In the tombkeeper's hut, Yaleriga spent an unusually quiet few days. There was no formal quarrel or debate, but she and Jing Huang never said a word to each other and tried their best to show their ignorance of each other's existence.
Yaleriga was not angry about this. When she was still quite young, she encountered all kinds of males, sensitive, rude or self-righteous, who would vent their anger on others when their own incompetence was exposed. She could count a dozen such names, but until then, the names that stuck with her had some merit, something she had admired about them, so she never let things get ugly by arguing. degree. She just left without looking back - if she had stuck to her principles when facing Villar, the ending might have been better than the worst.
Even though Jing Huang’s way of getting along with her was different from most of the people she had walked with in the past, or he had some kind of life experience that was beyond expectation, in Yaleriga’s eyes he was still a man with many flaws and a lack of self. A young male with improved abilities, a powerful cub who has to use skill to maintain communication. But she'll tolerate it if she thinks it's worth it, until she thinks it's irreversible.
She was still trying to figure out why Jing Huang showed such an attitude. There are many people who use bluff anger to cover up their mistakes and guilty consciences; there are also people who are fickle by nature and ignore past friendships when their emotions change; there is also a third possibility that has nothing to do with emotions and personality, which is a deliberate decision. Expulsion order.
The days passed by her secret observation. Although during those few days, they seemed to be able to pass through a sliding door opened in the center of the stone fence without restriction and go to the wide street outside, Jing Huang had no intention of visiting his master. He always sat in the corner of the room and meditated. Sometimes he picked up the white paper, but he always looked at the side with only one ink dot, as if this regular-shaped dot was much more important than the signature on the back.
A few days later, the black-headed envoy arrived with the Golden Guardian and informed them to complete the prosthetic surgery. So Jing Huang finally walked out of the stone house and stepped through the sliding door on the stone fence. Yaleriga also followed, and no one raised any objection.
Instead of going to the White Tower immediately, they were directed to a commercial area available for short-term rentals. In that area, as long as you pay enough rent, you can get a temporary door. Although the time it can be kept is short, the total price is much cheaper than long-term purchase in order to hold certain periodic exhibitions or complete a one-time transportation task.
It is almost impossible to know the way through impressions on this kind of street. All doors change from time to time, taking on the appearance required by new tenants or tacitly suggesting a new destination. This place is not as lively as the open market. Only those with clear goals will come here.
Among these ever-changing buildings, there is a two-story yellow mud brick building lying in the middle of a square tower made entirely of small glass squares and an exquisite garden arch. Each brick wall is engraved with flowers with long spiral leaves, and the gold edge on the top of the eaves rises in a wavy manner, with the top showing the outline of a bird spreading its wings. A thick red velvet curtain hangs at the entrance of this unknown building. The hanging board on the right side of the velvet curtain reads the upcoming program:
"Prenci's Revenge" Scene One, Four Days
"Vientiane Symphony Month" The Second Ten Days Festival
Yaleriga has only heard of the first show, and she remembers it as a Cat People show. However, they arrived at the theater on the fifth day of the festival, just missing the performance time.
The black-headed faceless messenger opened the curtain for them and led them into the long and narrow audience passage inside. Their host, who had met them a few days before, was sitting in the front row of the audience, staring at the empty stage.
"The operation is arranged in a private room." He said, "I asked a trusted mage to perform the operation. Now he is waiting there. The transaction you booked before has been cancelled, and you will receive the refund later. deposit.”
Jing Huang had no objection. Yaleriga said: "So this is your gift?"
"Funding."
"You don't look like a generous person."
"For managers, generosity is not a virtue," the host replied. "Delegating the right work to the right person, coupled with the correct allocation of resources, is the most important virtue of a manager."
"You're really good at this job. But it doesn't seem to give you enough benefits."
The owner asked back: "Don't you think owning such a city is enough as a reward?"
"It seems to me more like it owns you." Yaleriga said, "I wonder what fun it is to take power itself as a reward."
"For a race like you that can easily rob other people's secrets and force others to assimilate their thoughts, you probably won't find it interesting to run an organization with skills."
Yaleriga smiled. She understood the arrogant mage's dislike for her, and was amused by the fear behind the hostility.
“You dedicate your time to people you don’t care about,” she concluded, “and you think you’re in charge?”
"Management doesn't require being a saint or a parent, it's just part of what I do outside of research. But it's not all bad as you describe. For example, when someone provokes me with a thousand dying babies. , I will pass on the task of handling this matter to the experts.”
Jing Huang was not interested in the management art they discussed. His eyes looked towards the second floor. Before he could press impatiently, the master said: "I think it would be better to put it into a contract as a guarantee of my support."
A puppet in a fancy costume walked up to the audience carrying a plate. On the plate were paper rolls, reed pens, ink, daggers, stone needles, silver thread, and more than a dozen other scattered magic supplies.
"This contract guarantees that you will start arresting your enemies immediately after getting the arm." The master said, "You can sign it in the way you are accustomed to."
Jing Huang read the scroll paper once, then grabbed a reed pen and wrote his own name.
"You need to sign in two forms." The master said, "According to the requirements of the White Tower, all non-White Tower spell contracts that require their certification must be annotated in alliance text."
Jing Huang reluctantly wrote it again, using the alliance format that Yaleriga had taught him to mark the meaning and pronunciation of the name. Then the owner also picked up the reed pen and signed.
"Eden." Jing Huang read as he read.
"I don't mind the name being leaked, it's not a weakness for me," the owner said, "but I will try to figure out who leaked it."
The deed burned, leaving no trace of ashes. Then Jing Huang was led away by the black-headed messenger. Yaleriga sat on the seat two people away from her master, waiting for the operation to end. She studied the suggestive patterns on the ceiling.
"You are not related to that child by blood," the owner said.
"You investigated me."
"I didn't mean to target you specifically. I just learned about it by chance."
Yaleriga turned her head to look at him. She didn't think there was any chance.
"If a person sends you dying babies all day long, and you happen to hear his name, wouldn't it be normal to want to know the meaning of the name? I just happened to buy such expensive items from the White Tower, so I asked him by the way. They asked around.”
Yaleriga moved closer to him: "Mind sharing?"
"I assume you know the Fish Gin School?"
"I like their theory about space travel."
"Well, maybe you have also heard that they have many branches, one of which is called 'Fin Travel'. When I sent the inquiry letter to the White Tower, a mage from the Fin Travel School contacted me and told me that he might know this name It represents something. He sent me a book written by the Spire Master of their school and explained to me the connection."
Yaleriga listened attentively and began to search for this school of thought in her memory. The master showed his slightly sarcastic smile again.
"If you ask me what it means to take this job," he said, "that's part of the answer. I don't need a talent to absorb other people's knowledge, they will actively use it for me."
"I'm sorry for your hostility," Yaleriga whispered.
"I'm just curious," the owner shot back, "what do you get paid to run that ship?"
Yaleriga gently licked her fangs.
"The way I see it, you can only continue to be curious," she said.
They sat far apart until Jing Huang reappeared in the audience. When the man who had undergone prosthetic surgery walked towards them, Yaleriga saw him constantly shaking his new left hand, with a look of quiet surprise on his face.
That left hand did better than Yaleriga expected. It can be freely controlled by beings like Jing Huang who have no biological rules, and there is nothing unusual about its appearance. Even its skin color and texture have been adjusted to be exactly the same.
"This hand doesn't need an adaptation period," the owner said. "I hope you can start working as soon as possible, starting with tracking the ship."
"No need." Jing Huang said.
Both Yaleriga and the master looked at him. He unfolded his right hand, revealing the white paper with his signature written on it.
"He already gave me the address."
"I have read the content on that piece of paper, and I also noticed which side you often look at." The owner said, "If you don't mind, I want to know the secret of that ink dot."
Jing Huang used his new left hand to spread the paper, revealing the ink dot. It is not located in the center of the page, but in a position that seems extremely accidental. In the corner of the paper, the light gray square seemed to have been scratched many times by fingernails.
"This piece of paper is 1." Jing Huang said, "The center of this point is 0.472384203, and there is 0.783231481. Mix it according to the number of digits, and you get 477823328341240831. Every three numbers represent a character. The total is..."
Yaleriga turned her head immediately to observe her master's expression and reaction. She was satisfied with the result - he might know more about the identity of Jing Huang's enemy than she did, but it was certainly not everything.
"The collapse zone of the Divine Light Realm." Jing Huang finished his words.
The owner quickly regained his usual composure and commented with admiration and sarcasm: "The length is just right."
"There may be more later. The termination prompt is more than ten consecutive 1's."
"So why not keep counting?"
"Three days. The ruler you gave is not enough."
The master spread his hands.
"I don't hear anyone asking me for a microscope or an atomic ruler," he said. "By the way, is this encryption the mainstream of their correspondence?"
"It's just a screening game invented by a person named 0206." Jing Huang replied coldly, "He only allows people who can solve the 108-bit swap code of the four-dimensional polymorph to participate in his project."
The master reached out to him and took away the coded letter.
"I will find someone to continue the calculation and send the results to you through the star network." The master said, "You can set off now."
So they were sent to the port again. Yaleriga wanted to prepare more supplies, but found a figure waiting in front of the Silence. The Flying Skywing with flying mane was sitting at the bottom of Silence, looking at its appearance with great interest.
"Wow!" she said happily, "I didn't expect you to have such a great boat!"
Yaleriga politely responded to her compliments and followed Jing Huang to the boat. She was surprised to find that Qiaoqiao Tianyi had also followed, looking around like an old passenger and commenting on the details of the ship.
"You need to replace some parts," she commented. "A little more modern equipment."
"I plan to do this when I come back." Yaleriga said. She gently reminded Qiaoqiao Tianyi to get off the ship so as not to delay their next trip.
But Qiaoqiao Tianyi looked at her in confusion. "Why put it off until later?" she asked. "I can start doing it now, even halfway!"
By this time, Yaleriga had realized the problem. She stopped, turned around and asked Qiaoqiao Tianyi: "Do you want to go with us?"
"Of course! I'm responsible for investigating that ship, right? The owner hasn't told you yet?"
Not long after she finished saying this, a golden guardian sent an exquisite letter scented with flowers, stating that the Lord of the Gate City had sent a ship expert to assist their operations. When they reach the collapse zone, the expert will track down any trace of the craft in his own way.
Yaleriga tore the letter neatly open, sent it into the incinerator with a grand gesture, and then arranged a comfortable room for the confused Qiaoqiao Tianyi. They set off in a hurry, starting from the port where the white paper ship appeared, and arriving at the edge of the Divine Light Realm and the Eternal Light Realm. While passing through that area, Qiaoqiao Tianyi suggested that they slow down so she could make some inspections and changes to the ship.
"This place is still prone to accidents." She warned. "When some novices from the Yongguang Clan come out of their territory and come to such a place with no speed limit, they will fly directly at super-light speed and hit people with the stealth system on." Boat. This accident has happened several times.”
After all, that was a small probability event, so Yaleriga didn't take it too seriously. They reached the collapse zone without hitting anything on the way. During this period of time, Jing Huang still locked himself in the room and did not say a word to the other two travelers until Yaleriga discovered that someone had checked the "collapse zone" while adjusting the main system of the spacecraft.
She tracked the access record and saw that Jing Huang came to the bridge room during a period of her rest to search for information about the collapse zone. She had not taught Jing Huang how to conduct summary and fuzzy searches, so flipping through the records seemed messy. She watched for a while, finally sorted out what she knew, and asked the robot to send it to Jing Huang's room.
Shortly thereafter, the Silence sailed into the dark, lightless tide of ether. Yaleriga alone switched the ship to the etheric form, and took turns watching on the deck with Qiaoqiao Tianyi.
She had rarely seen the ether tide in this form: no starlight, no fire, just pure soft darkness. The darkness had some grotesque substance, so that when she reached out she could even touch its soft interior, but it was neither solid nor liquid, so she could not physically grasp it. The ship swam in this peaceful darkness, like a blind fish in the abyss, moving completely with the current.
These waves, according to Yaleriga's knowledge, come from a fragmented star layer. In the ancient and remote world of divine light, things that are older than the alliance are everywhere. That doesn't necessarily mean they have high value, but it does hint at how easily civilizations can be destroyed in this universe. The Divine Light Realm does not have just one "collapse zone". It is almost completely fragmented and cut by various faults. As a result, many rare but fragile ecologies have been preserved. However, when it comes to "crash zones," that's undoubtedly where they're headed.
After about three hundred hours of stealth, she heard a voice coming from the dark depths. A dull and huge wave pushed the solidified darkness toward the sail of the Silence, making the sound of cloth being tightened. Then the darkness gradually became thinner and more transparent, and the ubiquitous cyan-blue light came through.
The Silence sailed to the top of the dark tide. This is an endless chasm, filled with blue light, just like the sky in Zhisi City at midnight. But this light is broader and thicker, and has no boundaries like the chasm. This element, called "Dream Color," can only be obtained in the Aether Tide. At the bottom of this ribbon, the black tide falls straight down like a waterfall, falling into the bottomless void. When Yaleriga stared at the deep ditch, she thought of the Judgment Hall in Gate City, and she knew that they were very similar in nature. The Judgment Hall is obviously some kind of clever imitation of the natural void passage.
But there is one thing that the Judgment Hall does not have. When Yaleriga bowed her head downward, some kind of terrifying fluctuation rumbled upward through the darkness. Although the ether tide had eliminated their harm, Yaleriga could still feel their huge energy vibrating within her body.
There are countless continents floating in the abyss. They are all flat, with either a square or round outline. Although they appear as small as biscuits on the tide, each one is actually larger than a star. Relying on the color of the dream that illuminates the top of the abyss, these continents do not fall into nothingness, but are suspended in the void. However, this kind of suspension cannot guarantee their stability, so they are constantly broken, starting from the bottom facing the abyss, causing terrifying mechanical waves to intertwine and entangle, occupying the entire chasm. This symphony of destruction plays without ceasing until the last patch of land remains. But that will undoubtedly take a lot of time, even longer than the death of a star.
Yaleriga watched on the deck for a long time until she found that her ears were bleeding. She had to retreat into the boat to find a countermeasure, and at the same time she thought of the strange looks of the dead babies - no matter why Jing Huang's enemies stayed here, she knew they were in the right place.
