Yu Sheng tossed around in his mind for a long time, trying to imagine what the customs and practices would be like on the "Thousand Peaks Spiritual Mountain" and the "Taixu Lingshu" planet headed by the Thousand Peaks Spiritual Mountain, as well as how such a force controlled by "immortal cultivators" would operate in the universe outside the border area and deal with other forces. He imagined all this not for any other reason, but purely because of his occupational disease. He felt that there were at least one million to eight hundred thousand words to write here...
Baili Qing couldn't guess what the anthropomorphic entity in front of her was thinking. She just looked at Yu Sheng with some curiosity: "I feel that you care a lot about 'Thousand Peaks Spiritual Mountain'."
"Well, isn't this my first time dealing with this kind of 'outside' power? Moreover, someone gave me such an important clue," Yu Sheng said perfunctorily, "I'm just a little curious, nothing else."
Baili Qing seemed to be hesitant to speak, but just when she was about to say something else, the ringing of a cell phone interrupted her.
After answering the call, Baili Qing had a brief conversation with the person on the other end of the phone, then looked up.
"It just so happens that you are here today. Would you be interested in going to another laboratory with me? There are some things there that I'm sure you will be very interested in."
Yu Sheng blinked: "What is it?"
"The recovery team that returned from outside the city has completed the inspection, and the things they brought back have been transferred to the laboratory in the containment area," Baili Qing said calmly, "The wreckage left after Ankaela fell - now you can go and see it."
Yu Sheng's expression changed slightly in an instant, and then he nodded calmly and seriously.
"Then follow me." Baili Qing said, turning around and walking in the other direction of the corridor.
But she stopped in front of a vending machine after walking a few steps, bought a loaf of bread and handed it to Yu Sheng: "Sorry, just make do with a few bites first, we may not have time to go to the cafeteria to eat slowly."
Yu Sheng was stunned. He didn't expect the other party to consider this matter. Then he took the bread with a smile and said, "Ha, it's not a big problem. I said I wanted to come to your cafeteria mainly to feed Hu Li. I saw her eating in your cafeteria just now and she seemed quite happy."
Irene, who was lying on Yu Sheng's shoulder, muttered casually: "That's right, she is happy to eat anything, as long as there is food..."
Under the guidance of Baili Qing, Yu Sheng went around several "transfer points" in this headquarters building that was like a time and space maze, and then passed through a corridor that always gave people a crooked feeling, before finally arriving at the so-called "containment area".
Or more precisely, one of the hundreds or thousands of containment areas connected to this building.
The headquarters building of the Secret Service is like a towering tree growing in the cosmic transportation hub. Most people, even many Secret Service staff, only know and see the trunk of this tree, while its branches and roots spread everywhere in the complex and chaotic space-time structure of the border. Almost every tiny branch is connected to a different functional area at the end - deep-sea facilities, storage areas, harmless foreign lands, hiding places for alien races, containment areas, customs ports, embassies established by aliens, abandoned sites, dangerous floors...
There are everything you can think of and can’t think of, and Yu Sheng even suspects that even Baili Qing, who has controlled this towering tree for a hundred years, may not be able to accurately tell the direction of each branch and the story behind it.
So when Yu Sheng passed through the last gate and saw a huge cubic building floating in the dark void before him, he was not surprised at all - he was already indifferent to what kind of scenery could appear "inside" this building.
"This is the most secure containment area among the many areas directly connected to the headquarters. Most of its structures are even outside the border of the junction, on the 'other side' that cannot be seen by the naked eye. Its 'shell' is captured by a star and is in a state of equilibrium," Baili Qing said, pointing to the corridor they came from. "This corridor is directly controlled by my mind. Once the things in this cubic 'container' break through the containment, the corridor will be disconnected, and the entire containment facility will instantly fall out of the junction and into the sea of fire of the star on the other side."
Yu Sheng was surprised and a little confused: "Shouldn't this kind of thing be confidential? That's how you told me?"
"You are a friend of the Secret Service," Baili Qing said calmly, "After you solved the threat of the Dark Angels to the border area, the Secret Service has almost no secrets to keep from you, especially the information about the Dark Angels and the containment mechanism - although you may not feel anything now, in future cooperation, sharing this kind of information is very necessary for both of us."
Yu Sheng listened thoughtfully, then looked up at the huge cube floating in the dark space across the suspended bridge. After a long pause, he finally decided to ask a question he had wanted to ask for a long time: "If you say so, there is actually something I have been curious about for a long time - your technical level... what is going on?"
Baili Qing slowed down her pace and looked at Yu Sheng sideways: "You mean that many of the things you see here are inconsistent with the level of technology that can be seen in daily life in Jiecheng, right?"
"Yes," Yu Sheng spread out his hands. "I have seen what Jiecheng looks like. Although it is also a 'modern big city', the things there are just... how should I put it, 'normal'. Cars still rely on wheels to run on the ground, and there is no strong artificial intelligence or anything like that. But look at this place, this connecting bridge, the giant floating space structure, and that thing I saw in the cell where the cultists were imprisoned before, the energy barrier, right? A lot of black technology..."
He paused when he said this and indicated a clear fault with his hand.
"This is such an incongruous situation. The technology must be several generations behind. There must be an explanation, right? Or is it also confidential?"
"I thought you didn't care or noticed because you didn't ask," Baili Qing looked at Yu Sheng silently for a while, shook her head and said, "Actually, there's nothing wrong with explaining. The various facilities you see in this 'building' are not 'black technology'. In fact, they are the real technical level possessed by the Council and the Secret Service. And the 'boundary city' you see... is the 'baseline state' of the border."
"...Baseline state?" Yu Sheng frowned, looking a little confused. "What do you mean?"
"You can think of it as an 'anchor point'," Baili Qing said calmly, "Jiecheng is a society built on 'normality', 'rationality', and 'order', and has 'developed to this day at a low speed and controllable pace' without any interference from the outside world. Based on this, it is designed as a huge 'cognitive stability anchor'. This 'anchor' firmly nails the entire borderland to the L-0 level, and without it... how deep do you think this city can be?"
Yu Sheng: “…What the hell?”
Irene, who was lying on his shoulder, slapped him immediately: "Vulgar!"
"You are usually much more vulgar than me!" Yu Sheng raised his hand to push away the doll's palm, turned his head and looked at Baili Qing with wide eyes, "Wait a minute, you said that the human society in the boundary city is an 'anchor' to ensure that the entire border area is at the L-0 depth. That means that the previous wave of Ankaela..."
"Yes, for us, that was definitely the most terrifying night in history. We have a huge armed force and countless defense lines outside the border to resist possible threats. We have always been very cautious and careful to maintain the boundary city at a safe and smooth pace without external interference to prevent our home from "collapse". However, the Dark Angel unreasonably drilled into the heart of the Council.
"At that time, countless people prepared for the worst. I even considered temporarily exiling Ankaela by 'shattering' part of the border area - fortunately, it was not used in the end.
"In terms of the scope of destruction, Ankaela's arrival may only destroy one of our cities, but in terms of the destructive effect, the city it destroyed is the 'core' of the borderland forces - a unique and irreversible core."
Baili Qing stopped and looked into Yu Sheng's eyes quietly.
"So now you should understand how big a deal you did that day."
Yu Sheng rubbed his forehead.
He originally thought that the information about "Thousand Peaks Spiritual Mountain" was the most informative thing he had come across today, but now it seems that he thought so too early.
The border area is full of talented people and beautiful scenery... How many secrets are hidden in this strange place? !
"Can I ask one more question?" After holding it in for a long time, Yu Sheng finally couldn't help but ask, "How big is the border area?"
From the power currently displayed by the Secret Service, as well as what Li Lin and Xu Jiali occasionally mentioned about the situation "outside", he has realized that the "border area" as a force may be very different from what he imagined.
"If you mean a simple 'geographical concept', then the border is what you currently know: a huge 'boundary city', plus the vast wilderness area outside the boundary city, and the 'border' surrounded by boundary markers. The border is just this big, a 'hub space bubble' in a special space-time structure.
"But if you mean as a 'force', how large the Junction Council's sphere of control is... it's huge."
As Baili Qing spoke, a faint smile appeared on her face.
"Think of the Borderland as an 'egg' floating in the universe. The branches of the Council spread out from this egg and took up a place among the stars. You have actually seen a small part of those branches with your own eyes - those passages to the outside world, those customs facilities, ports, they are all the 'vascular tubes' that transport nutrients between the branches.
"In fact, this is easy to think of. You see, we occupy the largest natural transportation hub in the universe, have the largest trading platform for exotic products, and countless races have established contact stations here. They have established their own trade lines based on the order established by the Council. We have also established equal relations with huge ancient forces such as the Terra Academy and the Algrade Astrology Society...
"Even with so many benefits, the border area can still remain peaceful. Why do you think that is? It can't be because all races in the universe love peace, right?"
Yu Sheng thought about it, and the corner of his mouth trembled: "Okay, that's indeed the truth..."
Baili Qing couldn't guess what the anthropomorphic entity in front of her was thinking. She just looked at Yu Sheng with some curiosity: "I feel that you care a lot about 'Thousand Peaks Spiritual Mountain'."
"Well, isn't this my first time dealing with this kind of 'outside' power? Moreover, someone gave me such an important clue," Yu Sheng said perfunctorily, "I'm just a little curious, nothing else."
Baili Qing seemed to be hesitant to speak, but just when she was about to say something else, the ringing of a cell phone interrupted her.
After answering the call, Baili Qing had a brief conversation with the person on the other end of the phone, then looked up.
"It just so happens that you are here today. Would you be interested in going to another laboratory with me? There are some things there that I'm sure you will be very interested in."
Yu Sheng blinked: "What is it?"
"The recovery team that returned from outside the city has completed the inspection, and the things they brought back have been transferred to the laboratory in the containment area," Baili Qing said calmly, "The wreckage left after Ankaela fell - now you can go and see it."
Yu Sheng's expression changed slightly in an instant, and then he nodded calmly and seriously.
"Then follow me." Baili Qing said, turning around and walking in the other direction of the corridor.
But she stopped in front of a vending machine after walking a few steps, bought a loaf of bread and handed it to Yu Sheng: "Sorry, just make do with a few bites first, we may not have time to go to the cafeteria to eat slowly."
Yu Sheng was stunned. He didn't expect the other party to consider this matter. Then he took the bread with a smile and said, "Ha, it's not a big problem. I said I wanted to come to your cafeteria mainly to feed Hu Li. I saw her eating in your cafeteria just now and she seemed quite happy."
Irene, who was lying on Yu Sheng's shoulder, muttered casually: "That's right, she is happy to eat anything, as long as there is food..."
Under the guidance of Baili Qing, Yu Sheng went around several "transfer points" in this headquarters building that was like a time and space maze, and then passed through a corridor that always gave people a crooked feeling, before finally arriving at the so-called "containment area".
Or more precisely, one of the hundreds or thousands of containment areas connected to this building.
The headquarters building of the Secret Service is like a towering tree growing in the cosmic transportation hub. Most people, even many Secret Service staff, only know and see the trunk of this tree, while its branches and roots spread everywhere in the complex and chaotic space-time structure of the border. Almost every tiny branch is connected to a different functional area at the end - deep-sea facilities, storage areas, harmless foreign lands, hiding places for alien races, containment areas, customs ports, embassies established by aliens, abandoned sites, dangerous floors...
There are everything you can think of and can’t think of, and Yu Sheng even suspects that even Baili Qing, who has controlled this towering tree for a hundred years, may not be able to accurately tell the direction of each branch and the story behind it.
So when Yu Sheng passed through the last gate and saw a huge cubic building floating in the dark void before him, he was not surprised at all - he was already indifferent to what kind of scenery could appear "inside" this building.
"This is the most secure containment area among the many areas directly connected to the headquarters. Most of its structures are even outside the border of the junction, on the 'other side' that cannot be seen by the naked eye. Its 'shell' is captured by a star and is in a state of equilibrium," Baili Qing said, pointing to the corridor they came from. "This corridor is directly controlled by my mind. Once the things in this cubic 'container' break through the containment, the corridor will be disconnected, and the entire containment facility will instantly fall out of the junction and into the sea of fire of the star on the other side."
Yu Sheng was surprised and a little confused: "Shouldn't this kind of thing be confidential? That's how you told me?"
"You are a friend of the Secret Service," Baili Qing said calmly, "After you solved the threat of the Dark Angels to the border area, the Secret Service has almost no secrets to keep from you, especially the information about the Dark Angels and the containment mechanism - although you may not feel anything now, in future cooperation, sharing this kind of information is very necessary for both of us."
Yu Sheng listened thoughtfully, then looked up at the huge cube floating in the dark space across the suspended bridge. After a long pause, he finally decided to ask a question he had wanted to ask for a long time: "If you say so, there is actually something I have been curious about for a long time - your technical level... what is going on?"
Baili Qing slowed down her pace and looked at Yu Sheng sideways: "You mean that many of the things you see here are inconsistent with the level of technology that can be seen in daily life in Jiecheng, right?"
"Yes," Yu Sheng spread out his hands. "I have seen what Jiecheng looks like. Although it is also a 'modern big city', the things there are just... how should I put it, 'normal'. Cars still rely on wheels to run on the ground, and there is no strong artificial intelligence or anything like that. But look at this place, this connecting bridge, the giant floating space structure, and that thing I saw in the cell where the cultists were imprisoned before, the energy barrier, right? A lot of black technology..."
He paused when he said this and indicated a clear fault with his hand.
"This is such an incongruous situation. The technology must be several generations behind. There must be an explanation, right? Or is it also confidential?"
"I thought you didn't care or noticed because you didn't ask," Baili Qing looked at Yu Sheng silently for a while, shook her head and said, "Actually, there's nothing wrong with explaining. The various facilities you see in this 'building' are not 'black technology'. In fact, they are the real technical level possessed by the Council and the Secret Service. And the 'boundary city' you see... is the 'baseline state' of the border."
"...Baseline state?" Yu Sheng frowned, looking a little confused. "What do you mean?"
"You can think of it as an 'anchor point'," Baili Qing said calmly, "Jiecheng is a society built on 'normality', 'rationality', and 'order', and has 'developed to this day at a low speed and controllable pace' without any interference from the outside world. Based on this, it is designed as a huge 'cognitive stability anchor'. This 'anchor' firmly nails the entire borderland to the L-0 level, and without it... how deep do you think this city can be?"
Yu Sheng: “…What the hell?”
Irene, who was lying on his shoulder, slapped him immediately: "Vulgar!"
"You are usually much more vulgar than me!" Yu Sheng raised his hand to push away the doll's palm, turned his head and looked at Baili Qing with wide eyes, "Wait a minute, you said that the human society in the boundary city is an 'anchor' to ensure that the entire border area is at the L-0 depth. That means that the previous wave of Ankaela..."
"Yes, for us, that was definitely the most terrifying night in history. We have a huge armed force and countless defense lines outside the border to resist possible threats. We have always been very cautious and careful to maintain the boundary city at a safe and smooth pace without external interference to prevent our home from "collapse". However, the Dark Angel unreasonably drilled into the heart of the Council.
"At that time, countless people prepared for the worst. I even considered temporarily exiling Ankaela by 'shattering' part of the border area - fortunately, it was not used in the end.
"In terms of the scope of destruction, Ankaela's arrival may only destroy one of our cities, but in terms of the destructive effect, the city it destroyed is the 'core' of the borderland forces - a unique and irreversible core."
Baili Qing stopped and looked into Yu Sheng's eyes quietly.
"So now you should understand how big a deal you did that day."
Yu Sheng rubbed his forehead.
He originally thought that the information about "Thousand Peaks Spiritual Mountain" was the most informative thing he had come across today, but now it seems that he thought so too early.
The border area is full of talented people and beautiful scenery... How many secrets are hidden in this strange place? !
"Can I ask one more question?" After holding it in for a long time, Yu Sheng finally couldn't help but ask, "How big is the border area?"
From the power currently displayed by the Secret Service, as well as what Li Lin and Xu Jiali occasionally mentioned about the situation "outside", he has realized that the "border area" as a force may be very different from what he imagined.
"If you mean a simple 'geographical concept', then the border is what you currently know: a huge 'boundary city', plus the vast wilderness area outside the boundary city, and the 'border' surrounded by boundary markers. The border is just this big, a 'hub space bubble' in a special space-time structure.
"But if you mean as a 'force', how large the Junction Council's sphere of control is... it's huge."
As Baili Qing spoke, a faint smile appeared on her face.
"Think of the Borderland as an 'egg' floating in the universe. The branches of the Council spread out from this egg and took up a place among the stars. You have actually seen a small part of those branches with your own eyes - those passages to the outside world, those customs facilities, ports, they are all the 'vascular tubes' that transport nutrients between the branches.
"In fact, this is easy to think of. You see, we occupy the largest natural transportation hub in the universe, have the largest trading platform for exotic products, and countless races have established contact stations here. They have established their own trade lines based on the order established by the Council. We have also established equal relations with huge ancient forces such as the Terra Academy and the Algrade Astrology Society...
"Even with so many benefits, the border area can still remain peaceful. Why do you think that is? It can't be because all races in the universe love peace, right?"
Yu Sheng thought about it, and the corner of his mouth trembled: "Okay, that's indeed the truth..."
