CHAPTER 220: UNDER ONE SKY

Ten days had passed since Shiao Yi and Dominic entered the Kingdom of Landis.

Once they crossed a small border village, a dry and reddish-brown land stretched endlessly before them.

The sparse wiry grass clung stubbornly to the cracked soil. It was poor land and clearly it’s unsuitable for farming. It was no wonder that the people of Landis lived by herding sheep and cattle across the plains.

Even the main road was barely worthy of being called one; it was more like a faint trail that has been beaten down by travelers over time.

Using the information they had gathered in the village about nearby ruins and old churches, they left the main road and guided their horses toward the open wilderness.

The path they followed was little more than a series of hard-packed patches, just enough to tell that others had passed this way before.

Dominic’s beloved horse, Marengo, was far larger and stronger than an ordinary steed.

Its sleek muscles moved with power and precision and its intelligence was remarkable.

Shiao Yi often thought that Marengo could understand most of what they said.

As a telepath, Shiao Yi didn’t need spoken words to communicate. He could share thoughts and emotions directly, a form of connection beyond speech. But even ordinary animals, who did not speak human language, understood far more than people gave them credit for. They learned by connecting repeated tones and words with the situations in which they were spoken. It wasn’t that they understood sentences as humans did, but rather, they interpreted tone, rhythm, and intent. That was where humans often misunderstood.

Animals had their own form of language that was different from human speech but deeply perceptive in its own way.

They could sense meaning not through words, but through patterns, energy, and the emotional resonance behind them.

Language, Shiao Yi thought, began the moment two beings found a shared sign or signal that both could understand.

That was the true beginning of communication.

In the world where Shiao Yi once lived, countless intelligent species had coexisted and interacted.

Those who descended from "humans of Earth" had no real problem understanding one another, but there were others—creatures that clicked with their complex vocal plates like insects, or soft-bodied beings that communicated through waves and vibrations along their skin, or even mudfish-like species that released bubbles on the surface of murky water to express thoughts.

The methods of conversation were as diverse as the stars themselves.

The species capable of reaching space naturally possessed advanced mechanical civilizations and they relied heavily on translation devices for communication. But even so, the differences in vocal systems and cultural nuance often led to confusio and sometimes to serious conflicts.

A single misplaced tone could turn a peaceful word into an insult.

A small mistake could turn a grave into a joke, or worse, a diplomatic disaster.

That was why scientists and diplomats had eventually created a universal system of speech, one that used only sound frequencies and wavelengths to communicate.

It was built through mathematics—each meaning encoded as a precise frequency, amplitude and wavelength.

Any species capable of producing sound could use it, no matter their biology.

Those that spoke through ultrasonic waves, deep bass vibrations, or rhythmic tapping could all communicate through this system, especially with devices that converted their natural signals into sound.

For visual language, a tactile dot-based script was developed—one that could be read by touch as well as sight.

Of course, there were still species that communicated through the diffusion of pheromones or airborne chemical signals.

Those "mist communicators" couldn’t use the universal sound system—but then again, such beings rarely desired communication outside their own kind.

They preferred their solitude, content within their fragrant clouds of thought.

The difficulty of communication between species was beyond imagination.

Even for telepaths like Shiao Yi, true understanding could be almost impossible.

Some species didn’t even generate electrical signals to think; instead, they used the flow of body fluids to process emotions and images rather than logical thoughts.

He couldn’t help but drift into memories of the old "Intercosmo Multi-Species Communication System." Maybe it was because this journey with Dominic had turned unexpectedly quiet and romantic, and his mind wandered toward such things.

Days passed as they crossed the barren land without seeing other travelers.

When the sun began to sink, they decided to camp beneath the shadow of a rough weathered ridge.

Shiao Yi tied Marengo’s reins to a thin lonely tree.

He scattered the bundle of grass they had gathered along the way at the horse’s feet and poured water from a leather pouch for it to drink.

This dry region rarely saw rain and tonight the sky was perfectly clear again.

After finishing a simple meal of dried meat and bread, they let the fire burn low.

Shiao Yi lay back on a blanket spread across the hard ground while Dominic sat down beside him while holding a small travel cask of wine.

"Drink?" Dominic offered, pouring a measure into a brass cup and handing it toward him.

"No, I’m good," Shiao Yi replied.

He had just finished some fragrant tea and wasn’t much of a drinker anyway.

Dominic didn’t press him, he simply brought the cup to his own lips.

They didn’t speak.

Silence flowed gently between them, it’s felt warm and calm.

There were only the two of them in this wide empty wilderness, their presence so near that it felt like they were breathing the same air.

It was early autumn—cool but not cold, and the dry night air felt pleasant against the skin.

When Shiao Yi looked up, the sky above was covered in countless stars.

One of the twin moons was sinking toward the western horizon, while the other had not yet risen.

The clear heavens looked as if the stars were falling toward them.

It felt like the world held only the two of them, suspended in that quiet beauty.

He almost didn’t want to sleep, not wanting to lose such a moment.