Swallowing the Stars: Starting with Panlong

Chapter 1: Plane Disaster and New Life

The sky was cloudless in June, and a Boeing 747 passenger plane was flying smoothly over the Pacific Ocean.

Lin Yun sat by the window, gazing at the surging sea of ​​clouds outside, but his mood was not as bright as the weather. He had just finished a six-month academic exchange in Europe and was now boarding a flight back to England. At twenty-five, he was a graduate student in the physics department, majoring in theoretical physics, with an almost obsessive passion for the theory of space structure.

"Lin Yun, are you still thinking about your thesis?"

Lin Yun's thoughts were interrupted when his classmate Wang Hao handed him a bottle of water.

Lin Yun took the water bottle and gave a wry smile: "My advisor said my theoretical model of space folding was too bold and lacked experimental evidence. But I think that if space can really be folded, then interstellar travel is not a dream."

"Come on, your theory is almost delusional." Wang Hao shook his head and rolled his eyes. "If you ask me, you should just finish your graduation thesis and find a job at a research institute. That's better than anything else."

Lin Yun did not refute, but simply turned his gaze back to the window.

From a young age, he had an extraordinary fascination with the starry sky, a feeling that was hard to describe—it was as if he did not belong to this world, and that the depths of the starry sky was his true home. This idea was so absurd that even he found it laughable, but he could not shake it off.

A faint warmth came from my chest.

Lin Yun subconsciously touched the small bronze cauldron hanging around his neck. The cauldron was only the size of a thumb, covered with mottled patina, and engraved with some unrecognizable ancient patterns. According to his grandfather, this was something passed down from his ancestors in the Lin family. No one could remember how many generations it had been passed down, only that the eldest son of each generation had to wear it close to his body.

"You haven't thrown this piece of junk away yet?" Wang Hao glanced at it and said disdainfully, "What era are we living in? You still believe in this kind of stuff."

Lin Yun simply smiled and offered no explanation.

He had asked an archaeology professor to appraise it, but even the professor couldn't say which dynasty the small tripod belonged to.

From that day on, Lin Yun knew that this small cauldron was no ordinary object.

But he never expected that in the next few hours, this small cauldron would completely change his fate.

The incident occurred at 3:17 PM.

Lin Yun was reading Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" when suddenly the plane shook violently. The overhead luggage compartment popped open, and a suitcase fell down, which Wang Hao quickly blocked with his arm.

"What happened?" Wang Hao rubbed his arm, which had been hit and was sore, and looked around.

The cabin lights began to flicker, and the flight attendant's slightly hurried voice came over the intercom: "Dear passengers, the aircraft is experiencing severe turbulence. Please fasten your seatbelts and do not move around unnecessarily—"

Before the words were finished, a deafening roar came from the right side of the fuselage.

Looking out the window, Lin Yun saw thick smoke billowing from the right engine, with orange flames dancing wildly in the airflow. Then, the plane began to tilt violently, and the screams of the passengers echoed throughout the cabin.

"Engine on fire! Engine on fire!" someone screamed hysterically.

The oxygen mask popped off his head, and Lin Yun frantically grabbed it and put it on his face. His mind was unusually calm at that moment—perhaps the rational thinking trained in physics came into play. He quickly analyzed the current situation: the flight altitude was about 10,000 meters, the right twin engines had failed, the plane was falling rapidly, and the probability of survival was almost zero.

"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" Wang Hao's face was pale and his whole body was trembling.

Lin Yun grasped his hand, wanting to say something comforting, but her throat felt blocked and she couldn't make a sound.

He thought of his grandfather, the unfinished thesis, and that crazy theory about spatial folding.

The plane was plummeting rapidly, the clouds outside the window were rushing past, and the azure sea was getting closer and closer. Lin Yun closed his eyes, waiting for the final impact.

At that very moment, the small bronze cauldron on his chest suddenly burst forth with a dazzling blue light!

The light pierced through Lin Yun's clothes, through the seat, and even through the disintegrating fuselage. The entire cabin was enveloped in this mysterious light, and time seemed to freeze at that moment.

Lin Yun felt a tremendous suction force coming from his chest, as if his soul was being pulled out of his body by an invisible hand. He looked down and saw his body slumped weakly against the chair, his eyes closed, while another "him" was being sucked into the thumb-sized bronze cauldron as a stream of light.

Is this what death feels like?

There was no pain, no fear, only a strange tranquility.

The small cauldron spun in the air, its verdigris peeling away piece by piece to reveal the deep bronze beneath, as dark as the starry sky. The ancient patterns began to flow, as if they had come alive, forming an extremely complex spatial array.

Then, a crack appeared in the void.

On the other side of the rift lay an endless starry sky, a vast universe, a world Lin Yun had only ever seen in his dreams.

The small cauldron, carrying Lin Yun's soul, plunged headlong into the crack.

When Lin Yun regained consciousness, he experienced a strange and unprecedented sensation.

He felt himself floating in a warm void, surrounded by boundless darkness, yet dotted with countless stars. He wanted to open his eyes, but found he had no eyes to open; he wanted to speak, but found he had no mouth to speak of.

He was just a mass of consciousness, a soul trapped in the small cauldron.

Time lost its meaning in this space. He didn't know how much time had passed—perhaps a few days, perhaps tens of thousands of years—but Lin Yun gradually began to perceive the changes around him. The small cauldron was traversing a spatial structure that he couldn't understand, a structure whose complexity far exceeded any theoretical model he had proposed on Earth.

Space is like a blank sheet of paper folded countless times, each fold a separate universe. The little cauldron darts through these folds at a speed that even light cannot match.

Finally, after a violent tremor, the small cauldron came to a stop.

Lin Yun's soul perception extended outward, and he "saw" a dazzling starry sky—a real starry sky, not the blurry points of light seen through the atmosphere on Earth, but a magnificent picture composed of countless stars, nebulae, and galaxies.

Then, the small cauldron began to fall.

Passing through the atmosphere, through the clouds, and over ruined cities, Lin Yun looked down at the land below, his heart filled with awe—these were modern cities destroyed, their broken skyscrapers standing like tombstones on the ground, the streets overgrown with weeds, and occasionally, some huge creatures could be seen moving among the ruins.

This is where?

Earth? Or another world?

The small cauldron finally landed above an eastern city. This city was more dilapidated than any city Lin Yun had ever seen, but traces of its former prosperity could still be seen. The city walls were tall and thick, and there were many pedestrians walking around inside. Their clothing and attire resembled the style of the early 21st century, yet there were some differences.

The small cauldron transformed into a stream of light and disappeared into a low-lying house.

Lin Yun's consciousness then entered, and he sensed a warm space—a woman's womb.

He's about to be reincarnated.

This process was full of wondrous experiences, starting with the fission of a single cell, the formation of organs, and the gradual revival of consciousness. Lin Yun could feel the mother's heartbeat, hear the sounds of the outside world, and even sense the flow of energy in this world—a strange energy he had never perceived on Earth, permeating the heavens and the earth.

Pregnant in October and giving birth once.

When Lin Yun first opened his eyes and saw this world, he couldn't help but want to burst into tears.

The dilapidated houses, the yellowed calendars on the walls, the piles of scrap metal in the corners, and the crumbling skyscrapers in the distance outside the window—when all of this came into view, a strange sense of familiarity welled up deep in Lin Yun's subconscious, as if he had seen it somewhere before. But he was just a newborn baby, and his brain was not yet able to process such complex information. That sense of familiarity was fleeting, overwhelmed by instinctive needs—hunger, warmth, and sleep.

"Why isn't this child crying?" an old voice asked.

Lin Yun was lifted up by a pair of rough, large hands. It was an old man in his sixties with a face full of wrinkles and graying hair, but his eyes revealed kindness and resilience.

"Cry, child, it'll make you feel better." The old man gently patted Lin Yun's back.

Lin Yun then realized she was still in a daze and immediately started wailing loudly. Her loud cries attracted the attention of the neighbors next door.

"Grandpa Lin, is your grandson hungry? Why don't you bring him over here? Xiaofeng just finished feeding, I'll feed him again," a woman carrying a child came out from next door.

"Xinlan, thank you for your trouble again. This boy eats too much. He finished the milk we bought just a few days ago." The old man smiled from ear to ear, but his eyes were filled with tears.

Lin Yun gradually pieced together his background from the adults' conversations: his surname was Lin, his grandfather's name was Lin Guodong, his father was originally an ordinary worker who unfortunately died in a monster attack on the city not long ago, and his mother also passed away after giving birth to him due to excessive grief. He was a posthumous child and the only hope of this broken family.

Their residence was a low-rent housing complex in Yangzhou, part of the Jiangnan Base.

There is a boy next door, two months older than him, named Luo Feng.

When Lin Yun first heard this name, his soul trembled.

Luo Feng – the protagonist of Swallowing the Stars, the future master of the universe, and the strongest human!

And he actually became Luo Feng's neighbor and childhood friend!

As time passed, Lin Yun grew up slowly under his grandfather's care. He retained all his memories from his previous life and knew that the little cauldron would reappear at the right time. He waited patiently while silently observing the world.

He could even sense a special energy permeating the air of this world—genetic energy. Martial artists absorb this energy through cultivation to strengthen themselves, while mental masters manipulate it through their mental power. And because of the unique nature of his soul, his perception of mental power far surpassed that of ordinary people.

But the small tripod remained motionless.

Lin Yun wasn't in a hurry. He knew that their time hadn't come yet.

He played with Luo Feng every day. Luo Feng was two months older than him, but about the same height. He was calm and mature for his age, and had a perseverance that was beyond his years. Lin Yun, because he retained his memories from his previous life, also showed maturity in his speech and behavior. The two children quickly became inseparable friends.

"Lin Yun, what do you want to be when you grow up?" When they were five years old, the two of them were lying on the roof, looking at the towering city walls and the broken world beyond them. Luo Feng couldn't help but ask.

Lin Yun thought for a moment and said seriously, "Become stronger, strong enough to protect everyone I want to protect."

Luo Feng looked up, a hint of surprise flashing in his bright black eyes, then smiled: "Me too."

The two children looked at each other and saw a determination beyond their years in each other's eyes.

As the sun sets, two small figures lie on the rooftop, casting long shadows behind them.