The balcony was quiet, the city lights below creating a haze that obscured the horizon but left the zenith clear. Wei Jin leaned against the railing, his new Divine Resonance humming in harmony with the starlight. The sensation was distinct from the flow of qi—it was less like drinking water and more like being the river.
A flash of displaced air, smelling faintly of rice wine and ozone, announced the arrival.
"Well done, kid."
Wei Jin didn't turn. He didn't need to. His perception, now unmoored from physical constraints, painted the Drunken Immortal in perfect detail. The old man was floating cross-legged in the air, his gourd tilted to his lips. He looked exactly as he had three years ago in the park—tattered, merry, and utterly terrifying in his casual defiance of reality.
"Welcome to the party," the drunkard said, wiping his mouth with a sleeve that looked like it had been used to clean an engine. "Nice Domain you got there. 'Freedom.' A bit cliché, but effective. Fits you."
Wei Jin finally turned, his movement fluid, his feet not quite touching the floor. He met the old man's eyes—those pools of spinning galaxies that threatened to swallow the viewer whole.
"Where are you from?" Wei Jin asked. "Which city? Which sect? Which era?"
The old man chuckled, a sound like gravel tumbling down a mountain. He gestured expansively at the sky, his hand encompassing the constellations.
"I am from the Sea of Stars," he said simply. "I am immortal, kiddo. True immortal. Not this 'live a few thousand years and steal a body' nonsense. I was here when the oceans were steam."
Wei Jin contemplated the words. The Sea of Stars. A literal place? Or a metaphor for the void beyond the world?
"You guided me," Wei Jin said. "The advice about the thread. 'Cut the right one.' What would have happened if I severed another thread? If I cut my connection to the world, or to my family?"
The drunkard shrugged, taking another swig. "Nothing much. At worst, you would have failed. Maybe gone mad. Maybe become a statue. You would have walked the earth for a few hundred more years, stumbling around, trying to find another thread to cut." He grinned, teeth white in the gloom. "Or maybe you would have succeeded but become something… boring. A hermit god on a mountain, caring for nothing. We have enough of those."
Wei Jin stared at him. "You pranked me."
"I nudged you!" The drunkard protested, though his eyes danced with mischief. "I gave you a riddle. You solved it. That's how teaching works, isn't it? If I told you 'Hey, stop being a control freak,' would you have listened? No. You're stubborn. You needed to figure it out yourself."
Wei Jin sighed, the sound echoing in the spiritual realm. "Fair."
"So," the drunkard said, his tone shifting, becoming sharper. "Now that you've severed the mortal coil, what's the plan? Conquer the world? Ascend to the higher realms? Open a bakery?"
"I plan to survive."
"Survival." The drunkard nodded. "A good goal. A hard goal. Especially with what's coming."
"The message," Wei Jin said. "Do not run."
"Ah, yes. That." The old man looked up at the stars, his expression sobering. The drunkenness vanished, replaced by a weariness so profound it made Wei Jin's bones ache. "They found the Black Box. Nasty piece of history, that."
"Who destroyed them?" Wei Jin asked. "The ancients. Was it themselves? Or something else?"
The drunkard looked at him. "Humans are creative, kid. We invent art, music, philosophy. And we invent ways to unmake reality. But we are surprisingly resilient. We don't usually wipe ourselves out completely. We leave scraps."
He pointed a finger at the sky, tracing a line between two bright stars.
"There are things in the dark," he whispered. "Things that look at a light like this world—a light of cultivation, of souls, of life—and see dinner. Or a threat. Or a mistake to be corrected."
Wei Jin felt a chill. Not fear, but recognition. The "Watchers." The suppression.
"You aren't just watching," Wei Jin realized. "You and your circle. You aren't just managing the confusion to stop us from hurting ourselves."
"We are guardians," the drunkard confirmed. "Guardians in the dark. We keep the lights low so the wolves don't see us. We keep the noise down so they don't hear us."
"And I," Wei Jin said, "just turned on a spotlight."
"You built a lighthouse," the drunkard corrected. "With your stable zones, your technology, your liberation… you're shouting into the void. 'Here we are! We are smart! We are tasty!'"
"Then why let me do it?"
"Because hiding forever isn't living," the drunkard said. "And because the wolves are coming anyway. They always do. Eventually, the smell of life drifts too far. We needed… variables. We needed something new. The old methods—suppression, stagnation, hiding—they were failing. The world was dying in its sleep."
He hopped off the railing, floating upright.
"You woke it up, Wei Jin. Now you have to help it fight."
"See you around," he said, and vanished in a blink.
Wei Jin stood on the balcony, staring at the twinkling stars. They didn't look like jewels anymore. They looked like eyes.
He sighed. "Guardians in the dark. Aliens. Rogue experiments. Ancient mistakes."
The list of threats had just expanded from 'imperial politics' to 'interstellar extinction events.'
But strangely, he felt calm. The uncertainty was gone. He knew the stakes now.
"Zero," he said into the night air.
The artificial soul manifested as a shimmer of light. "Yes, Prime?"
"Change of plans. We are getting involved in the excavation."
"The Western Site?"
"Yes. And the decoding. Allocate 40% of the simulations to linguistic analysis and encryption breaking. I want to know everything that ship knew."
"Understood. Initiating Protocol: Deep Dive."
Wei Jin looked down at his hands. Reality bent around them, subtle distortions in the light.
He had to be ready. Not just to protect his family from a sect or an emperor, but to protect his world from the dark.
—————
The Excavation Site
Wei Jin arrived at the Western Wastes two days later. He didn't take a car or a train. He simply stepped through space, folding the distance between Qinghe and the dig site with a thought. Earth Escape had evolved into Spatial Step under the influence of his Divine Resonance.
The site was a hive of activity. Imperial soldiers in power armor—clunky, spirit-stone powered suits inspired by the Giant—patrolled the perimeter. Scientists in white coats swarmed over the debris.
Wei Jin walked past the guards. His Void Presence, enhanced by his new realm, made him less than a ghost. He was a conceptual "not-here."
He approached the main artifact: the Ark.
It was immense. A mountain of black metal and ceramic, shattered but still imposing. He placed his hand on the hull.
He didn't use scanners. He used his soul.
He pushed his consciousness into the metal. He felt the dormant pathways, the frozen circuits, the sleeping memory of the machine.
It was… alive. Or it had been.
The ship wasn't just a vehicle; it was a body. A vessel for a consciousness so vast it made his own Nascent Soul look like a candle next to a sun.
Artificial Intelligence, he thought. But evolved.
He found a data port. It was physical, a socket designed for interface. He didn't have a plug, but he had Reality Editing.
He modified the air in front of the socket, condensing carbon and silicon into a compatible connector, linking it to his own nervous system through a bridge of spiritual energy.
Connect.
The flood of data was instant and overwhelming. A tsunami of images, logs, sensor readings, and tactical assessments slammed into his Iron Mind Fortress.
If he had been Golden Core, his brain would have melted. Even as a Nascent Soul, he would have been stunned.
But he was Spirit Severing. His mind was a fortress of diamond. He routed the data stream into his Reasoning Cycle, breaking it down, sorting it, filtering it.
He saw the end of the world.
Image: A sky filled with ships. Not the Ark, but sleek, silver needles. Thousands of them.
Image: Beams of light that bypassed shields, bypassing matter, striking the souls of the inhabitants directly.
Image: The Giant fighting. It was fast, faster than thought. It destroyed hundreds of the needles. But there were millions.
Log Entry: Enemy classification: The Silencers. Origin: Unknown. Objective: Sterilization of high-energy civilizations.
Log Entry: Probability of Victory: 0.0000%. Protocol: Exodus initiated. Launching Ark.
Log Entry: Interception detected. Engines critical. Crashing.
Wei Jin pulled back, severing the connection. He gasped, sweat beading on his forehead.
The Silencers.
Not a rival empire. Not a demon king. A cosmic immune system. A force that hunted civilizations when they grew too loud.
The Watchers—the Drunkard and his friends—were hiding the world from them.
And Wei Jin had just turned on the radio.
—————
The Assembly of Minds
Wei Jin returned to Qinghe and summoned his inner circle.
Not just his family. He called for the best minds he had cultivated.
Dr. Chen, the mortal physicist who had cracked the atom. Master Yuan, the formation genius who worked under Wei Lan. Sarah, the strange foreigner from the west who understood the "code" of the new calculating machines better than anyone. And Shen Ruyi.
They gathered in the Strategy Hall. Wei Jin projected the images from the Ark's memory into the air using a large-scale illusion formation.
The room was silent as they watched the ancient world burn.
"This is what happened," Wei Jin said. "And this is what is out there."
"Aliens," Dr. Chen whispered, wiping his glasses. "Extraterrestrial intelligence."
"Predators," Shen Ruyi corrected. "Cosmic predators."
"The Watchers suppressed our development to keep us quiet," Wei Jin explained. "To keep our 'energy signature' below the threshold that triggers these… Silencers."
"But we broke the threshold," Wei Lan said, her face pale. "The atomic tests. The stable zones. The spirit-steam engines. We are glowing like a beacon."
"Exactly," Wei Jin said. "We can't go back. We can't un-invent the bomb or the computer. We can't tell the mortals to stop thinking."
"So we fight?" Wei Feng asked, his hand drifting to his sword.
"We prepare," Wei Jin said. "The Watchers have bought us time. Maybe centuries. Maybe millennia. But the clock is ticking."
He looked at the scientists.
"I need you to decode the Ark's technology. Not just the weapons—the shields. The stealth systems. The engines. We need to learn how to hide better, and how to hit harder."
He looked at Wei Lan.
"I need a formation that covers the planet. Not a wall, but a cloak. Something that dampens our spiritual emissions radiating into space."
He looked at Ruyi.
"I need you to find the other Guardians. The Drunkard mentioned a 'circle.' We need allies. We need to know what they know."
He looked at his clones, standing invisibly in the corners of his mind.
Analyze the enemy. Find their weakness. Simulate the war.
"We have a new goal," Wei Jin told them. "We aren't just building a city anymore. We are building a fortress for humanity."
—————
The New Era
The revelation changed Wei Jin's approach.
He stopped being a passive observer of the technological revolution. He began to guide it aggressively.
He introduced "Spirit-Tech" standards. Every new device, every new engine, had to be efficient. Waste heat was bad; waste spiritual energy was fatal. It attracted attention.
He pushed for the development of "Cold Tech"—technology that worked without emitting large spiritual signatures.
He encouraged the study of space. Telescopes. Satellites. He wanted eyes looking out, not just down.
And he began to cultivate the planet itself.
Using his Reality Editing, he tweaked the ley lines of the continent. He smoothed the flows of qi, making them less turbulent, less "loud." He was trying to tune the world's engine so it hummed instead of roared.
It was the work of a god.
But amidst the grand strategy, he found moments of grounding.
He watched Wei Long play. The boy was growing fast. At eight years old, he was already Foundation Establishment—a monster of talent. But Wei Jin made sure he played. Made sure he laughed. Made sure he had a heart.
Because the enemy—the Silencers—they were machines. Cold, efficient, heartless.
To beat them, humanity couldn't become them.
They had to be better. They had to be alive.
—————
The Dream
One night, Wei Jin had a dream.
He wasn't in the simulation. He was in the Sea of Stars.
He saw the Drunkard floating on a comet, drinking from his gourd.
"Hey, kid," the Drunkard called out. "You're busy."
"I'm cleaning up the mess," Wei Jin replied in the dream.
"Good. Good." The Drunkard pointed into the dark. "They're sleeping right now. The Silencers. But they twitch in their sleep when a star goes nova."
"I'll be ready."
"I hope so," the Drunkard said. "Because if you fail… well, I'll have to find a new favorite show."
Wei Jin woke up.
He went to the balcony. The stars were still there. Cold. Indifferent.
"Just watch," Wei Jin whispered. "The season finale is going to be spectacular."
[CULTIVATION SYSTEM v4.0][Project: PLANETARY STEALTH - Progress: 1%][Project: ARK REVERSE ENGINEERING - Progress: 5%]
The work continued.
—————
THE END OF BOOK FOUR
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