In order to avoid encountering the killer in an unknown environment, they gave up the planned walking investigation and used automatic detectors to conduct efficient searches. Although these detectors using ether assimilation technology are far cheaper than ether isolators or spiritual field shielding facilities, their stability is difficult to satisfy. Malfunctions and disconnections occurred frequently, just as Yaleriga predicted.
The failure rate is not entirely unacceptable. Before being completely damaged or lost, most detectors will send enough information to the spacecraft to allow them to determine the general environment. When she or Qiaoqiao Tianyi thought a location was worthy of inspection, they would drive Silence or a small aircraft there. During the field investigation, Yaleriga will drive the multi-phase hybrid radar at any time, as well as moth detectors, hostile amulets, miniature bulletproof walls and soft aeromagnetic dual-purpose bulletproof covers. When Qiaoqiao Tianyi struggled to lift the weight with her wings, she asked Yaleriga a little collapsed if this was really necessary.
"We can hide in the boat and hit it at any time." She said painfully, "We have done bulletproof testing of the aircraft shell!"
That was indeed a plan, but it was not Yaleriga's ideal plan. She didn't want the killer to give up, but wanted to solve the abandoned baby criminal before solving it. In this way, they could focus on dealing with the truly dangerous and unknown challenge - it was hard for her to imagine what kind of skills Jing Huang's enemies had.
She waited for an attack, but the killer never showed up. No matter what method it used to escape from Jing Huang, it seemed to have caused it to be injured, or at least become extremely cautious.
Another thing struck her as strange. The security measures on the Silence, like the ship's original bridge room, were primitive and impersonal. It certainly has the minimum basic configuration, and leaves room for further modifications in materials and structure. It has great potential, but from the perspective of data analysis alone, it cannot be regarded as a particularly safe ship.
That doesn't add up to the facts. Before coming here, Yaleriga had experienced many storms on the boat. She couldn't help but notice that bad things always seemed to happen after leaving the Silence. That's not some mysterious luck or chance. After a sudden ether storm, not a single part of the entire ship was damaged; during the planet massacre launched by the nanorobots, she never detected any nanorobots entering the interior of the Silence; even the specialized thermal The dark wizard, who was disturbed by weapons, was still unable to sink the ship as he threatened until the shadow of the Silence rode on his face.
In so many cases, Jing Huang's attitude provides proof from another angle. Whenever he was about to take some dangerous action, he obviously preferred that Yaleriga, or any other distressed person he rescued along the way, could stay in the Silence. Some unspoken rule seemed to lead him to believe that the ship was an impregnable fortress, strong enough to withstand any unexpected danger. Even after a killer blew off her legs, he still left without any explanation, leaving only the Silence to her, as if the ship was a passport to escape death. That didn't make sense, but Yaleriga found it to be true: she had never encountered any enemy inside the Silence, whether it was the largest, the smallest, technological crystal or spiritual creature, intentionally or unintentionally.
It was probably just one of the trillions of coincidences in the universe, but the killer still didn't show up. She and Qiaoqiao Tianyi successfully explored the uppermost area of the chasm, leaving them with two paths, either toward the infinitely extending sides, or toward the endless bottomless bottom.
At this time, they had obtained some conclusions from the information collected by the detector, most of which were the same as the previous research on the White Tower. These lands scattered in the abyss like bubbles in gel, although they are now fragmented, they always have a lot in common in adjacent areas. The land on the same plane is very similar in geology and material composition. They also found tamarisk-like plants in three different places. Although they have developed many differences in traits due to their environment, Yaleriga speculates that they may have come from the same area a long time ago.
That would be consistent with the old theory of the White Tower. The first investigators here generally believed that the land scattered in this chasm was once a whole, just like the cat people's hometown of Lepanting, which was a complete flat land floating in a finite and boundless realm. Based on the existing wreckage, researchers speculate that its original size may have been larger than a star cluster system, which means that it was at least ten times wider than Lepanting.
Estimates of the thickness of the Old World are less specific. As the Chasm sank into the etheric tide, technological gates that estimated age through the decay of matter became meaningless. Since it is impossible to determine how long ago the bottom of this landmass collapsed, its thickness can only be determined through some simple divination magic. Explorers have tried it, and the maximum conclusion reached is ninety million times different from the minimum conclusion. They could only think that the environment interfered with the spell's results.
The investigation didn't last long. The mages are obviously more interested in the harm caused by the gap itself than the gradually collapsing land. As for the life that may be formed on this land, as long as it does not one day become the legion of destruction swept by the abyss towards the Alliance, they will declare that there is no need to manage it for the time being, and claim that it will not be stranger than the things formed in a continuous trap zone. .
Yaleriga and Qiaoqiao Tianyi decided to go down, because the surface geographical environment did not seem to be suitable for the breeding of that kind of infant population. After recovering most of the detectors, they directly drove the Silence down.
It was an unexpectedly long journey. Silence has not encountered any danger, but they will stop to conduct some routine investigations every two standard distances (the maximum gravitational effective range of the star in the galaxy where Central City is located). They still use detectors to collect images and samples, but Yaleriga has also launched new infrasound collection equipment.
She didn't have high expectations, but she still wanted to see if there was any other information hidden in the intertwined sounds of destruction. When the probe is released to the surface, she will use a small aircraft to carry the receiving component of the device and view the results from the analysis end. This was a device produced by the Divine Light Realm that she had never used before. The data caliber and format were very different from Central City standards, and it also came with a useless visual window. The product description states that this is an ether analysis component that uses the old system framework developed by the Dust Kings.
Yalali Gana is estimated to have been at least two hundred Central City standard years ago. She reclined in the seat of the aircraft, staring at the seemingly meaningless colorful sonogram. Most of the time, they are like black pools flooded with highly corrosive solutions at the edge of the environment, slowly changing color and rolling under the star's light, forming some ripples that have no practical significance. When she stared at it in a daze, she thought of the primordial era of the universe, the spiritual field model and the never-ending microwave radiation. The world exists in life as an illusion of light, an endless tapestry of time and space, but that is not its essence - from a slightly more modern perspective, the world is made up of waves. Different amplitudes and different frequencies, this subtle change creates everything in the eyes. But reality does not lie in the presentation of light, but in what can be calculated and constructed correctly. Light and sound are only formal means of detecting waves. And what did the laws say? Mages have always maintained that there is some kind of ultimate state, so to speak, meaning, just like what the wishing machine and the high spirit belt imply. Ancient law does not enter into this debate. She thought of the legendary shaman country.
Sometimes, the sonogram will show a slightly different pattern, perhaps just accidental noise or the misjudgment of an outdated analysis system caused by wave interference. But Yaleriga will still pay attention to their shapes, which are like branches floating on the water, slender and solid. She never found the source of this disturbance.
Qiaoqiao Tianyi was rarely idle when she checked the sonicator. After long being protected from the threat of a killer cat-man, the spaceship expert rekindles her interest in investigating the mystery of the Silence's rudder. She focused her new suspicion on the pattern on the belly of the spacecraft.
That pattern, some kind of terrifying devil with tree-shaped branches, had been seen by Yaleriga since she first boarded the ship. She knew that there were many similar customs in places where the Yoru people lived: carrying seals or jewelry with specific patterns, making boats and carts into specific shapes, or simply permanently attaching a horn to oneself. Certain shapes are considered to have power, but that is not the secret art of geometry pursued by mages, but more like a promise or threat. A widely circulated belief seems to be that such patterns point directly to some specific, great and immortal form of existence. Not a flag or a logo, but more like a doorbell calling them. If you invade the area protected by the pattern, you will inevitably incur the revenge of those great things.
It is difficult to say whether these legends are true or not, but they are at least exaggerated. Yaleriga has not yet felt that there is anything suspicious about the pattern, but Qiaoqiao Tianyi is very interested in it. She pointed out that she had never seen the paint used to draw this tree-shaped devil, and tried to get Yaleriga to allow her to pick out a little and study it. As the owner of the ship - the only new owner, Yaleriga agreed. In the next ten hours, she watched Qiaoqiao Tianyi use various tools to hit the pattern, trying to get a sample without damaging the surrounding area.
They are still going down. There was no sign of the existence of civilization, and there was no sign of Jing Huang either. Yaleriga did not feel discouraged. The length of this gap could allow light to travel for tens of millions of years. The black tide could not be located outside the tunnel point. In addition, she had already been delayed for a long time when she set off. She would be lost and gain nothing. Of course. When more than half of the detectors were lost, she asked Qiaoqiao Tianyi if she wanted to return to Mencheng first.
"No, of course I can't leave you behind!" said the spaceship expert, "Where are we now! The road I took to get to Gate City for the first time was really long."
After another twenty standard star distances, the geological features have been turned upside down. The blue dreamy light on the top of the ditch became completely invisible. In the darkness, they found some unrecorded continents, with obvious traces of tidal flats and seabeds. Even more gratifying are the fossils of some shelled animals. A creature that is roughly spherical in shape, with many pores and a needle-like endoskeleton that lead directly to the interior. When Yaleriga tried to shake it, the remaining needle bones inside made a noise like the tongue of a bell. This was unusual, she thought, and perhaps the shell of the dead creature was rich in metal.
There is also no trace of Jing Huang in the Land of Dry Sea. But after that, they seemed to have reached a turning point in their luck. The fragments of the continent are becoming more and more alien to common sense, while the signs of life are becoming stronger and stronger. They encountered the fragments of an entire ocean, a mass of water pouring down from all sides. Qiaoqiao Tianyi hated the water, but Yaleriga took the risk and sneaked in to take a look. Inside this ocean debris, she discovered many algae plants and blind fish with very well-evolved organs that could reproduce freely in this circulatory system. At the rate at which the ocean is collapsing, it seems likely that these fish schools will be able to reproduce for a long time.
Even Yaleriga was surprised. She managed to catch a few and brought them to Qiaoqiao Tianyi as proof. Then they found more things: glacial fragments with biological bones, temporary shelters that seemed to be made of polished stones, and large pieces of antimony-bismuth alloy that could not be found in a natural state.
That was decisive evidence. When they found these signs on a surface made of carbon and oxygen as the main elements, and knew that there could never be a real meteorite here, there was no doubt that they had obtained the question that the White Tower mages had not been able to verify: in There was once a primitive civilization in the collapse zone that continued to fall, and perhaps it continued to exist during the fall. They just don't know the current status of these civilizations, or their final outcome.
Yaleriga has almost forgotten the appearance of the Lord of the Gate City - of course, not really forgotten, she is very patient when it comes to holding grudges. But this long journey did make her and Qiaoqiao Tianyi suffer a lot. Many consumable materials have been recycled for nearly a hundred rounds, and the loss rate has inevitably become a threat. Detectors always break and are repaired until they can no longer be repaired. When the last core component is damaged, they can only use small aircraft to explore. Finally, during a break while Yaleriga was reading Jinchachatan's works, she heard Qiaoqiao Tianyi shouting in a trance.
"Jalai!" she shouted, "I see the road!"
That was a very broad expression, so Yaleriga didn't pay much attention to it. She was ready to read the last chapter of this thick volume until Qiaoqiao Tianyi thrust his head into her arms and kicked the book open.
"Lulululululu!" she shouted while leaning on her body and continued to stomp on Jinchachatan with her hoofs.
"What way?" Yaleriga asked.
"railway!"
