Xi Yujin ran into a problem while writing A Bitter Journey and Delicious Food. He wanted to include far too many terms for Earth's unique species, so how could he accurately describe the appearance of these ingredients to the aliens?

Normal food novels only need to describe how delicious the finished dish is, but Xi Yujin harbored a secret dream: to have the aliens replicate Earth's cuisine for him. Because of that, he also needed to describe what the raw ingredients looked like.

Wasn't this the formula for interstellar food novels? The protagonist travels to the interstellar age and discovers that it was a culinary wasteland where people survive on nutrient solutions. The reason for the food shortage is that the interstellar people have lost their recipes, unaware that the roadside weeds, ornamental bonsai, and even enemy soldiers can all be turned into delicacies…

Top-quality ingredients are all around us!

Unfortunately, Xi Yujin's cooking skills were rather poor, so he couldn't become the protagonist of a food novel himself. He could only pin his hopes on his alien friends to find substitutes for Earth's ingredients.

Full of great anticipation, he wrote:

[

"Ducks, resembling the Flying Duck race, are relatively small in size and come in a variety of plumage colors… There are many ways to cook them. Those lake ducks that hatch in spring and grow through summer, swimming among mountains and rivers, are the finest raw materials for Nanjing roast duck… The skin is thin and crispy, the meat is fatty but not greasy, and the red braising sauce is rich and translucent. True connoisseurs savor this aged braising sauce…"

"When you come to the seaside, the most exhilarating thing is surfing, and the most pleasant thing after that is a seafood barbecue. Coastal seafood has that unique freshness… Squid, generally cone-shaped, with ten tentacles at the front (additional note: the tentacles resemble those of a Ctulrt). The head is best gutted and sliced crosswise into rings to make grilled squid rings. The tentacles are best separated and skewered onto bamboo sticks. The grilling time should not be too long…"

]

 

Just thinking about it made his mouth water!

Xi Yujin quickly finished the manuscript of A Bitter Journey and Delicious Food and even asked Gano to help proofread it.

After reading it, Gano was silent for a long time. Xi Yujin then asked if there was anything that needed correction.

Gano knew Xi Yujin was very passionate about this manuscript, and it was a rare article published under the pen name Yujin. The more he read it, the more it grew on him, so he published it without any polishing.

As a result, the article was seen by numerous passengers.

An alien resembling a green pepper tapped its own hollow cavity and stumbled back a few steps.

A group of tiny garlic-clove sprites could already picture themselves being brutally flattened.

A Ctulrt touched its tentacles in horror, only to realize it had lost all sensation. It rubbed them even harder in terror, then discovered it was clutching the tentacles of one of its own kind.

Its fellow Ctulrt stared back with an expression that was one part shock and ninety-nine parts fear.

The Ctulrt: "L-listen, let me explain…"

So Blue Planet has such terrifying recipes!

But Mr. Yujin said that some ingredients had been lost, and he hoped alien friends could help find them.

Could it be… that Blue Planet used to feed on them?

Blue Planet has such a dark history!

No wonder they are a supremely advanced civilization that came from an isolated planet! The aliens completely believed it!

"Child, remember this: if you ever encounter a Blue Planet being, stay far, far away…" an alien earnestly instructed its junior.

"They are far more terrifying than you can imagine…"

"I feel that my previous apologies to Blue Planet weren't enough. I'll have to go back and apologize again." Some aliens sighed, feeling that they had truly escaped death.

"This has really stimulated my imagination," said a player who had played Investigator Files. "I want to submit a module where a group of creatures lives peacefully, while a small number worship an ancient god. That unspeakable ancient god's name is:

Humanity!"

This statement immediately sparked a trend among many players. To conceal their own race's information, they simply made all their unspeakable alien gods human. From then on, Ctulrt-genre horror novels became human-genre horror novels throughout the cosmos.

Xi Yujin waited and waited, but no information about the food materialized. The comment section under Reader's Digest was unusually harmonious, and the temporary chat room buzzed with topics he couldn't understand. Even unfamiliar creatures on the street would greet him with enthusiasm. He could only sigh to himself; as expected, Earth cuisine was too difficult for aliens to replicate.

He re-entered the kitchen, which was filled with high-tech cooking utensils that he wasn't very good at using, and inwardly grumbled about why the Intelligent Machines hadn't developed a cooking AI. Smart homes should be commonplace in the interstellar age, right?

Gano silently followed him in and, after watching Xi Yujin fail several times, stepped in and managed to prepare a full table of delicious food.

Xi Yujin was once again amazed by Gano's omnipotence. This time, his eyes weren't just sparkling—there was practically a meteor shower behind him.

Gano said, "Using a knife… I'm just more experienced, that's all…"

Gano with a knife is also incredibly cool!

Xi Yujin even felt a twinge of worry. Compared to Gano, he was just a fragile little diamond spirit who could write a few novels. What would he do without Gano in the future?

He carried this slight worry with him as he headed to the entertainment ships with Gano.

The most popular attraction on the entertainment ships was the simulated star-bathing ship. During long journeys, the lack of starlight was extremely frustrating for the alien creatures. Over time, this frustration could even deepen into depression, triggering deeper levels of mental chaos.

Xi Yujin figured he might be able to study mental power here, so he explored the area with curiosity. Gano went off to store his armor and wandered a bit further away.

Xi Yujin observed the creatures sunbathing and vaguely felt his own mental power fluctuating again. Not watching where he was going, something soft and fuzzy bumped right into him.

Xi Yujin recognized it as a member of the Long-haired Tribe from the Cloud Galaxy and was about to squat down to apologize.

However, the Long-haired Tribe, despite looking cute, was actually a very aggressive species. It squeaked a few times, then stretched out its two large ears and vigorously scrubbed Xi Yujin clean. Xi Yujin was stunned at first, then found it oddly comfortable after a moment, privately lamenting that he really wished he could take it home as a pillow.

The next second, Gano picked up the Long-haired creature with a distinctly gloomy expression.

"Gano? It's fine," Xi Yujin said cheerfully. "It made me realize that I'm not so fragile after all. At least I have some survival capability…"

A diamond spirit could handle a Long-haired creature with ease!

Gano looked at Xi Yujin and said in surprise, "Yujinno, your mineral coating has been wiped off…"

Xi Yujin: ?

At that moment, they were aboard the simulated star-bathing ship.

All around the ship, creatures were depressed from insufficient starlight.

They were listless and uninterested in anything. They didn't even bother to read the novels that sustained their mental well-being, which caused their mental confusion to worsen.

Suddenly, they felt a flash of real light shining upon their very souls, as if the beloved person of their dreams descended before them.

Xi Yujin felt every creature's gaze converge on him, and an inexplicable chill crept down his spine.

The irritable Long-haired creature in front of him perked up its ears. Its fur-ball body inflated in slow motion and looked even more cuddly.

"Squeak!"

It shouted.

A massive swarm of colorful, fuzzy creatures burst from the corners! Like a flash flood, they completely engulfed Xi Yujin!

Xi Yujin: !

Gano scooped up Xi Yujin and flew away.

"I was wrong… even a diamond spirit can't beat the Long-haired Tribe. They're so cute I couldn't bear to use my lightsaber on them," Xi Yujin muttered. "Gano is more reliable."

Gano didn't answer, but in his heart, he was thinking that Yujinno was just too popular. Thankfully, he was good at fighting…

Watching their departing figures, the alien creatures finally snapped to their senses. "That was Blue Planet's Yujin? Ms. Jung was absolutely right! His appearance is unforgettable for all cosmic beings!"

"I'm suddenly bursting with inspiration and want to write a fantasy novel about him," said one alien, immediately putting pen to paper.

"Is this the power of an editor-in-chief and diplomat…?" another alien said in dawning realization.

From then on, the legend of Blue Planet Yujin's good looks spread just as far as the legend of Blue Planet's terrifying cuisines.

—

Xi Yujin's life aboard the Navigator Colossus grew increasingly leisurely.

The ship's journey was far longer than he had imagined. The universe was boundless, and the time spent traveling occupied at least half of one's life.

Xi Yujin made several interesting companions here. Although Ctulrt was inexplicably afraid of him at first, they eventually got along very well. Xi Yujin even crafted a deck of cards and played with them. When the Ctulrt were happy, their tentacles danced in wave-like patterns, striking fear into other creatures.

Xi Yujin still had enough time for the freelance novelists to fill in their plot holes, while the Official Novelists released many of Blue Planet's archaeological discoveries. Other civilizations studied them greedily.

The race that had originally won the right to view Dream of the Red Chamber was called the Green Clan. They were peculiar in a way that a single body housed many brains, each with a different function. Their overall shape somewhat resembled a cluster of bamboo stalks connected together at the base.

One Green Clan member's learning brain said, "I understand it!"

Its emotional brain said, "I'm overjoyed and excited."

Its sensory brain said, "I'm inside the spacecraft. I can feel unfamiliar changes happening to my body. It seems to be beyond the control of gravity."

Its mental brain said, "I've never perceived everything so clearly… I can now sense the passage of time. I estimate I can survive the entire jump period."

This information was instantly compressed and transmitted to its kin. The Green Clan members were utterly astonished, their complex frequencies colliding with one another.

"It turns out novels that can relieve mental confusion for such a long time truly exist…"

"One characteristic of mental confusion is the inability to comprehend shifts in spacetime. Novels can only alleviate it, not fully cure it, so we must read many. If our own are insufficient, we'll plunder the civilizations of other races…" the Green Clan said. "We hypothesize that the literature of ancient civilizations, having withstood the test of time, is more effective at resisting mental confusion. Could this hypothesis actually be correct?"

"I've only understood up to the fifth chapter, and I can feel there are still many foreshadowing threads left unresolved," the first Green Clan member said, though the composure in its words gradually slipped. "If I can finish reading this entire novel, something extraordinary might happen!"

A burst of volatile information exploded in the air as the Green Clan shared the vast data it had gleaned from Dream of the Red Chamber.

The other Green Clan members received the signals and trembled uncontrollably. They were certain they could read the entire book and make their whole civilization even stronger!

The other alien races grew even more restless, but could only redouble their efforts studying Blue Planet's publicly released archaeological findings. They dared not ask for too much; a civilization's archaeological information was extraordinarily important, and only a civilization with such profound heritage as Blue Planet would dare to release it.

Besides Dream of the Red Chamber, Blue Planet's other ancient novels were also quite captivating. What more could they possibly ask for?

"Mental confusion… the inability to comprehend spacetime?"

Xi Yujin found this puzzling when he heard about it. What would that feel like?

He searched through many materials in the Materialist Reading Society's library and discovered that cosmic beings had only realized the horrors of mental confusion during the Dune Universe period. In other words, during the Isolated Planet and Civilization Contact periods, cosmic beings likely hadn't yet developed the use of mental power.

The Isolated Planet period refers to when a civilization was born on a particular planet and gradually grew. At this stage, the civilization would gaze at the sky, but no matter how far it looked, it could never find a second intelligent being. They sadly concluded that their planet was a lonely existence in the universe.

The Civilization Contact period refers to when civilizations began exploring space and making contact with a second civilization. At this stage, civilizations expanded aggressively, though a glimmer of morality remained. However, the intelligent races still did not understand the full picture of the universe.

What did beings discover during the Dune Universe period?

Just as Xi Yujin was immersed in studying history in the library, the Navigator Colossus's staff came looking for him again. This time, they looked far more serious.

"Piloting the Navigator Colossus should be our responsibility alone, but we have estimated that the probability of a crisis occurring has increased…"

"We are requesting the Blue Planet civilization to provide our astronauts with knowledge-based first aid at a critical moment."

At high speed, the Navigator Colossus was no longer its original spherical shape, but rather resembled a mooncake.

Xi Yujin and Gano boarded a bus-sized cabin and began moving slowly toward the planet's body itself. The Navigator Colossus was already traveling at an extremely high speed, so moving toward the planet required overcoming considerable resistance. About half a day later, they finally arrived on the planet that served as the Colossus's engine, following its spiraling trajectory.

The staff provided them with pressure suits. Although Xi Yujin's body could withstand the high pressure, he still put one on so he could hear others clearly.

He donned the heavy spacesuit and peered outside through a small visor, with rudimentary operating systems on either side of his field of vision. He admired himself in the reflective surface for a while and decided to ask later whether the spacesuit was for sale.

Looking around, the planet had no atmosphere, only pillars of intense heat. Beneath their feet stretched an endless rocky desert, riddled with strange, gaping pits. Inside these pits were concentric rings of crimson, like contour lines drawn by a child. They moved with extraordinary slowness, occasionally drifting up from the surface when their grip faltered.

Xi Yujin gazed at the most prominent structure on the planet, the Navigator Colossus's most critical component: the colossal engine extending from the mantle. From the passenger quarters it hadn't seemed like much, but walking on the planet's soil revealed just how terrifyingly powerful this behemoth truly was.

It emitted an extremely high-frequency roar, inaudible to most creatures, which paradoxically gave it an aura of silence. It resembled a sacred pillar of light because its power output was so immense that almost no heat escaped externally. Yet it was a terrifying entity, rivaling the temperature of Earth's core.

They slowly made their way to the crew's control base. On this planet, the base was as insignificant as a fallen leaf in a city.

"Hssss…"

The base gates spiraled open.

The astronaut leading the way leaped lightly and swam into the base. Xi Yujin jumped too, letting himself drift away from the planet's surface, and slowly entered the base. In the quiet environment, he could hear his own breathing.

The interior was vast, with many astronauts in identical spacesuits swimming around like a school of fish. Xi Yujin couldn't tell what race they were, but they were united in ensuring that the voyage succeeded. They were already closer than members of the same race.

"Please come this way," the leading astronaut said through the intercom.

Xi Yujin heard a distant chanting sound and looked around, but couldn't find who was singing. Gano moved closer to him, and Xi Yujin said it was nothing before following the astronaut into a small room.

"Hello. I'm one of the decision-makers here, responsible for handling any unforeseen incidents during this voyage. Although course deviation is inevitable, we still want to reach our destination safely," said an astronaut in a clearly higher-ranking uniform.

"According to calculations, the probability of an accident on this voyage is 0.02%. Therefore, in accordance with the Navigation Safety Regulations, we are requesting assistance from the advanced civilizations among our passengers."

The Navigator Colossus's tolerance toward advanced civilizations, even going so far as to establish a black market to facilitate their trade, was all for the sake of safer navigation.

Xi Yujin asked, "Could you elaborate?"

"Astronauts are the most susceptible to mental confusion," the decision-maker said succinctly, "because our positioning and fixed-path navigation through space both rely on mental power."

Xi Yujin began to understand.

A journey from which there is no return… mental confusion… they were inextricably linked.

They followed the decision-maker to the observation room adjacent to the bridge.

The bridge had no star map, no ship's wheel, nor any other conventional steering mechanism. Instead, it resembled a classical orchestra performance venue. Layer upon layer, ring upon ring, astronauts held instruments and circled around a central point. The astronaut at the very center held something resembling a conductor's baton, like a mad conductor lost in their own world.

They were channeling their mental power, using themselves as anchor points to find their precise direction in the boundless universe.

The music in Xi Yujin's ears grew louder.

"As you can see, all one hundred and thirty-four astronauts are currently operating at full capacity. Calculations indicate a small probability of mental confusion occurring during the wormhole transit. We've brought you here to ensure nothing goes wrong."

Xi Yujin, now understanding the requirements of knowledge first aid, assured the decision-maker that he would do his utmost to guarantee the flight's safety.

"The astronauts and passengers of this voyage, along with myself, offer our deepest respect to the generous Blue Planet!" the decision-maker said with emotion. "Thank you so much for your efforts."

Xi Yujin looked at the astronauts in the bridge, exchanged a greeting with the decision-maker, and made his way to the top level of the base.

From up here, looking out into space, the passengers and cargo looked like appendages on the planet, their colors so pale they were almost invisible.

"Gano, have you ever seen anything like this?" Xi Yujin could only share his feelings with his companion. "This is actually my first time traveling at high speed."

"We Zerg see this often. One of the main uses of the Ers Royal Armor is to withstand the pressure generated by high-speed spacetime," Gano said honestly. Then, he suddenly realized that his behavior was what one might call missing the mood, so he tried to add meaning to the scenery before them.

"But with Yujinno… this is the first time," Gano said hesitantly.

Xi Yujin felt oddly happy for some reason and tilted his head slightly. The bulky spacesuit helmets made it look like they were bumping heads, a somewhat comical scene.

After a while, the Navigator Colossus's alarm sounded.

"Preparing to enter the wormhole! Wavelength analysis successful! This passage was manufactured by the known Zerg, Surya No. 976. Stability rate: 78%. Yaw rate: 0.23%. Within safe range! The Navigator Colossus has been captured by the wormhole's gravity. Preparing to descend!"

"Dear passengers, this is the Navigator Colossus astronaut crew. The Colossus is about to descend. Please do not remain outside your cabins! Repeat: please do not remain outside your ca—!"

In the passenger area, creatures who couldn't make it back to their own cabins rushed into the nearest one for shelter. At times like these, even the most ill-tempered species would let outside passengers in. Over their long journeys, cosmic beings had long developed a sophisticated system of travel ethics.

"Arrived at the edge of the Surya wormhole! Anchor point calculated successfully! Wormhole center coordinates analyzed!"

"Wormhole storm detected! Astronauts, raise the sails!"

The light and electricity swelled to a crescendo, which illuminated the planetary Colossus as bright as day. Xi Yujin suddenly sensed that time had slowed down, or perhaps his thinking speed had accelerated.

Time, which had always flowed in one direction, seemed to have become a vortex. He stood at the vortex's center, unable to discern time's endpoint. Everything around him was collapsing inward, all noise converging to a single line, and everything gradually became deathly silent, as if the universe had only just been born.

Then a deep rumble rose from the astronaut station, as if air were being forced through a pipe, and the entire planetary Colossus shook violently!

The aimless flow of time finally gained direction. The past fell behind, and ahead lay the future.

Xi Yujin then realized that the rumble was not a sound wave in the physical sense, but a resonance of mental power. The astronauts' formidable mental power wove itself into a drill-like engine, dragging the Colossus to the very center of the wormhole.

If the cosmic star map were likened to a blank sheet of paper, at normal scale, two Galaxies should be at opposite ends. But if the paper is folded so that the two surfaces come close enough, a strong force at the center of the surfaces will connect them, allowing rapid transit between the two points. This is the most primitive form of a wormhole.

Only the Zerg had fully mastered wormhole technology. For the Navigator Colossus, the only safe and fastest path, the wormhole's center, was the sole route that would not annihilate them in the chaotic flow of time. Speed here exceeded all imagination; the environment was crowded and random, and the astronauts raced against time to forge a continuous course, hauling the Colossus steadily forward.

Meanwhile, Xi Yuijin stared in a trance at the universe outside.

At high speed, the universe became distorted and kaleidoscopic, like an Earth postmodern art exhibition. This lavish exhibition struck him with a primal force.

Xi Yujin couldn't help but rise to his feet, swaying like a piece of paper in the wind as a shiver ran through his entire body.

"How could I never realize it before… all this time I’ve been…"

His expression was one of dreamlike wonder as he murmured in disbelief,

"…traveling through the stars."