Han Chen had always been there ~ training with them, meditating nearby, or offering quiet guidance, joking or having loving moments. So when he vanished for a week after advising them to spend more time with their relatives, without a proper consoling or further explanation, the sudden absence left the ladies uneasy.
Add to the fact, he had entered in a deep meditation of mind, and their spirit sense transmissions were intentionally failed to reach him. When he finally emerged again back on earth, they rushed toward him instinctively before he even landed, arms ready to embrace but only to be halted, mid air with a silent gesture.
Something had changed. He switched into his inner sense.
In this ethereal dimension of astral plane ~ here soul existed, Qi channeled and the Golden Core pulsed — but there was no longer just energy. Now, there was matter. Imperceptible to most, but not to him. He could feel it.
His weight had grown immeasurably, surpassing even the heaviest mountain on Earth. Not metaphorically, but in real mass. It's a universe birth, it would only increase with time. To avoid sinking into the earth like a falling star, his spirit sense and mastery over the laws diffused the burden, suspending him gently above the ground.
He lowered himself slowly, sitting cross-legged in midair. His law energy retracted the energy and boson fields that had begun spilling from him, untethering his mass from planetary matter field to just a normal human level. Once stable, he turned inward—searching the memory streams left behind by his past self, to not always be consciously restraining this spillage...
And there it was: a method to seal the void within a realm.
It didn't take much of an effort for him to modify it with his comprehension for the smaller space time fold. His Golden Core. A one-way process, but essential. It will adjust the calculations and prevent such seeping out without active control, but would also prevent any matter from welcoming in from outer reality.
By sealing the inner universe within him, he would gain coherence without any other problems. The laws etched into its fabric ~ his law energy layers would in turn help the growth of small microcosm with each higher step in comprehension. The world inside was no longer chaotic essence. The sealing technique involved higher layer formation laws and took two whole days with even his ability level.
Considering that, anyone under immortal realm won't be able to do this without heaven defying comprehension if even they know of realm sealing techniques in the first place.
When he finally returned to them after suspending in air for two whole days, they were worried over not letting them know anything. Explained briefly about what just happened, he reassured his wives. They spent the afternoon together in quiet affection, surrounded by a peace only he could offer.
Yet even in that moment, he was left pondering.
The Nascent Soul realm ~ distant, but no longer unreachable ~ could only be achieved once the internal world is in stable equilibrium. Even if space time had formed within, equilibrium required far more, like formation of stable states of matter inside after repeated expansion and returns.
He swirled the tea, Hye Won made in his palm, watching it disintegrate in contact with temporal energy before reforming ~ a fleeting dance between past dissolution and future decay. Yue Lan caught the display and immediately demanded eternal youth. He lived long with her to know how her advances are. Deflected it with practiced ease and excused. Play later, he thought. First, strategy.
For now, time inside inner world was already running at the highest possible limit according to its rule set by Fifty second layer of time law ~nearly a million times faster than the outer world. To slow it would cost him energy. To speed it up, even more. Until equilibrium was reached, the strain would persist.
Interestingly the time law that could be applied in a short spatial domain in outside world that he could accelerate is nearly, a second to 10 days with peak effort and energy, coinciding the acceleration he is doing internally. By that calculation it gave him about a year to let it settle. Spiritual energy demand is also higher.
Of course, there were shortcuts. With every new insight, every new law layer comprehended, the process could be accelerated from within. Han Chen wasn't the type to wait idly. But this time, he had a promise to keep ~ one between siblings.
...
Han Ruo Xi graduated high school with honors and her entrance exams with top ranking. With nothing urgent demanding his time, Han Chen attended her farewell, blending in among her besties and teachers, offering polite smiles and posing for their photos and selfies. He even laughed when they teased him about being mistaken for 'younger brother' while being forty. He emphasized it was regular skin care treatment and martial arts.
Later, vacation came and Ruo Xi booked a private island getaway, well brother's money is her money ~ lavish bungalows over turquoise waters, staffed to perfection. Her friends joined. Days drifted by with snorkeling, jet-skiing, and doing absolutely nothing. Han Chen stayed, quietly enjoying peace. When laying on beach by themselves, she asked why he was suddenly so attentive, he smiled and said:
"Just making some good memories for myself."
She frowned, half-laughing.
"Don't say it like that, gege. You sound like you're not going to see me again. Is this because I'm going abroad soon? Please… we'll meet often."
"No, that's not it," he said, his voice soft but with a little glum. "I'm just spending time with my sister. That's all. Tell me ~ anything else you want to do? Something left on your bucket list?"
She tilted up her wide white sunhat, scanning the beach idly.
"Anything?"
"Anything."
Her eyes narrowed mischievously.
"Well… Mom once told me you could fly. Not like being on planes. Like fly fly. Can you show me?" She enthusiastically questioned.
"She told you that?" he exhaled, chuckling. "I thought we agreed on keeping secrets."
He stood. "Alright. Up you get."
She jumped up in her light summer dress, half-giddy, half-nervous.
"Do I jump onto you? or hold hands? Will anyone see us?"
"No one will see."
As soon as he said it, they rose ~ clean off the ground, like leaves swept upward by invisible currents. She shrieked, clinging to him midair. Its obvious someone at distance must have heard.
"Hold me! I'm going to fall!"
"You won't."
"Just do it anyway, okay?!"
That's when he realized ~ his sister, who'd faced beasts in martial duels without blinking, had a fear of heights.
To distract her, he suddenly accelerated. A sonic burst of speed compressed the air around them as they rocketed through clouds. She screamed again, but this time it was mixed with laughter. The pressure, the g-forces, the thrill ~ things even her powerful martial body hadn't experienced. She knew how much of a pull that need for her. After that, above the clouds they stopped, air is thinner and cold, but that's not a problem for someone like her.
Han Chen let her swim around the clouds like a bird drunk on wind. She returned to him after a while, saying, " I always imagined you might use some Qi techniques or even your legs moving back and forth like ... propelling air or something.. but this? I feel no gravity even....?"
Han Chen suddenly looking to a direction replied, " We got company from military planes, it's still couple of hundreds of miles away, let's move... if not we will be mistaken for drones or hovering missiles, in about 3 minutes..." As they loitered in the stratosphere, the sun low on the horizon, she looked upward as the situation urged.
"How far can we go?"
"How far do you need to?"
She paused, her eyes settling on the pale glow in the sky. She said jokingly:
"The Moon…"
She expected him to refuse. But instead, he simply said:
"Take a deep breath. Hold it like you did underwater yesterday. Ready?"
She barely had time to nod.
Then her body hardened on its own ~ as if locked in crystal ~ and they blurred into motion.
When she opened her eyes, there was only void. Black, vast, and infinite. No wind. No sound. Just the sun in stark white brilliance and an aching stillness. Panic threatened to rise ~ wasn't there radiation? Didn't space kill? Will she boil from inside?
She barely had time to panic, before came another blur. A rapid descent. Beneath her, a dry, gray world expanded - its jagged shadows sharp under a black sky. Dust, rocks, silence.
She screamed instinctively, "D-Dad! — oh crap!"
Landing softly, she gasped, reaching for her throat. Oxygen lost.
Wait.....She could breathe.
Han Chen was sitting nearby on a magically appeared chair, brushing fine powder from his boots. He grinned, half-mocking.
And then the thought hit her: How did he...no I hear myself? On the Moon? Where the chair comes from?
Was this just a hyper realistic simulation? Like the online meeting rooms in their father's research labs?
She tried storming toward him, but her leap sent her gliding ten meters off the ground. She landed in slow motion, gaping.
"Holy crap holy crap holy crap...." she continued for a while after falling on her butt.
Then she did what any martial artist would do to test her strength as instinct ~ jumped as high as she could using technique.
At the apex, hundreds of meters above, she began to slowly perceive it: the Moon's curve, not stark but it definitely there. She felt like she could fly on her own.
Landing smoothly, she walked back in slow effortless jumps, breathless.
"How are we talking? Is this shit real? Is this simulation? Is there air? What ~ Fuck what's going on?! Damn I forgot my phone...."
"Slow down. And mind the language... Sit. The dust won't cling ~ unless you want it to. You can use your biological field to repel it"
That shut her up for a moment. She picked up the grey rocks that's sharp as knife on the edges. Dusting it off absently she heard Han Chen say; " You are a smart girl figure it out.."
Her mind, trained and sharp, went to work:
"I can feel air. So this isn't vacuum. But I'm not generating a field actively but yet my sandal prints are all over... so there must be a protective membrane around me.
Also it moves with me as I felt air dragging down as I jumped, not piercing through, so not a simulation. No Han Chen—he doesn't need one?. That means he can survive in hard vacuum?. Well considering I reached here in moments it's not surprising.... And is there any time dilation?
No this guy won't leave behind his girls to age. That for sure. We didn't travel at near-light speed. So it's not relativistic travel. There was no pull either... we teleported?. But then ~ how did we get past orbital bands in a single breath? wait what about Radiation?... I'm not even sunburned. This shield or membrane must also block that. But if he created all this instantly..."
She turned, slowly.
"Brother… are you even human?"
She meant it literally. Words came out without even thinking ~ words hit heavier than she'd planned. No wonder her brother was an isolationist, preferring to hole up with his girlfriends and call humanity shortsighted when her parents ask him to go to company, or work more often.
He didn't reply right away. Just looked toward the Earth, far and faint above them.
In that silence, she realized something that startled her more than flying to the Moon.
She didn't understand him anymore. And maybe, she never truly had.
" I would be leaving in a while...don't ask me why or where..for you it would be like I never parted, I would be with you. Just have this in mind, that version is just what I could be, a reflection. Don't fuss over if anything happen..even if I or my wives, go crazy or appear dead."
" I don't understand.. what you could be? dead?"
" Well no worries. For you, I would be there. It's difficult to explain. Quantum physics stuff."
She came over and gave a hug. " It's okay..whatever it is. Just return alright once your ...whatever stuff is done."
" .... Alright." Han Chen didn't reply right away. But deep in his heart, something stirred ~ like an sacred promise taking root.
She pulled back, smiling " Okay then..." ~ but quickly pointed at the dusty surface beneath them.
"Explain this. How the hell is this happening?"
" My realm is higher. You can do stuff like this, if its high enough.." He plainly replied.
"Wait, what realm? Could a Martial Supreme do this?" Her eyes lit up ~ the possibility of flying unaided even reaching space. To her, the pinnacle her mother had once whispered about is Supreme. She was only a four realms shy at such young age...
"Mm, a little higher than that," he said gently. Then he touched a finger to her forehead. She felt an energy flow.
In an instant, something awakened. A dormant seed of information ~ one he'd planted in his family long ago ~ activated. Her vision blurred to a sea of information. It rushed in like a floodgate broken: visions of martial cultivation stages, fragments of other knowledge, bloodline memory of higher stages.
"Eek—wait, wait… Martial King, Overlord, Supreme, Saint, Sovereign, Deity… Oh my god I'm still so far down! Okay but—when can I start flying? At least tell me that!"
" Well keep this journey and the information in mind to yourself, you know the consequences..." Han Chen smirked and continued.
She nodded.
"If you reach Martial Supreme and master the Sword Will or a Law, you can fly with your blade. But you have an advantage now, that if your biological field is advanced enough to sense it earlier, you could in theory lift yourself or sustain even in space until you need to breathe.
That's in the memories now. As for earlier ~ when you thought we teleported? We didn't. We were carried by space itself, riding within a single inertial frame. That requires you to be late-stage Sovereign at minimum. That's where I currently stand."
She blinked.
"Right... so what you're saying is _ I've got a few lifetimes to catch up."
He playfully cradled her face. "I am 26 years older, but don't scale yourself with me. You have great talent but I had a secret and unfair advantage. You have all the time in world to aspire higher. " he said with a wink.
"Now then," he said, glancing around. "Want to see something else? Don't ask for Mars - it's a pain to go that far carrying you. Besides it's cold. Here's there nothing much to see here, rocky, grey, boring rocks. But if you want we can check out one of the old rovers here if you'd like."
"Wait, wait, I got caught up in your info bombing;... you said… wives? You're married?!"
"Not important," he said quickly, turning away. She easily picked up the simplest detail Han Chen let out.
She scowled and threw a really heavy punch at his shoulder, in full power. "You can't just drop that and pretend it's nothing!"
Still bickering, they made their way across the lunar plain until she spotted it ~ an old rover sent to the far side of moon, from north Asian country less than a decade ago but still moving, towards a crater. Curiously, she ran toward it.
Han Chen stayed a few steps behind, silent. The rover's 360° cameras twitched as they detected something strange - motion nearby, then it saw a set of shadows as if a ghost, with sandal prints?, forming on the dust without a visible source. Then one of those shadows waved.
And as if testing its strength, the unknown presence gently nudged the rover, tilting it ever so slightly. The humans back on earth in control, were notified and were really panicking. The toy is well over a billion dollars. Will aliens destroy it? They don't have any ammunition's attached to counter. They can't even take a picture as live view only sends dark shadows of human like figures.
That was it — the first true alien contact, as future analysts would soon speculate. All the camera recorded was a vague shape, a waving shadow… and a trail of sandal prints fading into regolith. It would go onto become an exploration center for other rovers and evidence for convergent evolution and disapproving rare earth hypothesis and whatnot's.
She wanted to trace some letters on ground, but Han Chen held her back from mischief. Later saying good bye, both figures left. The return trip went smoothly but during which, at her insistence, they made a brief visit to low orbit, hovering near satellite launch vehicle on orbit, even landed a few millimeters above it without affecting it, and returned safely. Her greatest regret was not bringing her phone or cameras.
Then, wrapped in the some membrane, they descended back to Earth. The staff of the islands were looking for them all the while after they heard a mysterious sonic boom an hour earlier. News soon flashed an hour later as governments preparing for some possible spaceship or alien contact on earth.
The vacation ended.
Not long after, Han Ruo Xi left for university overseas. Her passion for science and engineering only intensified ~ especially after discovering suspended AI probes in Han Chen's lab… and, of course, flying to the Moon.
Meanwhile Han Chen returned to his wives. They also had a request, at-least it's been so long because he simply couldn't fulfill those requests, until recently.