Chapter 1 What's He Up To?

No matter what Haoren was planning, the little chick in the jar had no idea what her future held. This little thing with a head full of mush was still single-mindedly fulfilling her duty as an embodiment of evil forces, which was to wreak havoc—tearing a pile of old newspapers to shreds, and providing her own sound effects while tearing, amusing herself quite happily.

After a while of messing around, she started to fuss. The little thing with a shrunken belly patted the jar in search of food. Vivian threw in some minced meat, and the little chick began to eat with great joy. By this time, her changes had become so obvious that even a careless guy like Lily could see it at a glance.

She was especially quiet when eating, and she also knew how to actively send the signal of "hungry" when asking for food. The latter was a sign that she was gradually learning to "communicate." Even if the method of communication was barbaric and violent, it also showed that she was beginning to understand the importance of expressing her wishes.

While Hao Ren and Vivian were taking care of the little thing, the Tortoise Rock Platform traveled through the vast dark space of the universe. The long journey of 2.2 billion light-years did not seem so far after the spaceship entered subspace—when the dark, warped space around the spaceship opened, a strange and slightly sparse starry sky appeared before everyone's eyes. This was the place discovered by the drone swarm outpost.

As the data showed, this was a material vacuum region. Within a scale of 10,000 light-years, not even a small asteroid could be seen in space. However, it happened to be located at the material intersection of two galaxies, which caused the outside of the vacuum zone boundary to be filled with hazy interstellar dust clouds. Distant starlight from at least 10,000 light-years away entered this area through the dust clouds, appearing blurred, sparse, and cold.

The spaceship left hyperspace in the dust cloud outside the vacuum zone, cruised forward with various radars turned on, and finally crossed the clear dividing line in a flat and uneventful manner. No noteworthy twists and turns occurred in the process, as if this boundary was just a rare and harmless natural phenomenon. However, even though the radar did not detect any anomalies, everyone on the spaceship with an IQ above the baseline knew that this place was abnormal.

The little chick was starting to tear up a new pile of newspapers. She didn't know anything, so this little thing's intelligence was below the baseline.

Nolan played back the video of the spaceship crossing the dividing line. Close-range observation didn't reveal much, but the picture sent back by a probe released tens of millions of kilometers away from the spaceship was much clearer. The front end of the dust cloud was sharply cut off in mid-air as if it had hit an invisible wall. The boundary was so clear that the picture looked as if a piece had been erased with a rubber.

"We have now entered the vacuum zone," Nolan's holographic image sat on the console in front of Hao Ren. She shook her little legs hanging down from the edge of the console as she spoke, looking relaxed and at ease, but in reality, she had turned on all her radars and was vigilantly observing the surrounding situation, "Although anyone who isn't blind can see that this place is not right, all the probes have not yet sent back any abnormal data."

"There are currently two guesses. The first is that the things here are hidden by some kind of 'invisible force field,' and the second is that the original material here has been 'dug away.' Both are possible," Hao Ren tapped the armrest of the captain's seat. "The interstellar dust on the boundary line is showing a state of 'motion stagnation.' Those clouds are still active, but no material particles have crossed the border, which makes it difficult for us to judge which possibility is more reliable."

Muru's voice came from the communicator: "Perhaps it's the second one: the original material here has been hollowed out."

This Guardian Giant had temporarily detached himself from the work at the Crystal Core Research Station and Tanagus to serve as a consultant for this voyage, because there was a high possibility that the Creation Goddess's legacy existed here, so it was necessary to bring such a Guardian. Hao Ren had already arranged a special cabin for this big guy at the stern of the Tortoise Rock Platform, so now Muru didn't have to huddle in the hangar every time.

"How did you judge that?" Hao Ren asked curiously.

"We don't have 'invisibility,' Captain," Nolan answered him. "I released a small monitoring station before entering the vacuum zone boundary. Now this monitoring station is observing this ship from the other side of the boundary. According to the observation results, we don't have any signs of being invisible."

The picture from the monitoring station was projected onto the console. Hao Ren saw a small silver-white dot suddenly appear in the dark background in an empty space. Behind the white dot was a blue light—that was the trajectory of the Tortoise Rock Platform's energy grid cutting through the background.

"So there's no invisible force field in this area..." Hao Ren stroked his chin, but felt that the situation was even more wrong, "But this is where the crack in the Wall of Reality is located. Material can be 'dug' away, so how could the crack in the Wall of Reality disappear out of thin air?"

Vivian glanced at him, "Let's look around here."

The upper deck of the Tortoise Rock Platform slowly unfolded, and a set of extra combined antennas extended from the armored belt. The spaceship expanded the range of precise sensing and began to search for any clues that could explain this "vacuum zone" in this vast wilderness spanning 10,000 light-years.

At the same time, countless silver-white shuttle-shaped spots of light also shot out from the ejection channels on both sides of the spaceship and quickly disappeared into space-time portals that rippled like water waves: these spots of light were shipborne probes. Different from the personal portable models with limited power, these high-intelligence probes directly controlled by the spaceship's mainframe had higher sensitivity, a wider range of activity, and faster FTL jump capabilities. Moreover, they were exceptionally smart and could independently judge and detect various disguises of the target. These probes were like worker bees scattered from a swarm, rapidly expanding Nolan's field of perception.

Hao Ren believed that this dark area spanning 10,000 light-years was definitely not really empty, because the suspicious signal recorded by Anthony that day could not be wrong, and that signal did indeed match the information signature code of this space. Therefore, this was definitely the crack in the Wall of Reality in the Dream Plane.

It was just that something had hidden this crack.

Nolan jumped down from the console. Even though she was just a holographic image, she acted as freely in the real world as a real person. This "mind model" walked around Hao Ren, muttering while spinning around, "Quick, reveal yourself, quick, reveal yourself..."

Hao Ren looked at her strangely, "Are you chanting a spell?"

Nolan waved her hand, "Ship girl stuff, you wouldn't understand."

Hao Ren: "..."

Just then, Nolan suddenly stopped circling and looked at a certain direction in space in surprise, "Ah, there seems to be something over there."

Several people on the scene said in unison: "What?"

While pressurizing the engine, Nolan quickly said, "A probe found something strange... That's probably the only space entity within a range of 10,000 light-years. Let me see... Seems to be a man-made building?"

The Tortoise Rock Platform cut through a stream of light in the universe, and the distance of light-years was swept across in an instant. Soon the spaceship arrived at the target location.

A probe was flashing blue light in space, and behind the probe, Hao Ren saw... the upper half of an ancient building floating alone in the universe.

Just like Nolan said, there was a man-made building floating in this strange place.

The spaceship carefully approached this strange thing with a spire, only half of it remaining, and shaped like a religious facility, and transmitted its detailed images to the holographic projection on the bridge. The size of the building was also displayed on the projection.

Hao Ren saw that it was a man-made facility up to 100 meters high, made of a material similar to granite. It had a domed central structure, and a huge circular skylight with complex hollow patterns was opened in the center of the dome. Around this dome, you could see four symmetrically distributed spires, which looked like the towers of some kind of church. The exterior of all these buildings had intricate and beautiful decorative patterns, with silver-white metal and some kind of crystal inlaid in these decorative patterns, giving people the feeling of both luxurious decoration and mysterious magical techniques.

Even without these decorations, the entire architectural structure carried an obvious sense of sacredness and nobility. After looking at it for a long time, Hao Ren believed that this was very likely the upper part of a temple.

Only the upper part—on the returned pictures, you could clearly see that the lower part of the temple had disappeared. The cut was sharp and smooth, as if it had been neatly cut off by a huge blade.

"That's probably cut open by a space fault." The old demon crossed his arms and said with experience.

"What do you think this is?" Nangong Sanba asked curiously,趴 (pa - leaning) in front of the holographic projection.

Vivian frowned slightly: "...Isn't it a bit like those temples in the Corpus space?"