Don't go to the moon, there are gods on the far side of the moon.

In low Earth orbit, the moment the solar arrow opened, all the lights in the main control module dimmed for a moment.

It's not a power outage.

It stole half an inch of all the light.

The orbital diagram on the screen was pierced by thin gold and red lines, and Xuan Niao III looked like an old button pinned to the ground, stuck in the darkness. The robotic arm of the Tianheng maintenance star had already penetrated the core module, and the calibration ring tightened round and round, making the dim red light almost invisible.

Lin Xiaoman, who was listening in on the DreamNet, bent over in pain, her forehead covered in sweat.

"It's not waking up the fire," she said through gritted teeth. "It's stuffing fire into the arrow."

The veins on the back of Lu Chengong's hand bulged out one by one.

The broken bow fragments were eerily quiet within the stabilizing shield. The quieter it was, the more it indicated that the commands of the nine sun fragments had reached its deepest core. The Hou Yi sequence awaited his confirmation; the moment he nodded, a new arrow would be generated from the human link and shot towards the sun pattern.

If it hits, it might put out the fire.

But the moment it is fired, the spark will be redefined as a weapon.

Lu Chen's Adam's apple bobbed, his voice sounding like it had been sanded.

"I can break the robotic arm."

Xu Wangshu didn't look at him, but stared at the countdown to the unused seats.

"cost?"

"The Houyi sequence will take over once."

"how long?"

"have no idea."

These three words were more jarring than an alarm.

Qin Lan immediately suppressed the urging voices in the public channel. Many nodes sent requests at the same second: allow Hou Yi to shoot, allow Tian Heng to remotely cut off the maintenance star, allow Zhu Rongtai to temporarily retrieve the fire seed, and allow the Deep Space Divine Court to determine that the fragments of the Nine Suns are external hostile targets.

Every request was like a lifeline.

It's also like the old system's favorite excuse.

Xu Wangshu hung them all up, leaving only one recording line open.

[Current selection: Gonggong side chain break.]

[Objective: To prevent the spark from being reassembled into the arrow by the fragments of the nine suns.]

[Known costs: Risk of damage to the core module of Xuan Niao III, risk of the fire seed's dormant state breaking down, risk of decreased stability of Lin Jibai.]

[Responsibility Record: Publicly Available.]

Wen Qingyue's voice lost its composure for the first time.

[Refuse. A broken chain would destroy Xuan Niao III, and the spark might also be extinguished.]

Lin Jibai's single-handed projection rested on the power of cessation, the edge of his fingertips like weathered paper.

"So if it's put back into the arrow, it won't disappear?"

Wen Qingyue stopped.

Lin Jibai continued, "Fire is willing to listen to humans, but not to return to the platform, nor has it said it wants to be used as an arrow. It has barely opened its mouth, and you are already rushing to find a use for it."

The heartbeat inside the toolbox was faint, but it was amplified by the microphone in the main control room, sounding like someone knocking on the door in the dark.

The fragments of Nuwa glowed with blue light.

A broken chain is not destruction.

A broken link prevents an erroneous connection from continuing.

Xu Wangshu finally turned his head.

"Lin Jibai, your current stability is 62%. After the Gonggong side's chain breaks, it may fall below the entity projection threshold."

"I know."

"After it falls below that level, you may be back at the bottom of the toolbox and unable to respond for a short period of time."

Write it down.

"Lin Xiaoman can sense the pain of the fire."

Lin Jibai remained silent for a second.

Xiaoman raised her head, her face deathly pale, but she spoke first.

"Brother, don't stop for me."

She gripped Lin Wangchuan's employee badge, her knuckles turning white.

"Dad said to ask if the fire wants to wake up first. Right now, it doesn't want to be put back into the arrow. I can hear it."

Xu Wangshu looked at her.

You have the right to stop the hearing.

"I won't stop," Xiaoman said, catching her breath. "But I'm adding one more condition."

She included her confirmation in the public review.

[Lin Xiaoman, an observer on the DreamNet platform, confirmed: Pain from the "Fire Seed" does not equate to consent to being temporarily managed.]

Lu Chenggong suddenly chuckled softly.

"You siblings are truly of the same blood."

Lin Xiaoman glared at him: "Don't shoot."

Lu Chengong raised his hand from the confirmation area and slowly pressed it back into the physical interruption zone.

"I will not fire."

After he finished speaking, he switched all three safety mechanisms of the broken bow fragments to the hard lock.

A muffled thud came from inside the stabilizing shield, like some kind of pride being snapped in two by his own hands. Lu Chenggong's face turned deathly pale instantly, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, but the sun lines did not spread across his eyes.

Xu Wangshu no longer hesitated.

"Refuse seating, activate."

Qin Lan simultaneously issued an order: "Public channels will only retain manual review; automatic takeover will not be accepted."

Lin Jibai pressed the stop button.

In that instant, everyone in the main control room heard a loud splash.

It wasn't the dripping sound like the watermarks under the West Gate.

It's like an ancient flood crashing into a pillar of heaven.

A black and blue memory exploded before Lin Jibai's eyes. A towering pillar, its shadow stretching endlessly between heaven and earth, was covered in golden-red commands. One after another, sun arrows were being loaded into orbit, awaiting calibration towards the mortal realm. Someone stood in the floodwaters, blood streaming from their forehead, glancing back at the countless nameless people behind them.

The man didn't utter any grand words.

He simply said, "Don't let it connect."

Lin Jibai's projection suddenly crashed into the Xuan Niao No. 3 link.

Gonggong's breaking of the chain did not mean cutting a single thread.

It re-examines all the "taken-for-granted connections": Who made the connection, on what grounds did they make the connection, and who loses the right to choose after the connection is made?

Outside the core module of Xuan Niao III, the golden verification ring on the robotic arm suddenly jammed. The outer shell of the Tianheng maintenance star continued to shake. The system, which had been taken over by the Nine Suns fragments, attempted to rewrite its permissions, but found that the human link no longer recognized its "ancient priority".

The red ring of Zhurong Terrace surged.

The flame is about to fall.

The Deep Space Divine Court then issued a judgment.

[The Gonggong variable disrupts the stable trajectory.]

The first time a fragment of Nuwa pressed down on both sides simultaneously was a notification.

Stability does not equate to correctness.

Lin Jibai could no longer hear the sounds behind him.

He only saw a faint red light emerge half an inch from the golden verification ring. In the dream network, the charred little bird raised its head, its wing bearing a deep gash, but it did not retract.

Lin Xiaoman cried out, "It's out!"

The next second, the core module of Xuan Niao III cracked open.

The fragments scattered into a ring of silver dust in the darkness of orbit. The mechanical arm of the Tianheng maintenance star was torn off in the opposite direction, and the golden calibration ring, along with a section of the nine-sun pattern, flew backward. The open sun arrow was not fired, but it shone even colder in the depths of darkness.

Lin Jibai's stability rate dropped steadily from 62%.

Fifty-nine.

Fifty-four.

Forty-seven.

Xu Wangshu clenched her fingers.

"Lin Jibai, respond."

All that remained in the toolbox was static.

Xiaoman suddenly stood up: "Brother!"

From the depths of the noise came a very soft tap.

a bit.

It sounded like someone tapped it with their knuckles at the bottom of a box.

Then the second time.

The third time.

Xu Wangshu closed his eyes and immediately began to take notes.

Lin Jibai is still alive.

On the orbital chart, the core module of Xuan Niao III was destroyed, but the dim red light did not fall towards Zhu Rongtai, nor did it fall into the debris of Tianheng Maintenance Star.

It rested among the fragments, like a piece of charcoal washed out of its cage by a flood.

The ancient, fiery red characters slowly emerged.

The fire is still burning.

The fire still listens.

[It was known within nine days that hunting was prohibited in the human realm.]

Further away, the real sun arrow finally opened fully.

It did not aim at the spark.

They also didn't aim at Lin Jibai, whose chain had just broken and was almost shattered.

It was as if it had finally found the most familiar old entrance from a pile of rejections, coldly passing over the spark, passing over the fragment of Xuan Bird No. 3, passing over all publicly recorded costs, and landing on the person who had once been trained by them to be a bow.

It aimed at the Sunken Bow.