Chapter 1: A Queen Falls from the Sky
That year, that day.
Tianding Fenghua Research Institute.
The middle of the night.
Jun Ke, Taishi Lan, Jing Hengbo, Wen Zhen, and Yaoji—four people and one dog—formed a circle, their eyes blazing as they stared at a red button in the secret chamber of the research institute.
“Press the button, open the secret door, and outside will be the freedom we’ve longed for these past ten years!”
“We can finally end these days of being locked up and studied like lab rats just because we have a little supernatural ability!”
“The button to open the secret door is lit, and a voice howls: Press it, and I’ll give you freedom!”
“Woof!” The little white dog Yaoji was first to slap down with its paw.
“BOOM!”
After a tremendous crash—
“Help!”
“Yaoji, no flying allowed!”
“My cake!”
“Holy shit! We’re flying!”
The last voice was different from the first three tense or panicked ones—it sounded particularly high-pitched, shrill, smug, and passionate… filled with extreme excitement and wildness caused by an unpredictable event.
“Holy shit! Flying flying flying flying fly fly flying!” Jing Hengbo burst out a string of machine-gun-like repeated words in the chaotic darkness of shuttling through space with heaven and earth turned upside down.
“Yaoji, come with me!” Her first action was to extend her claw painted with gold nail polish and fiercely grab toward the little white dog.
They were crossing over! It looked like they were going to cross over! The long-awaited moment had arrived! Grabbing a dog could protect herself, and in critical moments she could even kill it for meat!
“Whoosh.” The little white dog flashed and disappeared in the black hole, with what seemed to be a petite human figure beside it.
“Damn!”
Jing Hengbo cursed and reached out to grab again.
“Cake Girl! Sister’s coming to save you!”
Cake Girl was skilled at cooking—an essential tool for domestic life, travel, and seducing handsome men.
“Whoosh.”
Cake Girl became a small dot, flashed at the end of the black hole, and disappeared.
After two consecutive failed attempts, Jing Hengbo hesitated for 0.01 seconds.
Should she grab Taishi Lan or not?
He looked like a shield—would bringing him along work as muscle?
“Whoosh.”
Before Jing Hengbo could extend her claws to grab someone, a tremendous suction force struck. Her body trembled, and she felt herself tumbling and colliding, passing through a gray and chaotic darkness in dizzying confusion. Suddenly, a fierce cool wind pressed against her, and when she looked up again—wow!
Sister is flying in the sky!
This time it was really the sky! Not the black hole she’d been suddenly sucked into before. Thin clouds streaked past her eyes, and the wind instantly billowed her long hair.
Jing Hengbo squeezed her eyes tightly shut and hugged her suitcase, suddenly thinking of an important question—would atmospheric pressure changes cause mysterious changes to her chest too?
For instance, growing another size?
Also, the air up here was especially moist and fresh—would it be good for her skin too?
This was a sky face mask!
Using floating clouds as a facial treatment—how many people throughout history could do this?
Jing Hengbo was instantly excited.
She spread her arms wide, preparing to do some chest expansion exercises.
“Ah!”
Due to unauthorized movement in the floating force field, her state became unbalanced, causing the individual to enter free fall motion.
In plain language.
SPLAT.
She fell down.
——（。Y。）——
Before she fell down.
In the territory of Da Yan, a small village.
A group of people were bustling about sneakily. Some were clearing the ground, some were using stones to arrange a formation diagram on the ground, some were assembling an ornate chair, spreading brocade cushions on it, and placing it in the center of the formation.
“Following the compass instructions all the way here, this should be the place the State Preceptor mentioned, right?”
“Da Yan. North toward the Seven Stars direction at the handle of the Big Dipper, then south for a hundred li. Can’t be wrong.”
“The holy altar has been set up, the throne has been positioned, now we just need a queen.”
“I think that last part is somewhat challenging.”
“How can you question the State Preceptor’s authority? He said there would be a queen, so a queen will definitely fall down!”
“How do you know she’ll fall down? I think she’ll crawl out! Look at the State Preceptor’s instructions—’At that time, lightning will strike from heaven, the earth will collapse into great pits, gems will be scattered everywhere, flying discs will hover in the air, and there will be one woman, born from the place where heaven collapses and earth splits’… She’s crawling out!”
“Falling down! Look, ‘lightning will strike from heaven!'”
“Crawling out! Look, ‘born from the place where heaven collapses and earth splits!'”
“Falling down!”
“Crawling out!”
“Falling!”
“Crawling!”
“…You two shut up! When the Queen descends in glory, how can you say things like ‘falling’ and ‘crawling’? That’s blasphemy against the Queen!”
“Then what should we say?”
“Descending in glory!”
“That’s just falling down! I won!”
“Or being born!”
“That’s still crawling out! I win!”
“Falling down!”
“Crawling out!”
“Falling!”
“Crawling!”
“…You two shut up! Go bet somewhere else!”
“Fine, let’s bet! One basket of rubies—you carry it if I’m wrong. I bet she falls down!”
“Stingy, have some ambition, won’t you? One basket of sapphires—you carry it if I’m wrong. I bet she crawls out!”
“Deal!”
“Shh, stop arguing, I think I hear something…”
Shouting voices came from the distance, with the faint sound of clashing swords mixed in.
The busy people stopped their work and looked at each other.
“Da Yan people just love to fight. On the way here, I’ve already watched thirty-seven fights.”
“Today we continue watching.”
The group crouched down with practiced skill and hid in the grass or behind bushes, bumping each other’s butts as they competed for advantageous positions.
The shouting grew closer, with the flickering light of torches visible in the distance. A group of people burst through the darkness running wildly, their steps staggering, most of them injured, running while looking back.
As they ran, glittering green stone-like objects kept falling to the ground, leaving a trail of green light on the road like deep green ghost eyes suddenly emerging eerily from the earth.
The people of Dahuang Ze peering from the grass widened their eyes.
“Looks like emeralds!”
“Top-grade ones at that!”
“Even in our gem-strewn homeland, these would be considered good stuff!”
“Oh my, is this a robbery?”
“Doesn’t look like it. See, the pursuers caught up but aren’t picking up the gems at all!”
The red light of torches and green light of gems trembled and intertwined, illuminating the darkness and faintly revealing the silhouettes of black-clad pursuers. In the lead was a pure black, glossy horse with eyes that also glittered like gems. When its bowl-sized hooves lifted, it covered three zhang in an instant.
From the horseback came a deep voice, distant yet firm.
“Fleeing ones ahead, stop immediately! Those who surrender will not be killed!”
The people running ahead acted as if they hadn’t heard, still fleeing frantically.
“Who’s the idiot shouting from behind?” The hidden observers in the grass scoffed. “You tell them to stop and they’ll stop? You’re not their mother. They don’t even want all those gems anymore, so what do they still care about… Wait, gems?”
“Gems?”
“Oh my!” Someone exclaimed, “The State Preceptor’s ‘gems scattered everywhere’ has come true! It’s come true!”
“Ah! My State Preceptor, my god!”
Rustling sounds came from the grass as a group of people, moved to tears by their State Preceptor’s divine miracle, began sticking their butts in the air and bowing toward Dahuang Ze.
Fortunately, with people chasing and fleeing outside, no one had time to pay attention to the grass going crazy.
The pursuers’ shouted warnings were ineffective, but the fleeing people had also run out of road—the pursuers from behind had caught up and surrounded this group of people outside the village.
Another battle ensued.
The sounds of fighting were scattered by the wind, along with drops of blood.
The people in the grass wiped the blood splattered on their faces and patiently waited for the next miracle.
The battle on that side had already reached its conclusion. The surrounded people fell one by one, leaving only a few still struggling desperately in the field.
The observers’ faces also became serious—this was clearly a scene of killing to silence witnesses.
Since it wasn’t for money, then perhaps the fleeing people carried some important information, and the pursuers didn’t want them to pass the message along, willing to kill them all for this purpose.
However, given this one-sided situation, it seemed unlikely to produce any “heaven collapsing and earth splitting”?
Only two people remained in the field, one old and one young.
The leader of the pursuers rode his black steed forward two steps. His body was hidden behind the horse, with only the corner of his heavy brocade robe with black hidden cloud patterns visible.
“Surrender…” After killing so many people, his voice seemed somewhat tired.
The young man in the field looked grief-stricken, but the old man seemed to be deep in thought.
“Our lineage cannot be cut off…” After a long while, the old man said bitterly, “Fine… we surrender…”
The man on horseback gave a soft “mm.”
“Your Highness the Imperial Grand Prince.” The old man said, “You…”
His voice suddenly dropped, and the man on horseback called Grand Prince had to urge his horse closer.
“Xiao Si—” The surrounded old man suddenly pushed the young man forcefully outward, “Run! Run! You must get the message to Ji Bei—”
While pushing out the young man, he leaped up, shaking his sleeves. A loud humming sound arose as a circular cold flash like a cold moon born from the dark depths shot straight at the Grand Prince of Da Yan’s head.
The Grand Prince was caught off guard. His robes billowed as he flew up abruptly. The disc attacked his chest and abdomen. He snorted coldly, crossing his arms in midair with steady wrists, his long sword protecting his chest and abdomen.
“CLANG!” A tremendous crash made everyone’s ears ring with numbness. The disc was struck away, spinning high into the air, rotating without falling like a full moon suspended in the sky.
“Flying disc!” The observers in the grass exclaimed.
Hearing the strange sound, the Grand Prince on horseback turned to look, but suddenly blood spurted from his mouth and he fell backward.
“Your Highness!” His followers quickly supported him. Before losing consciousness, the Grand Prince pointed at the old man and young man.
“Kill!”
Arrows flashed like lightning. The old man threw himself forward to block, his body pierced by dozens of arrows, but the young man had already fled tearfully beyond ten zhang.
Just as the young man was about to escape.
Suddenly there was a whistling sound from overhead.
The sound wasn’t loud at first, but then grew louder and louder, as if a huge rock was falling from overhead. Everyone forgot to move and stupidly looked up, seeing a black dot overhead rapidly growing larger, falling in a straight line—
“Get out of the way!”
A sharp shout, and everyone stumbled and scrambled to run away.
“BOOM!”
Smoke and dust filled the air, debris flew everywhere. People who ran too slowly on all sides were nearly suffocated by the billowing smoke.
After a long while, the smoke stopped and fog cleared.
A pit with a diameter of a full zhang had appeared in the ground.
The pit’s location was exactly where the Dahuang Ze people had previously arranged the formation diagram and throne. The Dahuang Ze people cried out in alarm, stumbling and rushing over.
“Ah ah ah the altar and throne are destroyed… ah? Ah?”
The wailing stopped abruptly, eyeballs dropping to the ground.
Before them was a pit, in the pit was a pile of dirt, and in the dirt pile a pair of black silk-clad long legs were planted upside down like a green onion.
One twitch, then another twitch.
※※※
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Here I’ll explain the content of Chapter One. Those who haven’t read “A Thousand Gold Laughs” might be a bit confused. Since this is a series, the two works intersect. In “A Thousand Gold Laughs,” Jun Ke discovers Jing Hengbo’s blood-stained stockings in the big pit at Sanshui Village in Da Yan, mistakenly thinking she had died. This Chapter One actually corresponds to and explains this incident.
At that time, Da Yan’s Imperial Grand Prince Nalan Junrang was scheming against Yao Kingdom. To prevent Yao Kingdom’s messengers from seeking help from the Yao Kingdom Princess—who was the mother of “A Thousand Gold Laughs” male lead Nalan Shu—he personally led troops to hunt down the messengers. During the pursuit, he was injured by the flying disc, which led to the later plot of Jun Ke performing surgery to heal his wounds. This expanded into the story of “A Thousand Gold Laughs.” What’s described here is Nalan Junrang hunting down Yao Kingdom’s messengers, just as the Dahuang people were setting up the altar waiting for their queen. Now everyone should understand—that big pit at Sanshui Village was smashed out by Queen Da Bo, and the last messenger was killed by Da Bo’s impact.