Chapter 334

Chapter 334: Angel Gloom

It was disappointing that they couldn’t immediately get the hidden jump coordinates of the Hermitage Order, but the intel they’d gained still far exceeded expectations—especially the part about the angel catalyst.

The Hermitage Order’s motives were soaked in their crazed world-flaw theory, but the academic side of the research undeniably had value. Ideology didn’t change what knowledge was.

So Yu Sheng and Bai Li Qing’s focus quickly shifted to the Anka Aila crystals.

“What state are those Anka Aila crystals in right now?” Yu Sheng asked.

“Still in Containment Zone,” Bai Li Qing said. “Our research has continued, but there’s been no progress. The same is true for the secondary crystals.”

“I want to take a look,” Yu Sheng said, rubbing his chin. “What that cultist mentioned is hard to ignore.”

“Of course.” Bai Li Qing nodded. “I already had Containment Zone prepare. We can go anytime.”

Yu Sheng called over Foxy and Luna, then picked up the little doll, who was still playing cat’s cradle with grim focus. “Stop playing. We’re going to look at the anti-Irene special-use crystal together.”

Irene twisted violently in his grip. “Hey! Are you never letting that joke go?”

Yu Sheng ignored her protests and opened the door leading into Containment Zone. Just as he was about to step through, he felt a stare from the side. He turned.

Bai Li Qing was looking straight at him.

“What?” Yu Sheng asked.

Her expression looked like it was holding on by its fingernails. “…Could you show at least a little respect for the security system of our highest-level containment facility?”

Yu Sheng froze, genuinely a little embarrassed. “Then… should I close the door and open it again more slowly? Make it look like it’s really hard to open?”

Bai Li Qing drew a quiet breath, as if resisting the urge to bite through her communicator. Without answering, she walked through the door.

They entered the containment facility—gray-white concrete megastructures layered with security systems that felt like they had their own gravity.

Because they’d been notified in advance, everything was ready. One Anka Aila crystal and several secondary crystal samples had been moved out of their secure containers and delivered to the lab.

Under the bright lights, the crystals glowed softly, calm and almost pretty. There was no sign of the “piercing” power the cultist had described with trembling fear.

“Angel catalyst…” Yu Sheng frowned at the glittering substance on the platform. “Who would’ve thought we used to believe its only purpose was countering Irene? I never imagined those cultists could’ve taken research on angel remains this far.”

“That’s normal,” Bai Li Qing said. “They’ve been researching in secret for more than ten years. The only advantage we have is that we actually have a batch of highly active catalyst in our hands.”

Her gaze sharpened. “When we interrogate the other cultists, we need to prioritize information about angel catalyst. We need to find out exactly how they use it.”

“I keep thinking their ability to sneak into Mistbound City has something to do with this,” Yu Sheng said. “Low-activity catalyst taken from Shadowless Remains can’t be completely useless. And if it can pierce otherworld… that’s perfect for infiltration.”

He glanced at the person in charge of the lab. “You still haven’t found a way to make these crystals react, right?”

The lab lead looked like it hurt to admit it. “Regrettably, we’ve tried every method, but the stability of these crystals is beyond imagination.”

“Stable…” Yu Sheng echoed, and his mind immediately returned to the shuttle the cultist had described—the one meant to carry the Anka Aila crystal away, the one that had sent an audio clip of screaming three minutes before the jump.

Bai Li Qing had clearly thought of it too.

“That shuttle,” she said, thinking aloud, “transmitted audio that sounded like the entire crew was being killed three minutes before the jump, but everything on board was normal at the time. Then it ignored the mothership’s stop order and started the jump on its own.”

Her eyes narrowed. “That wasn’t a normal flight accident. Given their mission, it was almost certainly related to the Anka Aila crystal.”

Yu Sheng turned to Luna, who’d been silent the entire time. “You were on their mothership back then. Do you know anything?”

Luna paused, then slowly shook her head. “Back then, in the Holy Coffin. Didn’t know.”

“…Right.” Yu Sheng nodded. “They were afraid you’d wake up, so they kept you on standby in the Holy Coffin. They definitely didn’t let you near this stuff.”

Luna nodded.

After a couple seconds, she spoke again. “But… heard screech. While praying. In the Holy Coffin.”

Bai Li Qing blinked and looked at Yu Sheng. “What does she mean?”

Yu Sheng didn’t understand at first either. But he was used to Luna’s halting way of speaking. After a few careful questions, the meaning finally snapped into place.

“You mean that even though you were in standby in the Holy Coffin, you heard strange noises through the system connected to it,” Yu Sheng said. “And you think those noises might have been from when that shuttle got into trouble—the mothership received those signals, and they leaked into your side?”

Luna nodded slowly, then forced out two more words. “Holy Coffin… record.”

“The Holy Coffin can record?” Yu Sheng froze. A spark lit in his head.

Before he could speak, Bai Li Qing nodded once. “I’ll notify the team currently working on that ship. I’ll have them try to extract the Holy Coffin’s system logs.”

Yu Sheng gave a short “Mm,” then rubbed his chin again, still bothered. “So what exactly happened to that shuttle?”

He stared at the crystals as if they might answer. “If you told me it was dangerous cargo and the jump blew up, or they got lost, or something like that, I could understand. Even if you told me they floored it into some ridiculous isekai and became heroes, fine.”

He shook his head. “But they received the audio signal of the incident three minutes before the jump drive even started…”

After a few seconds of thinking himself into knots, he voiced the idea anyway. “That shuttle didn’t just jump into abnormal space. It pierced the timeflow.”

He lifted a hand, uncertain. “Everyone on board got torn apart by the Anka Aila crystal, and their voices were flung into the timeflow and delivered to a point three minutes before departure?”

He had meant it as a wild guess—writer brain running away with him—but Bai Li Qing’s expression turned even more serious. She immediately started discussing with the lab lead whether a phase engine, under interference from angel power, could possibly produce time anomalies.

“I was just saying it offhand,” Yu Sheng hurried to explain. “That was me having a weird idea because I write too many novels.”

Bai Li Qing looked at him, perfectly serious. “…Do you usually write documentary nonfiction?”

Yu Sheng stared. “…What?”

“Small-scale time-jump anomalies are extremely rare across the universe,” Bai Li Qing said, “but they have happened. There are records. However, they contradict how a phase engine works.”

She spoke like she’d memorized the rulebook of reality. “In theory, if a time jump occurred, the coordinate parameters the phase engine obtained would fail, and the ship couldn’t enter a jump at all. The reverse is also true: if the ship can enter a jump, it means the time parameter in the coordinates it obtained must be correct.”

She paused long enough for Yu Sheng to struggle through it, then continued. “So I originally ruled out the possibility they experienced a time jump. But if the angel catalyst really has this kind of power—and can make the phase engine violate the objective laws of our universe…”

“Violate the objective laws of the universe?” Yu Sheng repeated, stunned. “Is that even possible?”

“Dark angels are visitors from outside the universe,” Bai Li Qing said, very quietly, very seriously.

Yu Sheng scratched his head. At some point, this had started exceeding his education level. This was the kind of conversation Little Red Riding Hood should handle.

Little Red Riding Hood probably wouldn’t understand either, but she was a senior in high school. High school seniors had sturdier brains.

He shook his head and forced his thoughts back into place. Then something else struck him.

“Wait. One more thing,” Yu Sheng said. “Xuan Che told me that at the grand void spiritual axis, they caught a batch of Hermitage Order cultists near the border region of featherwing-13b. They were secretly building an outpost there too, and they even found a half-built Pillar of Order on site.”

Bai Li Qing’s gaze sharpened instantly.

“Given what we know now, the Pillar of Order should be a high-end ship with a special mission and symbolic meaning,” she said. “Within the Hermitage Order, it’s probably a top-tier model meant for major operations. They hid one in the Borderland to research something as high-level as the angel catalyst… so over at featherwing-13b…”

Yu Sheng lifted his head and met her eyes.

“…That place isn’t hiding another dark angel that hasn’t awakened yet, is it?”