Chapter 252: The True Face of the Borderland
Yu Sheng spent quite a while racking his brain, trying to imagine the customs and people of "Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain" and the planet "Taixu Lingshu," which was led by Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain, and also how such a force controlled by "cultivators" operated in the universe outside the Borderland and interacted with other powers. He wasn't imagining all this for any particular reason—it was purely an occupational habit kicking in, and he felt that there were at least a million words to be written here...
Bai Liqing couldn't guess what the anthropomorphic entity in front of her was thinking. She just looked at Yu Sheng with some curiosity. "I get the feeling you're very interested in Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain."
"Uh, it's just that this is the first time I've dealt with an 'outside' force like this, and they even gave me such an important clue," Yu Sheng quickly dismissed. "Just a bit curious, nothing else."
Bai Liqing seemed to be hesitant to speak, but just as she was about to say something, a phone ringtone interrupted her movement.
She answered the phone, exchanged a few brief words with the person on the other end, and then looked up.
"Since you happened to come today, are you interested in coming with me to take a look at another lab? There's something there that you'll definitely find interesting."
Yu Sheng blinked. "What is it?"
"The recovery team that returned from outside the city has finished their inspection, and the items they brought back have been transferred to the containment area lab," Bai Liqing said calmly. "The remains left behind after Ankaeira's descent—we can go see them now."
Yu Sheng's expression shifted slightly for a moment, then he nodded calmly and seriously.
"Then follow me," Bai Liqing said, already turning and walking towards the other direction of the corridor.
But she hadn't gone more than a few steps before she stopped in front of a vending machine, bought a bread roll, and handed it to Yu Sheng. "Sorry, just make do with this for now. We probably don't have time to eat slowly in the cafeteria."
Yu Sheng was taken aback, not expecting her to have considered that. Then he smiled and took the bread. "Ha, no problem. The main reason I said I wanted to eat at your cafeteria was to feed Hu Li. I saw she was quite happy eating in your cafeteria just now."
Eileen, who was lying on Yu Sheng's shoulder, muttered casually, "Yeah, she's happy with anything to eat. As long as there's food, she's happy..."
Under Bai Liqing's guidance, Yu Sheng went around several "transfer points" in this headquarters building, which was like a maze of time and space. Then they passed through a corridor that always gave people a sense of being tilted, before finally arriving at the so-called "containment area."
Or, more precisely, one of the hundreds or thousands of containment areas connected to this building.
The Special Affairs Bureau's headquarters building was like a towering tree growing at a cosmic traffic hub. Most people, even many of the Bureau's staff, could only say they had seen the trunk of this tree. But its branches and roots spread throughout the chaotic time-space structure of the Borderland, with almost every tiny branch tip connecting to a different functional area—deep dive facilities, storage areas, neutralized alien zones, hideouts for foreign races, containment areas, customs ports, embassies established by aliens, abandoned stations, dangerous floors...
Everything you could think of and more existed there, and Yu Sheng even suspected that Bai Liqing, who had controlled this towering tree for a hundred years, might not be able to accurately describe the path and story behind every branch.
So when he passed through the final gate and saw a huge cube-shaped structure floating in the dark void before him, Yu Sheng wasn't surprised at all—he had become quite indifferent to whatever scenery could appear "inside" this building.
"This is the one with the highest security level among the many containment areas directly connected to headquarters. Most of its structure is even outside the border of the Borderland, on the 'other side' invisible to the naked eye. Its 'shell' is captured by a star, in a state of equilibrium," Bai Liqing said, raising her hand to point at the corridor they came from. "This corridor is directly controlled by my mind. Once the thing inside this cube 'container' breaks containment, the corridor will disconnect, and the entire containment facility will instantly fall out of the Borderland and into the sea of fire of the star on the other side."
Yu Sheng listened in amazement, but also felt a bit puzzled. "Shouldn't this kind of thing be classified? You're just telling me like this?"
"You are a friend of the Special Affairs Bureau," Bai Liqing said calmly. "After you resolved the threat of the Gloomy Angel to the Borderland, there are almost no secrets that the Bureau needs to keep from you, especially regarding the Gloomy Angel and the containment mechanisms. Although you may not feel it now, in future cooperation, sharing intelligence in this area will be very necessary for both sides."
Yu Sheng listened thoughtfully, then looked up at the huge cube floating in the darkness across the suspended connecting bridge. After holding back for a while, he finally decided to ask a question he had been curious about for a long time. "If you put it that way, there's actually something I've been wondering about for a while—what's up with your technological level...?"
Bai Liqing slowed down and looked sideways at Yu Sheng. "You mean that many things you see here don't match the technological level you see in the daily life of , right?"
"Right," Yu Sheng spread his hands. "I've seen what is like. Although it's also a 'modern big city,' the things there are just... how to put it, 'normal.' Cars still run on wheels on the ground. There's no strong AI or stuff like that. But look at this place—this connecting bridge, the floating giant space structure, and earlier in that cell holding the cultists, I saw that... what was it, energy barrier, right? A bunch of black tech..."
He paused there and gestured a clear gap with his hand.
"This kind of incongruity, where there must be several generations of technological gap, there has to be an explanation, right? Or is that also classified?"
"I thought you never asked because you didn't care or hadn't noticed," Bai Liqing said, silently looking at Yu Sheng for a moment before shaking her head. "Actually, it's not hard to explain. The various facilities you see in this 'building' are not 'black tech.' In fact, they are the true technological level that the Council and the Special Affairs Bureau possess. The ' ' you see... is the appearance of the Borderland in its 'baseline state.'"
"...Baseline state?" Yu Sheng frowned, looking a bit confused. "What does that mean?"
"You can think of it as an 'anchor point,'" Bai Liqing said calmly. " is a society built on the basis of 'normal,' 'rational,' and 'order,' developing at a low, controllable speed until now without external interference. Based on this, it was designed as a huge 'cognitive stability anchor.' This anchor firmly pins the entire Borderland at the L-0 level. Without it... how deep do you think this city could reach?"
Yu Sheng: "...Holy shit?"
Eileen, who was lying on his shoulder, immediately slapped him. "Vulgar!"
"You're way more vulgar than me on a normal day!" Yu Sheng raised his hand to push away the little doll's hand, then turned his head wide-eyed to look at Bai Liqing. "Hey wait, you're saying that the human society within is an 'anchor' that ensures the entire Borderland is at L-0 depth. So that means, earlier during that Ankaeira incident..."
"Yes. For us, that was absolutely the most terrifying night in history. We have massive armed forces and countless defensive lines outside the Borderland to guard against possible threats. We have been very cautious in maintaining 's steady development at a safe speed free from external interference, to prevent our home from 'collapsing.' But the Gloomy Angel unreasonably drilled directly into the heart of the Council.
"At that time, countless people had prepared for the worst. I even considered a plan to temporarily exile Ankaeira by 'shattering' a part of the Borderland—luckily, it wasn't needed in the end.
"In terms of range of destruction, Ankaeira's descent might only destroy one of our cities, but in terms of effect, the city it destroyed is the 'core' of the Borderland force—a unique and irreplaceable core."
Bai Liqing stopped and quietly looked into Yu Sheng's eyes.
"So now you should understand just how big a thing you did that day."
Yu Sheng rubbed his forehead.
He had originally thought that the information about "Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain" was the most substantial thing he had encountered today, but now it seemed he had thought too soon.
The Borderland was a place of outstanding talents and fertile land... How many secrets did this strange place still hold?!
"Can I ask one more thing while I'm at it?" After holding back for a long time, Yu Sheng finally couldn't help asking. "How big is the Borderland... exactly?"
From the power the Special Affairs Bureau had revealed so far, and from what Li Lin and Xu Jiali occasionally mentioned about the "outside," he had already sensed that the "Borderland" as a force might be very different from what he had imagined.
"If you are referring to a purely 'geographical concept,' then the Borderland is what you currently understand: a huge ' ,' plus the vast wilderness area outside the city, plus the 'border' surrounded by boundary markers. The Borderland is that big, just a 'hub space bubble' within a special time-space structure.
"But if you are referring to it as a 'force,' the scope of the Borderland Council's control... that is far too big."
As she spoke, a faint smile appeared on Bai Liqing's face at some point.
"Think of the Borderland as an 'egg' floating in the universe. The branches of the Council spread out from this egg, occupying a place among the stars. And you have actually seen a small part of those branches with your own eyes—the passages leading to the outside, the customs facilities, the ports. They are the 'vascular bundles' that transport nutrients between the branches.
"Actually, this is easy to think of—you see, we occupy the largest natural transportation hub in the universe, have the largest trading platform for alien products, countless races set up contact stations here and establish their own trade routes based on the order built by the Council. We also have equal relationships with massive ancient forces like Terra Academy and the Alglander Astrologer Society...
"With all these advantages, the Borderland can still maintain peace. Why do you think that is? It can't be that all races in the universe love peace, can it?"
Yu Sheng thought about it, and the corner of his mouth twitched. "Alright, that really is the logic..."