Chapter 1463 — The Night Wind Grows Cold

"Very well, the truth is... I am not certain. No one can be certain," Gao Yang sighed softly and spoke frankly. "Most things in this world can be quantified—but 'currents of thought' alone cannot. It is a system of inherent chaos; its development and changes at every moment cannot be precisely predicted... yet the inability to predict precisely does not mean there is no general direction to be found."

"We are indeed not prepared to fully embrace the 'Final Order' just now. After all, apart from a handful of 'senior advisors,' a great many 'gods' remain upon their thrones. These deities still sit at the other end of the chains; no matter how much work the Theocratic Council has done over the years to weaken those chains, no matter whether these gods have already broken free of part of their restraints, it remains an indisputable fact that churches across the world still receive divine arts and oracular responses. We are still... very far from that ultimate goal."

"But in localized areas, the 'Final Order' has indeed shown early signs of taking shape—mainly among a few senior advisors. Although the time has not yet come to reveal their existence to the whole populace, in a series of 'restricted social experiments' conducted in Cecil, the contact between several senior advisors and the mortal world has indeed achieved fairly satisfactory results."

"'Restricted social experiments'?" Belantia looked at Gao Yang with curiosity. "That does rather interest me."

Gao Yang glanced at Belantia and suddenly raised what seemed an unrelated topic: "...Do you watch magic-shadow dramas, ordinarily?"

"Magic-shadow dramas?" Belantia frowned. "I watch a little when I have time. But what does that have to do with this 'restricted social experiment' you mentioned—"

"If you are interested, you might look up a documentary recently co-produced by the Cecil Ministry of Culture and Propaganda, the Theocratic Council, and Film Pictures," Gao Yang smiled. "There's a viewing interface in the neural network. You may find it a pleasant surprise."

Belantia paused, then nodded with a trace of puzzlement. "That... very well. I will take a look when I have the chance."

Gao Yang rose, slowly getting to his feet. After a brief silence and reflection, he said quietly: "Blind worship and blind rejection are not essentially different. To ignore natural law and deny the part of our world that concerns 'gods' is likewise a kind of ignorance and blind faith—and to put it gravely, it is not impossible that one day we might create a 'godless god.' Should that day come, and the Theocratic Council itself become the soil breeding gods, it would be much like a 'Reverse Tide' spawning from the Pioneers' legacy: the greatest calamity this world could know."

"Frankly, I do not wish to see a second 'Reverse Tide.'"

"Rushing from one extreme to the other is the mistake mortals are most prone to make," Belantia stood as well. Hearing Gao Yang's words, she let out a soft breath, her figure gradually fading in the air. "I will remember what you said today."

With Belantia's last word, the final figure at the council table finally went offline.

But the chamber was not left with only the Gao family—besides Rebecca, the two "plenipotentiary ambassadors," Tyr and Meitzen, also remained in the room.

The communications network with Tarronde was not yet complete, and the communication process with Antavien was rather cumbersome; therefore, the two ambassadors had attended this meeting in person.

Meitzen rose from her chair, smoothed her dress, and came before Gao Yang: "Regarding the disintegration flash of the Noi observer vessel... is it all true?"

"Do you think I staged a little drama to push through the construction plan for the Magic Tide Observation Device?" Gao Yang glanced at the blue dragon lady. "I am hardly capable of conjuring a flash in the night sky visible across the entire continent—and with so many astronomers in the world, it would not be difficult to determine whether that 'bright star' was an illusion within the atmosphere or a flash in space."

"I do not doubt the authenticity of the flash—only that your ability to 'improvise on the spot' is truly impressive," Meitzen shook her head with a smile. "Of course, Tarronde supports the Magic Tide Observation Project, and I have no objections to 'Plan Three.' It is merely a private curiosity of mine..."

"The news is true," Amber's figure slowly emerged from the air beside Gao Yang. She looked into Meitzen's eyes. "Lady Enya captured the power contained within that flash—in fact, it was precisely because the flash carried the divine power of an alien god that it could travel so far. After all... from there to here, even light must journey twenty-two days."

Upon hearing the source of the news, Meitzen's expression shifted slightly, then settled into silence.

"More than a century ago, the Naoi settled on this planet of ours as the ideal observation point. For the past one hundred and twenty-six years, their observation vessel has been on its way here—on a scale of four light-years, that ship is very nearly at its destination... What a pity," Gao Yang shook his head. "As one of the leaders of the Alliance, the descent of a foreign god onto this planet is something that makes me deeply uneasy and resistant, but as an individual... I had hoped that observer would succeed."

"...There's no point in saying any of this now." Meicen sighed softly and raised her head to look out the window.

Against a night sky black as ink, the scattered stars of the constellation Caelum Frost remained as cold and clear as ever, and that flash of light had vanished utterly into the sea of stars.

On this cold and endlessly vast astronomical scale, the radiance left by the foreign god had lit the night sky for only a dozen or so seconds—and in those dozen seconds, among the stars yet more distant and profound, how many civilizations were quietly winking out in the steadily advancing tide of magic, unable even to release so much as this flicker of light?

Starlight spilled into the quiet courtyard; the night wind swept through the flower beds and the evergreen shrubs, and a low rustling carried from near and far. A great golden egg, wrapped in quilts, lay quietly in the handcart, keeping its long silence beneath the starlight.

Footsteps came from not far off, sounding cautious and light.

From within the golden egg rose a gentle voice: "It's so late, little Betty—are you still awake?"

"I heard you were still in the courtyard," Betty said, rubbing her eyes as she looked at the golden egg that had remained in the garden the whole day long, "and you even sent away the maid I left on night watch..."

"I'm only passing the time. I have countless ages to pass in this way—but there's no need to drag the rest of you out here to freeze in the wind," Enya said mildly. "You needn't worry about me so much in the ordinary way, little Betty."

"That won't do," Betty said at once, shaking her head. "I have to look after you."

The golden egg fell silent for a moment, and then a helpless, soft laugh came from within.

"...Have you been watching the sky here all this time?" Betty asked curiously. "Is there something up there?"

"There are many, many things... things worth remembering, worth admiring, worth holding in awe, worth praising—everything you could imagine is there among the stars."

Betty shook her head: "...I don't understand."

Enya's voice was soft: "You needn't understand. What all living things can know is limited to begin with—even I learned only today that the 'voices' carried in the currents of thought travel a little faster than light..."

Betty thought it over and then, quite honestly, shook her head again: "...I don't understand that either."