The mysterious black wreckage actually presents little technical difficulty in disassembly. Whether from the material or the protective technology, it falls far below the standards of Imperial Technology, basically at the level of the Advanced Slave Army. Using advanced equipment brought along to deal with such a thing is simply overkill for those experts who have been tinkering with the Black Shuttle for several days. After a simple scan, the technicians confirmed the layered structure of the black cube and locked onto a rectangular container at its core: if the guess is correct, what Miss Lin referred to as a coffin should essentially be that object.

Then, under Miss Lin’s guidance, the experts discovered the "Energy Node" near the cube’s core—the only place in the entire cube with an energy reaction. But currently, it is in a state of silence, with the energy level and activity released being very low. If not for Miss Lin’s prior warning, probably no one would have noticed this inconspicuous little thing. According to Lin Xue’s prophecy, however, this Energy Node will suddenly go out of control in the final step of disassembly and burn the cube’s core. Having a Prophet in the family is indeed a treasure; Lin Xue’s existence has already saved me from countless seemingly inevitable losses.

After a brief discussion, the technical experts decided to start cutting from one ridge line of the cube, completely penetrating its outer shell: anyway, looking at the state of this thing, it’s clear its outer shell holds no preservative value. Once the shell is pierced, the intricate mechanical structures inside the cube and the crystallized energy circuits reveal themselves to everyone. The next step requires a bit of delicacy as these internal structures might have certain research value. Two autonomous machines, with precise disassembly techniques, separated some seemingly fully functional modules from the cube’s interior, then expanded the cutting operation. Sandora took a curious look at the twisted, deformed module, which appeared to have been subjected to high temperatures and kinetic impacts, from an assistant technician’s hand. After a moment, she passed the module to me: "Ah Jun, don’t you find this familiar?"

"Me? I’m afraid I can’t possibly feel familiarity," I shrugged, "it seems only original Xyrin Apostles like you can have that strange sense of familiarity. Speaking of which, what exactly does this thing have to do with the Xyrin Apostles..."

"I’m not talking about that," Sandora said, "I want you to look at this module, the design of it..."

I took the black thing with confusion, turned it over several times, but still couldn’t discern its function. I could only see many parallel inlays distributed among a bunch of impressive-looking alloy components, which reflected cold light under illumination. After watching carefully for a while, I found that it was actually some kind of dark blue crystal. As for anything more... no clue.

"It feels somewhat related to Imperial equipment," Sandora’s tone was not very sure, "of course, it looks very different, but this crystal energy-guiding structure is a classic design. Now, the foundational architecture of energy modules in many Imperial devices is based on this structure—though compared to what you have in hand, the difference is quite substantial. My impression is that there’s a subtle similarity in the architecture between this object and Imperial equipment."

Just then, the autonomous machines working inside the cube finally encountered an obstacle—a layer of completely sealed alloy shield, with weak energy flow on it. In the original timeline, it was the direct disassembly of this seemingly fragile shield that caused the cube’s core to burn. But since Lin Xue has pre-warned us, such a thing certainly won’t happen. Miss Prophet grabbed my hand and pressed it on the cube: "Come on, exert force."

I: "...Can you stop saying such weird things?"

Speaking while searching, I found that "Energy Node" releasing weak energy reactions, then fully controlled it with my special power: "Alright, continue the operation, I’ll drain its energy."

A slight "hissing" sound came from inside the cube, and the phase-cutting knife of the autonomous machines easily destroyed the core shield. Simultaneously, within my spiritual sensing, that Energy Node rapidly generated a strong reaction and prepared to self-destruct—though I very effortlessly snuffed it out. At this time, a thought suddenly popped into my mind: Such a decidedly self-destructing device is indeed full of déjà vu.

"It’s done. Now, first take out this bomb." Lin Xue commands from the side... well, not entirely blindly, "Number two machine, first cut the base and that hexagonal lock; don’t hesitate, cut through, anyway that mechanical lock is already scrapped. Number one machine, wait for the bracket to start sliding then pull the item out; it will have a small burst and you need not worry. Uncle with a buzz cut over there, don’t touch the parts in front of you, disassemble the one next to it first, otherwise you’ll have Taville personally smack you tomorrow afternoon—don’t ask why, this is the butterfly effect, understand the butterfly effect! Orelia, lift the left wing twenty centimeters, otherwise something dirty will splash on it later... ah, and that white-haired beauty over there, don’t touch... um, you’ve already touched it, alright, I’m just reminding you; ten minutes later, you’ll have bad luck..."

Cocogina floated tiredly beside the council, after a long while, he spoke listlessly: "...it’s the first time I’ve seen such a strange command scene; someone is not relying on technology and experience, but directly issuing commands according to future images they see, every step is specifically frightening."

I understood Cocogina’s feeling, but he probably hasn’t heard of guides. When you play puzzle games and reach the critical moment, suddenly a dolt pops up with the game guide and spoils the entire game from start to finish, at that moment you’ll probably be able to well understand what kind of existence Lin Xue is. No, Lin Xue should be even more formidable, because not only does she watch the guide to know what you should do next, but she also knows what kind of expression you have after being spoiled all the way and thoroughly knows how to continue driving you mad...um, digressing. What I mean is, as long as she is not messing around, Miss Lin’s "spoiling" ability is actually quite adorable.

"Ding-ding" sounds kept coming from inside the cube, and the autonomous machines busied inside, then a soft "whiz—" sound reminiscent of something sliding off a support frame, then the thoroughly dirty autonomous machine number two rambled out from a large side hole of the cube, cautiously holding out a metal cylinder emitting a faint blue light, which was what Lin Xue referred to as an "Energy Node." This is probably a form of energy equipment with low-efficiency energy collection and storage functions, though I’m not sure how Lin Xue came up with this name for it. The Prophet always talks like that; oftentimes, she doesn’t even know why she uses specific terms to describe what she sees—anyway, just listen and be impressed. I received this metal cylinder, half a meter long, with one end thick and the other thin looking like a monocular telescope, from the autonomous machine’s hand, and hefted it: "Ghost Energy."

Yes, there are very visible Ghost Energy residues in the metal cylinder, and its model is extremely similar to the Ghost Energy spectrum the Empire uses. Actually, Ghost Energy is not exclusive to Xyrin Apostles, just like Holy Light isn’t exclusive to Star Domain Divine Race. In fact, as long as a civilization can access the Void, it can basically master this super energy decayed from the Void Domain. Depending on spectrum and decay degree, these energies may have some distinct characteristics, but they can generally be classified as Ghost Energy. The Empire’s Ghost Energy is most notably characterized by the vibrant blue color representing high activity. And now, I am very sure the Ghost Energy reaction carried by the metal cylinder in my hand is Empire standard energy.

Things seem to be getting more interesting. Now we can be 100% sure that this cube is related to the Empire, not only using Empire standard energy but in inter structure or architecture, it also has subtle commonalities with contemporary Imperial technology. However, the technical level of the cube is clearly inferior to the real Imperial Technology; it’s more like an old relic or a knock-off, could it be...

Is this another thing used by a vassal race of the Old Empire?

Are the Melowa People actually pursuing another batch of Imperial vassals?

I indulge in wild, unfounded thoughts, until a loud ’clang’ sound nearby pulls my attention. Turning my head, it turns out one face of the cube finally couldn’t withstand the internal continuous damage; along with its already severely damaged condition, about half of it snapped in half and fell down with a boom, crashing to the ground. Beside it stood a gray-headed face woman with short white hair, apparently she didn’t dodge in time: scientists rarely remain agile while working.

Lin Xue shrugged: "See, I told you, ten minutes later you’ll have bad luck."

Couldn’t she tell people to dodge ahead of time with such skills?

With the collapse of this part of the structure, the cube inside has been dismantled almost completely, and the core that was fixed by a complex mechanical locking device was exposed in front of us. The autonomous machine took it down from the support frame and moved it to the open ground. Only then did I see its true appearance: it looked like an ancient hibernation chamber.

"Open it," Sandora said without hesitation—we weren’t worried about recklessly opening it and killing any possible life inside because there was a deadly damage on the side of the hibernation chamber. Even if there were any life inside, it would have been dead by now.

The lid of the hibernation chamber was peeled away amidst bright cutting sparks, revealing to us a power armor-clad, exceptionally burly warrior—of course, there was no life reaction.

"This power armor..." Sandora leaned down, observing the armor worn by the remains, "looks like a very old design pattern. The Ghost Energy Shield Generator still relies on the energy box on the back to provide extra energy. But it is indeed based on Imperial Technology. Still, I can’t tell which Sky Zone’s outdated equipment it is. It looks too old, not even suitable for Servant Army use. Hmm, the armor shell is well-sealed; the body inside might be powdered, but we might still be able to analyze the life form. Open his visor carefully, as the inside might be very fragile."

Under Sandora’s command, two assistant technicians stepped forward, transforming their fingers into thin probes, inserting them into the slit of the power armor’s head, then opened the armor normally from the inside—they didn’t cut it, probably to avoid damaging what’s inside. The armor had endured countless years, yet, astonishingly, it could still open smoothly. The helmet’s visor was opened, and those around almost gasped in shock.

I had thought what would appear before me would be a highly weathered corpse of an Old Empire’s Servant Army soldier, possibly just a suspicious mass of organic powder, or perhaps even empty, but it was none of those—a complete soldier’s remains were inside.

No weathering, nor did it turn to dust upon contact with air; the remains almost completely preserved the pre-death form. He was a strong man, close to a human, but with significant differences in appearance. His skin appeared more like metal or plastic in texture, almost without luster, presenting a gray-white color. There were neat blue patterns around his face, embedded directly into the skin, like some kind of circuit, reminiscent of a mechanical head without a bionic outer skin. These appearance characteristics reminded me of machine soldiers at first sight, yet, upon closer inspection, it felt unlike one; he didn’t have that rigid sensation, he should be a real life form, just... somewhat akin to those Imperial manufactured War Puppets.

"This..." Sandora stalled for a long time before uttering a word, then she suddenly realized something, pressing a hand on the forehead of the remains, eyes flashing in a sequence as if scanning the interior structure. Moments later, I heard her incredulously muttering to herself, "This... an Apostle? A Xyrin Apostle?"

"Are you sure?" I was slightly surprised, though not feeling it too unbelievable. To be honest, I felt rather confused now. Both Lin Xue and I are late bloomers, Earthlings by birth (or at least in this life), not like Sandora, an original Xyrin Apostle, thus all the strange reactions from Sandora and these Imperial technicians on site were hard for me to empathize with. I could only vaguely sense something was off, but had no idea what Sandora felt, such a feeling of being left out was truly frustrating.

"Yes, definitely, this is a Xyrin Apostle, but exceptionally ancient. I can hardly believe a Xyrin Apostle’s body structure could be this... inferior," Sandora stood up, signaling other staff members for further processing of the remains, "I know the anatomical structure of every Xyrin Apostle, but this one... apart from the identification features, nothing aligns with my memory. Most components inside him are solidified, even some parts still remain in a crude mechanical prosthesis stage, vastly different from the current Xyrin Apostle’s semi-energy constructed body structure. And I can’t scan the counterpart’s memory core, I don’t know if it was never installed initially or destroyed in an accident... and it’s hard to determine this Apostle’s era. He’s a soldier of the Old Empire Era, but this super ancient model... can’t even be identified anymore. You can imagine how old it must be."

I tried to keep up with Sandora’s pace, attempting to view the whole event from her perspective. Lin Xue pondered and said, "So, it’s a model that likely ceased service before you were born? Even an ultra-old model with no records in the database?"

Sandora nodded, "Fear so, and with that in mind... this cube in front of us is probably from the same era. Is the time from now measured in hundreds of millions of years? Perhaps even longer! So incredible that such an ancient thing could be preserved till now, and appear before us..."

"An utterly unimaginable era..." Lin Xue couldn’t help but marvel, "The truth is, Imperial manufactured things do have a long shelf life, but something made so long ago still having such an exaggerated shelf life?"

"Unexplainable, unexplainable," Sandora covered her forehead, "Alright, even I need to cool down now. Theoretically, such an ancient thing shouldn’t be preservable, especially considering it seems to have drifted in a void environment for some time, but it was preserved, and appears to be in quite good condition—you all transport this remains and cube to the research institute no matter what means, and get me a detailed report as soon as possible, including its approximate era of service and cause of death. If possible, check for any data recording devices. Most importantly: it absolutely must not be damaged!"

"Yes, Your will!" a certain uncle maybe named Vitok or perhaps Ketovi or whatever swiftly saluted, solemnly starting to command his assistants to cautiously collect everything on site into the Gena Space. I glanced at Sandora, who had descended into deep thought, and tried to say, "So... the Melowa people are seizing an Old Empire soldier’s remains?"

"That’s even more unreasonable, isn’t it?" Sandora looked at me, gave a bitter smile, "The situation has delved into an even larger fog zone. An Old Empire soldier’s remains might have special significance to us, but what value do they hold to those Melowa Rebel Army folks?"

"No matter the value, they’re doomed," Orelia never spoke up till now and couldn’t help but voice, "They’ve already stolen a huge amount of assets from His Majesty, erased the Empire’s emblem, and now they target an Old Empire soldier’s remains, what in the world are those madmen planning?"

"Even you don’t know?" I glanced at Orelia, the only one on site who might understand the Melowa people, but she shook her head at me, "I know how the Melowa people fight, and how to command them into battle, but aside from that, Melowa culture, beliefs, and ways of thinking... I can only say so-so... uh, Your Majesty, you know, the Old Empire was somewhat mean with the Servant Army policy then..."

"Never mind, I knew it would turn out this way." I covered my face and waved my hand weakly.

We didn’t linger long in Kerudak, instead directly returned to Shadow City, following up on the experts’ analysis of the cube and the remains. This time, Sandora and I didn’t wait too long—by that afternoon, explosive news came from the research center.

Taville reported to us personally:

"Your Majesty, we might have discovered an Original Body." (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to visit Qidian (qidian.com) and vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)