Courtyard Houses: From Bronze Compasses to Global Reach

Lin Yan led Xiao Qi out of the pass. He looked up at the azure sky and, on a whim, decided to go up and see the sky.

He took out two invisibility talismans and slapped one on himself and one on Xiao Qi. With a flash of light, his figure disappeared from the villa courtyard.

The next moment, two beams of light shot into the sky, tearing through the clouds, their speed increasing rapidly.

The fierce wind howled outside the protective aura, but could not penetrate it even slightly.

The land below rapidly shrank, and the outlines of the azure sea and lush landmasses became clear.

Before long, the surrounding pressure eased, the thin air almost disappeared, and in its place was an endless silence and a deep darkness.

They have broken out of the atmosphere and are in near-Earth orbit.

It's cold and empty here.

The sun's rays were unobstructed and intensely bright, but on the shaded side, there was a biting cold and absolute darkness.

Beneath my feet, the Earth resembles a giant, slowly rotating sapphire, set against a backdrop of jet-black velvet, with ever-changing cloud formations that seem almost unreal.

The faint light of the protective true essence filtered out most of the intense sunlight and the invasion of cosmic rays.

Lin Yan stood suspended in mid-air, with Xiao Qi hovering quietly beside him, its golden eyes curiously scanning the absolutely silent deep space.

Several early artificial satellites, like silent metallic insects, slowly traced fixed paths below, with simple structures and weak signals.

Lin Yan's gaze swept over them, and a vague yet grand idea flashed through his mind—if he combined cultivation formations with these "heavenly eyes" to weave a global perception and communication network... Heh, Mr. Musk, your Starlink is mine for life! But this thought was only fleeting and was quickly suppressed.

The time is not right; resources and technology are insufficient.

"Brother, it feels so empty here, yet so heavy."

Xiao Qi's divine sense transmitted through the channel, carrying a hint of instinctive awe.

"Yes, that's the gravitational pull between stars."

Lin Yan responded, his gaze fixed on the silvery-white moon that seemed within reach yet was actually impossibly far away.

"Looking at a mountain makes a horse run itself to death"—at this moment, he gained a profound understanding of this proverb that transcended dimensions.

With his Nascent Soul Stage 2 cultivation, his true essence was insufficient to support such a long interstellar journey. If he forced his way across, he would likely exhaust his true essence before reaching the middle and become lost in the absolute void.

However, he was in no hurry. He would wait until he reached the Nascent Soul stage before making a preliminary attempt. Perhaps there would be a different view there.

He turned his attention back to Earth.

That azure blue can indeed give people a certain transcendent illusion, as if all the disputes, smoke, and desires are insignificant.

He also recalled the report he had read in his previous life, the so-called "overall effect," in which the astronauts described a spiritual elevation, believing that humanity should unite for the sake of its overall insignificance.

Lin Yan merely sneered inwardly at this.

absurd.

Those astronauts were indeed the elite among mortals, but they were still "mortals".

Their transcendence stemmed from their brief separation from the very foundations of survival—the land, water, air, and mineral resources.

Like ants briefly pulled from their nest, they are astonished by the nest's insignificance, forgetting the brutal struggles within for a single grain of rice or a drop of water—the very essence of survival.

The conflicts among humans, or rather, most living beings, are never due to a lack of awareness of their own insignificance, but rather because they are acutely aware of the finiteness of resources.

The land beneath our feet can only produce so much grain, the underground mineral deposits can only smelt so much steel, and the market share is only one hundred percent.

If you don't fight for it, others will get more.

So-called "unity" is either a temporary peace in the face of a stronger external threat, or a temporary balance after the stronger party has established the rules of distribution.

Lin Yan saw it perfectly clearly.

The macroscopic universe does not eliminate the struggle for survival at the microscopic level.

This will only expand the arena of competition and the resources vie for to an unprecedented scale and level of brutality.

Once these nations realize the significance of near-Earth orbit, lunar mineral deposits, and asteroid resources, the wars waged now for an inch of land or an oil field will erupt in the future for an orbit or a piece of lunar soil rich in rare metals.

Technology may change, weapons may change, but the underlying logic driving the struggle—the thirst for resources for survival and development—remains unchanged throughout history.

The same applies to monks.

In the cultivation world, how many bloody battles have been waged over a spiritual vein, a celestial herb, or a cultivation technique? It's just that the resources being fought over are of a higher level, and the methods used are beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

Can Lin Yan remain detached? To some extent, yes.

Because his individual strength far surpasses that of ordinary people, he possesses space, and his methods of acquiring resources are different.

But he is also "fighting".

We must contend with the heavens for destiny, with the earth for resources, and with others for power.

His chessboard is larger, and the pieces are different, but the essence of the game is the same.

"Unity? That's nothing more than a fleeting illusion created by absolute abundance of resources or absolute external crushing power."

Lin Yan remained indifferent.

"And the universe, precisely, foreshadows the transition of resources from 'finite' to 'nearly infinite.' Before the 'infinite' is truly reached, the struggle during this transitional phase will only be more naked and less boundless than it is on Earth."

He took one last look at that beautiful blue planet, where countless pieces he had laid out were now at work, operating at every level of politics, economics, technology, and intelligence, either in opposition, cooperation, or infiltration according to his will.

From this height, everything appears as insignificant as dust. But it is precisely the interaction between these specks of dust that will determine whether he can more easily venture into this deep space in the future.

"Let's go, Xiao Qi." Lin Yan withdrew his gaze and turned around.

"Did you go back, brother?" Xiao Qi asked.

"Hmm," Lin Yan said, diving towards the atmosphere. The aura of his invisibility talisman shimmered faintly as it rubbed against the thin air. "The game on the ground isn't finished yet. And..."

"We need to prepare a larger chessboard that is better suited to the starry sky."

The two figures turned around and swooped down towards the azure blue.

The radiance of the protective true essence, as it rubbed against the increasingly dense atmosphere, left faint traces before quickly disappearing beneath the clouds.