Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 563: Black Star Illusion
Yu Sheng exerted great effort explaining to Erin that he hadn’t "eaten" the massive control mechanism, but had instead transformed its form—the World Bridge itself is an "extraterritorial object" that transcends the concept of reality, capable of being transferred and contained like a Spiritual Body...
Yet after explaining for half a day, he finally faced reality and could only admit to Erin that he did indeed eat the control mechanism of the World Bridge, thus ending the countless "whys" of the little Puppet.
Then he began to explain to Hu Li that the control mechanism of the World Bridge had no taste, was not delicious, and was not edible at all...
Luna stood silently beside them, simply recording and taking pictures with a click.
Meanwhile, Baili Qing watched silently from the side, her calm face hard to read, though there seemed to be a trace of relaxation in her eyes—tiny scales on the sides of her cheeks gradually faded, while the crystalline dragon horns on her head showed no signs of receding, yet her eyes had completely restored to their human appearance from the previous vertical pupil state.
At this moment, an inexplicable sensation emerged in the depths of everyone’s hearts, an... alien feeling that instantly disrupted the exchange between Yu Sheng and Hu Li.
Baili Qing was the first to react, suddenly looking up toward the sky.
Above the divine temple ruins, the chaotic sky seemed to be disturbed by something, with numerous shadowy clusters gathering unknowingly, stirred by an invisible force, forming a massive vortex cloud, expanding rapidly, with its center seemingly breaking into a colossal opening connecting to a distant dimension—at the center of that opening, there was a cold starlight as if from the universe’s border.
From amid the starlight, a massive dark celestial body emerged, silently, coldly, solemnly overlooking all.
It was a pure black planet, its surface void of any light, yet unlike a black hole that would distort the surrounding starlight; it seemed like a hollow illusion not existing in the real world, floating at the end of this broken space-time, visible to the naked eye, yet evidently untouchable.
"It’s the Black Star!" Erin uttered a soft gasp, then suddenly remembered something, clutching Yu Sheng’s hair forcefully, "Hey hey, Yu Sheng, we’re seeing the Black Star here! Doesn’t this mean we’re really not inside the Black Star!? But I remember that Yuan Hao clearly said..."
"I remember too, Yuan Hao said he fell into the Black Star, after passing through many bizarre illusions, he ’fell into’ a vast opening leading inside the celestial body, and inside that big opening, he saw the divine temple ruins and the Omen Divine Corpse within the ruins..." Yu Sheng furrowed his brow, recalling the intelligence he had heard from Master Yuan Hao while scanning around—
This clearly was the ruin Yuan Hao had seen back then. According to his description, the ruin was located within the Black Star, yet at this moment, that dark star hung overhead, seemingly positioned in a distant other space-time...
This clearly conflicted with Yuan Hao’s intelligence!
Yu Sheng, frowning, began contemplating various possibilities: "Was Yuan Hao’s intelligence flawed? Or did the Black Star undergo some change, expelling this piece of ’space-time fragment’ beneath our feet? Or was it the impact caused by the World Bridge’s collapse..."
"Or maybe that dashing guy was just bragging," Erin also joined in contemplation, "After all, he’s the kind that would be caught dancing by his confidantes and made a Dao companion for ten years; who knows how much of his stories are true."
"I don’t think so," Yu Sheng shook his head sternly, his gaze returning to the celestial dark body in the sky, then once again focusing his mind, using the connection of blood to perceive the space-time fragment beneath his feet and the residual "blueprint" of the World Bridge, trying to see if these might establish some connection with the "Black Star", "Yuan Hao may be unreliable elsewhere, but in matters like this, he wouldn’t speak recklessly, moreover, he indeed has a fragment of the Omen Banner... wait a moment!"
Yu Sheng halted abruptly, then suddenly turned to look at the surrounding remnants of the Omen Ashes that were almost dispersed.
The adventure narrative once recounted by Master Yuan Hao then floated up in his mind—
Yuan Hao maneuvered the Immortal Boat falling into the Black Star, after dimensional travel through numerous illusions, he saw the ancient divine temple ruins and the Omen Divine Corpse... The Immortal Boat, losing control, fell toward the Divine Corpse, only to pass through layers of illusions, entering a nameless space... Wandering in the nameless space, with his Primordial Spirit about to dissipate, he encountered a figure claiming to be the "Envoy" and obtained a fragment of the Omen Banner from the Envoy...
From this adventure account given by Yuan Hao, what stood out most vividly in Yu Sheng’s memory was the description of Yuan Hao driving the Immortal Boat toward the divine temple ruins:
"The shadows and the ruins beneath them seemed like nothing more than void illusions, without any hindrance upon collision."
Yu Sheng gently tapped the ground.
A firm sensation transmitted from beneath his feet.
These were truly existent, with the dissipating Omen Ashes and the recently retrieved golden-haired Puppet remnants, both being real.
He took a deep breath and again looked skyward.
The pitch-black celestial body remained suspended amid the starlight at the universe’s end, like a distant, unreachable illusion.
"What Yuan Hao said should all be true, but what he saw back then was not the divine temple we are on now; the divine temple ruins and the Omen Divine Corpse within the ruins he saw... were all some kind of projection," Yu Sheng stated, his expression somber, slowly speaking amid contemplation, "If my guess is correct, the interior of the Black Star might all consist of such ’shadow dimension’ layered illusions, and even the Black Star itself might be a ’projection’ cast into our universe by some existence beyond our understanding."
Hu Li, beside him, blinked: "Savior’s meaning is... the Black Star is a Dark Angel as well?"
Yu Sheng wore a grim expression: "Hard to say, but its peculiarity certainly aligns."
"That can’t be right..." Erin, rarely, seriously thought through various things, and at this moment found a blind spot, "The fragment of the Omen Banner Yuan Hao brought back is real! He was also found by someone claiming to be ’Kongdaman’..."
The little Puppet paused mid-sentence, seeming to encounter a sudden shift in her chaotic, mixed memories at the mention of "Kongdaman", with a strand of confusion and a puzzled expression surfacing on her face.
"Did you remember anything?" Yu Sheng quickly asked upon seeing Erin’s reaction, "Is there the name ’Kongdaman’ in your newly found memory?"
"I..." Erin frowned, shaking her head with difficulty while holding a frying pan too big for her, "I don’t remember, but I feel this name is very familiar, especially familiar to the ear."
"Savior!" Hu Li suddenly raised his hand, pointing toward the sky, "Look quickly! The Black Star is disappearing!"
At the center of the giant vortex in the sky, the pitch-black celestial body was rapidly vanishing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
It seemed to be turning transparent, as if "retreating" from an occupied space-time, with the surrounding starlight gradually becoming bright. In just over ten seconds, the massive dark celestial body disappeared into the sky, as if evaporating into thin air.
Subsequently, the large hollow at the vortex center also closed, and the chaotic sky regained its previous disordered state—as if the anomaly never happened.
Throughout, Yu Sheng tried various methods but could not establish any connection with the "Dark Star."
It seemed to be an "independent system" with no direct link to the World Bridge or the Omen Divine Temple.
The group exchanged glances, and after a while, Erin broke the silence: "Ah, still couldn’t remember."
Then the small puppet raised its hand, pointing at the sky: "Black Star is gone, now what?"
"What else could be done? This thing isn’t controlled by me," Yu Sheng’s face twitched, unable to help but feel some sentimentality, "Honestly... why are these eerie things becoming more frequent?"
As he spoke, his gaze fell on Baili Qing beside him.
"The Special Service Bureau will continue to monitor intelligence in this area," Baili Qing said proactively without waiting for Yu Sheng to speak, "Since Master Yuan Hao once ’entered’ the inside of the Black Star himself and it just appeared directly before us, there’s a high possibility that there are sightings of Black Stars recorded in other civilization circles—however, considering its possible ’illusion’ characteristics and the unpredictability of its appearance and timing, other sighting records likely face interference from illusions, so I will expand the scope of intelligence collection."
"Then I’ll leave it to you guys." Yu Sheng nodded, then inhaled lightly, turning to look again at the now completely quiet ruin of the divine temple.
The Black Star’s matter isn’t something that can be studied overnight, and the affair concerning the Omen Goddess and the World Bridge is already concluded... it’s time to leave.
He poked the puppet on his shoulder: "We should head back too."
A door quietly opened to the Boundary Land, opposite the hallway of No. 66 Wutong Road—a familiar and cozy homely scene unexpectedly mirrored in this collapsing ancient ruin, alleviating much of the mental fatigue.
Yet, Erin suddenly grabbed Yu Sheng’s hair, turning to look at the surrounding ruin, her gaze somewhat... conflicted.
Yu Sheng looked up at the little puppet, appearing forlorn while holding a pan: "Reluctant to leave?"
"Not really, considering there’s hardly any memory left," Erin hesitated for a moment, shaking her head, "Just feel it somewhat regretful to leave like this... Shouldn’t this space fragment have been preserved by the power of the World Bridge? Now that the World Bridge is gone, if we leave again, will it disappear completely?"
Yu Sheng thought for a moment: "It will lose its anchor with the real world, as an ’alien entity’ not belonging to this universe, this place may soon be decomposed and erased from the informational level, similar to how Anka Aela and Inference Star Body were, at most leaving some residuals akin to ’Angel Catalyst’."
"That’s right, isn’t it..."
The small puppet lowered its head, looking genuinely a bit down.
Viewing this dejected little thing, Yu Sheng suddenly chuckled, raising his hand to rub her head.
"But this place is ultimately a space fragment, not the body of the Dark Angel, in a sense, it’s quite similar to those ’Fairy Tale Subsets’ created by Anka Aela, hence there’s still some operability."
Erin suddenly lifted her head, her eyes much brighter than before, and immediately seemed to discover something: "Oi, Yu Sheng, you suddenly have another bloody disaster..."
"Nonsense," Yu Sheng, laughing and crying, directly tossed the small puppet into the living room on the opposite side of the door, and then beckoned Hu Li, Luna, and Baili Qing to go ahead, "Alright, you all head home first, I’ll come back later—I’ll ’weld’ this place into the valley first."
Baili Qing was still a bit confused, but before she reacted, she was dragged through the door by the strong Hu Li, and Luna also solemnly bowed three times to Yu Sheng at the door, turning towards No. 66 Wutong Road—Yu Sheng waved to the people across the door, before closing it, turning to look at the still ancient divine temple.
"Okay, let’s call it bringing home some local specialties again."
Yu Sheng muttered.
Then, with a click, he died.
The entire space fragment where the Omen Divine Temple was located began to collapse, restructure—death ushering in rebirth, these residual last ashes from a bygone world, like a small boat guided on the Nether River, started slowly ’sailing’ toward the valley of new life on the other shore.
