Chapter 426

Chapter 427: Sentin#?@l Silence

After returning to the surface, Yu Sheng sent Engineer Sun and the Special Affairs Bureau’s sample-recovery team back to Boundary City at once. Before the entire crater ring collapsed, he, Foxy, and the others fell back to a safe zone.

Soon after, the whole region caved in before their eyes and became a shocking, gigantic pit.

The underground structure of the ring crater had long been hollowed out by the Dark Angels’ parasite. After the crystal heart deep in those caverns fully died, the unsupported layers kept collapsing, pulling a wide area around the ring into a terrible chain reaction. The cave-in lasted for dozens of minutes and turned everything unrecognizable.

Heat still rose from the pit floor. Lifeless gray crystals lay mixed with rock and soil. Hollowed stone “pipes” and squeezed, warped strata crossed and slumped everywhere like the bones of a primeval behemoth that had been dead for a thousand years. The “giant pit” was clearly visible from space and, for a long time to come, would likely be a permanent feature of Garrison-3 that time could not erase.

Xu Jiali and his psionic squire did not withdraw with the others. They stayed with Yu Sheng to witness the earth-shaking collapse.

Bell stared, eyes huge, at the vast pit where dust still boiled, then tapped a button on her suit. A thin tube lifted inside her helmet and sent in a mist distilled from catnip. She took a deep breath and squinted with a pleased sigh: “Powerful.”

Xu Jiali glanced at Yu Sheng and said: “Boss, does this count as another Angel Fall?”

Yu Sheng shook his head and said: “No. It is only an empty shell the Dark Angels shed. I am not even sure we can call it a corpse.”

“Tsk.” Xu Jiali clicked his tongue, then shook his head and said: “We got the footage. I need to report in. Captain Song and the Director are waiting.”

Yu Sheng nodded and pulled open a door to a staff corridor of the Special Affairs Bureau. Two agents happened to be passing on the other side. They jumped, stared in shock, then bowed to Yu Sheng and hurried off.

Bell tilted her head at Xu Jiali and asked with surprise: “Boss, are you not staying to help a friend fight?”

Xu Jiali raised an eyebrow, knocked lightly on Bell’s helmet, and said: “Help who? Help Yu Sheng? Fight the Dark Angels? You have had too much catnip. Come back with me. You have been away from the Special Affairs Bureau long enough. Time to show your face.”

“Oh. Got it.”

The two talked as they stepped through the door. Yu Sheng let go of the handle, and the lonely alien world held only him, Irene, Foxy, and Luna again.

“It is time to return to Sentinel Silence,” Yu Sheng said with a breath. He checked the time on his phone and reached to open a door to Immortal Conclave Isle.

Just then, a sharp ringtone cut him off.

The screen showed the caller: “Wicked Disciple 4000.”

A bad feeling flickered through his heart. He answered at once. Before he could speak, Immortal Yuan Ling’s urgent voice came through the receiver: “Where are you? Still on Garrison-3? Go to Sentinel Silence right now and check the situation. We lost contact with Xuan Che and the others.”

“What?” Yu Sheng stiffened. He thrust his hand into the air, shaping a phantom door, and said: “I am on my way. We were messaging a dozen minutes ago.”

“Contact was lost just now, and with my senior brother as well,” Immortal Yuan Ling said fast. “We do not yet know what happened. A disciple at the door station just sent an urgent report. It looks like all communications between the Grand Void Spiritual Axis and Sentinel Silence are down. Even the secret lines are silent.”

“All communications cut?” Yu Sheng drew a sharp breath of the toxic air and said quickly: “Understood. I am going now. I will tell you the moment I find anything.”

Before he finished, he pulled open the door to the suite on Immortal Conclave Isle and stepped through with Irene, Foxy, and Luna.

In the next second, they passed through and returned to their base on Sentinel Silence.

The hotel room looked exactly the way they had left it. The furniture was neat. Beyond the window the rain still fell in sheets. Distant neon flickered. Faint music drifted from somewhere unknown.

With rain and far-off music muffled by the glass, the room felt extra quiet.

No one was in the living room.

Irene hopped off Yu Sheng’s shoulder and pattered into the next room, then pattered back, saying: “No one in the bedrooms.”

Foxy made a quick sweep of the kitchen and bath, sniffed, and said on her return: “No one there either. But there is scent in the living room. Zheng Zhi and Yuan Hao were just here. Also, there is a bit of moisture by the window.”

Yu Sheng frowned and checked his phone. “No signal?”

He lifted his eyebrows, surprised.

A second later the phone buzzed. The screen edges dimmed. A red warning box popped up, its message flashing: “Environmental monitoring anomaly, possible deep critical.”

Foxy saw it too, her fox maiden ears snapping upright as she asked: “Benefactor, what is that?”

“Otherworld,” Yu Sheng said, his face heavy. “A special alert that only triggers when a deep shift has just happened.”

Irene stopped in place, then slowly looked up and blurted: “What the heck?”

Thunder cracked in the distance with a rolling roar like a behemoth’s anger, but no lightning lit the sky. The rain simply thickened.

There was no phone signal. They could not reach Yuan Hao, Xuan Che, or Zheng Zhi. They could not find any trace of them in the hotel either.

The last message he had received was from Xuan Che, saying he had sensed widespread cognitive anomalies on this planet, including with Ink City’s City Lord Mo Ran.

Yu Sheng narrowed his eyes in thought. Foxy asked softly from the side: “Benefactor, what do we do now?”

“Search the room again,” Yu Sheng said after a short pause, then added as a thought struck him: “Immortal Yuan Hao is a seasoned adventurer and very strong. If something really happened, he would try to leave us a hint. It might just be hidden by what is going on. Look again.”

It sounded like a reach, but Irene, Foxy, and Luna moved at once. They began to hunt through the not-very-large hotel suite for any spider silk clue. While they searched, a jade screen on a low side table suddenly gave off a soft glow.

Yu Sheng leaned in, curious. A clear projection formed in the haze of light. An ornate celestial ship drifted slowly between the city towers. Many floating lanterns and festival flags hovered nearby. On the foredeck, a tall man in purple with a sword at his waist stood at the bow. Fog hid his face so it was a blur.

A voice-over spoke: “…the new Youth Form Warden, Elder Dao Heng, arrived in Ink City today. The celebration will continue until…”

Irene peered in and asked: “What is this, the local news?”

“Then it is news from over a hundred years ago,” Yu Sheng said, brow furrowed. “Dao Heng’s appointment on Sentinel Silence was a century past.”

As he spoke, the picture flickered. The celebration became a gloomy worksite under heavy clouds. A giant unfinished building stood in the wild. Strange machines worked around the giant tower. Someone in the corner introduced the scene: “…Refining Tower No. 12, built by Remote Mist Sect. Once complete, Ink City will be the largest spirit-ore refining center on Sentinel Silence…”

The jade screen kept changing. Sometimes it showed “news.” Sometimes it showed entertainment. Sometimes it was nothing but a scenic documentary. But everything it projected had happened long ago.

The span ran from centuries back, when mining on Sentinel Silence still boomed, up to a few decades ago.

After an unknown number of random cuts, the projection dimmed. Static and colored blocks flashed. Then the image steadied again. It was no “program” at all, only a dark, misty curtain of rain.

Rain fell without end. Faraway neon blurred.

Yu Sheng stared at the projection for two seconds, then snapped his head toward the window.

The jade screen was showing the view outside their window right now.

In the next moment he noticed the rain trails sliding down the glass were bending. The curving streams seemed to form words. He focused, and the twist became neat letters:

“Obstruction of Insight.”

Yu Sheng’s brow drew tight. Before he could think further, rain washed the words away, and new ones formed:

“We are inside a vast dream.”