The Path Toward Heaven

Chapter 795: Asking the Battleship to Come Down

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

There was a group of formidable data hackers in the Federation of the Milky Way called the “Cloud Ghosts”.

These Cloud Ghosts exchanged information in a room in the hidden network; they were of course using nicknames for the communication.

Nobody knew that the famous “Wild Rabbit” among them was Ran Handong, a computer maintenance officer on a battleship with an extraordinary family background.

Ran Handong didn’t realize that her identity had already been known until she heard what Jing Jiu said.

In the meantime, she also found out Jing Jiu’s identity.

The strands of hair swayed in front of her pale face as they were tousled by the breeze; a more shocked than graceful expression showed on her face.

In the suite, the conversation between Zong Lizi and the main preacher resumed.

The main preacher needed the confirmation from the new female priest regarding the date of traveling to the Main Planet and selecting two companions.

Thinking of her friend, who didn’t want to be the female priest but who would definitely like to tour the Main Planet, Zong Lizi mentioned the name of Jiang Yuxia without hesitation. Later, she accepted the suggestion of the main preacher to select Hua Xi as the other companion.

Ran Handong turned around without taking another look at Jing Jiu and came back to the suite, passing the message of the female priest to Zong Lizi in a low voice.

After the two of them left the suite, the main preacher couldn’t help but shoot a glance at Ran Handong and asked, “Do you know that one?”

It was obvious that Ran Handong wore a peculiar expression when she saw Jing Jiu’s face. She was still somewhat at a loss when she spoke to Zong Lizi.

The main preacher was aware of her identity, thinking that she shouldn’t have acted so indecorously even if she had seen the true appearance of god.

Ran Handong was not in the mood to explain. “We’ve met,” said she.

She didn’t go back to the praying hall by riding in the flying device but went to the Fire-Passing Pagoda in Shou’er City with the main preacher.

Standing on the sixth floor of the Fire-Passing Pagoda, which was the highest level of the pagoda, she looked down at the busy crowd and the flying devices like the sparrows in the sky through the transparent glass window, remaining silent for a long time.

Next, she came to the deep part of the grand hall and knelt toward the portrait of god. She meditated with her eyes closed for a long time and recovered her calmness.

Ding!!!

The light screen sprang out from the computer terminal on her wrist, the data signals flowing like waterfalls in the form of word symbols at a high speed.

This place was the most important site of the Fire-Passing Pagoda, where no pilgrims and preachers were allowed to enter without permission.

Hence, she was not worried that someone would see her work on the computer and figure out what she was doing.

The data symbols flowing like waterfalls had gradually slowed and in the end turned into the snowflakes in the sky.

She entered the room in the deepest part of the hidden network.

No other Cloud Ghosts but Jing Jiu waited for her in the room that day.

Ran Handong led him leaving the room and coming to the data space. She built a magic wheel and the two of them got in the room and sat down.

The floor and the chairs in the room were all transparent. They could see the scene below, which was the bottomless abyss.

“Who are you exactly?” she demanded while staring at Jing Jiu.

Jing Jiu didn’t respond to her question, but sent a set of data over to her.

Ran Handong’s expression changed slightly when she took a look at the data. “How did you get hold of these?” demanded she.

“I retrieved them,” said Jing Jiu.

Ran Handong said while staring into his eyes, “This is top-secret data on the Seventh Scorching-Sun Battleship, and it is current data. Even if you could sneak into the military network, you still can’t…unless you have broken through the physical barrier of the battleship.”

Jing Jiu uttered “hmm”.

Ran Handong suddenly felt a bit dumbfounded.

She was the most talented young woman in the Federation of the Milky Way, be it operating or repairing computers, and she became an important military officer in the frontline battleship fleet at a young age, and was good enough to host the test of martial art for the selection of female priest. However, compared to this guy, she seemed inferior in every way, including appearance.

“Why did you give the data to me?”

“Help me find someone.”

“Is the person the one who gave the order to attack on the battleship last night? The fleet has already investigated all day and come up with no clue. I don’t think you can find him.”

“Your intuition about data is pretty good. Help me find the value of deviation.”

“There are more than three thousand seven hundred soldiers and officers on the Scorching-Sun Battleship. Do you think the value of deviation while show up?”

“Hmm.”

“Why should I help you?”

“Because you want to know too.”

Having said this, Jing Jiu backed out of the magic wheel, disappearing into the sea of data like snowflakes.

Ran Handong didn’t attempt to chase him this time. She shut off the light screen of the computer, her emotion being complicated.

A noise could be heard from the stairway, and a trace of gold color could be seen vaguely through the glass window.

She knew that the person was sent by Jing Jiu.

…

…

Tang Gu.

He was a project director in the base lab, and the vice general engineer responsible for maintaining the battleship fleet of the base.

Now he had another new identity; he was the follower of the youth who liked wearing tracksuits.

On the second day after the new female priest was selected, he came to Shou’er City from the underground through the tunnel. He came out from the building of Administrative Bureau and made his way across the street and entered the Fire-Passing Pagoda.

As a young physicist who didn’t feel despaired enough to rely on divinity for the truth of the universe, he seldom came to this building besides accompanying his family members.

Led by the main preacher, he came to the highest floor of the building and met the young female officer.

In the ensuing dozen days, he helped the young female officer search the data against all the details of the Scorching-Sun Battleship as her research assistant.

In fact, the two of them had checked all the details, including the angles of the solar panels, the ratio of the fibers in the supplies, the personal files and allocations of the three thousand seven hundred soldiers and officers, and the traces of the data being deleted. All in all, nothing had been missed by them.

The Scorching-Sun Battleship was moored at the space dock, undergoing the investigation of the fleet.

The praying hall exerted a tremendous pressure.

Neither the base nor the government was willing to withstand the anger of the female priest. All the pressures had finally fallen on the battleship fleet.

The fleet had no choice but to order the Scorching-Sun Battleship to go back to the ground, receiving the joint investigation of several sects.

…

…

The Stargate Base was peaceful in the last dozen days. The celebration of the birth of new female priest took place in various cities and neighborhoods. It was said that Zong Lizi came from the underground neighborhood, so the Administrative Bureau and the relevant agencies of the base were to provide more welfare programs for the underground neighborhoods; the proposals were in the drafting stage.

The new female priest was under the attack of the laser guns of a battleship the moment she was selected. The military and the government were all shocked to learn the fact; they upgraded the security to the highest extent.

Zong Lizi couldn’t even leave the hotel, to saying nothing of going to the school. She had to stay in the suite all day.

Fortunately, the whole floor was emptied for a private home theatre and gym among other facilities; it was not too hard to spend a dozen days here.

However, the most expensive and a brand-new gaming compartment was occupied by Jing Jiu.

He had busied himself designing the initial images for the characters in “The Path toward Heaven”, which was to form their faces in the eyes of the players.

The hidden ascendant in the Federation of the Milky Way had attacked him for a second time; it was not a test this time.

Jing Jiu was in no way going to give up his revenge, but he let Ran Handong and Tang Gu do the preparation for him.

As a former Sect Master of Green Mountain, he knew that the important job for him was to manage people rather than the matters.

One early morning, Jing Jiu came out from the gaming compartment and stood in front of the window, looking at the lake as large as a sea. He suddenly missed Gu Qing.

His thought of Gu Qing was different from thinking of the morning light and the Thoughtless Sword.

If Gu Qing were here, he wouldn’t have to worry about this sort of thing.

Unfortunately, that wicked disciple didn’t even care about the ascension when he was indulged in his love affairs. Well, he was indeed resolute…

On the other hand, it looked like the ascension was not as interesting as he had thought.

The morning sunlight shone on the reeds in the distance.

The morning sun peeked over the majestic mountain range.

As soon as a light appeared in the reeds, the ring on his finger glowed.

His awareness entered the interplanetary network and set up various skipping bridges and false data marks, after which he came to the hidden network and the magic wheel.

“Did you remember the butterflies I’ve mentioned to you before?”

Ran Handong handed a set of data to him and continued, “I suspect this incident has something to do with them.”

Jing Jiu took the data and skimmed it, knowing that she still didn’t have any proof yet.

“Among the three thousand seven hundred soldiers and officers on the Scorching-Sun Battleship, more than one hundred have been transferred to the ship in the last few days; and these transfers are a bit odd. I think they were done to protect that key figure,” said Ran Handong. She used her connection in the military to investigate those transfers; but she didn’t mention this to Jing Jiu.

“Go on,” Jing Jiu pressed.

Ran Handong continued, “Based on the analysis of the data, that person must have gone through a facelift, and he has a tremendous appetite.”

Jing Jiu didn’t ask her how she came up with the conclusion. In his opinion, the so-called “analysis of big data” was a mysterious method; sometimes it was like the sand game he used to play, in which the predictions were correct occasionally, and sometimes it was out of whack, in which case there was no point in asking the reasons.

“But besides these, I haven’t come up with more useful information,” said Ran Handong somewhat embarrassingly.

Jing Jiu asked, “When will that battleship dome down?”

“Tomorrow,” replied Ran Handong.

Jing Jiu uttered “hmm”.

Ran Handong said, “I understand your plan. You believe that when the battleship lands on the planet, that person will try to find an opportunity to escape; by then, you’ll find out who he is…However, if that person is smart enough, he will definitely not leave the battleship at that point.”

Jing Jiu said, “You’ve thought too much about it. I just need the battleship to come down.”

The Stargate Base had been on alert and beefed up security in the last few days. A great many apparatuses were aimed at the ground, the atmosphere and the space. It was too troublesome for him to go to the space under such circumstances; and he was the one who disliked troubles the most.

Ran Handong had finally understood his intention by now. She was speechless, wondering if the praying hall had pressured the government to do so much simply because he was lazy.

…

…

In the early morning hours, Zong Lizi got up from the bed. She inserted the data given to her by Jiang Yuxia into the computer and listened to it as she washed her face and brushed her teeth. Suddenly, she heard a sigh in the living room. She came out hastily with the electric toothbrush in her hand and found Jing Jiu watching the morning sun in the distance while standing by the window. She was not sure what he felt sentimental about.

Sentiment was a rare emotion for Jing Jiu; so she felt a bit nervous. As she looked at his back, she forgot to turn off the electric toothbrush, the foams in her mouth piling up.

Jing Jiu turned around and said, “I’ll go out.”

Zong Lizi muttered with the toothbrush between her teeth, “What are you going to do?”

“Kill somebody,” replied Jing Jiu.

A mouthful of white foam came out from Zong Lizi’s mouth.