Yun Hai's explanation dropped a heavy mental burden onto their shoulders. A void region spanning one billion light-years. If the Earth and the sun were to vanish in the middle of this place, not a single entity in the universe would ever notice.
"If it is a billion light-years wide..." Han Dong spoke in a voice barely above a whisper. He stared at his own feet, suddenly feeling incredibly nauseous. "How long will it take us to cross this place? A year? A hundred years?"
"With the current speed of those dragons... I don't know," Yun Hai shook her head weakly. She slid down to sit on the crystal floor, hugging her knees. "If we only left Earth's atmosphere a few minutes ago and are already in the Eridanus constellation region... our speed might not be moving in a straight line, but rather leaping like a warp jump in a fiction movie!"
The absolute darkness of the Eridanus Supervoid swallowed them in a long silence. No stars rushed backward, no flashes of galactic light appeared. The nine giant corpses out there did not reduce their speed in the slightest. The black dragons and phoenixes continued to flap their wings and move their stiff bodies, pulling the bronze furnace through a vacuum that spanned a billion light-years.
Inside the crystal platform, the eight youths could only sit in silence. The fear that initially exploded had now turned into numbness. Mental exhaustion drained their energy faster than any physical activity. Li Wei leaned his back against the dense air at the platform's edge, his eyes half-closed. Zhao Lin sat hugging his knees, mumbling to himself in a voice no one could understand.
Lin Mei and Fang Hua had fallen asleep from the exhaustion of crying, leaning against each other. Time became a very abstract concept. Han Dong tried to count the seconds in his head, but he gave up after reaching the thousands. The clocks on their phones had completely died due to depleted batteries. Only the bronze watch in Chu Xinghe's hand still ticked with its slow rhythm, one beat every ten seconds.
The scent of spring from the crystal floor became their only life support. The smell somehow prevented their stomachs from aching with hunger and their throats from drying with thirst. Chu Xinghe did not sleep. His eyes continued to stare at the transparent glass wall displaying the thick darkness. He tried to find a glimmer of light, no matter how small.
His mind tried to figure out the final destination of this journey. His grandfather had disappeared two years ago, leaving a message about the stars calling home their anchors. Xin Yan woke up from her short nap. She rubbed her eyes and saw Xinghe was still awake. The girl shifted closer.
"How long have we been here?" Xin Yan asked in a hoarse voice.
"I don't know," Xinghe answered honestly. "It could be ten hours, it could be three days. Without the sun, our bodies lose their circadian rhythm."
Xin Yan looked down at the crystal floor. "Are we going to rot inside here, Xinghe? Become skeletons that are carried flying through the universe forever?"
"The dragon corpses out there do not rot. This furnace has its own laws of preservation. We might not even age while we are inside here," Xinghe said flatly.
Their conversation stopped as the crystal floor beneath them suddenly vibrated violently. The vibration felt like a braking maneuver upon reaching a destination. The low-frequency hum from beneath the floor was heard again, this time at a much higher volume, making their chests vibrate.
"What is this?!" Han Dong immediately woke up, shifting into a defensive stance.
Li Wei, Lin Mei, Fang Hua, and Yun Hai also woke up in a panic. Zhao Lin crawled away from the platform wall. The disc in the center of the room displaying the symbols of the four seasons spun very rapidly. The glow from the spring flower symbol slowly faded, replaced by the glow from the leaf symbol representing autumn. The aroma of the air inside the furnace changed instantly.
The sweet jasmine scent vanished, replaced by the aroma of dry earth, burning fallen leaves, and a bone-chilling cold. Outside the transparent glass wall, the absolute darkness of the Supervoid slowly parted. A faint blue point of light appeared in the distance. The point grew at an irrational speed, proving that the towing dragons were still racing at high velocity toward that point.
"Light! There's light!" Li Wei shouted, pointing outside. Everyone immediately stood up and approached the transparent wall. The blue point of light now enlarged into a giant sphere.
It was a planet. However, this planet did not have the green of land or the white of clouds like Earth. Its entire surface was a very deep dark blue, almost black in some parts. There were no continents, no oceans reflecting starlight, because there were no stars nearby. The planet emitted its own light from within its core.
"Have we come out of the Supervoid?" Yun Hai asked, her eyes wide as she stared at the dark blue planet. "Or is this a celestial body trapped on the edge of Eridanus?"
"They are slowing down," Xinghe said. His eyes caught the movement of the five black dragons outside. The wings of the four phoenixes were spread stiffly to hold their momentum. The black fire enveloping the corpses began to extinguish.
The bronze furnace dived sharply toward the dark blue planet. They pierced through the planet's very thin protective layer. As they drew closer to the surface, the sight below made them hold their breath. Parts of the planet's surface appeared flat and consisted of dark blue rocks that resembled glass.
There were several towering rocks protruding like giant mountains. However, exactly in their landing area, there was a very striking man-made structure. The nine giant corpses landed first on the blue stone surface, creating a loud crashing sound that echoed through the furnace walls. The thick iron chains tightened again as the dragons lowered their bodies to the ground.
The bronze furnace carrying the eight humans slowly descended and landed with a thud that shook the entire crystal platform. The vibration stopped and the room returned to silence; the autumn disc in the center of the room emitted a strange chill. The furnace walls, which were previously transparent, slowly returned to being opaque bronze metal covered in green rust, blocking their view of the outside.
"We've stopped," Han Dong muttered. He looked at his friends one by one. "We have actually landed."
"On that blue planet? The planet without a sun?" Li Wei asked with his teeth chattering against the cold.
The sound of heavy metal grinding was heard beneath their feet. The base of the furnace where they stood, exactly beneath the crystal platform, began to open. The crystal floor itself slowly descended like a giant elevator, carrying the eight of them out from the belly of the bronze furnace. The outside air immediately swept over their faces.
This air was far colder than the most extreme winter on Earth, but strangely it did not freeze the fluids in their bodies. The scent of rusted metal and ancient dust filled their senses. The crystal floor stopped moving when it was level with the surface of the dark blue planet. They now stood outside the furnace room, directly beneath the belly of the giant cauldron.
Chu Xinghe stepped down from the edge of the crystal floor, his feet treading on the incredibly hard and cold blue stone of the planet. His friends followed behind with hesitant steps and bodies trembling with fear. They looked around.
They were in the middle of a formation. Eight giant stone pillars towered high, surrounding the spot where the bronze furnace had landed. The shape, size, and position of these eight pillars were exactly the same as the ones they had seen beneath the city of Guangzhou.
"These pillars..." Fang Hua covered her mouth with both hands. "This is the same place."
"No, this is different," Chu Xinghe corrected. His eyes examined the pillar standing closest to him. The surface of this pillar had no Jiaguwen carvings or murals. The pillars on this dark blue planet were completely plain, made of the same blue crystal material as the ground they stood on. No light glowed from within these pillars.
Outside the formation of eight pillars, the five black dragon corpses and four phoenixes lay still on the expanse of stone. They had returned to being stiff corpses. The iron chains binding them loosened. The giant animal corpses looked very much at one with this dead planetary environment.
"Hey... look over there," Zhao Lin's voice trembled violently. He pointed outside the pillar formation area, toward the empty expanse of dark blue stone.
About a hundred meters in front of them stood a building. It was an ancient three-story pavilion made of very deep black wood. The roof of the pavilion curved upward, decorated with metal tiles that had grown dull. The building looked very fragile, very old, but somehow managed to stand tall in the middle of this lifeless planet. Two dull white paper lanterns hung in front of the pavilion entrance. The lanterns were not lit; they only swayed gently every now and then.
"An ancient Chinese-style pavilion? On an alien planet?" Han Dong furrowed his brow; his logic completely rejected the sight before his eyes. "This must be a hallucination. We are lacking oxygen and our brains are creating images from Earth memories."
"This isn't a hallucination, Dong," said Chu Xinghe. He walked forward past the plain blue crystal pillars. "Everything in this furnace comes from Earth. That building comes from there too. Someone or something brought that pavilion here thousands of years ago."
"Xinghe, where are you going?!" Li Wei shouted in a suppressed voice, not daring to step too far from beneath the bronze furnace.
"To see the contents of that pavilion," Xinghe answered without stopping. "We have no choice. We cannot restart this furnace, and we will freeze to death if we keep standing around outside."
Xin Yan immediately ran to catch up with Xinghe. She did not want to be left alone with Zhao Lin and the others. Yun Hai and Lin Mei held hands, choosing to follow Xin Yan. Seeing the girls move forward, Han Dong and Li Wei finally walked after them. Zhao Lin and Fang Hua lingered at the back, cursing softly but still forcing their feet to follow the group.
The expanse of dark blue stone felt very smooth beneath their shoes. The sky above this planet was entirely black; not a single star was visible. Only the faint blue glow from the ground provided them with a bit of visibility. As they drew closer to the black wooden pavilion, the aura felt increasingly chilling. This building was incredibly isolated.
The main doors of the pavilion were made of two thick pieces of wood that were tightly closed. There were no dragon carvings or occult protectors on the door; it was very simple and ordinary. Chu Xinghe stopped right in front of the wooden steps leading to the pavilion porch. He observed the two dead white lanterns hanging above. There were faded characters written on the lantern paper using black ink.
"Temporary Stop," Xinghe deciphered the characters on the left lantern. He moved to the right lantern. "Path Seeking."
"Temporary stop for path seeking?" Yun Hai echoed Xinghe's words. "This is like a rest stop for ancient travelers. But what kind of traveler stops at the edge of a void like this?"
Xinghe climbed the three wooden steps. The wood creaked softly but felt very solid. He raised his hands and pushed the two main doors of the pavilion. The black wooden doors opened easily, emitting the sound of dry hinges that broke the absolute silence of the dark blue planet. The interior of the pavilion was very dark. The air inside the room felt slightly warmer than outside.
Zhao Lin turned on the flashlight on his phone, which was still working. Han Dong did the same. Two beams of white light pierced the darkness of the pavilion's first floor. The room was very spacious and neatly arranged. In the center of the room, there was a large round wooden table. On the table were neatly arranged several porcelain teacups covered in a thick layer of grey dust. There were eight wooden chairs surrounding the round table.
Eight chairs. Chu Xinghe stared at the row of chairs. The number again referred to eight. Around the walls of the first floor were dozens of tall wooden shelves filled with bamboo scrolls and thread-bound ancient books. Everything was arranged very neatly; nothing was scattered. This place had been left in an orderly state.
"Books?" Li Wei stepped inside, Han Dong's phone flashlight illuminating his confused face. "There's a library here. Who reads all this in the middle of the darkness of space?"
"Maybe the owner of that furnace," said Lin Mei. She walked toward one of the shelves and reached out to touch a bamboo scroll.
"Don't touch the items here," Chu Xinghe prohibited in a firm voice. "We don't know what material makes up these objects. Ordinary paper should have turned to dust in a short time in an extreme environment like this."
Lin Mei immediately pulled her hand back.
Zhao Lin aimed his flashlight at another corner of the room. There was a spiral wooden staircase leading to the second floor. "There's an upper floor. Maybe there's a clue on how to control the cauldron up there, or food. I'm starving."