Xyrin Empire-Chapter 1504: Wreckage in the Abyss

Sandora and I soon arrived at Taville’s research institute, and sure enough, Harlan was also here: as an expert with profound understanding of the Abyss Domain, Harlan has now become one of the leaders of the Deep Dive Project.

Taville didn’t bother with pleasantries and directly got to the point as soon as we met: "Deep Dive Port just sent another confirmation message; there are indeed large amounts of remnants below the Abyss Gate, which are currently slowly moving towards the real world. The specific number is unknown due to strong interference."

"Did they come from the other side?" Sandora looked into Taville’s eyes, asking the question everyone present was concerned about.

"Can’t confirm for now, we haven’t developed the technology to track Abyss drifters yet, and to be honest, the fact that remnants even appear in the Abyss is unlikely," Taville shook his head, "Any orderly material would quickly decompose and collapse in the Abyss environment, even faster than in the Void. If something like a Deep-diving ship encounters shield failure in the Abyss, it would be completely decomposed in about ten minutes, making it impossible to leave behind remnants, let alone ’drift’ a distance. I believe these remnants are very peculiar with many suspicious points."

I turned to look at Harlan: "Have any measures been taken now?"

"Currently monitoring, while sealing off Deep Dive Port," Harlan spread his hands, "I originally planned to fish them up for a look, but suddenly remembered that the Fallen Apostle side had already developed Abyss sub-navigating technology. They have the ability to navigate the Shallow Abyss Region; if these remnants are traps they’ve set, bringing them up could be a huge hassle."

Harlan’s words made me instantly sober from excitement. I touched my hair, thinking it’s fortunate that this old sly fox in front of me is meticulous and has spent quite a long time in the Fallen Apostle’s camp. His worries might actually come true.

"But we can’t just ignore it," Sandora thought briefly and made a plan, "Sooner or later, we must salvage those things for a look. If they really are from the other side and we miss them, the loss would be significant. I estimate they can’t sustain long in the Abyss. So let’s personally go to Deep Dive Port and oversee, while Ah Jun provides full support. If it turns out to be something the Fallen Apostle brought over, we’ll purify it on the spot—they can’t resist Ah Jun’s Wanderer’s Return no matter how skilled they are."

I quickly covered Sandora’s mouth: "That ridiculous skill name doesn’t need to be mentioned!"

Taville nodded expressionlessly: "Then I’ll go prepare the shuttle. According to the state of those remnants, they can sustain quite a long time, Your Majesties need not worry."

After Taville temporarily left, I turned to Harlan: "Are you going to follow? You’re an expert."

"I certainly need to go and see," Harlan smiled, "If they are from the other side, it’s fine. If they indeed drifted over from the Abyss Zone... it just happens I can meet my ’old friends’. By then, you two better not fight with me. Ever since switching camps, I haven’t really exercised my skills."

I was speechless for a moment, thinking that it’s truly Xyrin-made. Uncle Harlan, who usually looks mature, steady, and trustworthy in Big Brother form, is indeed explosive like Pandora at heart. Looking at the burning fighting spirit in his eyes, it’s clear he was nurtured using nitroglycerin hydroponics...

Very soon, Taville got everything ready, and we boarded the shuttle heading to Deep Dive Port. However, Taville herself didn’t join us because she already had seven to eight mass projections waiting at the destination. This omnipresent, schizophrenia-prone bespectacled girl can instantly arrive anywhere within the Empire—high-level split personality, worthy of possession—what a mess...

Due to security considerations, Deep Dive Port has special security measures in place, making it impossible to directly jump over using the World Gate. So, we had to take a high-speed shuttle, which delayed us for over two hours. But Taville was right: the state of those remnants was good, and judging by their environment in the Abyss, they can endure quite a long time. By the time we arrived at Deep Dive Port, not only were they not destroyed by the Abyss, but they were still steadily moving towards the Order World, with an attitude of ’Flood Waters cannot bother me, as long as I shut the doors, all is well.’

Deep Dive Port remains unchanged, with a lonely Abyss Gate floating in outer space, surrounded by countless Suppression Towers controlling its activities. At the critical point of the Abyss Gate, monitoring platforms and various auxiliary facilities were built for the port. The major difference since the last time we were here is the addition of numerous space constructions: some of these are labs for conducting specific new research projects that require large-scale Abyss environments. Since we can’t move such environments to Shadow City, Taville built many of these labs near Deep Dive Port, now looking almost like a dense asteroid belt. The remaining new constructions are mainly Shield Broadcast Towers and control facilities: since last time, when the Deep Dive Port’s control platform was destroyed by the "Black Shuttle", Taville has notably strengthened the port’s on-site security measures. Although we aren’t sure about the effectiveness of these Shield Broadcast Towers and control points against things like "Black Shuttle", having them is better than not.

The shuttle landed smoothly at the dock on the upper layer of the control platform. As soon as we disembarked, we met Taville (mass projection), who had been waiting for a long time. She greeted us: "Your Majesties, the observation room and Deep-diving ship are ready."

I tugged at the corner of my mouth: "Um... meeting again. Your omnipresence is quite convenient."

"Actually, Your Majesty might consider making a mass projection," Taville’s uncertainty, some number mass projection earnestly suggested, "Subordinate can specially design a mass projection fitting Your Majesty’s usual perception, making handling tasks requiring extensive travel more convenient. Does Sandora or Lord Harlan have interest? Subordinate can create together..."

"Spare us!" The three of us said in unison, then curiously looked at Harlan and Sandora, "Why don’t you like this? I don’t have the habit of schizophrenia, but you can seemingly multitask control of the body, right?"

Harlan cheerfully shook his head: "My multitasking is specialized in combat. If you give me one or two thousand Floating Cannons, that’s fine, but additional bodies really have little use, and I don’t travel frequently."

Sandora also shook her head: "I can control mass projections and have used them before, but personally don’t like it. Using mass projection to release Soul Taker power has a perspective misalignment feeling. In the end, this is a skill for R&D personnel, not suitable for combat types like us. Besides..." Sandora said looking at me, "If I split into seven or eight in front of you, regardless of who you kiss, I’d feel like I’ve been robbed of my husband by myself. You also have to consider what to do if Qianqian gets interested; her mind already packed with limitless ideas, she could split into mass projections numbering tens of thousands with various personalities..."

Suddenly, I dared not ponder further on this topic: evidently, it almost reached ethical heights!

The control platform center is the largest laboratory of Deep Dive Port, this sprawling... not sure how much, but really huge building directly connects to high-sensitivity signal towers surrounding the platform. These signal towers link to Suppression Towers around the Abyss Gate and several unmanned observation stations inside the gate. Through a complex information relay path, we can safely observe the movements inside the Abyss Gate. Last time, we seized advanced communicators manufactured by the Fifteenth Day Zone during the Old Empire era from the Melowa People, and Taville and Orelia have reverse-engineered the communicator, applying its principles to various deep-diving facilities. Now, learning about situations inside the Abyss Gate from outside is much easier, and the "scenes" seen are much clearer than before.

In the largest observation center of the central laboratory, Taville pointed at a set of images on the holographic projection: "Those are the remnants."

I looked at the holographic image in front of me, sourced from direct observation sent by observation stations inside the Abyss Gate. These stations have short lifespans, but during work periods can transmit sufficiently clear and first-hand data. It’s a remarkable technical advancement—although I never understood any of the technological advancements.

Most of the image is just a dark mass, and amidst this dark backdrop, the most noticeable things are the ever-shifting cloud formations. These clouds constantly appear and disappear—a phenomenon called "resonance" during Abyss activities that baffles many. Among these clouds is what Taville described as "debris." After scrutinizing it for a while, I could make out their forms: they look like some scattered fragments of varying shapes and sizes.

No wonder they could identify them as remnants—it must be from something large that’s been shattered.

In the environment of the Abyss, direct observation of anything is impossible because all observation is based on the foundation of "order"; you need basic "metrics" and "data" to determine whether something exists and what it looks like. You need volume to describe an object, temperature to describe hot or cold, distance and coordinates to describe location—yet, in the Abyss, all this orderly data is utterly chaotic. Therefore, the usual means of observation in the Abyss is "indirect comparison." Using an information-sensing radar to scan a certain area, then scanning it a second time after a short interval, overlapping the results of both scans, removing the repetitive data, and the remaining "bright" parts become the Abyss panorama (this panorama is theoretical; there’s no actual entity in the true Abyss). Even for special existences like Sandora and myself, we use the same method to "see" things after entering the Abyss Gate, it’s just that our observation medium turned from radar signals into spirit and will. I mention all this just to bring up one point—normally, everything visible in the Abyss should be blurred silhouettes, yet those fragments are undeniably solid, identifiable "entities"!

As clear as observing with the naked eye directly, they even have colors!

If you don’t consider them merely a pile of fragments, the scene isn’t impossible—if it’s a deep-diving ship in normal operation, since it maintains an orderly environment similar to an Order Field through self-interpretation, ensuring its own orderly state, it can naturally be directly observed like this. However, those things are clearly just fragments; they don’t have a shield, no triple refresh protection layer, not even an energy reaction, they’re just lifeless material fragments. How do they maintain this state?

At this moment, the lab’s system broadcast interrupted my thoughts: "Deep-diving ship self-check completed, submergence will start in fifteen minutes."

Sandora nudged my arm, reminding me that I’m here also as a safety lock. Currently, those fragments of various sizes don’t look like something manufactured by a Fallen Apostle, but it’s good to be prepared just in case. I pondered for a moment, then decisively made a decision: "I’ll dive down too. It should be safer to deploy the protection layer from inside."

"Are you sure?" Sandora glanced over with a bit of surprise, "Deploying the barrier outside is the same, deep-diving can be risky."

"No worries," I replied nonchalantly with a smile. "The ancestors are all on the deep-diving ship; if they aren’t afraid of accidents, my Undead Body shouldn’t be either. Taville, is it okay to add one more person temporarily to the deep-diving ship?"

"No problem," Taville (mass projection) immediately replied. She instructed her assistant, then turned back to me, "Everything is ready; you can head to Port No. 1 where another of my mass projections will assist you."

Me: "..." Might as well just let you cover all the posts here by yourself.

With no trouble, I arrived on the deep-diving ship. This was my first time stepping onto this incredibly unique spaceship, so I was naturally curious about everything around. Once entering the main control room, I couldn’t help but look around. This redesigned ship has relatively ample crew space, not as expansive as those large starships capable of housing entire space cities, but quite spacious for short-term voyages. Checking around, I found it wasn’t much different from a typical Imperial Ship: a simple, bright silver-white warship interior, occasional blue lights streaking along the walls or ceiling, data terminals everywhere, and autonomous machines dedicated to routine maintenance. These were all commonly seen on other ships. Although the deep-diving ship has special functions and a peculiar shape, it hasn’t turned into something resembling an alien hatchery from the inside out—somehow, anything linked to the Abyss always evokes images of peculiar mutated scenes for me...

"Your Majesty?" Anses’ voice came from the side. "Just received a transport signal; why are you here personally?"

The ancestors were seated in two rows at the control room desks, all donned in the standard uniform of the New Empire, with special markings for the Deep Dive Project Department on their collars. With dignified appearances, some were busy inputting instructions into the control panel, appearing to have already become quite professional deep-diving ship operators. Anses and a few other ancestors turned around in surprise upon seeing the transporter direction, apparently surprised by my personal presence.

I waved at him, "I’m here to be your shield, don’t mind me, just commence the submergence. Treat me as just another ship component..."

Anses, knowing my habit of speaking carelessly, more or less understood my meaning, thus didn’t ask further, instead turning back to continue unlocking the various equipment restrictions on the deep-diving ship. The ship was equipped with many special devices which either have a limited lifespan or cause significant interference to the surrounding environment (for instance, the shield device simulating a World Barrier, which causes severe space instability when activated), so they can only be manually turned on when submergence is imminent. Watching Anses skillfully operate these devices, I couldn’t help but mutter, "Seems like you all learn these new things quite fast."

"Teaching program, memory input, it’s all fast-tracked," Anses shrugged. "Merely learning how to use these devices is easy—memory and even their principles can be directly implanted into the brain, but mastering them flexibly is difficult. We can now recite many advanced theories backwards, but no one understands what they mean... Afraid it might take us quite some time to comprehend the materials in our heads. Well, that’s fine too, at least there’s something to occupy ourselves with."

At least having something to do—this seems to be the ancestors’ motto, at least Anses’ motto, "Never be someone who’s of no use," they have walked this path step by step propelled by this doctrine.

"The deep-diving ship is approaching the Abyss Gate," a few minutes later Anses reminded me, "There might be a bit of shaking; it’s best to sit in a chair."

I waved him off, shifting into a Void Form while releasing my power, "Don’t mind me; I’d better not touch things in this form, easy to break a chair."

Anses looked at the black Faceless Emperor with astonishment, "This is..."

I realized it must be his first time seeing my Void Form, feeling quite understanding of his amazed expression, "Oh, this is the form Void Creatures take when powered up. Although it doesn’t look easy to understand, it’s quite powerful."

Anses immediately nodded, enlightened, "Oh, so that’s the front. I thought that was the back of your head."

Me: "Just focus on sailing, just focus on sailing."

Why does everyone get shocked when I power up in this faceless form? 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

In any case, the deep-diving ship finally smoothly traversed the gate, and I didn’t feel any strong vibrations. A few minutes later, the strange debris of unknown origin appeared on the monitor: didn’t expect it to be so close to the real world already. (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to vote for it on qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)