Chapter 514 Retreat
Baili Qing raised her eyes and looked in the direction where the old voice came from.
Surrounded by countless huge bookshelves, a broken stone platform floated among many large and small stone slabs. The shape of the stone platform was like an altar, with reliefs and cracks all over the edges. A huge crystal skull that was obviously not human was placed in the center of the stone platform. The crystal skull was crystal clear all over, with a long and narrow face and sunken eye sockets, sharp and hideous teeth, with the characteristics of some large reptile - it lay quietly on the stone platform, and the size of the skull alone was similar to that of an adult human.
A faint glow danced in the crystal skull's eye sockets. When Baili Qing approached, the glow grew slightly brighter. A hoarse voice rang out from within the skull's cavity: "Tell me, what do you want to know today?"
"It's still information from the 'Classical Era', about the Boundary Bridge, the Dark Star, and the descending alien god, whose name is 'Bad Omen'." Baili Qing said calmly, gazing at the eye sockets of the crystal skull.
"...Don't blame me for not warning you. Digging for information from the 'depths' is very risky, and yields little." The glow in the crystal skull's eye sockets danced. "You won't find anything new even if you search a few more times, colorless descendant—this is a dead library. Everything that should be there is already here, and what's not here will never be there again."
"I brought a more effective 'medium' this time," Baili Qing raised her hand and pointed at her head, "It might be able to 'lead' out something deeper."
The Crystal Skull was silent for a moment: "...display."
Baili Qing nodded slightly, then half closed her eyes.
A hazy mist had enveloped her without her noticing. A pair of gigantic, faded eyes flashed through the mist, and then a seemingly real illusion emerged from the mist—a sanatorium in the forest, the director's office "flooded," the director collapsed after the attackers broke through his fish tank, and the monstrous attacker, a dagger in hand and a swollen, deformed head...
Scenes flashed by quickly in the fog. They were records from Baili Qing's first-person perspective, interspersed with scenes that the "dean" had shown her with bubbles. After more than ten seconds, the recording came to the moment when the attacker was about to disappear and leave the dean's office.
The misty illusion froze at this moment, and then the main perspective of the screen slowly shifted to the attacker. The scene was like a holographic scene with the pause button pressed. Baili Qing's "perspective" finally locked onto the attacker's swollen and deformed brain. Then, the picture flashed, and her perspective suddenly drilled into the pair of eyeballs embedded in the surface of the brain...
Then, the illusion in the fog flickered again, and from the depths of the mist emerged the scene of the morgue in Jinglin Sanatorium. The headless body of "Sun Chen" lay quietly in the storage container. Baili Qing stared at the corpse. In her eyes, "Sun Chen's" body seemed to have turned back time. Its head quickly reshaped, and then slowly opened its eyelids. In the empty and blank pupils, Baili Qing's faded eyes were reflected...
The victims who died from headshots, the attackers born in distortion... No matter which "Sun Chen" it was, they had all been active in Jinglin Sanatorium and had left traces of their existence within a specific time and space.
Since there are traces left, they cannot escape the eyes of the Director of the Secret Service.
All the illusions gradually dissipated, and only a broken tower floating in the darkness remained in the fog - that was a scene that was particularly profound in the memories of the two "Sun Chens".
Although it was just an illusion, this illusion was the "medium" that Baili Qing dug out directly from Sun Chen's memory. The unstable knowledge contained in this medium, although scarce, was still fresh and restless, so that even under the suppression of the archive environment, the phantom of the broken tower continued to tremble and beat as if it had life, like a living heart.
The glow in the crystal skull's eye sockets flickered violently.
"Descendant of the Colorless..." It spoke in a low, slow voice, pausing for two seconds before continuing, "If you keep being so reckless, you'll end up dead."
Baili Qing sighed: "Because I'm so busy."
The mist dissipated, and the crystal skull on the stone platform sighed. "Go ahead. Thirty minutes. What you can 'salvage' depends entirely on your ability. Remember the rules. Don't be misled by knowledge. Don't listen to random things. Don't look randomly. Focus only on what you want. Take only what's within the agreed range. Beyond that, ignore those who reach out to you and beg you to take them away."
"I see."
Baili Qing nodded slightly, then took a step forward and placed her hand on the surface of the crystal skull.
The next second, the entire shattered library began to tremble silently. The huge pure white bookshelves surrounding the stone platform shook and broke. Countless white fragments and volumes fell from the sky like a torrential rain after the sky collapsed, completely covering Baili Qing and the entire stone platform under her feet.
Baili Qing raised her head, neither dodging nor dodging, allowing herself to be submerged layer by layer by the fragmented and chaotic historical debris of the borderland...
…
Dusk is approaching.
In an open space where no one is allowed to enter, an illusory door suddenly appeared near the "node" set up by the Secret Service. The door was pushed open, and Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood returned to the entrance of the "dark alley" in Qinghe District, Dongcheng District.
This time he not only brought the king who was good at dealing with "cats", but also brought several more people.
Hu Li, Luna, Irene, and most importantly - the eldest nephew.
The sky gradually darkened, the evening breeze was cool, and there was no one near the node. Occasionally, pedestrians passing by from a distant intersection would not even glance over here. Zheng Zhi shivered subconsciously in this somewhat cold and gloomy environment, rubbed his arms, and looked up and around.
"Brother Yu, why do I feel a little cold..."
"It's normal in autumn," Yu Sheng said without looking up. "The temperature has dropped in the past few days."
Zheng Zhi was stunned for a moment: "Brother Yu, why do your words sound a little familiar to me..."
"Hey, don't be so nervous," Little Red Riding Hood stepped forward and patted Zheng Zhi on the shoulder. "There are so many of us following you this time, and didn't Yu Sheng give you a 'Portable No. 66 Wutong Road' card in advance? Even if you really fall into the alternate dimension alone, you can run back on your own. Relax, relax."
"Then... then I'll relax," Zheng Zhi's expression was subtle. But after all, he had been through countless crises in foreign lands (as for how these crises came about, let's not ask for now). He quickly adjusted his mindset, muttering while calming his emotions, "But then again, is this really reliable? Although my physique is a bit special, I always feel that this is like a matter of luck. How can it be so..."
Before Zheng Zhi could finish his words, the king jumped onto his shoulder and said, "Young man, that's just how inexperienced you are. It's natural for us spiritual detectives and investigators to let teammates with higher psychic vision lead the way."
Zheng Zhiren was dumbfounded: "...Is this really how you guys do it?"
Little Red Riding Hood: "The civilians are wild. It's normal for someone like you who went straight into the Secret Service when you first started to not know."
Zheng Zhi: “……?”
Seeing that a simple young man was about to be deceived and crippled, Yu Sheng quickly interrupted them with a dry cough, then raised his hand and pointed to the entrance of the dark alley not far away: "Don't talk about it for now, it's almost time, let's start preparing."
As they were talking, they arrived at the narrow entrance between the two buildings. Zheng Zhi poked his head in and took a look, muttering, "It's a bit narrow. It's hard for the three of us to get in at once..."
"So we have to go in groups. The two of us will take Irene and the King in first. They won't take up much space and can sit on our shoulders," Yu Sheng said casually. "Then Little Red Riding Hood, Luna, and Hu Li will go in later."
Zheng Zhi nodded repeatedly: "Oh."
"Alright, now let's start preparing for the 'enchantment' before entering," Irene, who was sitting on Yu Sheng's shoulder, raised her hand and pointed at Zheng Zhi, "Stretch out your arm."
"...Enchant?" Zheng Zhi was a little confused for a moment, but he subconsciously raised his arm. "What are you going to do?"
The next second, a thin black thread appeared out of thin air, accompanied by a chill that penetrated into his bones. The thread directly wrapped around his hand, even penetrating through his skin and flesh and drilling into his body.
Zheng Zhi screamed "Oh my god" and almost jumped up, then started hugging his arms and rubbing them vigorously.
"Of course, it's to strengthen your connection with 'that thing,'" the little puppet said proudly as he withdrew his hand. "And by the way, it can also leave a 'connection point' on your body. If you really get entangled in something, I can pull you back in time."
"Hiss..." Zheng Zhi rubbed his arms vigorously while baring his teeth. When he heard the little doll's words, the corners of his mouth twitched, almost gritting his teeth, "Then thank you."
Erin: "You're welcome! By the way, do you have a girlfriend?"
Zheng Zhi looked strange: "No...why are you asking this?"
"If there's a chance, call your girlfriend right now and tell her you're going on a business trip and will marry her when you come back—further increasing the chances of something going wrong," Irene said confidently. "I've seen it played out that way on TV. Of course, if there's no chance, forget it..."
Zheng Zhi was stunned for a moment, then turned to look at Yu Sheng: "Brother Yu, how have I offended you..."
"She's not targeting you," Yu Sheng sighed, "She just has a big mouth."
Irene thought for a moment and began to pull Yu Sheng's hair: "Is this a compliment?"
Yu Sheng sighed again, ignored the little claws scratching his head, turned around and came to the wall leading to the dark alley.
Zheng Zhi, who had done his homework in advance and understood the mechanism of the dark alley, quickly adjusted his state and came to the wall together.
In the dim light of evening, the surroundings became increasingly quiet.
Time passes by every second.
After a long while, Zheng Zhi finally couldn't help it and looked up at his side: "Brother Yu, don't you feel the wind blowing from the other side?"
Yu Sheng finally realized something was wrong. He looked up and then turned back to look at Little Red Riding Hood: "...Why didn't you react?"
What he saw instead was the same confused expression on Little Red Riding Hood's face.
The fox girl standing next to Little Red Riding Hood tilted her head and asked, "Is the Dark Alley closed today?"
"I haven't heard of any business closing down in foreign lands," Little Red Riding Hood said immediately. "Maybe the timing was wrong just now. You should log out and log in again. This kind of failure happens occasionally..."
So Yu Sheng and Zheng Zhi tried again.
The entrance to the dark alley remained closed, and the wall was dead silent, with not a single breeze blowing.
Yu Sheng didn't believe it, so he backed out and tried again, then stared at the mottled old wall.
This time, the entrance to the foreign land finally responded—
The wall... retreated half an inch in front of him.
Yu Sheng: “……?”
(End of this chapter)
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