Sky Voyager was swallowed whole by the black hole, a single gulp of night.

Cambridge fell silent on the comms. Over Grayglow Star’s night, only the World Tree’s pale lantern and that uncanny void stood like a wound in the sky.

Panic dulled the cabin, minds adrift like leaves on a storm tide. Under those vacant stares, Yue Liuyi stepped onto the dais, her stride steady as stone.

Dixue wasn’t just the Skyship’s owner and captain. She was also a branch president of the Rangers Lodge. Yue had to speak for her, to calm hearts like ripples smoothed by moonlight.

“Is it really okay to leave this to Little Yue…?”

“It’s okay. LittleSnow, trust me.”

They had settled the plan before she took the stage. Now Yue just needed to say it, clear as bell chimes in fog.

“I have to share an unfortunate update—the mother ship, Sky Voyager, vanished after an anomaly in the transfer corridor.”

“So it really happened?!”

“W-What do we do? My luggage’s still aboard…”

“This isn’t about luggage! Old Li and the others are—”

“Thank the heavens we made it out!”

Whispers shifted like dry grass, children sobbed soft as rain. Yue felt the crowd’s fear like cold on her skin, so she paused, then went on.

“The Skyship has deep stores. Food won’t be a problem. But the Rangers Lodge, as the emergency response arm, will head for the black hole to search for Sky Voyager. It will be dangerous. You’re passengers, not involved personnel. You can choose to withdraw now.”

Her words widened eyes like lamps in the dark. To them, the Lodge seemed to be rowing into death. Beyond that hole lay unknown worlds and a path far off our charts—unknown air, unknown gravity, unknown weather, unknown threats. Worse still, if the gate untuned itself and dissolved, this route would never open again.

Even a rescue team could lose all contact with civilization, slipping away like a paper boat on a boundless sea.

“We’ve reached the scientific survey station on Grayglow Star. They’ll send rescue craft to take in survivors, fastest in twelve hours. The Skyship will also launch lifeboats and seven days of rations for those who withdraw. If you want to withdraw, find Maria on the left for supplies. If you stay, the Rangers Lodge will do everything to protect you.”

“Are you kidding? I came with my family! Why walk into danger?”

“I’m grateful to the Lodge—without you, we might’ve died on Sky Voyager. But we don’t want to gamble.”

“We’ll withdraw and wait for the survey station.”

People are selfish, especially with families in tow. Even if you crave adventure, you won’t drag your wife and kids into the storm. Many stepped away. Yue had expected it, calm as a lake at dawn.

But twelve stayed.

“Huh? You’re sure about staying on the Skyship? The front is dangerous. Want to reconsider?”

“Mm. I’ve decided.”

“Me too.”

Heads nodded like reeds in a steady wind. Choice settled.

Among those who stayed, Yue spotted familiar faces—a man in women’s clothing and his bro, a girl in gothic-lolita lace with her best friend, an elderly couple with their grandson, a gentle family of three, a bald man, and a young woman in a robe.

She didn’t know their reasons. But that courage to face the storm—Yue felt a sincere respect, warm as a candle in winter.

“Lingwei will arrange rooms. We’ll do introductions later. For now, we need to slip in before the black hole fades.”

“Okay! What kind of rooms do you want? We still have plenty open. Please follow me…”

“Um… I’m a diviner. I’m not strong, but I’ll try my best to find Sky Voyager’s position.”

The robed young woman didn’t follow Zero Wei. She stayed before Yue.

“Oh? A diviner?”

It was an old craft—reading fortune and weather, feeling the world and giving shaded predictions like smoke tracing wind.

“Mm. My name is Kovylailia van Tiana Siss… mm… the Butterfly Snow President can call me Lia.”

“Miss Lia… from the western nations? Is your family alright?”

“Yes. But I have no family. I’m an adventurer bound for the New Land.”

She lifted her hood. A cascade of golden curls poured down like sunlight on wheat. “I’m sorry… Lady Maria let me aboard because we share the same hair. I just wanted to see the World Tree. I didn’t expect this.”

“Thank you for your help, Miss Lia. Come with me.”

“Mm! Um…”

Lia shadowed Dixue, words at her lips like birds ready to fly.

“What is it?”

“I didn’t expect… the Butterfly Snow President isn’t as frosty as the rumors. She’s warm. Human.”

“That’s because…”

Thinking of Dixue’s face, Yue smiled, meaning tucked like a secret letter. “Because I’m only pretending. The real Dixue is even more lively than people imagine.”

The Skyship kicked into motion.

The white whale that sailed the cloud-sea dropped its lifeboats, then drove straight for the black hole, resolve hard as iron.

Maria and Zero Wei’s fingers flew, tracing orbits and mana coordinates like threads in a loom. Xiang Xiaoyan patrolled, ensuring the Blood Dancer stayed quiet, a caged fire behind glass.

Sky Voyager’s vast hull must have been battered by spacetime chop. The Skyship’s early prep trimmed risk to the bone, but the jolts still came in waves, beating time with the passengers’ hearts.

“Don’t worry, it’s just bumper cars~”

Zaocun stayed with the elders and the kids, smoothing nerves like tea poured warm. Outside the panes, the stars and the World Tree vanished. In their place, a sprawling chaos of spacetime currents roared, everything turned to light. Only this Skyship remained, a hearth adrift, the one safe nest we shared.

(Dongfang Chen, Senior Chulei, Boss Hong, and everyone at the Red Tavern—may you be safe.)

Zaocun prayed in silence, the wish rising like incense.

The jump took only fifteen minutes.

But those fifteen minutes stretched like winter nights. Dixue’s clothes were soaked through, sweat beading like dew. In the pilot’s chair, she wasn’t in her familiar body. Her stamina and agility were those of an ordinary girl. You could imagine the weight on her shoulders.

Yet her hands never slipped. Yue stood beside her, quiet as snow, watching Dixue hit every switch true, dodging every shear point, tracking Sky Voyager’s trail without a heartbeat’s delay.

“No! The spacetime markers are at their limit!”

Zero Wei’s voice cracked. The moment they crossed the black gate, the Skyship lost contact with everything. And now, even the rogue beacon meant to guide a later rescue had pushed past its mark. It meant no rescue team could reopen this corridor. In the vastness, the Skyship had severed its lines to civilization.

“It’s fine. Start Plan B. Keep tracking.”

Dixue’s tone was steady, cold water over hot steel.

“Mm!”

Zero Wei nodded and gave it her all, fingers like falling rain.

Isolation was a done deal, a seal on the page. Everyone understood. No help would come. But the cabin didn’t sink into despair. Every face lifted like sunrise, bright with resolve.

Being cut off is frightening. Yet in human history, it’s common as dust. From first fields staked to migrations under ice, from near-shore nets to bold sails over the ocean—solitude, risk, the unknown, fear. We faced them. Because we faced them, we reached this dawn of cities and light.

Besides, this route wasn’t a lone trek. Yue knew the Skyship carried more than volunteers. There was Zaocun. There was the Rangers Lodge. Most important—there was Dixue. With comrades beside you, with the one you love within reach, even the deepest dark of space feels like a road you can walk.

Yue looked ahead, calm as a lake before wind.

At the mouth of the corridor lay the journey’s end. A heavy radiance unfurled, petal by petal, like dawn prying open the night.

(I’ll wander with you, all the way to the edge of the universe.)