Chapter 1037: Chapter 1037: The Other Side of the Gate
When the command center fell into an eerie silence for a few seconds, Sandora called out again: "Engineering team, return immediately, your mission is complete, repeat, return immediately, this is an order."
A few seconds passed, but there was still no response, and everyone at the scene looked at each other: Something happened?
Taville, who was in charge of on-site dispatch, immediately assessed that the situation might be dire. The signal from the work ship had disappeared entirely from the communicator, and every member of the first engineering team had disconnected from the spiritual network. This caused the situation to plummet instantly from the joy of mission completion to an unexpected disaster. After another unsuccessful call, Taville turned to her assistant team: "Emergency support team, check all channels immediately, the Obelisk is increasing output power to forcefully enter the gate, the second engineering team is ready to support the ships, your ship is now the only one that can enter the gate..." Her words were suddenly interrupted by a report from the lower control console: "Chief Technician, the stability of the Abyss Gate is rapidly declining! The output from the Obelisk is about to reach its limit!"
"What!?" Taville looked at the monitoring data in shock. If she had learned to curse, she would have cursed now, "What’s going on? Why is the stability of the gate suddenly declining?"
A Senior Assistant Technician quickly checked the data and instrument logs while loudly reporting: "The cause is unknown, but we must have exchanged too much information between the Abyss Domain and the material world... This doesn’t make sense, the gate’s stability didn’t decline this much when the deep dive started, and this time we only transmitted a few databases..."
"Alright, we’ll analyze the incident later, right now we need to find a way to rescue the engineering team!" Sandora suddenly spoke, interrupting the assistant technician’s analysis, "Taville, what can we do under these circumstances?"
Taville was closely monitoring the readings of the Abyss Gate, furrowing her brow: "There’s almost nothing we can do, the gate has already begun collapsing. We’ve activated all the Obelisks to suppress this process, allowing it to hold until nearby garrison forces evacuate the site, but there’s nothing more we can do. The collapsing Abyss Gate will first become a semi-entity from a phenomenon, that black surface has already shown signs of integration with the material world. Soon, this black surface will crack, and when it cracks through the entire plane, that’s when the big explosion will happen. We must destroy the gate before that. Anything passing through the gate now will increase the size of the cracks, and once a large enough gap is created between the material world and the Abyss Domain, the gate’s collapse speed will increase by dozens of times... We can send some people into the gate, or a small ship, but that’s the limit, any larger penetration will completely shatter it."
My sister and Lin Xue were all very tense, not knowing what to do. Despite their immense power, they lacked experience, and in this situation, they didn’t know how they could help, but Qianqian quickly switched to her inner persona and began to manipulate her formidable time power. Although her inner persona had a terrible personality, there was no denying that she was... um, smarter. She looked at the Abyss Gate, which was rippling on a large scale, and clenched her fist: "I’ll buy us some time... I’ll do my best."
"Can you do it?" I asked, not entirely reassured; what we were up against was not just an army, but an Abyss Gate on the brink of explosion. Can time freeze really be relied upon to delay this thing?
Qianqian looked at her hand, her face breaking into a satisfied smile: "Every day I’m getting stronger, it’s a far cry from what it used to be. It’s a pity I haven’t had the opportunity to test its power. Now, this is a good chance to assess what I’ve mastered. Besides—" she glanced at me, "it’s not a good habit to doubt your partner."
I was used to Qianqian turning into a dark, edgy girl, so I just sent her a look of caution and, after she stepped onto the transporter, turned my gaze to Taville: "We might have some more time now—but not much. Now, you need to evacuate this world, take everything that can be taken, and then have the Leaving World Garden focus all energy on this universe. I want them to banish this world to the Void in the shortest time possible. Sandora, help me keep an eye on the subsequent spread of the Abyss, this world is still mounted on the Macro World Network, it must not be allowed to contaminate other universes. Sis, once Qianqian unleashes her move, she’ll definitely need care, you take care of her, and also hold down that impulsive girl. Lin Xue, give me a reading now..."
"A terrible omen, if you dare to go, I’ll beat you!" Lin Xue glared at me without mercy, glaring for half a minute before rubbing her eyes, "I can’t see what happens after you cross the Abyss Gate, at least not from this side. Unless you plan to take me along."
"That’s not possible." I rejected her flatly.
Lin Xue had already figured out my intentions. Bingdisi was now looking over with a mouth agape: "Wait a minute... you’re not planning to jump in, are you? Damn it, are you crazy? This thing isn’t your swimming pool!"
"I also didn’t plan to go swimming," I slowly released my power, feeling the Void fill my body—everything around me became ethereal, as if I had distanced myself from the perception mode of the material world, analyzing everything the material world gave me from a higher perspective. Void Form, I seemed to be increasingly accustomed to this marvelous sensorial journey, "You see, in Void Form, the Abyss cannot contaminate the Void; it can only dissipate in the presence of the Void. That’s the ironclad rule, and I’m that thing’s nemesis."
"But do you know how much bigger that thing is compared to you?" Bingdisi looked a bit angry, "You’re not fully mature yet, you can’t maintain this form for long in the Void, in your own domain..."
"Taville, how long until everything can be evacuated?" I gestured for Bingdisi to be patient and then looked at Taville. After a brief thought, Taville replied: "Five minutes, everything has entered the teleport sequence. Your Majesty, I have no authority to intervene in any of your decisions, but from a researcher’s standpoint, I believe your decision is risky."
"It’s just the Abyss Shallow Layer Zone and extremely close to the gate," I knew there were still five minutes, so I busied myself stretching, which didn’t make much sense, but seemed to offer some psychological comfort: reassuring myself that I was ready, "Um, there’s one thing I didn’t mention—I secretly touched the Abyss Origin during training on how to purify Abyss contamination, it was one of those two-dimensional patterns fixed in a Ghost Energy Field, and nothing happened to me, really. Do you think I’d be running hot-headed today otherwise?"
As soon as the words fell, the surrounding temperature seemed to drop by five degrees, Sandora’s voice came through, clenched with anger: "We’ll have a good talk after you return..."
I turned my head and found Sandora sharpening her claws: one side of her body was already shrouded in black mist, and one of her arms had turned into a massive black claw—this was her Abyss Form. "What are you doing? You don’t plan to scratch people with that, do you?!" I asked, cold sweat running down my head.
"I’m going with you," Sandora said matter-of-factly, then glanced at the time, "Alright, there’s no time to waste, let’s get ready to go."
I hadn’t had time to say anything before Sandora had already made her decision, then she gave me a wide grin: "You forgot one thing: you’re not afraid to jump into the Abyss Gate, but I’m even less afraid: I’ve already jumped once, I’m 100% confident I’ll be absolutely safe inside."
"Alright, alright, it seems we have to add one more," Bingdisi stretched lazily, the black wings on her back suddenly spread open, a mist of pale golden Holy Light enveloping her, "I’ve fought the Abyss Gate before, and I seem to be the strongest one here, am I not?"
Sandora gave Bingdisi a look, seemingly wanting to stop her, but found she couldn’t refute Bingdisi’s reasoning from her perspective, so she could only nod in tacit agreement.
It seemed no one could change the minds of these two, a queen and a female hooligan, both with hardheaded personalities. I smiled and nodded reassuringly at my still-worried sister and then looked at Lin Xue: "Don’t bother, just see how lucky I am today."
"Not bad, except for the possibility of getting hit by my wife." Lin Xue rolled her eyes at me and said in a huff. I wasn’t sure if she included herself in the ones who might hit me.
Apart from a few command personnel who needed to stay until the end, and Lin Xue and others who were adamant about staying (oh, and let’s not forget Qianqian, who was maintaining time stasis near the Abyss Gate), the test site staff were quickly evacuated. The only things left in this universe were some unmanned workstations and three guys planning to leap through the gate. We directly teleported next to the Abyss Gate, standing on top of a Ghost Energy Obelisk closest to the gate. The gate had already begun expanding before it collapsed. The obelisk under the feet of the three of us, which hadn’t originally been near the gate, was now within the expanse of black mist. A hundred meters beneath us was the Abyss Gate, churning like liquid. The obelisk that originally suppressed the gate now seemed like an isolated island in the black sea, with a blue barrier barely connecting to nearby obelisks, straining to prevent the gate from collapsing. I had known about the unique spatial phenomenon of the Abyss Gate: no matter the angle you observed it from, it always appeared as a black circle facing you. It’s clearly a virtual dimension phenomenon presented in the three-dimensional world: transcending dimensions and self-contained. The purpose of the Ghost Energy Obelisk was to use Ghost Energy, which could simultaneously take effect in all dimensions, to bind the Abyss Gate, thereby stabilizing it in the physical world to form a fixed plane. Now, the gate before us seemed close to breaking free of this dimensional lock because when we looked from other angles, the Abyss Gate appeared as a black disk gradually standing upright.
"Hmm, familiar feeling," Bingdisi covered her nose as if she could actually smell something in this environment, "I just remembered, that Big Beard reported that his work ship was contaminated, then his communication suddenly cut off, right? Maybe he realized something was wrong then and prepared not to return—oh, he specifically reminded you all not to send a second engineering team down there, he definitely found something awful coming, but he didn’t have time to report it."
"I thought of that too," Sandora sighed, "the Imperial Soldiers are full of such guys, loyal and commendable, but some of them can be quite the headache because of this."
Bingdisi looked at me and Sandora, suddenly laughed: "For a work ship and a group of engineering soldiers, the Empire Leader personally jumps into the Abyss Gate, that’s something Chen would do because of his personality. And you? Sandora, I remember you’re the more composed queen. Have you been infected by your partner’s hot-bloodedness?"
"Only he’s hot-blooded," Sandora bluntly scratched me with that one-meter long claw of hers, "I’m genuinely sure I’ll be fine: I have the Abyssal Aura, the mist in the gate won’t actively attack a signal source similar in nature to itself. This is the characteristic of the Abyss; it doesn’t destroy what’s already been destroyed."
"Oh, I found a vortex, that might be the breakthrough point Taville mentioned—" Bingdisi suddenly pointed into the distance and shouted. We stayed here for a few minutes just to find a better jump-in timing, Bingdisi’s vision seemed to be sharper, "The Dark Goddess bestowed upon me red eyes, allowing me to see blacker things within the dark Abyss Gate... oh, it’s not rhyming..."
Me and Sandora: "...Cut the crap! Jump already!"
It only took a few seconds to fall into the Abyss Gate under the gravity of the Red Giant Star. As I passed through that so-called gate, it didn’t feel particularly special. It felt like I was passing through a rippling water surface, perhaps with some "gentle" texture? Or maybe it was just psychological, given that by the time we jumped, the Abyss Gate already resembled a spring of water.
"Have we arrived?" I muttered to myself, opening my eyes. The turbulent red sea of the Red Giant’s storm had vanished, shattered like an illusion. In front of me, there was only endless darkness.
The surroundings were filled with an indescribable sense of dissonance. As a Void Creature, I didn’t feel any harm from the Abyss to my body, but the omnipresent repulsion and a certain heart-wrenching feeling of "impending crisis" still made me quite uncomfortable. This feeling was like having your eyes and ears covered, surrounded by cages with wild beasts; you can’t see or hear them, but some faint aura made your hair stand on end. The beasts in the cage can’t harm, but a keen spirit tells you: danger is near.
That’s the kind of unsettling atmosphere, but fortunately, it didn’t seem like the Abyss could corrode my body. It seemed that even an environment of intense pollution like the Abyss Gate couldn’t cross the qualitative leap when faced with the hierarchical gap of the "Void."
First, I had to find a way to restore "visibility." No matter the method, I needed to be able to perceive the surrounding environment. Recalling Sandora’s method, I released my spiritual power to search for "traces of disrupted order," while also seeking tangible targets: those brought in from the other side of the gate, including the work ship, Sandora, and Bingdisi. Utilizing this novel way of "seeing" things was much more cumbersome than using eyes, but years of honing my spirit had given me some skills. Soon, my "vision" revealed murky mists, rapidly spinning indescribable storms, vortices defying any physical logic, and Sandora and Bingdisi who followed me down, right by my side. When their silhouettes suddenly emerged from the darkness, it startled me quite a bit.
Sandora noticed my change in expression, she wrinkled her nose and smiled, "Looks like you’ve adapted. How does it feel?"
"Not good, quite bad actually, it feels like the whole environment is trying to kill me," I pursed my lips, "but it’s a bit better than expected. I don’t feel anything actively trying to destroy my body, or rather, there’s no sense of contacting the Abyss at all."
"Because they retreated on their own," Bingdisi unfolded her wings, her massive black wings fluttering with discordant golden Holy Light, looking like black cotton... ahem, she looked relieved, watching me with interest, "both I and Sandora were prepared to withstand it, but once you opened your Void Domain, the Abyss started retreating. Now they are circling your ’halo’ perimeter, didn’t you notice? Those mists are skirting around a spherical area surrounding you. Hmm, you better maintain this state; both I and Sandora are protected within your halo now."
Bingdisi laughed mischievously: "Damn, even this lady gets to be protected by a man sometimes!"
Sandora immediately added seriously: "He’s my man, after more than an hour I’m charging rent."
"Ahem," I coughed dryly, secretly thankful I didn’t have a face to blush with right now, then looked around, "I can’t see where the work ship is. How far can we see in this environment?"
"Not much farther than a mortal’s sight," Bingdisi took out her Holy Scripture, tore off a page, and it scattered like countless points of light, "they can extend your perception range in the Abyss environment. Occasionally, our Divine Race also enters the Abyss Gate for missions. You have your probe technology, and we have something similar—though they have a rather short lifespan, just one minute."
"Is that the Abyss Gate? The place where we came from?" I looked around and noticed a vast cluster of vortices off to my upper side (perhaps it’s the top? I could only judge up, down, left, right from my perspective now), countless vortex patterns floating against the dark backdrop, emitting grayish-white hues, combined into an overarching circular array. The vortices kept colliding, consuming each other, then striking the edges of the array. From these vortices, I vaguely sensed a familiarity with the material world: this feeling is indescribable, like suddenly finding an opening in a sealed box where even with closed eyes, you can sense fresh air pouring in.
"That seems to be the case... originally it should have been a stationary gray-white mirror, but now turning into this... that’s likely the cause of the gate’s collapse, something disturbed the tranquility, and it happened on this side of the gate." Bingdisi analyzed professionally. In this respect, it seemed she was even more knowledgeable than Sandora; the exaggerated lifespan and experiences of the Divine Race held a strong sense of superiority at this moment.
Sandora reminded: "Don’t stray too far, if we can’t see these vortices or sense them, we’ll never find our way back—unless we can locate another Abyss Gate before exhausting our strength."
"Such a huge clump, it would take a long distance to disappear from sight," Bingdisi chuckled and suddenly froze, "Uh, found the work ship... but there’s something else around it!" (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to visit Qidian () to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation.)