Chapter 610: Stirring Up Trouble for No Reason

Deep within the Soul Wilderness, a gray sky was covered with heavy, shifting clouds that flowed in formless layers. The towering, solemn church towers and walls stood on the desolate grassland, while the magnificent, mysterious crystal giant tree had now completely enveloped the cathedral. Like a crystalline dome, it spread from the courtyard area to the open space around the church.

From a distance, the Stellar-derived Crystal Tree and the grand church building appeared to be in a state of blending together. A large number of crystal structures hung down from the canopy, growing along the outer walls of the building, or even replacing parts of the roofs and beams. In some places, it even gave the strange impression that the church and the giant tree had grown out of each other.

Yu Sheng knew that this was partly due to the crystal tree actively adapting to its growth environment, and partly the result of Luna’s intentional guidance. In this wilderness dominated by soul power, she and her Knight Order could reconfigure the cathedral at any time. After the crystal tree grew rapidly, she redesigned the courtyard area and the rear wing structure of the entire church—first to leave enough room for the crystal tree to grow, and second because she thought it looked awesome.

Yu Sheng had to admit that the Saintess was indeed a bit better than him when it came to architectural design and aesthetics…

“Since you left last time, the canopy has expanded by nearly a quarter, and the support structures hanging from the canopy have increased by about thirty percent,” the golden-haired girl knight said to him beside the enormous crystal trunk in the courtyard, updating him on the changes to the crystal tree. “But the biggest change up there is still those ‘fissures.’ They’ve become noticeably more stable than before, and some of them have formed stable ‘silk-like’ structures with the nearby branches… Look over there.”

Yu Sheng followed Luna’s pointing finger and saw a ‘light stream’ shimmering with mysterious starlight. Like a small river, it wound out from between the branches of the crystal giant tree, its edges tinged with a translucent, blurry texture. Although it floated in midair, many faint, glowing filaments extended from around its edges, connecting to the nearest crystal branches like structures delivering ‘nutrients.’

The integration of the Boundary Bridge and the Stellar-derived Entity appeared to be going smoothly. It seemed that before long, those space-time fissures would grow to the point of being able to support ‘passages.’ By then, what would this giant tree look like?

Yu Sheng was quite curious about that. In truth, he still hadn’t figured out what use this “Boundary Bridge” thing was. He had originally only “swallowed” it because he thought it would be a waste for such a wonder, built with so much angelic power, to collapse like that. Not picking it up felt like a loss…

After all, everyone knew his habit—what you don’t pick up on the way out is a loss, and once you’ve eaten it, you’ve eaten it. Whether it’s useful or not, you plant it first. At the very least, it could serve as a scratching post for Huli later.

Of course, now Yu Sheng had a new reason to pay attention to this thing—those Ascetic Order cultists seemed to want to use “Boundary Bridge technology” to stir up some trouble. That left him no choice but to show those cultists what it really meant to be the true father of troublemaking.

Half-squinting his eyes, Yu Sheng’s mind slowly settled. Through the connection established by blood, he gradually achieved “synchronization” with the crystal giant tree in front of him.

He began to observe and understand the “fruits” growing on the tree, drawing knowledge from the rivers filled with faint light. He attempted to extract the space-time order contained in the fissures and inscribe them into the next door he was going to open.

Then he stepped forward, pressed his hand against the trunk of the crystal giant tree, and slowly lifted his hand as if grasping something invisible, gradually pulling it out from the trunk.

Luna stood to the side, staring wide-eyed at the incredible sight before her.

She saw a stream of light suddenly emerge in Yu Sheng’s hand… as if it were alive. It greatly resembled the “fissures” on the Stellar-derived Crystal Tree, but it appeared extremely unstable and volatile. Within the light, several phantom shadows seemed to overlap at all times, continuously collapsing and restructuring inside.

Although Luna had no idea about the principle behind all those creepy abilities Yu Sheng had, that didn’t stop her from sensing extreme danger the moment she saw this thing.

“What is… that?” the Saintess asked, eyes wide, instinctively keeping a safe distance from the “living fissure.”

Yu Sheng turned his head and flashed a grin. “Pre-fabricated Boundary Bridge.”

Luna was dumbstruck. “You can pre-fabricate that too!?”

“No, I can’t,” Yu Sheng said very candidly. “At least not at this stage. The Boundary Bridge hasn’t ‘matured’ yet. Even the fissures on the tree are still growing, let alone this thing—it’s just a shadow I pulled out.”

Luna was a bit confused. “…Then what are you making that for…?”

“Bai Liqing has a plan. She wants to create a batch of fake ‘Angel Catalysts’ to bait those Ascetic Order members who infiltrated the Borderlands,” Yu Sheng explained patiently without hiding anything. “Now, although we’ve obtained the characteristic parameters of the original ‘Zorda Blackstone’ from Luo, the Ascetic Order may already possess a lot of information about the Boundary Bridge. Simple fakes probably won’t fool them.”

Luna blinked. “Uh, I think I get it.”

“This thing is unstable, but it won’t be a problem as long as it’s not messed with,” Yu Sheng said with a brilliant smile. “I’ll stuff it into the fake later. When those cultists scan it with their equipment—whoa, this thing can actually generate fissures. Just tell me if it’s real or not!”

When Luna heard that, her smile became just as brilliant. The two of them immediately shared a moment of perfect harmony, tacit understanding, complicity, and unclean camaraderie…

…

Dark Meteor Domain, a stretch of dark starspace on the edge.

This was the border of a dim nebula.

The loose, sparse nebula belt had no clear “territorial divisions.” There were countless fragmented “territories,” and the power division in each section was determined by the “Mother Station Broadcast Towers” anchored near large celestial bodies, along with their supporting defense facilities. In recent decades, the ownership of this region had always belonged to the Black Dot Group.

Desolate, remote, barren. Except for two rocky planets that barely yielded some mineral output, there was nothing else of note. A feeble sun illuminated the region’s simple celestial system, and the nearest transportation port was the “Gray Dwarf Star” several light-years away. In this desolate, inhospitable place, a “Pioneer Laboratory” was once the only bright spot.

But that Pioneer Laboratory had now vanished without a trace. All that remained were a few space factories that had fallen into chaos after losing command, and the mining facilities on the surface that had ceased operations.

Suddenly, a twisted phantom appeared in space, as if something had flipped and “squeezed” itself into this region. But the next second, the twisted phantom vanished into the void.

Beneath a stealth field, a small silver-gray shuttle was moving slowly through space. Luo was in the cockpit, throwing up messily.

Next to her was her loyal guard captain—also throwing up messily.

“So, taking a shuttle through the ‘gate’ is this thrilling,” Luo finally managed to lift her head after vomiting for a good two minutes, looking at the dashboard in front of her with a faint voice. “If I’d known, I would have just asked the boss to open a big door and fly the shuttle through… I shouldn’t have believed his ‘advanced technology’…”

The guard captain held onto the armrest, his face almost purple like the psychic mushrooms Luo had once gnawed on. “They say it’s technology from the Strange Traveler. The entire vehicle can be used as a ‘door’ to teleport through space. Before you left, you were all excited to figure out the principle.”

Luo weakly waved her hand, no longer having the strength to explain, only feeling that there was nothing left to vomit. If she dry-heaved a couple more times, she might start spitting out motor oil…

After another half-minute of discomfort, the two finally recovered. The guard captain took a breath, his face gradually returning to normal, and cautiously glanced at the image from the external monitor. “We haven’t been spotted, have we?”

“Probably not,” Luo was still checking the instruments. “The stealth field is running normally, all communications are silent. Unless we were unlucky enough to have someone staring right at that spot when we teleported in, no one in this vast space would notice the movement of a small shuttle.”

The guard captain let out a sigh of relief, then casually opened the communicator next to his seat and called the passenger cabin behind the shuttle: “Guys, done puking yet?”

There was a crackle from the communicator, then an annoyed voice: “Morpheus puked into his face shield, X…”

“X’s idiot, last time during the shipyard mission, it was also him who puked into his face shield,” the guard captain couldn’t help cursing. “Whatever, don’t worry about him. Let him clean it up himself. As long as the rest of you are fine…”

Listening to the commotion beside her, Luo’s expression gradually relaxed.

She had originally intended to act alone, to go back to the Dark Meteor Domain alone and meet the informants she had left there. But the day before her departure, when she returned to that valley to get a good night’s rest and adjust her state, Eileen suddenly ran over and said something that made her change her somewhat reckless plan—she couldn’t remember the exact words, but the one that stuck with her most was:

“…Even fighting a second-semester freshman is a struggle…”

The evil red-eyed little midget’s words were infuriating, but Luo was wise enough to know her own limits and was good at learning from past lessons. Thinking back to her experience of being beaten up at home and tied up by the Special Affairs Bureau, she ultimately decided to bring some backup.

She didn’t bring many people—just the guard captain and four well-trained soldiers. In the evil red-eyed little midget’s words, that was “barely enough to tie with a primary school graduate in ‘Fairy Tale’,” but she thought it was enough.

She wasn’t here to overthrow the entire Dark Meteor Domain, nor could she expect to single-handedly uproot the entrenched warlords and cultists with a few soldiers. Bringing a few guards was just to increase her margin for error and have some help when doing the work.

Her real mission was simply to extend “the boss’s” power to this place.

Luo reached out and gently brushed the hidden compartment beside her seat.

She could almost hear the living blood squirming inside those containers, death and life hissing in the darkness.