He dropped Xiao Ya and Jiang Shishi off at work.
On his way home, Gu Zhao stopped for a bowl of wonton noodle soup with shrimp dumplings. Afterward, he picked up some white-cut chicken, roast goose, and honey-glazed BBQ pork, then went to the supermarket for some fresh fruit.
He parked his car, took the elevator to the rooftop of his apartment building, and let out a burp.
"Time to go!"
With a single leap, Gu Zhao shot straight toward the heavens.
Much like Yunyang had done, Gu Zhao made no attempt to conceal himself this time. After reaching a high altitude, he left a turbulent trail through the clouds, streaking straight for the heavens.
However, at the same time, his True Qi enveloped his body, allowing him to merge with nature. So even though his speed far exceeded the sound barrier, he didn’t create a vapor cone. Instead, he merely left a swift streak in his wake as he flew straight toward space.
"What is that?"
"A sixth-generation fighter jet?"
"No, it’s flying too high. It’s probably a rocket."
"Dude, wake up. Since when does Yue Province have a rocket launch site?"
"It can’t be a missile launch, can it?"
"Holy shit!"
The onlookers exchanged bewildered glances, then irresistibly lifted their heads to watch, their eyes following its ascent.
Although Gu Zhao was flying straight up toward space, from the onlookers’ perspective on the ground, his trajectory seemed to curve as the trail he left behind shrank, until it finally vanished over the horizon.
"Did it fly out of the atmosphere?"
"If it’s not a sixth-gen fighter, a rocket, or a missile, could it be the legendary near-space combat vehicle?"
"The Mingdi? But isn’t that launched mid-air from a carrier plane?"
"That’s the old model. It’s been ready for demonstration for ages. The new model can probably take off from the ground. Yangcheng is adjacent to the South Sea, making it a potential frontline. It’s perfectly normal for them to test it here."
"Whoa, you know so much, man. I’m seriously impressed!"
...
"BEEP BEEP BEEP—"
An active phased-array radar, the kind capable of detecting stealth fighters, picked up on Gu Zhao’s presence.
Its extreme speed, minuscule radar cross-section, and the fact that it wasn’t registered in the database caused the radar detection system to blare a frantic series of alarms.
But just as alarms blared across the airbase, anti-aircraft systems raised their missiles, and pilots scrambled to assemble, a high-altitude patrol drone and a high-resolution satellite captured an image of Gu Zhao.
Seeing the photo on the large screen—Gu Zhao with clouds beneath his feet, hands clasped behind his back as he flew toward the heavens—everyone fell silent.
"Can we get a reading on Mr. Gu’s current speed?"
"According to the radar, Mr. Gu is steadily accelerating. His speed at takeoff from the ground was only about Mach 3, but by the time this photo was taken, he had already surpassed escape velocity."
"Hiss—"
Everyone in the Taoist Office gasped in unison.
"At this speed, he could orbit the Earth in just one hour, and reach the Moon in less than ten."
A middle-aged man with glasses on the left side of the office quickly calculated what that speed meant, explaining it for everyone present.
Everyone: (???)
Zheng Hongsheng looked to the coordinator, the person in the office responsible for external communications. "Where is Mr. Gu now? Can we still track his position?"
The coordinator’s fingers clattered away on his keyboard as he contacted the outside, and then his whole body seemed to freeze.
"Mr. Gu... he..." The coordinator pursed his lips and looked at everyone in the office. "He’s arrived at the Celestial Palace Space Station."
Everyone: ?_??
Even Zheng Hongsheng was stunned. "The Celestial Palace Space Station?"
...
「Aboard the Celestial Palace Space Station」
Jing Chengpeng had just finished an experiment and was in the middle of a workout, wondering what to eat for lunch, when he suddenly heard a strange noise from the wall of the experimental module. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
Jing Chengpeng jumped in fright, his heart seizing in his chest.
They were hundreds of kilometers above the ground, in space, surrounded by countless satellites and pieces of space debris.
The space station’s orbit was considered relatively safe, but who could predict the unexpected in the vastness of space?
’What if some piece of junk had its trajectory altered by a collision or solar winds and ended up in the station’s orbital path?’
’But the station has its own detection radar, doesn’t it?’
’Logically, even if some space debris or a foreign satellite were on an intercept course, we should be able to detect it in advance and take evasive action.’
As a highly trained astronaut, Jing Chengpeng immediately approached the source of the strange noise. He found that it was coming from the circular porthole that offered a view of Earth.
Jing Chengpeng peered closer and saw a young man outside the window, rapping on the glass with his knuckles. When the man saw him, he gave a friendly wave.
Then, he heard a voice resonate in his mind. "Hello, I brought you something to eat. Could you please open the door?"
Jing Chengpeng: "..."
A few moments later, Jing Chengpeng, Ye Yunfu, and Wang Qingping, three highly trained astronauts, watched in stunned silence as Gu Zhao took white-cut chicken, roast goose, honey-glazed BBQ pork, and several boxes of fresh-cut fruit out of a gourd.
Meanwhile, back at the space center on the ground, dozens of researchers in the operations hall that provided scientific support for the space station were also staring at the live feed, having fallen into a similar silence.
"It was all made fresh this morning, and I watched them cut the fruit myself, so it’s all perfectly fresh." Gu Zhao gestured to the various meat dishes and fruit placed securely on the surface before them.
"How come they’re not floating away?" Ye Yunfu glanced at the dishes on the table, then at Gu Zhao, who was standing firmly on the floor.
"Why don’t you come over and find out?" Gu Zhao said with a smile.
The three of them cautiously floated over. As soon as they got close to Gu Zhao, they felt a downward force, as if they had returned to the ground, but the sensation wasn’t as strong as gravity.
"For convenience, I’ve applied a downward force to this area," Gu Zhao explained. "But to avoid interfering with your experiments, I’ve confined it to just this small patch of space."
Gu Zhao added, "You’ve all been up in space for a long time; your bodies couldn’t handle the full gravity of Blue Star. So I made this force a little weaker, but at least it guarantees the food won’t go floating everywhere."
A gentle smile graced Wang Qingping’s features. "You’ve been incredibly thoughtful."
"You’re welcome. I was on my way to take a spin around the Moon, and since the space station was on the way, I figured I’d bring you all something to eat," Gu Zhao chuckled. "I just hope you don’t mind that it’s a bit simple."
"Not at all, not at all!" Jing Chengpeng said quickly. "We’ve been dreaming about having a meal like this up in space."
The food provided for the astronauts on the space station was excellent, of course—taste and nutrition were absolutely guaranteed. But at the end of the day, it was all pre-prepared food, and eating in a space environment was comparatively troublesome.
How could that compare to eating in this low-gravity environment, with fresh white-cut chicken and roast goose, no less?
And so, the three of them dug in, feasting heartily. They chatted with Gu Zhao as they ate, excitedly telling him all about their scientific research and experimental results—a pile of information he didn’t understand in the slightest.
Once the meal was over, Gu Zhao also took care of cleaning up the trash before saying his goodbyes and departing.