The Federation Academy's Space Center.
A magnificent complex stretched toward the sky, its multilevel launch platforms made of dark alloy piercing the morning mist. Navigation lights glimmered all around, and the air smelled of ozone and overheated metal. A small silver-gray spacecraft was already waiting on the third platform.
Hu Cheng and Xie Ruyang stood by the boarding ramp with seven students dressed in gray-and-white uniforms.
"Fifteen days there, fifteen days back." Hu Cheng looked at each of the seven, lingering on Hao Ming. "The ship will have to make three space jumps to reach our destination. During the mission, however, you'll be on your own."
Xie Ruyang folded his arms across his chest and added, "There's enough food aboard for forty days. The autopilot will plot the course, but Sheng Ming will be at the helm. She's the only one among you qualified to pilot a ship of this class. Listen to Qin Ye, and don't do anything stupid."
Everyone nodded and boarded.
The interior was compact, with no unnecessary rooms. There was a combined bathroom with a functional shower, a pilot's seat beside the holographic controls at the front, and a main compartment containing seven ergonomic seats that could transform into horizontal sleeping berths. The most notable feature of each seat was its personal soundproofing dome. With the press of a button, a transparent force field would unfold around the passenger, cutting off all outside noise.
The heavy airlock doors clanged shut. Sheng Ming confidently settled into the pilot's seat and activated the launch panel. A short countdown beep sounded, and the ship shuddered. Its powerful engines lifted it from the platform, sending the silver craft into the cold darkness of open space.
On the very first day, the spacecraft made its first jump.
The stars beyond the portholes instantly stretched into fine silver threads before merging into a solid, dazzling-white blur. For a few moments, the ship seemed to lose all weight, dissolving into space itself. Then the blinding light faded, and everything returned to normal, as though nothing had happened.
Xiao Yu, having recovered from yesterday's silence, was the first to try striking up a conversation. He quickly realized, however, that everyone had already retreated beneath their own soundproofing domes. They were all sitting with their eyes closed, meditating. As for Jin Luo, it was hard to tell whether he was meditating or simply asleep.
"Great. This trip is going to be painfully long and monotonous..." Xiao Yu thought.
Unable to find anyone to talk to, he let out a heavy sigh, closed his eyes, and made the most of the time by meditating as well.
Sealed away from the world beneath his own soundproofing dome, Hao Ming sank into troubled thoughts. In the past, his dreams had brought him nothing but pain and dull revulsion. Now, however, something else drove him: a desperate need to learn the truth. He wanted to know what, exactly, the dreams would show him. Closing his eyes, he allowed himself to fall asleep.
For the first three days, the visions revolved around the same familiar scenes: Fan Yue among students dressed in green, her image surrounded by family, and, at times, painfully sweet romantic moments with Lan Xuanyu. Fighting down his inner disgust, Hao Ming tried to hold on to every scrap of information, piecing it together bit by bit. In the end, he learned that they were in a place called Shrek Academy and were registered as fourth-year students.
But on the fourth day, something inside him changed.
The dense veil that had reliably concealed the deepest corners of his mind for years began to crack. Before, he had seen only vague, indistinct flashes. Now, complete scenes began to surface before his eyes—clear, vivid images that fit together into a single, frightening mosaic. He wasn't entirely sure these were his own memories, but he wanted to believe they were.
He was six years old. The Heavenly Dou Planet. The Martial Soul Awakening Center. A tall, sturdy figure stood beside him. Instinctively, he knew the man was his father. Hao Ming looked up, trying to make out his face, but the man's features stubbornly blurred, swallowed by a thick, impenetrable fog. No matter how hard the boy strained to remember, the details slipped away, leaving only a vague silhouette.
The boy entered a round room and approached an elderly master. A brilliant flash from the spirit array—followed by a stern, harsh verdict that carried an almost pitying note:
"Born with an Empty Soul."
He had no Martial Soul. The blurred figure of his father immediately swept him into his arms, gently but firmly covering the boy's eyes with one hand to shield him from the stares of others.
The scene broke apart and gave way to another. He was twelve now. A city library. Sitting across from him was a girl with deep-blue hair and eyes the color of a stormy sea. Her face was astonishingly clear and alive, without a single trace of fog. A farewell walk by a fountain before she left to take the entrance exams at Shrek. His awkward, faltering confession; her gentle but firm rejection; and a parting gift—a shark-shaped pendant. Then another image flashed into view: snow-white hair, cool detachment, a quiet conversation on a park bench, and a different pendant, shaped like a delicate snowflake. He had seen these faces in his hazy dreams before, but now they seemed unbearably, frighteningly real.
Fragments of the past flowed in a chaotic, disjointed sequence. His memories jumped from one moment to another: one instant he was a small child, the next an adolescent. A spacious house in the countryside. For six years, his father had fed him the rarest treasures of Heaven and Earth, along with the flesh of Soul Beasts. None of it had awakened a Martial Soul, but his Spiritual Power had soared to the incredible level of a Spiritual Sea, granting him a tenacious and flawless memory.
Then came exhausting sparring sessions with wooden swords in the training hall. His father's voice was deep and toneless, reaching him as though through a wall or from beneath the surface of the water. And there was one question, burned into his subconscious, repeated day after day.
"What is the meaning of battle?"
Hao Ming jolted in the waking world, almost saying the answer aloud. Only recently, he had caught himself pondering that very question while staring at the empty message field on his communicator.
His father sat opposite him in the half-darkness, a blurred figure. The man was saying something, but his voice was muffled and indistinct. Fragments of conversation about reincarnation from another world, a distant war among the stars, and a woman he had once loved. Hao Ming desperately tried to catch even a single name, even the faintest sound, but his father's voice shattered into pieces before it could form words. The impenetrable haze still concealed the man's face.
A blinding flash of gold.
A colossal, two-meter-long sword made of pure darkness materialized on the floor before him, its surface traced with pulsing golden veins. His father's voice sounded once more. The test of Spiritual Power displayed a score of "17"—a result that surpassed even the highest level of innate spiritual power.
Then everything plunged into darkness.
Hao Ming opened his eyes. His face remained dry; he had shed his tears back in the rocky mountains. Yet something burned in his chest, and he sat motionless beneath the dome for a long time.
At last, the fifteen-day journey came to an end.
When the domes retracted, a truly breathtaking view appeared before them.
A sea of green stretched all the way to the horizon. There were no gaps or barren patches, only an endless carpet of vegetation. Rainbow-colored flowers blazed among the shades of green, like precious gems scattered across a living canvas. Snow-white clouds drifted slowly across the high sky, making the whole scene seem almost unreal.
The planet looked like one vast green ocean. No rivers, no seas, no deserts—only plants. Hao Ming had never seen a world so overwhelmed by greenery.
Xiao Yu stood nearby by the porthole. He remained silent, gazing down with a complicated expression.
The ship slowed and hovered gently above the forest. Thick vines reached up from the canopy and formed a landing platform. A moment later, several more intertwined into a sturdy staircase leading to a colossal tree. A natural hollow in its massive trunk served as an entrance.
Federation troops were waiting for them below.
The senior officer gave them a brief, direct briefing.
"Your mission is to eliminate Dark Soul Masters. Remember, you are strictly forbidden from entering the sovereign territory of the indigenous inhabitants—the elves—or the inner habitats of the Soul Beasts. Any violation of these boundaries will be punished to the full extent of local law."
Qin Ye nodded, and the group headed toward the hollow in the enormous tree.
There was no metal or glass inside. The trunk was hollow and spacious as a cathedral. Walls of living bark, etched with dark rings, spiraled upward and disappeared into the gloom. The light came from clusters of softly glowing fruit and hanging baskets of moss that cast a warm amber glow. Beneath their feet, a floor of intertwined roots yielded slightly, polished smooth by thousands of footsteps. The air smelled of resin, damp earth, and something sweet.
The tree's hollow served as a natural entrance to a magnificent structure concealed within it—a vital cosmic and administrative center of the planet, a symbol of the Soul Beasts' authority and, at the same time, a point of contact with the Federation.
Officially, the planet was under the Federation's administration, but real power belonged to the Soul Beasts. Without their consent, no spacecraft could arrive on the planet or leave it.
Nevertheless, to preserve peace and encourage the exchange of knowledge, the planet periodically opened itself to the outside world. Events that attracted tourists and researchers were held there, though access always remained strictly restricted. Only a select few were granted permission to set foot on this land. Three factions stood out among the exceptions, maintaining particularly close ties with the Soul Beasts: Shrek Academy, the War God Temple, and the Spirit Pagoda.
Several passageways branched off from the main hall, each carved directly into the trunk and ending in an arched exit that opened onto a different part of the forest. The Federation's emblem was carved above one. Another was decorated with an ornate vine in the elven style, alongside the image of a dragon.
Xiao Yu's gaze lingered on the passage marked by the vine for a moment before he quickly looked away.
Qin Ye turned toward the exit on the far right.
"We're in the Central Zone. The Starflow Forest is forty-three kilometers from here. At a steady pace, we'll reach it in about two hours."
The group nodded and broke into a run. Sheng Ming kept pace without falling behind; her endurance training had paid off.
Before long, the green foliage gave way to a forest unlike anything Hao Ming had ever seen, even in his dreams. The colossal trunks were black, threaded with thin blue veins, while every leaf was a deep shade of blue. Points of light shimmered in the canopy, as though stars had become caught among the branches.
Qin Ye raised a hand.
"Stop. We're at the edge of the Starflow Forest. The forest itself is small, only about five kilometers across. Xiao Yu and I will scout ahead. The rest of you, hide among the vegetation. If we don't return or get ambushed, we'll send a signal to Sheng Ming's communicator."
A thin, round disc appeared in her hand, transparent and sparkling like cut crystal.
"This is a teleportation soul tool. It's attuned to my Spiritual Power. If you receive the signal—or if an hour passes without our return—Sheng Ming must channel her power into the disc. It will transport you to me. Stay together when you teleport."
Sheng Ming carefully took the disc and stored it in her spatial storage.
Qin Ye and Xiao Yu disappeared into the blue thicket. The others climbed into the canopy of the nearest tree and concealed themselves among the leaves.