The morning mist had barely lifted from the underground spirit stone mine when Wang Lin arrived. His expression was calm, but those who knew him could see the faint gleam of anticipation in his eyes. Today was not an ordinary day.

The readings were impossible. Wang Lin stared at the screen, his breath catching. If the data was correct, everything they thought they knew about the alien signal was wrong.

The wall between realms dissolved, and his power doubled. The implications were staggering. He had to tell someone — but who could he trust?

A sound from the corridor made him freeze. Someone was coming. Wang Lin quickly closed the terminal and slipped into the shadows. The door slid open, and a figure stepped inside.

It was Chen Xi. They locked eyes, and in that moment, Wang Lin knew that the game had changed. Whatever happened next, there was no going back to the way things were before.

Far away, on a mountain peak/spaceship/deck that no one had noticed until now, an old man/a woman/an AI watched the events unfold through a scrying orb/hologram/screen. "So it begins," he murmured. "The real test is yet to come."