No accident, no explosion, no casualties, everything is as usual at the Deep Dive Port, and the deep-diving ship has just completed a pretty smooth voyage. Moreover, the Ancestors didn’t cause any trouble this ti—just as I was about to relax and find a place to sit down after hearing this good news, Taville’s next words stunned : "A hundred tis more serious than an accident!"
Stumbling underfoot, I quickly grasped the armrest of the seat and turned to look at Taville: "You’ve learned to scare people like this too?"
Sandora frowned, yet she was much calr than everyone else: "What exactly happened? Just now I saw that it wasn’t just the Deep Dive Project Departnt, all other departnts researching Abyssal activity seed busy too."
"We may have discovered a major trend in Abyssal activity," Taville spoke with careful deliberation, seemingly unsure how to convey the significant discovery with the most appropriate language, "Sothing unprecedented, possibly the reason for recent internal disturbances in the Abyss..."
Qianqian glanced around, noticing that most people’s expressions were rather confused, so she confidently puffed her chest: "I don’t understand!"
Taville knew now wasn’t the ti to use those specialized terms. She turned on the holographic device, letting Sandora look at the data and the scanning images from inside the Abyss Gate while explaining to the others in the simplest way: "We previously discovered an ’incontinuous zone’ at the Abyss’s lower levels. The intensity of this zone is highly irregular; not only do pollution concentrations fluctuate abruptly, but this discontinuity drifts constantly. Whenever the deep-diving ship stops in the incontinuous zone, it scans dramatic fluctuations in the surrounding Abyssal intensity, which I believe everybody is aware of, right?"
Sandora and I heard this intelligence when we last visited Shadow City, but Qianqian and the others could also learn about these matters from the data network at ho, so nearly everyone nodded in agreent. Except for Bingdisi, who was rather careless. She still needs so ti to adapt to her "Xyrin Apostle" identity; the data network isn’t sothing she usually pays attention to.
"There’s no record of this incontinuous zone in the deep dive data from the Old Empire Era," Sandora swiftly glanced at the holographic image nearby, "So we speculate that this incontinuous zone is a disturbance within the Abyss, and it has only appeared recently."
The ergence of the "incontinuous zone" overturned everyone’s conventional understanding of the Abyss. It showed us that the Abyss, sothing almost as ancient as the Void, isn’t immutable but has internal activity. Sandora regarded it as one of the most significant discoveries since the founding of the New Empire and ordered Taville to intensify research efforts and monitor the situation of that "incontinuous zone" closely.
Judging by Taville’s current deanor, there’s no doubt sothing is wrong with the incontinuous zone.
"After that deep dive, I arranged two more closely spaced subrgences and manufactured nurous unmanned deep-diving probes based on the prototype of the New Empire’s first deep-diving ship to approach that incontinuous zone," Taville projected more data, mostly indecipherable statistics and tables for , but so were illustrative simulations of the Abyss environnt. These images showed large masses of distorted black fog, with each fog tagged with a ti point and a duration cycle, presumably monitoring the situation of the incontinuous zone. "Taking the detection of the ’incontinuous zone’ as the first experint, this is the second subrgence record, this is the third record, and these are the data sent back by unmanned probes. Summarizing and comparing these data reveals an evident trend..."
I looked apologetically at Taville, unsure whether to admit I hadn’t really discerned that "obvious" trend...
"The incontinuous zone is approaching the surface," Sandora, performing as usual, noticed the trend at once, "Almost every probe detected the incontinuous zone sooner than the previous one, although there were exceptions, likely offset by the fluctuations of the incontinuous zone itself. So, in terms of the larger trend, detecting the incontinuous zone is becoming increasingly easier."
"That’s the situation," Taville turned off the room’s holographic projection, her expression exceptionally serious, "That violently fluctuating, wave-like thing is slowly nearing the Abyss’s surface. Theoretically, that’s the case."
Hearing this, cold sweat began creeping down my back: even though I’m not an expert, I can understand such straightforward words. Frankly, this is saying sothing significant at the Abyss Bottom is approaching the gate!
The matter is quite serious: based on our earlier discoveries, all Abyss Gates are indeed interconnected, with the sa "space" behind them—of course, the internal Abyss lacks the normal concept of "space"; this is rely a figurative statent—every Abyss Gate is equidistant from its bottom layer. Now, there’s a huge "incontinuous zone" slowly drifting towards the surface. If this trend doesn’t halt, the eventual result might be sothing "erging" will simultaneously erupt from all Abyss Gates.
But drawing a conclusion now is premature: we aren’t certain what the incontinuous zone truly is, nor if it constitutes an actual disaster, nor whether it can leave its "source," naly the Abyss environnt. If it’s akin to a surge in a conductor that can only agitate within the conductor without spreading into non-conductor environnts, then it’s harmless. But truthfully, I don’t believe I’ll be lucky enough to encounter such a harmless situation, given how fate has tossed around these past two years...
"Apart from this approach trend, is there any other discovery about the incontinuous zone?"
Sandora contemplated for a while, then suddenly raised her eyebrow and looked towards Taville.
"Only this approach trend can be confird," Taville adjusted the glasses on her nose, "Additionally, there’s a less certain hypothesis: I dispatched nurous unmanned probes and had them recklessly charge into the incontinuous zone. Although none survived, they seed to have reached a place similar to a boundary. At that indistinct boundary, pollution fluctuations began to stabilize, and the curve of Abyss strength returned to a regular pattern. I believe the incontinuous zone is likely sothing with fixed ’depth’ or ’width,’ released from the Abyss Bottom as a disturbance, such that with sufficiently strong protective technology, deep-diving ships could safely traverse the incontinuous zone and enter the normal Abyss environnt. Theoretically, that is."
Listening to Taville’s hypothesis, I found the incontinuous zone increasingly intriguing, and increasingly challenging everyone’s viewpoint of the Abyss: Initially, we thought the Abyss immutable, then along ca the incontinuous zone. Then we assud the incontinuous zone would remain stationary, only for it to drift here; should sothing erge from within the "incontinuous zone" and greet the Order World’s people in a couple of days, should I be surprised?
"Can the danger of that thing be determined now?" Sandora crossed her arms, her face dark as water, "Is it possible to pose a threat to the real world or—could it possibly leak out from the Abyss Gate?"
"Impossible to determine," Taville shrugged, admitting that for once even she couldn’t see through sothing, "Theoretically, the incontinuous zone is rely a ’characteristic,’ not a physically existing wave or anything tangible. However, in the Abyss environnt, there’s no distinction between ’substantial’ and ’insubstantial,’ so I’m uncertain whether it will enter the real world. Theoretically, that’s the case."
"Let’s hope it only causes trouble in its nest," Bingdisi muttered while scratching her hair, "I need to report this to Father God."
Sandora imdiately nodded: "Yes, the Divine Race must be notified imdiately. If I recall correctly, the Divine Race should’ve already comnced similar deep dive experints, but they started later, likely not having discovered this yet... Bingdisi, you’ll have to endure a little hardship these days."
The Female hooligan indifferent shrug: "Alright, alright, I was born to be the errand runner for you ungrateful folks—anything else you need to pass along? Traveling far isn’t easy."
After contemplating, I had only one thing: "Bring a few leek pies before departing..."
I hadn’t even finished speaking when people surrounding began to glare this way intensely. Sandora rubbed her forehead with a look of helplessness: "Ah Jun, we’re discussing serious matters here."
I shrugged: "Dropping off a small gift isn’t too much after all, and I’ve troubled Xingchen many tis; it’s a gesture of goodwill."
Bingdisi looked here with an eccentric expression: "Just using a few pies to make Father God run errands, only you and the Second Aunt in the Void can accomplish that."
Sandora and I simultaneously said: "Second Aunt?"
Bingdisi shrugged: "King Huron..."
Seeing this sidetracked topic due to was about to escalate imdiately, I quickly waved to bring everyone’s attention back: "Alright, alright, we’ll discuss local specialties later. Bingdisi, when you head over this ti, rember to inquire about the relic decryption matter, as the Hotown World’s coordinates are also significant... Is it a misjudgnt, or do I always have a sense that the Hotown World’s Abyss Gate might be related to what we’re encountering?"
Lin Xue hadn’t said a word since earlier, and now glancing sideways she said, "Even the Prophet hasn’t seen it, how co you have a feeling?"
"That’s why I said it might be an illusion," I spread my hands, "I’m just guessing. Think about it, the Hotown World was destroyed by an abnormally large Abyss Gate, and that gate didn’t fit our normal understanding of the Abyss. Now that ’Discontinuous Belt’ that’s approaching also doesn’t match our impression of the Abyss. Could there be so connection between these anomalies?"
Lin Xue waved her hand with disdain, "Huh, it turns out to be just a wild guess. By the way, Xiao Xue, did you ever hear of sothing called the ’Discontinuous Belt’ in the future?"
I then rembered that we had a crucial inford person on the scene: Xiao Xue is from many years in the future, she might know the results of future scientists’ research on the Abyss!
Initially, I didn’t think of asking this mischievous kid for a simple reason: this girl is always hovering around , and the whole family from top to bottom is almost used to her presence. I nearly forgot she was just a projection from the future. As for why Lin Xue rembered, that’s probably because a mother’s mind is ticulous.
Xiao Xue was busy teasing the Little Crow on her shoulder and looked puzzled when Lin Xue asked, "Discontinuous Belt? How co I don’t know about that? My teacher never talked about this in Abyss Knowledge class."
"Isn’t it because you happened to skip class?" Lin Xue looked suspiciously at her difficult-to-discipline daughter, who imdiately exclaid in grievance, "No way! I had excellent grades back then, I could fill the answer sheet even before exams were handed out..."
Lin Xue and I imdiately looked at this naughty kid with a strange look, and she realized her slip of the tongue, her face full of frustration, "Dad, Mom, can you pretend you didn’t hear that? I only managed to scam pocket money after exams when I was little..."
This girl’s intelligence is plumting, if she keeps running her mouth, she’ll end up alienated from pocket money for life.
By this ti, Lin Xue started complaining, arms crossed, "I say, can’t you and your father be a bit more serious when we’re discussing serious matters?"
I heard the genuine child’s mom speak up, so I quickly shrank my neck alongside Xiao Xue, assuming a serious and earnest deanor.
Now it seems Xiao Xue really doesn’t know about the ’Discontinuous Belt’, which ans there’s no such thing inside the Abyss in the future. And considering it’s not even ntioned in textbooks (which must be intensely high-level textbooks), I can boldly speculate: the Discontinuous Belt hasn’t caused any grave impact, it hasn’t even triggered any major events.
It’s simple, if that thing really caused an Abyss Gate outbreak, Xiao Xue would have read about it in children’s books. I can imagine the Imperial Ministry of Education’s extent of explaining Abyss-related science; they wouldn’t hesitate to preach common doomsday signs and self-preservation thods on second-grade textbooks, making it as widespread as fire safety leaflets during fire safety month.
Others had similar views, but Sandora still cautioned, "Don’t be too optimistic, anything related to the Abyss can’t be anything good."
On this point, everyone present was in strong agreent.
Everyone was deep in thought, contemplating the possible hidden implications behind this issue, except Pandora and Visca, who seed uninterested in the current big situation. The sisters only cared about two things: who to kill and how many, even an Abyss Gate outbreak for them would just an waiting for a command to march out. So the two at nearly a ter twenty looked particularly bored, swaying like wobbling dolls at a steady rhythm. I placed my hands on the two little girls’ heads, shaking along with them while thinking, and finally noticed an unanswered key question, "By the way, at this rate, when will the Discontinuous Belt ’float up’ near the Abyss Gate?"
Taville looked worried, "If this is its constant speed, it will reach the gate in at least three hundred years. We just don’t know if it will ’overflow’ from the gate. Theoretically, that’s the case."
I suddenly stopped swaying: Three hundred years?!
Phew, I had been startled before, thinking sothing massive was about to happen, and it turns out there’s three hundred more years, which ans there’s still plenty of ti...
Just as I thought of this, I heard Sandora exclaiming in surprise and worry, "Three hundred years? So soon?"
And Bingdisi exclaid too, "Oh my, it’s here in the blink of an eye! Can we react fast enough?"
Then Sandora and Bingdisi began to worry and discuss this as if the Void Cataclysm was just a couple of days away, and Qianqian and the others watched in astonishnt beside them. I could tell from their expressions that Qianqian and the others shared my thoughts: we all thought three hundred years was quite long, and didn’t expect Sandora and Bingdisi to react like this...
Even Visca whispered to Pandora, "Sis, it’s quite soon, huh."
Pandora nodded silently and continued swaying.
I: "..." Forget it, I won’t argue about ti with these folks who have lived through several universe cycles; I’ll eventually beco like these Divine Race folks and lose the concept of ti anyway.
Taville had finished reporting the matter, and Bingdisi began packing to go to the Divine Realm, Pandora and Visca were so bored they almost rolled on the ground, so I sent them off along with the equally bored Qianqian (and dragged Xiao Xue away, she wasn’t bored, but I was afraid she’d cause trouble staying here). In the end, it was just , Sandora, and Lin Xue left. Sandora glanced at Taville, "What’s the next step?"
"I will conduct another deep dive experint soon," Taville nodded, "because of the Discontinuous Belt, now deep diving activities are different from before. We’ve created a large number of low-cost unmanned probes, they are more fragile than deep-diving ships but have the sa basic protection asures. These probes form a sensitive detection zone around the deep-diving ship, ensuring the ship can be withdrawn before the Discontinuous Belt experiences violent turbulence."
"So, does the Discontinuous Belt follow any patterns?" Sandora asked curiously.
"Short-range fluctuations don’t deviate too much," Taville nodded, "but as we delve deeper into the Discontinuous Belt, such patterns beco harder to find. Currently, we can keep the deep-diving ship safely in the ’wave’ mid-point, but further exploration might be risky. Theoretically, that’s the case."
I rembered that our ancestors were also participating in manned deep dives now, and couldn’t help asking, "Do the ancestors have any issues?"
Those highly enthusiastic ancestors are as reckless as today’s Imperial Soldiers; their reckless spirit is quite daunting.
"Everything is fine," Taville smiled, "the ancestors’ immunity to the Abyss is astonishing. The most dangerous part of manned deep diving is that personnel cannot directly observe the equipnt on the ship, needing to rely on nurous converters and safety barriers to know what’s happening outside the ship, otherwise polling may occur. The ancestors completely ignored this danger; by eliminating these converters and filters, the operational status of the deep-diving ship was unprecedentedly stable. Theoretically... well, that’s it."
Aside from the approaching Discontinuous Belt, everything else seems to be moving toward a good direction. (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to cast your recomndation votes and monthly votes on Qidian (qidian). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian to read.)
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