"Minister, where on earth is this place?"
Yu Xian stared at Xiao Cheng in sheer disbelief. In his perception, all the bubbles he had placed on Earth felt impossibly distant. Even though he could still teleport back in an instant, that lingering sense of remoteness was unmistakable.
"This is the Transcendent Containment Facility, located on Kepler in the constellation Cygnus, over six hundred light-years from Earth. Shocking, isn't it?" Xiao Cheng introduced with evident pride.
Yu Xian nodded reflexively. Shocking didn't begin to cover it—it was fucking mind-boggling.
"I'm only telling you because you're a spatial ability user. Remember to keep it confidential," Xiao Cheng said with a smile.
Although Elite-tier members were also qualified to enter the Transcendent Containment Facility, the vast majority had no idea where it was actually located. At most, those who came here merely noticed a slight change in gravity and felt the place was a bit odd.
Only spatial ability users like Yu Xian could acutely detect the shifts in space, and even uncover the facility's secret through spatial coordinates.
Xiao Cheng had anticipated all of this before bringing Yu Xian here, however.
Mainly, Yu Xian was already qualified to learn higher-level classified information.
"Now that you've mastered Appraisal, you must have noticed, right? This year is 5322." Xiao Cheng continued walking as he spoke. Yu Xian stepped out of his bubble and hurried to keep pace.
Of course Yu Xian knew that number.
So far, he had seen quite a few creatures whose lifespans were listed as 5322. Aside from Extreme Dragon, whose lifespan was a question mark, 5322 seemed to be the lifespan limit for all living beings.
"5322 might very well be the limit of our world," Xiao Cheng said.
Yu Xian asked in astonishment, "Then what happens after year 5322?"
"No one knows. Perhaps our world will be destroyed, or perhaps it will be completely devoured by the Abyss. Every year, countless talented people enter the Abyss in search of a way to save the world. Do you know how many elites Qilin loses each year?" Xiao Cheng sighed and asked.
Yu Xian shook his head. Xiao Cheng answered his own question: "Every single year, more than ten Eagle-rank elites from Qilin enter the Abyss. We can't keep them, nor do we want to, because they go seeking hope with the conviction to save the world. But in the end, most of them never return. We don't even know if they are dead or still fighting.
"However, many people at headquarters are looking for other ways out—such as this sea of stars beyond Earth. Kepler is the fruit of one such attempt."
Qilin had always treated "5322" as their ultimate hypothetical enemy, with a disaster rating of Unknown.
Compared to the Unknown-rank crisis of 5322, the aberrant worm crisis was merely an appetizer.
While talking, the two arrived in front of a glass chamber. Inside stood the ancient Bronze Sacred Tree. Xiao Cheng took out his ID card and pressed it against the glass. Immediately, luminous circuits condensed within the pane, swiftly converging beneath the card. Once his identity was confirmed, the glass automatically dissolved.
"Go ahead. You're only allowed to take one Golden Crow," Xiao Cheng told Yu Xian.
Yu Xian nodded and stepped forward excitedly. With a thought, he condensed a silver thread and sliced his fingertip, letting a drop of blood fall onto one of the Golden Crows. The bird, originally made of bronze, swiftly turned blood-red. Then the crimson was swallowed by gold, and its body radiated brilliant light.
Flapping its wings, the Golden Crow flew affectionately up to hover over Yu Xian's head. Yu Xian instantly felt as though he were standing beneath the scorching midday sun, his entire body growing hot.
Yet... it felt wonderful.
His Light Eater talent was taking effect. The talent that had originally been slated to awaken over the weekend would likely awaken in just a few hours now.
Yu Xian walked out of the glass room. Xiao Cheng removed his ID card from the light circuits, and the vanished glass swiftly reappeared, once again shielding the Bronze Sacred Tree.
"Follow me."
Xiao Cheng glanced at the Golden Crow above Yu Xian's head and said.
The Golden Crow had no effect on anyone else, shining down on Yu Xian alone. To onlookers, there was simply a small golden bird circling above his head.
The two arrived in an empty room, where Xiao Cheng told Yu Xian, "Leave a few bubbles here as backups. In case anything ever goes wrong with the other method of transit, having you will serve as insurance."
"Got it."
Yu Xian nodded and immediately created a large swarm of tiny bubbles, sticking them all around the room.
Because each bubble was extremely small, he deliberately placed several hundred of them. The Spatial Blood Energy expended was so minimal that he could recover it within an hour.
Once that was done, they didn't take their previous route back to Qilin Headquarters, instead teleporting directly via a spatial bubble.
However, the moment they stepped out of the bubble, before either could speak, Xiao Cheng and Yu Xian noticed the Golden Crow was gone. Both looked up almost simultaneously.
"Where's my Golden Crow?" Yu Xian exclaimed.
Xiao Cheng frowned as well. Before he could speak, Yu Xian's expression turned odd. "It seems... it got left behind on Kepler."
As he spoke, Yu Xian manipulated the bubbles on Kepler to teleport the Golden Crow over. As soon as it arrived, it flapped its wings cheerfully and flew straight back to circle over Yu Xian's head.
"Minister, it seems to be a living creature!" Yu Xian said earnestly, looking at Xiao Cheng.
Just now, he had mistakenly assumed the Golden Crow was an inanimate item, so when teleporting, he had only intended to bring himself and Xiao Cheng. Consequently, the Golden Crow, being an independent life-form, had remained behind.
"Are you sure?"
Xiao Cheng looked at the Golden Crow above Yu Xian's head, his expression shaken with disbelief.
It wasn't as if Qilin hadn't researched the Bronze Sacred Tree's Golden Crows. In their search for a way to neutralize the side effect, every single one had been thoroughly examined, and the conclusion had always been that they were merely balls of light.
There was no evidence whatsoever proving the Golden Crows were living things.
Yu Xian then manifested a spatial bubble, directly encasing the Golden Crow above his head. The bird, which had clung stubbornly to hovering over him, instantly became a caged bird.
His spatial bubble could imprison the Golden Crow!
Even though Xiao Cheng had repeatedly revised his estimate of Yu Xian's abilities upward, seeing him effortlessly imprison the Golden Crow still left him completely stunned.
A problem Qilin hadn't been able to solve in hundreds of years—and its side effect was resolved just like that?
The thing was, Qilin had actually tried using spatial abilities to contain the Golden Crows in the past, yet none could trap them. So what was the deal with Yu Xian's spatial bubbles?
"I can only trap living things," Yu Xian stated as proof to Xiao Cheng.
Xiao Cheng furrowed his brows, thoughts swirling. In the end, he realized whether the Golden Crow was a living being or not didn't really matter.
Because aside from Yu Xian, no one else had any way of dealing with it anyway.
He pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly and turned back toward his office.
"Go have fun on your own. I still have work to do!"
"Oh. Goodbye, Minister."
Seeing how exhausted Xiao Cheng looked, Yu Xian assumed he hadn't slept well the previous night. After bidding farewell, he cleanly teleported away.
Back home in Silver City, Yu Xian directly imprisoned the Golden Crow within a spatial bubble. Holding the bubble in his hands, he watched the Golden Crow repeatedly battering against the inner wall and chuckled, "Little guy, behave. Stop slamming into it."
The Golden Crow couldn't understand him at all, of course, and continued to bash the bubble.
Fine, it was just a dumb little thing.
Most likely, it viewed him as its mother, which was why it insisted on hovering over his head. But at the thought of the "mothers" who had been roasted to death by these birds, Yu Xian made up his mind: this Golden Crow's name would be Dumb Thing—or for short, Little Dumb.
Chapter 94