Chapter 155: A Place That Does Not Exist?

Now, Bai Liqing also understood how seductive Yu Sheng's "give it a try" truly was.

This bureau chief lady, who always presented herself as rational and calm, after a few seconds of thought, had to accept Yu Sheng's so-called "plan"—which wasn't even really a plan—because there was simply no other line of thought to follow.

"I hope things can really proceed according to your 'plan'," Bai Liqing adjusted her sitting posture on the chair, looking at the "person" before her with a slightly relaxed demeanor, "Even if we cannot truly eliminate that 'Otherworld', at least make it like most Otherworlds in this Border City, becoming somewhat stable and controllable—'Fairy Tale' has already caused too much destruction in the Borderlands."

Afterwards, her gaze fell upon Hu Li beside her.

"Let's settle the matter of 'Fairy Tale' for now, next... I want to talk about her."

Upon hearing this, Yu Sheng immediately thought of the hair samples he had previously handed to Song Cheng, and his expression instantly became serious: "Have you found anything? Found Hu Li's hometown?"

The fox demon girl beside them, who had not really participated in the conversation until now, suddenly perked up her ears and unconsciously leaned forward.

"No, we haven't found it," Bai Liqing shook her head, first and foremost pouring a bucket of cold water on them directly, "Although we have conducted a screening among almost all known ethnic groups and factions with official ties to the Borderlands, we still haven't found a 'homeland' matching her description, and the biological sample search yielded no results—I'm sorry, this bad news is what I brought."

The room fell silent for a moment; Yu Sheng frowned and turned his head to look at the side.

Hu Li's ears visibly drooped.

Clearly, although this fox demon girl always said she couldn't remember what her hometown looked like and didn't care much about returning home, when the bad news truly arrived, she was still quite depressed.

Yu Sheng reached out and placed his hand on Hu Li's; the latter turned her palm over and grabbed Yu Sheng's fingers with both hands.

"I guess you shouldn't just be here to tell us these things?" Yu Sheng let the fox demon girl hold his fingers, turning to look into Bai Liqing's eyes, "Besides this 'bad news', is there anything else?"

"... There are some questions," Bai Liqing said calmly, "Hu Li, can you describe your hometown to me in more detail? Especially... what you call the ground beneath your feet, and the names and legendary stories you have for some iconic celestial bodies in the sky."

"She probably doesn't remember much," Yu Sheng couldn't help but remind, "She hadn't even graduated elementary school when the incident happened back then, and there was a long period in between where she was in a daze."

"I know," Bai Liqing nodded, "Remember as much as you can, say as much as you can."

Hu Li unconsciously glanced at Yu Sheng; after the latter nodded, she organized her words and began to describe that hometown in her memory to Bai Liqing.

Many of the things she mentioned were things Yu Sheng had heard before, and he had also relayed them to the Special Operations Bureau through the channels of Li Lin and Xu Jiali; Bai Liqing knew almost all of it.

But Bai Liqing still listened very seriously, appearing to be trying hard to extract more details and "reference points" from Hu Li's description.

"... We call the planet beneath our feet 'Hengyu'; before the Interstellar Era, it was also called 'Jade Heng Thirteen Continents', or simply 'Thirteen Continents', because there were a total of thirteen continents, including two that detached from the celestial body due to the ancient 'Great Turmoil of Heaven and Earth' and floated above the equator—monsters called 'Nightmare Demons' originally lived there; textbooks say they were ancient species thrown into the high sky during the Great Turmoil of Heaven and Earth, mutating generation after generation into monsters that attack the human world..."

"The Immortals say that in history, those Nightmare Demons came down from the sky many times to hurt people; some cultivators who fought and killed Nightmare Demons were even written into books and recorded in history books.

"After the Interstellar Era arrived, the two floating continents were transformed into Immortal Shuttle launch bases; the Nightmare Demons were mostly exterminated along with them, and the remaining few became endangered species. The Immortals locked them in the 'Demon-Locking Palace' and 'Evil-Suppressing Palace' on Hengyu's synchronous orbit; you have to pay for a ticket to go in and look.

"After the People of the Sky arrived, they built something called a 'Navigation Beacon' near Hengyu. We went to see it during a field trip; it was a very, very large ball of light, surrounded by many 'palaces' even larger than the 'Evil-Suppressing Palace'. The Immortals said the beacon could help Hengyu keep up with the People of the Sky's 'Star River'; without the beacon, Hengyu would fly wildly and eventually fall out of the Star River's trajectory, landing in the vacuum of the universe..."

"The Navigation Beacon was the brightest thing near our area, well, except for the Sun—the Sun was also pulled away for us by the People of the Sky..."

As Hu Li recalled seriously, she described her hometown to Bai Liqing according to her understanding. Gradually, some new things appeared in her description; perhaps these were contents she had only recently remembered—but these new contents were just as chaotic as the others, so much so that even with Yu Sheng's imagination and understanding ability, he had to strain his brain to barely keep up with her description.

Erin gave up halfway through hearing it; seeing that both Yu Sheng and Bai Liqing were listening quite seriously, she couldn't help but poke Yu Sheng's arm: "Hey, can this even be understood? Is what the silly fox saying really human language?"

"I'm just pretending to understand," Yu Sheng slapped the little doll's hand away, "Your interruption made me lose my train of thought."

At this moment, Hu Li's narration finally came to a pause. Bai Liqing blinked her eyes; it seemed this bureau chief lady was also quite shocked—she stood there stunned for about six or seven seconds before frowning slightly and asking: "You just said... your mother planet 'Hengyu' needs to keep up with the People of the Sky's 'Star River'? And if it can't keep up, it will fall into the vacuum of the universe... I don't know if my understanding is wrong, do you mean your mother planet is in some kind of 'navigation' state?"

Hu Li immediately nodded as if it were the most natural thing: "Yes."

"Even your Sun is in 'navigation'? Not running normally in the universe, but in some kind of artificial, controllable 'navigation' state?"

"Yes."

Bai Liqing fell silent again, lowering her head slightly as if lost in thought.

If someone familiar with her were here, they would see at a glance that this bureau chief lady had entered a state of mental blankness, which was extremely rare for her.

She stayed in this blank state for quite a while before suddenly lifting her head again: "Do you still remember the specific circumstances when you fell into Nightfall Valley? What happened at that time, and what did you see or hear?"

Speaking to this, she paused, then added: "I know this recollection is not pleasant for you, but this part of the information is really important."

"Actually... it's okay, after all, it's been a long time," Hu Li said, tilting her head to think for a moment, then continued somewhat uncertainly, "I was still young at the time, and when the incident happened, the adults protected me, so I didn't quite understand the specific situation back then... I just remember the Immortals shouted something like 'Looks like we hit a rift', and then the Immortal Shuttle started spinning, sounding alarms, and also..."

She stopped, tried hard to recall, then continued: "Oh right, and later I heard the adults talking about it, saying 'Hit a danger zone at some unknown time', and 'Heard about travel warnings recently', 'Navigation should have been maintained long ago' and such; it seemed like there was a problem with the navigation while the Immortal Shuttle was running, causing it to run in a dangerous direction, and hitting a rift in that direction..."

Hu Li scratched her head as she spoke: "That's all I can remember; the rest... I have no impression."

Bai Liqing fell into deep thought again.

Neither Yu Sheng nor Erin spoke; instead, they were curious about the attitude of this Special Operations Bureau chief before them—from Bai Liqing's last few questions, Yu Sheng keenly perceived that the other party likely already had some hypothesis; her questions... obviously possessed a very strong targeting nature.

After quite a while longer, Bai Liqing suddenly broke the silence: "Is that crashed 'Immortal Shuttle' you mentioned still in that valley?"

"Yes," Hu Li nodded, "Right on the mountainside, crashed into a mountain hollow; half of it is buried in the soil and rocks—later, when my benefactor acted, he plowed the whole mountain over, so now the wreckage of the Immortal Shuttle should be buried a bit deeper, but that thing is very sturdy and won't be crushed."

"Mm, the main structure is quite intact," Yu Sheng interjected from the side, "I checked it from a distance once before, but the terrain in that area is very complex; the severe collapse of the entire region caused by 'Hunger' self-devouring happened before, and I haven't had time to clear it out yet, so I haven't had the chance to investigate carefully."

Speaking to this, he had already realized, looking into Bai Liqing's eyes: "You want to..."

"Do you remember what I told you before? If there's a chance, the Special Operations Bureau hopes to go investigate that 'Nightfall Valley'," Bai Liqing said very seriously, "I am now making this request to you again, and if possible, we hope... to take a look at that transportation tool called the 'Immortal Shuttle'."

Yu Sheng did not respond immediately; after a short pause, Bai Liqing continued: "Of course, I know that valley is currently under your control; in a sense, it is your 'territory', so we will offer a suitable 'price'—whatever requirements you have, as long as they are within a reasonable range, can be proposed."

Yu Sheng thought seriously.

He looked at Hu Li sitting quietly beside him.

He looked at Bai Liqing, whose gaze held a hint of expectation.

He looked at Erin who was daydreaming... oh, no need to look at the last one.

He gently exhaled a breath.

"There are definitely some requirements; I actually have some things I need your help with, but let me confirm first—does your Special Operations Bureau... have anyone who understands land reclamation, farming, and cattle and sheep breeding?"

Bai Liqing: "... Huh?"

(End of Chapter)