Baili Qing raised her gaze, looking towards the direction from where the ancient voice came. Amidst countless towering bookshelves surrounding them, a broken stone platform floated among various large and small stone slabs. The shape of the platform resembled an altar, with edges covered in reliefs and time-worn cracks. A gigantic, clearly non-human crystal skull was placed at the center of the platform. The skull was entirely translucent, with a long and narrow face, sunken eye sockets, and jagged teeth, resembling features of a large reptile—it lay quietly on the platform, with its size comparable to that of an adult human. A faint glow flickered in the eye sockets of the crystal skull. As Baili Qing approached, the glow brightened slightly, and a hoarse voice emanated from the skull cavity: "Tell me, what do you wish to know today?" "Still about the 'Classical Era,' concerning the World Bridge, Dark Star, and the descending Alien God, named 'Omen,'" Baili Qing calmly gazed into the eye sockets of the crystal skull and said. "... Don't say I didn't warn you, extracting information from the 'Deep Layer' is risky and rarely fruitful," the glow flickered in the eye sockets of the crystal skull, "there's nothing new to find after repeated searches, O colorless descendant—this is a dead library, everything that should be here, is already here, and what isn't here, won't be found again." "I brought a more effective 'medium' this time," Baili Qing raised a finger to her head, "perhaps it can 'draw out' something deeper." The crystal skull was silent for a moment: "... Show." Baili Qing gave a slight nod and then half-closed her eyes. A misty fog enveloped her before she knew it, within which flashed a pair of faded, enormous eyes, followed by illusions that appeared in the fog—the sanatorium in the woods, the principal's office in a 'soaked' state, the principal struck down by a shattered aquarium, and the attacker monster with a swollen, distorted head holding a dagger... Scenes flashed rapidly in the mist, records from Baili Qing's perspective intertwined with scenes the principal had once shown her in bubbles. After several seconds, the record reached the moment when the attacker was about to hide and leave the principal's office. The illusions in the mist froze at this scene, then the main perspective began to slowly shift toward the attacker—the scene appeared as if moving within a paused holographic scenario, Baili Qing's 'perspective' finally locked onto the attacker's swollen, distorted brain, then the scene flashed, and her perspective abruptly plunged into the pair of eyeballs embedded on the brain's surface... Then, the illusions in the mist flickered again, and the depths of the mist revealed the scene in the mortuary of Jinglin Sanatorium, where 'Sun Chen's' headless corpse lay quietly within a containment container, Baili Qing gazed at the corpse, in her view, 'Sun Chen's' shell seemed to reverse time, its skull rapidly reformed, then slowly opened its eyelids, blank pupils reflecting Baili Qing's faded eyes... The victim who died from the gunshot, the attacker born out of distortion... Regardless of which 'Sun Chen,' they both had operated within Jinglin Sanatorium, leaving traces of their existence within specific temporal and spatial boundaries. Having left traces, they couldn't evade the gaze of the Special Service Director. All illusions gradually faded, leaving only a broken tower floating in darkness in the mist—a scene particularly profound in the memories of both 'Sun Chen.' Though merely an illusion, it was a 'medium' Baili Qing directly extracted from Sun Chen's memory. The destabilized knowledge within, albeit scarce, remained vibrant and restless. Even under the suppressive environment of the Archives, the phantom of the broken tower pulsated and throbbed as though it possessed life, akin to a beating heart. The glow in the crystal skull's eye sockets flickered intensely. "O colorless descendant..." its voice was low, pausing for two seconds before continuing, "always so reckless, it'll be your undoing." Baili Qing sighed: "Because I'm busy to death." The mist dissipated, and the crystal skull atop the stone platform also let out a sigh: "Go ahead, thirty minutes, whatever you can 'salvage' depends solely on your skills—remember the guidelines, don't be tempted by knowledge, don't listen carelessly, only focus on what you want, only take what is agreed upon, and aside from that, all those things that reach out to you begging to be taken out... do not heed them." Baili Qing nodded gently, then stepped forward and placed her hand on the surface of the crystal skull. In the next moment, the entire broken library began to silently tremble, the enormous pure white bookshelves surrounding the stone platform wobbled, cracked, countless white fragments and scrolls rained down like a downpour from the collapsed heavens, completely covering Baili Qing and the stone platform beneath her. Baili Qing lifted her head, neither dodging nor hiding, letting herself be submerged layer by layer by the fragmented and chaotic remnants of history from the Boundary Land... In the restricted area, a phantom door suddenly appeared near the 'node' set by the Special Service Bureau, the door opened, and Yu Sheng and Little Red Riding Hood returned to the 'Dark Alley' entrance in East City Qinghe District. This time, not only did he bring the King, who excelled at dealing with 'cats,' but also several more people. Hu Li, Luna, Erin, and most importantly—the nephew. The sky was darkening, the evening breeze cool, the area near the node deserted, and any occasional passersby from distant intersections wouldn't glance in this direction. Zheng Zhi instinctively shivered in this somewhat chilly and somber environment, rubbed his arms, and looked around. ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝~𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖~𝕟𝕖𝕥 "Brother Yu, why do I feel a bit cold..." "It's normal as autumn approaches," Yu Sheng answered without looking up, "getting colder these days." Zheng Zhi paused: "Brother Yu, why do your words sound familiar to me..." "Hey, don't be so nervous," Little Red Riding Hood stepped forward and patted Zheng Zhi's shoulder, "we have so many people with us this time, and didn't Yu Sheng give you a 'portable No. 66 Wutong Road' card beforehand? So even if you really end up alone in an Alternate Dimension, you can use it to run back—relax, relax." "Well... I'll relax," Zheng Zhi's expression was subtle, but having ventured through several Exotic Realm crises before (don't ask how the Exotic Realm crises came about), he quickly adjusted his mindset, stabilizing his emotions while muttering, "but then again, is this really reliable—my physique is somewhat special, but I still feel is a matter of luck, how could it be every time..." Before Zheng Zhi could finish speaking, the King jumped directly onto his shoulder: "Young man, this just shows your lack of experience—having team members with high spiritual vision pave the way is very natural in our profession as Spirit Realm detectives and investigators." Zheng Zhi was dumbfounded: "…Do you really do things in your line of work?" Little Red Riding Hood: "In civilian circles, it's wild. It's normal you wouldn't know, since you entered directly into the Special Service Bureau." Yu Sheng watched as a perfectly genuine young man was about to be misled, so he quickly coughed twice to interrupt them, then pointed toward the entrance of the Dark Alley not far away: "Let's drop it for now, it's about time, let's start preparing." While talking, they arrived at the narrow entrance between two buildings. Zheng Zhi stuck his head out to take a look inside, murmuring: "It's pretty narrow, it's gonna be tight for three people to go through together…" "That's why we'll go in phases. Both of us will take Erin and the King in first—they don't take up space and can sit on our shoulders," Yu Sheng said casually, "Then Little Red Riding Hood, Luna, and Hu Li will follow." Zheng Zhi nodded repeatedly: "Oh, oh." "Alright, now let's begin the 'enchantment' preparations before entering," Erin, sitting on Yu Sheng's shoulder, raised her hand, pointing at Zheng Zhi, "Stretch your arm out." "…Enchantment?" Zheng Zhi was a bit puzzled but still instinctively raised his arm, "What are we doing?" The next second, a thin black thread appeared out of thin air, bringing a bone-chilling coldness as it directly entwined his hand, even penetrating his skin and muscles, digging into his body. Zheng Zhi shouted, "Oh my God," almost jumping up on the spot, then started rubbing his arm vigorously. "Of course, it's to strengthen your connection with 'that thing,'" the little puppet said proudly while retracting its hand, "And it leaves a 'connection point' on you, just in case you're really caught by something, I can pull you back in time." "Hiss…" Zheng Zhi grimaced while rubbing his arm forcefully, reacting with a twitch of his mouth upon hearing the puppet's words, nearly gritting his teeth, "Well, thanks a lot." Erin: "You're welcome! By the way, do you have a girlfriend?" Zheng Zhi looked puzzled: "No… Why are you asking?" "If you do have one, call her now and tell her you're going on a business trip, and when you return, you'll marry her—to further increase the likelihood of things going wrong," Erin said righteously, "That's how it goes in the TV shows I've seen; of course, if you don't, forget it…" Zheng Zhi was stunned, turned to look at Yu Sheng: "Brother Yu, what did I do wrong…" "She's not targeting you specifically," Yu Sheng sighed, "She just has a mouth that's been blessed." Erin thought for a moment and started yanking Yu Sheng's hair: "Was that a compliment?" Yu Sheng sighed again, ignoring the small paws messing around on his head, and turned to the wall leading to the Dark Alley. Having done the preparation work and understood the mechanism of the Dark Alley ahead of time, Zheng Zhi adjusted his state quickly and joined him in front of the wall. In the dim twilight, the surroundings became increasingly silent. Time ticked by second by second. After a considerable time, Zheng Zhi finally couldn't hold back and looked up beside him: "Brother Yu, I don't feel any wind coming from the other side?" Yu Sheng finally noticed something was off, looked up, then turned and asked Little Red Riding Hood: "…Why isn't there any response?" What he saw was the same puzzled expression on Little Red Riding Hood's face. The fox girl next to Little Red Riding Hood tilted her head: "Is the 'Dark Alley' not opening today?" "Never heard of the Exotic Realm shutting down," Little Red Riding Hood said promptly, "Maybe the timing was off earlier; you should step out and try re-entering. There are occasional failures…" So Yu Sheng and Zheng Zhi tried again. The entrance to the Dark Alley still didn't open; the wall remained lifeless, with no breeze blowing through. Unconvinced, Yu Sheng tried again, watching the mottled old wall intently. This time, the Exotic Realm's entrance finally reacted— The wall… shifted half an inch back right before his eyes.