142: Chapter 142 Star Gazing Pavilion

When Su Bai woke up, the light screen in the lounge happened to flicker.

[Current Time: First day after the third round of the knockout tournament, 9:00 AM.]

[Time until the Points Race begins: 6 days, 23 hours.]

He lay on the sofa, staring at the ceiling for a few seconds. Grayish-white Yin Qi still lingered around him; it was the residue left after his consciousness had been submerged in the Netherworld World for a long time, drifting slowly like a thin mist under the silver-white lights.

He sat up and stretched his neck. His cervical spine emitted a series of faint cracking sounds.

He had already been at the Tianyuan Arena for a week.

Since entering the Tianyuan Arena, he had been staying in the lounge. Watching recordings, reviewing matches, deducing, fighting, reviewing again, and deducing again. world pod, lounge, world pod, lounge—a repetitive cycle between two points.

He hadn't even stepped out of the winners bracket's circular building.

Su Bai stood up and walked to the window.

Outside the window, the void of the Tianyuan Arena remained vast and boundless. The three hundred and seventy-five light spots of the winners bracket were still flashing, half as many as three days ago. Those extinguished light spots belonged to Bei Chenyao and the Creators who had been eliminated in the third round. They had already left; some went home, some went to the Losers' Bracket, and some were cleaning up the aftermath.

His gaze moved past those light spots, landing on a place further away.

There, a patch of light existed.

It wasn't the artificial light of the Tianyuan Arena, but true starlight. Starlight coming from the Tiance Star Sector, the star sector at the very center of the Great Xia Kingdom.

Tiance Star Sector.

The hub of the sixty-seven star sectors of the Great Xia Kingdom, the location of the Tianyuan Arena, and the absolute political, economic, military, and cultural center of the entire Great Xia Kingdom. The Tianshu, Tianxuan, Tianji, Tianquan, Yuheng, Kaiyang, and Yaoguang—the Big Dipper Seven Star Sectors—surrounded it, like seven satellites guarding a sun.

Yet, he had been here for a week and had never taken a single step out of the Tianyuan Arena.

Su Bai was silent for a moment, then turned and walked toward the door.

He pushed open the door; the hallway was very quiet. At this time, most Creators were resting.

The enthusiasm of the thirty-two trillion viewers wouldn't affect the atmosphere here; the winners bracket's rest area was always like this.

Quiet, restrained, and even a bit oppressive.

Walking to the exit of the circular building, a silver-white light screen blocked his path. That was the boundary barrier of the Tianyuan Arena, separating the competition area from the external area. Several large characters were on the barrier:

[Tianyuan Arena Area · Access by Participant Credentials Only]

Su Bai raised his hand, and the participant bracelet on his wrist automatically sensed the barrier. A line of green text appeared on the light screen:

[Su Bai, ID 1987, Points Race Qualifier, Access Permission: Granted.]

The light screen dissipated.

Su Bai stepped out.

The Tianyuan Arena was located on Planet Tianyuan, the core planet of the Tiance Star Sector.

This planet was the heart of the Great Xia Kingdom. With a diameter exceeding one million kilometers, it was the largest administrative planet in the Tiance Star Sector and the only fully urbanized planet among all sixty-seven star sectors of the Great Xia Kingdom. No oceans, no deserts, no forests—the entire planet was a city.

Tianyuan City.

The capital of the Great Xia Kingdom, the political hub of the sixty-seven star sectors, a settlement for over thirty billion people, and the largest single urban architectural complex in the entire known universe.

As Su Bai walked out from the eastern exit of the Tianyuan Arena, the sight before him made his footsteps pause slightly.

He had seen prosperity. Qinglin City, the capital of Qinglin Province, had a population of over eighty million, with forests of skyscrapers and weaving flows of flying vehicles. But compared to Tianyuan City, Qinglin City was like a small fishing village compared to an international metropolis.

Not a single building in the architectural complex before him was lower than three hundred stories. Silver-white alloy skeletons shimmered with a cold light under the starlight, and the glass curtain walls reflected the brilliant starry sky of the Tiance Star Sector.

Su Bai stood on the steps of the exit and looked down at the crystal slabs beneath his feet.

He could feel that what flowed through those optical fibers wasn't just light, but energy.

The energy system of Tianyuan City was said to be powered by twelve Twelfth-Order world cores, enough to support the city's operation for a thousand years.

He looked up, his gaze passing over the buildings to land in the very center of the city.

There stood a massive statue.

The statue was a thousand meters tall, depicting a middle-aged man. He wore an ancient Creator's ceremonial robe, holding an unfurled scroll in his left hand and raising a glowing sphere with his right. The sphere rotated slowly in the night sky, emitting a soft golden light that illuminated the entire Tianyuan City.

That was the founder of the Great Xia Kingdom, Xia Yu.

Ten thousand years ago, he had established the Great Xia Kingdom here, ushering in the golden age of Creator civilization.

Su Bai looked at the statue and remained silent for a few seconds.

He stepped down the stairs and entered the streets of Tianyuan City.

...

The area on the eastern side of the Tianyuan Arena was called the "Arena East Market." It was one of the most prosperous commercial districts in Tianyuan City, specifically serving Creators and spectators from the sixty-seven star sectors.

Su Bai walked down the street, surrounded by crowds of people. He could feel that at least half of the crowd were Creators. They wore various bracelets on their wrists: some were the silver bracelets of participants, some were the gold bracelets of spectators, and some were the black bracelets of merchants.

Different colors, different identities, different purposes. But everyone's face bore the same expression.

Excitement.

The third round of the knockout tournament had just ended, and the Points Race was about to begin. Three hundred and seventy-five qualifiers, three hundred and seventy-five Sixth-Order worlds, three hundred and seventy-five favored children of heaven about to break through to the Seventh-Order. The eyes of the entire Great Xia Kingdom were focused on Tianyuan City, on the Tianyuan Arena.

Su Bai walked slowly along the street, his gaze sweeping over the surrounding buildings and shops.

He passed an equipment shop where various auxiliary devices used by Creators were displayed in the window. World Core Stabilizers, Faith Power Conversion Arrays, Hero Unit Amplification Runes—the price of each item was marked with more than eight digits in federal credits.

He passed an intelligence exchange where various pieces of information scrolled across the electronic screen at the entrance.

[Points Race Win Rate Predictions: Di Wu Dao 91%, Jun Luo Yu 89%, Ye Qing Xue 88%, Jiang Tai Xu 85%, Luo Qing He 83%... Su Bai 67%...]

[Full recording of Su Bai vs. Bei Chenyao, high-definition uncensored version, Price: 1,999 federal credits, Sold: 8.47 million copies.]

[In-depth analysis of the Netherworld World: Analysis of the Six Paths of Reincarnation's power of laws, Price: 4,999 federal credits, Sold: 2.31 million copies.]

He passed a restaurant and could see through the glass window that it was full of people. The food on the tables wasn't ordinary food, but "Inspiration Meals" condensed from Power Of Faith, specifically for Creators to consume. They could restore mental energy and improve the operational efficiency of the world core.

The price of one Inspiration Meal was enough to feed an ordinary family in Qinglin Province for a year.

Su Bai withdrew his gaze and continued forward.

He walked through three streets and turned into a relatively quiet alley. On both sides of the alley were small studios and private clubs. The storefronts weren't large, but every door was polished from a single piece of Stardust Crystal; just the door alone was worth tens of millions.

As he was walking, his footsteps suddenly stopped.

Not because of what he saw, but because of what he felt.

An aura.

Very faint, but very clear.

It was an aura he had never felt before—not Yin Qi, not starlight, not the aura of any kind of world energy, but something older, something more fundamental.

Divinity.

Su Bai looked up, his gaze landing on a building at the end of the alley.

It was a three-story pavilion with a simple and ancient appearance, looking out of place among the surrounding silver-white modern buildings. A wooden plaque hung over the pavilion's lintel, with four characters carved on it:

[Stargazing Pavilion]

The door was open.

Inside the door, it was pitch black. But in the deepest part of that darkness, a pair of eyes was watching him.