The equipnt in the laboratory, which left Yu Sheng dazzled, had entered operation mode. Technicians in heavy protective suits began transferring crystal minerals from Shuji to various workstations. They would then further cut these roughly processed crystal minerals into "crystal pillars" suitable for analysis and further processing and verify several transformation processes that had been tested in the simulation system.
Yu Sheng and Baili Qing left the operating area and went to an observation room next to the laboratory, watching the busy scene inside through a thick protective barrier.
Now the largest piece of crystal had been cut open, and the operator was sending the first crystal pillar sample onto a circular platform. With the hum of the antigravity device, Yu Sheng saw the pale crystal pillar slowly rise into the air. Then several ring-shaped objects floated up from the platform's edge; the inside of these silver rings emitted a dark purple glow. As the glow gradually filled the space, the crystal at the center of the ring began to present a semi-transparent, illusory appearance.
Yu Sheng frowned slightly. He wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but his spiritual intuition seed sowhat agitated, and he vaguely sensed a hint of Exotic Realm-like heterogenization from those ring devices. When several concentric circles slowly rotated along the axis and ford specific angles, he even felt he saw a phantom not belonging to the real world through the overlapping rings—a pale crystal pillar trembling in an unstable ti-space, undergoing reactions similar to disintegration and reassembly.
Baili Qing's voice ca from beside him: "We've done a preliminary analysis of the research data sent by Luo, where the descriptions of the various characteristics of the 'Zolda Black Stone' are quite detailed. However, we believe that most of these characteristics aren't the main points. The real connection with the 'Angel Catalyst' lies in those unquantifiable, seemingly device failure-like strange phenona, such as the sample 'trembling' within a small ti-space range, blurring at the edges when stimulated by energy, and causing ntal contamination or inducing auditory and visual hallucinations.
"To simulate these characteristics, we need to use so special technology.
"The device you see is called the 'Reality Misalignnt Lens', originally used to study certain dangerous entities captured from the Exotic Realm. With a little adjustnt, it can also be used to 'impart' so... unstable 'temporary characteristics' to normal matter in reality.
"We're not sure if the products processed in this way can truly mimic the 'Angel Catalyst', but at the very least, the spies from the Hidden Monastery would consider it a suspicious sample. Once it becos suspicious enough, they are highly likely to bring it back to their lair for further research."
Yu Sheng thought for a mont: "Sounds like bait for cockroaches."
Baili Qing was expressionless: "They are cockroaches."
"That's true," Yu Sheng nodded in agreent, but couldn't help but complain, "But, you know, this device gives a... evil feeling, quite dangerous."
Before Baili Qing could speak, Baili Xue's eyes appeared on the observation window's surface, and her voice directly entered Yu Sheng's ear: "Your feeling is correct, this thing is very dangerous."
Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow.
"Reality Misalignnt Lens—one of the fringe technologies. Used correctly, it can counter the Exotic Realm. Used incorrectly, it can open a new Exotic Realm," Baili Qing said blandly, "Outside, this type of technology is collectively referred to as 'Black Spirit Ability'."
Yu Sheng's expression instantly froze: "…?"
Baili Qing remained with a calm yet slightly sleepy deanor.
"Wait, why does it seem evil? Turns out this thing belongs to the Black Spirit Ability tech tree?!" Yu Sheng started feeling uneasy, "Isn't this forbidden technology? Luo got a whole bunch of warrants because of it..."
Baili Xue moved in front of Yu Sheng: "Because hers was illegal research and possession—we're legal."
Yu Sheng blinked, contemplated for a mont, and looked peculiarly at the big eyes on the observation window: "Let guess, have you signed sothing similar to a 'Black Spirit Ability Non-Proliferation Agreent' with several major Civilization Circles, with the main content being the prohibition of this stuff spreading beyond your circles—internal spreading is fine?"
Baili Xue bobbed up and down: "How did you know?"
Yu Sheng spread his hands: "Is that hard to guess?"
"The existence of the Universe's objective laws determines that the ergence of certain technologies is an inevitable result of developnt. Thus, whether a technology is taboo depends solely on who holds it," Baili Qing said unhurriedly, "It's better to wield the knife yourself and let others protest than to let others wield the knife while you can only protest. Moreover... Boundary Land, as a special 'focal point area', with hundreds of Exotics over and outside Boundary City, do you think it's possible for us not to engage with Black Spirit Ability?"
Yu Sheng touched his chin, recalling several conversations with Luo, and so intelligence about the Black Dot Group that he learned from her. He felt a bit sentintal: "... it's best to go the right way. Being the villain carrying the black pot and living in the sewers with bounties on your head... all justice friends just gang up on you..."
It seed Baili Qing's mouth slightly curled up, and she said: "… Yawn."
Yu Sheng couldn't bear it: "...why don't you just take a nap?"
There was a hint of awkwardness in Baili Qing's eyes, but just as she was about to say sothing, a sudden, urgent phone ring interrupted the conversation in the observation room.
She picked up the phone to take a call. After listening for a few monts, her eyes turned serious, and her gaze fell on Yu Sheng.
Then, without waiting for Yu Sheng to ask about the situation, she quickly hung up the phone and spoke up: "…A deep diver team was ambushed in the Dark Alley, among the attackers was an 'Artificial Saintess'—the leader of the team is soone you know, Xu Jiali."
Yu Sheng was startled instantly, and realized from the subtle expressions and tone that the situation didn't seem good: "How are they doing?"
"They lost the fight, but luckily it's a deep diver team, at least everyone kept their lives, they're in the third dical ward."
Hearing this, Yu Sheng quickly responded: "Take there."
…
Soon, under Baili Qing's lead, Yu Sheng arrived at a dical floor located within the Special Service Bureau Building.
At the door of the ward, Baili Qing stopped.
"I'll stay outside," she said, "The wounded will only get nervous seeing —Xu Jiali and his spiritual servant are in this ward, their condition is relatively good."
Yu Sheng nodded, without much ado, he turned and pushed open the ward door.
Before entering, he heard Lingdang's voice coming from inside: "Boss, you really flipped the car this ti~ almost got your kidney snatched ow, I'll get you so canned food later!"
Then ca Xu Jiali's slightly weak voice: "…I want yellow peaches, not the canned ones… besides, I got careless, but I was actually more skilled in the end…"
Yu Sheng's tightly held heart instantly relaxed upon hearing the noises from the ward, knowing the people inside were alright, he stepped in and greeted: "Look who's here!"
He saw the scene inside the ward.
This was a special ward provided for deep divers, the spacious room contained only a single bed in the center, surrounded by a dizzying array of monitoring devices, so almost not resembling dical equipnt, Xu Jiali was half-lying, half-leaning on the raised bed, with a large section of his torso uncovered, covered with a thick silver-gray gel-like 'coating', and under the gel, many deep wounds visible to the bone could be faintly seen.
Moreover, his torso skin showed a nearly tallic texture, with seeming pipes and connectors buried beneath the skin, his chest and abdon further covered with black 'skin', appearing like so sort of enhancent technology.
Nurous electrodes and cables connected to this two-ter-tall man's torso, occasionally causing the monitoring equipnt to buzz.
The spiritual servant nad 'Lingdang' was guarding nearby, wearing a loose patient gown—compared to Xu Jiali, with half his body having undergone an extensive overhaul, this Jipulo girl's injuries seed much lighter, rely having two headband wraps around her head, one of her fuzzy cat ears donning a band-aid, less like it was wounded by the Artificial Saintess and more like she bumped her head while escaping.
Upon Yu Sheng's greeting, both Xu Jiali and Lingdang simultaneously turned to look at the source of the voice, the forr instinctively tried to prop himself up to greet but just a slight move pulled at his wounds, making him exclaim and collapse back onto the bed, breathing sharply: "Oh... hurts like hell…"
"You sound quite spirited," Yu Sheng scanned the other and smiled as he felt relieved, "I was startled when I heard the news—running into an Artificial Saintess and still coming back whole, you did well."
"Well, I just slipped up a bit," Xu Jiali sighed, "Let tell you, if it were just an Artificial Saintess, it wouldn't be much of a problem, we had the whole deep diver team, in a group fight we might have prevailed—key issue was they brought a full team of 'Knights', and fighting them was tough, though we fought with increasing ferocity we finally had to tactically retreat… luckily Lingdang managed to release the Spiritual Energy Scream, allowing us to escape the Dark Alley just in ti. My condition's relatively okay, two unlucky ones haven't woken up yet."
Yu Sheng looked at Xu Jiali, though seriously wounded, still sowhat spirited due to his tough constitution, then glanced at the cat-shaped head bandaged beside him, understandingly nodded.
It was quite a narrow escape.
Lingdang noticed Yu Sheng's gaze, circling around him twice before suddenly leaning her head over, her pair of vertical pupils full of inquiry: "How co you visit the patients without bringing any canned food?"
Yu Sheng: "…"
"Lingdang, don't be so rude," Xu Jiali promptly reminded, then looked at Yu Sheng with a grin, "By the way, why are you here? Did the bureau inform you?"
"I happened to be around—besides, I did tell your director before, if any information involving Venerate Saints Monastery cos up, let know imdiately," Yu Sheng waved his hand, "Don't move around yet, I'll call the experts over, then you can give a thorough account of how you guys got ambushed."
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