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

After the North Heavenly Gate closed, the main control cabin did not immediately cheer.

Everyone saw the last message from the Deep Space Divine Court.

[Initiate observation outside Beitianmen.]

That sentence is colder than the crack in the door itself.

The Zhurong Terrace, the fragments of the Nine Suns, and the Northern Heavenly Gate—at least—belong to remnants of the old Heavenly Court system. They have rules, arrogance, and logical loopholes that can be exploited. But what lies beyond the Northern Heavenly Gate? No one knows. For the first time, the speculations about the ancient gods of deep space in the general outline have transformed from mere shadows on paper into real-world pressure.

Lin Xiaoman remained seated in the audience section of Mengwang, her face pale.

The eye she saw neither followed nor spoke. It merely opened for a fleeting moment in the starry sky outside the door, as if someone had heard the commotion on this side of the human world and casually cast a glance.

But that one glance caused tiny black frost to form on the walls of the white corridor of DreamNet.

Xu Wangshu immediately reduced the depth of Xiaoman's listening.

"Xiaoman, look at me."

Lin Xiaoman blinked, struggling to focus her gaze.

"It is not the North Heavenly Gate."

"I know."

"It's not nine days either."

"Don't describe it yet," Xu Wangshu said steadily. "Just record the facts that have happened, without explaining what they are."

Xiaoman nodded.

This is what they've learned along the way: don't rush to name the unknown. Naming too quickly might trap you in the other party's rules.

Qin Lan began to consolidate her efforts across all fronts.

"The solar sail will maintain minimal shading, awaiting natural decay within the nine-day verification window. The old ground station in the western suburbs is under lockdown. Lao Zhou and Chen Rui have been sent to the hospital, and all contact records have been transferred to the human review panel. Lu Chen Gong has entered medical monitoring, and the broken bow fragments are being maintained as evidence. Lin Jibai..."

She paused for a moment.

The heartbeat inside the toolbox is still going strong.

It is weak, but stable.

"Lin Jibai continues to be maintained by anchors."

Xu Wangshu added in a low voice.

"It's not about maintaining the equipment, it's about maintaining the person."

Qin Lan glanced at her and changed her mind.

"Lin Jibai's personal status is being maintained."

The toolbox flashlight lit up briefly.

【Thanks.】

Lu Chengong leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and said, "You thanked me quite a lot today."

The flashlight is on again.

You're welcome to accept what you owe me.

Lu Chenggong laughed and scolded, "Fine, holding a grudge means you're still alive."

The medic finally got permission to wheel him over for examination. He paused as he passed the broken bow stabilizer. The broken bow hung silently, its old silver sheen from Lin Wangchuan's work badge gleaming, like a burnt bone, or a tool that no longer needed to prove its integrity.

Lu Chenggong raised his left hand and touched the air through the safety line.

"No Return Formation"

The broken bow trembled slightly.

Xu Wangshu recorded this as "accompaniment confirmation". Lu Chenggong's face darkened when he saw it, but he did not refute it.

Wen Zhaolin stood on the other side of the main control cabin, watching the lockdown screen of the old ground station in the western suburbs.

Old Zhou and Chen Rui had already been taken to the hospital. Old Zhou's hand was badly burned, but he was still concerned about having the repair truck driven back. Chen Rui sat on the stretcher, his face ashen, but he kept staring at the crooked photo with the serial number on his phone.

XJ-0717.

An extremely ugly temporary number has turned the old Beitianmen road sign into a dangerous manhole cover.

Wen Zhaolin suddenly said, "I used to think that order had to be established by something grand."

Xu Wangshu did not respond.

He continued, "Ladder, group, system, plan. The bigger, the more stable."

Xiaoman whispered, "The manhole cover is quite sturdy."

Wen Zhaolin paused for a moment, then gave a wry smile.

"Yes."

He transferred the remaining control of the highest-level key to the Tianheng Solar Sail to the interim review panel on Earth, and simultaneously released the relevant asset records of the old ground station. Wen Qingyue remained silent on the channel. Perhaps he was preparing to pursue accountability, or perhaps he was reassessing the situation.

Xu Wangshu did not relax because of this.

She knew that Wen Qingyue wouldn't disappear, the remnants of Tianheng wouldn't improve overnight, and the old Heavenly Court system wouldn't stop just because the door was closed. Besides, there was still that eye outside the door.

In the shadow of the solar sail, the dim red glow of the flame finally stabilized.

The ancient characters, bright red, emerged.

[The fire continues to sleep.]

Lin Xiaoman breathed a sigh of relief.

"It needs to go back to sleep."

Xu Wangshu immediately took notes.

[Confirmed: The spark has not been ignited, has not been activated, has not returned to the platform, and has not been launched.]

[Current Status: In a deep sleep.]

[Subsequent principle: This response should not be used as a basis for appealing to the authorities.]

The red ring on the Zhurong Terrace slowly shrank, no longer demanding fire, leaving only a line of text.

[The fire is asleep, but people are on guard.]

The Deep Space Divine Court interface flashed coldly, offering no comment.

The sun pattern on the nine fragments gradually faded into darkness. It wasn't destroyed, but this time it failed to seize the fire, retrieve the broken bow, or use the sunken bow as a substitute. Deep within the orbit, a golden-red afterglow still lingered, like a beast that remembered humanity's rejection.

After the North Heavenly Gate was completely closed, the black frost in the Dream Network did not disappear immediately.

Lin Xiaoman, following Xu Wangshu's instructions, only recorded the facts.

[An unknown entity is observing from outside the door.]

【No contact. 】

[Unnamed.]

Do not initiate a call.

After writing the last line, she relaxed completely and almost slipped off the chair. Xu Wangshu caught her and pressed the monitoring patch back into place.

"Xiaoman, step down from the audience."

Is the fire still asleep?

"exist."

"Where's my brother?"

Xu Wangshu looked at the toolbox.

"Also there."

It clicked once in the toolbox.

Xiaoman finally closed her eyes and exited the shallow layer of the Dream Network.

The main control module is undergoing post-battle cleanup. It's not a victory celebration, but a series of detailed and trivial clean-up tasks: solar sail attitude locking, notification of the western suburbs lockdown, advance payment of medical expenses for maintenance workers, assessment of nerve damage to the sunken bow, backup of evidence of the broken bow, preservation of Lin Jibai's stability curve, and archiving of observation and early warning systems outside the North Heavenly Gate.

These trivial matters are exhausting.

It also puts people at ease.

Because the old system liked to determine fate with a single sentence, while the human world had to use many clumsy methods to keep people around.

Half an hour later, Lin Jibai's stability slowly returned to 43%.

He still couldn't restore the full projection and could only respond with a flashlight and short sentences. Xu Wangshu moved the toolbox next to the main control panel and confirmed that all interfaces were in manual verification mode.

"You can't touch the broken chain on the Gonggong side for the time being," she said.

The flashlight is on.

【Know.】

"You must not touch any source of fire."

【Know.】

"You cannot knock on the North Heavenly Gate without authorization."

The flashlight stopped for two seconds.

Do you think I have that much free time?

Xu Wangshu looked at the line of words and finally smiled very softly.

"picture."

The toolbox is silent.

Lu Chengong, watching from afar by the medical bed, added insult to injury: "They look remarkably alike."

Xiaoman had just woken up, her voice still weak: "Brother, listen to the doctor."

The toolbox flashlight flashed three times in a row, as if it were surrendering helplessly.

Qin Lan posted a preliminary summary of the incident on a public channel.

The core module of Xuan Niao III was damaged.

[The flame has not yet been ignited; for now, it sleeps in darkness.]

[The attempt to seize the fire using fragments failed, but the array's activity has escalated.]

[The North Heavenly Gate is closed, and the old road sign XJ-0717 is under control.]

[An unknown observation has been made outside the North Heavenly Gate; it will not be named yet.]

The principle of human verification remains in effect: no submission of persons, no submission of witness evidence, and no recognition of unauthorized border jurisdiction.

Before sending it, she looked at Xu Wangshu.

"What else should we add?"

Xu Wangshu thought for a moment and then added a sentence.

All costs will continue to be publicly tracked.

Lin Jibai lit up a flashlight in his toolbox.

[Additional note: Two packs of cigarettes from Lao Zhou.]

The main control room was silent for a second.

Then, I don't know who laughed first.

The laughter was low, tired, but genuine.

Qin Lan actually added it to the appendix.

[Appendix: Zhou Jianguo of the West Gate Maintenance Team claims that Lin Jibai owes two packs of cigarettes; this will be verified after Lin Jibai recovers.]

On public channels, many people who had been tense all night saw this appendix and realized for the first time that they could still laugh.

It's almost dawn outside the window.

The morning light of the space city seeped in from the edge of the high window of the main control cabin, shining on the toolbox, the broken bow stabilizer, Lin Wangchuan's cracked name tag, and Xiaoman's pale face.

The moon had already set on the other side of the city.

But everyone knows that the far side of the moon is not peaceful.

The eye outside the North Heavenly Gate will not look more than once.

As Lin Jibai listened to the low hum of the equipment in the morning while sitting in his toolbox, he suddenly remembered his father's old admonition: "Disconnect the power before fixing anything, and don't be a show-off."

He doesn't even have a complete hand right now, so he really can't show off much.

So he only knocked on the side of the box once.

Xu Wangshu looked over.

A sentence slowly appeared on the screen.

Next time you need to fix a door, look for the manhole cover first.

Xiaoman coughed with a laugh.

Xu Wangshu saved this sentence in the event notes without commenting.

But she knew that from that night onward, humanity would face more than just the ruins of the ancient gods on the far side of the moon.

They refused to return the fire to the furnace, refused to return the bow to the battle array, refused to have people as witnesses, and refused to let the gatekeepers and borders fall to their feet.

This is not the end.

It was merely the first echo after the signal from Beitianmen was truly heard.

Beyond the echoes, a deeper cosmos is awakening.