Chapter 526 - 523: Pipe Fortress

Chapter 526: Chapter 523: Pipe Fortress

Mo Ling casually controlled the Block, following behind Li Luo. They waited for the investigation team to finish reporting their experiences on the Sky Island before a soldier led the group onto an elevator constructed from pipes.

They passed through layer after layer of dense clouds until they finally reached the ground.

The ground here was also paved with a network of intersecting black pipes. No wonder it was called the Pipe Fortress. In the sky, giant pipes pierced through the clouds, leading to unknown destinations.

Even though they were on the ground, the wind was just as strong as it had been on the tower. White currents of air blew past the openings of the giant pipes, making a strange, howling sound.

Li Luo looked up at the pipes that vanished into the clouds, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Weird, right? They say these pipes all come from a single relic. This whole fortress is built on one," Zhou Dynasty explained, seeing how curious Li Luo was.

Li Luo nodded and asked, "You’ve been here before?"

"Of course. Many times. This place is a pretty big monitoring station. Investigation teams often come here to rest and resupply."

Zhou Dynasty pointed to the pipes disappearing into the mist. "Those pipes anchor the entire Pipe Fortress, keeping it from drifting with the air currents. It’s like a filter positioned in the middle of a turbulent node. Every Sky Island that passes through the node gets a beacon installed on it, which is far more efficient than exploring them one by one."

The edges of the fortress were completely hidden by the dense mist. All one could see was the ground, a latticework of countless pipes. The long, black shapes swayed in the fog, looking like massive, living creatures.

There was something strangely awe-inspiring about the fortress.

"Was the Pipe Fortress built by humans?" Li Luo asked curiously.

"Yes." Zhou Dynasty nodded. "The story goes that it started as just a fixed observation point to catch flotsam from the Void Sea’s currents. Later, it was built up to be more and more magnificent, with more and more functions, gradually becoming the Pipe Fortress it is today."

Zhou Dynasty pointed to the ground. "There are old facilities left below this. Whenever they run out of space, the Pipe Fortress just keeps expanding on its original foundation. That’s why the fortress has many layers, and there are lots of facilities underground."

"Also, those huge pipes are filled with anemometers, air quality monitors, synchronization rate analyzers... all used to monitor the Sea of Clouds’ airflow data and real-time fluctuations."

"Although the Pipe Fortress looks bizarre, its interior is actually mostly human technology. The pipes are just a medium, like bricks used to construct a building..."

After Zhou Dynasty’s detailed description, Li Luo had a better understanding of the Pipe Fortress beneath her feet.

"Are you planning to go deeper?" Zhou Dynasty suddenly asked.

"Yes. Does the Pipe Fortress have a passage to the fifth layer?"

"It does." Zhou Dynasty nodded. "But you probably don’t qualify yet..."

Hearing this, Li Luo grew a bit agitated. "What kind of qualifications? A certain number of relics? A point system like on the first layer? Or does it cost money?"

"No, none of those..." Zhou Dynasty hesitated for a moment before saying seriously, "It requires time."

"When you came from the third layer to the fourth, you underwent a synchronization to match your speed with the lower layers. But that synchronization isn’t instantaneous; it’s a process."

"To accelerate a car to twenty kilometers per hour, I just need to step on the gas. But it’s not like that for a person. The synchronization device can only accelerate every particle in the human body to the designated speed, but the person as a whole becomes ’separated’."

"Right now, you’re just a cluster of particles at the ’same velocity,’ drifting above the depths. You haven’t completely landed on them. If you try to force your way to the fifth layer now, this ’cluster of particles’ that is you will completely disperse."

"So, after arriving on the fourth layer, you need to spend time anchoring your body. You use time as an anchor point to stabilize yourself."

"When the cluster of particles drifting outside the depths becomes connected to various events *within* the depths, it triggers something like a chemical reaction, solidifying the existence known as ’Li Luo’. Only then are you qualified to proceed to the even more unstable fifth layer."

Li Luo found Zhou Dynasty’s explanation rather convoluted and confusing.

"How long does it take?"

"It varies. It’s different for everyone."

Just as Li Luo was about to press him for more details, one of Zhou Dynasty’s teammates called him over to report on their mission. He could only give Li Luo an apologetic farewell.

"If you don’t understand, you can look it up at the fortress’s data center. And remember to update your database. I’ll come find you after I’m done."

After saying that, Zhou Dynasty hurried away, leaving Li Luo by herself.

’Data center?’

Staring at the intersecting pipes all around, Li Luo froze.

...

Fortunately, Li Luo eventually found her way to the data center.

After passing through layers of pipes and taking several more pipe-elevators, Li Luo arrived deep underground in the fortress.

Here, she found a massive hall. Black pipes stretched up out of sight, arranged in a regular pattern. Dim lights flickered, and the few other people around hardly interacted, simply slipping into the gaps between the pipes and disappearing.

’This doesn’t look like a data center. It’s more like the lair of some underground organization.’ Li Luo swallowed, leading the Block deeper into the hall.

When she reached the enormous pipes in the deepest part of the hall, a miniature pipe suddenly extended from one of the neatly arranged ones. Its tip slowly morphed into the shape of a datapad interface.

Seeing the interface, Li Luo understood immediately. She took out her own datapad and connected it without hesitation.

"Welcome to the Pipe Fortress Database."

A cold, mechanical voice came from the datapad. The miniature pipe swayed a few times and then supported the datapad on its own.

Li Luo let go, allowing the datapad to fly into the air with the pipe and hover in front of her.

"Search: Qualifications for reaching the fifth layer," Li Luo said directly to the datapad.

As soon as the words left her mouth, the datapad’s display began to change. Countless documents popped up, but before Li Luo could choose one, it automatically opened a specific article:

"The Nonexistent Cup—The Path to the Fifth Layer."

Li Luo looked at the slightly odd title and scrolled down curiously...

...

"When we take a sip of water, what are we interacting with?"

"We pick up the cup with our hand, touch our lips to its rim, lift the cup, open our mouth slightly, and let gravity pull the water into our mouth... This is our interaction with the cup and the water."

"In the ’event’ of drinking water, the existence of three things is proven: myself, the cup, and the water."

"And we, who have fallen into the fourth layer, are precisely a nonexistent—cup."