Deposed? I couldn't be happier! I wouldn't even be a dog to the crown prince.

The Tang Dynasty's journey is to the stars and the sea, and even the moon is not as bright as the night outside the Jiji Palace Square. The night is as dark as ink, but the stars are dazzlingly bright. Li Chengqian stands on the towering star-gazing platform, the evening breeze blowing his loose sleeves. He points to the cold moon hanging in the sky above the prosperous Tang Dynasty and smiles lightly at Wu Meiniang beside him.

"Meiniang, look at the moon. The old man has already pushed himself to the limit on Earth. He's dug the canal in the Sahara and tunneled through the Himalayas. Now he's just worried about where to put his strength." Li Chengqian casually tossed a strangely shaped memory device into his pocket, his gaze so deep it seemed he could see through the past and present.

"Does Your Highness mean to give His Majesty a bigger pond?" Wu Meiniang smiled, her eyes full of intelligence.

Li Chengqian stretched and strode towards the laboratory deep underground in the Eastern Palace. The heavy steel door there swung open with a roar after scanning his pupils, and the cold incandescent light instantly tore through the darkness.

In the center of the laboratory, the giant plotter, long sealed away, emitted a faint hum. Li Chengqian's slender fingers flew across the virtual keyboard, forcibly waking up the system's dormant underlying database.

"System, stop pretending to be dead. Retrieve the outline of that 'Moon Palace Project' for me. Since the old man has too much energy, let him go and compete with Wu Gang for jobs." He murmured in his mind.

As the progress bar flashed wildly, countless densely packed mechanical structural diagrams, detailed down to the millimeter level, unfolded in the holographic projection. These were the propulsion system of a multi-stage launch vehicle, the precise proportions of thermal insulation alloys, and even the logic diagram of the escape tower of the primary lunar lander.

These artifacts, originally the crystallization of civilizations thousands of years in the future, now exuded a kind of industrial, violent beauty in the basement of the Eastern Palace of the Tang Dynasty. Without any hesitation, Li Chengqian packaged and sealed this data.

The next morning, Xu Xiao personally delivered a top-secret document, painted with red sealing wax and stamped with the Crown Prince's private seal, to Li Shimin's desk.

Li Shimin, who was furious about the labor dispute reports from the North American provinces, jumped up from his boss's chair the moment he opened the envelope. His eyes, which were slightly tired from staying up all night, suddenly flashed with an almost fanatical light when he saw the words "Lunar Territory Expansion Plan".

"The moon? Is that where Chang'e stays? Can we plant the dragon flag of the Tang Dynasty on it?" Li Shimin's voice trembled, not from fear, but from the frenzied excitement of the nation's destiny engine being instantly ignited.

He didn't even bother to wash his face before grabbing the phone and pressing the broadcast button.

"By imperial decree! The Great Tang National Space Administration is hereby established! You old fogies in the cabinet, wake up! I will make sure the moon bears the surname Li after the Great Tang dragon flag is planted all over the earth!"

With a roar from this "Eternal War God," the massive machine of the Great Tang Dynasty, which had been running at high speed for decades, once again emitted a terrifying roar.

A global mobilization has begun. South American rubber plantations are operating non-stop, and North American steel mills are spewing even thicker black smoke. Li Tai is howling in the telegram, saying that all the hardest alloys should be reserved for rocket engines.

In just a few short years, the technological level of the Tang Dynasty experienced an illogical, exponential explosion. Outside Chang'an, a towering space launch site, covering tens of thousands of acres, rose from the ground. The massive steel structure reflected a cold luster in the setting sun, like a colossus poised to pierce the heavens.

Countless satellites, propelled by propulsion independently developed by the Tang Dynasty, surged into orbit in droves. The people of Chang'an could simply look up and see those bright spots slowly gliding across the night sky—the eyes of the Tang Dynasty, surveying the globe.

"Director, fuel loading has reached 99%! Liquid oxygen pressure is stable! Requesting final ignition command!" Inside the launch center, Mo Ju's great-grandson, Mo Lin, was covered in sweat, his voice hoarse with excitement.

Li Shimin changed into a specially made anti-static dark gold dragon robe and sat imposingly in the center of the main control room. He stared at the giant steel arrow, hundreds of meters high, on the large screen, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked.

"Once this 'Heavenly Horse' soars into the sky, let's see who dares to say the Tang Dynasty's golden age is over. Light it! Burn away the barbarians' audacity!"

With a wave of his hand, Li Shimin felt as if he had returned to his peak moment in front of Xuanwu Gate.

Meanwhile, every street and alley in Chang'an fell into a deathly silence. The giant LCD screens on Zhuque Avenue were packed with densely packed crowds of people.

Workers in short-sleeved shirts, students wearing glasses, and even housewives pushing strollers—everyone was tilting their heads back. That sense of tension, transcending time, was like an invisible electromagnetic wave connecting the entire city that never sleeps.

On the viewing platform of the East Palace, Li Chengqian leaned back in a recliner, swirling a glass of carbonated juice with ice in his hand.

"Your Highness, do you think it can be done?" Xu Xiao nervously wrung his hands, his once-mighty hands trembling slightly.

Li Chengqian spat out an ice cube from his juice, gazing lazily at the faint firelight visible on the distant horizon. "With an old man like that 'King of Scrolls' watching over us, plus the max-level blueprints I gave us, if we can't get up there, even Newton will rise from his coffin to protest. Old Xu, calm down, this is just a small step in the Great Tang's interstellar travel."

The synthesized voices on the radio blared deafeningly through loudspeakers that covered the entire city.

"ten!"

"Nine!"

"eight!"

The entire city of Chang'an began to tremble violently with each countdown. The people held their breath; some gripped the hands of their companions tightly, while others made the sign of prayer in front of their chests, their eyes filled with awe for the unknown.

"three!"

"two!"

"one!"

As the final countdown ended, deep in the desert north of Chang'an, a bright orange-red fireball, rivaling the blazing sun, suddenly exploded.

The earth groaned in agony, like a dragon turning over, and a violent shockwave whipped up clouds of dust. The giant rocket, carrying the ambitions of the Tang Dynasty, slowly but surely rose into the sky amidst a deafening roar that shattered the heavens.

"Look! It's flying! The Pegasus is flying!" A cry, almost choked with sobs, erupted from the crowd.

Then came a deafening roar of cheers. The sound of hundreds of millions of people even drowned out the roar of the rocket engines. On the big screen, the rocket, trailing a white contrail hundreds of meters long, resembled a sword slicing through the eternal night, soaring straight into the sky.

Li Shimin abruptly stood up in the command room, staring intently at the ever-rising red dot, his eyes slightly red. "Chang'e, I've come to take you back to the Tang Dynasty!"

Li Chengqian watched the point of light disappear at the edge of the stratosphere and slowly finished his juice.

"Old Xu, send a message to the cabinet. Tell them that the rocket has been launched and that memorials from all provinces can now be transmitted via satellite. Tell the old man to be prepared to review 100,000 documents a day."

Xu Xiao was stunned, then gave a wry smile, "Your Highness, are you trying to ruin His Majesty?"

"If it's not rolled up, how can it be called the Heavenly Khan?" Li Chengqian patted the crumbs off his hands, his gaze distant.

The countdown broadcast over Chang'an still echoed in the air. Hundreds of millions of Tang Dynasty citizens stared intently at the giant screen in the square, holding their breath as they awaited the epoch-making signal to be transmitted back to Earth.

In the crowd, a child pointed to the sky and exclaimed in a childish voice, "Father, is that the chariot of the immortals?"

The man wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes, patted his son's shoulder heavily, and said in a loud voice:

"No, son, that's our Tang Dynasty's family law. We need to go and discipline the gods in heaven!"