"Li Yao, look over there! Look over there!"
Just as Li Yao was immersed in the blue and dazzling sky, Daniel Zhang suddenly patted him on the shoulder and shouted.
Narrowing his eyes, Li Yao looked at the direction he was pointing at, only to see a pure white fish that was as translucent as jade jumping out of the water. Drawing a beautiful arc on the surface of the ocean, it waved its colorful tail and dived back into the water agilely.
"What is that?!" Li Yao was dumbfounded.
Although he was not a marine biologist, he knew very well that such a beautiful fish could never appear on Earth. The fish was at least five to six meters long, far longer than the average dolphin. It was almost like a small whale. However, both dolphins and whales were mainly black and white. There was no such thing as a pure white fish with colorful tail fins. This was a "spiritual beast" that should only exist in the celestial world!
Looking at the surface of the sea where the fish jumped and swam, it was sparkling and emitting thousands of rays of golden light. Upon closer inspection, there were actually golden jellyfish rippling in the sea. As their tentacles swayed, they would sometimes gather into flames and sometimes spread out like stars. It was like a group of immortals roaming between the heavens and the earth!
"Is this still Earth?"
Li Yao asked himself, completely confused.
Not far ahead of them, a lush island rose from the bottom of the sea. It really looked like a huge ship that would soar into the sky and turn into a dragon at any time.
Near the island, there were several conical mountains that were floating in the air more than a hundred meters high. Waterfalls flowed down from the sky, rippling into magnificent rainbows under the sunlight.
"This is — this is the 'Ark'!"
Li Yao looked at the scene that completely defied the common sense of physics and then carefully observed the shape of the island. There were no other supertankers around. He suddenly realized something and cried out involuntarily.
"That's right."
The lady of grey fog said with a smile, "Everybody thinks that the 'Ark' is a gargantuan supertanker, including the Apocalypse Organization and even the will of Earth. When a supertanker cruises on the ocean, it will always leave traces, including the docks where it is manufactured, the supplies it acquired on the way, and the registration information of the country where the ship is registered. Such intelligence will all betray it.
"Therefore, the Apocalypse Organization has spent tremendous manpower and resources to search for all the supertankers in the world, including the relatively large cargo ships that weigh ten thousand tons. They tried to find our headquarters, but they found nothing.
"Little did you know that the so-called 'ark is a supertanker' was just a smokescreen that the Red Pole Star released to interfere with the reconnaissance and lock-on of the Apocalypse Organization and buy time for our ultimate battle. The real 'ark' is the island in front of you — the 'ark island'!"
"That explains a lot!"
Li Yao was enlightened.
Indeed, although the supertankers could move freely on the ocean, from manufacturing to purchasing, maintenance, and replenishing fuel and manpower along the way, everything that was needed for daily operations was too complicated and eye-catching. With the power of the Apocalypse Organization and the terrifying mastermind that was Earth's will, it was not difficult to find and lock onto all the cargo ships and tankers that weighed thirty thousand tons or more that were produced by the major shipbuilding countries on Earth over the past few decades.
Once they were locked onto, no matter how sturdy and large the 'Ark' was, it would be doomed.
However, an island was different.
A large island could even produce its own fresh water and be partially self-sufficient. The energy, resources, and manpower that it could not provide could be provided by smaller ships. In this era, navigation technology was very advanced. Even fishing boats that weighed hundreds of tons could be equipped with global positioning systems and operate in the depths of the ocean for a year and a half. No matter how powerful the Apocalypse Organization was, it was impossible for them to lock onto all the ocean-going ships in the world.
Li Yao just did not understand. "What's going on? Are we still on Earth?"
"Of course. Of course we are on Earth."
Lady Gray Fog was amused. "We've just sailed into a 'space fold'."
"Space fold?"
Li Yao was slightly stunned. "What's that?"
"You're an Easterner. You shouldn't be unfamiliar with this concept, right?"
Lady Gray Fog said, "In the ancient training books of the East, there is the saying of 'blessed lands' and 'winding paths lead to a different world'. It is said that some ancient people once strayed into the folds of space and came to a mysterious space where time was stagnant for hundreds of years. After they returned, they wrote an essay called 'Peach Blossom Spring'. Why don't you consider the world in front of you as a Peach Blossom Spring? How about it? Can you understand it?"
Of course, Li Yao had read 'Peach Blossom Spring' and could understand what Lady Gray Fog meant.
Although 'Peach Blossom Spring' could be simply understood as a remote, isolated village that was far behind the times, the author had gone back to search for it later, only to find that he could not find the Peach Blossom Spring even though he had returned the way he came. It was more like a feature of a 'paradise' or a 'space fold'.
In all kinds of stories about supernatural forces, whether it was the ancient records of supernatural beings or the modern fantasy novels, such a magical space that ordinary people could not see appeared many times.
According to the common understanding of 'Ark' and 'Apocalypse', those who wrote such novels were probably 'Observers'. The absurd stories that they wrote more or less reflected part of the reality. Therefore, the existence of 'space folds' was reasonable.
"If you still don't understand, you can imagine that there is an enormous' server 'behind the Earth that we live in, and the space folds are tiny' private servers' secretly established in the server," Lady Gray Fog said.
The Lady of Grey Fog said, "Perhaps because of the logic errors and data overflows due to the multiple reboots, or perhaps because of the unwavering battles and breakthroughs of generations of prison breakers, they finally built the space folds into what they are today. After the Red Pole Planet took over, they further expanded and strengthened it into the 'Ark Island' before your eyes. This place is both our last secret base and our strongest battle fortress!"
"Server?"
Li Yao frowned. "I still don't like such a term. It makes me feel that I am not … real enough."
"Like I said, there is no need to dwell on such issues."
The lady in the gray fog smiled. "I also believe that our world, the sky above our heads, and the earth below our feet are real. Our flesh, blood, and soul are real too. This is definitely not a game in a virtual world.
"However, you have to admit that, if a certain 'four-dimensional life' that is higher than us does exist, and the will of Earth is such a 'four-dimensional life', it is indeed possible that it can cross dimensions and deal a certain 'dimensionality reduction' to us. For example, it can lock us in the prison of reincarnation and make us reincarnate again and again, although we don't know why it is doing that yet.
"From that perspective, the will of Earth, as a four-dimensional life, may view the earthlings living in the three-dimensional world like we view the virtual figures in the computer games."
"How … annoying."
Li Yao's furrowed eyebrows were still furrowed. "Whether it is real or not, I just don't like the feeling of being manipulated, or not being manipulated at all, when there is only a certain high and mighty human being."
"Then, let's find a way to overthrow it," Lady Gray Fog said casually.
"This is the mission of the Prison Breakers," the Lady of Grey Fog said casually. "That is the mission of the Prison Breakers. Eliminate everything that is above us so that we, the six billion heroic spirits that originated from Earth, can stand at the peak of the three-dimensional, four-dimensional, and even all the universes. Nothing can interfere with our free will in the slightest, much less restrain and manipulate us!
Lady Gray Fog's words made Li Yao's heart soar with lofty sentiments. He stopped dwelling on the questions of what was real and what was fake. Pondering for a moment, he simply said, "Is this place safe enough? Our rescue operation has exposed a lot of traces. Will the people of the Apocalypse Apocalypse follow us and launch attacks?"
"Rest assured."
Lady Gray Fog smiled. "The most amazing thing about the space folds is that they are not fixed at certain coordinates in the depths of the ocean. Although it is peaceful here, the 'fold channel' is moving irregularly in the boundless Pacific Ocean. It took us several reincarnations before we grasped the pattern of its movement. How is it possible for the people of the Apocalypse Apocalypse to find out the location of the fold channel in just a few days?
"Unless the Apocalypse Organization's spies are able to infiltrate this place and secretly send information to the outside world, it's impossible for us to be discovered within ten days to half a month. Ten days to half a month is more than enough time for the Red Pole Star to complete its final preparations. This is also the reason why we have to conduct stringent screening and testing on everyone who enters the spatial folds. I'm sorry for what happened during those few days."
Lady Gray Fog was a person who was cold on the outside but warm on the inside. She was still apologizing for the grievances Li Yao had suffered in the past few days.
"It's fine. I did not expect the headquarters of the Ark Foundation to be such a mysterious place. Now, I finally understand what the Red Pole Planet means."
Li Yao smiled. "Indeed. If I had such a secret base, I would've performed the most rigorous tests on the people who enter and leave this place. Chances are that I would've been a hundred times more careful than he was!"
Everybody on the deck was amused by what he said.
"In any case, we're finally home!"
Sparda, the brawny man, took a deep breath and grinned. "Now that we're home, everything is settled!"
Although Li Yao had never been to the 'home' of the prison breakers, he felt reassured after hearing Lady Gray Fog's certainty.
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