Chapter 635 Master Yu's Handmade Bait

Yu Sheng completely understood Baili Qing's current feelings. Although he didn't know much about the Ancient Holy Spirits, he could roughly imagine what Eileen's situation was like. To put it simply, it was like the big shots had gathered a bunch of resources to create a super soldier, using all sorts of good stuff, and even personally providing meticulous guidance. They threw everything into the crafting table—the strength of a bear, the speed of a leopard, the eyes of an eagle—and then, bam, they created a super soldier!

An epic-level paramecium has appeared.

Now this paramecium is standing on the table, strutting around arrogantly, showing off and being extremely cocky, not ashamed but proud...

Perhaps Yu Sheng's expression was a bit too obvious, because Eileen, who was standing there posing with her arms crossed, suddenly realized what he meant and glared at him: "Hey, what's with that look—I'm in an accident right now! And I'm still incredibly powerful, I even broke the legs of that charlatan in the parking lot! Besides, back in my prime, I was probably even more powerful, with so many ancient holy spirits blessing me..."

Yu Sheng couldn't help but ask, "And then the first task went wrong?"

The little doll immediately flew up and bit someone: "...Yu Sheng, can you please not mention the time we failed on the first mission?!"

Upon hearing the commotion beside her, Hu Li quietly moved the plates in front of her aside, finding a quiet spot to continue leisurely munching on the remaining chicken feet—she was almost full. If Eileen had been causing trouble when the meal had just started, she could have slapped the little doll against the ceiling with her tail.

Baili Qing had spent a lot of time with the people at the inn, so she wasn't surprised to see Eileen climbing on Yu Sheng's head and nibbling at him. She waited until things calmed down a bit before continuing her previous topic with a blank expression: "If I hadn't known about you beforehand, I probably would have found it hard to believe Eileen's words—the Ancient Holy Spirits have been gone from the human world for many years, and they seem to have been trying their best to avoid exerting too much influence on the various races in the universe to ensure the 'natural development' of the entire world. But if everything is really as Eileen says..."

She paused, a hint of seriousness in her eyes: "So at least 3,700 years ago, the ancient Holy Spirit paid more attention to what was happening at the border than anyone could imagine. The 'Boundary Bridge'... the things behind this thing are probably more complicated than we think."

“Well, the fact that there’s a ‘Alice doll’ specifically to witness the opening of the boundary bridge and the ominous event is already an extraordinary sign,” Yu Sheng said, stroking his chin. “The details that Eileen is recalling now only double the special nature of the whole thing. And to be honest, I’m more concerned about the border area itself than the ‘boundary bridge’ now.”

Bai Liqing raised an eyebrow slightly: "The border area itself?"

"Don't you think the scenes Eileen described are... weird?" Yu Sheng raised his eyelids. "'The previous version of the borderlands' looks like a completely different world from the current border city and border areas. The difference is far beyond the concept of 'changing eras'. It's not that the old mythical races have been replaced by modern borderland humans. It's more like... everything has been reshaped, even the map has been changed."

"Eileen mentioned that she saw a broken, floating continent with many city-states and ruins on the land, and huge walls standing at the border. She also mentioned that there was a 'Great Hollow' in the center of the continent, and a separate island at the center of the hollow. The 'foundation' of the Boundary Bridge was located on that island. She also mentioned that when the Boundary Bridge pierced the earth, a voice appeared in the sky above the border. That voice mentioned simulation, compatibility, and templates, and specifically mentioned a word—'Council'."

Yu Sheng paused, seemingly waiting for Baili Qing to think about these things carefully. Then he adjusted his posture and continued, "And even without considering these things, just looking at the arrival of the boundary bridge and the ominous sign—why choose the border area? Is it just because this is a 'transportation hub' in the universe?"

Eileen then climbed onto Yu Sheng's shoulder again, and after listening, she crossed her arms and shook her head, saying, "Wow, this border area is really something."

Baili Qing didn't speak, but listened with a serious expression. Her deep, calm eyes seemed to hold all her thoughts, and no one knew what she was thinking at that moment.

"To be honest, do you really not know anything more?" Yu Sheng looked curiously into the female director's eyes. "Regarding the past of the border region, especially the so-called 'classical era' and the transition to the modern border city, the so-called epochal change—you, as the director of the Special Operations Bureau, can't find any more information?"

His response was a soft sigh from Baili Qing.

“If anyone could truly unearth these lost secrets, even the Council would probably reserve a place for him,” Baili Qing said slowly. “However, the information that Eileen brought this time has greatly advanced our ‘archaeological’ work. At least for the first time, we know exactly what the boundary of the ‘Classical Era’ looks like—no longer just messy and fragmented written records or some distorted fragments of knowledge, but a truly reliable ‘eyewitness report.’ For this alone, the Council should thank Eileen.”

The little doll immediately began to shake happily on Yu Sheng's shoulder, making silly "hehehe" noises.

Yu Sheng then turned his head and glanced at Hu Li beside him.

The fox spirit girl was wiping her mouth with a large tail when she noticed the gaze around her and immediately turned her head to reveal a bright smile.

Yu Sheng: "Are you full?"

Huli nodded, its tails swaying behind it.

“Perfect timing, we’ve finished discussing things here,” Yu Sheng ruffled the fox’s head twice, stood up from the table, and looked at Baili Qing. “Any plans next?”

...

Minutes later, on a Secret Service floor, inside a heavily guarded, cutting-edge laboratory.

Yu Sheng, along with Hu Li and Eileen, stood behind the thick isolation wall, watching the technicians on the other side, dressed in full protective gear, carefully operate the force field transfer device to transfer some irregular black crystals from a culture container to a nearby platform.

Not far from the platform, the dark psionic device known as the "Reality Delusion Lens" appeared to have just been shut down. Technicians were inspecting and resetting the device, some were removing key components for storage, some were recording readings, some were conducting on-site mental assessments of the operators who had just been removed, and two psionicists were calming the machine's spirit with crystal pendants and mechanical orbs...

Anyway, the whole scene highlighted that everyone had a different style, but they were all doing their own thing and no one was holding anyone back.

Eileen's attention was almost entirely focused on the black crystals that had been transferred out of the culture container.

Unfortunately, she had a bit of PTSD about "the shiny gadgets made in the Secret Service lab," and always felt that these things were targeting her...

"Is this your imitation of 'Angel Catalyst'?" After staring at it for a while, the little doll finally raised its head and looked at Baili Qing standing to the side. "It looks ugly... and why is it black? I remember the raw material was crystal mined by Shuji, isn't that thing white?"

Before Baili Qing could speak, Yu Sheng interjected, "I guess they were dyed on purpose to make them look more like relatives of the 'Zolda Black Stone'."

Bai Liqing's expression was subtle: "Actually, it's a bit more complicated than that. We need to restore not only the color, but also the spectral characteristics, electromagnetic characteristics, psionic waveforms, and..."

She suddenly stopped, meeting Eileen's clear gaze.

"Yes, it was dyed."

“What a blatant way to fake this,” the little doll exclaimed, its eyes widening, but quickly regaining its composure. “Can those cultists really believe it? Besides, this thing doesn’t look that special. I feel like I could find a bunch of these at any street stall in Dongcheng Old Street—that area is full of jade and emeralds, supposedly wholesale for 2.5 yuan a pound, all sourced from glass factories…”

“You’ve seen real angel catalysts before—when they’re not activated, they don’t look special at all. After all, they’re basically just pieces of a dark angel’s body that fell to the ground,” Yu Sheng shook his head. “Whether the Hermitage believes it or not doesn’t depend on what it looks like, but on the source of the information and how deceptive these ‘bait’ are.”

“That’s right. We’ve added a variety of complex mental pollution properties to it, all sampled from dangerous entities controlled by the Secret Service. There are no corresponding identification samples outside,” Baili Qing nodded, confirming Yu Sheng’s statement. “Furthermore, to make things seem more realistic, we will actually send a large number of recovery teams to the border areas to ‘recover’ these angel catalysts—and incidentally, we will also organize a crackdown on black market merchants across the entire territory, including those smugglers who engage in gray trade on several stepping stone colonies. The crackdown will be the strongest in recent years.”

Hu Li's ears twitched: "...Good heavens, what bad luck."

Yu Sheng: "If they're all doing this illegal work, who can they blame?"

As they spoke, the preparations for the laboratory were completed. The technicians, dressed in heavy protective suits, handed over the work to the control room through the protective barrier. Afterward, they all withdrew from the site. A moment later, the corridor lights came on again, and Yu Shengcai led Eileen into the laboratory.

Bai Liqing and Hu Li remained on the other side of the isolation barrier.

This is because the next operation is somewhat dangerous—and Yu Sheng and Eileen are both relatively lucky, so they are not afraid of danger.

Several unremarkable black crystal fragments lay quietly on the platform, the largest being a foot long and the smallest only the size of a palm.

Surrounded by the confining force field, each crystal surface seemed to float with an unstable layer of light and color, giving people a very unsafe feeling—it can only be said that if you didn't know in advance that these things were newly made fakes, the aura they emitted would really be a bit intimidating.

Yu Sheng composed himself and placed his hand directly on one of the crystal fragments.

The "blueprint" for the boundary bridge came to mind.

"It's time to stuff it with filling..."

He muttered softly as he inserted an unstable "door" into the bait.

(End of this chapter)