Chapter 578: This Place Is Alive

This batch of "Star Scholars" from the Algeride Star Domain were technical experts whom Mo Ran had invited through her own channels. Although the Black Spot Group had grown into a completely independent force by now, its roots ultimately traced back to the Algeridean civilization sphere. The two still shared a great deal of overlapping technology in fundamental engineering and aerospace industries. At the very least, these Star Scholars were far better equipped than the Artifact Refining Grandmasters of the Feiyu Star Domain to know how to repair a space laboratory built by the Black Spot Group.

Of course, that was the ideal scenario—reality always differed from the ideal by just a little bit.

"What do you mean, we just need to roughly weld this part of the frame into place, and after a while it'll grow back on its own?"

"...The torn outer shell is healing?! Miss Mo Ran, are you telling us we only need to arrange for the right materials to be brought in, and the space station will eat them up and use them to grow?"

"...What about the control bus for this area? The branch servers? The entire area has been punched through... Why is the life support system still running?"

"All the basic services in every module are offline... So these devices are relying on 'guesswork' to pretend everything's normal?!"

"If the door's jammed, just scratch it, and once it wakes up, it'll open... What does that mean?"

"What do you mean, this space station is alive?!"

A group of long-eared Algeridean elves followed Mo Ran through the central area of the space station, winding around for only two intersections before they were utterly shocked. Their questions came thick and fast, and finally, when they arrived at the entrance of the "Rift Laboratory" and saw what was inside, several of the Star Scholars completely lost their composure.

"...How is this space station even still holding together?!"

The state of the space station's core area was horrifically severe. The internal damage was even hundreds of times worse than the gash visible from space. The Rift Laboratory at the center of Black Rock Station had once been penetrated by the "Boundary Bridge," and at that time, countless spatial rifts created by the Boundary Bridge had spread all around the laboratory. Those out-of-control rift clusters had practically shredded the core area from the inside. Now the entire Rift Laboratory was essentially wide open to space, while all the protective walls and reinforced structures around the laboratory had been eaten into sieves by the Boundary Bridge.

If not for the Earth Immortal and Machining Immortal sent by Xu Ji who had urgently deployed a Five Elements Circulating Array around the Rift Laboratory, forcibly creating a stable environment within this "open wound," the situation would have been even worse.

Such severe trauma should theoretically have been enough to cause the entire space station to disintegrate. After all, Black Rock Station was, strictly speaking, one giant "Rift Laboratory." All the surrounding structures, including the outer ring armory and the like, were actually accessories attached to this sturdy central laboratory—things hanging off the laboratory's skeleton.

And now that skeleton had almost entirely been chopped to pieces by the "rift clusters" the Boundary Bridge had created.

But the space station had not disintegrated. Not only had it not disintegrated, it was even visibly and observably "healing itself" at a rapid pace.

A tall Star Scholar in a deep blue robe, with light gold hair, stood at the entrance of the Rift Laboratory, raising his head in shock at the shattered dome structure of the giant hall. Under his gaze, he could clearly see a crossbeam that spanned the chamber slowly healing itself.

A large construct covered in shimmering talismanic light floated in midair, holding the broken beam in place at the correct position. The metal on the beam's surface writhed like flesh, rose and fell like breathing, slowly fusing with the surrounding structure. It even extended many tiny "branches" to temporarily secure the fragile small skeletons connected to it.

Then the Star Scholar felt something touching his foot. He looked down and was horrified to see several cables poking out from a broken groove, bumping against his boot.

With a yelp, he hastily stepped back half a pace, only to see the cables lift their heads and sway at him twice as if thanking him for not interfering. Then they unhurriedly wriggled their way to the other end of the groove and connected with the broken cables there.

"What... what the hell is going on here?" another Star Scholar finally couldn't help blurting out, staring wide-eyed at Mo Ran. "We've seen self-repairing nanomachine swarms and self-growing living metals—but this is nothing like that! Don't tell me this is some new invention of the Black Spot Group?!"

"This is the great divine power of True Lord Yu Sheng—generating all things from his body, all things being his incarnations," Mo Ran explained with a smile, unsurprised by the reactions of the Star Scholars. "Don't worry, it has nothing to do with Black Spot technology. This space station has been taken over by our 'Star Warden' Lord of Xu Ji."

The Star Scholars exchanged glances, thought for a moment, and didn't quite understand...

But here you could tell the difference between people who often dealt with the immortals of the Feiyu Star Domain and ordinary folk—they were used to not understanding.

After a moment's thought, the Star Scholar in the deep blue robe broke the silence first. "We can go over the technical details later. Miss Mo Ran, I think I understand your meaning—you're saying that this space station is now under the direct control of one of your important figures, and his ability allows it to slowly 'heal' itself like a living thing, right?"

Mo Ran nodded.

"Then what do you still need us for?" the Star Scholar asked, puzzled. "Why not just let it heal slowly?"

"The problem is exactly that—the True Lord can only repair the material structure of this place. He doesn't understand the principles behind any of it," Mo Ran explained. "I invited you all here mainly to repair the... 'system' of this place. Additionally, the True Lord wants the 'secrets' that remain in this space station."

"Secrets?" another Star Scholar, a woman in a pale gold dress, frowned. "What does that mean?"

"This station was deeply merged with a 'bridge' capable of piercing spacetime and the cosmos—this relates to a recent 'Angelfall' incident. It's no secret; you all should be seeing news about it soon," Mo Ran said frankly, not hiding anything. "That merger will certainly have left behind many traces and 'changes' here. We don't know much about Algeridean artifacts, so we can only provide him with basic assistance here. For in-depth research, we must rely on your knowledge."

"Angels... I see. We understand."

The Star Scholar in the deep blue robe was startled the moment he heard "Angelfall," but quickly recovered. Then he nodded and looked around, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"The Black Spot Group... those technical freaks who defected from Algeridean society always end up causing huge messes they can't clean up themselves," he sighed. "This time they finally poked the Dusk Angel... Fortunately, there's now someone capable of cleaning up this kind of disaster. If I'm not mistaken, this must be the work of that 'Angel Hunter' from the Borderlands, right?"

Mo Ran smiled and nodded slightly. "That's right, it was him. And the 'Angel Hunter' you just mentioned is the new Star Warden of Xu Ji that I mentioned just now. It's him who's now controlling this space station... Actually, 'controlling' isn't quite accurate. To put it seriously, this space station is now part of his body."

The Star Scholars didn't react at first, but when they did, they were all stunned. Although news of the two previous Angelfall incidents had already reached the Algeride Star Domain, the reports they heard clearly didn't include details of this magnitude.

Suddenly, they were all at a loss. Someone instinctively looked around at the structural components slowly writhing nearby, and his expression gradually broke. "Wait, wait, so right now we're basically standing inside—"

"You'll get used to it," Mo Ran said unhurriedly—she didn't know if these Star Scholars would adapt, but the people of Xu Ji were certainly used to this kind of situation, given that even their home planet was now alive. "Also, the True Lord should be resting at this time. Even if he isn't, he doesn't usually pay much attention to these 'incarnations,' so you can move around here without worry."

The Star Scholars looked at each other, then at the chaotic and eerie ruins of the laboratory around them. Someone wanted to say that just standing here and letting his imagination run wild was already more than enough pressure, but before he could, he saw a pipe hanging from the ceiling suddenly twist and give him a "peace sign"...

When he looked up again, he saw Mo Ran standing there as if it were the most natural thing in the world, obviously long accustomed to it.

"Ahem, well, this is also a rare... research opportunity," the leading blue-robed scholar coughed dryly, trying to keep a serious expression. "The Black Spot Group is tightly organized and strictly guards its own technical industries. Even we rarely get a chance to closely examine their experimental facilities... Rest assured, we'll do our utmost to help."

"That would be best. Mo Ran thanks you all in advance."

...

In a light, lazy sleep, Yu Sheng quietly withdrew a "tentacle of consciousness" that had been probing toward the Feiyu Star Domain, temporarily shifting his attention away from that space station.

Black Rock Station was badly damaged, but the screw-driving immortals and welder immortals dispatched by Xu Ji had intervened in time, preventing the situation from worsening. Now the space station had entered a normal self-healing process. Meanwhile, Mo Ran had brought in a group of experts from the nearby Algeride Star Domain. They might not necessarily be more skilled than Luo, but they looked reliable enough.

So for now, he didn't need to worry about Black Rock Station.

Luo was behaving himself in the valley. He'd observe for a few more days, then discuss with Bai Liqin how to handle this "Black Spot scientist."

He wondered if Bai Liqin's horns had retracted yet... Thinking about it, he was suddenly a little curious—how did she sleep with horns on her head?

Yu Sheng's consciousness drifted in a peaceful, shallow dream, while part of his waking mind floated just above the dream, idly thinking about all kinds of random things.

To ordinary people, this might be an unimaginable operation, but at some point, Yu Sheng had gotten used to it.

...Probably around the time when Eileen started frequently sneaking into his dreams to cause trouble.

Yu Sheng glided past another shimmering afterimage in his consciousness, then suddenly felt a stir and stopped in the darkness.

He looked up and saw a magnificent yet bizarre... "iridescence" spreading through his inner world.