Chapter 334: Angel's Gloom

Although it was somewhat regrettable that the hidden jump coordinates of the Sanctified Ascetic Order could not be obtained immediately, for Yu Sheng, the intelligence he had gathered still far exceeded expectations—especially the information regarding the "Angel Catalyst," which surpassed everyone's expectations.

Although the research motivation of the Sanctified Ascetic Order in this regard was filled with their fanatical "Theory of World Defects," the "academic" aspect of the research itself held undeniable value; regardless, the purity of knowledge theory itself was unaffected by their extreme ideologies.

Therefore, the focus of discussion between Yu Sheng and Bai Liqing soon fell on those "Angel Catalysts."

"What is the current status of those 'Ankara Crystals'?" Yu Sheng asked.

"They are still in the containment zone. The Special Operations Bureau has continued its research on the Ankara Crystals, but no progress has been made," Bai Liqing nodded. "The same applies to the research on the 'Secondary Crystals'."

"I want to go take a look," Yu Sheng stroked his chin. "What that cultist mentioned is still quite concerning."

Bai Liqing agreed readily: "Of course—in fact, I just notified the containment zone to prepare; we can go there at any time."

Yu Sheng nodded, called over Hu Li and Luna, then went over to pick up the small doll who was still seriously playing cat's cradle: "Stop playing, let's go see the 'Anti-Eileen Special Crystal' together."

The small doll heard this and twisted vigorously in his hand: "Hey, you guy, this joke isn't going to go away, is it!"

Yu Sheng ignored the little thing's protest, opened the large door leading into the interior of the containment zone while holding her, but just as he was about to walk in, he felt a somewhat strange gaze from his side. Turning his head, he found Bai Liqing staring fixedly at him.

"What's wrong?"

Bai Liqing's expression was barely holding together: "... Can you show at least some respect for our highest-level containment facility's security system?"

Hearing this, Yu Sheng was stunned, and actually felt a bit embarrassed: "Then should I close the door again and open it slowly? To demonstrate how difficult opening this door is..."

Bai Liqing took a light breath on the spot, her blood pressure almost rising, and then dropped the matter of "respect," instead forcing her face to stay composed as she stepped through that door.

Yu Sheng and his group arrived again inside that containment facility, which had extremely high security levels and was "encapsulated" by a massive gray-white concrete structure.

Since advance notice had been received, everything was ready here; one "Ankara Crystal" and several Secondary Crystal samples had been transferred from their safe containers to the laboratory before Yu Sheng's arrival.

The crystal shimmered with a hazy halo under the lights, looking just as quiet and harmless as before, showing no sign whatsoever of the so-called "penetrating" power that the cultist had mentioned tremblingly during his interrogation in the interrogation room.

"Angel Catalyst..." Yu Sheng frowned, looking at the crystalline substance on the platform. "It's a wonder we previously thought the only function of this thing was Anti-Eileen... Truly unexpected, that a group of cultists' research on the Angel's remains has already gone this far."

"Very normal. After all, they have been researching it secretly for over ten years, and the only thing we are currently ahead of them in is that we actually have a batch of highly active 'Catalysts' in our hands," Bai Liqing said with a calm expression. "The interrogation of other cultists later must focus on intelligence regarding the Angel Catalyst; we must figure out exactly how they 'utilized' these Catalysts."

"I always feel that their ability to sneak into that Mist City is probably related to this technology—the low-activity Catalysts obtained from the 'Shadowless Bones' couldn't possibly be useless, and this thing's 'penetrating' effect on the Otherworld sounds very suitable for infiltration. That cultist must have concealed a lot of key information," Yu Sheng said thoughtfully, then immediately looked up at the head of the laboratory standing nearby. "You still haven't found a way to make these crystals react, have you?"

The head of the laboratory's expression was somewhat unwilling: "We are ashamed. We have tried various methods, but the stability of these crystals is beyond imagination."

"Stability...?" Yu Sheng muttered, his mind involuntarily recalling the "small boat" that the cultist had mentioned in fear—the one originally planned to ship out the "Ankara Crystals" but which encountered a bizarre and terrifying accident upon initiating the jump.

Bai Liqing clearly thought of the same thing as Yu Sheng.

"That small boat," she said thoughtfully, "transmitted audio suggesting the total annihilation of the crew three minutes before the jump. Yet at that time, everything on board was normal. Afterwards, it ignored the stop-action command sent by the mother ship and initiated the jump on its own... This bizarre situation is clearly not a mere 'navigation accident.' Considering the mission they were executing at the time, this is almost one hundred percent related to the Ankara Crystals carried on board."

Yu Sheng also frowned in thought, and after a moment suddenly turned his head, looking at Luna who had been quietly following behind him: "You were on their mother ship at the time. Do you know anything?"

Luna was silent for a few seconds, then slowly shook her head: "At that time, in the Holy Coffin. I didn't know."

"... True. They were worried about you 'waking up,' so normally they kept you in the Holy Coffin; they definitely wouldn't let you come into contact with these things."

Luna nodded, but just two or three seconds later, she suddenly broke the silence: "But, heard the 'Scream' while praying, inside the Holy Coffin."

Bai Liqing blinked, thought for a moment, then looked at Yu Sheng: "What does she mean?"

Yu Sheng actually didn't understand it either...

However, he was somewhat accustomed to Luna's limited expressive ability. After communicating with her a few more times with great patience, he still barely managed to figure out what the other party wanted to express.

"You are saying that although you were on standby in the Holy Coffin at the time, you once heard strange noises coming from the 'system' connected to the Holy Coffin? You think those noises might be the ones transmitted when that small boat met with disaster, and that these signals were 'leaked' to your side after being received by the mother ship?"

Luna nodded slowly, stumbling out a few more words: "Holy Coffin, records."

"The Holy Coffin has a recording function?!" Yu Sheng was stunned, his heart instantly stirring.

Before he could speak, Bai Liqing nodded beside him: "I will immediately notify the expert team currently active on that ship and have them attempt to extract the system logs of the Holy Coffin."

Yu Sheng hummed in agreement, then thought for a moment before still unable to restrain himself from expressing his confusion: "In the end, what exactly happened to that ship when it encountered the situation? If you say they carried dangerous goods so the jump caused an explosion, loss, or getting lost, I could understand that. Even if you say they floored the accelerator and crashed into a 2D art-style Otherworld to become heroes, I could accept that. But receiving the audio signal of the disaster three minutes before the jump engine even started..."

He stroked his chin, pondered for a few seconds, and then stated his emerging hypothesis with some uncertainty: "That ship not only jumped into an anomalous space, but even pierced through the time flow? The entire crew was torn apart by the Ankara Crystals, and their 'voices' were flung into the time flow, sent to the time point three minutes before departure?"

He had merely spoken a guess after deep pondering, but he didn't expect Bai Liqing on the other side to immediately show a somewhat serious expression, and very soon began discussing the question of "whether the Phase Engine has the possibility of time travel when interfered with by Angel power" with the head of the laboratory nearby.

"I was just speaking off the cuff," Yu Sheng quickly explained upon seeing this. "This is purely because I write too many novels, so my imagination runs wild at times like this..."

However, after hearing this explanation, Bai Liqing turned her head and looked at him seriously: "... Do you usually write non-fiction literature?"

Yu Sheng: "...?"

"Small-scale time jump anomalies are an extremely rare phenomenon across the entire universe, but they have indeed occurred and are traceable in records," Bai Liqing explained. "But as I said, this is extremely rare, and more importantly, it contradicts the working principle of the Phase Engine. Theoretically, if a time jump occurred, the coordinate parameters obtained by the Phase Engine would definitely become invalid, and the spaceship would be completely unable to enter the jump. Conversely, if the spaceship can enter the jump, it proves that the 'time' item in the coordinate parameters obtained by the Phase Engine must be correct..."

She paused here, and only continued speaking after Yu Sheng had digested this part of the information: "So, I initially ruled out the possibility that they encountered a time jump. But if the 'Angel Catalyst' truly has power in this regard, capable of making the Phase Engine violate the objective laws of our universe..."

"Violate the objective laws of the universe?" Yu Sheng listened, completely bewildered. "Is this possible?"

"The Obscure Angels are themselves 'visitors' from outside the universe," Bai Liqing said very seriously.

Yu Sheng scratched his head, feeling that the current discussion on this topic was vaguely exceeding his academic level—this matter would have to be left to Little Red Riding Hood.

Although Little Red Riding Hood probably wouldn't understand these things either, she was a Gao San student, and a Gao San brain is more durable.

Yu Sheng shook his head, putting aside some slightly absurd associations for the moment, but just then, he suddenly remembered another matter.

"Wait, there's one more thing. Previously, Xuan Che mentioned to me that the Tai Xu Ling Shu also captured a group of Ascetic Order cultists in the border region of Fei Yu-13b. At that time, they were also secretly building a base, and a 'Order Pillar' spaceship under construction was discovered at the scene!"

Bai Liqing's eyes instantly became serious.

"Considering the situation currently grasped, the 'Order Pillar' should belong to that type of high-level warship with special missions and symbolic significance. Within the entire Ascetic Order faction, it should also be a high-precision model dedicated to major undertakings. They hid one in the Borderlands to research something at the level of 'Angel Catalysts,' so at Fei Yu-13b..."

As Yu Sheng spoke, he raised his head and gazed into Bai Liqing's eyes.

"... That place wouldn't also be hiding an Obscure Angel that hasn't awakened yet, would it?!"

(End of Chapter)