Alien Hotel.

Chapter 689 Growth
The sudden noise of Yu Sheng pushing the door startled Luo, but thanks to her many similar experiences, she had developed some resistance and didn't fall off the chair this time. However, Momo, who was with her, immediately let out a "meow" and darted under a nearby table, leaving only its tail wagging outside.

Luo reached out and pulled Momo out from under the table. She looked up and stared at Yu Sheng and his group as they pushed the door open. In the last moment before the illusory door disappeared, she could still see the desolate alien landscape on the other side of the door.

“Boss, you… never mind,” Luo started to say, but then swallowed the rest of his words. “What’s going on over there? That planet…”

“That’s indeed a sacred realm, but it’s a sacred realm from the year 11 of the Holy Calendar—I now suspect that the Gate of Eden has disrupted the time structure of that planet,” Yu Sheng said quickly. “And I just tried a few more times, no matter how I opened the gate, I still couldn’t arrive at that planet at the correct time…”

Luo's eyes widened halfway through the conversation, and he waved his hands vigorously: "Wait, wait, wait! Slow down! What do you mean by 'unable to reach that planet at the right time'... What did you say the Gate of Eden disrupted?!"

“Time,” Hu Li’s voice came from the side. She had already transformed back into human form and was using her tail to brush the dust off Yu Sheng as she spoke, “It should be a time anomaly caused by the Gate of Eden. The power of the ‘Boundary Bridge’ is preventing us from getting close to that gate. This might be some kind of automatic defense mechanism…”

Then she and Yu Sheng told the blonde elf in front of them everything that had happened on that strange "desolate star," with Eileen adding a few words in between—and as they talked, Luo's expression became more and more solemn.

“I then tried to open a door into the Holy Realm from other ‘directions,’ or to open a door in the same spot in that spacetime anomaly area to see if I could return to the normal timeline, but it didn’t work,” Yu Sheng said. “It’s like… let me think how to describe it… um, like a deep well with smooth walls, and the bottom of the well is a certain day in the year 11xx of the Holy Calendar. As long as we try to go to the Holy Realm, we will fall into that well, and no matter which direction we try to escape from, we will always return to the bottom of the well…”

“A time well…” Luo frowned, seemingly thinking rapidly about something, her eyes shifting several times. “Time… wait, time? I think I’ve thought of something!”

Luo suddenly stood up, startling Yu Sheng who was still talking beside her. She then turned and rushed to a large data terminal nearby, frantically searching for something on it while saying urgently, "So that's it, so this is what's missing... I felt something was wrong with the Boundary Bridge, a flaw in the operation of the Zolda Black Stone, a flaw... Yes, yes, the relevant records are here, the information isn't complete, but it's enough..."

This was the first time Yu Sheng had seen Luo in such a state, but it was clear she had made some significant discovery, so he watched from the side without daring to cause any trouble. Only when Luo seemed to have finally found the information she wanted and waved in their direction did he quickly step forward to inquire, "What's going on? What did you think of...?"

“It’s the original flaw of the Boundary Bridge, the reason for the failed ‘descent’ 3,700 years ago,” Luo’s eyes gleamed with an unusual light. She couldn’t wait to retrieve some data stored in the Black Stone Station’s database and show it to Yu Sheng, regardless of whether he could understand it or not. “Time and space—the Boundary Bridge was missing a time ‘anchor’, which caused it to go out of control during its descent to the border region, even breaking through the previous ‘era’ of the border region, leading to the epochal change event…”

"Yes, 3,700 years ago, the boundary bridge not only pierced through the space of the border, but also through its time. It's hard for me to explain to you exactly how this happened. It... is even an event that cannot be fully described in natural language, a 'supersystem event,' yes, it was a supersystem event..."

“I noticed something was off while studying the Zolda Black Stone, but I didn’t have a powerful enough energy source to simulate the complete operation of the Boundary Bridge, so I couldn’t pinpoint the root cause of the problem. Those Hermits filled that gap; their Gate of Eden, though not stable enough, was somehow on the right track…”

"Damn it, how could those cultists have gotten the right way... just by guessing? No, that's unlikely, they must have other sources of knowledge..."

Yu Sheng stood there blankly. Luo Fei's rapid and rambling words echoed in his ears like endless waves, but it was as if there was a thick barrier between him and his brain—he couldn't understand them, or even absorb them.

However, another strange "feeling" was growing in his consciousness, something that seemed to have been dormant in his memory, now slowly awakening.

The holographic projection above the data terminal is flashing; formulas, numbers, text records, and colorful graphics wriggle, swirl, decompose, and recombine in the living's field of vision...

He saw a towering tree, standing tall in the wilderness, rooted from the past to the present, and from the present to the future. Its branches reached towards the sky, from this world to the old world, and from the old world to the other side.

The texts and symbols that were constantly being refreshed and recombined on the holographic projection transformed into the roots and branches of that big tree in Yu Sheng's vision, and into the roar in his mind, howling across the sky of the wilderness of his soul and reaching the end of the earth.

On the soul wilderness shrouded by the chaotic sky, nameless tall grass rippled in the wind. The golden-haired female knight awoke from her prayers, stepped out of her meditation room, came to the terrace, and looked toward the direction of the cathedral's garden.

She saw the Brass Knights also gathered in the corridor, all looking up.

The giant crystal tree that covered the entire church was humming softly, as melodious as wind chimes, like the song of the legendary wheat field fairy in the harvest month.

Then, the crystal tree began to emit a faint and soft glow, and the unstable cracks that had been moving among the branches began to grow again. Distant starlight poured out from the cracks, spreading out in patches of starlight in the crystal canopy, like fruits hanging from the branches.

Luo, sitting in front of the terminal, suddenly realized what was happening. She quickly calmed down from her excitement, stopped her rambling, and said apologetically, "Ah, I'm so sorry, boss, I was just too excited... I should have thought of how to break through the time barrier over there first..."

Yu Sheng waved his hand and said, "You've already solved it for me."

Luo: "...Huh?"

Yu Sheng took a deep breath, raised his hand to rub his forehead, as if trying to calm the chaotic thoughts in his mind, and then said with a smile, "The defense system of the Gate of Eden is also part of the Gate of Eden."

Luo: "...Huh?"

Yu Sheng knew that it would be difficult to explain to her what he had just seen and understood, so he simply waved his hand and then took out his phone from his pocket.

He dialed Baili Qing's number. As soon as the call connected, before the other end could speak, he said, "The star gate will open soon. Be prepared."

Bai Liqing on the other end of the phone was silent for two or three seconds, then her tone remained as calm as ever: "Have you found the Gate of Eden?"

“Not yet, the situation has changed slightly. That gate is more troublesome than expected. I suspect it is now in some kind of operational state, which makes it impossible for us to approach it by normal means. So now we need your side to start taking action ahead of time,” Yu Sheng said. “I need your side to put enough pressure on those cultists so that they will contact the ‘catalyst’ with the gate in advance—that way, it will be ‘exposed’ to me.”

"...Okay, I understand what you mean."

After saying this, Baili Qing ended the call decisively without asking any further questions.

"That guy with the steely expression is pretty straightforward," Eileen remarked, then immediately looked nervously at Yu Sheng's phone. "Did you hang up?"

Yu Sheng laughed, raised his hand and ruffled the little doll's head a couple of times, then casually opened a virtual door in the air.

The moment the door opened, the time barrier activated again. The coordinates he chose were the Holy Realm, but the scene opposite the door was still that desolate wasteland located in the year 11xx of the Holy Calendar.

But Yu Sheng stepped inside: "Come on, let's give the 'roots' of the Gate of Eden some serious stuff."

At the same time, the Borderland Integrated Fleet was already on standby in the high orbit of the Silence. The news that the operation was about to begin was quickly transmitted to every warship through the command link. The soldiers and commanders, who had been preparing for this war for many days, were waiting for the moment when the gates would open.

In the command center of the Mass Effect, the commanders were busy verifying the intelligence transmitted from the various warships and accurately conveying the flagship's orders to every corner of this massive fleet.

Hong stood on the high platform behind the command hall, her eyes closed as she "watched" the tense and busy scene below.

"It really gets the blood pumping," she said slowly with a faint smile, "and I feel... a sense of nostalgia."

A voice came from behind her: "Are you sure you can still get excited? Your heart only beats once a day..."

Hong turned around, turning her back to Baili Qing beside her: "She's my own sister, I should take care of her myself."

"Snow, come down from Red's back."

"Oh."

A pair of illusory eyes floated and drifted to the nearby railing, where they furtively peered around.

"Are you nervous?" Hong turned her head slightly and looked at the pair of eyes on the railing.

"What do I have to be nervous about?" Only Hong and Baili Qing could hear Baili Xue's voice. "I'm just going to watch the fun..."

"That's good," Hong smiled, her voice soft. "This time, it should be quite lively."

"Major spatial fluctuation detected! All fleets, take note! A major spatial fluctuation has been detected—a spatial rift is forming!"

A series of alarms suddenly sounded, and everyone in the command hall subconsciously looked up. At that moment, Baili Qing suddenly remembered that day—the day Yu Sheng first opened the "door" at the border, the piercing alarm that echoed throughout the entire Secret Service building.

It seems like it happened not long ago, yet it also seems like it happened a long time ago.

A faint smile appeared on her face.

Outside the enormous viewing window, in the deep, dark space ahead of the unified fleet, an astonishingly large rift was slowly tearing open—beyond the rift, one could vaguely see a colossal stargate structure encircling the opposite passage, and energy streams surging within the stargate.

Engines ignite, fleet surges forth.

(End of this chapter)