Chapter 688: Chapter 687: Moments Frozen in Time

The silver Nine-Tailed Demon Fox moved gracefully through the air, landing lightly in the middle of the abandoned camp, with White Cut and Salt Roasted following closely beside Hu Li.

The two colorful "Immortal Birds" tilted their heads, each of their four shiny eyes looking in different directions, spinning erratically.

Honestly, the style of these two battle chickens has become increasingly ridiculous, their wings fluttering with light pollution rivaling the legendary 99999 Sword O Mastery and the Archangel O Sword. But whether it’s a problem with the feed Hu Li gave them or if these two are inherently unusual, everything about them has evolved except for those eyes—which from afar aren’t noticeable, but up close make you feel like their eyes don’t belong on the same layer as their bodies.

Yu Sheng was preparing to jump off Hu Li’s back when he noticed White Cut and Salt Roasted’s gaze and couldn’t help blurting out, "What are you two looking at?"

White Cut and Salt Roasted turned their heads in unison, their four eyes again looking in four different directions—still not landing on Yu Sheng, then one of them flapped its wings: "Cock-a-doodle-doo?"

Hu Li lay on the ground, using her tail to protect Yu Sheng as he got off her back, and explained casually, "White Cut said they’re on patrol duty."

Yu Sheng chuckled, "Now they pretend they can’t speak human language, but I’ve heard them talk before..."

White Cut and Salt Roasted turned their heads away, pretending not to hear.

Yu Sheng didn’t mind and turned his attention to the suspicious camp after getting off Hu Li’s back.

Luna emerged from a shadow and approached Yu Sheng, "No, detected, life reaction."

"Doesn’t look like there’s anyone around... It’s been abandoned for years." Yu Sheng nodded lightly, his gaze sweeping over the surrounding living pods and the antenna and generator units that had ceased functioning—many of the facilities were unfamiliar to him, only leaving him to speculate about their purposes, but regardless of whether he guessed right, the place being abandoned was obvious.

Hu Li first tucked White Cut and Salt Roasted back into her tail, choosing not to revert to human form, but instead remained in her demon fox form, staying alert beside Yu Sheng.

"Looks like a small colony? Facilities are comprehensive, and there’s abandoned engineering machinery, unlike a hastily built shelter," she analyzed as she walked alongside him, "but who would come to this dead ’Deserted Star’ to develop a colony? This place can’t even grow food; for colonies, you’d first need a whole planetary artificial ecosystem..."

Yu Sheng frowned without speaking, eventually stopping in front of a large living pod after circling the camp—the pod’s silver-gray exterior had sustained considerable damage in the harsh environment of the deserted star, its alloy shell was riddled with corrosion marks, the roof had a large dent from a rockfall, and the door lock structure was already damaged, the two gates stuck halfway open.

As for power, that was long gone.

Nonetheless, this was the best-preserved "house" in the entire camp.

Luna stepped forward, her Fingertip Blade like an electric flash, instantly slicing the two doors into pieces, then kicked them open.

Yu Sheng waved away the dust in the air and stepped into the living pod. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

A furry snout followed him in, wobbling at the door: "Savior, what’s inside?"

Yu Sheng turned, seeing the Great Demon Fox’s snout nosing around, his face twitching: "Stop playing, come in yourself."

"Oh," Hu Li finally responded, and Yu Sheng watched as the snout retreated, followed by a flash of white light at the door, and in the next moment, a small snow-white fox squeezed in, looked around curiously, "It’s pretty basic in here."

Yu Sheng was astonished to see this, having grown accustomed to Hu Li’s demon fox mode, which was as big as two cars, this was the first time seeing her in this form: "Huh? You can shrink?!"

"Yep," Hu Li strolled over, looking up, her furry face radiating a lively pride, "Demon fox, expert at transformation!"

Erin perched on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, glancing down at the smug "fox dog" below, puzzled: "Why don’t you just transform into human form..."

"No way, the clothes Savior bought me are new, this place is filthy!" Hu Li shook her head, "Besides, this form has more sensitive perception, gives a sense of security in unfamiliar environments."

"...Fine, as long as you’re happy." Yu Sheng looked at the little fox weaving around his legs with a quirky expression, momentarily pondering what was going on in her head.

But soon, his attention was back on the living pod before him.

The room’s layout was simple, with basic bedding, tables, chairs, and cabinets, a device resembling a large data terminal in one corner, alongside some unidentifiable equipment. Although abandoned, it was orderly, clearly undergoing a structured evacuation.

"People may have left years ago," Yu Sheng analyzed seriously, "If abandoned for too long, the harsh environment here would have completely destroyed the entire camp. If abandoned for too short, its condition should be better."

As a little fox, Hu Li trotted ahead, with several bright foxfires floating at the tip of her tail. She nimbly hopped between the furniture, occasionally stopping to sniff the air, only to sneeze several times from irritation. After circling around several times, she suddenly halted at a corner of the wall.

"Savior! There’s something! A booklet!"

Yu Sheng looked up and saw Hu Li happily running over with something that looked like a magazine in her mouth.

He reached out to take it, flipped it open, and the first thing that met his eyes was a page heavily blacked out.

No one knew what this booklet was originally for; its cover had been torn off, and its inner pages were scribbled over or torn out extensively, as if showcasing the unstable mental state of its holder. Coupled with weathering damage due to poor environment, it was now incredibly fragile. The few remaining full pages stuck together, threatening to fall apart with a bit of force.

Yu Sheng could only open it very carefully, searching for any recognizable words that might explain this place from the broken and stained pages.

"The transformation and habitability of dead celestial bodies... Deliberations on gravitation anomalies... The memory of the stars..."

He struggled to decipher those words that hardly formed an article, then turned another page, and saw a title amidst the mostly torn off text:

"Did Our Universe Come Into Existence One Second Ago?—Looking Back on the Timeline, Is It Illusion or History?"

Yu Sheng sat down on a nearby chair, frowning thoughtfully, while Erin peeked over his shoulder: "What does that mean?"

Hu Li also rested her paws on Yu Sheng’s leg, peering at the dilapidated booklet. After a while, she suddenly said, "A finite knowability of the holistic universe? Uh... or maybe a finite mathematical description of the closed universe model or something...? My dad had a book in his study that seemed to talk about this, but I couldn’t understand it. Dad said it’s for high school and above... But there were some passages in the book quite similar to this title."

Yu Sheng was taken aback: "Your family of Cultivating Immortality foxes also studies this?!"

The little fox directly rested her mouth on Yu Sheng’s leg: "We take a different path, but some other civilizations in the big ship group follow this technological route, like the Dragon Clan or whatever. Whenever my dad traveled to the core star cluster, he always bought a bunch of these profound books. But after taking pictures and posting them on social media, he wouldn’t read them anymore."

Yu Sheng was stunned for a while, not knowing how to comment on this, so he could only reach out and gently rub the little fox’s head (this time actually stroking a fox head), then carefully continued flipping through those extremely fragile pages.

There were some contents behind that seemed meaningless, merely advertisements or promotional materials sandwiched among the printed pages.

However, from the remaining content, it could be deduced that this booklet was likely some academically inclined publication.

He flipped a few more pages, and near the end of the booklet, Yu Sheng’s movement abruptly stopped.

He saw a page of handwritten text—seemingly left by the manual’s original owner.

"...we will abandon this base, the simulation system shows that the 17th modification plan failed.

"But the attempt itself remains valuable... The environment changed temporarily, that ’knowledge’... On this planet slightly deviating from the real universe... The inexplicable force on a star with fragile barriers.

"That voice has pointed us in the right direction, even though we cannot yet determine the source of the voice... It is worth continuing to try, even if it might come at a cost.

"Others cannot hear the full voice, it may depend on individual talent... Regardless, I seem to understand those things better...

"...In any case, this planet needs reconstruction... But even with knowledge and power to aid us, coupled with the industrial carrier on the orbit, it may take a century, even several centuries... But there’s no other path, none.

"We won’t die here, absolutely not... At all costs... We will conquer this cold and decayed death star, conquer this cage wrapped in gravitational faults... Doubters will pay the price, we will fix those flaws... Until reaching the end of truth."

After reading this, Hu Li lifted her head, her golden-red eyes flickering brilliantly under the reflection of the foxfire.

"Very suspicious." Erin grabbed Yu Sheng’s head with one hand and pinched her chin with the other, nodding seriously with a face full of seriousness, although it was unclear whether she really discerned anything or just felt the atmosphere required such a statement.

Yu Sheng didn’t speak; he had begun to wrinkle his brows from earlier, sinking into deep thought.

Then, his gaze fell to the corner of the page—a blurry trace evident at the damaged page foot.

Holy Calendar, 11XX.