Chapter 1 The Beginning

In the dark and icy void of space, unnatural, chaotic mists swirled, and deep within this chaos, which could obscure even a demigod's vision, a planet shrouded in faint light hung silently, suspended. Though unilluminated by a star, it maintained its vibrant life thanks to a divine barrier surrounding the planet.

Above the planet, the chaotic mists suddenly began to spin, and a radiant vortex gate slowly opened. A silver-white starship silently glided out of the gate and headed towards the life-filled planet below.

Looking at the real-time images from the external monitors, and at the miraculous star of Laerrien, divided in two yet incredibly sustained, Hao Ren couldn't help but sigh once more. Even though this wasn't his first time seeing Laerrien, the planet reshaped in the dream of a god still amazed him no matter how many times he saw it.

"Unbelievable... the power of a god is truly unbelievable."

On the ship, only three "people" had come with him: Vivian, Lily, and Lier, who was acting through a mass projection.

Such a streamlined team configuration was rare, but Hao Ren thought it was enough. Unlike the previous accidental entry into Laerrien's dream, this time they were going to a fairly "safe" planet. This true Laerrien was resurrected under the protection of the Goddess of Creation's power. Although the goddess herself didn't understand all the details of this planet, she could at least be sure that there wouldn't be any fatal threats on this planet. Since there was no danger, there was no need for too many people to just come and investigate.

In fact, Hao Ren originally planned to come with just himself and Vivian, but Lily found it super boring to guard the house and pestered them relentlessly to come along. As for Lier... she wasn't exactly a member of Hao Ren's team. No one could stop her from deciding to send a mass projection.

And Laerrien was, after all, reshaped in her dream. Although Lier wasn't very clear about the process due to it being an unconscious act, she still had a basic understanding of the planet. Bringing her along should be very useful.

Lily sat in her chair, throwing popcorn into her mouth as she muttered, "Will there really be clues related to the Lord of the Mad Abyss here?"

"It's hard to say, actually," Lier replied. "The original planet of Laerrien was destroyed long ago. The current Laerrien was forcibly restored by my dream and obsession. It's completely unknown how much information from the old world this reshaped world retains—we're here more to try our luck. After all, such a big clue is right here, we can't just ignore it."

As she spoke, the Petrified Great Tortoise had approached the top of Laerrien's atmosphere. A faintly glowing, light blue "membrane" floated in the void, separating the atmosphere from the chaotic universe outside. This membrane was the divine barrier formed by Lier's ten thousand years of obsession.

It was this barrier that distorted reality, tampered with history, and forcibly restored a planet that had been completely destroyed with one click.

Nolan controlled the ship, carefully approaching this divine barrier, which looked thin but contained terrifying power. This was the steadiest this female driver had ever driven the ship.

The energy shield outside the ship finally came into contact with the divine barrier. A tiny ripple was produced when the two came into contact, but then the ripple quickly expanded. To Hao Ren's surprise, the entire top of the atmosphere suddenly brightened, and the "divine membrane" solidified as if it were crystallizing, as if to prevent the invasion of outsiders. But this change didn't last long. Soon, the expanding ripples gradually subsided, the crystallization trend receded as if rewinding, and the ship smoothly entered Laerrien's atmosphere.

Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief. He thought that his attribute of causing explosions wherever he went was going to cause another big problem, and he was almost about to tell Nolan to make an emergency ascent, but he didn't expect it to be a false alarm: "I say... what was that just now?"

Lier was also startled just now, but as an expert in divine power (at least she was stronger than everyone else present, even though she was still in elementary school), she quickly had a guess: "This barrier has been resisting the chaotic invasion from the external universe. Our ship descended from the chaotic realm, so it may have been contaminated with some aura that would cause the barrier to resist. However, these auras were quickly purified, so there shouldn't be any more problems."

"Be careful in everything," Hao Ren nodded. "This planet cannot be judged by common sense."

Lily clapped her hands, excitedly leaning against the railing in front of her, looking at the sea of clouds that was becoming clearer and clearer on the projection: "Don't worry, landlord, I have the biggest imagination!"

Hao Ren: "... Uh... that's not what I meant by 'cannot be judged by common sense'... Hmm? What's that?"

The sea of clouds in Laerrien was getting closer and closer, and you could even see the occasional lightning and rain in the thick clouds. Below the layers of clouds, Hao Ren saw something else.

A ship—a ship flying in the sea of clouds, a means of transportation made by the residents of Laerrien—was traveling between the clouds. The silver-white hull and the dazzling and elegant sail panels like shells unfolded on both sides of the ship, giving this flying vehicle, whose technical level wasn't high, an aesthetic like a work of art. However, on both sides and behind this airship, there were three crudely shaped gray warships that clung to it like maggots on a bone. The three gray warships had a coating like dark clouds, and their triangular hulls and more swept-back sails gave them far greater maneuverability than the white ship. They repeatedly caught up with the white ship that was trying to escape its predicament, and a series of small flashes jumped between these airships—obviously the light of battle.

Although the three gray ships were only one-fifth the size of the white ship, and their appearance was particularly dilapidated and crude, they actually occupied an absolute advantage in this chase, like small warships designed for combat besieging a large but clumsy civilian barge, placing the white ship in a dangerous situation. Under their tearing and biting, the beautiful white airship had appeared with a dozen or so large and small fires, and some of the sails had also peeled off from the main body, hanging precariously on both sides of the hull, and its counterattack fire was getting weaker and weaker—it was almost a one-sided beating.

"I really run into trouble wherever I go..." Seeing the picture sent back by the external monitor, Hao Ren couldn't help but pat his forehead, "Are they actually at war?"

"First of all, we are flying at the top of the atmosphere, using advanced observation equipment to collect intelligence, and the situation of almost half the planet can be observed, so it is quite normal to discover an incident," Nolan's holographic projection appeared on the bridge, and said matter-of-factly, "Secondly, according to the host analysis, what is happening below is not a regular war, but more like pirate looting—finally, if the offensive continues, that white ship will be finished in another hour."

"Go down and help," Vivian said without hesitation, "If we rescue someone, we can ask about the situation."

Lily glanced at Vivian excitedly: "Aren't we doing a secret infiltration this time?"

"It's not going deep into enemy territory, nor is it some ancient forbidden place," Hao Ren waved his hand, "There's no need to be so careful."

Although he said that, he still added: "Of course, don't make too much noise. My plan is to first contact a small group of locals, get a rough understanding of the planet's situation, and then contact their higher-ups. This is more stable. If we make too much noise, it will be easy for the locals to regard us as alien invaders. Maybe before we have time to ask about things, we will be beaten by a bunch of superheroes wearing their underwear outside."

Lily shook her head: "If we really encounter that kind of situation, we can just call Lao Wang over. I heard him say that he used to do the demon king's descent all the time when he was young, and he has a lot of work experience..."

"..."

Above the clouds, the silver-white space warship adjusted its course, and then rushed straight towards the four airships that were engaged in a fierce firefight below the clouds.

One-Eyed Condor—he wasn't in a very good mood today.

As the most famous pirate in the Sea of Reversion region, Condor was in a happy mood most of the time. He knew that those in his line of work needed to bear extremely high risks, including but not limited to the strangulation by the regular troops of the surrounding kingdoms, the merchant groups with strong armed forces, the turbulent winds suddenly rolled up above the world rift, and the rebellion of some or several talented members of his command. These risk items were faced by almost every pirate every day, and any one of them could turn an infinitely glorious pirate into a corpse falling from the sky in an instant. It was precisely because he knew this that Condor always adhered to one belief—

That is to maintain a good mood and face every day happily.

But he couldn't be happy today.

He had taken on a big business, a big business that was enough to make him and his upper and lower eighteen generations live in luxury, and the content of this big business was just to loot a lonely passenger ship. Of course, this particularly gorgeous passenger ship had illogical strong armed forces, but this didn't make him feel depressed. What really made him feel bad was that this business was too... good.

The difficulty of the "business" was far lower than the reward paid by the client, which was not a good sign.

As an experienced big pirate, Condor had already smelled many unusual things from this business. For example, the client who issued this commission not only gave him an amazing deposit, but also gave him a large number of high-level equipment that could not be obtained by conventional means. These equipment included the airship's magic core, main gun, and shield generator, all of which had their marks erased, but had obvious elven craftsman styles. These things were the core of the flying warship. After replacing them, it could be said that Condor's pirate ship had completely become a fully armed regular warship except for the shell; the client also gave clear looting requirements: the attack must be launched while the target was leaving the White City Federation and flying across the world rift, and once the target entered the empire, it must withdraw immediately regardless of whether the goal was achieved...

Condor was almost certain that this was a secret struggle within a large force, and that he and his pirate group were taking on the role of a card in this struggle, and it was very likely that it was a card that would be casually played out.

After all, he couldn't even guess who this big force was, so it was conceivable how much weight his pirate group could have in this incident.

But he couldn't refuse.

Condor subconsciously touched his eye patch, which was the price he paid for rejecting a "big business" last time. Also as a price were the pirate group he led last time, as well as the name and identity he originally used.

The big pirate couldn't help but have a headache.

He began to think about a retreat. In this looting drama, the "pirate group" was definitely just a trigger. The real backhands of those big shots must be controlled by themselves. So in what way would they appear? Was it a warship that came to wipe out the pirates? Or a passing noble armed force? Or even a "mysteriously intruding" "mysterious warship" that happened to be powerfully armed?

Anyway, no matter what it was, when something similar appeared, he must take his pirate group away from here as soon as possible, the faster the better, and then rush to the top of the clouds, where there was enough supplies and spare ships, as well as a portal to a secret port, which was one of the retreats Condor had left for himself.

But would those big shots hiding behind the scenes really leave him this way out?

The big pirate felt his headache getting worse.

The white airship was still resisting stubbornly. She was really a beautiful ship, and it was really a regrettable thing to watch her constantly disintegrate under the bombardment of his pirate ship. Condor even began to think that if this ship suddenly burst out with incredible potential, and then accelerated all the way into the territory of the Dragon Empire, that might be the best result. That would mean that the plans of those big shots had gone wrong and were terminated in advance, and he and his pirate group wouldn't have to continue to be involved in this deadly conspiracy. And that beautiful ship... she could continue to fly beautifully.

Unfortunately, that ship was obviously beyond salvation. Its waist had just erupted in a series of flashes, which was a sign that the magic core was overloaded and exploded.

The big pirate pressed his forehead, he knew the decisive moment was coming, he felt a terrible headache—this headache was also thanks to that one eye, and it was getting more and more serious with the years.

A silver-white "airship" rushed out of the clouds at this moment.

She broke into the battlefield from above, so Condor didn't notice the appearance of this ship at all. By the time he noticed the changes in the surrounding light, the silver-white ship that suddenly broke into the battlefield had already hit the bow of the pirate ship. The powerful impact directly tore apart the dragon bone wrapped in enchanted copper, and crushed most of the cabin. Condor only had time to turn his head slightly before his head flew out together with the crushed cabin.

In the Radiant Era 221, a group of visitors from outside the sky visited this closed world. They eliminated a potential crisis, revealed the truth of the world, and brought true enlightenment.

And by the way, they cured the big pirate Condor's headache.