Chapter 687: Traces of Time

The silver-white nine-tailed fox stepped gracefully through the air, landing lightly in the open space at the center of the abandoned camp. Bai Qie and Yan Ju followed close behind, landing beside Huli.

The two colorful "immortal fowl" tilted their heads, their four pitch-black eyes looking in four different directions, rolling around wildly.

To be fair, these two fighting chickens were getting more and more ridiculous. When they flapped their wings, the light pollution was almost as bad as those "One Slash 99999" mobile game ads for Legend of Hegemony and Big Angel Sword. But whether it was something in Huli's feed or these two were just naturally gifted, they had evolved everywhere except for their pair of crossed eyes. You couldn't tell from far away, but up close, it felt like their eyes and bodies were from completely different layers.

Yu Sheng was about to jump down from Huli's back when he noticed Bai Qie and Yan Ju's gaze. He couldn't help blurting out, "What are you two staring at?"

Bai Qie and Yan Ju turned their heads together, their four eyes looking in four different directions again—still not landing on Yu Sheng. Then one of them flapped its wings: "Cluck cluck cluck?"

Huli lay down on the ground, using her tail to protect Yu Sheng as he climbed off her back. She turned her head to explain, "Bai Qie said they're standing guard."

Yu Sheng chuckled. "Acting like they can't speak human now. I heard them talk last time..."

Bai Qie and Yan Ju turned their heads away together, pretending not to hear.

Yu Sheng didn't mind. After getting down from Huli's back, he focused his attention on this suspicious camp.

Luna's figure emerged from a shadow, coming to Yu Sheng's side. "No life reactions detected."

"Doesn't look like anyone's been here either... abandoned for many years." Yu Sheng nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over the surrounding habitat modules and the antennas and generator sets that had long stopped running. Many of the facilities he had never seen before and could only guess at their purpose. But no matter whether his guesses were right, it was obvious at a glance that this place had been abandoned.

Huli first retracted Bai Qie and Yan Ju into her tails, then didn't revert to human form. She stayed in her demon fox posture, maintaining vigilance as she walked beside Yu Sheng.

"Looks like a small colony? The facilities are quite complete, and there are abandoned construction machines. It doesn't seem like a hastily built shelter," she analyzed as she walked. "But what kind of people would come to a dead 'barren star' like this to attempt colonization? You can't even grow food here. Colonizing would require building an entire artificial ecosystem for the planet first..."

Yu Sheng frowned but said nothing. After circling the camp, he stopped in front of a large habitat module. The silver-gray module had suffered considerable damage under the harsh barren star environment. The alloy shell was covered in corrosion marks. The roof had a large pit from falling rocks off the cliff. The door's locking mechanism was also damaged, with the two doors stuck in a gap-open state.

As for power, of course, it had been gone long ago.

But this was already the best-preserved "room" in the entire camp.

Luna stepped forward. The blade at her fingertip flashed like lightning, almost instantly cutting the two doors into several pieces. Then she kicked them open.

Yu Sheng fanned the dust in the air and stepped into the habitat module.

A furry snout followed him in, stuck in the doorway and wagging back and forth: "Benefactor, what's it like inside?"

Yu Sheng turned his head and saw the big demon fox's snout still poking around. His face twitched. "Stop messing around. Just come in yourself."

"Oh," Huli said. Then Yu Sheng watched the snout retract, and immediately a white light flashed at the doorway. The next second, a small snow-white fox poked its head in, then slipped through, looking around as it walked. "This place is pretty bare inside."

Yu Sheng's face was full of shock. After all, he was used to Huli's demon fox form that was as big as two cars. This was the first time he had seen her in this shape. "Huh? You can shrink too?!"

"Of course," Huli trotted over, tilting her head up. Her furry face somehow carried a vivid expression of pride. "Demon fox, good at shape-shifting!"

Eilin sat on Yu Sheng's shoulder, looking down at the smug "fox dog" on the ground. She was bewildered. "Wait, why don't you just turn into human form..."

"No way, these clothes were newly bought for me by Benefactor. This place is so dirty!" Huli shook her head. "Besides, this form has keener senses. I feel safer in an unfamiliar environment."

"...Fine, whatever makes you happy." Yu Sheng looked oddly at the little fox weaving around his legs, momentarily unable to figure out what was going on in her head.

But soon his attention returned to the habitat module before him.

The layout inside the module was simple, only basic beds, tables, chairs, and cabinets. In one corner was a device resembling a large data terminal, along with some other equipment whose purpose was unclear. Though the room was abandoned, it wasn't messy, clearly indicating an orderly evacuation.

"People probably left a few years ago," Yu Sheng analyzed with an air of authority. "If it had been abandoned too long, the harsh environment here would have completely destroyed the camp. If it had been abandoned too recently, the condition would be better."

Huli, in her little fox form, walked ahead. A few clusters of bright foxfire floated at the tip of her tail. She nimbly jumped among the furniture, occasionally stopping to sniff, then sneezed several times from the dust. After circling around like this a few times, she suddenly stopped at a corner.

"Benefactor! Something here! A booklet!"

Yu Sheng looked up and saw Huli gleefully running over with something like a magazine in her mouth.

He reached out and took it, opening it. The first thing that met his eyes were pages blacked out in large patches.

He had no idea what the booklet was originally for. Its cover had been torn off, and the inner pages were largely smudged or torn away, as if reflecting the holder's unstable mental state. Combined with the weathering damage from the harsh environment, the booklet was now extremely fragile. The few complete pages were stuck together, and it seemed that even slightly rough handling would cause it to fall apart.

Yu Sheng could only open it very carefully, searching among the broken and stained pages for any legible text that could explain this place.

"Reformation and Habitability of Dead Celestial Bodies... Thoughts on Gravitational Faults... Memories of the Stars..."

He struggled to decipher the fragmented sentences that didn't form a coherent article. Then he turned another page, and from a page that was mostly torn away, he could only make out a title:

"Did Our Universe Begin One Second Ago? — Looking Back Along the Timeline, Are We Seeing Illusion or History?"

Yu Sheng sat down in a nearby chair, frowning thoughtfully. Eilin craned her neck from his shoulder. "What does that mean?"

Huli also put both paws on Yu Sheng's leg and craned her head to look at the tattered booklet. After a moment, she blurted out, "The finite knowability of a holographic universe? Hmm... maybe a finite mathematical description of a closed universe model or something? My dad used to have a book in his study that seemed to be about this, but I couldn't understand it. He said it was for people above high school level. But there were a few paragraphs in the book that were similar to this title."

Yu Sheng was startled. "...Your hometown's cultivation foxes also study this?!"

The little fox directly rested her jaw on Yu Sheng's thigh. "Our path is different, but other civilizations in the great fleet have this technology route, like the dragons and such. My dad always buys a bunch of these profound books when he travels to the core star cluster, but after taking pictures and posting them on his social feed, he stops reading them."

Yu Sheng was stunned for a moment, unsure how to comment on this. He could only reach out and rub the little fox's head (this time he was really rubbing a fox head), then carefully continued to look through the extremely fragile pages.

The following pages had some meaningless content, seeming to be advertisements or promotional materials sandwiched between the printed articles.

However, from the remaining content, it could be inferred that this booklet was some kind of more academic publication.

He flipped a few more pages. Near the end of the booklet, Yu Sheng's movements suddenly stopped.

He saw a page of handwritten text—it seemed to have been left by the original owner of the booklet.

"...We will abandon this outpost. The simulation system shows that Modification Plan No. 17 has failed.

"But the attempt itself still has value... The environment changed once. That 'knowledge'... on this planet, slightly deviated from the actual universe... with a fragile barrier... an inexplicable power.

"That voice pointed us to the right path, though the source of the voice remains uncertain... It's worth continuing the attempts, even if it might cost something.

"Others cannot hear the full voice. Perhaps it depends on individual talent... In any case, I seem to better understand those...

"...In short, this planet needs to be reconstructed... But even with that knowledge and power as assistance, plus the industrial carrier in orbit, this might take a century, even several centuries... But there is no other path, none.

"We will not die here. Never... by any means necessary... We will conquer this cold and rotting dead planet, conquer this prison wrapped in gravitational faults... The doubters will pay. We will fix those flaws... until we reach the end of truth."

After reading this, Huli looked up. Her golden-red eyes glittered in the light of the foxfire.

"Very suspicious," Eilin said, grabbing Yu Sheng's head with one hand and pinching her chin with the other, nodding seriously. Though it was unclear whether she had actually found something or just felt the atmosphere demanded it.

Yu Sheng didn't speak. His brows had been slowly furrowing since earlier as he sank into deep thought.

Then, his gaze fell on the corner of the page. In the stained footer, some marks could be faintly discerned.

Holy Calendar, 11XX.