A moment later, Yu Sheng followed Baili Qing's instructions, opened the door, and arrived at a reception office somewhere in the deep layer of the Council Tower.As soon as he walked in, he noticed that all five councilors, including Baili Qing, were present — Fault had even made a special effort to tidy up a bit.
The highlight being that he replaced the bulb on his head with a rotating colored disco ball.
The entire office was thus filled with dazzling lights, and when Yu Sheng pushed the door open, he almost thought he had opened the door to one of those flashy disco places where the old dandy usually danced.
Several gazes fell on Fault, and the atmosphere was slightly awkward for a few seconds before Kant finally shook his head: "...Can you screw off that meaningless ball from your neck?"
"Alright, it indeed didn't have the effect I was hoping for," a string of buzzing sounds came from Fault's chest. He raised his hand to unscrew the light ball from his neck and replaced it with the initial bulb, murmuring along the way, "This happened suddenly, logically we should have held a formal welcoming ritual for the arrival of Lady Lucrecia — it's been so long since an Ancient Saint has walked among us."
Yu Sheng finally understood what was up with the strange robot's headlight just now, instinctively turning his head to look at the Star Sea Witch next to him, only to see that same enigmatic smile on her face.
"Relax; the Lost Home won't interfere with the Boundary Land's own affairs. I'm here this time due to my father's arrangement, also to help Uncle Yu with some tasks," the witch lady said with a smile.
Then several gazes turned to Yu Sheng again.
Even Baili Qing raised an eyebrow, his eyes holding a bit of hindsight contemplation.
It seemed that the five spokespersons of the Boundary Land, at that moment, only then acquired a tangible and peculiar understanding of "Yu Sheng, at his core, is a super old character that crawled out of the Old World grave" — Yu Sheng vaguely guessed what these few in front of him were thinking, but he figured they'd better not think about it...
So he coughed twice, quickly changing the subject: "Ahem, let's skip the pleasantries and get to the important stuff first."
"Alright," the still steady Council Chairman was the first to nod, "Regarding the current situation..."
"What I mean is can someone take Hu Li to the canteen first," Yu Sheng raised his hand to point at the fox girl to his side who was ow-ow waiting to be fed (seriously, she's about to start ow-ow if she doesn't get fed), "She's hungry."
Actually, her hunger was secondary, more importantly, she was forcefully dragged away from beside a house built with cakes and candies, now her eyes were so green; everyone she looked at seemed like sugar cookies...
"Ah, of course, no problem," Kant hurriedly nodded upon hearing this, "We've prepared lunch, we can chat while eating..."
Erin immediately leaned over to Yu Sheng's ear, whispering, "Hey hey, finally getting to mess up the Council's canteen after the Special Service Bureau's canteen!"
Yu Sheng stayed silent, trying hard to maintain a serious look on his face.
Then Yu Sheng and his group were led to a private room in one of the Council Tower's canteens — the service here was indeed pretty efficient. Not long after Yu Sheng and the others were seated, an array of dishes began to be sent in by the waiters like a flowing river. However, Hu Li's eating efficiency was evidently higher — the dishes served were basically like a stream flowing into her stomach and soon turned into a stack of empty plates beside the table...
They had been serving for quite some time, yet the center of the table still appeared to be empty, so much so that even Hu Li herself felt embarrassed, her big ears drooping down to slow her eating pace — she needed to leave some food for her Savior.
Sitting opposite the table, the Council Chairman and Kant were dumbfounded, they even forgot the matter at hand, witnessing for the first time the scene of the fierce diner from Yu Sheng's place sweeping the table, shocked while overhearing someone muttering: "Obviously lacking experience, there's not even a conveyor belt next to this room's dining table..."
The one speaking was Baili Xue, hiding at the table edge next to Baili Qing, just peeking out her eyes, sneakily watching.
Fault seriously pondered the relation between the dining table and a conveyor belt for quite some time, almost burning out the bulb on his neck with his thoughts.
"You all should serve her 10 drawers of buns first, it's no use presenting these fancy cold and hot dishes," finally, Yu Sheng proactively reminded, "And don't let the waitstaff serve rice bowl by bowl, just push in the steamer let Hu Li serve herself — let us continue with our discussion."
Kant: "Sure..."
A few minutes later, the councilors (excluding the experienced Baili Qing) first tried their best to ignore the scenario of Hu Li ravaging the meal like a whirlwind and started briefing Yu Sheng about the current situation below the Fault.
Kant was evidently the most knowledgeable about the Fault situation, and he mainly introduced the situation:
"...These past two days, we have been reinforcing the temporal structure around the Fault, and the storm left behind a large number of fine 'displacements' after dissipating, greatly affecting the Fault's stability.
"The remedial measures are effective, currently, the upper and middle regions of the Fault are relatively stable, safe for exploration, but in the last exploration, we discovered some… somewhat suspicious conditions."
Yu Sheng leaned forward slightly, frowning: "Suspicious conditions?"
"Red discovered it," Kant gestured towards the vampire girl with eyes tightly shut beside him, "To put it simply, the Fault is excessively 'tranquil' now."
"Tranquil?" Erin at this time crawled onto the revolving electric table in the center, following its rotation, saying, "Tranquility isn't a good thing? Since the place is already a bit unstable..."
"But the things originally supposed to be in the Fault have all vanished," Red shook her head, "Completely disappeared."
The room fell silent for two seconds, and Yu Sheng finally took a light breath, staring wide-eyed: "…It's empty below?!"
Red gently nodded: "Yes. The historical accumulation of the Boundary Land, the space-time fragments left over from the epochs of transition, and the shadows of time that were supposed to wander below... Of course, these things have brought us quite a bit of trouble, but if they just disappear into thin air, the situation is even more tense than 'leakage'."
Upon hearing this astonishing news, even Hu Li, who was busy eating, spoke up: "So, the place below is equivalent to a prison, right? (chew chew) Before, you worried daily about people escaping (chew), and now, upon going down, the cells are all empty (big chew)..."
At this time, Erin was again rotated to Yu Sheng, the little puppet shaking its head: "Well, now there's no need to worry about jailbreaks."
"Could it have been information annihilation during the Dark Angel invasion?" Lucrecia broke the silence, her smile fading as she adopted a slightly serious expression.
"It's hard to determine; it's somewhat of a blind spot in our knowledge," Kant spread his hands and frankly said, "But from my understanding, even if some kind of 'annihilation' occurs, there should be traces left behind, and yet now it's like an empty tomb down there..."
Erin happened to rotate to Kant and the little puppet akimbo: "Nonsense, isn't it just a tomb down there—plus since the concerned parties broke out, it should be empty."
Yu Sheng: "…cough, cough."
"I assume you have your own guesses," Lucrecia continued, quietly looking at the council chairman opposite her who remained silent, "Care to share your speculations?"
"…Disappearing things must have a destination; if they didn't escape from above, then it must be at the 'bottom'," the council chairman slowly said, "That is the only area we haven't yet confirmed."
"Below then..." Lucrecia finally spoke with a heavier tone, "Are you suggesting the bottom of the fault may have been punctured during this incident, with historical data from the Boundary Land possibly seeping into the Old World?"
"That is one possibility," the council chairman cautiously stated.
For a moment, the room was quiet, with only the sound of Hu Li eating. Erin spun around the round table turntable repeatedly, and when she was again rotated to Hu Li, the little puppet couldn't help but remark: "Silly fox, you still have time to eat?"
"That's why I need to eat more," the fox girl replied with her mouth full, without looking up, "To fight better for the Savior once I'm full."
Erin blinked, and spoke a phrase of great philosophy for her: "Not all things can be solved by fighting..."
Hu Li: "But fighting is what I'm best at—I'm an athlete."
The little puppet opened her mouth, unable to respond, and was then rotated to Yu Sheng.
"What do we do, go down and take a look?" she asked.
Yu Sheng looked up at Kant: "How's the situation with the fault now? Can we go take a look?"
"…Actually, the bottom layer is still very unstable, but circumstances seem to leave us little room for hesitation," Kant nodded, "If it's convenient for you, we can go today."
"Then it's settled for today," Yu Sheng nodded, glancing at Hu Li, "Once she's finished eating..."
Before he could finish his sentence, the fox girl already stood up with a pot: "Savior, let's set off now～ I've eaten pretty much～"
And Yu Sheng watched as she quickly dumped the two dishes closest to her into the pot, mixed them quickly with a rice shovel, and with a dazzling smile holding the pot in one hand and a large rice spoon in the other: "I'll eat the rest on the way～"
Yu Sheng: "..."
What can be said, being a first-time guest at the Council Tower's cafeteria, Hu Li was rather reserved—she only packed one pot of food. If it were her usual meal at the Special Service Bureau's cafeteria, everything on this table would have long been swept into her tail.
Moments later, Yu Sheng and his group arrived at the chaotic "fault space."
"…Wow, is this the fault?" The little puppet perched on Yu Sheng's shoulder shaded her eyes and stared hard, exclaiming, "It feels so desolate, and it's pitch black in the distance."
Hu Li, nearby, cradled a pot while scooping rice with a spoon and muttered: "It feels a bit like that special floor in the Special Service Bureau Building, but the scale seems larger?"
Luna remained silent, diligently recording everything for reminiscence.
This was their first time entering the special fault space.
Last time, due to concerns that the Dark Angel's power might affect the fault, Yu Sheng didn't bring them along; but this time, the council members seemed unconcerned.
After all, this place had already been smashed by the Dark Angel...