Chapter 48
The deathly stillness of the Silent Rift was briefly broken by a burst of blood, then quickly returned to its all-consuming nothingness. The bodies of the two killers lay on the cold rocks, their blood slowly seeping into the cracks, becoming insignificant footnotes in this desolate place.
Chen Mengzhou supported the nearly collapsed Chu Li, his gaze sweeping over the equipment on the corpse. The combat uniforms were made of a unique material, devoid of any markings, while the weapons were sophisticated yet their origins were impossible to trace. Purely instruments of slaughter, clean and efficient, leaving no trace. The Foundation, indeed, possessed countless hidden blades.
Chu Li took a breath, pushed Chen Mengzhou's hand away, and stood on her own. Her face was still pale, but the hesitation in her eyes seemed to have been dispelled by the brief and sharp counterattack just now, replaced by a cold sharpness.
"The 'echoes' leave behind... more than just pain and chaos," she whispered, as if explaining, or warning herself, "but also... the fragments of 'knowledge' and... instincts they devour. Like poison, even a little bit will... corrode you."
Chen Mengzhou nodded silently. Power always comes at a price, especially power that comes from illicit sources. But right now, they had no right to be picky.
"Can you sense the specific direction of the 'lighthouse'?" Chen Mengzhou asked. This shattered land was too vast, and blindly searching was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Chu Li closed her eyes, her brow furrowed slightly, as if trying to mobilize her dangerous and uncontrollable perception. After a moment, she pointed in the direction of the gray fog and said uncertainly, "Over there... the 'noise'... is the strongest, but also the most... 'hollow.'"
A hole in the noise. A contradiction in terms, but one that perfectly describes the feeling.
The two set out again, more cautiously. The killer's appearance proved their whereabouts were not completely secret. The Foundation, or at least some of its forces, had extended its tentacles into this restricted area.
The deeper one ventured into the rift, the stronger the sense of spatial distortion grew. Massive blocks of rock were no longer content to simply tilt or stand upright; instead, they began to take on all sorts of counterintuitive forms—twisting spirals, hollowed-out boulders, even tiny floating islands suspended completely upside down, yet strangely balanced. Gravity seemed to have lost its absolute authority here, with fragments of rock occasionally floating upward against all odds or crashing down with uncanny acceleration.
The air was thin and cold, with a strange smell of rusted metal and ozone. The dead silence was almost condensed into a substance, oppressing the eardrums and nerves.
Chu Li's condition was deteriorating. Her steps were weak and cold sweat was dripping from her forehead. It seemed as if every step forward was a struggle against some invisible invasion. Chen Mengzhou had to slow down frequently and devote part of his attention to watching over her.
"Just... in front..." Chu Li's voice was weak as he pointed to an area in front covered by thick gray fog.
The spatial distortion there reached its peak, and the gray fog slowly swirled like a living thing, forming a massive vortex. At the center of the vortex, a deeper darkness loomed.
The two approached the edge of the gray fog cautiously. A powerful, chaotic gravitational force emanated from the center of the vortex, pulling at their bodies.
Chen Mengzhou concentrated his mind and used his spatial ability to struggle against the gravitational force to protect himself and Chu Li.
The moment I stepped into the gray fog, it was as if I were passing through a layer of cold, sticky water. The scene before me suddenly changed!
It was no longer a broken rock formation, but a vast, relatively flat metal square! The ground was a dark alloy that seemed to absorb all light, covered with huge, long-extinguished circular light strips and complex interface traces.
In the center of the square stood the base of a massive metal tower, its lower half severely damaged and its upper half warped and broken! The tower's remains resembled the ancient Kronos wreckage seen earlier, but on a grander scale and more thoroughly damaged. The fractures were distorted and gnarled, as if forcibly snapped by an invisible giant hand!
Is this the remains of the "lighthouse"?
An indescribable sense of desolation and deathly silence washed over me. It was as if I could hear the echoes of civilization's demise, resonating alone at the end of time.
What was even more alarming was that around the square, in the edge of the area where the gray fog could not completely cover it, there were dozens of densely packed—
Life support cabin!
It was completely different from what we'd seen on S-114 and Dreamweaver. These life support pods were much older, similar in style to the remains of the Lighthouse. Their surfaces were covered in a thick layer of dust and mineral scale, but the pods appeared intact. Within the transparent hatches, vague figures could be seen floating quietly, immersed in a long-solidified pale yellow liquid.
They are like silent guards, guarding the collapsed giant tower in the center for an unimaginably long time.
Chen Mengzhou and Chu Li looked at each other, and saw shock and vigilance in each other's eyes.
The two men cautiously approached the nearest life support pod. Wiping away the thick dust from the hatch, a pale, quiet, sleepy male face emerged. He wore a uniform of some ancient design, and his features were so lifelike, as if time had stopped for him.
"Is it... Kronos's people?" Chu Li whispered, his fingers unconsciously stroking the cold hatch.
Chen Mengzhou's eyes swept across the other life support cabins. The people inside were wearing similar uniforms, both men and women, and all remained in a "sleeping" state.
Were they survivors who went into hibernation before the Lighthouse collapsed? Why hadn't the Foundation discovered them? Or... did the Foundation know, but couldn't, or... didn't dare, open them?
Her eyes fell on an interface panel on the side of the life support module. There was a faint Kronos logo on it, and next to it was an energy reading indicator—the needle was stuck below zero, unresponsive.
These life support capsules have long since run out of energy.
The people inside... I'm afraid...
Just as Shen Mengzhou tried to examine the panel more carefully——
Buzz...
An extremely faint but extremely clear sound of energy flow suddenly came from the direction of the collapsed base of the giant tower in the center of the square!
The two of them became alert instantly and turned their heads to look!
I saw that in the deep shadow of the broken surface of the huge base, a small piece of faint blue light suddenly appeared!
The light flickered like breathing, outlining the outline of... a control console?!
Is there still energy there?! Is the equipment still functioning?!
Chen Mengzhou and Chu Li immediately lowered their bodies and approached the blue light silently.
The closer they got to the base, the stronger the chaotic spatial gravity and mental pressure became. Chu Li's face became even uglier, and he almost had to rely on Chen Mengzhou to support himself to stand steady.
Finally, they arrived beneath the fractured surface of the pedestal. Here, a vast space, shrouded in twisted metal, formed. The faint blue light emanated from a relatively intact control console, half-embedded in the rock wall.
The console's screen lit up, displaying some incomprehensible, inhuman text and symbols! Its energy fluctuations, however, stood out against the surrounding, silent "lighthouse" ruins. It carried a... newer, even somewhat familiar, sense of technology.
Something is wrong!
Chen Mengzhou suddenly stopped, pulled Chu Li behind him, and used all his spatial perception to probe towards the control console!
The information she sensed back made her scalp tingle—the energy signature operating within the console didn't belong to Chronos's ancient technology at all! Instead, it resembled... the Foundation's technology! It even... carried a hint of the spiritual energy unique to the "Dream Weaver" project!
This is a device that was installed later! The Foundation has been here for a long time! They even secretly installed a working device here!
How long has it been running there? And what is its purpose?!
The moment Shen Mengzhou noticed something unusual—
The console screen flashed suddenly! All the unfamiliar text disappeared, and it transformed into a simple, constantly rotating Kronos logo!
A cold, synthesized electronic sound resounded through the deadly space without warning:
[——Unauthorized 'anchor' sequence approach detected——]
[——Highest priority protocol activated——]
[——Information: Beacon activated——]
A beacon?! It's sending a signal?!
"Not good!" Chen Mengzhou's face changed drastically, and without thinking, a space blade slashed towards the control console!
boom!
A burst of sparks erupted from the console, and the screen instantly went dark! The synthesized electronic sound also abruptly stopped!
But obviously, it's too late!
Almost at the same time as the console was destroyed——
Woo-woo-woo-woo
A low but extremely penetrating buzzing sound, unlike any known alarm, sounded simultaneously from every corner of the "Lighthouse" ruins, from inside the life-support capsules that had been silent for countless years, and even from deep in the earth beneath their feet!
The entire ruins square began to shake violently! The dust and gravel on the ground were shaken and jumped!
[——Warning: Core Area Security Protocol Lifted——]
[——Warning: External defense system offline——]
[——Warning: Large-scale space-time disturbance detected approaching——Coordinates: Lighthouse Ruins——]
Another older, more intermittent system prompt sound, as if it was struggling to survive, sounded among the buzzing sound!
Chen Mengzhou suddenly looked up!
The gray fog that had been slowly swirling above the square now surged like boiling water! The deep darkness at its center expanded rapidly, becoming increasingly turbid and ominous! It was as if something immensely large and terrifying, drawn by the signal from the "beacon," was about to force its way in from the other side of distant space and time...
What made her feel even more chilled was that the indicator lights on the hatches of the life support cabins that were originally dead and exhausted of energy suddenly turned red one after another in a strange manner!
Inside the cabin, the solidified pale yellow liquid began to slowly melt and flow! The fingers of those figures inside, who had been "sleeping" for countless years, seemed to twitch ever so slightly!
Click…click…
A subtle, teeth-grinding sound, like ice breaking, came from the nearest life-support modules!
Chen Mengzhou and Chu Li stood in the center of the violently shaking square, looking at the densely packed life support capsules with red lights on around them, and then looking at the ever-expanding vortex of time and space above their heads that exuded a breath of destruction.
trap!
From the very beginning, this was a carefully laid ultimate trap targeting the "anchor point"!
The Foundation has long since discovered this place. Unable to crack the core secrets of Kronos, they've exploited the environment and its legacy to create a sinister "beacon"! Once an "anchor" approaches and triggers it, it will simultaneously attract an unknown threat from across time and space, and... awaken these dormant ancient "survivors," whose identities are unclear, whether friend or foe!
With no way forward, disaster descends from the sky, and the ancients are about to awaken...
Desperate situation!
A real desperate situation!
Chen Mengzhou suddenly looked at Chu Li.
Chu Li was also looking at her, his face as pale as paper, but in his glass-like eyes, there was a burning sense of almost crazy, desperate determination.
She slowly raised her hands and pointed them at the life support capsules around her that were about to wake up.
The fingertips flashed with that dangerous and strange blue light again.
"...It seems..." Her voice was unusually clear amidst the violent vibrations and buzzing, with a slight tremor, but incomparably firm.
"...it can only...make the water...more muddy..."
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