I. The Book
Duanmu Xi took that book down from the bookshelf.
He had not touched it for many years. The characters on the cover glowed faint blue under the sunlight—the same color as the liquid that surged out of Weber’s body, though Duanmu Xi did not yet know this.
Valverde.
He opened the first page. The characters were chaotic, not belonging to any known language. But beside certain characters, someone had written annotations in extremely fine handwriting. English. His father’s handwriting.
The first annotation read: “The following contents are extracted from the Encyclopedia Valdos and Alliance Top Secret File 001.”
Duanmu Xi sat down.
II. The Tong Universe
Top Secret File 001 dossiers recorded:
The universe we inhabit is called the local universe. Or the common universe. Abbreviated as the Tong Universe. Located in the middle layer of the entire cosmos.
Encyclopedia Valdos recorded:
The cosmos is composed of four independent yet interconnected other universes, arranged in a vertical distribution.
The Primal Universe is on the topmost layer. The Tong Universe is in the middle. The two are separated by the Aether Sea.
The Aether Sea is a membrane-like energy layer between the Primal Universe and the Tong Universe. It blocks the flow of energy from the Primal Universe, enabling the Tong Universe to exist stably.
The Mu Universe is a branch of the Primal Universe. Fragmentedly distributed throughout the Tong Universe. Connected by wormholes. No one knows its internal structure.
The Magic Universe floats amidst the Tong Universe and the Mu Universe. It is produced in connection with source energy storms. It is a singular space. Extremely unstable. Reliant on Source Stone fragments. Those sucked in are usually unable to escape, and do not even know they have been sucked in. Source energy storms carry vast amounts of magic particles shuttling across the cosmos, forming a Magic Universe when pressure reaches a certain degree—termed the reverse-suction phenomenon.
If you happen to see an immense void of huge volume and mass appear in the cosmos, do not be surprised. This is the Magic Universe performing forward-suction—discharging the matter it sucked in. However, this phenomenon is extremely rare. Around the Magic Universe, solid forms of magic particles are generated—magic fragments—capable of crafting psychic weapons. Yet with current human technology, magic fragments have not been discovered, let alone used.
The lowest layer of space is called the Death Space.
The Death Galaxy is the passageway connecting to it. This is the farthest galaxy human astronomical telescopes can discover. The Death Galaxy is utter chaos. Almost no normal celestial bodies exist. Most are shattered.
The Death Space is a realm filled with dead silence. No living organism can survive.
According to Encyclopedia Valdos: “The Death Space is a forbidden zone left behind after being sliced off by the ancient Valdosian, the Master. Ten thousand times more dangerous than a black hole.”
III. Origins
Duanmu Xi turned to the next page. His father’s annotations grew denser. The handwriting grew smaller and smaller, as if afraid of running out of paper.
The chaotic characters on the page suddenly became orderly here. Like a sequence deliberately arranged.
The annotation read: “The following is a translation.”
The Primal Mu Universe.
This was the original name of the cosmos.
After the explosion of the colossal Source Stone, the ancient Valdosians living in the Primal Mu Universe lived together in harmony.
Until a child discovered a Source Stone.
That child obtained extraordinary power. Transformed into an orb of light. Became the deity spoken of by all.
No one knew what happened to that child afterward. Nothing was written in the encyclopedia. Only a single name—“The First One Chosen by the Source Stone.”
Internal strife broke out within the species over the Source Stone.
This fight lasted for two billion years.
Two billion years. Duanmu Xi paused, reading those words once again. Two billion years. The oldest rocks on Earth were only four billion years old. This meant this war was older than most mountain ranges on Earth.
Until an outstanding leader appeared.
The Master.
He condemned the war. With the help of the power of the Source Stone, he split the Primal Mu Universe into the Primal Universe and the Mu Universe.
The people living in the Primal Universe were all the defeated. Losing the protection of the Source Stone, they became terrifying anomalies. They loathed. They raged. They sought revenge.
The Mu Universe later gave birth to the Tong Universe due to another Source Stone explosion. It itself became a forbidden existence.
IV. Cracks
Duanmu Xi read on.
The Mussa Rift.
It was a crack in space torn apart within the Tong Universe. The result of a sudden fracture in the Aether Sea. The appearance of the Mussa Rift usually brought forth vast quantities of anomalous creatures.
The blood-rain storm.
A spatial storm released from the Mussa Rift. A blood-red eerie haze formed where it struck. Unpenetrable by ship light. The place where anomalous creatures most favored laying ambushes.
Duanmu Xi recalled what Weber had said.
“Many anomalous phenomena exist in our universe. Abbreviated as anomalies. These are not products of our universe.”
Not products of the local universe.
Coming from the Primal Universe.
Coming from the losers of that two-billion-year war. They lost the Source Stone. They became monsters. They passed through the Mussa Rift and the cracks in the Aether Sea, surging into the Tong Universe. Surging onto Earth.
The Invisible Ones.
V. The Source Stone
There was a page in the book worn oldest of all. The paper turned yellow, its edges frayed. His father had drawn a circle on this page.
The Source Stone.
The origin of the universe. Also called the Pure Source Stone. There were only four pieces.
The Valdos species retained one piece. One piece was scattered on Earth. The remaining two were of unknown whereabouts.
It held the fundamental power of the cosmos. Everything in the universe functioned on its foundation. Legend had it that the birth of the universe was generated by the explosion of a colossal Source Stone.
Duanmu Xi set down the book.
He remembered what that human friend brought by Colin had said many years ago: “Everything you say is absent from history books. How do you prove you are right?”
He could not prove it. But the words in this book—those characters he could not decipher—glowed blue under sunlight. The same color as the light when the Source Stone was activated.
VI. Guardians
Duanmu Xi flipped to the last chapter.
The handwriting in this chapter was the most scribbled. As if written in haste by his father on some deep night.
The present-day Valdosians.
Their bodies were white light orbs. Able to shape-shift into any race. They were guardians of the universe. They fought against anomalies year after year, yet were hopelessly outnumbered. Anomalies streamed endlessly. While they themselves faced the risk of extinction.
Internal disunity ran deep within Valdos.
Some believed: why waste over a billion years fighting anomalies?
Some believed they were naturally meant to fulfill the ancestors’ mission.
Another portion migrated to Earth, becoming Superstarkin, refusing to acknowledge themselves as Valdosians.
Duanmu Xi closed the book.
He sat in the chair in his study. Outside the window was night in Los Angeles. Curfew. The streets were deserted. Streetlights shone a yellow hue.
He looked down at his arms. There was no body hair. Klinefelter syndrome—that was what people called them.
But now he knew.
That was not Klinefelter syndrome.
That was the trace left behind by a species that had lost a war two billion years ago, fled to Earth, and compressed their light-orb bodies into human form.
His father was right.
“The ancestors of the Superstarkin were Valdosians. Originating from the vast cosmos. They were exiled here.”
Not exile.
Flight.
Duanmu Xi put the book back onto the second shelf. He did not push it all the way in. Leaving a section of its blue cover exposed.
He stood up. Walked to the window.
Stars could not be seen in the night sky over Los Angeles. The light pollution was too severe. But he knew that between those unseen stars, inside the cracks of the Aether Sea, something was crossing through.
Things invisible to the naked eye.
Things carrying mantis scythes.
Searching for the stone his ancestors lost.
—End of Chapter Fifteen.