Chapter 688: Time Barrier

Holy Calendar, 11XX.

The last two digits were too blurred to make out.

Eilin pressed her head close, trying to distinguish the numbers in the footer for a long while, then after seriously thinking for a few seconds, she suddenly looked up: "What's Holy Calendar again... Did the Disciples of the Sacred Seclusion even set up their own calendar?"

Yu Sheng waved his hand. He seemed to recall something, and a hint of gravity gradually appeared in his expression. "This 'Holy Calendar' has nothing to do with the Disciples of the Sacred Seclusion. It's a common calendar used by several major civilization circles outside."

"This is something from several hundred years ago..."

Eilin was stunned for a moment, then slowly widened her eyes. "Several hundred years ago? Weren't you just saying this place might have been abandoned for only a few years? In this planet's harsh environment, this booklet could survive for centuries?!"

Yu Sheng did not answer immediately. He stared at the booklet in his hand for several seconds, then casually placed it on a dusty table nearby, stood up, and patted his clothes, all while sweeping his gaze around.

An abandoned alien habitation pod, a silent and frozen "wasteland planet," a booklet belonging to no one knew whom, and the suspicious records on it—all these belonged to a certain day in Holy Calendar 11XX.

Eilin suddenly jumped from Yu Sheng's shoulder onto the table. She ran over to the centuries-old "periodical" and curiously flipped through it. After a moment, the little doll's somewhat dim head seemed to finally catch on.

"Wait, wait... This place couldn't possibly be..."

Yu Sheng suddenly turned and walked out of the habitation pod.

Eilin turned her head and immediately panicked. She hurriedly jumped to the ground: "Hey, hey, wait for me! My legs are short..."

Halfway through her shout, Eilin saw a white flash beside her. Huli in her little fox form was running out after Yu Sheng. With her little short legs, she quickly scrambled two steps and grabbed hold of the fox's tail: "Take me, take me..."

By this time, Yu Sheng had already run to the open area outside the habitation pod. He looked up at the sky, only to see gloomy and murky clouds, a thick atmosphere unsuitable for human breathing enveloping the land—

It was a certain day in Holy Calendar 11XX. This was still a cold and lifeless planet. A group of pioneers of unknown origin had not yet gotten a foothold here. A power sufficient to change the face of this planet was still slowly growing. The unnamed dark angel still lurked in the depths of the stars, and a certain "Apostle" chosen by that angel... was still drawing power from the knowledge that came from the depths of the stars.

Luna walked out of a nearby building. While Yu Sheng was checking the habitation pod, she had also been investigating other parts of the camp. "There is a communicator. Backup power. Still running, but... receiving no signal."

Huli also came over and rubbed against Yu Sheng's feet.

"Launch a missile into orbit," Yu Sheng said casually. "As high as it can go."

"Sure~"

Huli agreed, turned around to set Eilin on the ground first, then launched a fluffy large tail into the sky—the silver-white fox tail spewed bright propulsion flames and disappeared into the thick clouds in an instant.

After a short while, Yu Sheng vaguely saw a distortion deep in the clouds, and then Huli looked up: "Benefactor, the connection is lost!"

Yu Sheng thoughtfully withdrew his gaze from the sky.

"...This is the Holy Domain—at least in terms of the celestial relative coordinates, that Dark Star cruiser landed on this planet," he said softly. "But we arrived too early... several hundred years too early."

"Holy crap... It really is like that?" Eilin's eyes widened. "No, then how do we deal with this... What's the principle behind this anyway?"

Huli suddenly perked up her ears: "Wait, if that's the case, can we ambush the first generation of Disciples here back then?"

Even Eilin's eyes lit up at the fox-woman's words: "Huh? That seems true?"

"...I don't know exactly what's going on with this planet, but things might not be that simple," Yu Sheng said, slowly shaking his head. "We flew all the way from the mountain range, and along the way, Bai Qie and Yan Ju scouted such a large area. Did they find any other traces of humans?"

"Uh, none indeed..." Eilin said hesitantly, but then she looked up again: "But they might have gone elsewhere. After all, this Camp No. 17 was abandoned..."

Yu Sheng did not speak. He thought of the tail that Huli had launched earlier and lost contact with, and then recalled the enormous fog wall on the horizon he had seen when riding on Huli's back over the mountains, which seemed to encircle the entire world.

"Launch another tail in that direction," he pointed into the distance, then pointed in another direction. "This direction, launch one too."

Two fox-missiles spewing propulsion flames roared into the sky and disappeared beyond the horizon in the blink of an eye.

Then after a short while, Huli looked up: "Those two tails also lost contact, Benefactor."

Yu Sheng listened, but there was no surprise on his face.

"...Indeed, this is a defense system, though I'm not sure if it's active or passive," he said slowly. "This place is not part of a complete spacetime. It's a kind of... trap. We've been intercepted by a time barrier."

Silence fell over the scene for a moment. Huli was thinking, while Eilin and Luna hadn't understood due to academic issues.

"Can the Disciples have such technology?" Huli broke the silence at last, her tone carrying disbelief. "If they have this ability, why would they need to hide in the lawless star sector like rats?"

"I also don't think they have this technology," Yu Sheng said with a grave expression. "But... with the addition of the Eden Gate, it's hard to say."

Eilin: "...Holy crap."

Actually, she still hadn't figured out the part about the "time barrier"—but as soon as she heard the words "Eden Gate," she knew things were serious.

Because she really knew how powerful that thing, the World Bridge, could be!

***

An awe-inspiring ring-shaped megastructure stood upon the earth. The pale golden ring and support structures, forged from exotic alloys, were like a crown of heaven and earth, connecting mountains and plains and piercing into the thick clouds. From the top of the giant ring composed of two semicircles extended several sharp "towers" that even passed through the clouds, emitting a brilliant glow in the sunlight.

A low, pleasant humming spread from around the ring-shaped megastructure, echoing across the entire plain and among the mountains. The vast energy transmitted from the "Most Holy Furnace" was continuously injected into the rift generator. At the center of the ring, an unstable distorted light curtain was slowly growing at a speed barely perceptible to the naked eye.

A high-ranking priest came to the platform and bowed in respect: "Your Holiness, the Eden Gate has entered activation state. The situation is stable."

"Mm, good."

His Holiness nodded slightly, a gentle smile on his lips as usual. He ordered the others to continue standing by around the platform, then walked forward.

The massive "Eden Gate" stood before him. The power sufficient to tear the world's barriers and alter the order of spacetime was surging within its colossal portal.

He looked up, watching the blurry, rippling light curtain at the center of the great ring. He could clearly feel its presence, feel its might permeating the entire planet—not just from space, but even seeping into the planet from time.

Its existence was "extending"—first from the present moment into the past, and once the gate was fully activated, it would also extend into the distant future.

A bridge needs "piers"—it must be firmly rooted in the foundation of time and space in order to reach the other side stably and correctly.

The angels' World Bridge failed because their world had already been destroyed, and a destroyed world has no meaningful timeline. Even as they rushed forward one after another, turning themselves into anchor points, desperately trying to anchor the "starting point" of the World Bridge, they could not give it a stable foundation in time and space—the moment that rootless bridge fell from nothingness into the real universe, its failure was already predetermined.

But the Eden Gate was different.

His Holiness arrived at the end of the platform. A temporarily installed device stood before the rift generator. As he approached, the device made a soft scraping sound and slowly turned toward him.

Inside an obelisk-like pale golden container was shockingly "embedded" a body—or strictly speaking, a head and a part of a torso structure containing only essential organs.

Colondel was embedded among a mass of life-support tubes and cables. Psyonic synergist was constantly pumped into his circulatory system. His head was fixed by hundreds of dense needles, and his eyes had been burned into two sockets by powerful psychic forces, yet two bright flames were dancing in those hollow eye sockets, brighter than eyes.

Large doses of neuro-drugs were injected directly into the brain. The head fixed by the needles trembled slightly, and from his mouth came some soft mutters like sleep-talking. As the entire device fully turned, as his flame-dancing eyes could no longer continue to face the direction of the Eden Gate, Colondel seemed to wake up. He began to shake his head uneasily, and the indistinct mutters quickly became clear, with a hint of terror—

"I, I can't see it! Let me see it, let me see it!"

"Colondel, it's me." The golden-haired man spoke gently.

Hearing this voice, Colondel instantly calmed down: "Your Holiness, ah, you've come..."

"Yes, I've come," the golden-haired man said, bending down slightly. "How is the gate? What do you see?"

"I... see it growing as you planned, roots strong, branches gradually flourishing," Colondel said slowly, a smile still on his face in his half-dream state. "And as you predicted, an unidentified interference seemed to try to approach the gate. Now the source of interference has fallen into the time well generated by the Eden Gate."

The expression on His Holiness's face seemed to flicker for a moment, but soon returned to his usual gentle smile. "It seems right to have you perform the early warning task here, Colondel. With great sacrifice, you have used your eyes to illuminate our path ahead."

"This is all a necessary price on the Path of the Sacred Seclusion," Colondel said slowly, then seemed to clear his mind a bit: "I, by doing this, have I indeed obtained the qualification to advance further?"

"...Of course, a glorious act will be rewarded with glory," His Holiness said calmly. "Let me confirm once more—the 'source of interference' has truly fallen into the time deep well, correct?"

"Absolutely certain—the voice of the Eden Gate echoes in my soul. I saw with my own eyes the power that once cursed me fall into the depths of time. They cannot escape, and they certainly cannot send any message out..."

***

Above the high orbit of Shuji, at a location in Black Stone Station.

Luo was waiting by a communicator, waiting for news.

Yu Sheng directly pushed the door and walked in: "Luo! Something came up!"

(End of Chapter)