Chapter 253

Chapter 253: The Crystal Shard

Yu Sheng had more questions. He could tell Bai Li Qing was holding back deeper secrets.

For example, how exactly did Boundary City’s massive anchor keep the Borderland pinned at L-0? What was the mechanism, and how had it been built?

And how exactly would faster, more advanced development threaten that anchor’s stability? Why?

And what was the Borderland like before Boundary City existed?

The city hadn’t appeared out of nothing. It had to have been built, step by step. And from the way Bai Li Qing spoke, the Borderland might have gone through a chaotic era when the average depth was far beyond L-0.

If that was true… did the Borderland already have human natives back then?

And if it did, how could those natives have survived? Everyone knew the basic rule: only places at L-0 depth could sustain rational species for long periods. If the Borderland truly had a period beyond level zero, a large human population shouldn’t have been able to live here at all.

Yu Sheng hesitated, then decided to ask anyway.

Bai Li Qing only shook her head.

“There are very few records of the history before Boundary City was established,” she said. “Even part of the history after it was built is chaotic. It seems we rebuilt this place from ruins, but why it became ruins is a mystery. Perhaps, as many scholars speculate, that history stuck at the time of the second singularity outbreak.”

She glanced at him. “You should remember what I told you about the history of destruction and rebirth in this world.”

Yu Sheng did.

“At the moment the universe was reborn, everything in the world was shattered and recombined once,” Bai Li Qing continued. “That created many… historical legacy problems, in the most literal sense.

“And that indirectly gave rise to the Archaeological Association—a group of scholars obsessed with archaeology who banded together and grew into a massive power. They keep digging at the strangest, most unstable spacetime collapse points, trying to repair missing histories across races, or find evidence that certain civilizations once existed. The Bamosian and the Forest Folk are their biggest shareholders, and because the Special Operations Bureau controls large amounts of otherworld intelligence, as well as a huge oddity trading platform and containment vault, we also have close ties with them.”

She stopped and stared into the endless darkness beyond the bridge, her tone carrying the faintest hint of emotion. “Tracing your roots is an instinct of civilization. The Archaeological Association is devoted to finding fragments of civilization left by the old world. For many years they’ve been searching for an ancient ruins cluster they call the Lost Deep Lake. The Borderland also has scholars trying to repair the history from before Boundary City was built, hoping to piece together what this place we call home used to be like.”

She inhaled quietly. “I’m not an expert in this field, but I have always held these people in awe.”

Yu Sheng listened in silence. He couldn’t truly feel what she described—he wasn’t a Borderland person—but he understood enough to respect it.

And at the same time, he couldn’t help thinking that the Creator who caused the second singularity outbreak had been… a little sloppy with the details.

Of course, that wasn’t something you said out loud. The entire universe existed in its current form because of the second singularity outbreak. And when he thought about Anka Aila’s hometown—gone—what right did anyone have to complain?

By the time his thoughts settled, they had reached the containment cube.

Up close, it was a suffocating block of gray-white concrete with no decoration at all. A long bridge led to one of its upper corners. The entrance gate was wide enough for two or three cars to drive in side by side, yet compared to the cube itself, it still looked like an opening made for ants.

Yu Sheng couldn’t imagine how it had been built or how it stayed floating in a void like this. But it was undeniably more “high tech” than anything the Special Operations Bureau showed on the surface.

The gate opened under Bai Li Qing’s authorization, and Yu Sheng stepped inside with Irene perched on his shoulder.

A broad corridor stretched ahead. Guard posts stood at regular intervals. Sentry machine guns and detectors were mounted in the ceiling, and surveillance devices were everywhere.

A fully armed escort team appeared, spoke briefly with Bai Li Qing, then fell silent and led the way.

Yu Sheng watched everything with curiosity.

The interior matched the exterior: massive concrete components, hard cold lines, undecorated surfaces. The palette was nearly nothing but white and gradients of gray, to the point that the black armor worn by the guards became the brightest color in the entire place.

That colorless chill stirred a strong sense of familiarity in Yu Sheng, but before he could say anything, Irene looked up at Bai Li Qing and blurted, “This place has no color at all—just like you.”

Bai Li Qing didn’t seem offended. She explained calmly, “Color is a medium for hiding and bewitching. Some contained objects use color to transmit their power. Some even use color to break free of control. This container is specially reinforced against that type.”

She added, as evenly as ever, “As for you saying it feels like me… that’s just a coincidence.”

“Angel fragments tend to use color to break out?” Yu Sheng asked.

“No. So far, we haven’t found any tendency for it to escape,” Bai Li Qing said, shaking her head. “This place simply has a high enough protection rating, and it comes with a fully equipped lab that can be activated at any time. So we brought it here.”

They stopped before a gray-white alloy gate. After a long, strict identification process, the door finally slid open.

Inside was an airlock-like chamber. A second door waited across from it.

Yu Sheng was about to step in when an escort member shifted to block him and turned toward Bai Li Qing. From beneath the heavy helmet, a muffled voice asked, “Director, does the visitor require additional protection?”

“No,” Bai Li Qing said. “He’s the one who brought the fragment down.”

Yu Sheng couldn’t see the escort’s expression through the helmet, but he felt the man’s whole body go rigid. After two or three stunned seconds, the guard lowered his hand and stepped aside.

“I’ll say it again—I didn’t bring it down,” Yu Sheng muttered. “It brought itself down because it didn’t want to live.”

“I know,” Bai Li Qing said, stepping forward. “But it’s convenient to say it that way.”

Yu Sheng smacked his lips and followed her in.

Beyond the second door, the laboratory opened up.

The lights were bright, but the room still lacked color. Advanced devices sat around the wide space, their functions unclear. At the center floated a complex round dais. Above it hung a mechanical structure descending from the ceiling, its end integrated with monitoring and analysis equipment.

Several staff members in heavy protective suits were already waiting.

Yu Sheng’s gaze swept past them and landed on the sample placed on the dais.

It was a white, translucent crystal, irregular in shape and about the size of three fists. It lay there quietly, harmless at first glance.

Yu Sheng couldn’t help thinking his earlier worry had been justified. If something like this were left by the roadside, no one would guess it was debris from a dark angel. If some unlucky idiot with a death wish picked it up and forgot to turn off auto-loot, they might shove it into their pocket and walk off.

Granted, this one was too big for most pockets. You’d need a very ambitious pocket.

Yu Sheng stepped closer, studying it at close range while several researchers watched him with a kind of tense horror. He turned slightly and murmured to Irene, “Can you tell anything?”

“What can I tell? It’s just a rock,” Irene said, shaking her head. “There is some weak energy emission… weaker than Foxy’s two chickens.”

One of the researchers looked over in surprise at the doll speaking, then quickly snapped his attention back to Bai Li Qing. “We did detect the crystal continuously releasing weak energy fluctuations. Readings have remained fairly stable over the past few hours. The intensity of the radiation is low and basically harmless to humans.”

Bai Li Qing nodded. “And?”

“And… this,” the researcher said. He pulled a tray from a nearby container and handed it to her.

On it lay another crystal shard—similar in texture and color to the larger one, but slightly duller, no bigger than a pinky nail.

“What is this?” Bai Li Qing asked.

“A secondary crystal,” the researcher said. “Converted by the mother crystal. Half an hour ago, this fragment was still just a rock rich in silicon dioxide.”

Bai Li Qing’s gaze sharpened.

“You mean… it assimilates surrounding material?”