The special-abilities organization’s sensory equipment was rather advanced; it was probably the pinnacle of what humans could currently do. These people with special abilities that secretly dealt with problems ordinary people couldn’t often interact with things that could not be explained by common science; they naturally had a troop of highly-specialized research personnel. They were tasked with examining and analyzing all the acquired mysterious items. They were experienced and had the best equipment.
However, all this was meaningless.
No matter how high-tech their equipment was, it was also in terms of human technology. In the words of Sandora, this equipment was actually no different from what the primitives had used.
Furthermore, these research personnel in the special-abilities organization were using these crudely formed and constructed tools to pry open a ghost energy core filled with energy that currently did not have any safety mechanism installed!
In the eyes of Sandora, this act was akin to using a thousand-kilogram heavy metal hammer and furiously slamming it on a nuclear core without its protective layer!
Lin Xue’s face became pale white as Sandora immediately stood up. However, she then sat down again.
“It’s already too late…”
Sandora revealed helpless, bitter laughter. After that, we all felt the ground beneath us tremble.
When we headed out, Qianqian and Big Sister were standing in the hotel lobby on the first floor uneasily.
“What’s wrong, Ah Jun?” Qianqian saw us coming as she seemed to have found her backbone as she leaped into my embrace, her face looking extremely worried. “A huge explosion happened just now followed by a vigorous tremor; could it be terrorists?”
I comforted Qianqian by touching her head softly and said in a low voice, “Rest assured; nothing would go wrong. It’s not like you don’t know how powerful I am. Take good care of Big Sister and don’t run around. Lin Xue and I will go and take a look.”
Qianqian nodded. She had blind faith with regard to me, and as long as I promised there wasn’t any danger, that would immediately calm her down.
Just like now.
Qianqian nodded as she pulled Big Sister to her room. Before they left, Big Sister turned and wanted to say something to me. However, Qianqian was quite strong, and before Big Sister managed to say anything, she had been dragged away.
Thanks, Qianqian, at least I don’t have to deal with that now.
The ghost energy core’s explosive impact had been immense. After Pandora had blown away the smoke nearby, a one-kilometer-in-sidiameter huge crevice suddenly appeared in front of our eyes.
A sharp and piercing smell emanated in the air while inside the huge crevice, there was a layer of half-congealed black matter; the sand had been heated and melted, now forming glass. At the bottom of the crevice, we could still vaguely make out red lava flowing.
Sand and dust continued to fall from the skies; they had been blown into the air by that explosion. However, with Pandora’s protective screen, none of these sand and dust touched us; they only blurred our vision slightly.
That buried pyramid and all the special-abilities organization personnel in it had all become part of the melted matter and the piercing smell in the air. This group of people also included one person with special abilities that had accompanied the research team.
No matter how strong a person with special abilities might be; he would not have survived this nuclear explosion-like occurrence.
Lin Xue’s expression was very ugly. She was lamenting the losses and sacrifices of her comrades in the organization; as well as thinking that this tragedy could have been avoided. If she had shown that black crystal to Sandora earlier, she could have stopped her comrades beforehand.
Although this event had been triggered by an object from the Xyrin Empire, Lin Xue could not possibly hate me or Sandora. This Empire did not have any responsibility for this. It was the special-abilities organization who had proactively come in contact with this dangerous thing that they did not totally understand. This object did belong to the Empire, but before today, Sandora and I did not even know such a dangerous thing was present in this world.
It was just like one was curious and went to dismantle a high-voltage transformer and ended up electrocuting himself, becoming crippled for life. He couldn’t possibly ask the owner of the transformer—the government—to compensate him, right?
Not many people had come to these ancient ruins this time. After all, this was not the Taklimakan Desert and was in Egypt’s boundaries. To prevent any political disputes, the special-abilities organization had only sent out a small investigation team that the Egyptian government had approved. Furthermore, as Lin Xue had suspected that the ancient ruins were related to the Xyrin Empire, she had not allocated too many people to the investigation team. As such, only a third of the originally intended size of the special-abilities organization team had entered the ancient ruins; this was the only source of comfort for Lin Xue.
“Something is amiss…”
Sandora—who had kept her eyes shut as if trying to sense something—suddenly spoke. Her eyes opened, and a blue light flashed in them.
“What’s wrong?” I felt strange.
“The impact was too small,” Sandora said as she suddenly disappeared on the spot. The next second, I saw that Sandora had appeared on top of the molten lava inside the crevice.
It seemed that Lin Xue had made a wise move by diverting away everyone that didn’t know about the Xyrin Empire secrets. When Sandora decided to act, she didn’t really care about the consequences at all. If she wanted to fight—even if she summoned a space fleet in front of the entire human race, she would not hesitate; much less small teleportation.
“You Xyrin Apostles really have abilities that make the human race envious.” Lin Xue praised as she sighed.
I gestured. “Don’t include me; besides calling down a strike from the home-star, I am but nothing.”
At this time, Sandora had already finished her investigation. A white light flashed, and she stood in front of us again.
“The impact of the explosion was too small.”
“This is considered small?!” Lin Xue and I exclaimed. Seeing that big and deep hole that seemed to have been the aftermath of a meteorite strike, sweat dripped down my forehead. Calling this small… Sandora, were you trying to have a go at cold humor?
However, Sandora did not look like she was joking at all. She was very serious as she patiently explained, “As I have said, the ghost energy core is rather powerful. It isn’t just because of the huge amount of energy inside its core; the ghost energy is a very special type of energy, and this is related to how planets are formed.”
“The process of planetary formation was very similar to air bubbles in the water. The cosmos was the space within these bubbles while the circumference of these air bubbles is what we call the planetoid protective screen… a defensive layer formed by a combination of time, space, and laws. Outside these air bubbles—the ‘water’ between the ‘air bubbles—is what we call the endless void.
“That is the beginning and the end, where time, space, laws, energy, matter… where all concepts are completely crushed and broken apart and then formed together once more. In the void, near is far, a moment is an eternity, existence means absence, order is chaos; it is extremely peaceful. Things described as ‘turbulence’ have not been produced from the void; it is also extremely crazed and volatile as you cannot describe what order is like in the void.
“In there, only gods can disregard all laws. These are actually super life forms that have been formed entirely from laws and energy… as well as a minority of Xyrin Apostles that can rectify their bodies’ laws can come and go as they pleased.
“Ghost energy is precisely the remnant energy from the void.
“Although it is only a remnant, this energy that originated from all planets is still very terrifying. It possesses all the characteristics of void energy. Within an instant, it can reduce all matter and non-matter into their original energy and then unleash them a hundred—a thousand fold. Even though after we created the ghost energy cores, we had carefully altered and suppressed the energy, a ghost energy core’s explosion shouldn’t just create such a hole here.”
After regurgitating this huge chunk of information, Sandora looked at our terrified looks as she sucked in a deep breath and said, “As a matter of fact, based on my estimates, half the Sahara Desert should have been wiped out.”
Lin Xue and I sucked in cold air at the same time.
I dared to wager that now, Lin Xue wouldn’t even dare to have any designs on ghost energy anymore. No matter how good something might be, nothing was worth more than one’s life. This object’s power was too immense. Perhaps ten nuclear reactors combined would only have the energy of one such small ghost energy core. Now that one ghost energy core had exploded, and only a small one kilometer in diameter ‘small hole’ had been formed; where did the remaining energy go?
“Humans do not have the equipment or technology to absorb ghost energy; even if something could absorb this energy, it would not be able to withstand such a massive release of energy at once,” Sandora supported her chin with her index finger as she thought and continued, “Only something from the Xyrin Empire could have absorbed the huge amount of ghost energy and also without a trace. Furthermore, it must be some device that hadn’t been charged in a very long time and is almost fully drained.”
“Pandora Corps’ devices and equipment are all as-per-normal; I have not received reports about eternal energy supply sources.”
Seeing Sandora’s gaze turn to her, Pandora shook her head and said.
Sandora also shook her head, slightly confused. “My men have not sent me any such news either; this energy couldn’t have just disappeared, right?”
“No!” I suddenly thought of a very serious problem. Something that we had neglected from the start. “There’s one Xyrin device that we haven’t considered! Qianqian! Qianqian still possesses that Ethereal Beacon!”
It was the Ethereal Beacon that had brought me, Lin Xue, and Pandora to the Alternate World that time. After we had returned, Qianqian had kept that device as a souvenir and a protective charm, bringing it with her wherever she went. I had also mocked Qianqian before about her sense of beauty.
None of us had taken this Ethereal Beacon to heart; by right, it was utterly useless. It was so old and to complete one spatial teleportation had stretched its limits. Seeing that Qianqian liked that black object, I hadn’t minded much. However, who knew if it really couldn’t be activated anymore?
Anything from the Xyrin Empire was of top-notch quality!
For the first time in my life, I wished that the Empire also produced defects.
That Ethereal Beacon didn’t belong to the Pandora Corps, and naturally, Pandora did not know its condition. Sandora had also forgotten about this long-lost device years ago; she naturally also couldn’t sense if it had been activated. From the looks of it—if there really was a device that could absorb ghost energy, the only possibility was Qianqian’s Ethereal Beacon.
Just at this time, powerful spatial turbulence traveled from nearby. Besides Lin Xue who couldn’t form a connection with Xyrin devices, all of us immediately knew that an unknown spatial device had been activated!
“Spatial teleportation destination locked-on.” Pandora’s robotic voice swiftly calmed me down. “The Spatial Gemini duo has already rushed to Sister Qianqian and Sister Chen Qing’s side; we will follow suit in five minutes.”
Alright… let’s all transmigrate together.