Past Morning

  Julius entered his D.M.1, shutting the driver’s door. Empress Cai was in the passenger seat, already buckled up. Hence, the hypercar drove out of the backyard, going through the lawn. He went through a semicircle route around Annia’s manor. It was a party-like crowd. Agents spread out across the lawn, moving out of the way for him. Julius steered to the remaining unoccupied pavement of the house. He looked left and right and turned towards the latter, entering the neighborhood’s main street. A few pickup trucks followed him as he departed the neighborhood. When he arrived at the neighborhood’s gate, it was still open, so he didn’t stop to greet the security guard. The hypercar and the three trucks sped out of the neighborhood. They don’t care about the incoming traffic. Julius pressed hard on the gas pedal, drifting out and launching into the main avenue.

  “You drive crazy!” Empress Cai said.

  “I always wanted to drive like this,” Julius said while doing hand maneuvers to the steering wheel. Once aligned, the D.M.1 drove through and dodged a couple of upcoming vehicles. Ironically, a police SUV was nearby. One swarm past it, and Julius saw the red and blue lights flickering and flashed his rear-view mirror. “Of course, one way to ruin my day.” He then pulled the driver’s window down.

  “Woah, what the hell are you doing?!” Empress Cai blurted.

  Julius shot out a mist of qi from his hand to the steering wheel. “I’m going to deal with this crap. And don’t try to help!”

  Empress Cai clicked her tongue, pulling down her window. She, too, climbed out and went to the car’s roof.

  “I thought I told you to stay put!”

  “I can’t leave you alone, you hear?!”

  Julius shook his head, but he was focused on the police SUV, now with a company of five police cruisers following them. Shit, they are chasing the pickup trucks too. Julius realized and sent a telepathic communication to all of them. << Distract or do whatever you can to get them out of our sight. >> He hastily sent.

  “We can’t let the agents get involved in this yet. We deal with them ourselves, no matter the cost,” Julius said to Empress Cai before summoning his miao dao. The blade was already emitting frosty flakes. It's so cold that the breeze from the hypercar’s speed amped its low temperature, making his face feel chilly. Empress Cai drew her katana, and the two fired a slash of qi right into the SUV, decimating it completely.

  The SUV burst and exploded high in the sky into the rain of embers. Aerial flame bits flew around the vicinity, crashing into residences’ roofs and on the avenue. Solomon climbed out of his pickup truck, summoning his battleaxe. He roared loudly into the air, raising his equipped arm into the air. Orange lightning jolted down from the sky, charging up the battleaxe. Julius saw him jump towards a police cruiser and effortlessly sliced it in half. His feet gripped both, preventing them from diverging further. Solomon was almost at a full split, which was considered unique for his size to have that much flexibility. He then jumped up with his grip, pulling the two halves of the cruiser together in a loud slam. His left hand faced towards it, and with kinesis, he levitated it up into the air. The two police officers inside were panicking, and their focus was on how high they were. An unfortunate collateral damage because Solomon used the two halves of a vehicle as projectiles. One fired at the other tailing cruiser, and the other on the following. Solomon dropped to his pickup truck and returned to the driver’s seat.

  Celeste, who was in Solomon’s pickup truck, pulled down her window from the passenger’s side. She put her head out and turned to the rear, where there were two more police cruisers left. She didn’t leave the pickup truck, and luckily for her, there was no need to as she summoned Vesper from the tip of her fingers. Vesper was summoned and levitated right next to her. A couple of finger gestures to change the shape of the platform’s edges. Afterward, her right hand motioned horizontally like a slash, causing Vesper to fly right at the two police cruisers. The platform did a clean cut through two police cruisers before flying back to Celeste’s reach, presenting a bloodied mess. Some droplets of blood dripped off onto the road.

  Julius had ordered Empress Cai to get back inside, which she had already done. Before he did the same, he looked around for any more police company or any additional backup had been called. So far, nothing has arrived. Hence, Julius sent another telepathic message, but this time it was to go up into the sky. Helda, who was driving the third pickup truck, the one behind Solomon’s, called him wildly crazy. This was a bright day in the late morning, and yesterday they arrived in Colemond on a dark, rainy night. The visibility was what led to her calling him out. However, Julius telepathically told her that, crazy or not, either they wanted to go through the trouble on the road to the museum and bring more damage or take the exposed route.

  Helda, not pleased by this scenario, agreed only when she put her cloak on. Now her face was hidden in a dark void generated by the hoodie.

  Then the whole convoy lifted into the air, following Julius’ D.M.1. It went at an average flight speed, arriving in downtown Colemond in barely a minute.

  When they arrived, Julius carefully landed his vehicle down first on an empty street next to a park. After the three pickup trucks arrived in the same manner, they rolled out into a main avenue that directed to Colemond’s Museum of Arms. The parking was free, but Julius went to the parking garage instead. Empress Cai pulled down her window once passed the security checkpoint. She then destroyed any remaining security cameras in sight that Julius’ phone didn’t detect and obliterated.

  The parking garage had five stories. Since it was still morning and not noon yet, there was more space on the upper two floors. Hence, Julius and the convoy drove through the rounds. He parked on the fourth floor. All four vehicles spread out around the floor, and they exited their vehicles. They convened as they all strolled together from their parking spots to the entrance.

  The Colemond’s Museum of Arms was also five stories tall. Each floor of the parking garage was connected to all stories of the former. Julius led the way, walking over a short crossover bridge to the Museum’s fourth-floor entrance. The automatic sliding doors opened, surprising everyone except Helda, who chuckled at their expressive amazement. Julius almost did the same but understood their emotion. “All made by machine,” he said.

  The group of ten, including Julius, entered the open museum. The fourth floor specifically demonstrated all knowledge of weapons from the 17th century to Post-World War II. Journalist Rui had a notebook in his coat’s inner pocket. He pulled it out with a pen, anticipating all the blank pages left to be filled.

  “Please explore around and gather what’s important to bring back,” Julius said, then looked at Rui. “Unfortunately, you don’t have a Skoltor System, so you’ll have to do your work with one of us at least to translate since this is English, not Yue.”

  “Right,” Rui muttered, followed by a sigh before looking at who he will follow. “I’ll go with you.”

  “Alright.” Julius nodded. “Then your first thing of the day is about machinery…Alright, let’s go.” He headed off to a library and model gallery section on the fourth floor. Rui followed along. This was only the fourth floor, but the part Julius headed off to was right on the opposite side of the building. The museum was pretty huge, and it made sense to think it would be some part of a mall because the distance to the other side of the floor was like five minutes to get to. When he and Rui arrived in the area, they met with an M1 Abrams replica based on Operation Desert Storm during the Gulf War.

  “Holy shit,” Rui said. “What on earth is this?”

  “It’s an armored fighting vehicle,” Julius answered. “Many conflicts and wars in the modern era of this planet used them for front-line combat.”

  Rui’s hand moved along the paper, transferring ink from his pen to the surface. Julius looked at the notebook he held. He felt a little bad because getting through this whole place would massacre the pocket notebook. Hence, he summoned an empty spiral notebook that he took from Annia’s home. “Here…If you are going to write a lot of things, better use this instead.”

  “Oh, no, sir. You don’t have to—”

  “I saw your glowing eyes on it. You're going to need it, and I bet by the time we are done here, all of this will be filled with notes.”

  Rui stuttered momentarily. “Thank you, sir.”

  “Please. If there’s anything you want me to input, speak away.”

  Solomon was a little distance away from the library section. He was eyeing through the shelves. Yinhai. There’s so much inventory of books. He perceived, then looked around. His eyes judged the vast difference compared to the House of Kang’s Library. I wonder if I can copy all of this. Expertise and experience defined him as not impossible. However, the process won’t be quiet but loud, messy, and dangerous. Unlike Julius, Solomon’s creativity remained dependent on the usage of the anvil. Hence, that disappointed him, and he pulled that thought away. Solomon resumed looking through the shelves until his finger and eyes simultaneously stopped at one certain book and pulled it out. His Skoltor System, Axt, translated the cover of the book. “The Blitz: Bombing of London,” he verbally read the words with a minor struggle, as this was his first attempt to transcribe English.

  With the translation at his convenience, he understood it as fine and opened the hardcover to the title page. The table of contents was next, and Solomon let the translation do its thing while he analyzed the page numbers, finding it to be eight hundred pages massive. All the pages were thick upon the touch of his fingers. Two more flips to the first page and as he was about to read Axt’s translation, Solomon heard footsteps coming from behind him.

  “Hey,” a female voice greeted him.

  Solomon turned around. “Oh, hello Laura.”

  “What are you reading?” Laura asked. She then walked past him and leaned to the bookshelf, facing right at him while searching for her own book interests.

  “About the Blitz. I’ve never heard of this before.”

  “I would be surprised if you did…How’s Planet Raal? What is it like? We can talk about it right now,” Laura said, inviting a conversation. Solomon found it intriguing that she was willing to talk here and, in fact, her husband, Dale, didn’t come along.

  “Sure, we can talk, if you can stand a lot.” Solomon opened Axt’s note-taking feature, and it began writing all the notes as he went through the pages.

  “Oh, I can. The longest I had to move without sitting down was fifteen hours.”

  “That’s impressive for a human,” Solomon answered. “Maybe you can break another record because you’re biologically becoming like us.”

  Laura found a book. "That brings me back to my first two questions. Do you like it here?”

  “Before me and Celeste met Julius, life was pretty difficult. The world was mad and power-hungry. Both of us were going through hell. Then when he came around, it was like the balance shifted slowly by a bit as time went on,” Solomon briefed, turning through the thirtieth page. “Eventually, he became the founding emperor of his new empire after dissolving the prior dynasty which Empress Cai’s family ruled for hundreds of years.”

  “Did he make it better?”

  Solomon nodded, flipping through the fortieth page. “Yeah, he did. He always talked about his years handling this city, and that experience helped him set through uniting the broken dynasty in a short amount of time.”

  Laura smiled, followed by a chuckle. She opened a book about Pearl Harbor, going through a specific chapter. “That a boy…Damn, I can’t even call him a boy anymore. Daniel was a nice guy, and he helped me with the agency staff to keep Runes’ purpose from being exposed a couple of years ago. Wait.” She paused. “Why is he now called Julius?”

  “Well, me and Celeste met him while we were in the realm of a tournament that took place underground. Both of us were there for at least a couple of years before he entered. His life changed drastically because everybody who participated in and stuck in the realm had gone through events of torture in various ways. Same with him. Are you following?”

  “What kind of torture?” Laura asked, closing the book after taking screenshots of the important pages.

  Solomon sighed as he turned to the quarter mark of the book. “When he first arrived, he was well built and lost all of that within the first six months. A fourth of his weight was wiped away. His muscles slimmed like a shrunken leaf. Adding to the severity, he puked blood multiple times, almost lost his lower jaw, was mentally drained, and almost broke every bone possible once. All of his surgeries were done without anesthesia.”

  “Are you serious?” Laura asked while her eyes wanted to bail out. It was the last sentence “You don’t have that?”

  “No…No. We do. Not every area has it, but it exists. It got to where he got so used to this that sleeping through these fixes is whatever to him. He doesn’t care anymore.”

  Laura was stunned from before and only to hear Julius’ desensitized reaction towards being open took her a little knockout. “You don’t sound finished?”

  “No, I am. That’s Julius. Think of it as a path. Every day it gets quicker, and he becomes the 'Julius' with absolute pride. I guess because you guys haven’t gone through the journey with him long enough that he gave you a pass on calling him Daniel.”

  “What happens if you guys did?”

  Solomon closed the book and put it back in its spot on the shelf. “We get yelled at. That’s the most you can get in response. To be honest, I understood it because I got to know him for the last six months where the underground tournament served as his identity’s reevaluation…” he said before departing from his spot and Laura followed. “…and he wanted to move on. His time as Daniel is complete. He’ll be happy if you start calling him Julius.”

  The two went to a different row of bookshelves. Laura didn’t get a book this time, and she watched Solomon get a second book and flip through the pages quickly. Her mind wondered what he was doing because she saw his eyes were focused on the pages. “I see. Julius it is then. Also, why are you flipping through the pages so fast?”

  “Everyone that came along with Julius, me included, has their own magic virtual system in our heads. We can do a lot of things with it,” Solomon answered, pointing to his head and eyes. “Our eyes are more enhanced.”

  “Can you prove it?”

  “I mean…I’m translating as I read through these books. Without it, I can’t read any of this.”

  “Good point…I guess I’ll try to ask others about it. Do I get this too?”

  “Yeah, it’s mandatory. Once we take you guys to Planet Raal, you’ll be going to training right away and this system.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Laura sighed. “Two weeks to prepare. Alright. You satisfied my curiosity for now.”

  “Trust me, you might like the different culture and environment in Raal more than here. That’s my definitive answer. Julius will say the same thing.”

  “Alright then. Thanks for the time to talk. It’s good to meet you, Solomon.”

  “Yeah, same. Say hi to your husband, Dale, for me.”

  “Will do,” Laura said, then departed from view.

  Solomon took a breather, reflecting on her first impressions. What a damn feisty lady. She would’ve sucked me dry the longer we talked. I have to be careful of her personal temptations. Other than that, she was nice.

  Julius' Summaries

  Day 2 → March 30th: The ones that were with Agent Sleep’s group that came along with Julius yesterday were exhausted. Day one was pinpoint fifteen and nine, which was the Museum of Arms and the hill where Agent Sleep’s discovery of the Rune magic, Fúwén Mófǎ (符文魔法), took place. It took the whole day, and by the time they returned, it was nearly midnight. Everyone was scolded by Annia for being late, like a housewife or a stay-at-home mother. Julius, Solomon, and Celeste didn’t faze, but the rest attempted to resist but passed out onto the floor. Ironically, they returned to sleeping on the couches in the living room.

  Even during the morning, they were still asleep. Hence, Julius didn’t wait for them to wake up and went off with his group to a different map’s pinpoint. Two pinpoints were down and twenty more remained. No driving this time. He flew off to Colemond’s city hall, and everyone crashed right into the window where it led to his former office, triggering the security alarm. Julius suddenly remembered that these systems only have one minute. Hence, he said two simple words loud and clear: "Take All!”

  By the fiftieth-second mark, everyone had ransacked the office. Tables were trashed, walls scratched, computers taken, chairs thrown across the open space, and piles of debris scattered on the hard carpet floors.

  Bang!

  Everyone heard the commotion from the dual doors. Julius then threw a C-4 right to the door before flying off into the sky, with others following. There’s no guarantee that they escaped the premises purely undetected. Despite that, Julius took the risk by going up a few thousand feet of altitude, and he heard a clap-like sound. Afterward, they’ll steer away from going higher and head back to Annia’s home, finishing with another pinpoint.

  Day 6 → April 3rd: The local news became more widespread around the city. One agent had bought a TV using the funds, setting it up in the living room. Many watched it for information updates and got an idea of the radar of how the police and government officials reacted to the current events. Ravi, Rakesh, and Ginnan will arrive at Colemond International Airport in about ten hours, and for now, Julius and his group will remain put and not leave anywhere. Even if it was for a quick shop at a nearby store. None. Instead, any outside requests were all forwarded to Agent Sleep.

  Helda had been at Annia’s manor the whole time, ever since the ransacking of the City Hall. She had a whole hoodie on for the whole time, not even letting the chance of exposure until she was back inside the residence. That was four days ago, and Julius gave her some time to make her own decision on whether she should take her two sons with her on this journey. Today, she gave a one-word verdict: “No.” Therefore, Helda settled the issue, confirming Julius’ interpretation of Mayor Burman’s private life. No regret or negative expression on her face as she sat down on the couch, watching the news on the TV.

  Annia had been more active since the second day. She has been doing a lot of cooking lately with the guidance of the maid, who Julius had never met before until yesterday. The maid, Josephine, reminded him of Daiyu, but for Annia and Gretel. A very similar approach in conversations and roles, but contrasts in assertion and more involvement, which today she definitely manifested.

  Josephine and Annia tried every cuisine they could do since now it was to spend every money before the fourteenth day. Gretel, upstairs, handled the finances and all the cash flow through multiple checking accounts. So far, at least three million dollars has been spent over the past six days. A few hundred thousand dollars was for the meals. It likely might reach twenty in two weeks. Accounting for all the expenses, the numbers add up as the meals were feeding the stationed hundred-twenty agents in the vicinity. Julius gave them an offer to join him to head back to Planet Raal, which all of them agreed to, so it was also his responsibility.

  Day 10 → April 7th: To go through all the remaining pinpoints, everyone had to do it during the night, much to Annia’s frustration as she still sleeps. Either way, everyone rested and hung out in the living room and in the backyard while Julius sat alone in the kitchen, going through some housekeeping stuff. He drew a map, drafting ideas on what tactic he should order that seemed reasonable to march into Renos’ capital, Wealung. Empress Cai and Senator Bǐdé joined in, wondering what he was doing. When he showed them the map, Empress Cai pleaded with him to slow down. She grasped the paper and yanked the pen from his grip, editing it entirely. Afterward, Empress Cai showed a revision, implying his plan was too outrageous. “Your plan lacked the idea of getting the full intel. Are you really considering going all offense?”

  “Well, that was my intention, yes,” Julius answered. “They destroyed South Cai Fishing Village, so I believe giving them the same is the right call to do.”

  “I understand that, but that’s not the only reason. We are going to get all the information related to Kriegshan first, using my undercover team, and then when that’s done, it’s your call. You can do whatever you want then. Is that fair?”

  Julius then turned to Senator Bǐdé. “What do you think?”

  “How much budget and funding do we have before we proceed?” He asked, wiping his long beard. “As long as we can keep in a surplus for a little longer and after, then I don’t mind the circumstances.”

  “We are still in a surplus. I remember it was four hundred and Eighty Million Thalers accounted for after the twenty states’ debts were paid back to us. It might be more after the ten states that Empress Cai and Father Kang dealt with.”

  “How long are you planning to ambush the capital?”

  “One day. Everything has to be done in twenty-four hours…Like complete surrender.”

  Senator Bǐdé’s eyes steered to Empress Cai, asking her a question: “Are you going to send your undercover team the day before?"

  “I’m thinking before midnight. Doing it in the dark is the safest option despite the risks of being caught.” Empress Cai leaned her back in the chair. “And before that, I have a table map of the capital and another of the Renos Kingdom for everyone to review.”

  “Alright,” Senator Bǐdé said. “In that case, we can proceed. Follow Empress Cai’s plan and we will go with you once she’s finished getting intel. That’s my opinion.”

  Julius nodded partially. “Ok…I’ll take this into consideration. Thank you…” He took a blank sheet of paper and wrote everything down in the Yue language. Once finished, he took out his smartphone and took a photo before copying it through his Skoltor System. Empress Cai did the same, copying it to dānfèng (丹凤). She handed the paper back, and Senator Bǐdé took a glimpse and also revealed his own Skoltor System in action.

  “I’ll send this to my colleagues when we get back.”

  “No, only to the Defense Department. They’re the priority. After some processing, then you can send it to the senate.”

  Day 14 → April 11th: The whole manor packed up hastily, leaving no breaks in between. All the agents were assembled in the backyard, waiting to depart. Ravi strolled from the entrance to the backyard, carrying a large and bulky cargo box filled with runes. Julius checked around, and the first floor was cleared. There was one more thing left. Gretel was still upstairs, doing something she said that needed to be done in private. An hour has passed since, and the former grew uneasy. Annia came sprinting. “Trouble!”

  “What? No.”

  “They’re coming. The police.”

  “You go; I’ll get her.”

  “No, we both go.”

  The two went up the stairs and stopped halfway through. They were confronted by two legs as they were looking down. Julius raised his head up to find Gretel, looking confused. “You guys are like two owls staring at me like that.” She looked down at their eyes. “Oh, yeah. I didn’t mention this.”

  “You’re walking!” Annia exclaimed, expressing her astonishment.

  “I know…I was having my time alone because of this,” Gretel said, wiping a little tear. “We can talk about this or celebrate later…But we have to go now.” She lifted her massive backpack, wearing it on her back.

  The three paced down the stairs and sprinted out to the back. Outside, the one hundred-twenty agents stood in clustered formations. Three groups all faced towards the empty spot of the lot where Julius landed his vehicle. The latter summoned the renamed orb, Dìqiú (地球). He threw it onto the grass, summoning a gigantic rectangle of light.

  “Alright! All of you head in,” Julius commanded, gesturing everyone in quickly.

  The five pickup trucks, with fully stocked trunks, drove first into the portal. Next, the agencies’ vehicles went in, including aircraft. Finally, the 120 agents and many cultivators followed. When the last person departed, Julius, Helda, and Gretel were the sole three left.

  Helda lifted his car and carried it over, placing it down. Gretel then gave Julius the clearing, prompting him to ignite the manor. She sent farewells to her birth home and entered the portal. As Julius and Helda were about to enter the car, they were met with a bullet. Thank the Yinhai for this metal. Julius felt a little sharp twitch in his neck. He then turned to Helda, telling her to get inside the car.

  “No, I have to confront him. If he’s here, then he knows.”

  But not my face. Julius was silent and turned to the origin of the one that dared fire a bullet. There was a police company, a SWAT team, and then Mayor Burman’s car. The door to the latter opened. In fact, three did. “What the?” He muttered in question. A second revealed his answer. It was the two sons who came from the back doors. Of course, Mayor Burman came out of the driver’s seat.

  “You, sir, have a big consequence in the corner.”

  Is this man actually that dumb? Motherfucker is risking himself, and the two children that Helda does not dare to say are hers. Yinhai, what is wrong with these families? Problem after problem is like an endless checklist. Julius sighed. Obviously, Mayor Burman doesn’t recognize him because of his new face. “Oh really? You are taking an enormous risk with all the men and your two sons to come here.”

  “You took my wife! And their mother! Raiding the city hall…Cops murdered…Espionage! Does that not sound familiar to you?!”

  “No,” Julius lied, shaking his head.

  “I thought I had the guts, but you are a terrible liar!” Mayor Burman yelled. He sounded like he gave up talking and ordered everyone to get him.

  “Shit. Damn it all.” Helda’s mind ranted, communicating with Julius. She, in a full hooded cloak, jumped out of the car. A hard landing right next to him, triggering a quake from the ground up. Her hood went down to the back of her shoulders, revealing her face to her estranged ‘husband’. “He ain’t going nowhere with you or any of y’all!”

  The two fired a canon-sized beam, obliterating the whole convoy of police. Mayor Burman and his two sons tumbled to the ground, much to their horror. The former’s fa?ade broke in an instant. It was all pointless for all that show. No wonder Julius did all the dirty work, but that paid off because now he can rule the way he wished for Colemond in the Moon Empire instead. A loss for Earth.

  Bullets fired from the SWAT Team, who most are hiding behind the armored vans.

  Julius kicked his hypercar through the portal. “Time is running out! We have to go!”

  “Give me your miao dao!” Helda requested. He handed it to her, and she wielded a load of qi to the blade, blasting it right to the SWAT team. Afterward, the miao dao returned to him, and the two teleported to the two sons and Mayor Burman. Helda fisted the latter’s abdomen, causing the teenage boys to yell and attempt to fight back. In response, Julius knocked them out, resting them on the tree. When he turned to Helda, she knocked his legs cold, and he collapsed onto the cushioned lawn. Mayor Burman crashed to his knees, grunting in agony.

  Helda kneeled to his level, with Julius arriving in a blink next to her. The latter saw him, looking trashed and ruined in his red blood. Julius changed into his old face, revealing his identity to Mayor Burman.

  The mayor involuntarily spit blood, uttering a few words: “Daniel? I should’ve known…Why? Why did you do this?”

  “You thought I don’t know? All those three years…OF MY JOB!” Julius exclaimed, then gripped the former’s head. Immediately, a pile of memories entered his mind like a water hose, filling it up. “So, I was right. Your role was only to appease and support your financial backers,” he said and turned to Helda. “His boys are involved in this, too. The three aren’t innocent.”

  Julius wanted to be certain of his last remark. Hence, he went to the two unconscious sons and read their memories. He discarded it away, returning to Helda with a nod and a neck gesture. “That’s it. No more. I have no more obligation to stay here.” Julius looked at the portal where the light was about to flicker. “We have to leave now.”

  The two departed when Mayor Burman gripped Helda’s leg, causing her to release a punch of qi from her grabbed leg. It knocked his hand to where Julius could hear the bones cracking. Julius stopped and went to Mayor Burman’s pockets for his phone, clicking SOS, and left on his side.

  “Wait,” Helda said and dislocated Mayor Burman’s left arm with her boot. “Ok, we can go.”

  Mayor Burman stumbled and passed out when he attempted to move an inch of his body. Ironically, his car was safe while the police and SWAT vehicles were in a blaze. Fire from Annia’s house collided and collaborated with the vehicles' flames, which made an entire wall of fire.

  Apparently, the rain and the sound of thunder arrived and poured down in the vicinity. Julius and Helda dashed right into the light, leaving everything from Earth behind. Annia’s house collapsed in rubble, with the exterior sliding off onto the lawn and the roof shattered into thousands of pieces. Bricks and concrete were laid everywhere. For the Earth’s history, this was it. Three million dollars was reduced to rubble, along with fifty million dollars of expenses for two weeks.

  As Julius stepped through the portal and returned to Longyue, it was dark, like midnight. Stars were flashing in the sky. He and Helda were greeted by Father Kang, who announced he was relieved. “I was worried.”

  “Your worries have ceased. What time is it now?”

  “It’s one in the morning.”

  Helda breathed, then told Julius that she would go with the rest.

  “So, beyond hours.”

  “I think we all got lucky the time distortion was short,” Father Kang said. His voice slowly relaxed as he was nervous and jabbered earlier. “Everybody shared the same reaction.”

  “Damn, that must be rough. I bet you guys were even more fazed when all of this came through,” Julius said, pointing to all the vehicles and aircraft that came along.

  The portal closed, and its light withered away. Father Kang and Julius walked to the crowd. Other than the pickup trucks that Han built and the latter’s hypercar, Father Kang was in shock at the multiple aircraft that were parked nearby. “How long were you over there again?”

  “Two weeks.”

  “Two weeks?! And you got all of this?! Yinhai, how will our people react to this?”

  “Excluding the doubters, this is kind of like a cheat because now the Moon Empire has gained a new technology to give them an air force.” He pointed at the large and winged aircraft. It had large dual exhaust thrusters. “These could fly in the air for a very long time and travel as far as they could.”

  “How much fuel would it need?”

  “If I recall, it’s mainly solar.”

  “Solar? Using the sun as fuel…that sounds clever.”

  “Yeah, only because the private agency got a group of scientists and engineers to make that possible. Unfortunately, they are not here, but we got the papers and blueprints to make it happen.”

  Father Kang nodded, then stopped to give one remark: “We will leave in a few days, so I don’t think we have time to consider any of these additional arsenals, specifically what you call the aircraft. But we are ready with our hundred and fifty thousand cultivators of men and women down to the Kingdom of Renos.”

  “Fair enough. Empress Cai wants to talk to us about that. She had an updated plan of raiding the capital, Wealung.” Julius then directed Father Kang to all the agents on standby. “These people that came along, they’re compatible with our qi…So, they will undergo a quick basic training in Levels One and Two. I will explain more tomorrow, but I want them to be reserved for special and secret operations similar to Empress Cai’s undercover team.”

  “Bai Di counted to be more than a hundred-twenty. Is that accurate?”

  “Yes, I brought a few old friends over, and I hope you don’t mind. All the new ones had brought something spectacular with them, and I will also explain more tomorrow.”

  Father Kang turned. “You are not resting tomorrow, right?”

  “No,” Julius answered with a headshake and a chuckle. “I wasn’t going to, anyway.”

  “Good, two days. We can make it.” Father Kang walked up to his wife, Mother Kang, and that was when something came to Julius’ mind. He then ran to the two, summoning a box in his arms.

  “Sorry, I forgot something. This is a gift that I’m giving to your mother. I heard she was an expert and a cultivator for many plants, so this should be perfect for her.” Julius handed her the sealed box that weighed over twenty pounds.

  Mother Kang looked at the sealed cargo box. “May I ask what is in here for it to be as heavy as a stack of books?”

  “There are at least eighty packs of seeds from Earth that I brought over. It will be an excellent test if it's capable on this planet.”

  “Alright then.” Mother Kang’s grimoire summoned beside her. It levitated shoulder height and opened, and she tossed the cargo box in before it closed up.

  Julius’ ears head yawns from the crowd. Hence, he ordered everyone to get some rest. It also confirmed that the Rune magic doesn’t give a scent of sleep independence. That will change after tomorrow.