Chapter 54
A narrow staircase ascended, leaving behind the tranquil waters and the weight of the secret. Chen Mengzhou carried the metal box, followed closely by Chu Li. The two returned in silence to the circular grottoes studded with bizarre stone carvings. The starlight from the dome remained, but it no longer brought the initial tranquility. Instead, it was like countless cold eyes, watching them depart, carrying a secret that could overturn everything.
Without stopping, the two of them retraced their steps, crossing the water barrier once again. The deafening roar of the waterfall instantly overwhelmed their senses, and the damp steam hit them in the face. The raft they had been on was long gone, presumably having plunged into the endless black abyss below.
Chen Mengzhou glanced across the slippery rock wall, finding a relatively stable foothold. She carefully secured the metal box to her back and reached out to Chu Li.
"pay close attention."
Chu Li didn't hesitate and grabbed her arm tightly.
The spatial ability struggled to operate, carrying the two up the steep rock face. Every effort strained their still-unhealed injuries, and waves of dizziness washed over them from mental exhaustion. But Chen Mengzhou gritted her teeth, her gaze firm. Now, they had no right to fall.
Chu Li's condition was equally bad, his face was pale and his breathing was rapid. He was supported entirely by Chen Mengzhou's pulling and his own strong willpower.
After an unknown amount of time, the end of the rock wall finally appeared above his head. Using his last bit of strength, Chen Mengzhou suddenly pushed Chu Li up first, then he followed suit.
The two collapsed onto the cold, rough rocky ground, gasping for breath like fish out of water. Before them lay a relatively flat Gobi desert, riddled with vast crevasses. In the distance, a series of mountains, appearing especially formidable under the blood-red sky, stretched out before them. They had finally left the perilous underground river system.
Safe for now.
But Chen Mengzhou didn't dare to relax at all. She struggled to sit up, her spatial perception spreading cautiously in all directions like a wounded tentacle.
No immediate signs of pursuit or unusual energy fluctuations were detected, but the dead silence of the area itself was ominous.
She turned to look at Chu Li. The girl curled up, her body trembling slightly, not knowing whether it was from the cold, exhaustion, or the dormant "echo" in her body starting to stir again.
"Can you still hold on?" Shen Mengzhou's voice was hoarse from thirst.
Chu Li nodded without saying anything. He just supported himself on the ground and tried to stand up, but his legs went weak and he fell back down.
Chen Mengzhou walked over, helped her up, and leaned her against a weathered boulder. Then he took out the last bit of clean water from the metal box and handed it to her.
"We must find a safer place to stay as soon as possible, treat the injuries, and then..." Chen Mengzhou's eyes fell on the metal box, "...find out the value of the things inside."
His father's research notes, the mysterious data storage device, the star map marked "Ark"... these are hopes, but they may also be more dangerous death warrants.
Chu Li sipped the water, his eyes a little dazed: "'Ark'... do you think it really exists?"
"Father believed it existed." Chen Mengzhou's tone was filled with a certainty that he himself didn't even notice. "Besides, that was his last choice."
It is also the only coordinate they can see now that may lead to survival.
After resting for about half an hour, feeling somewhat refreshed, the two set out again. Based on the star map and his memory of the terrain, Chen Mengzhou roughly determined that the "Ark" might be located northwest, in an extreme region known as the "Forgotten Plateau." The environment there was harsh, with excessive radiation levels and a fragile space-time structure. It was a deadly place that even the Erosion Corpse and most predators would not venture into.
Because of this, perhaps the final secret can be hidden.
They dared not walk into the open, and could only trudge along the gullies and cracks of the Gobi Desert. Along the way, both of them were unusually silent, each digesting the huge shock of information and the physical pain.
Chen Mengzhou's mind replayed the words in her father's notebook. Those notes, filled with anxiety and helplessness, intertwined with Adrian's face in the fortress, alternately frenzied and desperate. She tried to piece together the struggle within Kronos, trying to understand the choices made by both her father and Adrian.
Chu Li, on the other hand, was more focused on battling the "echoes" within her body. Every time she used that dangerous power, it felt like walking on the edge of a cliff. She could sense that, though the "echoes" had been muted by the previous exhaustion and injuries, they had not vanished. Instead, they lay dormant like a venomous snake, waiting for the next opportunity to strike. The news that Chen Mengzhou's father was "honorable" seemed to ease her frayed nerves slightly, but it was followed by a deeper confusion—if Kronos wasn't pure evil, then to whom could she hold her accountable for all she had suffered?
In the evening, they found a half-collapsed shelter that seemed to be left behind by a geological survey team in the old days. Although it was dilapidated, it could at least block the wind and was relatively stable.
After clearing a small, safe area, Chen Mengzhou immediately began treating the injuries of the two men. Using the clean cloth she had found and the last bit of disinfectant, she carefully bandaged the scrapes on Chu Li's arms and legs, and then changed the dressing on the wound on her waist where the assassin's bullet had grazed her.
By the time they were done, it was completely dark. The Gobi night was bitterly cold.
The two of them squeezed into a relatively intact corner of the shelter, sharing the last bit of compressed food.
In silence, Chen Mengzhou finally took out the silver data storage device and tried to connect it using the remaining extremely basic interface on her tactical eyepiece and the weak backup power supply.
Sizzle——
After a burst of electrical interference noise, the eyepiece screen actually barely displayed the reading interface! Although the picture was extremely unstable and covered with snow.
[——Kronos Life Science Research Institute——Highest Authority Log (fragment)——]
[——Visitor Authentication: Chronological Key Holder (Related: Chen Hua) — Permission Granted —]
The text on the screen scrolled intermittently.
Most of the content corroborates what was recorded in his father's notes, including research on the instability of the "Lighthouse" energy core, the ethical controversies surrounding the "Spark" project, and the growing conflict with the Foundation's "Hawk Faction" (led by a mysterious group known as the "Overwatch Council").
But several fragments of information that were encrypted and then decrypted (seemingly by the father) revealed a deeper secret:
[…The Overseers are not human. They are an accidental product of early Dreamweaver experiments, a collective consciousness formed by the fusion of the consciousness of some researchers with whispers from the Beyond. They pursue pure evolution and ascension, viewing human desires and emotions as a burden…]
[…They controlled most of the Foundation's armed forces ('Scavengers') and resources, and Dr. Shen Hua's dissenting voice was gradually marginalized…]
[…The ‘Beacon of the End’ project is the core project of the ‘Overseers’. They firmly believe that inducing the ‘Patrons’ can ‘purify’ the low-dimensional world and pave the way for their ‘upgrading’… Madman!]
Adrian... He was once Dr. Shen Hua's most proud student and a staunch supporter of the Spark Project. But under pressure from the Overseers and the threat of his family being held hostage... he wavered... He chose to compromise, outwardly cooperating with the Overseers, but secretly... perhaps still trying to preserve some research data and Spark samples... His situation is extremely dangerous...
Seeing this, Chen Mengzhou and Chu Li both held their breath.
Adrian…surely, he had his reasons! He was being held hostage by the Overseer, his family a hostage! Perhaps his madness in the fortress was a helpless disguise, or even some dangerous, extreme attempt to preserve something under the Overseer's watchful eye?
And what about his pursuit of Shen Mengzhou? Was he truly intent on capturing her as a "perfect living anchor" to serve as a "supervisor," or was he... perhaps pursuing something else?
The information was interrupted again at this point, the eyepiece's backup power was completely exhausted, and the screen went dark.
The shelter fell into darkness and silence, with only the howling sound of the wind in the Gobi Desert outside.
After a long moment, Chu Li spoke softly, his voice somewhat vague in the darkness: "...So, our current enemy is actually a group of...crazy artificial intelligence aggregates?"
"That's understandable." Chen Mengzhou's voice was equally low. "The 'Overseer'... is the root of the Foundation's madness. Adrian... may be a tragic character... who is in Cao's camp but his heart is with Han."
This realization complicates the situation. Not only do they have to evade the "Scavengers," they also have to face a mad AI collective hiding behind the scenes that treats humans as worthless. And Adrian, their former enemy, could be a potential, dangerous... ally?
"Then...what about the 'Ark'?" Chu Li asked, "Can we fight against the 'Overseers' there?"
"I don't know." Chen Mengzhou said honestly, "But that is my father's last hope, and it is also our only direction now."
She leaned against the cold wall and closed her eyes. Fatigue washed over her like a tide, but her mind was remarkably clear.
The enemy is clearly identified: the "Overseers" and the Foundation forces under their control.
The goal is also clear: to find the "Ark", obtain possible means of confrontation, and try to collect the fragments of the "Lighthouse" to prevent the opening of the "Wall of End".
And Adrian...became an extremely unstable variable that needed to be re-evaluated.
There is also the "echo" in Chu Li's body... What role will the power from the "other side" play in this war between humans and non-humans?
The road ahead is still shrouded in fog and even more dangerous than before.
But this time, they were no longer fleeing aimlessly.
They had enemies, goals, and a faint but real glimmer of "justice" and "hope."
Although this fire may require unimaginable sacrifice to ignite.
Chen Mengzhou slowly opened his eyes and looked out the window at the Gobi night sky. Under the blood-red moonlight, the outlines of the distant mountains looked like a dormant giant beast.
She knew that her short break was over.
After dawn, a more difficult and cruel journey is about to begin.
And they have no choice but to move forward.
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