Chapter 321

Chapter 321: Whereabouts

Deep within the Special Operations Bureau, in the director’s office, Bai Li Qing activated the room’s projection system.

As countless small devices hidden in the walls and ceiling began to hum, the office walls were replaced by dozens of projected screens—each showing a different view of Mistbound City.

Some displayed streets and buildings drowned in heavy fog. Others showed the contaminated zone, blanketed in strange purple-black crystal clusters. On several feeds, deep divers in heavy powered armor moved across crystal-covered ground, collecting samples and placing environmental monitors.

Bai Li Qing said, “Holy Revere Hermitage appearing in Mistbound City makes this already suspicious otherworld feel even more questionable. The Bureau has deployed a large number of elite deep-dive squads. Not only are they focusing on the site where the High Tower once took root, they’re also expanding the exploration range. So far, we still haven’t found the edge of the fog.”

Yu Sheng stared at the setup with open amazement. “Are these all live feeds?”

“Yes. Real-time transmission.” Bai Li Qing’s tone stayed steady. “Some are from recorders on deep diver armor. Some are from surveillance devices we set up around the area. With rotating shifts, Mistbound City now has at least three squads active at all times, twenty-four hours a day. Their ‘umbilical cord’ devices provide extra bandwidth to maintain real-time communication between reality and the otherworld.”

She paused. “Next, we plan to set up a semi-permanent signal relay deep in the fog to build a more stable channel. That way, we won’t need to rely on deep divers for bandwidth.”

Then she turned to Yu Sheng. “And we should thank Miss Foxy for this.”

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

Bai Li Qing explained patiently, “Our deep-dive technology can only send living people with souls—or machines with machine spirit—into an otherworld. And the umbilical cord devices used to maintain real-otherworld communication must be anchored to an individual with a soul or machine spirit. It’s a complex psionic-echo technology. It solves communication, but it has severe limitations.”

Her gaze sharpened. “Miss Foxy’s dark iron solved the worst part.”

Yu Sheng immediately understood.

The Bureau’s “machine spirit”… could now be produced on a small scale.

“It’s still in testing,” Bai Li Qing said, catching his expression. “If everything goes well, we’ll be able to manufacture deep-dive communicators in batches—devices that can interface with the umbilical cord. Then, in otherworlds that have already been mapped, we’ll finally have signal coverage. That would be crucial for our agents and deep divers, and it would greatly reduce the risks for spirit realm detectives and investigators operating in otherworlds.”

Listening to her calm explanation, Yu Sheng felt a little unreal. He hadn’t expected Foxy’s casually tossed “iron lumps” to become useful this quickly—useful enough, in time, to change the fate of countless otherworld explorers.

Then practicality caught up. “Does she even have enough output?”

“We only need it to ignite machine spirit,” Bai Li Qing admitted. “In theory, each device uses very little. But if we want true mass production… it isn’t enough.”

“So you’re studying it?” Yu Sheng blurted. “You can actually study that and get somewhere? That stuff could be tied to otherworld black tech…”

“But it can exist stably in our universe,” Bai Li Qing said, unflinching. “If something exists, it has a reason. There’s no such thing as black tech in this world—only mysteries we don’t understand yet.”

Yu Sheng scratched his head. “All right. Fair enough.”

He looked back at the screens. “So what have you found about Mistbound City so far?”

Bai Li Qing nodded. “The biggest progress is confirming some of its safety mechanisms.

“In the otherworld, fog density is uneven. In most cases, the thicker the fog, the higher the danger. In any area where visibility drops below twenty meters, there’s a chance of encountering an entity.

“At the same time, in the same place at the same moment, it seems only one type of entity will appear—at least so far. And in the few areas where the fog is thinnest, there have been no reports of entities yet.

“Based on that, we plan to mark explored regions by danger level, and designate safe zones and restricted zones.”

She continued without rushing. “We’re also trying to understand the entry and exit mechanisms. We’ve made some progress.

“At present, we can basically confirm that in places where the fog is thinnest, there should be safe exits that allow a return to reality. But the conditions for opening those exits still need cautious testing. For now, all we can say is that it seems related to mirrors.

“And one more thing—Mistbound City’s size. It’s enormous. So far, the explored region is already close to one quarter of Boundary City, and we still haven’t found its boundary.

“So we can’t conclude for sure yet, but many people in the Bureau believe that otherworld might be as large as a full Boundary City… or even the entire Borderland.”

Yu Sheng frowned, thoughtful. “Then the connection between Holy Revere Hermitage and Mistbound City…”

Bai Li Qing shook her head. “We still haven’t found a clue. For now, we can only confirm they may have infiltrated it a long time ago. The crystal samples collected from the contaminated ground show signs of long-term growth.

“As for how long they’ve been hiding there, and what their objective is, we’ll have to wait for the cultists’ interrogation results.

“In short, based on what we know now, they were hiding in an extremely low-profile way for a very long time. They may not have even stepped outside the High Tower. With the otherworld barrier, no one noticed them at all.

“Honestly, if Mistbound City hadn’t suddenly been exposed—and if you hadn’t stumbled into that Artificial Saintess—those Hermitage Order cultists would probably still be hiding.”

Yu Sheng’s frown deepened. Then realization hit. “They were hiding there for a long time… so Mistbound City has existed for a long time too? It wasn’t an otherworld that formed recently?”

Bai Li Qing nodded. “That’s probably the case. Right under Boundary City’s nose, there has long been an otherworld that’s almost like a replica of it. And a group of cultists discovered it earlier than we did. I have to say—it’s embarrassing.”

Yu Sheng rubbed his chin, about to respond—

Then his expression snapped tight, as if something had grabbed his spine.

Bai Li Qing caught it instantly. “What is it?”

Yu Sheng didn’t answer. He frowned hard, focusing. Two seconds later, he suddenly yelped, “Oh hell!

“The saintess I put in the coffin is gone!”

Bai Li Qing froze, but Yu Sheng didn’t have time to explain. The moment the words left his mouth, he yanked open a door that led straight to the Holy Sarcophagus Chamber. As he flashed through, he threw back a single sentence:

“We’ll talk later—I’m going to find her! The Artificial Saintess is gone!”

The phantom door slammed shut behind him.

Inside the Holy Sarcophagus Chamber, the iron coffin sat quietly on its platform, lid open—

Empty.

Yu Sheng stared for several seconds, dumbfounded, before snapping back to himself. He immediately reached outward with his senses, searching for the Artificial Saintess within his perception.

A moment later, he caught something—faint, intermittent, like a signal breaking through a thick curtain. One second she was nowhere. The next, she was right there.

He turned and yanked open another door.

He stepped out onto open ground near the little town at the center of the valley. Her presence had lingered here, briefly.

When he emerged, all he saw were dollheads riding scooters back and forth. A bunch of kids stopped and stared, wide-eyed.

“Hello, Uncle Yu Sheng!”

Several of them ran over, grinning.

Yu Sheng hesitated, then asked carefully, “Did you see someone… uh, really tall? Wearing a head veil? And her body looked like it was wrapped in black…”

Before he could finish, one child shot an arm up and pointed excitedly. “I saw her! A super, super tall big sister! She went that way!”

Yu Sheng froze—

And in the same instant, he sensed her again. Still intermittent. Still distant.

“Thanks,” Yu Sheng said quickly. “And be careful when you play!”

He pulled open another door and jumped through, teleporting toward the direction he’d just felt.

The next second, he stepped out—

And immediately heard Xiao Xiao’s voice, strained and on the verge of tears.

“Big sister, this is our labor-class homework… teacher said we have to do it ourselves. No one can help…”

Yu Sheng went blank.

He followed the sound and saw Xiao Xiao and a few kids the same age standing helplessly beside the vegetable patch he’d opened earlier—

And the Artificial Saintess, the one who’d vanished from the coffin—

Weeding.

Yu Sheng’s brain stalled.

“…What?”