Chapter 302

Chapter 303: Catching Up

Seeing the unfamiliar stars outside the porthole, everyone in the control room fell into an eerie silence.

A slightly steadier Hermitage member pushed himself up and staggered toward the tall, thin old man in white. His steps were heavy not only from the shock of dropping out of the jump but also because the tower’s gravity system had gone wrong. The direction of gravity in the hall was now unstable.

“Sage, where are we?”

“The jump process was disturbed,” the Sage said at last, gripping his chair armrest hard. “Navigator, report.”

“Y yes,” another Hermitage member stammered, “our preset jump point should have been the gravitational collapse near the Bright River Nebula, a bright dust cloud that is easy to identify. But we cannot see it anywhere in the external monitors, and the Youth Form Chart comparison shows the entire navigation system is offline. Manual cross check will take a long time.”

“First confirm the Pillar of Order’s damage, check inner hull layers for leaks, then repair the subsystems,” the Sage said. “Priority is navigation and engines. Figure out where we are. Then fix this cursed gravity system.”

“Yes, yes.”

The Sage drew a slow breath and steadied his voice: “How are the Space Calibrator and the Holy Coffin room?”

“We just contacted the core section. The Space Calibrator is intact. The Holy Sarcophagus Chamber has some damage, but the Saintess is unaffected and still recovering.”

The Sage lowered his eyelids so no one could see his eyes. He tapped the chair armrest, and under his breath, too soft for others to hear, he muttered, “That useless thing.”

After a brief, heavy pause, he raised his head and spoke coldly: “Speed up repairs. Get the Artificial Saintess out of the Iron Coffin as soon as possible.”

“But the Saintess is badly hurt, especially her Mind Barrier. If we force a boost now, it could cause problems later.”

“As long as she doesn’t melt down today, we can deal with later problems later,” the Sage cut him off. “I want her back in the fight now. I have a very bad feeling our trouble isn’t over.”

“Yes.”

The Sage nodded, his face finally loosening a bit.

A Hermitage member beside him took the chance to ask, “Sage, what do you think hit us? Could it be some jump interference tech from the Special Affairs Bureau?”

The Sage shook his head slowly: “The Pillar of Order carries the strongest Phase Engine and core defense system. To interfere with it, you need a large fixed disruptor set near the Youth Form Gate or a fortress installation. The Special Affairs Bureau only just learned about the deeper Boundary City. They had no time and no reason to build that there.”

He went silent for a few seconds, then spoke again: “In the battle data sent back by the Artificial Saintess, those suspicious intruders in the mist showed up, and everything started slipping after they appeared. The Veil of Concealment collapsed because of them too. But the key is, who are they, and how did they…”

He stopped. He lifted his head and stared out the porthole.

A look of shock, even fear, appeared on the white robed old man’s face. He stared fixedly as if he had seen something absurd and horrifying.

Then other eyes turned to follow his gaze.

A person one of the “they” he had just mentioned was lying against the porthole, peeking into the hall at the Hermitage members.

He wore an ordinary, even cheap looking casual jacket. One arm hugged something furry that looked like a tail. He was out in space with no protection at all, staring in like a curious observer at every person in the hall.

He noticed he had been seen. He saw the frightened faces in the Control Hall. He smiled a bright, sunny smile, then raised a hand and flashed a “yeah.”

The Control Hall exploded into panicked shouts. The Sage and a few lieutenants bellowed to restore order.

“Quiet. Calm down. Send the Knights and get rid of that monster,” the white robed old man shouted.

Outside, the figure began crawling along the tower’s hull, grabbing ridges as handholds.

“He’s moving,” someone cried. “He’s headed for the radar array.”

“Switch the outside feeds over. No use, more than half of the external monitors were destroyed in the shock. That area is a blind spot.”

“Send the hull cleaning drones. They have cameras.”

“Knights are in the corridor and will depart in three minutes.”

Chaos rolled across the hall. After a near fatal crisis and a dangerous misjump, a person lying on the porthole and staring at them became the last straw for many people’s nerves. Others, terrified but trying to keep order, rushed to deal with this thing that looked like a person but could not possibly be one.

The Sage sat in the center, saying nothing, his face dark as he stared at the now empty edge of the porthole.

That “person” had moved to a place no one could see from this side. Out there, in the blind spot of the Pillar of Order’s hull, what was he doing? What was he planning? How had he “kept up” after the jump failed? Who was he? What was he?

Yu Sheng crept along the outer hull of the strange tower, careful with each move, still hugging Foxy’s big tail with one arm.

It reminded him of Irene, who loved crawling through the dark corners at home, like under the table, under the coffee table, and under the sofa. The little doll always wriggled through those places.

But he felt he was not like Irene. The doll crawled in the dark; he was crawling in a sunny, healthy, measured way.

Even his goal was positive. He wanted to find an entrance, slip inside, and bring the cultists in this “flying tower” some surprise and joy.

If they weren’t happy, that was fine. He was happy now.

He stopped on a flatter section of hull to catch his breath, then tipped his head back to look at the darkness of space and the beautiful stars winking far away.

“So pretty,” he thought.

He couldn’t say it out loud, because he couldn’t breathe here.

At first, he wasn’t used to it, and he even prepared himself to show up back on the ground in half an hour and stare wide eyed at Irene and the others. After all, his vision went black and then he opened his eyes in outer space. [I thought I was done for.]

But after a while, Yu Sheng realized that breathing wasn’t necessary for him.

It was just a clinical feature that came with the state called “being alive.”

At least that was how he understood it.

Looking at the vast deep space, Yu Sheng felt his thoughts expand with the endless dark.

People said the stronger cultivators at Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain could also live in space. He wondered how they did it. [Maybe they “turned off” breathing too.]

He wondered if Irene could move around in space as well. She didn’t seem to have a heart or lungs at all.

What about Foxy? She was strong. Maybe she could too.

Yu Sheng let his mind wander, when a voice sounded in his head and cut him off: “Hey hey, Yu Sheng. You still alive? Did you die? If you did, are you coming back?”

Of course it was Irene.

“Alive, floating in space,” Yu Sheng answered in his mind. “Listen, this tower the cult made is actually a spaceship. During its teleportation, I nudged it. Now it looks broken and it’s drifting. I’m clinging to the hull, trying to find a way in. I haven’t found a good spot yet.”

Irene went quiet for a few seconds, like she was stunned.

Then she shouted, “Holy crap, you can do that?”

“I’m surprised too,” Yu Sheng replied. “Oh, tell Fox that her tail stopped working once it got here. I don’t know if I broke it.”

After a moment, Irene answered, “I told her. She says the distance is too far, the link dropped. A tail after a disconnect is useless. Toss it somewhere, or open a Door and send it back home. She’ll turn it into a scarf for you later.”

Yu Sheng thought for a second, then pulled open a Door to No. 66 Wutong Road and tossed the tail through.

“I sent it home. How are things on your side?”

“The Special Affairs Bureau is here. Xuan Che is explaining things. The Deep Diving Unit commander asked me where you went. I told him Foxy fired you with her tail. He gave himself a shot on the spot,” Irene said.

“…”

“Hey, when are you coming back?” the little doll asked.

“I’ll first try to get inside this tower and not blow it up, since it seems pretty easy to break,” Yu Sheng said. “If I can, I’ll bring back some souvenirs. After chasing it this far, going home with nothing would feel wrong.”

“Fine. Don’t die too fast.”

“Got it.”