Alien Hotel.

Chapter 687 Time Capsule
The silver-white nine-tailed fox gracefully descended through the air to the open space in the middle of the abandoned camp, followed closely by Baiqie and Yanju, who landed beside Huli.

The two colorful "fairy birds" tilted their heads, their four dark eyes looking in four different directions, darting around aimlessly.

To be fair, these two fighting chickens are getting more and more outrageous in their art style. The light pollution from their wings is comparable to the legendary O-Baye and Archangel O-Sword, which deal 99999 damage in one hit. But I don't know if Huli is feeding them something wrong or if these two have some kind of special bone structure. Everything else has evolved except for their two pairs of cross-eyed eyes. You can't tell from a distance, but up close, it feels like their eyes and bodies are not on the same layer.

Just then, Yu Sheng was about to jump off the raccoon's back when he noticed the stares from Baiqie and Yanju and couldn't help but blurt out, "What are you two looking at?"

Both the boiled and salt-baked dishes turned their heads around, their four eyes looking in four different directions—but none of them landed on Yu Sheng. Then one of them flapped its wings and clucked.

The raccoon lay down on the ground, using its tail to protect Yu Sheng as he got off its back, and then turned around to explain, "Baiqie said they were on guard duty."

Yu Sheng chuckled: "Now they're pretending they can't speak human language again. I heard them both speak last time..."

Both the boiled and salt-baked dishes turned their heads away, pretending not to hear.

Yu Sheng didn't pay much attention to it. After getting off Hu Li's back, he focused his attention on the suspicious camp.

Luna emerged from the shadows and came to Yu Sheng's side: "No, life response detected."

“It doesn’t look like anyone lives here… It’s been abandoned for many years.” Yu Sheng nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over the living quarters and the now-defunct antennas and generators. He had never seen many of these facilities before and could only guess at their purpose. But whether his guesses were right or wrong, it was clear at a glance that the place had been abandoned.

Hu Li first put the boiled and salt-baked meat back into its tail, and then did not return to human form, but remained in the form of a fox demon, staying vigilant while following Yu Sheng.

"Looks like a small colony? The facilities are quite complete, and there's even abandoned construction machinery. It doesn't seem like a hastily built shelter," she analyzed as she walked. "But who would come to this dead 'barren planet' to establish a colony? Food can't even be grown here. To colonize it, they'd probably have to build an entire artificial ecosystem on the planet first..."

Yu Sheng frowned and remained silent. After circling the camp, he stopped in front of a large living pod. The silver-gray living pod had suffered considerable damage in the harsh environment of the desolate planet. The alloy shell was covered with corrosion marks, the roof had been smashed by falling rocks from the cliff, and the locking mechanism of the pod was also damaged, with the two gates stuck in a state where they could only be opened slightly.

As for energy, of course, it's long gone.

But this is the best-preserved "house" in the entire camp.

Luna stepped forward, her fingertips flashing like lightning, almost instantly slicing the two doors into pieces before kicking them open.

Yu Sheng fanned the dust in the air and stepped into the living quarters.

A furry little mouth followed him in, dangling and wedging itself in the doorway: "My benefactor, what's it like inside?"

Yu Sheng turned his head and saw the giant fox's mouth thrashing about. His facial muscles twitched: "Stop playing around and come in yourself."

"Oh," Hu Li finally said, and then Yu Sheng saw the mouth tube retract. Immediately afterwards, a white light flashed at the door, and the next second a small fox with snow-white fur peeked in from the doorway, looking around as it went. "It's quite simple in here."

Yu Sheng was stunned by what he saw. After all, he was used to seeing Hu Li in her fox demon form, which was as big as two cars, and this was the first time he had seen her in this form: "Huh? You can shrink?!"

“Yes, I can,” Hu Li strolled over, tilting his head back, his furry face beaming with a vivid sense of pride. “A fox spirit, skilled at transformation!”

Eileen sat on Yu Sheng's shoulders, looking down at the smug "foxhlet" on the ground, completely bewildered: "Wait, why don't you just turn into human form..."

“No way, those clothes were just bought for me by my benefactor, and this place is filthy!” Hu Li shook her head. “Besides, this form has a more acute sense of perception, and I feel safer in unfamiliar environments.”

"...Fine, whatever makes you happy." Yu Sheng looked at the little fox circling around his legs with a strange expression, wondering what the girl was thinking.

However, his attention was quickly drawn back to the living quarters in front of him.

The cabin was simply furnished with only basic beds, tables, chairs, and cabinets. In one corner was a device resembling a large data terminal, along with some other unidentifiable equipment. Although the room was abandoned, it was not messy, indicating that an orderly evacuation had taken place.

“The people probably left a few years ago,” Yu Sheng analyzed seriously. “If it has been abandoned for too long, the harsh environment here will completely destroy the entire camp. If it has been abandoned for too short a time, the condition here should be better.”

The little fox, disguised as a fox-like creature, walked ahead, a few bright foxfires floating at the tip of her tail. She nimbly leaped between the pieces of furniture, occasionally stopping to sniff and sniff, then sneezing from the stench. After circling around like this several times, she suddenly stopped in a corner. "My benefactor! There's something! A booklet!"

Yu Sheng looked up and saw Hu Li running over happily with something that looked like a magazine in its mouth.

He reached out and took the thing, opened it, and the first thing he saw was a page with large areas of blacked-out text.

It's unclear what this booklet was originally for. Its cover has been torn off, and large sections of the inner pages have been smeared or torn away, as if to show the unstable mental state of its owner. Coupled with the weathering damage caused by the terrible environment, this thing is now extremely fragile. The few pages that are still intact are stuck together, and it even looks like it will fall apart if you flip it with the slightest force.

Yu Sheng could only open it very carefully, searching among the torn and stained pages for any identifiable text that could explain the place.

"Transforming and Habitableizing Dead Celestial Bodies... Reflections on Gravitational Faults... The Memory of the Stars..."

He struggled to decipher the incoherent sentences, then turned to another page, where most of the page had been torn off, and he could only make out a title:
Did our universe originate just one second ago—Looking back on the timeline, is it an illusion or history?

Yu Sheng sat down on the chair next to him, frowning thoughtfully, while Eileen leaned her head on his shoulder and asked, "What do you mean?"

Hu Li also placed its two paws on Yu Sheng's legs, craning its neck to look at the tattered booklet. After a while, it blurted out, "The finite knowledge theory of the holographic universe? Um... it might also be a finite mathematical description of the closed universe model or something...? My dad used to have a book in his study that seemed to be about this, but I couldn't understand it. My dad said that it was something that could only be understood by people in high school or above... but there are a few passages in the book that are quite similar to this title."

Yu Sheng was taken aback: "...Those foxes from your hometown who cultivate immortality also cultivate this?!"

The little fox put its mouth directly on Yu Sheng's thigh: "We have different paths, but there are other civilizations in the large fleet that take this technological route, such as the Dragon Clan. When my dad travels to the core star cluster, he always buys a bunch of these very profound books, but after taking pictures and posting them on his WeChat Moments, he doesn't read them anymore."

Yu Sheng paused for a moment, unsure how to comment on the matter. He could only reach out and rub the little fox's head (this time he really rubbed the fox's head) before carefully continuing to examine the extremely fragile papers.

There's some meaningless content at the end; it seems to be just advertising or promotional material sandwiched between printed materials.

However, judging from the remaining content, this booklet should be some kind of academic publication.

After turning a few more pages, near the end of the booklet, Yu Sheng suddenly stopped.

He saw a page of handwritten text—it seemed to have been left by the original owner of the manual.

"...We will abandon this base. The simulation system shows that the No. 17 modification plan has failed."

"But the attempt itself is still valuable... The environment has changed, and that 'knowledge'... On this planet that is slightly off from the real universe... with fragile barriers... an inexplicable power."

"The voice pointed us in the right direction, although we still can't determine the source of the voice... It's worth continuing to try, even if it might come at a cost."

"Others may not be able to hear the complete sound, which may depend on individual talent... In any case, I seem to understand those better..."

"...In short, this planet needs to be rebuilt...But even with the aid of that knowledge and power, plus that industrial aircraft carrier in orbit, it may take a century, or even several centuries...But there is no other way, no other way."

“We will not die here, never… by any means necessary… We will conquer this cold and decaying dead planet, conquer this cage encased in gravitational fault lines… Doubtful people will pay the price, we will fix those flaws… until we reach the end of truth.”

After reading this, Hu Li raised her head, her golden-red eyes gleaming in the foxfire.

“It’s very suspicious.” Eileen grabbed Yu Sheng’s head with one hand and pinched his chin with the other, nodding seriously. It was unclear whether she had actually figured something out or just felt the atmosphere had reached a certain point, so she said it.

Yu Sheng remained silent. His brows had been furrowing since earlier, and he was deep in thought.

Then, his gaze fell on the corner of this page—in the stained footer, some traces could be vaguely seen.

Holy calendar, 11XX.

(End of this chapter)