Chapter 500 Information from Baili Qing
The "patients" who enter Jinglin Sanatorium will and will only be affected by the rules of the sanatorium - this simple sentence made Yu Sheng think of a possible situation almost instantly.
"...The independent investigator named 'Sun Chen' might be trying to exploit the 'rules' of Jinglin Sanatorium to evade the influence of the 'Tower'?"
"That's my guess," Little Red Riding Hood nodded. "After all, he previously posted that he's been haunted by the tower and even suspected that part of his mind is trapped in nightmares related to the tower. In this case, he must have sought help from familiar healers and psychics, perhaps even the Secret Service. Hiding in the Quiet Forest Sanatorium might have been someone's suggestion."
Yu Sheng recalled his previous experience of exploring the "dark alley" with Little Red Riding Hood and the king, the "eroded" old bookstore, and his bizarre and chaotic dream at dawn.
"It seems we need to go to that nursing home," he said slowly, "and confirm the situation with the independent investigator in person."
"Yes, that's why I came to you right away. Entering the Quiet Forest Sanatorium isn't easy. After all, it's a special place, and 'visiting' requires special procedures. I can't handle that, but it shouldn't be a problem for you."
After hearing what Little Red Riding Hood said, Yu Sheng quickly reacted, picked up his phone and started sending messages, muttering to himself as he did so: "Oh, I'm bothering a director with all these messy things all day long..."
Irene, who was sitting at the edge of the table, dangling her legs in a daze, turned her head immediately upon hearing this. "Well, you usually don't feel guilty about sending messages at eleven or twelve at night. At least today I'm on earth and having a normal schedule."
When Yu Sheng heard this, he immediately agreed with the little puppet, colluding with him and becoming his accomplice: "Now that you say that, I feel much more at ease..."
Little Red Riding Hood looked at Yu Sheng, then at the dolls on the table. She opened her mouth but didn't know how to comment on the two of them, so she had to continue eating her buns with her head down.
Hu Li on the side was eating and drinking from beginning to end, and seemed not to care about what other people were talking about. When he heard the surroundings quiet down, he just looked up curiously, and then put a sausage in front of his good friend the dog.
Little Red Riding Hood ate the sausage and buns, feeling somewhat strange, as if she were being fed...
Then she saw Yu Sheng, who was sitting across from the table, suddenly stand up, open a door from the side, and walk in. He waved to her as he walked, "It's hard to explain by sending a message. I'm going to go talk to Baili Qing in person—I'll be back soon. You three wait here for a while."
The next second, Baili Qing, who was sitting in the director's office in the Secret Service building, raised her head and looked at Yu Sheng who pushed the door open on his own, her face as expressionless as usual.
"I know what you've been investigating lately, and I'm aware of your current progress," Baili Qing stated bluntly upon meeting, not hiding her concern for Sheng Ping's daily activities. "The special investigation permit you requested will be issued soon. I'll also personally notify the Jinglin Sanatorium and ask the person in charge there to cooperate."
"That's really helpful," Yu Sheng pulled a chair over and sat down across from Baili Qing's desk, looking up into her eyes. "The procedure itself really isn't a problem—so you asked me to open the door myself to come over, apparently to discuss something else?"
Baili Qing didn't say anything, just nodded slightly, then turned and looked at the huge floor-to-ceiling window behind her desk.
Thick fog rose and surged outside the French window, and all kinds of bizarre illusions quickly appeared in the fog. In the blink of an eye, Yu Sheng saw some familiar scenes -
It was the strange, broken tower, and the blond puppet charging outside the tower, rushing along the outer wall towards the top of the tower.
"Ah, this is the video footage that Marlene sent me earlier," Yu Sheng said immediately, "I've seen it."
Baili Qing stared at the illusion emerging from the thick fog, and as her sight focused, part of the illusion was brought closer and enlarged.
That was a corner of the picture that originally occupied only a small part of the video footage and had not attracted much attention from Yu Sheng before.
Some people were hastily evacuating from around the broken tower. Unstable space cracks were expanding and shrinking at the end of the open area, and several corpses were abandoned near those space cracks.
The clothes worn by those evacuees were obviously not in the style of the current Boundary City. Some of them looked quite classical or fantasy. Some even dressed almost like wizards and sorcerers. Others wore complex armor and carried exaggerated giant swords and crossbows. Some were covered with miscellaneous props, and it was impossible to tell what they were used for.
These people's clothing is varied and strange. The only thing that can be seen is that they are not a "regular army", but more like a hastily assembled investigation and exploration team.
"These people are a borderland exploration team," Baili Qing's voice sounded from the side, not letting Yu Sheng speculate for too long. "From today's perspective, they are considered 'colleagues' of today's investigators and spirit world detectives."
"Oh..." Yu Sheng blinked. Although his attention had been almost entirely on the blonde puppet and the shadow on top of the tower, and he hadn't paid much attention to the group hastily retreating in the corner of the picture, he had noticed these figures. "This style of painting is very different from the people in the border area now... I was curious before, why is there a magician here?"
"Because they come from 3,700 years ago—a period unique to the Borderland, known as the chaotic 'Classical Age,'" Baili Qing explained calmly. "During that unique period, magic...was widely present in the Borderland."
Yu Sheng was stunned for a moment. He turned to look at Baili Qing's expressionless face, blinking his eyes. After a few seconds, he opened his mouth and said, "...Ah?"
"Not only magic, but also psionic powers, sorcery, alien bloodlines, and 'ancient species' that only exist in certain books," Baili Qing said calmly. "The ancient species here refer to giants and dragons—and other strange intelligent creatures whose names are no longer traceable, only that they were confirmed to have existed."
Yu Sheng's eyes slowly widened. Realizing that the female director had casually stated something truly extraordinary, he was completely bewildered. "Hey, no, wait a minute... 3,700 years. Exactly 3,700 years. You're telling me that the borderland back then was rife with magic, psychic powers, and witchcraft, and filled with a multitude of alien creatures that had nothing to do with the humans of Boundary City today?! No... doesn't that make sense?"
He gestured a bit, then paused for several seconds before trying to organize his words. "Well, even if this place is blessed with outstanding people and beautiful scenery, there should at least be a sense of continuity in civilization and history, right? At least within the scope of recorded history, you have to have developed from ancient times to the present day. You can't just make a huge leap and reset the world line, jumping straight to..."
"Your reaction is normal, but there's really no continuity at the border—the 'big jump' you mentioned really happened."
Baili Qing spoke calmly, interrupting Yu Sheng's unfinished words.
Yu Sheng: “…Okay, awesome.”
Baili Qing sighed, "I know you have many questions, and so do I. Even the people of the borderland themselves are unsure how many secrets this isolated 'hub of the universe', known as 'homeland', holds. The chaotic classical era is like a ball of shattered light and shadow, reflected in the deep mist of history, blocking our gaze from looking back.
"As you know, this world has experienced a 'Second Singularity Explosion'. Many civilizations have experienced historical interruptions or collective memory confusion to varying degrees. But even compared to the groups with the most severe historical interruptions, the Border Region is the most extreme.
"We were truly 'reset' during the world's second birth. We may even have experienced more than one reset after the world had already completed its rebirth. This chaotic situation didn't stabilize until the establishment of the Secret Service and the connection of the originally chaotic space-time of the entire border area into a whole. However, a large number of records related to the classical era seemed to have been deliberately erased during this 'stabilization' process. Today, only a small amount of the available information remains..."
Having said that, Baili Qing suddenly shook his head.
"However, the focus of our discussion today is not the 'Classic Age', but this tower and this special 'exploration team'."
When Yu Sheng heard this, he quickly adjusted his sitting position in the chair and his expression became serious.
Although Baili Qing just mentioned that the information of the "classical era" was severely damaged and difficult to verify, but looking at her current reaction... the powerful Secret Service Bureau obviously found some clues from those piles of old papers.
"In the Secret Service's secret database, we found a very suspicious record of an incident," Baili Qing said slowly. "'In the Year of Drifting, the Dark Star and the Dome overlapped, and the Essence God descended along the Boundary Bridge, reuniting with us as promised. However, the Boundary Bridge unexpectedly broke, and the Essence God lost control and disintegrated... The escort team was severely damaged, and only three people evacuated and brought back news - a powerful individual of unknown origin intervened at the scene, intercepted the Essence God, and covered his retreat. Since then, the Boundary Bridge, the Essence God, and the Dark Star have all disappeared.'"
The office fell into silence for a short while.
"That's all." Baili Qing said.
"...Wait a moment, I'll sort it out," Yu Sheng waved his hand immediately, going over what he had just heard in his mind again, quickly organizing his thoughts. After several seconds, he looked up again, "So, this passage describes the events recorded in the video that Marlene found on the 'Garden' network?"
Baili Qing nodded: "The possibility is very high."
Yu Sheng: “…”
Isn’t this a bit too much information?!
(End of this chapter)
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