She vaguely felt that with each step Ji Jingqiu took, the Heart Moon between his eyebrows brightened by a sliver.

What did this Heart Moon really represent?

...

In the third month of Ji Jingqiu's journey through the Western regions, he passed by what was once a bustling city. Under the cloak of night, it lay empty, as if crushed under the wheels of the All Gods.

Ji Jingqiu paused briefly.

He felt that this was the posture in which many things come to an end.

Not with a thunderous roar.

But with an unheard whimper.

The world was vast and crowded, yet devoid of light and a place for their voices.

Along the way, he had witnessed many human tragedies.

The word 'war' itself was synonymous with original sin.

He had seen Martial Artists die to the Federation's technology, killed by infrasonic weapons; their bodies unmarked, but their internal organs twisted and ruptured, brains turned to mush, dying in extreme agony.

He had seen a boy crouched beside a weed-grown road, relying on a small dog for company, with watchful eyes not of a human, but more like a wild beast.

He also saw a girl clutching a doll, kneeling and crying in front of a collapsed building; her mother had not managed to escape and was buried beneath, only an arm exposed...

In silence, he protected the boy and the girl, escorting them to safety before he continued on his way.

He began to ponder.

What exactly did the Four Directions God want him to see?

Was it purely the suffering of all beings?

In such contemplation, he found himself lost midway through the journey.

Until this day.

The air raid siren sounded above the city he was passing through, and countless people rushed past him in panic. Someone suddenly stopped, grabbed him, and shouted urgently to run...

He awakened from his confusion, lifted his head, threw his punch and met the challenge; his Fist Strength streaked across the sky, resonating with Heaven and Earth, spanning a distance of more than ten kilometers, and in one fell swoop, annihilated the incoming missile!

The explosion resounded aloft, and the resulting shockwave swept rapidly across the city. He stood alone in the middle of the street, the wind tossing his disheveled hair and fluttering his clothes.

"Are you... Ji Jingqiu?"

A hesitant voice came from behind.

Ji Jingqiu turned around.

Upon seeing the face of the other, he was rarely startled.

After a long while, he replied in a daze:

"Are you... Cheng Xin?"

When he first left home and was still stationed on the East Three Bright Star, he had executed missions for the Security Bureau alongside his senior brother Yang Yao.

That night, they wiped out a new gang in the underworld, led by Cheng Yan.

Cheng Yan had a sister, whom he had sent to the Star Group.

Ji Jingqiu still remembered that day in a narrow alley that cut straight across the sky above, barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side.

The girl named Cheng Xin told him, head bowed, that as children, she and her brother liked to look up at the sky, but the sky of the lower layers showed no stars, not even light; they had no path, nowhere to go.

She gazed at Ji Jingqiu and defiantly repeated:

[We have nowhere to go!]

"Is it really you?!" exclaimed the young woman in delight, "Yes, I'm Cheng Xin, you remember me?!"

Ji Jingqiu nodded. In the process of the protector gods leaving, severing various worldly ties, and helping others and themselves, his karma with Cheng Xin was also included.

He did not forget, that night, Cheng Xin stood in the lower layers, looking up at the sky, where a sliver of light from the crowded steel forest fell straight into her eyes.

As if someone were saying—

Ahead, there still lies a path.

Cheng Xin, who is now still in the True Seed Realm and had not chosen the superior cultivation body, puzzled Ji Jingqiu.

Cheng Xin was a step away from the Fifth Limit of a Heavenly Person back then, and even if she chose a Mid-grade cultivation body, she should have completed it by now.

"Come with me!"

Cheng Xin pulled him and they ran swiftly forward.

They entered an underground safe house with many young faces inside huddled timidly at the sight of him, then gathered around Cheng Xin.

Cheng Xin fondly patted their heads, distributed food, and gently pushed them towards the inner room.

Only then did the two find time to chat.

"Those attackers just now, were they the nearby rebel army?" asked Ji Jingqiu.

On his journey, he had long since learned that the so-called rebel army was often just a front, with various powers covertly flying the "rebel army" banner to stir up warfare.

Cheng Xin nodded, her eyes conveying deep loathing as she said, "Everyone actually knows, those are mercenaries and Star Thieves under the Sima Family. They attack here because they've recently discovered a new vein near this city."

"Sima Family..." Ji Jingqiu murmured.

He had heard this name many times on his travels.

"When did you come to the Western regions?" Ji Jingqiu asked.

"Almost two years now; it was around the time you were making a name for yourself in the central territories."

Below in the bunker, the two sat inside the house, chatting casually like long-lost friends.

"Have you been staying here this whole two years?"

"I've been on the move; visited several planets, but all within the Western sector."

"Is it the same everywhere?" He looked deep into the eyes of the children.

"This place is actually one of the better ones," said Cheng Xin suddenly, "By the way, I have to thank you!"

"Thank me?" Ji Jingqiu was taken aback.

"Yes!" Cheng Xin said earnestly, "The photos you posted on the Martial Arts forum a while ago caught many people's attention and made them really start to care about the Western regions. I am still technically listed under Star Group, and after you posted those photos, the people from Star Group found me and have channeled a good amount of supplies here through me!"