Baili Qing massaged her temples a few times, leaned back in her office chair, exhaled slowly, and maintained this posture for a long time without moving.After some time, a pair of illusory eyes silently appeared in the air beside her, and Baili Xue's voice came from nearby:
"Sister, the investigative team from the 'Windmill Mill' has returned. The initial site assessment suggests that the danger level has been raised to level 3~4. There is now a residual rift at the top of the mill leading to an unknown space, perhaps an unstable time-space generated during the integration with another Exotic Realm. Due to the rift's influence, both the 'Mill Master' inside and the 'Scarecrow' outside the Windmill Mill have become extremely aggressive."
"Hmm, entity stress response, huh..." Baili Qing said slowly, "I'll arrange for the adjustment of the new Exotic Realm rating and entrance permits. Notify me immediately if there is any news from other investigative teams."
"Got it," Baili Xue nodded, waving slightly, then added with some admiration, "This time we've really broadened our horizons. It's my first time knowing that entities could have such a large-scale stress reaction due to encountering the rules of other Exotic Realms... Compared to this, the group of 'cats' in the Dark Alley seems to have stabilized emotionally—they've been in stress mode nonstop."
"Is there any other news?"
"It's still like before. The 'Boundary Stele' readings at the Boundary Land border are still unstable, with starlight deviation phenomena observed at all border outposts. Inside the city, some of the 'shortcuts' have been restored, but currently, one-fifth of the passages remain blocked. The report on this should be sent to you soon. Let me think if there's anything else...
"Oh right, aren't there a lot of mass-produced Erins deployed with the action teams these days? Recently, there have been several reports of 'Puppets cursing' and 'Puppets attacking people'—but I investigated in advance and found it's mainly because those bored investigators are telling dwarf jokes during breaks... The action recorders have caught them on tape."
"...Notify all teams that need to cooperate with mass-produced puppets. Prohibit them from telling dwarf-jokes in front of those machines," Baili Qing rubbed her temples harder, with a slight strain in her otherwise serious tone, "Tell them, even though those mass-produced machines may appear mindless, they're all directly connected to the 'Host'—Erin conducts high-intensity surveillance of all height-related audio signals in her puppet network. Also, don't report this kind of stuff to me anymore; let Song handle it."
"Okay," the illusory eyes in mid-air shifted up and down, agreeing while casually adding, "But if it's Erin, she can probably only patrol with low intensity..."
The office then fell silent. Baili Qing finally raised her eyelids, silently gazing at the illusionary eyes floating in the air.
"...So it was you who started it?"
"Hehe."
Baili Qing took a deep breath—Baili Xue instantly lay flat on the table, trembling.
Watching her "sister" display such exasperating yet distinctly human-like behavior, Baili Qing's gaze shifted slightly, but she eventually refrained from reprimanding her.
Just then, the phone on the table suddenly rang, interrupting the sisters' exchange.
Baili Xue immediately floated over to sneak a peek at the screen and saw the caller ID was "Swindler (the relatively weak one)."
"Who is it... oh, I think I know, that Arglede Elf," Baili Xue floated up slowly, "Guess you two don't have to use covert lines to communicate anymore."
Baili Qing responded perfunctorily, picked up the phone, listened expressionlessly for a while, then pondered slightly before responding, "…Where did you get this information from?"
Muffled explanations came through the receiver, and Baili Xue, eavesdropping from the side, was surprised to see a pixel-level smile appearing at the corner of her sister's eyes.
"Alright, those reasons you've concocted are a bit too preposterous—even in the past, there was some craftiness; now you're just too lazy to pretend?" Baili Qing said blandly, "I'm not concerned about your sources; the situation is indeed as you say... But you should know we cannot publicly use Black Dot Group's equipment."
"Black Dot my ass! All the labels on my end are from the Star Alliance..." The voice on the line abruptly rose by eight degrees.
Baili Qing: "..."
"I-I also have my own brand; it might be a bit new, it's listed under the travel agency..." Luo's voice turned slightly awkward but quickly gained confidence again, "But you can trust the quality; even those Star Alliance engineers aren't half as smart as this genius. In this day and age, no knockoff can't outperform the original...
"Let me tell you, the interstellar merchants in the Dark Meteor Domain even specifically look for channels to buy my labeled high-quality knockoffs. You should know, in this fractured space everywhere, inferior stability anchors just can't hold up..."
"Provide the data within three days, then formally enter the bidding process—I'm just giving you a chance to compete, but no special treatment, understood?"
"Gotcha!"
The phone call ended, and Baili Qing exhaled gently. Although her face remained expressionless, Baili Xue, familiar with her sister, quickly sensed that she was somewhat relaxed at that moment.
...
At the same time, deep within the Council Tower, on shattered land within the Fault Zone.
A red shadow burst forth from the Dark Chaos at the edge of the land and transformed into a large swarm of bats swirling through the air. Shortly after, the bat swarm landed and rapidly converged and took shape into the slender form of a black-haired girl.
Kant, who had been waiting by the side, casually handed over a bottle of red liquid: "Here, drink it."
Red said thank you, pulling out a straw while accepting the crimson blood, but she frowned slightly after just one sip: "…Where's the one with high blood sugar last time?"
"Time to administer insulin," Kant casually said, glancing at the vampire girl, "You should also watch your diet. How many extra meals have you had these past two days under the guise of 'overconsumption'?"
"I'm almost as thin as a sheet of paper, and I still have to watch my diet?!" Red pouted in discontent, "Besides, if I really must control, I can drink and then give myself insulin. At least let me indulge a little..."
"Do you hear what you're saying?" Kant's expression was hard to keep straight, "You're supposedly the Vampire Queen of the Dark Moon Royal Court... wait, is your status truly not self-proclaimed?"
Red didn't speak, merely snorted through her nose.
"And there's one thing I've been curious about for a long time, every time you land, every bat must slap onto the ground... is this process truly okay?"
Red still didn't speak but suddenly sucked on the straw with a loud slurp.
Seeing her reaction, a smile appeared on Kant's face. The overworked and sleep-deprived corporate demon king felt a moment of pleasure and relaxation, then changed the subject before Red truly got angry: "How's the situation down below?"
"It's somewhat good news, the Middle Layer of the Fault Zone is rapidly stabilizing. At least compared to my memories, it's not much worse. I flew over the area where the storm had lingered for a long time and didn't experience the harassment of the shadows of bygone years. Overall, it's quite calm there."
Kant hugged his arms, furrowing his brows slightly: "But you said 'somewhat,' meaning... the news isn't all that good?"
"Yes," Red handed over the empty bottle, nodded gently, and said, "The issue lies in this 'calm'... it's too calm. Not encountering the harassment of shadows of bygone years is, of course, good, but I've been active down there for so long and haven't seen even a trace of them. That's not normal."
Kant's expression subtly changed, instantly understanding Red's point.
"You mean... all the historical fragments piled up at the bottom of Boundary Land have disappeared?"
"It's hard to say, at least in the middle layer, I didn't see anything. But according to previous situations, there should be shadows roaming there. Moreover, I observed some irregular cracks deeper down... not visible to the naked eye, only existing in my perception. But there it's already very deep, beyond our previous exploration limits, so I dared not fly further down."
Kant gradually furrowed his brows tightly.
"Could it be that the space storm brought by the 'Kingdom' invasion directly destroyed the historical accumulation of Boundary Land? Or perhaps those shadows of bygone years merged with the storm and were carried away when the storm dissipated..."
"Or a third possibility," Red turned her face, though still with eyes closed, she seemed to have gaze calmly falling on Kant's face, "'They' have fallen into deeper layers."
"Deeper layers," Kant subconsciously repeated the word, and in an instant, his mind restructured a myriad of clues, his associative and analytical abilities efficiently ran for a few seconds before he spoke solemnly, "...fell into Yu Sheng's coffin?"
Red didn't manage to hold back, nearly opened her eyes wide.
"Do you hear what you're saying?!"
"But structurally, we are indeed standing over 'Yu Sheng's' grave," Kant spread his hands, "Then you tell me, what else can be deeper?"
Red: "…I, I didn't mean this… forget it, let's inform the director first. I'll find Ah Qing later and have her contact Yu Sheng."
...
In the depths of Lodge Valley, next to Fairy Tale Town, a towering stone pyramid of ancient and heavy design stood silently on the ground, bathed in daylight.
The Teleportation Hub hall on the first layer of the pyramid was quiet today, with few people coming and going. Only a troop of mass-produced puppets holding small mops formed a neat line, quickly scurrying from one end of the hall to the other, looking very busy.
But at this moment, a special door in the corner of the hall suddenly activated.
On the ancient stone door, a special emblem was exquisitely painted—a classical sailboat, sailing amidst the vast star sea.
Like streaks of light river, fine star points flowed along the door edge, mixed with flickering green flame, then the door slowly opened, revealing a vortex of green flame and brilliant starlight at the center of the doorway.
The few puppets pushing small mops past stopped at once upon noticing the movement, and then crash into each other in a heap, stacked together, dumbfoundedly staring towards the door.
Out from the vortex emerged a figure—a lady with an elegant, mysterious aura, dressed in a witch-style long gown and peaked hat, her deep brown hair elegantly tied up, with eyes seemingly floating with micro-light filled with magical power.
She was the ancient Holy Spirit who governed witchcraft, mystery, magic power, and the realm of curses, the "Star Sea Witch," the "Queen of Witches," Lucrecia.
This powerful "Queen of Witches" stepped into the Teleportation Hub hall with a gaze of fresh curiosity, surveying around, then her eyes landed on the pile of stacked little puppets not far away.
The Queen of Witches' face showed a trace of a smile as she walked towards the puppets.
"Ba... hmm, is Uncle Yu at home?"