Chapter 886: Chapter 886
Relic of the Bygone Days·Central Archives
The maid girl slowly turned the pages of the archive in her hands, looking at the records within.
Many parts of this archive were still twisted lines, but unexpectedly, some of the text related to the Transcendents hadn’t turned into twisted lines.
Her slender fingers slowly turned the pages of the book, collecting and organizing all the information page by page.
It seemed that all the archives in the archives used a special type of plastic paper which looked somewhat like paper with a matte finish, yet was firm and durable, appearing to be very conducive to preservation.
The Coffin blocking the front door seemed to emit some soft collision noises that quickly submerged again.
Under the silent light, only the rustling sound of turning pages and reading could be heard.
Soon, the maid girl had finished reading the entire archive.
Over half of this archive was still lines, and the archive’s main project had hardly anything left, with only an inference relating to ’Star Space’. However, another ’record’ within the archive was quite intact.
That was an A-level ’Angel’.
This Angel seemed to possess some kind of purification and strengthening ability, capable of acting as some kind of ’suppressive force’.
He was the central figure of the entire ’Star Space’ project, responsible for maintaining the ’stability’ of the whole project and spent most of his time living in the research facility of the Star Space project.
The research facility for the Star Space project was located twenty thousand meters underground, in a cavity filled with lava and flames, built firmly against a cliffside.
The specific location of the research facility mentioned in the entire archive had become lines.
However, through various landscape descriptions and some exploration logs mentioned in the archive, it was possible to ascertain that the above-ground part of this research facility was situated at the center of an uninhabited area of the Gobi Desert.
The research facility was a First District facility and was situated in the Gobi Desert, and the entire First District had only one area with the Gobi Desert.
That was located at the southwestern border of the entire First District, Gobi Desert Park.
That location lies directly west of the Central Library, over two thousand kilometers from the Central Library and more than three thousand kilometers from Volcano Park.
The maid girl raised her head, looking at the rows of materials in front of her.
Just then, a light sound came from the Coffin leaning against the door as if someone was gently tapping something inside the Coffin.
The maid girl slowly turned her head to look at the Coffin.
The entire Coffin lid naturally slid open.
A pale hand trying to push upwards reached out from the Coffin. She seemed to try to push the coffin lid, but because the lid had already slid open, her hand pushed at nothing and then grabbed at the air.
The owner of the arm seemed puzzled by the sudden absence of the lid.
After a brief pause, a girl with somewhat messy hair struggled to climb out of the Coffin, propping her head, feeling dizzy as she surveyed her surroundings while kneeling on the edge of the Coffin.
She didn’t seem fully awake yet. Her whole being was like being in a violently driven race car, spun around multiple times, disoriented.
It took a good while before she could barely sit up, looking around the silent archives and tentatively called out, "Brother Hao Yi?"
The silent archives returned an empty echo, and at this time, the girl finally noticed the maid with ash-golden hair standing not far away, turning her head to look at her.
Staring at that pure and holy visage, similar to a Holy Spirit, the girl’s heartbeat seemed to slow by half a beat. She wanted to speak, but it felt like any words would be a ’desecration’ toward the holy maiden.
However, she didn’t speak. Instead, the maid girl directly made a slight gesture with her hand, signaling her to come over.
Lin Chichi staggered out of the Coffin and then wobbled over to the maid girl. Finally, gathering her courage, she asked, "Hello, where is this..."
The last moment she remembered was being rescued by ’Hao Yi’, and now that she was here and the holy maiden in front of her seemed to bear no ill-will, was this also arranged by ’Brother Hao Yi’?
Yet before she could finish her sentence, she saw the holy Angel girl slam a thick stack of archives into her arms.
She was momentarily stunned, looking at the archives in her arms, "This is? Are we going to go through these archives?"
The maid girl slowly nodded and then opened the archive in her hands, pointing to the parts with text for Lin Chichi to see.
"Are we looking for texts in these archives? Should we find archives with more text?"
Lin Chichi glanced at the lines that took up most of the archive page and the few words tucked among them and tentatively asked.
The maid girl gently nodded again.
"Okay, I understand."
Lin Chichi took a deep breath, placed the archives on the ground, and rubbed her still dizzy head. She sat down directly on the floor and quickly began to flip through them.
Watching Lin Chichi quickly get into the swing of things, the maid girl lowered her head and flipped through the ’Star Space’ archive in her hands for a moment longer.
Apart from the Angel, among the scattered texts, there seemed also to be a B-level strength-based powerhouse responsible for basic duties at the research facility related to ’Star Space’.
Finally, the maid girl set aside the Star Space archive she was holding and casually picked up a new archive, swiftly flipping through it.
In the silence of the archives, only the swish swish of rapidly turning pages remained.
"The Federation’s Transcendents have clear management regulations. Transcendent crimes are punished the same as normal people, even Angels cannot avoid it,"
The middle-aged man looked down at the fiery-red lava lake beneath him, "And the ’volcano’ we are now in is a prison,"
He turned to look at He Ao, "A prison for Angels."
"This Illusion doesn’t seem to replicate ’Angels’, does it?"
He Ao looked at the lava lake surging with heat and asked slowly.
"Yes, that’s usually the case,"
The middle-aged man withdrew his gaze to look into the distance, "Under normal circumstances, anything related to Angelic Tier beings will develop a link with Mysticism.
"If this Illusion world attempts to replicate a real Angel, it will be quickly perceived by that Angel, who might even come knocking on the door. However, this only applies to the living Angels."
He paused for a moment, turning to look at He Ao, "But what if that Angel has died?"
"So the Angel beneath this volcano, in the real world, is already dead?"
The middle-aged man let out a soft sigh. "In the incomplete memories I obtained, the angel beneath this volcano is indeed dead. I don’t remember how he died; I only remember that he once was the most vicious criminal and outlaw in the entire Federation."
"So the being behind the creation of this illusory world is trying to make use of these angels that have already died?"
He Ao’s mind flashed with images of the Transcendent monsters that had attacked him. Inside those Transcendent monsters were some fragments of incomplete souls. He continued slowly,
"The being behind the scenes has replicated the ’reflection’ of this angel beneath the volcano, utilizing mysticism to draw in certain ’fragments’ of obsession from the already deceased angel,
"These fragments of obsession would bring back a part of the angel’s original strength and combine with the illusion, giving it a kind of Incomplete Angel positional grade?"
"You’re very smart," the virtual angelic phantom, after absorbing the scattered obsessions and residual souls, had formed something like an ’Evil Spirit Angel’ beneath this volcano.
The middle-aged man sighed softly again, raising his head as if looking toward the distant city. "This world of illusion is like a phantom vortex, gathering the dispersed incomplete souls of the universe."
"It seems that this ’Evil Spirit Angel’ is the core of this illusory world?"
After receiving a confirmatory response, He Ao also lifted his gaze to look around.
If the being behind the scenes created the Evil Spirit Angel as an enforcer, then He Ao and his companions would probably have encountered the Evil Spirit Angel enemy when they first arrived here.
But in reality, the Evil Spirit Angel had stayed here all along, and even after He Ao and his companions arrived, it hadn’t made a move.
Therefore, it was highly probable that the Evil Spirit Angel wasn’t used as an ’enforcer.’
Usually, a Transcendent being of high positional grade and Extraordinary Items themselves could also serve as pivotal points for certain rituals.
Since it wasn’t about using strength as an ’enforcer,’ it was probably about using positional grade as a ’pivotal point.’
"You are really smart,"
the middle-aged man bowed his head, sighed, and said, "According to my long-time observations, the ’Evil Spirit Angel’ gathered beneath this volcano is the key to maintaining the stability of the space around us. Defeating it would also destroy the stability of this space."
He turned his head and smiled at He Ao,
"Do you feel confident? The illusion of the Evil Spirit Angel wasn’t weak to start with, and after absorbing the true angel’s fragments of obsession, its positional grade has also reached the Incomplete Angel tier. Although it falls short of a true angel, it is much more powerful than a B-level."
A huge booming sound suddenly exploded beneath their feet.
The earth shook violently as if it were being torn apart, and the previously silent lava lake began to boil with the intense trembling, bursting out with raging flames.
The middle-aged man’s body swayed a bit, looking at He Ao standing beside him with a calm expression, as if he had long expected this.
"My companions are not weak either."
He Ao said with a smile.
The middle-aged man opened his mouth and finally laughed wryly,
"And my ’old friend’ in the underground facility, he’s the ’guardian’ placed in front of the Evil Spirit Angel by the creator of this world.
"His Talent Sequence is called ’Phantom Shadow,’ and if my memory isn’t mistaken, its number should be 187,
"His ability is to split into many scattered Phantom Shadows, which is a very troublesome and indestructible talent,
"Each one of his Phantom Shadows can exhibit strength close to that of a weak B-level and can hide in the darkness, possessing a sort of invisibility effect. Killing any single Phantom Shadow cannot harm him,
"Killing a large number of Phantom Shadows, perhaps, might hurt him,"
He paused for a moment, smiling at He Ao, "I don’t remember his Achilles heel in my memories, but with your wisdom, dealing with ’Phantom Shadow’ should not be a problem."
Then he turned his gaze toward the "exit" from which He Ao had just emerged and continued,
"As for the Evil Spirit Angel, in my memory, the Angel sealed beneath this volcano is called ’Regicide.’ My memory does not contain his Talent Sequences number anymore; perhaps I never knew it, or perhaps I once knew but have since forgotten,
"His abilities and positional grade in life were related to slaughter, and his combat strength was incredibly strong. My hazy memory seems to have scenes of him facing three enemies alone,
"Moreover, this Phantom World has replicated the Chaos Space that originally sealed the Angel, which over the vast span of time, might have merged with the present-day Evil Spirit.
"However, these Chaos Spaces, having lost their original creator, may not have such flexible rules anymore.
"But in the end, even in death as an ’Evil Spirit,’ this ’Regicide’ is very, very powerful, and you and your companions may not be able to defeat him."
He Ao nodded slightly in thanks.
The information the middle-aged man provided was actually quite detailed.
The ground continued to shake, growing more violent. The serene, crimson lava lake, which had been still, now seemed to awaken with the severe trembling, boiling over with a more ferocious velocity.
"Don’t thank me. I’m just looking for something interesting to do,"
the middle-aged man said, shaking his head slightly as he looked up at the boiling lava,
"If you and your companions can indeed kill that Evil Spirit Angel, destroy this dull world, and take down that guy hiding in the shadows, then my goal will be achieved, although such a hope seems very slim."
After all, that guy hiding in the shadows is likely a true Angel.
He sighed softly in his heart.
He suddenly seemed to remember something, turned his head back, and curiously looked at He Ao, "You seem to trust me a lot. What if I gave you false information? After all, I’m one of the ’Illusions’ created by that guy. Logically speaking, someone as smart as you should be very skeptical, shouldn’t they?"
He Ao did not directly answer the man’s question but instead watched the lava in front of him bubble up with scorching bubbles, and spoke in a low voice, "You said that in this Phantom World, there’s only one Evil Spirit Angel?"
"Of course there’s only one..."
The middle-aged man instinctively began to reply, but halfway through, he immediately realized something and his expression froze.
"True Illusions have no self-awareness."
He Ao turned his head back to glance at the middle-aged man, casually remarking.
Then he sheathed the Shadowless Sword and quickly headed toward the passage he had just opened without waiting for the middle-aged man to reply.
"Interesting fellow."
The middle-aged man watched the young man’s disappearing figure, his stiff expression slowly relaxed, he shook his head gently, and turned his gaze back to the scorching, burning lava in front of him.
Interesting, and charismatic.
He originally held little hope for this seemingly weak team, but now, he suddenly found himself starting to believe that this young man could create a miracle.
The old-fashioned, classical train emerged from the void and came to a halt amid the howling winds on the barren plain.
A young man in simple clothes stepped out from the front carriage through the swirling sand, his feet landing on the desolate Gobi Desert.
He raised his head, his gaze piercing through the sudden, intense red-yellow sandstorm, looking towards the building standing at the heart of the dust.