Alien Hotel.

Chapter 702 Burning Light
The moment the doors opened, holy light flowed out like a solid entity, and the melodious sound of wind chimes echoed in the air, lingering throughout the long hall.

The psychic resonance in the air seemed to echo the rows of neatly arranged black coffins. The moment the "wind chimes" rang, all the coffin devices emitted a deep hum, and the lights on their surfaces began to flash in sync, as if breathing.

Eileen was startled and instinctively grabbed Yu Sheng's hair: "Hey, hey, what's going on! This scene looks familiar—"

Upon hearing this, Yu Sheng forgot all about his hair loss from being around this little one all the time and immediately widened his eyes: "You look familiar? You've seen this place before?!"

Eileen: "The last time I saw this art style scene, the background music started playing right away! Then, out of nowhere, a monster with feet bigger than me appeared, and its health bar was longer than the game designer's lifespan, and it stomped me to death..."

Yu Sheng: "..."

He completely ignored the little thing's subsequent rambling, raised the blood needle launcher with one hand and pinched a blood grenade in the other, and carefully walked towards the door.

Hu Li approached from the side, holding two large tails in each hand, and stepped forward to cover Yu Sheng: "My benefactor, be careful, I'll be the vanguard."

She was terrified of dying in an unknown situation—to be fair, the fox girl's worries were not unfounded.

Arriving at the door, through the hazy light curtain, Yu Sheng finally saw the situation on the other side of the door.

He saw a hall that was completely out of place with the rest of the facility—it was less a hall and more like a cave made of light.

Solid, holy light gathered into a physical form like crystal, and the flowing light transformed into the path beneath our feet and the hazy dome above. A semi-transparent, silvery-white curtain surrounded the entire space, with runes flowing between the curtains, and streams of light of various sizes moving around like some kind of spirit.

It doesn't even look like part of this secret facility, but rather like an alien place connected to this place.

In the center of the entire Hall of Lightforged Light, Yu Sheng saw a familiar figure.

The tall and hazy spirit was imprisoned between pillars of light, supported by streams of light of varying sizes, floating in mid-air. Holy white wings fluttered slightly behind it, and the surrounding psychic resonances originated from this.

"A living saint!"

Yu Sheng subconsciously gasped in a low voice, while the fox demon girl next to him immediately raised her two tails, and clusters of dark blue flames appeared around her. Even Eileen, who was just a second ago chattering about her game experience, instantly got into the zone, swinging into the air while holding a frying pan in one hand and a golden thread in the other.

However, the "living saint" in the center of the hall did not react at all.

Yu Sheng noticed that it seemed to be in a state of deep sleep, while the streams of light supporting it also seemed to be some kind of confinement device. He also saw that there seemed to be a large number of crystalline transmission systems hidden above the entire hall, with streams of light constantly passing through the sky and converging into the pillars of light around the psionic creature.

A slight buzzing sound came from the side. Yu Sheng looked in the direction of the sound and saw a crystal prism near the entrance rapidly lighting up, with a set of holographic projections appearing around the prism.

The figure of the "living saint" appeared in the holographic screen, with a large amount of data and charts scrolling and refreshing beside him. He could not understand many of them, and he only caught a few simple and easy-to-understand words such as "stability", "personality inhibition" and "mental model".

"What, what is this thing...?"

Eileen clutched her frying pan tightly, watching the scene before her with a tense expression, as if afraid that a health bar would suddenly appear above the saint's head at any moment.

Yu Sheng didn't speak, but just looked at the image projected by the crystal prism, lost in thought.

The subtle connection established by his blood floated on the edge of his mind, seemingly conveying some message to him. The psionic resonance echoing in the air was like a whisper, reminding him.

With a slight frown, Yu Sheng stepped towards the crystal, raising his hand as he spoke: "Luna..."

However, this time, the saintess, who usually rushed over to stab him before he could even finish half a syllable of his name, did not react.

Yu Sheng turned his head and saw Luna still standing blankly at the entrance of the hall.

He called out again, and Luna finally reacted, rushing to his side.

Yu Sheng raised his hand.

"I need to connect with this system."

Luna hesitated for a moment, which was uncharacteristic of her, but still raised her hand: "You must be careful. I remember many of my sisters disappeared here."

The blade sliced ​​through his palm, and blood gushed out. Yu Sheng nodded slightly, then placed his hand on the crystal without hesitation.

The gentle hum instantly transformed into a clamorous wave, with a vast and chaotic stream of thoughts and memories rising like a storm, only to gradually converge into a single "sound".

Yu Sheng saw a figure standing in the illusion, a blurry, thin figure.

There were even more blurry phantoms standing behind that figure, more illusory, more transparent.

Yu Sheng heard the whispers.

He didn't know their names, their lives, or where they came from.

The personality erasure technology has wiped out all data that could potentially lead to "loss of control," and their long service has already completely mutated their minds—the "Living Saints" are meticulously crafted psionic weapons, powerful, efficient, and stable.     There shouldn't have been a problem.

But one mind, a mind that had been alienated and had its seeds sown, was mixed into the furnace.

This mind received a gift from death at the end of its life.

hum-

With a melodious chime, the illusion before his eyes dissipated, and Yu Sheng opened his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.

Eileen immediately turned her head: "Yu Sheng, what did you see..."

“A living saint is a product forged from the soul of an artificial saintess,” Yu Sheng said before the little puppet could finish speaking.

Eileen: "...?!"

The little creature stared wide-eyed, held its breath for a few seconds, and finally exclaimed, "You damn beast!!"

Yu Sheng hadn't finished speaking yet. After briefly gathering his thoughts, he continued to explain: "Strictly speaking, the living saint is the real final 'product' designed by these cultists—the artificial saintess is actually a semi-finished product created in order to eventually synthesize the living saint."

Eileen: "?!"

“All of this is to control the energy extracted from the Shadowless Bones,” Yu Sheng said slowly, raising his head to look at the holy light gathering in the sky above the hall. “All of the Hermitage’s psionic technology and forbidden knowledge come from that dark angel, but the human mind cannot control the enormous power from the angel, so… they found an indirect method.”

A psionic wind swept through the Lightforged Hall, and the living saint, modeled after an angel, unconsciously fluttered his wings gently.

"The first step is to extract the human soul and merge it with the machine soul to form an artificial mind that can resist mental pollution; the second step is to use the memory fragments extracted from the Shadowless Skeleton to form a cognitive shield, allowing these minds to grow and gradually 'synchronize' so that they can adapt to the next stage of the fusion process; the third step is to harvest the nurtured souls and throw them into this furnace."

Yu Sheng took a deep breath and then slowly exhaled.

"Yu Sheng, you look a little pale..."

The little doll muttered something very quietly to itself, then climbed onto Yu Sheng's shoulder and ruffled his hair with its little hands.

“C-shaped buckle,” she turned her head again to look at Luna beside her, “I won’t argue with you for the next two days.”

Luna remained silent for a long time before turning her head slightly: "Ai Lin, your arguing skills are so-so, you just have a foul mouth."

"You really need to address the accent issue with your C-type accent..."

Ignoring the babbling on his shoulder, Yu Sheng, after a brief moment of thought, reached out his hand toward the pillar of light in the center of the hall.

The streams of light flowing through the hall reacted instantly. The shackles of light that had surrounded the living saint immediately began to fade, and the tall figure floating between the pillars of light slowly descended, casting its gaze in this direction.

The fox girl instinctively tensed up, picked up her two large tails, and moved closer to Yu Sheng: "My benefactor, is this safe?"

“A fully-fledged living saint has no independent will and will completely obey the commands inscribed in the mind of the Hermitage, protecting the Order’s property and attacking any intruders, but…” Yu Sheng paused here, “Do you remember the nameless saintess you met in the underground parking lot who was holding candy and game coins?”

Hu Li: "...Huh?"

“Luna and I waited for a long time in the Wilderness of Souls, but we never saw that lost soul,” Yu Sheng said with a smile. “At that time, I wondered, where did she go…”

The towering living saint descended from the light, hovering a dozen centimeters above the ground. He slowly floated to Yu Sheng's side, saying nothing, yet seemingly looking at the group of people before him with great curiosity.

“The souls I marked can no longer be reforged by this furnace system, but the second contact during the Stargate encounter awakened this already fused mind,” Yu Sheng said with a smile, extending a hand to the artificial angel in front of him. “Long time no see—although you may not remember me and may not understand your current state, we need your assistance now.”

The "living saint" tilted his head, seemingly thinking for a moment, then turned his hand and handed Yu Sheng a handful of colorful, translucent candies formed from psionic illusions.

Yu Sheng: "...Uh, no, that's not what I meant."

The living saint hesitated for a moment, then took out a few more game coins, stuffed them into a piece of candy, and handed it over.

"It's not this one either..."

Yu Sheng broke out in a cold sweat and quickly gestured to explain to the other party: "We want to destroy the Hermitage, liberate, you know, liberate this place—and those artificial saintesses and knights who are still under control, and we are looking for a way to enter the interior of the planet..."

He had only gotten halfway through his frantic explanation when he saw a flash of white light before his eyes.

Just a second ago, the artificial angel was holding candy and coins, but then suddenly produced a blazing holy sword from nowhere, turned around, and swung it in a wide arc, unleashing a beam of light in a certain direction in the hall.

Yu Sheng: "...Alright then."

(End of this chapter)