I couldn't tell north from south, east from west, and I couldn't even see the top or bottom of the 'assembly hall'. It was a strange and distorted space. It was filled with dark and obscure clouds. There weren't any complete buildings or facilities in the space. There were only countless broken and distorted corridors and suspended platforms floating in the air. These ancient creations that had existed for an unknown period of time were entangled with each other. It was like an entangled ancient vine that stretched across the entire space from top to bottom. There were no signs of life or sound in this distorted space. The only sounds were the footsteps and the fluttering of clothes as my sister and I hurried along. After moving forward in this deathly silent environment for a while, I suddenly realized something very serious: Jingle was missing!
"Could she have fallen somewhere?" My sister's face also revealed a serious expression. Her gaze fell in the direction we came from. There was only a crooked and broken staircase that followed an irregular curve that extended into the deep darkness. Along the staircase, there were two or three connected broken platforms. We had stopped on those platforms for a while to check the ruins there. "Jingle is so small. If she fell out, she wouldn't have noticed at all. You often lost your keys when you were young. "
Just as I was about to nod in agreement, I felt that there was something wrong with what she said. Then, I looked at my sister with a frown, "Sister, Jingle is a little stupid, but not to the extent of … If she fell out halfway, at least she would have let out a cry, okay?"
"Oh, so that's how it is." My sister nodded as if she suddenly realized something. She used a rather subtle way to ridicule Jingle's stupid attribute. Only then did I realize that my sister had already entered a hidden black-bellied mode.
"Maybe we were separated from the very beginning." I recalled all the details since we entered this space. From then on, I didn't feel the feeling of Jingle moving around in my pocket. "I miscalculated. I originally thought that everyone would be randomly separated from each other and Jingle wouldn't have a problem hiding in her pocket. I didn't expect that even she would be recognized. This place really can't be underestimated."
As I spoke, I had already activated the mental connection. However, I quickly realized that the mental connection in this place was much more restricted than I had imagined. Not only was I unable to pinpoint other people's positions like before, I even had a problem communicating with them. I could already feel that Jingle was in the connection, but I couldn't send her a message. It wasn't that I couldn't hear Jingle's voice, but I couldn't send a message at all. It was as if something had cut off the connection.
Although I couldn't pinpoint other people's coordinates when I was connected to them, at least there was no problem communicating with them. Thus, facing the current situation, I immediately became anxious. However, I calmed down after a few seconds. After concentrating, I could still sense the little one's condition and emotional reaction. She shouldn't be in danger and her mood couldn't be better. Furthermore, I could hear a loop of "lalala, lalala" and other strange tuneless sounds. The little one was humming a song in her heart. She didn't seem to be lost at all!
"There's a bit of a problem with the mental connection. However, Jingle's condition seems to be normal. I don't feel any fear coming from the little one. She's quite calm. Yes, very calm." I explained the situation in the mental connection to my elder sister. The latter frowned slightly and tried it herself. The result was similar to what I had experienced. "It's good that she's safe. It seems that she isn't with anyone else." The elder sister looked a little worried, but in the end, she still let out a sigh of relief. "The Goddess of Life is immortal and that little one can take care of herself … I think so."
Take care of herself? Thinking about this, I really didn't know what expression I should show. That little one who didn't need anyone to call her for meals and needed someone to take care of everything else. She hadn't learned to brush her teeth and only had the habit of eating toothpaste. Furthermore, her biological clock would fall for half a month every time she went to another world. Take care of herself? I might as well believe that Little Bubble could speak six different languages!
However, after thinking about it, that might not be the case. After all, before I got to know her, that little one had lived alone in another world for several hundred years. Although she lived an endless and muddled life of picking wild fruits, drinking dew, sleeping and playing every day, no matter what, she could still be considered to have survived in the wild … Forget it, it would be better to be careful on the road and find her as soon as possible. I could already imagine the pitiful look on that little one's face after playing alone for an hour.
The elder sister and I hurried on our way again. However, this time, we moved at a slower pace and spread out our mental power to search every inch of space. After all, everyone knew that Jingle was only the size of a palm and loved to burrow into all kinds of nooks and crannies. In this current era where our mental connection wasn't working well, we had to be careful in order to find such a large dragonfly.
Of course, we also broadcasted the news of Jingle's disappearance in the public channel. Everyone expressed their serious anxiety and began to gather everyone's mental power in an attempt to find Jingle's location. This was to no avail, so we agreed that we must pay attention to every nook and cranny along the way. This way, we would have a seventy to eighty percent chance of finding the little one. Of course, this plan was based on the premise that everyone was in the same space. If we were really randomly sent to a few parallel worlds, then there was only one final plan: I'll go big and use the Void Domain to cover the entire space. According to Sandora's detection, this space was limited and sealed. That was why I would activate my Void Domain and cause the entire "Gathering Hall" system to collapse. This place would become an ordinary large house with a radius of two to three hundred meters and a height of more than ten meters. The interior would definitely be as messy as the scene of a car accident. Jingle's tiny figure would probably fall into a brick crevice that had been corroded by the Void Domain and cry loudly. After that, we would have to return dejectedly or face off against the three hundred mystical Spartans who had been awakened. The above process from the third to last line onwards was all supplemented by Shallow Shallow's chatter. I wouldn't comment on any of the possibilities.
Being worried was one thing, but I wasn't really worried about Jingle's safety. Although this distorted space was quite strange, I hadn't discovered anything threatening about it. My older sister's "Reverse Misfortune Aura" also hadn't increased in activity. Perhaps this was just an ordinary special space. Besides — even if we met with the worst situation, Jingle's survivability was still the strongest out of all of us (in a situation where she didn't activate her Void Domain, even I wouldn't be able to compare to her). Actually, in Jingle's team, that little thing wasn't just a healer, she was also a tanky tank. That's right, apart from Monina, who was an assassin, the other four in Jingle's team should be the main tank, second tank, third tank, and fourth tank … Even though they called themselves Holy Knight (Elson), Warrior (Lin), Priest (Uncle Kenser), and Druid (Jingle) … Of course, I actually had an even more perfect job list. They should be sandbags, housekeepers, pets, and finally, a cook …
Traveling was boring, especially in this strange place where everything was white. Apart from the strange structure, the terrain was repetitive. Traveling was even more boring. So, other than chatting with my older sister here and there, my mind was filled with random thoughts. Furthermore, the speed at which I went off topic was getting faster and faster. Sometimes, I felt like I was missing something in my brain — it should be the brakes or something. From this, it could be seen that I and Shallow Shallow were a match made in heaven. That brat was missing a steering wheel … In this kind of situation, it would be illogical for a pair to not be together. After all, structurally speaking, the only way for the two of us to escape the North Third Ring Road without being caught by the traffic police was if we were one …
"Ah Jun, you're really missing a brake." My older sister suddenly turned to look at me and said faintly, "I know that you're very worried about Jingle, but there's no need to torment your brain with a bunch of nonsense just to alleviate your worries."
I said, "… Sis, let's talk about something else."
"Alright, let's talk about why this place is like this." My older sister said directly in the public channel. Other than Jingle who had gone offline for some unknown reason, everyone was still connected to the public channel so that they could exchange their findings at any time. "The assembly hall is such a huge space, and we can't even see the sleeping commander of the Ancient Empire. There isn't even a hibernation pod. Sandora, what do you think?"
"There's definitely something fishy going on here —" Sandora's voice was filled with a calming aura. The moment she spoke, my mind that had been wandering off topic because I was worried about Jingle's whereabouts instantly calmed down. "I've already asked Alaya and Pandora. Although the assembly hall on the mother planet is also a huge space, it's much more normal than this place."
"Much more normal?" I finally remembered that I had been neglecting this matter. "Speaking of which, what does the assembly hall on the mother planet look like? I don't think I've ever seen that place — I've never heard Gaia mention it either. "
"Because it's a one-time thing." Pandora only said that and didn't say anything else. It was her usual concise and silent style. Alaya then explained in a soft voice, "The assembly hall has now self-disintegrated and become a part of the mother planet's material cycle. The disintegration process started after Brother Monarch successfully used the Emperor's authority to connect with Sister Gaia for the first time. At the same time, the three hundred commanders in the assembly hall also woke up at that time. The assembly hall is also an expanded space, used to store the commander's hibernation facilities and a large number of backup databases. Now, those backup databases are the New Empire's central database. So, I'm thinking that this assembly hall should have something in common with assembly hall one. There should be the hibernation commander of the old Empire here, and there should be a backup of data or knowledge … But the situation doesn't seem right. Everything here has obviously been destroyed. The broken corridors and building wreckage seem to be the result of a complex of buildings being crushed. This assembly hall has been scrapped, but strangely, I don't see the wreckage of the hibernation facilities. "
In other words, if I'm not wrong, this assembly hall looks like it was destroyed … I originally thought that the broken corridors and platforms floating in the air were originally designed as such. After all, they did look quite fantastical. I looked up at the sky and saw a flight of stairs hovering in the air. I still couldn't see the end of it. I couldn't help but ask, "There are no hibernation facilities. Could it be that the Mystic-type commanders aren't here at all?"
"Anything is possible," Sandora replied. "But this place definitely doesn't look like it's operating normally. It's a mess inside, and it has suffered serious damage. Also, we don't know where the kite that was sucked in earlier went. Maybe she was teleported to a branch entrance like us, but I don't know if she will move to the top floor like us. "
I shook my head. Everything was unclear now, and anything I said was just a guess. It was more important to focus on our journey. After a few leaps, Big Sister and I arrived at another suspended white platform. Then, we stopped.
This platform seemed to be intact, and its surface area was larger than the previous platforms. It was about the size of a basketball court. In the middle of the platform, there was a small pillar that protruded more than a meter from the ground. There was something that caught our attention. It was a small shield with a diameter of about 30 centimeters, and inside the shield lay a small flower.
It was a light blue wildflower with slender, strange petals with pale gold edges. It was different from any plant on Earth. It was obviously a creature from our home planet. The leaves of the flower were slightly curled and had a blue-black crystalline texture. Apart from the curl, the flower didn't have any signs of decay. It was as fresh as if it had just been plucked. This must be because of the protection of the shield.
This was the only thing we saw that wasn't made of stone and metal, and it was a flower!
"I can't believe that such a thing would appear in the ruins of the Xi Ling Apostles." The elder sister's face lit up with joy. She reached out and carefully touched the layer of protective shield. "It seems to be specially protected. A protective shield specially prepared for a single flower?"
I also felt that it was inconceivable, but it wasn't too surprising. The Shiring Apostles only pursued an iron-blooded policy, but they also had aesthetics and hobbies. Even though these things would give way in the face of war, it didn't mean that they would erase them.
However, just as my sister and I were curiously observing the small plant inside the shield, I suddenly felt something strange around me. I couldn't help but raise my head to look in the direction of the strange feeling. I instantly exclaimed in surprise, "Oh, Alaya? Did you catch up from behind? "
The white figure walking slowly from the stairs in front of us was none other than my angel sister!
"Alaya?" My sister also raised her head in surprise. But when she looked at the figure seriously, she immediately frowned. "Wait, no! That's just a shadow! "
Only when my older sister reminded me did I notice that this "angel sister" who was slowly walking over was different from the Araya I usually saw. Her body seemed to be translucent, and it was as if she didn't see us at all as she continued walking forward. Although she had the exact same appearance and figure, this figure had an aura that I had never felt from Araya before. That was … a feeling of sorrow and heaviness. I was surprised to see that this figure was the exact same as Araya's!
"Alaya? Or who? " Even though I knew that the figure in front of me was just a shadow of unknown origin, I still tried to speak. I hoped that the other party could communicate with me. But to my disappointment, the other party didn't seem to be able to see the person in front of her. The shadow walked straight ahead, passing through my sister's body and stood in front of the pillar that held the shield. At this moment, I suddenly noticed a detail. In her hand, she was holding a small blue flower that was exactly the same as the one in the shield!
"This is a reappearance of the image from back then," my sister suddenly said in a low voice.
The shadow stood quietly in front of the pillar for a moment. Then, as if she heard a voice behind her, she turned around to look. We could only see a dim blue figure in the direction she was looking at. Then, the white shadow that seemed to be Alaya's old shadow kissed the small flower in her hand lightly. Then, she placed it on the pillar and activated the shield. At this moment, the image on the pillar had completely overlapped with the real body. We could only deduce what she was doing through her actions.
"Stay here in my place. Me, or you. Let's hope that one of us can wake up again."
Alaya's old phantom spoke softly. Even though her voice was so faint that it was almost impossible to hear her clearly, for some reason, I could still hear her clearly — no, this wasn't "hearing," it was that her words directly appeared in my mind! Was it a direct reading of information?
Then, the image completely stopped. It didn't disappear as we expected. On the contrary, Alaya's old shadow stood in front of the pillar, maintaining its final pose. The moment her finger left the small flower, she stopped moving.
"Could it be the memory of this flower?" my sister said softly.
"Perhaps …" I nodded slightly. However, at this moment, the shadow in front of me suddenly began to tremble. Then, it let out a squeaking sound as if the signal was being disrupted. Then, I heard Sandora's voice from behind us. "Ah Jun?! That's great! We are indeed in the same space! We didn't have to wait until we reached the top floor to meet here! "
I turned around in surprise. I saw Sandora standing together with Alaya, who was floating in the air. They were smiling at me from a distance of ten meters away. Slightly behind them was Monina, who had already spread her wings. The three of them were a team.
I immediately greeted them happily, "Hey! Are you guys okay? "
Monina waved from afar. "We're fine, except for your angel sister who wanted to hurry up and got stuck on the stairs a few times because she flew too high."
I chuckled speechlessly. This was a situation that was completely within my expectations.
"Ah Jun, what is this?"
Sandora saw the mysterious shadow that was still next to me and my sister and immediately asked.
"It might be a shadow left behind from the old Empire era. I don't know what it was recorded by." I turned around and pointed at the shadow. "Do you think it's Alaya … Huh?"
I couldn't finish my sentence because the originally clear projection had become blurry at some point in time. Although the brightness hadn't decreased, the face and even the entire figure had been severely distorted. The jagged and rapidly shaking edges made me look like a TV screen whose signal was about to be cut off. How could I still see Alaya's appearance?
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