Dimensional Hotel

Chapter 737 - 736: Spatial Phenomenon

Finding the old handsome guy to get some healing pills is actually just one of Yu Sheng's purposes for coming here, but there's another important reason: he's here for the Black Star.After some time of observation, technicians from Boundary Land and Feiyu Star Domain have basically confirmed that this dark celestial body occupying the original position of the Holy Realm Planet has indeed been stably present in the reality universe. In the past, there has been no sign of transfer or dissipation—of course, nor has it responded to any external probing actions.

Yu Sheng and Master Yuan Hao arrived at the viewpoint of the Star-picking Tower, gazing into space at the dark planet through the layer of artificial sky held up by the Five Elements Formation.

An Immortal Boat was slowly passing over the surface of the Black Star, and behind its trajectory floated the low-orbit observation satellites set up by Boundary Land.

"This thing looks quite like an illusion to me," Master Yuan Hao slowly said, shaking his fan, "It has no physical form, no mass, and various detection methods sweep across it only to get a sense of utter 'emptiness,' or filled with some 'virtual matter' that mortals cannot comprehend, observe, or measure."

Erin, leaning against the railing beside Yu Sheng, looked up at the old handsome guy upon hearing this: "Hey, maybe try saying something understandable..."

Master Yuan Hao paused for a moment, but before he could figure out how to phrase it, Hu Li explained for him: "It means there's something inside, but the current detection equipment can't find it, nor does it interact with the real world like normal matter. And because this thing indeed occupies a spherical space, yet no detection method can figure out what it is, it just looks like there's a black hole here to us."

"Oh..." Erin scratched her head, unsure whether she truly understood or was pretending to.

"After confirming the stability of the Black Star, Star Castle sent several probes in," Master Yuan Hao continued, "Just like before, once the probes entered, they disappeared without a trace."

"Tried using a very long rope to pull them back?" Yu Sheng pondered, "The method's a bit crude, but it might work."

"Tried it," the old handsome guy shrugged, "Regular steel cables, optical fibers with communication functions, the Immortal Binding Rope refined by Lying Cloud Ten Halls, I even put in a strip of Wind Chasing and Cloud Capturing Silk... all of them snapped once the probe crossed that smooth mirror-like black outer shell. The break is very smooth and neat, not like being cut by a blade, but more like being severed by the space itself."

"...the probes get 'cut' only after entering, not as soon as anything crosses the sphere and gets 'swallowed'?" Yu Sheng thought it over and asked cautiously, "If you pull a probe back once it's halfway through the sphere, do you get a whole probe or just half?"

"A whole one," Master Yuan Hao nodded, "We've also tested this aspect, and the conclusion is that it triggers a 'break' only about three hundred meters in, after the probe enters the sphere."

What Master Yuan Hao mentioned was obviously a phenomenon only discovered in recent tests, and Yu Sheng showed a thoughtful expression upon hearing it, muttering to himself: "Which means... the Black Star might be layered..."

Before he finished speaking, a familiar voice came from beside him: "That's correct. At least beneath that visibly black spherical shell, there's a buffer layer about three hundred meters thick. Within that three hundred-meter range, the probe loses contact with the outside but can still be physically pulled back. However, once it reaches that three hundred-meter limit, both the probe and the rear traction structure will be swallowed by the Black Star's spherical shell."

Yu Sheng looked up to see a certain blonde elf in a silver-white long dress walking towards him—accompanied by a girl with a cat head, glancing around.

"Hey! Second-hand scientist!" Erin immediately jumped off the railing, happily greeting the person, "You're back from visiting your family!"

Luo stopped halfway when she heard the commotion from the little puppet, her eye twitching: "Can you pick a different nickname?"

"Nope," Erin responded righteously, "Everyone in the travel agency has their own nickname in the community..."

Yu Sheng casually picked up the little thing and put it back on the railing, looking at the golden-haired elf in front of him: "Was everything smooth back home?"

For some reason, his casual, caring question turned into a subtle expression from the other party.

The expression on the golden-haired elf looked as if she had returned home happily only to be mistaken as a criminal gang leader upon arrival, and despite a special reunion permit eventually cleared up the misunderstanding, found that communication was inconvenient back home with outdated news, was constantly asked for ID wherever she went, and had three police inquiries even while having lunch at home. Finally, the local warrant database got updated during her visit, and upon returning to the laboratory, she received a comforting text from a high school teacher saying, "Everyone has their challenges in life, the teacher knows you're not inherently bad, do well on your return." She almost cried reading it, comforted by a cat with treats and canned food in the lab...

Elves with keen perception, Luo immediately gave Yu Sheng a suspicious look.

Yu Sheng returned it with a serene smile.

Luo finally sighed as if giving up.

"It went quite smoothly, but my family was very worried because I hadn't gone back in many years," she said, "When I left, I used the talisman card you gave me to leave a door at my old home, with the other end placed at the Teleportation Hub... I reported this to you."

"Alright—I've also left a door on Luna's side of the old home, so if your family's thinking of coming out for a trip, they can take a stroll in the valley. Consider it an employee benefit," Yu Sheng said, his gaze shifting back to space. "Let's talk about the Black Star, which you just mentioned. There might be about a 300-meter buffer layer beneath the visible spherical shell... The probe won't be damaged at this depth and can also be physically retrieved, right?"

Luo nodded, "That's right, and at this depth, the probe's communication would be interrupted."

"Even though communication is interrupted, is the probe itself still operational? Did it record anything?"

Luo thought for a moment, cautiously choosing her words, "There are indeed some images and environmental parameter records... But the weirdest part is that every time, the recorded content is different."

"Different?" Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"Literally," Luo said as she took out her portable data terminal, projecting the images into the air. "These are the images recorded during the last three probe submergences. You can take a look."

Yu Sheng curiously looked at the holographic projection. The first thing that came into view was a black, incredibly heavy-looking veil-like environment. The light emitted by the probe and its high-sensitivity camera seemed to be ineffective against this darkness. Gradually, some vague contours began to appear in that darkness.

It looked like the silhouette of high, undulating peaks, floating alone in the distance, abruptly cut off as if extracted from an entire mountain range.

Before Yu Sheng could be astonished by seeing a mountain inside the Black Star, the image switched to the second probe's recording. This time, he saw some kind of massive wheel-like structure—a huge ring with regularly spaced sawtooth protrusions on its edge, resembling some kind of... ring-shaped space station.

In the third probe's recorded image, the vague outline resembled a colossal humanoid creature—it merely swept across the image quickly, with the high-sensitivity camera only capturing a blurry phantom.

"These were recorded at the same 'location'."

Luo's voice came in through Yu Sheng's ear.

Yu Sheng turned abruptly, "The same location?"

"Yes, the same location, but at different times. The interval between the submersion of the two most recent probes was only a dozen or so minutes," Luo nodded, "Yet they captured completely different scenes below... To be honest, the fact that they can capture such 'scenes' inside the Black Star is already an astounding phenomenon, and for the content to change so drastically at the same location each time is even more baffling."

As she spoke, she switched the holographic projection, displaying dazzling charts and data in midair: "The visual recordings are only one part of what the probe recorded. Here you have the environmental parameters it captured, as well as numerous perplexing and omnipresent powerful interferences within the Black Star... These parameters also vary each time."

Yu Sheng quietly watched the data and graphics rapidly refreshing in midair—frankly, he didn't understand any of it.

But fortunately, Luo was already used to it. She showed her boss the charts purely as a worker's self-discipline. Preparing these real and accurate data charts instead of just playing a looping GIF was her utmost respect for her affordable boss...

However, Hu Li was watching very seriously beside her. In fact, she didn't quite grasp these overly specialized data either; after all, despite the advanced technology level of her hometown, she herself was only at an elementary school level—but at least she understood the situation Luo described.

"This feels like... every time the probe descends from the same location, it reaches a different place?" The fox girl's big tail swayed thoughtfully.

"Exactly the case now," Master Yuan Hao walked over, "We suspect that the interior of the Black Star is not a simple 'material structure' but a kind of stacked chaos with a complex mapping relationship. The black spherical shell interior has no stable entity and essentially resembles some massive, 'packaged' spatial anomaly within the shell."

"Packaged..." Yu Sheng keenly noticed the old handsome guy used a special term, "That sounds... a bit intentional. You suspect Black Star was also designed by someone?"

"The Black Star formed after the collapse of the Gate of Eden. Since the World Bridge itself was designed by the Dark Angel, why can't Black Star, as a 'subsequent product' of the bridge collapse, also be part of this scheme?"