In a certain "gathering floor" of the Special Service Bureau Headquarters Building, Baili Qing and Yu Sheng stood side by side on the platform, watching those figures constantly passing through the Teleportation Gate to reach the hall below, then quickly forming ranks to head to the various departure elevators.Among those figures were mass-produced puppets who appeared petite and harmless, yet exuded a strange atmosphere all over, and there were also tall, battle-nun-uniformed Artificial Saintesses, exuding a dangerous aura, and Guard Knights gathered around the Saintess Squad. Their hollow brass armors appeared silent yet solemn, with the surfaces of their force field heavy swords shimmering faintly.
Baili Qing's tone was somewhat subtle: "Even if it were only a few months ago, the entire Council would probably have sounded the alarm instantly upon seeing so many Artificial Saintesses... I really couldn't have imagined that now they would appear as a support force at the Special Service Bureau Headquarters."
"That's true, even a few months ago I wouldn't have imagined it," Yu Sheng said cheerfully while glancing at Baili Qing.
He keenly perceived that the other's current state was not very good—although her expression remained as calm and steady as ever, the fatigue in her eyes was now hard to conceal.
"Are you okay?" Erin, sitting on Yu Sheng's shoulder, also noticed Baili Qing's condition. The Little Puppet opened her mouth with a poisoned tongue, "I'm telling you, don't suddenly drop dead..."
"It's not a big problem," Baili Qing shook her head, "just that maintaining surveillance over the entire city's Exotic Realm for a long time is somewhat exhausting, but now Little Xue has temporarily taken over, and I can soon rest."
Yu Sheng gently nodded, and at this moment, Luna, standing on his other side, suddenly broke the silence: "The first squad has arrived, mission location, under protection, Special Service Bureau, combat group..."
"The first batch of puppets from my side is also in place!" Erin promptly followed up, "Wow... arrived just in time, there are a few unlucky Spirit Realm detectives trapped on the subway platform over there... let me fish them out first!"
Artificial Saintesses, Brass Knights, and mass-produced puppets gathered from the Pasture Star and Fairy Tale Valley have already numbered in the tens of thousands, and their numbers are still increasing. Now a part of them have entered various eroded Exotic Realm spaces through the Special Service Bureau's mastered "paths" to support those Special Service Bureau teams fighting against invading entities in the Exotic Realm—but "combat support" is only one of their tasks, and not even the main task.
Their primary mission is to approach those "Kingdom fragments" invading various Exotic Realms, investigate those anomalous spatiotemporal structures, and find paths that may lead to the "source" from them.
Yu Sheng gently exhaled, slightly closed his eyes, allowing his spirit to descend, and his mind gradually extended out, sensing each team arriving at the mission location through the subtle connection established by blood.
Every mass-produced puppet was endowed with life through his blood, every Artificial Saintess and Brass Knight was closely connected to his spirit through the link between the Soul Wilderness and Valhalla.
In the darkness, Yu Sheng saw a net that was slowly expanding, this net with his consciousness as the framework, using each dispatched support group as a touchpoint, and although the information relayed from the edge of the net was not clear, it was enough to make him perceive the environment around those groups and the general situation of the "Kingdom fragments" they were facing.
Vaguely, those anomalous spatiotemporal structures infiltrating various Exotic Realms were slowly outlined at the edge of this great net—
They were broken high walls, fractured towers, and collapsed city roofs and roads.
A distant and unfamiliar kingdom gradually came into Yu Sheng's view in a fragmented state—he still found it difficult to recreate the complete appearance of the kingdom from these limited fragments, but the chairman's judgment seemed correct.
These dispersed invading "anomalous spatiotemporal structures" maintained integrity in a higher dimension, behind which, faintly, the overall image of the kingdom was outlined.
Now this "High Wall Kingdom" is squeezing into this universe bit by bit from the depths of the Fault...
...
At the lowest level of the Council Tower, in the Fault space, the figures of the chairman and Kant still stood on that shattered land, with ever-alert eyes observing the situation of the spatiotemporal storm in the darkness ahead.
Behind them, an abnormal robot named "Malfunction" sat in a chair seemingly cobbled together with numerous mechanical parts, countless cables spreading from all directions, connecting the chair and "Malfunction's" shell. The bulb at the position of its head flickered continuously, and countless large and small virtual images floated around its head.
Those virtual images were all old-fashioned cathode-ray tube screens, hanging in mid-air by thick cables, with some screens displaying surveillance footage from Boundary City, and others showing situations in some Exotic Realms.
On one of the surveillance screens, a Deep Diver squad was engaged in a fierce firefight with a large number of invading entities, which took on gargoyle-like forms and an overwhelming number—but suddenly, several flashing phantoms rushed into the battlefield, as blades shone and phantoms shuttled, large swathes of gargoyles were slashed into countless fragments, immediately followed by armored Brass Knights stepping into the battlefield, smashing those stones attempting to reform their bodies through vibrations.
And in another surveillance screen, a mass of mass-produced puppets was climbing a black stone tower embedded in the streets of Mist City, at the top of which was coiled a hideously sinister pale monstrous serpent, but its body had already been pierced by the puppets' thermal rays hundreds and thousands of times...
A pair of phantom eyes hovered beside Malfunction's bulb head, swaying and murmuring: "Can you do it, Bulb Head? My sister can monitor the entire domain and command the twelve hundred combat squads dispatched out, and you're only responsible for less than 1/3 of the number, so why does your head flash like it's going to burn out..."
"I'm not a Colorless Dragon!" A slightly sizzling interfering voice came from Malfunction's chest cavity, "Have you rested well yet? If so, hurry back to your workstation, otherwise, I'll tell your sister!"
"Rest for 5 more minutes, rest for 5 more minutes, my eye drops haven't dissolved yet..."
"Eye drops need to dissolve?!"
"You don't have eyes, you don't understand..."
Kant and the Chairman listened to the conversation coming from behind them, and they turned back slightly to glance at one another, both detecting some incredulity in each other's eyes.
"...It seems Yu Sheng's influence really is significant," Kant muttered, "Just from the voice, I nearly can't recognize this 'little monster' anymore."
The Chairman said nothing, his aged face merely bearing an expression of slight contemplation.
Kant frowned: "What are you thinking?"
"An army led by the Artificial Saintesses is entering the Boundary Land to fight, and tens of thousands of living dolls are opening countless spatial fissures in thousands of Exotic Realms within the borders, the Colorless Dragon has become Yu Sheng's 'blood transfer dependent'," the Chairman said slowly, his expression somewhat nuanced, "And just a few minutes ago, 12 transport shuttles passed through the Star Gate and docked at the 'Inner Port'—the cargo bays of those shuttles are packed with inactive Artificial Saintess shells, once the consciousness download is complete, they can be deployed to the battlefield at any time."
He paused for a few seconds at this, stroking his beard.
"...But if the source of these events wasn't that 'Yu Sheng', and just anyone else, this would be considered the second invasion."
"You don't even need someone else, if this had happened just a few days ago I would have thought the sky was falling," Kant shook his head, "But now we don't have to worry so much, 'the returning Ancient Saints'... the entire Boundary Land is on their grave, at least they haven't demanded grave rent from us."
The Chairman's shriveled, wrinkled face twitched, seemingly smiling, then he turned around and, while watching the storm within the darkness, casually opened his mouth: "Demon King... about 'the whole Boundary Land essentially being an invasion of the universe by a Dark Angel in the form of a Sanctuary', what are your thoughts?"
"Why suddenly ask this?" Kant folded his arms, "Even heroes can have their faith shaken?"
"...Just asking casually, after all, some longstanding puzzles now suddenly have answers, the nightmares I've had and inexplicable strange memories in my mind finally have a reason, when the mind is idle, it can't help but wander," the Chairman spoke slowly, "The Boundary Land struck the resting place of the God of Death, and then was reshaped in the Death God's dream... since it could be reshaped once, do you think it might..."
Kant lifted his eyelids, the pair of Eyes of Demon filled with a destructive dark yellow glow calmly staring at the old man's eyes.
"...Did you really marry a princess back then?"
The Chairman frowned: "Why say it like that?"
"Exudes a weak scent of longing."
The old man said nothing, merely raising the cane in his hand.
Kant shrugged, turned his gaze back to the storm, and after a long silence, spoke softly:
"I didn't think that much, since the day they sunk, I haven't thought about it. I'm the Demon King, unlike you types who have friendship, faith, hope and such engraved in your bones, I only believe in reality and efficiency."
The Chairman nodded: "Hmm... definitely fit for overtime."
Kant's eyes instantly widened, and then he saw the cane in the old man's hand and withdrew his gaze.
Almost simultaneously, a stream of red light crossed the dark storm below the fault like lightning, interrupting their conversation.
The next moment, the stream of red light soared into the air, slanting down onto the shattered ground of the fault.
The Chairman and Kant exchanged a glance, and quickly ran towards the direction where the red light fell.