The ancient return was exposed by his sister's live stream.

There was an old man carving wood in the workshop.

A piece of dark purplish-red hardwood was being shaped layer by layer in his hands by a strangely shaped scimitar.

It's a bird. The kind with its wings spread. Just like the totem on top of the stone pillar.

"What kind of bird is that?" Yang Wanqing asked, leaning closer.

The old man raised his eyelids slightly.

Yun Wanlan answered for him.

"The Three-Tailed Xuanming. The ancestral totem of the Sushen tribe. Legend has it that when the ancient great beings built the Taiyin Realm, a Three-Tailed Xuanming led the way, carrying our ancestors through the void between the Blue Star and the Moon."

"cool……"

Yang Wanqing brought the photo crystal close to the wooden carving in the old man's hand.

The live stream room is lively again.

"That swordsmanship is amazing. It was executed in one smooth motion."

"This kind of purplish-red wood doesn't exist on Blue Star, does it?"

"A three-tailed Xuanming, a three-legged golden crow? Are they related?"

"You're overthinking it. It's a three-tailed bird, not a three-legged one."

The three of them wandered around the floating islands for more than two hours.

Yang Wanqing's backpack was bulging. It contained bone-carved earrings, a small wooden doll, a jar of fruit juice, two packets of dried meat, a pair of hand-woven straw sandals, and a dyed animal skin scarf.

Chen Siyao received fewer items. One was a ceramic bowl, which the old craftsman said was the best he had ever made.

There's also a small bag of dried grass leaves; steeping them in water can refresh you.

When they returned to the East Pavilion, the sun—or rather, a large spiritual stone simulating sunlight on the dome of the Taiyin Realm—had already dimmed.

The light of dusk spilled down from the dome, bathing the floating islands in a warm orange hue.

Chen Hao was still sitting on the balcony. His cup had been emptied three times and had already been refilled for the fourth time.

The dining room in the East Pavilion is not large, with a round stone table and four stools.

The tribesmen served six dishes in total. One was a plate of roasted meat, the origin of which was unknown. The meat was reddish, thinly sliced, and grilled on a stone slab, with slightly charred edges.

A bowl of thick, grayish-white paste, which Yun Wanlan said was porridge made from some kind of ground root. A dish of pickled mushrooms, dark green in color. A plate of wild vegetables, with large leaves and a crisp texture.

A bowl of soup containing unfamiliar aquatic plants. A small plate of oval-shaped fruit with blue skin.

Yang Wanqing picked up a blue fruit and took a bite.

The juice bursts out, sweet with a hint of sourness.

"tasty!!"

She held up the half-eaten fruit to the photo crystal.

"Unavailable on Earth! Exclusive! A fruit limited to the Taiyin Realm!"

A few comments like "I'm drooling" floated across the live stream chat.

Chen Siyao tried a piece of grilled meat. The meat was very tender, with a light smoky flavor. There weren't many seasonings, but the natural flavor of the meat was very strong.

"It tastes better than the barbecue on Earth," she commented.

Chen Hao sat at the table with a bowl of porridge and a few slices of roasted meat in front of him. He ate slowly and didn't talk much.

Yang Wanqing ate four blue fruits in a row, his lips turning purplish-blue, before he stopped.

Chen Siyao put down her chopsticks.

"elder brother."

Chen Hao raised his eyes slightly.

"What are your plans regarding the extraterrestrial demons?"

Chen Hao swallowed the porridge in his mouth. He tapped his finger lightly twice on the table.

"I'll go check out the underworld tomorrow."

Chen Siyao noticed... "me".

He meant "I" went.

It's not "we".

Yang Wanqing's chewing slowed down. She glanced at Chen Siyao but didn't ask, "Are we going or not?"

The Netherworld. Yun Cangyan already mentioned it. The entire plane has been completely devoured by the Heavenly Demons, turning into a wasteland. No one knows how many Heavenly Demons are in there.

Chen Siyao did not press for details about whether or not she would bring them along.

She simply followed up with one more question.

"Brother, where is the Underworld?"

Chen Hao raised his head.

His gaze swept across the table, landing on the crystal photo Chen Siyao had placed on the corner. Points of light rolled across the crystal's surface. Hundreds of millions of people were watching.

Pluto.

The two words were uttered, and the three people at the table reacted in different ways.

Chen Siyao's hand froze in mid-air; she was about to pick up the plate of pickled mushrooms.

Yang Wanqing almost choked on the blue fruit in her mouth.

Meanwhile, the barrage of comments inside the image crystal exploded within 0.3 seconds.

"Pluto?!"

"Wait a moment..."

"The Yin Realm is the moon. The Netherworld is Pluto?"

"Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!"

Yang Wanqing coughed twice, patted his chest, and rolled his eyes.

"Pluto...you mean the one that got kicked out of the nine planets?"

Chen Siyao ignored her. Her mind was racing.

The Taiyin Realm is on the Moon, 380,000 kilometers from Earth.

Pluto's closest distance to Earth is approximately 4.4 billion kilometers, while its farthest distance exceeds 7.4 billion kilometers.

The chieftain of the Sushen tribe said that the Heavenly Demons began invading the Yin Realm from the Netherworld a thousand years ago.

In other words, a thousand years ago, something opened up a passage between Pluto and the Moon.

The chat in the live stream room has completely spiraled out of control.

"We already knew that the Taiyin Realm is the moon."

"The underworld is Pluto! That's outrageous."

How far did the ancient human race actually travel?

"The Moon, Pluto... what about Venus? What about Mars?"

What realm is Mercury in? What realm is Jupiter in?

"What about Saturn? Uranus? Neptune?"

"Our modern technology hasn't even allowed us to land humans on Mars, yet ancient cultivators have already established a realm on Pluto??"

"The territory of ancient civilizations encompassed the entire solar system??"

"Where did the cultivation civilization go after it disappeared? Beyond the solar system?"

Is it possible that we were the ones who were left behind?

"What do you mean?"

"That means... the ancient civilization of cultivation has migrated away. We are the mortal descendants who remained."

"It's terrifying to think about."

"That's terrifying."

"If that's the case, then it's not that we're gazing at the stars, it's that someone in the stars is watching us."

"Stop talking. It's giving me goosebumps."

Chen Siyao watched the scrolling comments on the screen.

She did not participate in the discussion.

These questions are too big. Too far in the future. They're not questions she can answer right now. Perhaps her brother has the answers?

Yang Wanqing finally swallowed the fruit that had almost choked her. Her face was still purplish-blue.

"Pluto..."

She muttered something and popped the last blue fruit into her mouth.

The dinner table fell silent for a while.

One by one, the lights of the floating islands in the distance began to illuminate the scene. These included stone lamps, oil lamps, and some spirit stones embedded in the eaves of buildings.

The dim, yellow light dotted the islands in mid-air, reflecting in the black dome of the sky.

very nice.

It was also very quiet.

A place Chen Siyao and the others didn't know.

Blue Star. Beijing. Special Operations Bureau's underground command center.

The large screen displayed a screenshot of Chen Hao saying the words "Pluto," with the timing accurate to the millisecond.

There were fourteen people sitting in the conference room.

The intelligence agency, the military, the Academy of Sciences, and three representatives from ancient martial arts sects who remotely accessed via encrypted lines.