Chapter 901 - 900: The Invisible Entity

Chapter 901: Chapter 900: The Invisible Entity

A reconnaissance-specialized shuttle ascended from the temporary landing platform near the impact crater, the antigravity engine emitting a humming sound. Accompanied by a streak of light, the shuttle quickly disappeared into the clouds and aurora veils.

Red tilted her head back, looking in the direction where the shuttle vanished—prior to that, two heavy reconnaissance drones had already departed from the Plande Sky Island, heading into the higher layer of the cloud sea to find the source of the fallen crystal.

Baili Qing rubbed her forehead, leaving part of her "vision" on the shuttle that had just taken off. While tracking and observing the situation in the high-altitude clouds, she stepped up to the massive crystal.

The impact crater had long cooled, and the turbulent energy field around the crystal had calmed considerably, yet the crystal itself continued to stably release energy without any signs of decline.

According to the current detection results, this energy is stable and harmless, although it does have some effects on organic matter.

"Has Yu Sheng really run into issues over there?" Red approached, "Picking up a few stones can result in two extra mouths to feed."

"I’m used to it," Baili Qing said casually, then pursed her lips suddenly asking, "Red, when you were near that mirror rift, did you have any special feelings? Or did you remember or see something?"

Under the aurora-covered night, Red stared at Baili Qing’s face for a while before looking away and shaking her head: "Now it seems each ’historical fragment’ is unique, my experience is not applicable to you. Moreover, it’s clear that this crystal is not the entity from your Hometown World, it’s just a part that fell from a larger structure."

Baili Qing nodded, momentarily silent, slowly caressing the surface of that massive crystal. Her face remained unchanged, revealing nothing of her inner thoughts.

After a while, she suddenly spoke softly: "I have almost no memory of my Hometown World."

"Hmm, I know, you remember even less about your hometown than I do, especially since you were just a young dragon when sealed inside the crystal."

"I only have slight memories associated with Little Xue, but those memories might have been affected by my long slumber, many are blurry."

"I know that too."

"Yes, I don’t remember anything, so why does seeing this thing still make me feel... inexplicably sad?" Baili Qing finally sighed softly, she would never exhibit such vulnerability in front of outsiders, but occasionally couldn’t help it with Red, "Clearly I can’t recall anything, and this crystal hasn’t responded to me in any way."

Red pondered for a moment, seriously looking at her "adopted daughter": "I can’t answer your question, but I can give you a hug—want a hug?"

Baili Qing instantly refused: "That won’t be necessary."

Red then immediately acted pitiably abandoned—unfortunately, ignored by Baili Qing.

Meanwhile, in Baili Qing’s alternate vision, she had already far left the Plande Sky Island, the shuttle extending her vision, continuously breaking into the depths of the cloud sea, where magnificent and near auroras unfolded.

On the edge of a cloud layer, a flight machine with flashing lights can be seen suspended high in the air—it’s a heavy unmanned drone from earlier, it stays here at the limit range of airborne communication acting as a relay station for subsequent reconnaissance units.

The shuttle pilot explained the situation on the communication channel: "This is Explorer One, we’ve just passed the signal relay point and now request to expand the scan range."

The rear command center responded: "Data link support is online, current location can release probes."

"Received, wide-area probes released."

The streamlined belly of the shuttle subtly opened, a spindle-shaped mechanical body glowing with blue light left the mount bay, this spindle-shaped probe hovered slightly in the air and then accelerated rapidly, disappearing into the distance.

Next, the second and third wide-area probes were released into the cloud sea.

Can this really find any clues?

Honestly, none of them had much confidence in their hearts.

After all, everything in this world is shrouded in mystery, and no one can clearly explain the structure beyond the cloud sea. That crystal which fell from the sky could be from another floating island somewhere higher up, or perhaps from a more distant place unreachable even by the shuttle.

The faint "residue" left in high altitude when the crystal passed through the clouds is now the only clue, but the possible scope it indicates remains absurdly large.

After completing the probe release, the shuttle did not remain at the original location but continued deeper into the cloud sea.

There are still six probes in the mount bay.

Like veils, the aurora hung in the clouds, part of the light curtain penetrated the clouds, and the silver-white flying machine darted into this sea of light and clouds like a small fish, as if falling into a dream of the sky and flight.

The two pilots sat in the shuttle cabin, the walls of living metal and reinforced polymers adjusted modes, gradually becoming transparent.

"It’s truly beautiful..."

One pilot murmured.

"It feels like we’re being upheld by the clouds, the surrounding light curtain like crystal high walls..."

Another pilot sighed lightly in the communication channel.

Baili Qing’s voice came through their headsets: "Stay focused, pilots, this is an unfamiliar airspace."

The two pilots suddenly snapped to attention: "Yes... Yes! Director!"

Baili Qing’s "gaze" left on the shuttle began to focus, transforming into a massive illusion that flew alongside the shuttle, a nearly transparent giant dragon apparition maintaining a distance of about ten meters, traversing through clouds and aurora veils.

Subsequent two groups of wide-area probes were soon released into the cloud sea.

"Still no target encountered," the chief shuttle pilot reported, "this should be the end of the crystal’s ’trail’, the residual energy reaction in the clouds is almost undetectable now."

The phantom silhouette of the giant dragon hovered amongst the clouds, lifting its head to gaze ahead.

Although the residual energy response in the environment was weak and her gaze failed to successfully "retrospect" the precise trajectory of the crystal’s fall, Baili Qing was almost certain the general direction was indeed over here.

The crystal fragment that fell from the Hometown World dropped from this direction.

But here it was empty, and further ahead there were only repeating layers of clouds and auroras.

"Chief, do we continue moving forward? Should we retrieve the first batch of probes?"

"..."

"Chief?"

Baili Qing seemed a bit dazed.

She was still standing on the lands of Plande Sky Island, but her extended "vision" shifted most of her perception to the distant depths of the Cloud Sea. Alongside the silver-white shuttle, she hovered in the sky. In that empty space, there was a fleeting moment where she felt as if she heard some sounds.

She heard a giant dragon roaring, horns of majestic intensity resounding through the skies; she heard the earth cracking, the entire planet, even the space it occupied, collapsing at the end of time; she heard a strange language, its meaning echoing directly in her consciousness——

"Never bow under the eternal name of the Dragon God!"

Baili Qing was dazed again, hearing a call coming through the communicator.

"Chief, are you listening? Should we continue..."

"Did the onboard detectors scan anything?" Baili Qing suddenly asked.

The shuttle pilot quickly checked the instrument readings.

"Reporting to Chief, nothing—there are only clouds and auroras here."

The phantom dragon shadow in the clouds turned its head: "What about the Spiritual Ability Detector? No response from the Exotic Radar either?"

"Reporting to Chief, no response from either."

Baili Qing was silent for a moment, gazing at the vast open space within the Cloud Sea.

"No, there’s something here... something unobservable."

...

The night deepened.

The unique and magnificent night scene of Plande Sky Island quietly enveloped everything, including No. 66 Wutong Road, bathing in this peaceful night curtain.

Yu Sheng had not gone to sleep yet.

In the attic, he and the fox girl guarded by the two single beds placed next to each other, quietly watching the two girls who had finally fallen asleep.

Two heads, colorful, poked out of the blankets, their hair spread over the pillows like rainbows—the owners of these colors were finally quiet now.

"It’s really not easy," Yu Sheng whispered with a sigh, "It took so much effort just to get them to lie down and tuck in properly."

"Newly shape-shifting immortal pets are like that," the fox girl whispered back, "Their bodies change drastically suddenly, their perception and mind will be confused for a while. They retain many habits from their time as beasts and start realizing they are different now, which can easily make them nervous, some even have stress reactions...

"So where I’m from, there’s a regulation that if an immortal pet has shape-shifted and gained intelligence, they can’t be granted an Immortal Certificate until a year later—until then, a newly shifted pet going out must be accompanied by their owner, and the owner has the duty to guide the pet and help mature its mind."

"There’s such a regulation?" Yu Sheng was taken aback, touching his chin, "Did I give them their IDs too early then?"

"That’s no bother," the fox girl shook her head, stepping forward to tuck in White Cut’s blanket, "They’ve long reached intelligence, they’re just intentionally holding back from shape-shifting. Besides, things are different here from my hometown."

She gently removed a stray colorful bead string from White Cut’s hair, carefully setting it on a cardboard box temporarily serving as a bedside table.

Yu Sheng watched this scene silently, then couldn’t help but speak after a while: "...You really look the part of their mother doing this."

The fox girl looked up, playfully baring her teeth at Yu Sheng, then turned her head regretfully towards the two colorful girls on the bed.

"Alas... can’t eat them this time."

Yu Sheng really didn’t know how to continue this topic, so he coughed and changed direction: "Ahem... we’ll have to tidy up this attic later, I plan on putting a partition wall here and adding a door at the staircase. Also add some furniture, maybe bedside tables. It really doesn’t look like a bedroom right now, just a place to sleep, and it feels so bare."

The fox girl looked at Yu Sheng, a surprised expression on her face.

Yu Sheng: "What’s up?"

"You’re good to them," the fox girl laughed, "You quickly started treating them like people—back in my hometown, many still can’t manage that."

"Is it that hard?" Yu Sheng muttered, touching his chin, "They can talk, laugh, interact—my definition of ’person’ is actually quite broad."

The fox girl thought for a moment, nodded vigorously: "That’s true indeed."