Alien Hotel.

Chapter 427 Garrison #￥@Silence

Upon returning to the surface, Yu Sheng immediately sent Sun Gong and the sample recovery team sent by the Special Operations Bureau back to Jiecheng. Then, before the entire crater area completely collapsed, he and Hu Li and others evacuated to a safe area.

Shortly after that, the entire area collapsed into an astonishingly deep crater before their very eyes.

The underground structure of the crater had long been hollowed out by the parasites of the Dark Angels. After the Crystal Heart in that cave died completely, the unsupported strata continued to collapse downwards until a considerable area around the crater was dragged into this terrible chain of collapses. The collapse process lasted for several tens of minutes, eventually leaving everything unrecognizable.

The residual heat at the bottom of the pit has not yet dissipated. Lifeless, gray crystals are mixed in with rocks and soil. Hollowed-out stone "pipes" and squeezed and deformed layered rock structures are scattered and crumbling, like the skeleton left behind by some primordial beast after it died thousands of years ago. This "giant pit" is clearly visible even from space, and in the foreseeable long future, it will probably become a permanent structure on the Garrison-3 that is difficult to be erased by time.

Xu Jiali and her psychic servant did not evacuate with the others, but stayed behind to witness this earth-shattering collapse with Yu Sheng.

“Boss, that’s spectacular, meow,” Bell stared wide-eyed at the still-dust-filled crater. Then she pressed a button on her protective suit, and a thin tube rose from her helmet visor, releasing a calming mist extracted from catnip. She took a deep breath and squinted. “Awesome…”

"Does this count as witnessing another 'fall of an angel'?" Xu Jiali turned to look at Yu Sheng and said casually.

Yu Sheng shook his head: "No, it's just an empty shell of the Dark Angel's remains. We don't even know if it can be considered His corpse."

"Tsk," Xu Jiali clicked her tongue, then shook her head. "The video data collection is complete. I should go back to the bureau to report the situation. Captain Song and the bureau chief are waiting for news."

Yu Sheng nodded and casually opened a door leading to the Special Operations Bureau staff passage. Two agents who were passing by were startled and stared at him in disbelief, but they quickly recovered, bowed to Yu Sheng, and hurried away.

Lingdang looked up at Xu Jiali with some surprise: "Boss, aren't you staying to help your friends fight?"

"Help what? Help Yu Sheng? Fight the Dark Angels?" Xu Jiali raised an eyebrow and lightly tapped Lingdang's helmet. "You've been intoxicated by catnip. Come back with me. You haven't reported to the Special Operations Bureau in ages; it's time to show your face once in a while..."

"Oh, okay, meow..."

The two muttered to themselves as they passed through the gate. Yu Sheng released the handle, and once again, only he, Eileen, Hu Li, and Luna remained on this desolate alien planet.

"It's time to return to Shuji." Yu Sheng sighed, took out his phone to check the time, and prepared to open another door leading to Huixianzhou.

However, at that moment, a rapid ringing of a cell phone interrupted his actions.

The phone was in his hand, and the screen showed the caller ID as "Traitorous Disciple Four Thousand".

A sudden, inexplicable sense of unease flashed through Yu Sheng's mind. He immediately answered the phone, but before he could even speak, he heard Yuanling Zhenren's hurried voice coming from the other end of the line—

"Where are you? Are you still at Garrison-3? Please go to Garrison-3 immediately to check on the situation; Xuan Che and the others have lost contact!"

"What?" Yu Sheng was instantly startled, and at the same time, he quickly reached his hand into the air, and a phantom door formed in his hand. "I was just about to go there—Xuan Che has lost contact? I received a message from him just over ten minutes ago?"

“It was just now that we lost contact, and my senior brother also lost contact at the same time,” Yuanling Zhenren said urgently. “We still don’t know what happened, but just now a disciple sent an urgent report that all communication between Taixu Lingshu and Shuji has been cut off! Even the secret call lines haven’t responded!”

All communication between Taixu Ling Shu and Xu Ji has been completely cut off?!
Upon hearing what Yuanling Zhenren said, Yu Sheng subconsciously gasped for breath, then quickly replied, "Okay, I'll go right away. I'll contact you immediately if I find anything."

Before he finished speaking, he yanked open the door to the guest rooms at Huixianzhou and led Eileen, Huli, and Luna inside.

The next second, the group passed through the gate and returned to their lodging in Shuji.

The hotel room remained exactly as it was when I left, with the furnishings neat and tidy. Outside the window, the rain continued to fall, neon lights flickered in the distance, and music could be faintly heard coming from somewhere.

The sound of rain mingled with distant music, creating an unusually quiet atmosphere in the room, even through the window.

The living room was empty.

Eileen jumped off Yu Sheng's shoulder, ran quickly to the next room, and then came running back: "Nobody's in the room!"

“It’s not in the kitchen or the bathroom either.” Hu Li also went to look for it, and when she came back, she was sniffing. “But there’s a lingering smell in the living room. Zheng Zhi and Yuan Hao should have been here just now. Also, there’s a little bit of moisture near the windowsill.”

Yu Sheng frowned and said nothing, only picking up his phone and glancing at it. "No signal?"

He raised an eyebrow in surprise.

The next second, he felt his phone vibrate, then the edge of the screen went dark, and a red warning box suddenly popped up, with eye-catching text flashing inside—

"The environmental monitoring is abnormal, which may indicate a deep critical point."

Hu Li happened to witness this scene from the side, and the fox-spirit girl's ears immediately perked up: "My benefactor, this is..."

“…another realm,” Yu Sheng said gravely, “and a special warning that would only be triggered if a profound change had just occurred…”

Eileen, who was rummaging around in the living room, seemingly "investigating" something, suddenly stopped, slowly looked up, and after a moment of reaction, exclaimed, "Holy crap?"

"Boom!"

A thunderclap suddenly exploded in the distance, the rumbling sound rolling across the city like the roar of a giant beast, but no lightning flashed, only the wind and rain became much more intense than before.

There was no cell phone signal, so they couldn't contact Yuan Hao, Xuan Che, and Zheng Zhi, and there were no traces of them in the hotel room.

The last message he received was from Xuan Che, who said he had noticed signs of cognitive abnormalities that might be prevalent among a large number of people on this planet, including Mo Ran, the city lord of Mo City.

Yu Sheng frowned, quickly trying to figure out the connection between Xuan Che's last message and the strange situation before him. Hu Li's voice rang out from the side: "My benefactor, what do we do now?"

“Check the room again,” Yu Sheng pondered for a moment, then suddenly thought of something. “Master Yuanhao is an experienced adventurer with great strength. If something really happened, he would definitely try to leave some information to warn us. It’s just that this information might be hidden by the current anomaly… Let’s search again!”

It seemed like a last resort, but Eileen, Huli, and Luna immediately sprang into action, searching the not-so-large hotel suite for any suspicious clues. Just as the group was rummaging around, a jade screen ornament on a low table on one side of the living room suddenly emitted wisps of shimmering light.

Curious, Yu Sheng went closer, and then he saw a clear projection emerge from the hazy glow—a magnificently decorated fairy ship was slowly flying between the city buildings, with many floating lanterns and celebratory flags floating in the air nearby. On the platform of the ship's foredeck, a tall man in purple robes with a long sword at his waist stood at the bow. The man's face seemed to be shrouded in mist, making it difficult to see clearly.

A voice-over came from the jade screen: "...The new 'Star Guardian,' Elder Dao Heng, has arrived in Mo City today. The celebrations will continue until..."

Eileen leaned closer and asked, "What's this? The local news broadcast?"

“…That must be ‘news’ from over a hundred years ago,” Yu Sheng frowned. “Elder Dao Heng of Zhenxing took office in Shuji more than a hundred years ago.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the image projected on the jade screen flickered violently again. The celebratory scene that had just been playing changed to a construction site under a gloomy sky. An unfinished giant building stood in the wilderness, and many unidentifiable mechanical devices were busily operating around the giant tower. Someone in one corner of the screen introduced the situation: "...The Twelfth Refining Tower is being built by the Yaolan Sect...After completion, Mo City will become the largest spirit ore refining center in Shuji..."

The images projected onto the jade screen kept changing, sometimes showing "news broadcasts," sometimes entertainment programs, and sometimes it seemed to be just broadcasting pure landscape documentaries. But without a doubt, all the images projected were things that happened a long time ago.

The time span is from hundreds of years ago when the mining industry was still thriving, all the way to the last few decades.

After switching through countless random pieces of content, the image projected onto the jade screen suddenly darkened, followed by a chaotic jumble of noise and color blocks. The image then became clear and stable again, but it was no longer any "program"; it was just a dark and hazy rain curtain.

The rain kept falling, and in the distance, the neon street scene was blurred.

Yu Sheng stared blankly at the projected image for two seconds, then suddenly realized what was happening and abruptly turned his head to look at the window.

The view projected onto the jade screen is the scenery outside the window of this room at this very moment!
The next second, Yu Sheng noticed that the rain streaks on the window were curving, the winding water lines seemingly forming words. He stared intently, and the distorted words suddenly became neat:

"Obstacles of perception and understanding".

Yu Sheng frowned, but before he could think about it further, the line of writing was washed away by the rain, and then new words appeared on the window—

"We are in a vast dream."

(End of this chapter)