Chapter 320

Chapter 321: Whereabouts

Deep inside the Special Affairs Bureau, in the Director’s office, Bai Li Qing turned on the room’s projection array.

Dozens of hidden devices in the walls and ceiling began to hum. At once, scores of projections replaced the office walls, showing scenes from every part of Mistbound City.

Some views showed fog choked streets and buildings. Others showed the “Contaminated Zone” covered in Purple Black Crystal Clusters. Deep Divers in heavy Powered Armor moved among the crystals, taking samples and installing environmental monitors.

“The Holy Revere Hermitage showing up in Mistbound City makes this already strange Otherworld even more suspicious. The Special Affairs Bureau has sent many elite Deep Dive Squads. They are not only focusing on where that ‘tower’ once took root, they are also expanding our exploration range,” Bai Li Qing said. “So far, we still have not found the boundary of the fog.”

Yu Sheng was amazed by the office’s high tech display. He asked without thinking: “Are these live feeds?”

“Yes. Real time. Some come from recorders on the Deep Divers’ Powered Armor, and some come from fixed monitors,” Bai Li Qing said. “With rotating shifts, there are at least three squads active in Mistbound City at any moment, day and night. Their Umbilical Cord units provide extra bandwidth to keep real time communications between reality and that Otherworld. Next, we plan to place a semi permanent relay deep in the fog to build a more stable channel between reality and the Otherworld. That way we will not need to rely on the Deep Divers for bandwidth.”

She paused and glanced at Yu Sheng: “For this we should thank Miss Foxy.”

“Huh? Thank her? Why?” Yu Sheng asked.

“Our Deep Dive tech can send only living beings with souls, or machines with a Machine Spirit, into an Otherworld. The Umbilical Cord device that maintains communications must also connect to an individual with a soul or a Machine Spirit. It is a complex Psionic Echo method. It solves the comms problem but has heavy limits,” Bai Li Qing explained patiently. “The ‘dark iron’ Miss Foxy gave us… solved the hardest part.”

Yu Sheng understood at once.

The Bureau’s Machine Spirit… could now be sparked on a small scale.

“It is still in testing,” Bai Li Qing said, noticing Yu Sheng’s look. “If all goes well, soon we can produce Deep Dive Communicators that can link to Umbilical Cords. Then the mapped parts of an Otherworld will have signal coverage. That will be huge for our agents and the Deep Divers, and it will greatly reduce the risk to Spirit Realm Detectives and Investigators working inside an Otherworld.”

Listening to her calm briefing, Yu Sheng felt it was a little unreal. He had not expected the lump of “iron” Foxy tossed out to be useful this fast. In the near future, it might change the fate of countless explorers. But after the shock, he thought of something practical: “Can she make enough of it?”

“We only need it to awaken a Machine Spirit. In theory, each device uses very little. But to mass produce on a large scale, it is still not enough,” Bai Li Qing said openly. “So we are also doing other research, trying to understand the principle behind this ‘Spirit Fox Dark Iron.’”

“This is something you can research? It might be black tech from another world…” Yu Sheng said, blinking.

“But it exists stably in our universe,” Bai Li Qing said very seriously. “If it exists, it has a reason. There is no black tech, only mysteries we have not understood yet.”

“Okay, that is a reason,” Yu Sheng said, scratching his hair. He turned back to the screens. “So, what have you found about Mistbound City?”

Bai Li Qing nodded: “Our biggest progress is learning some safety rules.

“The fog is not evenly dense. In most cases, the denser the fog, the more dangerous it is. In any area where visibility drops below twenty meters, there is a chance of running into an Entity. But at the same time in the same area, only one kind of Entity seems to appear, at least so far. In the thinnest fog zones, there have been no sightings. Based on this, we plan to label explored parts of Mistbound City by danger, and mark safe zones and no go zones.

“We are also studying how to enter and exit this Otherworld. There is some progress. We can basically confirm that the thinnest fog zones have ‘safe exits’ back to reality. We still need to test the conditions to open them. Right now, we can only say it likely has something to do with ‘mirrors.’

“One more thing is the ‘size’ of Mistbound City. It is huge. As of now, the explored area is already almost one quarter of Boundary City, and we still have not found an edge. So while we cannot say for sure yet, many in the Bureau think this Otherworld may be as big as Boundary City, maybe even as big as the whole Borderland.”

Yu Sheng said thoughtfully: “Then the connection between the Holy Revere Hermitage and this ‘Mistbound City’…”

Bai Li Qing shook her head: “We have no leads yet. We can only confirm they may have infiltrated long ago. The crystal clusters from that contaminated plot show signs of long term growth. But how long they stayed there and what their goal is will depend on interrogations.

“In short, for a long time they were just lying very low, maybe never even stepping out of the tower. With the Otherworld as a barrier, no one noticed their existence.

“In fact, if Mistbound City hadn’t suddenly been exposed, and if you hadn’t run into that ‘Artificial Saintess’ by accident, those Hermitage Order believers might have stayed hidden even longer.”

Yu Sheng frowned and caught on: “They have been hiding there for a long time. That means Mistbound City already existed. It wasn’t a new Otherworld formed recently?”

“I am afraid so,” Bai Li Qing said with a light nod. “Right under Boundary City’s nose, there has long been an Otherworld that is almost like a copy of Boundary City. A group of cultists found it before we did. It is hard not to feel ashamed.”

Yu Sheng rubbed his chin, about to speak, when he felt something. His face changed at once.

Bai Li Qing noticed right away: “What is it?”

Yu Sheng did not answer at once. He frowned, as if sensing carefully. After two or three seconds he cried out: “Oh no! The Saintess I put in the coffin is gone!”

Bai Li Qing was stunned, but Yu Sheng clearly had no time to explain. Even as he spoke, he pulled open a Door to the Holy Sarcophagus Chamber and slipped through. He tossed back one hurried line as he vanished: “We will talk later, I have to find someone first! The Artificial Saintess is gone!”

The next second, the phantom Door slammed shut. Yu Sheng was already in the Holy Sarcophagus Chamber.

The Iron Coffin stood quietly on the platform. Its lid hung open. Inside was empty.

Yu Sheng stared, speechless, for several seconds. Then he tried to search for the Artificial Saintess within his sensing range.

After a moment, he seemed to catch something. He yanked open a Door at his side and stepped through.

He came out on an area of open ground near the small town at the Valley’s center. The Artificial Saintess’s trace had paused here.

But stepping from the Door, he only saw a few Dollheads riding kick scooters back and forth. A bunch of kids stared at him wide eyed.

“Hi, Uncle Yu Sheng!” the kids ran over to greet him.

Yu Sheng hesitated: “Did you see someone… uh, very tall, wearing a head veil, and wrapped in black…”

He was only asking casually, but before he finished, one kid pointed happily: “We saw her! A super tall big sister went that way!”

Yu Sheng paused. At the same time, he felt that familiar trace again. For some reason, it came to him in brief, fuzzy bursts. Even with the bond of blood, it felt like a thick curtain lay between them. One moment he could not find her at all, the next she seemed close by.

“Thanks. Be careful while you play!”

Yu Sheng called to the Dollheads, then pulled open another Door and teleported toward the trace.

He stepped out, and right away heard Xiao Xiao’s teary voice: “Big sister, this is our homework for labor class. The teacher told us to do it ourselves. No letting other people help…”

Yu Sheng froze, then looked toward the sound. He saw Xiao Xiao and a few kids standing by the vegetable patch he had opened earlier. And the Artificial Saintess who had slipped out of the Holy Sarcophagus Chamber…

was weeding the field.

Yu Sheng: “…?”