Alien Hotel.

Chapter 688 Time Barrier
Holy calendar, 11XX.

The last two digits are too blurry to be clearly seen.

Eileen scrutinized the numbers at the bottom of the page for a long time, pondered for a few seconds, and then suddenly looked up: "What's the Holy Calendar again... The Hermitage of Saints has its own calendar?"

“This ‘Sacred Calendar’ has nothing to do with the Cult of Saints; it’s a common calendar used by several major civilizations outside,” Yu Sheng waved his hand, his expression gradually becoming serious as he seemed to realize something. “It’s something from hundreds of years ago…”

Eileen froze, then slowly widened her eyes: "Hundreds of years ago? Didn't you just say this place might have been abandoned in just a few years—given the harsh environment of this planet, how could this booklet have survived for hundreds of years?!"

Yu Sheng did not answer immediately. He stared at the booklet in his hand for several seconds before casually placing it on the dusty table beside him. Then he stood up, dusted off his clothes, and glanced around.

An abandoned alien habitat, a desolate and cold "wild planet," a book whose owner is unknown, and suspicious records on it—all of this belongs to a certain day in the year 11XX of the Holy Calendar.

Eileen suddenly jumped from Yu Sheng's shoulder onto the table. She ran to the "journal" from hundreds of years ago and curiously flipped through it. After a moment, the little doll's not-so-bright mind seemed to finally come to its senses.

"Wait, wait... this place can't really be..."

Yu Sheng suddenly turned around and walked out of the living quarters.

Eileen turned her head and immediately panicked, jumping to the ground in a fluster: "Hey, hey, wait for me! My legs are short..."

Eileen was halfway through her rant when she saw a white shadow flash by. A fox-like creature was following Yu Sheng outside. Her short legs immediately darted forward, and she grabbed the fox's tail: "Take me with you! Take me with you..."

Yu Sheng had already run to the open space outside the living quarters. He looked up at the sky and saw only gloomy, murky clouds, and a thick, heavy atmosphere, unsuitable for human breathing, enveloping the land.

It is now a day in the year 11XX of the Holy Calendar. This is still a cold and desolate planet. A group of pioneers of unknown origin have not yet established themselves here. A power that is capable of changing the face of this planet is still slowly growing. An unnamed dark angel is still lurking in the depths of the starry sky, and one of His chosen "agents" is still drawing power from the knowledge from the depths of the starry sky.

Luna came out of a nearby building. While Yu Sheng went to check the living quarters, she also checked the situation in other parts of the camp: "There is one, a communicator, with backup power, still running, but... it can't receive any signal."

Hu Li also came over and rubbed against Yu Sheng's feet.

“Fire a missile into orbit,” Yu Sheng said casually, “and let it fly as high as it can.”

"Good~"

Hu Li agreed, turned around and put Eileen on the ground first, then a large, fluffy tail shot into the sky—the silver-white fox tail spewed out bright propulsion flames and disappeared into the thick clouds in an instant.

Not long after, Yu Sheng vaguely saw the clouds seem to twist, and then Hu Li looked up and said, "My benefactor, the connection is down!"

Yu Sheng thoughtfully withdrew his gaze from the sky.

"...This is the Sacred Realm. At least from the relative coordinates of the celestial bodies, that Dark Star Cruiser landed on this planet," he said softly. "But we're too early... several hundred years too early."

"Holy crap...it really is like that?" Eileen's eyes widened. "Wait, how do we do this...what's the underlying principle?"

Hu Li suddenly perked up his ears: "Wait, if that's the case, can we ambush and kill the first generation of Hermitage followers here?"

Upon hearing the fox spirit girl's words, even Eileen's eyes lit up: "Huh? That seems to be the case?"

“…I don’t know what the situation is on this planet, but things might not be that simple,” Yu Sheng said, slowly shaking his head. “We flew all the way from the mountains, exploring such a large area along the way, did we find any traces of other humans?”

“Um, no, there really isn’t…” Eileen said hesitantly, but then looked up again, “But they might have gone somewhere else, after all, this Camp 17 has been abandoned…”

Yu Sheng didn't speak. He thought of the tail that Hu Li had launched and then lost contact with shortly after. He then recalled the huge wall of fog on the horizon that seemed to surround the heavens and the earth when he was riding on Hu Li's back and flying over the mountains.

“Shoot another tail in that direction,” he pointed into the distance, then pointed in another direction, “and another one in this direction.”

Two Fox Carrot missiles, spewing propellant flames, roared into the sky and disappeared into the distance in the blink of an eye.

Then, after a short while, Hu Li raised his head and said, "Those two tails have also lost contact, my benefactor."

Yu Sheng listened, but his face showed no surprise.

“…Indeed, it’s a defense system, though I’m not sure if it’s active or passive,” he said slowly. “This isn’t part of a complete spacetime, but some kind of…trap. We’ve been blocked by a time barrier.”

A moment of silence fell over the scene—Hu Li was deep in thought, while Eileen and Luna didn't understand because of their educational backgrounds.

"The Secret Order could have such technology?" Hu Li finally broke the silence, her tone filled with disbelief. "If they had this ability, why would they need to hide in the lawless sector like rats?" "I also think they don't have this technology," Yu Sheng said solemnly, "but... with the Gate of Eden, it's hard to say."

Eileen: "...Holy crap."

Actually, she still didn't understand the part about the "time barrier"—but as soon as she heard the words "Gate of Eden," she knew things were serious.

Because she truly knew how powerful boundary bridges were!
……

The awe-inspiring ring-shaped structure stands majestically on the earth. The pale gold ring and supporting structure, cast from a different alloy, resemble a crown of heaven and earth, connecting the mountains and plains and piercing the thick clouds. Several sharp "towers" extend from the top of the giant ring, which consists of two semicircles. These towers even pierce through the clouds and shine brightly in the sunlight.

A deep, pleasant hum spread from the ring-shaped structure, echoing across the plains and mountains. The immense energy transmitted from the "Holy Furnace" was continuously injected into the rift generator, and at the center of the ring, an unstable, distorted light curtain was gradually growing at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye.

A high-ranking priest came to the platform and bowed in respect: "Holy Lord, the Gate of Eden has been activated and the situation is currently stable."

"Ah, very good."

The Holy See nodded slightly, a gentle smile on his lips as always. He instructed the others to remain on standby around the platform, and then stepped forward.

The colossal "Gate of Eden" stands before us, its immense power capable of tearing apart the barriers of the world and altering the order of space and time surging within its massive gates.

He looked up at the blurry, floating light screen in the center of the giant ring—he could clearly feel its presence, feel its power permeating the entire planet, not just spatially, but even temporally.

Its existence is "extending," first from this moment into the past, and then into the distant future once the gate is fully activated.

A bridge needs "piers"—it needs to be firmly rooted in the foundation of time and space in order to reach the other side stably and correctly.

The angels' bridge to the boundary failed because their world had already been destroyed, and in a destroyed world there was no meaningful timeline. Even if they sacrificed themselves one after another to become anchors and desperately anchor the "starting point" of the bridge, they could not give it a stable temporal and spatial foundation. The moment that rootless bridge fell from nothingness into the real universe, its fate of failure was already sealed.

But the Gates of Eden are different.

The Holy See arrived at the end of the platform, where a makeshift device stood in front of the Rift Generator. As he approached, the device emitted a slight friction sound and slowly turned toward him.

Within the obelisk-like pale gold container, a body was conspicuously "embedded"—or, more precisely, a head and a torso structure containing only the necessary organs.

Grendel was embedded among a large number of life-sustaining tubes and cables, with psionic enhancers constantly being pumped into his circulatory system. His head was fixed with hundreds of densely packed probes, and his eyes had been burned into two holes by powerful psionic energy, but two bright flames danced in those empty eye sockets, brighter than his eyes.

A large dose of neurotransmitter was injected directly into his brain. The head, fixed in place by the probe, trembled slightly, and soft, dreamlike murmurs escaped his lips. As the entire device rotated completely, and as his eyes, once blazing with flames, could no longer focus on the Gate of Eden, Grendel seemed to awaken. He began to shake his head restlessly, and his mumbled murmurs quickly became clearer, tinged with fear—

"I...I can't see it! Let me see it, let me see it!"

“Gorendall, it’s me,” the blond man said gently.

Upon hearing this voice, Gorrendel fell silent instantly: "Holy See, ah, it's you..."

“Yes, it’s me,” the blond man said, bowing slightly. “How’s the gate? What do you see?”

“I… see it growing as you planned, with strong roots and lush foliage,” Grendel said slowly, a smile still on his face as he drifted off to sleep. “And just as you predicted, there was some interference of unknown origin that seemed to be trying to get closer to the gate, and now the source of the interference has fallen into the time well from which the Gate of Eden was created.”

The Holy See's expression seemed to change for a moment, but it quickly returned to its usual gentle smile: "It seems that it was the right decision to have you here to carry out the early warning mission, Gorrendel. You have made a great sacrifice and used your eyes to see the way forward for us."

“These are all necessary costs on the path to holiness,” Gorrendel said slowly, then seemed to regain his composure, “Have I truly gained the qualification to go further?”

"...Of course, glorious deeds will be rewarded," the Holy See said calmly. "Let me confirm again—the 'source of interference' has indeed fallen into the well of time, hasn't it?"

"It's absolutely true—the voice of the Gates of Eden echoes in my soul. I saw with my own eyes the power that once cursed me fall into the depths of time. They cannot escape, much less send out a message..."

……

Silent and desolate, high above the orbit, somewhere at Black Stone Station.

Luo was waiting for a message by the communicator.

Yu Sheng pushed the door open and walked in: "Luo! Something's happened!"

(End of this chapter)