That evening, as the celebration banquets for the First 45-Planet Vocational Exam lit up ten thousand cities from Planet Canglan (World 1) all the way to World 45, a magnificent river of golden starlight flowed across the Broken Star Belt.
It was not ordinary starlight.
Every time one of the fifty million newly certified Rank 4 Qi-Gathering Technicians raised a cup of Sweet-Spring wine with their family; every time an elderly grandma like Grandma Sun read a bedtime story to her grandson from a Talking Picture-Textbook; and every time a former pit-slave like Big-Hammer Zhao turned the key to his warm, sunlit courtyard home—a thread of pure, unshakeable Civic Gratitude & Loyal Faith rose from their hearts and traveled along the wormhole highway grid straight toward Planet 30!
On the highest rooftop spire of the 30-Planet Central Academy & Technical College, Pei Xuan sat cross-legged on a simple woven reed mat.
Below the tower, Old Wei, Tie Zhan, Ye Guhan, Hong Ling, Abacus Su, Old Guo, and Boom-Pot Sun stood guard around the courtyard, while Ao Ming the Old Well Dragon coiled his thousand-foot golden body around the academy pillar, happily chewing on a giant basket of spicy roasted lamb ribs. Even Old Yellow the Golden Dragon-Camel sat beside Pei Xuan’s boots, his golden scales humming as he soaked in the rich Qi.
