Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 669 - 668: Morona Fault

Once a week, the five council members of the Boundary Land gather in the highest hall of the Council Tower, where they exchange information about their respective domains and discuss various other important matters—most of which pertain to the development and security of the Boundary Land, while the rest concern intelligence from other Civilization Circles or the movements of certain external destabilizing factors.

The routine exchanges and reports didn't take long.

"The city has been relatively peaceful this period," the middle-aged man, perpetually wearied, spoke slowly, "except for some damage caused by the recent intrusion of Hidden Monastery Sect, everything else is fine."

"Is there an issue with the mimicked starry sky over the suburban Ring?" The black-haired girl with closed eyes slightly tilted her head. Her face seemed to always bear a calm and gentle smile, but upon closer inspection, that smile appeared to be merely an illusion. "I've heard that some stars are appearing in the wrong places, and someone has uploaded it online."

"It's the star projection that has shifted," the middle-aged man nodded, "it's hard to control, as the starry sky of the Boundary Land is essentially a projected mapping from real Universe through the space Barrier. The last 'World Bridge' incident affected the space Barrier surrounding the Boundary Land... some mapping paths have been permanently altered."

"How was this matter handled eventually?" Baili Qing asked.

"Cognition steering, gradually letting people adapt to those changes in stars," the middle-aged man said, nodding lightly towards the unusual and rudimentary robot beside Baili Qing, "the 'Glitch' handled those circulating online information—not by direct deletion, but by reshaping it into something resembling urban legends, probably after a few days, the related hype will fade, and then slowly disappear from people's view."

"The World Bridge incident has ended, but the trouble it brought is far more lasting than the incident itself," the strange robot called "Glitch" emitted a somewhat off-key sound, with a bunch of clocks ticking in its chest cavity, the bulb serving as its head flickering uncertainly, "after all, it made such a big hole."

Baili Qing raised her eyebrows slightly, opened her mouth wanting to say something, but before speaking, she first let out a big yawn.

The weary-faced middle-aged man sitting opposite her uncontrollably followed with a yawn.

"Yawning... it's contagious," the middle-aged man rubbed his forehead hard after yawning, "Hasn't it been years, haven't you adjusted to your hibernation habit yet?"

Baili Qing was expressionless: "Hundreds of years, have you cured your insomnia yet?"

The middle-aged man awkwardly scratched his nose, while the pale and slender black-haired girl beside slightly turned her head towards Baili Qing: "Isn't adjusting the room temperature helpful at all?"

Baili Qing: "...it's not about the temperature."

The elderly man with completely white hair and beard coughed lightly twice.

"Red, Kant, talk about personal affairs after the meeting—Colorless Dragon, any new intelligence recently regarding the Venerate Saints Monastery?"

"Yes, Chairperson, and this time it's something big," Baili Qing's tone immediately became serious, "'travel agency' recently took down a Black Spot Warlord, who had secret communications with the Venerate Saints Monastery. If the intelligence is accurate, currently in the Dark Meteor Domain there might be an 'Artificial Boundary Bridge' that could lose control at any time, and also a Dark Angel that might wake up at any moment..."

The meeting hall fell silent, and for a period of time, only Baili Qing's voice echoed in the vast hall.

After a good while, finally, a slight crackling sound broke the somewhat heavy silence—"Glitch" had its head bulb flicker a few times, the filament inside burnt out.

It calmly unscrewed the burnt-out bulb from its neck, then retrieved a new one from under the table and screwed it on with a creak.

The new bulb emitted a soft and steady light on its neck.

"Next time, give a heads-up before talking about such scary stuff," it complained, "I'll cut off the power first."

"We have a main fleet currently docked at the Star Port of Meira IX," the black-haired girl known as "Red" said after a moment of thought, "ready to move towards the Dark Meteor Domain—just need to confirm the coordinates of that 'Saint Realm' planet."

"Luo and Yu Sheng are already working on it—directly pinpointing the exact location of the 'Saint Realm' might be quite tricky, but finding other sovereign planets of the Hidden Monastery should not be a problem. As long as we can secure a springboard, we can find the location of the Saint Realm from their local broadcasts," Baili Qing said slowly, "but the issue now isn't how to attack, rather it's about ensuring the threat of the 'Gate of Eden' is neutralized during the attack. Currently, the only viable approach seems to be sending an elite team to infiltrate the 'Saint Realm' before the attack starts..."

"An elite squad going to cripple the strategic facilities on the enemy's Capital Star? That's not just any 'elite team'," Kant, whose face was weary, raised his eyebrows upon hearing this, "I can roughly guess who you're referring to... the 'travel agency', them?"

"Who else could it be?" Baili Qing spread her hands. "'Inference Star Body' at least proved that such inconceivably difficult missions are possible in the hands of Yu Sheng."

The few council members present didn't speak for a moment, just looked at each other.

But to say they looked at each other wasn't entirely accurate—because "Malfunction's" head was just a lightbulb, and "Red" never opened his eyes... Anyway, you get the idea.

"Yu Sheng..." Red's brow furrowed slightly, turning to face Kant, "Still can't figure out how he actually 'came'?"

"Even the Colorless Dragon couldn't find anything, what could I find?" Kant shook his head, and after being stared at for a few seconds, he finally sighed, "Alright, alright, I did go down to 'below' to check, but even in the shadows left by the last era, I couldn't find any 'echo' related to 'Yu Sheng'. He really seems like he appeared out of thin air."

"Appeared out of thin air, yet 'imprinted' in the initial archives of Boundary Land..." Red folded his arms, his slender and pale fingers unconsciously tapping his arm, "Not a physical entity, not an echo, not an Angel, in every way looks human, with self-awareness as a human, but the least likely option is also human..."

"At least he's on our side," Kant said, "Judging from the information we have, as long as we don't provoke or show hostility, he and his team are reliable friends."

"Even so, we can't stake everything on one person's success rate," the president's voice interjected from the side, interrupting the conversation between Kant and Red, "Next, let's discuss the contingency plans if the travel agency's operation in the Saint Realm fails—and the contingency plan for the contingency plan."

Baili Qing nodded slightly, "Alright."

...

At the same time, deep in the Dark Meteor Domain, in a place far from all major celestial bodies and bustling routes.

Space was lonely, cold, and desolate, with the nearest Constant Star hundreds of light-years away.

But it wasn't empty here—countless fragments of large and small celestial bodies floated in the dark, cold space. These might have once been a complete planet, but for some unknown reason, they broke free from the Constant Star's grip, wandering into this deep space. Some powerful force shattered this aimless planet, its debris forming a strip tens of thousands of kilometers long in space.

Amidst the debris belt, the once blazing core had cooled into an ugly, irregular potato-shaped black sphere. The broken continent plates and mantle layers collided and melded indistinguishably, forming a series of intermittent space mountains. Nearby, a faintly glowing, immensely large... "rift" lay ominously.

It was a rift floating in space, its true form invisible to the naked eye, detectable only by sensitive gravity wave radars or Subspace detectors. As for those glowing parts, they were merely the phenomenon of light produced when the gas, left after the planet was torn apart, was consumed by the rift, and the actual complete size of the entire rift might have to be measured in light-years—it lay there abruptly in the dark space, pressing a fold in the real space that was unobservable to the naked eye. Tremendous and unseen gravitational tides on both sides of the rift incessantly rippled, their intensity enough to tear apart a planet drifting here.

This is the Morona Fault—one of the most famous gravitational faults in the Dark Meteor Domain.

The Universe is vast, deep space is fraught with dangers, some stemming from phenomena like these gravitational faults. Such phenomena are rarely seen elsewhere, yet in the talent-rich Dark Meteor Domain... the locals are even accustomed to their presence.

In the areas where faults are densest, these varying sizes of gravitational "razors" can form a "barrier matrix" spanning dozens of light-years, encompassing several planetary systems within.

Rumor has it that some pirate groups wielding "witchcraft" set up their lairs inside these "barriers," relying on the surrounding faults to block adversaries, and their so-called "witchcraft" is actually the "Star Language" talent of the Arglede Elf—the Algredians' keen spiritual energy perception allows them to avoid the dangerous rift zones, finding safe routes within the faults.

It's said that exceptional Algredians can even locate their home planet precisely from several star systems away without relying on navigation systems.

Listening to the stars, seeking answers from the stars, is a talent ingrained in every Algredian's bones.

But unfortunately, Luo's essence had been extracted—so she couldn't hear it.

She now had to rely on device assistance.

A discreet gray-black shuttle emerged from warped space, activating its invisibility system under the cover of gravitational faults. It then hid among several massive celestial fragments, releasing two deep space probes.

Luo sat in the shuttle's cockpit, her eyes heavy as she gazed into the dark void outside.