun Ce had been taken away from the Kármán line by the dragon.
7 People who have lived over a hundred years can basically control their own life and death. At this age, without the will to keep living, they die when they say so.
7 The dragon left, Yun Ce followed, and the dark clouds looming in the sky dispersed. The rising sunlight lazily shone on Langpao Water Village, making it bright everywhere.
7 Though a big shot died here and a so-called talent was gone, it didn’t delay the sun rising and setting.
7 Just as the human world should be.
7 Not existing for Yao, not perishing for Jie.
7 Ao Bing crawled out of a smoking big pit. Of course, smoke rose from his body too. But this fat baby-like Ao Bing was good at tidying his appearance.
7 Lying in the pit, he was like a four-footed snake. Climbing out, he returned to the cute fat baby look. After walking a few steps barefoot on the pitted road, he became a tiger-headed boy.
7 When he raised his hand to toss Yun Ce’s wrecked Jeep into the Gobi Desert depths, his appearance was no different from Yun Ce’s. Standing on the empty road, thinking briefly, he headed along the road toward Langpao Water Village.
8 Just now, he suddenly had a great idea. Since Yun Ce disappeared on Earth, maybe he could use this person’s identity to blend into the crowd. This would surely be very interesting.
8 Yun Ce was very clear-headed.
8 The ground shrank rapidly. Ao Bing shrank first, then his wrecked car, then trees along the roads, even the mountains.
8 When the wide road became a black line and the vast mountains became undulating mounds, Yun Ce’s view became exceptionally broad.
8 This was a one-way trip. Looking back at home meant nothing to Yun Ce. He had to focus all attention ahead to seek a slim chance of survival.
8 Though hope was slim, the education Yun Ce received since childhood told him to struggle to his last breath.
8 The giant dragon’s claw palm was dry and warm, even with a slight breeze circulating in the dragon claw.
8 Facing the gradually emerging Earth outline, Yun Ce wanted more to see the giant dragon holding him. Really, he hadn’t seen a dragon yet—A Ao Bing didn’t count.
8 Logically, a dragon claw should be like a chicken claw, at most with two extra fingers.
8 Yun Ce looked up to see the dragon claw’s palm, dark and with huge skin folds. The folds held no lightning-like things, only rock-like vicissitudes and ancientness.
9 Right, solid and eternal was Yun Ce’s real feeling toward the dragon claw trapping or protecting him.
9 Trapped in the claw, Yun Ce couldn’t see the true dragon form or feel the harshness of space travel, because the dragon protected him well.
9 As Yun Ce turned attention to the blazing fireball in space, a huge dragon image emerged as if drilling out of that fireball. Instantly, the huge body blocked Yun Ce’s limited view.
9 It was a strange feeling. The previous moment, a black dot abruptly appeared in the fireball; the next, a dragon of unknown size due to lack of reference blocked Yun Ce’s left view.
9 This was a golden dragon.
9 But this was also Yun Ce’s personal assumption. Whatever color, bathed in sunlight, it appears golden. That’s common sense.
9 In space, sound doesn’t transmit, so this golden dragon’s entrance, without thunder, rain, clouds for backdrop, seemed somewhat ordinary.
9 Yun Ce always thought the more powerful the creature, the fewer in number usually. When he shifted view to his right, he realized dragons, this thing, were really numerous.
9 The golden dragon on the left was too close to the dragon carrying Yun Ce, blocking the distance. Clearly, the dragons on the right had little desire to approach others, greatly helping open Yun Ce’s view.
9 Reference objects in space were too distant, thus too small. So the dragons Yun Ce saw weren’t that huge, and with distance varying and no up-down distinction, distant dragons were like earthworms, not so majestic.
