The laughter of fifty million schoolchildren still echoed warmly across the grassy fields as twilight settled over Planet Canglan and the ten Neighbor Worlds.
Inside the central planetary control pavilion beside Station #0 on Planet Canglan, thirty-two-year-old Gu Changsheng stood before the floating three-dimensional star-map of the Lower Astral Corridor. Along the thirty-mile crystal ribbon of the [Ten-Planet Wormhole Sky-Tunnel], all eleven inhabited worlds glowed like eleven warm golden lanterns strung along a single necklace.
Beside the map table, one-eyed Grandpa Fu tapped his [Dragon-Turtle Accounting Cane] softly against the flagstones, his expression serious as he reviewed the patrol rosters with General Su Dingfang, Sect Master Bai, and Reformed Sword Ancestor Jian Chen.
“Master Changsheng,” Grandpa Fu said earnestly, pointing his cane toward the dark, jagged border line of Sector 6 at the northern end of the star-map, “now that the commuter railway. Moreover, The public schools are running smoothly, we must address our final strategic concern before our household departs for Sector 6.”
“The rear defense of the eleven worlds while we’re inside the prison sector,” Gu Changsheng nodded.
“Precisely, Master Changsheng,” sixty-year-old General Su Dingfang chimed in over the holographic link from Station #10, his white eyebrows drawn together. “Right now, our [Gu Family Flying Courtyard]
