"Come on, let's start now!" Plane 2 extended one end of the wings voluntarily. The others' hands were joined.

William was still worried about Natalie. "It's all right, Master! I will do my best!" She said firmly. In her eyes William saw a light he had never seen before, which was from the confidence in her heart.

His eyes hardened, but he was still a little worried. "Our secret channel will guarantee it." Said Plane 1, taking William's hand and putting it on top.

"Come on!" The cave echoed with a chorus of cries.

"Let's go out and we'll show you the spider. This way." The two planes taxied slowly, while the others followed. A door folded up and opened, revealing a tunnel that gradually climbed upward. In the tunnel they passed Checkpoint 8 and got another 1% of their energy.

When they came out, they found that the mother star had set, and the bright sky had been replaced by a blue-black night. Since they had left the road, they had no light to light them except millions of bright stars.

"Another day has gone by." Said Plane 1, looking up at the starry sky, "I wonder how many more precious genes the lab has stolen today."

They trotted across a small bridge, listening to the beautiful song of the flowing river. When they reached the other side, the mountains still stretched out to their right, while on the left was Checkpoint 9, where they would get another 1.5% of their energy. They saw a vast expanse of wetland in the distance.

At this point, the party had collected a total of 17.5% of the energy for the energy core.

In the hazy moonlight, the party sped through a tall paddy field. They startled a few field mice and an owl that was scouting at an altitude of dozens of meters. The scent of the rice seemed to be colored by the stars, for a white smoke rose in the cool air.

At last they could see the light of the fire fluttering all over a wide expanse of water ahead of them. Those were some white candles. As they approached, they mounted a long stone slab and watched the scene in the water. It was stunning: the water was separated by thick mud into many similar-sized squares. According to William's estimate, they each was about fifteen square meters. Looking down, they saw the remains of countless animals lying neatly in these areas. They were in excellent condition. A special small box containing nine candles was placed next to each remain. They burned slowly, shooting tiny flashes of light into the starry sky.

William went to the remain of a sika deer, knelt down, closed his eyes and folded his hands.

"May you enjoy the afterlife in heaven." He said quietly, "My best wishes."

Just after the words fell, from in the water rose a golden five-pointed star, hovering in midair, flashing a dazzling light.

He heard an ethereal voice from the star, "Thank you for your blessing, boy. I'm comfortable in heaven, and I wish you peace and happiness in space."

The star fell back into the water. "These are all animals that have had a particular gene fragment extracted in Capsule Laboratory, about a hundred in all." Said Plane 1.

"These lives are so miserable," Ranran sighed helplessly.

"I will avenge them!" A surge of anger rose from the bottom of William's heart and made him roar.

As they walked on, Natalie caught a glimpse of a Roman numeral 7 printed on a stone slab at her feet, with a rose beside it. "What does this mean?" Ranran asked, but Plane 1 and 2 remained silent.

Natalie's keen eyes caught a "Stop" sign at her feet. Looking into the water beside her, she saw a cat lying peacefully asleep. The planes stopped, faced the water, and whispered, "Bless the innocent creature, God."

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Another star rose, but this time it was a Roman numeral 3 and a violet.

"The numbers and the flowers seem to be arranged in the same way," Thought William.

The silence was perfect except for the light footsteps of the party. William could see a huge mirror emerging from the water in the distance, so he strode excitedly over to it and squatted down to examine it.

He saw that its main body was all silver, and that the pearls set at the edges glistened in the bright light of the underwater candles. The mirror was made of a large piece of smooth and bright glass, reflecting the starry sky above the heads of the party.

A moment later, however, he sensed something was wrong. Gradually a wave of water rippled on the surface of the mirror, and the starry sky within it faded from his view. Then it was calm again, as if nothing had happened.

William was still looking at it curiously. His head drifted involuntarily toward the water.

Suddenly, a deep black whirlwind appeared from the mirror. It was spinning fast, rolling everything around it, and it was getting closer and closer to William. A great force of suction came, about to pull him violently into the water.

"Danger, William!" Ranran saw that frightened, hurried there, and pulled his legs. The others followed. The two forces were at a stalemate.

But a few seconds later, the black whirlwind suddenly disappeared, and so did the suction. All that remained were the mirror, intact, in the calm water, as well as the frightened party.

"What a false alarm." William got up, his voice shaking.

"Yes, it just scared me to death -- oh dear, look!" Natalie exclaimed, pointing to the mirror.

As William turned around, the mirror flashed a Roman numeral 9 and a pattern of lilies, then faded away.

"Why is it always numbers and flowers?" He thought, "Is it..."

"Hey, Master, come on." Photon's call interrupted his thoughts. William had to walk on. "Roman numeral 1, cornflower." He heard Black Ghost 1 whisper.

"There's another one, hey." He thought.

As they went deeper and deeper into the wetland, more and more candles were floating on the water. When they stepped on a circular mark on a stone slab, an amazing thing happened: the candles gathered themselves into circles of five, as if controlled by some force, and then rose slowly, spinning rapidly. At an altitude of about 20 meters, they stopped, then seemed to be moved by an invisible hand, causing them to forming a large capsule pattern. Gradually more candles rose out of the water and arranged themselves beside the pattern in the shape of the double helix structure of DNA. Then, some candles separated themselves from the pattern to represent DNA unwinding; other candles were inserted into the double helix to represent cutting fragments. The separated candles rearranged themselves in the air forming a new long chain.

A minute later, the candles gradually fell back into the water, arranged in the Roman numeral 5 and a lotus, as the party stared. The water was calm again.

"There are already five groups." Natalie said to herself.

As the sky began to whiten, the view of the other side of the wetland began to come into view. In the starlight, William could see rows of trees standing neatly on the shore. The crickets showed their unique song, and the fireflies closed their tired eyes.

"We're almost there," Said Black Ghost 1.

Sure enough, twenty paces later, the stone slabs came to an end, and the party came ashore one after another. To the surprise of the others, William did not move forward at once. Instead, he turned away, closed his eyes again, put his hands together and said, "Best wishes to them, God."

A breeze from the water gently kissed his cheek, leaving a charming fragrance. When he opened his eyes again, he felt something fell on his head. He took it down and looked at it. It was the Roman numeral 2 and tulips.

"Keep this." He folded it up and put it in an inside pocket and hurried to catch up with the others.

After passing the rows of trees, the sky began to light and there was again a grassland. Ranran squatted down and saw the crystal dewdrops hanging on the tender grass. Photon glimpsed hundreds of ants at the grass roots, marching in a long line, followed by a few spiders. A cricket hopped onto a blade of grass and caught Natalie's eyes. It arched its hind legs, made a great effort, and flew to another blade of grass a few meters away. Sparrows flitted overhead, chattering; a butterfly alighted lightly on a flower and flapped its wings, dancing in the air.

"Where shall we go then?" William asked.

"Left." Black Ghost 1 led the others, "We're going to find an apple tree."

After covering a short distance, the mother star had risen completely. Bathed in the warm light, behind a hedge not far away, the tulip smiled and embraced the mother star's passionate kiss. A bee alighted on a cornflower, covered itself with pollen and fragrance, and flew away with a hop. A breeze with a mixture of flower fragrance was blowing, and the short grass was not ready to meet its warm embrace, so they all bent down.

"Look! That's the apple tree we're looking for!" Cried the two planes excitedly.

They hurried to the bridge, trotted across it, turned a few corners along a cobblestone path, and headed straight for the tree.

"It'll be easy if we find this tree." The planes said after a few hard knocks on the tree. A small door appeared to its right. Ranran pressed a red button and the door opened. The party could see that the cobblestone path sped ahead until it stopped in front of a cabin in the distance.

"Here we are at last." Plane 1 said with a sigh of relief.