Chapter 870 - 869: The Day of Collapse

Chapter 870: Chapter 869: The Day of Collapse

Ah, good news.

Good news has finally arrived.

Even though it’s unclear where it came from or who sent it, here in this land at the end of time, just a ripple of information appearing in the observation is enough to prove there’s a chance for civilization to persist—everything hasn’t been completely annihilated, outside the Sanctuary, there’s still a place for intelligent beings to stand.

Thus, in the monitoring hall where she stood silent for a thousand years, the Queen of Dark Moon finally moved—after such a long time, Yu Sheng saw a smile on her face for the first time.

What followed was the difficult establishment of two-way communication, cautious yet vigilant exchanges between survivors, confirmation of the current situation, and planning and dialogue about the future.

A group of survivors from other worlds established an Exile Ark called Boundary Land, and Kant, the leader of the survivors, sent an invitation to the Queen. It turned out everyone was in the same pile of ashes, the red light had destroyed more than one world...

"Good news has arrived, there’s good news!"

A petite figure in a white dress cheered as she ran across the hall, and many other Reds rushed out from various places, running and shouting around Yu Sheng.

"We can open the gate! We can open the gate!"

A Red looking only seven or eight years old was jumping among the crowd with a brilliant smile on his face.

"We need to be cautious, first confirm the situation outside, and verify what those people said..."

A calm voice came from behind Yu Sheng, another mature and steady Red pinched her chin, speaking seriously.

Then it seemed a long time passed, or maybe just a little while.

The number of Reds in the hall began to decrease. Some merged together, some returned to the body of the Queen of Dark Moon, and some vanished into silent bubbles after bidding farewell to each other.

But a few Reds remained by the mirror, they sat on the ground, doing nothing, seemingly just waiting.

Standing in front of the mirror, the Queen of Dark Moon stepped forward, slowly placing her hand on the mirror’s surface.

Despite the former Watcher Crystal having become such a bizarre shape, despite the entire fortress having changed beyond recognition under the influence of time and distortion, some ancient things still activated.

Yu Sheng heard a distant, low rumbling, felt the entire hall slightly vibrating, with off-key, distorted sounds echoing through the fortress, intermittently—

"Confirm... highest authority... Sanctuary closure lifted, gate... opening soon... teleportation array malfunction, attempting physical channel opening..."

Accompanying these tremors and sounds, Yu Sheng suddenly felt the barrier that always blocked the depths of his Consciousness disappear—Erin’s Mind appeared in his perception.

...

Earth Core Region, above the ancient Sanctuary reactor, Hu Li and her group descended slowly on the Flying Carpet.

In front of the Flying Carpet, a platform stood quietly above the rippling, glowing sea of blood, with remnants of lights flickering at its edge—it seemed to have been some large structure on the surface of the "Moon Engine," but now the entire engine had been engulfed by the blood sea, leaving only a small part exposed on the "sea surface."

Under Lucrecia’s control, the Flying Carpet hovered at the platform edge, and the group jumped off, arriving on the platform.

Several clusters of bright Fox Fire floated in mid-air, Erin hugged her frying pan cautiously following Hu Li.

"This place is so scary..." the Little Puppet murmured, "I didn’t expect the top of the Blood Moon to be like this..."

Even Lucrecia was tightly frowning at this moment: "This should be the last remaining foothold on the surface of this ’Moon,’ search carefully, perhaps there are clues."

Hu Li widened her eyes, her golden-red pupils slowly scanning around.

The area wasn’t large, you could see everything at a glance.

"...No need to search," she suddenly said, "It’s right here."

Hu Li raised her finger to the center of the platform—an object placed there, in the most obvious spot.

It was a gray metal plaque, seemingly densely engraved with things.

"What is this thing... silly fox, be careful." Watching Hu Li approach the metal plaque, Erin quickly warned quietly.

Lucrecia, on the other hand, watched thoughtfully: "As long as this place didn’t collapse instantly, those who stayed behind would surely try to leave some records, and they would definitely place those records in the most obvious place in the entire Sanctuary, where someone would definitely find them..."

Hu Li bent down, carefully picking up the metal plaque.

The metal plaque was densely engraved with text, even after enduring the long years and distortion, the last remaining information hadn’t weathered away—

"...Everything is probably too late...

"I can no longer repair it, the time the magic circuit is extinguished is becoming longer and longer, and... there’s always strange sounds appearing deep in the reactor. I can hear it talking to me, this ancient machinery... it’s acquiring life, I can even hear the slow heartbeat...

"Our tribe, many years ago, hid deep within this planet... it’s been far too long, even I have cloudy memories of the outside world, we can only teach our descendants that an apocalypse destroyed the civilization on the surface...

"...Outside there’s still the last fortress, a Watcher remained on the surface... She is our Queen, but to prevent the spread of contamination, from the day the Sanctuary closed, we have been unable to confirm each other’s situation.

"Your Majesty the Queen, is everything well on your side? A millennium has passed... Are you still waiting for a glimmer of light to appear in the darkness where everything perishes?

"... We are very sorry to disappoint you, our glorious civilization is about to extinguish in this darkness...

"We will do our utmost to avoid becoming too monstrous in our final moments.

"But if we fail, if we ultimately devolve into beasts and monsters, we hope you can give the order, to maintain our last dignity.

"If, when you open the door..."

The record here paused, with many repeated inscriptions scratched off on the metallic plaque, chaotic engravings took up a large space, and finally, a deeply inscribed line remained at the very edge of the metallic plaque—

"... May you not open the door."

Erin blinked her eyes, looking at the last line of words on the metallic plaque, just as she was about to speak, a mind signal suddenly appeared in her perception.

"Yu Sheng?!" The Little Puppet paused for a moment, realizing instantly, "Yu Sheng! Damn! Finally got in touch with you! What’s happening on your side?"

"I was teleported to the side of the Queen of Dark Moon, trapped in this fortress for several days—just now, I saw the first time the Red connected with Kant and the others," Yu Sheng quickly said, "It seems some kind of barrier has been broken, ’Queen of Dark Moon’ is opening the sanctuary doors... there’s a passage below the hall! The entire hall is sinking!"

Erin was taken aback upon hearing this, quickly responding after a brief moment of confusion: "Whoa! Don’t let her come down! Below there..."

...

A rumble came from underground, shaking the entire hall, as the surrounding distorted and deformed walls and pillars rose, revealing the astonishing lifting mechanism below.

The central area of the hall transformed into a gigantic lifting platform, beginning to accelerate its descent into an ancient deep well.

Yu Sheng stood blankly beside the giant mirror, watching ’Red’ frantically operating something in front of it—most of the systems seemed to have failed, many of her actions did not receive a response, yet she kept busy, as if... maintaining surface calm in this way, or simply searching for something to soothe her overly excited heart.

Even for one regarded as godlike, "the Queen," over a thousand years seemed too prolonged.

Erin’s voice still echoed in his mind, the Little Puppet quickly narrating the situations they encountered on their side—about the long-nonfunctional underground sanctuary, the true situation of the red moon, and the last record on the metallic plaque.

However... how could Yu Sheng stop a phantom that had long reached its predetermined historical outcome?

He spoke, but "Red" could not hear his voice, he reached out his hand, yet it could only pass through her figure.

Erin’s side stopped, even the not-so-nimble-minded Little Puppet seemed to realize something, falling silent.

Yu Sheng could only watch as the massive lifting platform descended continuously within the deep well, the ancient mechanical structures below emitting heavy rumbles, resembling an increasingly intense and loud heartbeat.

The last watcher of a civilization stood on this platform, with delight and anticipation, with "good news" from afar, plunged into the darkness buried for a thousand years—

Gravity shifted, the platform flipped, and at the end of the mechanical passage, a grand moonlight spread out.

"Red" slowly raised her head, looking at the red moon suspended high in the darkness.

The blood moon reflected in her hollow eyes.

Her people, her kin, rippled slowly in the moonlight.

Then, Yu Sheng heard a deafening roar.

The entire world collapsed before his eyes, the ancient sanctuary, the blood-colored moon, the lifting platform, and the "Red" close at hand—all these things instantly turned into disintegrating fragments.

Everything collapsed in the darkness, like a mirror that should have shattered a millennium ago, finally hitting the ground after a long descent.

Yu Sheng’s consciousness floated in the ultimate void and darkness, unable even to perceive the flow of time, unaware of how long this state lasted until suddenly, a glimmer of light appeared in his eyes.

Within the glimmer of light, some things reshaped, he saw a long corridor with ornate pillars, carpets, and a ceiling, one side of the corridor lined with continuous arches and pointed windows, blood-colored moonlight streaming through those windows and doors, coating everything in sight with a layer of bright red.

Numerous figures appeared in the corridor, consisting of men, women, the elderly, and the young, and then all the figures transformed into the same appearance, merging into one place.

All the figures collapsed into a pale, thin girl—draped in a ragged piece of cloth, with disheveled hair, barefoot, running excitedly down the corridor.

A bright smile adorned the girl’s face.

"I am the Queen of the Dark Moon Royal Court~"

She shouted excitedly.

"Everyone, heed my command—"

She ran past Yu Sheng.

"Destroy the moon!"