Capítulo 1577: Chapter 1577: Those Fragnts?!
The “Energy Guiding Bridge” had completely stopped functioning, with its internal energy reaction at zero. Sandora and I boldly connected the work ship to the end of the “Energy Guiding Bridge” to provide energy and simultaneously scan the structure of the facility through the crystallized pipeline to determine its functionality. But whether it was due to my bad luck or sothing else… even such a place had to have so unexpected incident: the three-kiloter-long “abandoned facility” suddenly activated, its extinguished energy networks on the surface lit up brightly, and an abundant surge of ghost energy flowed across the silver-white alloy shell. Fortunately, Sandora and I had already made our way outside through the broken end of the long bridge, allowing us to calmly observe the massive facility rapidly awakening as if resurrected, and in an energy surge, it destroyed our work ship.
“What’s going on!?” My reaction was fairly quick; I didn’t imdiately worry about the small loss of the unmanned spaceship. Instead, I swiftly scanned the movent of energy within the “Energy Guiding Bridge” and was shocked to discover that it had sohow received an energy supply and was rapidly rebooting at an astonishing speed!
“This thing might not be just a re fragnt as we imagined…” Sandora suddenly released nurous golden lines from her body, condensing into a large arrow, and pointed in a certain direction like a giant cursor, “Ah Jun, look at the fracture surface.”
Staring blankly at the giant cursor beside , I realized now wasn’t the ti to focus on this; Sandora was pointing to the place where the Energy Guiding Bridge had been “cut off.” Around the seemingly sliced surface, a significant space anomaly was evident! The space within a hundred ters of the fracture surface rippled like water, and blue ghost energy networks extended directly into outer space from the armor plates of the Energy Guiding Bridge, maintaining its spreading form on the armor plates stretching half a kiloter outward before gradually fading away. anwhile, on the empty side of the fracture, phantom images occasionally appeared under the ghost energy glow. I imdiately understood the situation: it was the part of the Energy Guiding Bridge that had been “cut off”! Had it not been severed at all?
“This should be related to the peculiar space structure here. The ‘Energy Guiding Bridge’ hasn’t been cut off; its other part should be located in a space fold. The two seem separated but are connected in a higher dinsion,” Sandora Ball analyzed professionally. “Ghost energy is cross-dinsional, so when it starts flowing again, this temporary ‘separation’ is neutralized. The phantom images we see should be the Energy Guiding Bridge’s images in another dinsion. Originally a simple phenonon, but the strange space encryption here made overlook it. Ah Jun, look… those ghost energy networks are extending and seem to be expanding in all directions. This might represent the ‘cut-off’ shape of the Energy Guiding Bridge… No, that should be the main structure. We are rely seeing the tip exposed in the current space, like the spike of a cone protruding from a pocket.”
After flipping the explanation over in my mind several tis, I forced myself to construct a poorly understood space model, then clapped my hands (though no sound ca): “So we can trace these ghost energy networks to find the encrypted space?”
“It seems not that easy,” Sandora Ball quivered uneasily. “The engineering ship’s scientific unit is decrypting with maximum power, but these keys are deeply entrenched in the ghost energy ‘frequency’… The Energy Guiding Bridge wasn’t accidentally exposed in this space; it appears to be a tentacle, sothing intentional in design. Its activation doesn’t affect the completeness of the space lock… We’d better experience it personally. Ah Jun, protect well; my Spirit Spark’s defense is not as strong as my original form. If it’s shattered, I’ll have to make another.”
I promptly embraced Sandora Ball and shielded us both, then cautiously moved toward the dazzlingly bright “Energy Guiding Bridge,” directly plunging into the turbulent light stream of the fracture surface to observe what changes were happening here.
The intense energy oscillated all around, and I sensed that my location should be an energy node. If the “Energy Guiding Bridge” restored its integrity, here might be the hub of the crystallized pipeline or the energy control valve location. The scientific unit on the engineering ship was unable to crack the complex space encryption here, so I had to see if my quirky little ability could bypass it, but the process required extre caution: I was about to inject the power of Void Creatures directly into a piece of antique equipnt that hadn’t been maintained for tens of thousands of years. While Empire equipnt is generally durable, ghost energy nodes are like hearts; mishandling could lead to a big explosion.
I wasn’t afraid of injury. Sandora likely wouldn’t mind creating a new Spirit Spark for to play with, but if the antique exploded, it’d be gone for good.
My spiritual power cautiously extended along the spontaneously flowing ghost energy torrents in outer space, shifting my “perspective” from a human-friendly angle to a broader direction. I began sensing my progression along the energy flow, surrounded by outer space… outer space… outer space… the work ship wreckage… Oh, wrong direction; I better change course.
In another direction, I finally confird seeing sothing faintly: in a mysterious, chaotic space, ghost energy networks entangled, pulsing, and suffusing a planetary-scale system. The continuous energy flow showed no signs of damage despite sleeping for tens of thousands of years. So colossal, energy-containing “giant facility” seed to be continually operating, with its core perfectly intact and hidden within Other Space amidst the out-of-service facilities on the outer space, pulsating slowly yet powerfully like a heart lurking.
I could only “see” the energy distribution in Other Space through ghost energy flow sensing, equivalent to seeing only the vascular system, allowing one to sketch a person’s form without knowing their appearance—perhaps quite a frightening analogy, but roughly accurate.
Judging from the energy networks, it appeared an artificial planet was hidden in Other Space. Was it an Old Empire era planet battleship? Or another “Green Star” Ark that the Tree Elf had escaped on? Or more mysteriously… was it the Glory Starship?
Hard to determine; I could only see the ghost energy entangled to resemble a planet, but with my knowledge, I couldn’t confirm its model. Sandora probably couldn’t either; it’s all quite complex.
The entangled ghost energy networks ford a thick “shell,” leaving the core empty and unexplored, suggesting sothing beyond my understanding, covered by these ghost energy networks—although integrated, distinct in not belonging to one system… Was this encrypted space not ant to protect the artificial planet but rather its more precious core? A double insurance maybe?
At this mont, the ghost energy flow around seed more turbulent, implying my prolonged “imrsion” might destabilize the system. Understanding my power as a Void Creature was essentially a highly uncontrollable bomb, I promptly withdrew my spiritual power to prevent blowing up the entire system, refocusing to see my sparkling, golden, round wife—Sandora Ball was nearly pressing against my face.
“Ah Jun, what did you see? You looked pretty serious just now!” Her Majesty the Queen was completely natural and charming, inquiring about the situation with a dull expression and serious tone.
“Other Space is about the size of the Sun, with sothing resembling a planet battleship parked at its center—or it might be the second Green Star Ark the Exiled once rode. I can only see the energy flow inside the artificial planet, so I dare not confirm its model. Moreover, its core holds a region I can’t probe, not resembling the artificial planet’s structure, perhaps… so cargo.”
Explaining what I saw, I cautiously used the term “cargo,” recognizing its resonance in nurous Old Empire-related “historical legacy issues.” The term often signifies trouble, frequently leading to business trips—yet, having already ended up here with Sandora, perhaps there’s little to concern?
“Indeed a big find, could it be the Heavenly God’s Forge?” Sandora Ball drifted away slightly, “Can’t tell; it’s mostly conjecture. Why did the ‘Energy Guiding Bridge’ suddenly activate? It resembles the ‘attachnt’ of the artificial planet, supposedly in shutdown status. Was our forced ‘external power supply’ triggering an alarm? Doesn’t seem right, as no defense forces have co rushing out yet.”
Sandora Ball drifted into outer space, finding no defense forces, disappointingly sighed in the spiritual channel.
Seriously, why are you feeling disappointed now?! It’s already just a ball, don’t be so eager for battle, okay?!
“If there were defense forces rushing out, at least we’d have a chance to catch an AI for analysis or sothing,” Sandora explained, revealing that it wasn’t entirely the inborn war factor of the Xyrin Apostle at work, “if we don’t go in, we can only hope there’s sothing coming out of there—though now it seems that’s unreliable too.”
“It seems the encrypted space here is the handiwork of Abyss Xyrin, even if it wasn’t personally constructed by her, it was so device she left for the exiled that constructed this encrypted space,” I looked at the scene in outer space, besides the increasingly bright “Energy Guiding Bridge” before us, various abandoned facilities in the distance remained lifeless, and I couldn’t fathom what this architectural complex built by a coalition of races was actually for, only certain that it seed only the core Imperial facilities had withstood the test of ti to function till today, “that guy truly is everywhere… but at least not everything is bad news. Wait! Sandora, look at that!”
I pointed in surprise at the distance: the Energy Guiding Bridge’s charging had reached so critical point, and at its end now appeared a massive structure resembling a World Gate. This colossal ring-shaped structure erged out of thin air, suspended several hundred ters above the end of the Energy Guiding Bridge, spanning tens of miles in diater (far exceeding the scale of the Energy Guiding Bridge). Inside the ring began to rapidly exhibit rings of ripples, a Space Gate seemingly opened leading to a very distant place, possibly even other worlds, but it felt different from other known World Gates—we couldn’t sense any of the aura from other worlds escaping from those ripples.
As Sandora and I curiously scanned this strange Teleportation Gate, a large piece of debris-looking object suddenly appeared before the gate! This piece of debris had edges presenting a slight curve, its surface was entirely black, seemingly a fragnt dropped from so large ring-shaped facility, both ends were jagged, showing signs of tal tears, and the insides showed violently damaged pipelines and circuits.
Before I had a chance for a closer look, this huge fragnt-like alloy piece passed through the newly established teleportation gate, completely vanishing from this universe. Subsequently, the teleportation gate disassembled again in outer space, and the blue light on the surface of the Energy Guiding Bridge rapidly dimd. All this disappeared faster than it appeared, ending within ten seconds: the peculiar tens-of-kiloters “World Gate” returned to so encrypted space, and the Energy Guiding Bridge reverted back to its lifeless state, just like the scene Sandora and I first observed upon arrival here.
“What was that situation just now?” I turned to Sandora, “So the Energy Guiding Bridge was charging all this ti just to open a World Gate to send sothing out? Is it related to our actions?”
“That wasn’t just a World Gate… its principle of operation is different, I can’t even sense where it leads,” Sandora Ball’s surface shimred with unprecedented brilliance, seemingly expressing her astonishnt, “We indeed overestimated, it’s not our activities that awakened the Energy Guiding Bridge, it rely followed so programd schedule to awaken and send sothing off, you and I rely happened to witness this mont… but speaking of which, Ah Jun, don’t you think that just-transported debris seed familiar?”
I pursed my lips, inwardly admitting that regardless of how bizarre, I’d seen sothing similar: “It seems… it was Visca’s Star Ring Fragnt? We’ve supposedly collected ninety-nine percent of the Star Ring Fragnts, but surely there are overlooked ones.”
Indeed, Visca’s Star Ring Fragnt! The Star Ring was originally the weapon attachnt of the Visca Barrier Star (aka Moon), there were originally two, one of which was blown to countless fragnts, and they caused us quite so trouble in the early days of the New Empire (many incidents triggered by those fragnts). For years we’ve actively cleaned up these dangerous objects drifting throughout the Void and All Realms, nearly collecting them all, but after all, things shattered to powder inevitably left so overlooked… yet I never expected to see a Star Ring Fragnt here!
Moreover, it seed the Star Ring Fragnt was released from this world?
It’s a bit early for this conclusion, but at least I just personally witnessed one fragnt being sent through a suspected World Gate device, right under Sandora and my noses!
“I just had the Engineering Ship launch a probe following that debris,” Sandora always keeps her cool, even amidst surprises she responded promptly, “but the probe lost contact after passing through the teleportation gate—we still need to first resolve this universe’s blockade issue.”
“The mysteries keep piling up, pretty interesting, but also quite a headache.” I looked at the Energy Guiding Bridge quietly floating in outer space, this three-kiloter-long tal “appendage” had now reverted back to its lifeless look, within the encrypted space, so system seed to have halted energy supply here, Sandora and I accidentally stumbled upon the jaw-dropping scene earlier, this basically counted as our one instance of luck working: the odds of encountering events are particularly high.
If my guess is correct, this Energy Guiding Bridge wasn’t accidentally exposed to outer space, it might have been left here to set markers for the World Gate, perhaps it activates periodically? Each activation ejects a Star Ring Fragnt?
Or perhaps… it’s not just Star Ring Fragnts it sent out, could there be other things in that Other Space?
These are all unexplained, still no progress as the research team aboard the Engineering Ship struggles to unlock the spatial encryption here, indeed Abyss Xyrin epitomizes the spiritual collective of all Apostles from the Old Empire, the encryption system she left behind was top-tier even in the Old Empire Era, not to ntion now—impossible to break!
“Oh, finally found sothing related to Tree Elf,” at this mont Sandora Ball floated over, multitasking in monitoring the Energy Guiding Bridge and the released Star Ring Fragnt while analyzing probe feedback from surrounding facilities scans, she finally discovered sothing, “Found Tree Elf-style equipnt within certain large structures, it’s the ‘Primordial Style’ from Green Star, unlike the culturally blended Tree Elf style we found on that planet, indeed there was a Tree Elf race among those that constructed this place.”
“Seems we have to head back, see if the old cadres of the Lost God Sect have anything to say,” I remarked as I gazed at the deep outer space, “speaking of which… haven’t found other planets with high-level civilizations?”
“No,” Sandora Ball’s tone carried slight disappointnt, “at least within the Milky Way’s scope, the only planet hosting high-level civilizations is the one we initially landed on, there are so planets with rather primitive ecosystems elsewhere, but they’re far from civilized. Evidently, the exiles who fled here couldn’t redevelop their new ho, they settled on so random planet, but shortly returned to primitive living.”
Another peculiar occurrence, still best to return and consult the Lost God Sect mbers. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you’re welco to like it on Qidian (qidian) by voting for recomndations and monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please read on m.qidian.)
Reviews
All reviews (0)