Chapter 523

Beep, beep.

Inside the Infinite-6 car, the alert tone shattered the midnight silence; it was already 12:40 a.m. In the Crimson, day and night had lost meaning beyond signaling danger.

Lin Xian paused his work on the same-force device, glanced at Kiki sleeping on the sofa, and summoned a service drone to gently drape a blanket over her.

A train hundreds of meters long carried only two people, appearing utterly desolate in the Crimson. With sunlight blocked, surface temperatures plummeted rapidly; though no snow fell and no wind blew, the temperature had dropped to minus 23 degrees, and the powered armor estimated that continuing toward higher latitudes might bring temperatures below minus 40.

Though Lin Xian and Kiki were protected by their abilities and powered armor, such cold affected them not at all, yet Lin Xian could imagine how the survivors trapped in the Crimson grew more desperate by the day.

The Crimson resembled a polar night; extreme cold drained heat swiftly, meaning food consumption would increase dramatically.

Lin Xian halted his manufacturing, focused his mind, and called for Grace—the six hours were up; he needed to know the Phoenix Society’s response.

“Grace, did the Star Lab’s data packet arrive?”

【Yes, I received a message, but it was extremely brief.】

“What did it say?”

【It read: “Use your special ability on the Civilization Simulation Sphere.”】

Lin Xian froze, puzzled: “That’s… all?”

【Yes.】

He frowned immediately. He had expected the Phoenix Society to send him vast information—or perhaps Ye Lan would try to stop him from heading to Colorado—but after six hours, all he got was one sentence.

“What’s wrong?”

Kiki, awakened by the noise, sat up, pulling the blanket around her: “Did you hear from the Phoenix Society?”

“Strange…” Lin Xian shook his head. “They only replied one thing: ‘Use your special ability on the Civilization Simulation Sphere.’”

Kiki frowned slightly, then said: “It sounds like they don’t believe it’s you.”

“Don’t believe it’s me?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Chu Yan defected, and you vanished for a long time. Now you suddenly activate the Southern Heavenly Gate—the Phoenix Society doubting your identity is perfectly normal,” Kiki said.

“Then why tell me to use my special ability on the Civilization Simulation Sphere?”

Kiki shook her head: “I don’t know. Could they be using the Civilization Simulation Sphere to contact you? Or is there some other secret hidden within it?”

Lin Xian now pulled out the silver sphere, his gaze sharpening: “This was given to me by Hua Xiaoling—it belongs to the Tower People. How could the Phoenix Society possibly use this to reach me…”

“Unless…”

Lin Xian’s expression changed slightly; a thought struck him. He looked at Kiki: “Chu Yan’s consciousness?”

“Oh! That’s a thought!” Kiki’s eyes lit up, staring at him. “Maybe it really is!”

Lin Xian nodded, staring at the silver sphere in his hand, thinking. Special ability? That could only mean his Mechanical Heart.

He immediately prepared to activate Mechanical Devour, but as he initiated it, his spirit trembled—he halted the thought instantly, exhaling:

“No, I tried this before. It can’t be devoured, like a taboo object.”

“Then what counts as using your special ability?” Kiki asked.

Lin Xian fell into deep thought. Mechanical manufacturing and control were clearly wrong; Mechanical Devour was impossible. Then, a strange idea surfaced—he remembered Chu Yan’s ability to use gravitational lensing. If he followed that line…

His mind snapped alert. Without hesitation, he summoned a small drone, its mechanical arm suspending the silver sphere in midair, then pointed a finger:

“Be careful.”

After speaking to Kiki, he unleashed Gravitational Lensing!

Boom!

A strange spatial ripple surged through the car. The cold lights flickered, and tiny electric arcs flashed within the silver sphere. Then, a black vortex slowly formed. Under Lin Xian’s intense control, a miniature black hole—no larger than a ping-pong ball—materialized. The car’s light instantly twisted and stretched like ripples in water. Simultaneously, howling cold winds surged inside the car, rattling kitchenware and sending debris flying.

Lin Xian and Kiki stared fixedly at the silver Civilization Sphere. Suddenly, from different angles, they both glimpsed a bizarre scene: light and matter separated, revealing a honeycomb-grid space centered on the sphere, extending infinitely in all dimensions.

The vision vanished in an instant. Lin Xian immediately shut off Gravitational Lensing. The wind ceased, the objects stilled, the black hole dissolved, and the Civilization Sphere returned to its original state.

The car fell silent. Lin Xian and Kiki stared at each other, a strange unease settling over them.

“Did you see it?”

Kiki nodded: “It looked like some kind of spatial layering.”

The drone returned the Civilization Sphere to Lin Xian. He took it, examined it closely, and frowned: “Nothing seems to have changed. Did we get it wrong?”

Kiki had no answer. Just as Lin Xian prepared to ask Grace for more detailed information from Star Lab, a voice suddenly echoed inside the car.

“I’ve always believed you were still alive. So I thought—if it’s you, you’d understand this message quickly.”

Hearing the voice, Lin Xian’s face changed instantly. He and Kiki turned to locate its source—but Kiki stared wide-eyed at him, utterly unresponsive.

“Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

Lin Xian frowned, then turned—and froze. An impossibly familiar figure stood inside Car 6.

Lin Xian shot to his feet, staring at the woman.

Fifty-six years old, silver hair like frost, slender yet upright as a pine, clad in a crisp black wool coat with the Phoenix Society’s golden emblem embroidered on the cuff. Though months had passed and her demeanor seemed worn, her eyes remained deep and calm.