Relic of the Bygone Days · Archive The flesh monster blocking the door had been completely shredded, and the maiden carrying the coffin lifted her head, gazing at the metal ’file cabinets’ hanging in the air within her field of view. This was the deepest part of the entire archive, also marked on the map as a possible location for top-secret documents related to Transcendent phenomena. The temperature in the archive room was not high, with an extremely faint low-frequency noise echoing in the space, probably from the temperature and humidity control devices operating in the archive room. The maiden turned back, closed the iron door of the archive room, and then placed the coffin on her shoulder behind the iron door to prop it up. Then she turned back and looked carefully at the file cabinets above her head. These file cabinets, tightly packed together like stacked slices of bread turned sideways, hung from the ceiling. The overall height of the file cabinets far exceeded their height from the ground; they were about two meters off the ground, and each stood about six meters tall. Compared to the pattern of cabinet-aisle-cabinet-aisle, this tight arrangement seemed to offer a higher spatial efficiency and appeared easier to access. Each file cabinet had labels showing what kind of materials were stored inside. The maiden’s gaze finally stopped on a cabinet labeled ’Transcendent Research Facility (Top Secret).’ Adjacent to this file cabinet, there seemed to be several others with similar types of documents. She walked under this file cabinet and reached out to press a button on the lower side of the cabinet. With a slight sound of a motor starting, the file cabinet above the maiden’s head slowly slid down. The six-meter-tall cabinet unfolded like a folding ladder, becoming three two-meter-tall file cabinets connected by metal parts, each spaced about the width of a person apart. The maiden quickly walked to the unfolded cabinets, scanning the documents stored inside. These documents were marked with their numbers and the text ’codenames.’ As if to verify something, the maiden casually picked up a document and flipped through it. What met her eyes were only lines that twisted on themselves. She quickly flipped through the entire document; only some descriptive text seemed normal, while the rest were twisted lines. She quickly put that document aside and randomly pulled out a document labeled ’Streamer Plan,’ which looked bizarre. In this document, everything was twisted lines with no readable text whatsoever. The maiden raised her head, scanned over the materials in the entire file cabinet again, and then picked up a document from the very bottom of the cabinet, which had a fairly straightforward codename and seemed not very highly classified. This document had more readable text than the first two, but still not much, and all the readable text had one thing in common—it did not involve any Transcendent information. The maiden backed out, pressed down all the nearby file cabinets labeled ’Top Secret.’ After unfolding, a total of eighteen two-meter-tall file cabinets appeared in front of her. Her figure quickly moved among these file cabinets, her gaze scanning over each document. Among them, many documents bore names like ’Flame’ and ’Lava,’ but she did not pick up any of them. Finally, she stopped before the seventeenth file cabinet, her gaze lingering on a document at the topmost level of the cabinet. The codename of this document was very simple, just ’Starlight.’ That delicate, exquisite palm slowly lifted, touching the document. Soft footsteps echoed in the quiet corridor. The corridor had no stairs but sloped downward. About every thirty to forty meters, there was an approximately 180-degree turn. The entire corridor seemed to slope downward in a continuous "zigzag" pattern. The three of them formed an inverted triangle formation and slowly moved forward, with He Ao at the back. The surrounding walls seemed to have some sort of echo effect, clearly reflecting the footsteps of the three. There was no sign of anyone moving in and out of the corridor, making everything eerily quiet. Bright lights illuminated the figures of the three, and faintly ahead, a new "corner" appeared. This was the third corner they had encountered. The trio slowed down, inching toward the corner. Li Cheng, walking slightly faster, was at the front, slowly peering around the corner into the hallway beyond. He Ao, at the rear, slightly turned his body, glancing behind him using his peripheral vision. The formation of the trio quickly shifted from an inverted triangle to a sandwich formation, with Goya in the middle. In such a corner, this formation could deal with potential threats from both front and back, with Goya in the center ready to support the other two. The three cautiously and quickly moved past the corner. The corridor beyond the corner gradually came into He Ao’s field of view. It was a dense darkness, devoid of any light. The "lines" that formed the corridor seemed to fluctuate at that moment. A sharp sword hum resonated instantly by He Ao’s ear. Without hesitation, he raised his sword above his head and placed the sword on his back, blocking the incoming strike. Feeling the force from within his body, his soul descended instantly, activating "Super Memory." Right at that moment, all the surrounding lights abruptly went out, and the figures of Goya and Li Cheng completely vanished from his view. The gaze of "Super Memory" swept through the surrounding darkness. The figures of the two in front were no longer visible. A slight surprise was relayed from the mark he had placed on the duo. Surprised, but not panicked. It seemed it wasn’t them who had disappeared, but himself. He Ao raised his hand to fend off the attack from behind, spun around with his sword. A blurry shadow, nearly as tall as he was, appeared in his view, wielding a Shadowless Sword similar to the one in his hand. Seeing He Ao turning around, the shadow tried to raise its sword to block, but He Ao easily flicked it aside and then thrust his sword into the body, shattering it. It only had B-level strength, lacking B-level defense, and in fact, its strength was also quite weak. It appeared like a poorly-made copy of He Ao’s current ’Hao Yi’ appearance, elevating its strength to B-level only. Feeling the shadow crumble from his view, He Ao sheathed his Shadowless Sword, looking around. He still seemed to be in some "corridor," and this one also sloped downward. The slightly chaotic thoughts of Li Cheng and Goya flowed into He Ao’s mind through the mark of "Super Memory." It appeared they were preparing to explore further inside. He Ao turned off his Super Memory and looked up into the darkness in his field of view. He seemed to be right in the middle of this "corridor" at the moment. The distorted lines told him that this wasn’t an "illusion," but a real corridor. He carefully recalled the instant darkness he had just experienced. It didn’t seem like the light had momentarily gone out but rather as if his figure had suddenly appeared in the dark. In that very short instant, had his body undergone some kind of "spatial displacement"? He looked at the twisted lines around him. Was the space here unstable? What was this? A Chaos Space maze? Was this the power that a B-level could form? It was possible, but it shouldn’t be this strong. This silent and silent spatial transfer seemed more like an extension of Angel Power. But would an Angel create a fragile B-level Illusion to attack? The attacking Illusion seemed more like an extension of some B-level power. So, in this area, there were at least two Extraordinary Powers, one Angelic Tier and one B-level. These chaotic spaces didn’t seem to be hostile, or perhaps they were limited and couldn’t attack? So the actual enemy with murderous intent that he needed to deal with right now was just that B-level? The opponent seemed to have some ability to utilize this chaotic space. During his thoughts, He Ao looked up and quickly moved down the corridor ahead. He still needed to continue exploring the "structure" of these chaotic spaces, deeper into it, where he might find more clues. Darkness surged around him, and as he moved down, several Black Shadows continually emerged from the night, wielding blades similar to He Ao’s Shadowless Sword to attack him. And then he shattered them in two or three moves. Initially, these Black Shadows were very fast and numerous, but as He Ao shattered more and more of them, the Black Shadows intercepting him along the way began to decrease gradually. By the end, not even a Phantom Shadow sprang from the darkness. He Ao started to feel that this individual had first made a move on him because he sensed that the power inside him was low, trying to pick the seemingly easier target first. At the end of the entire corridor was a tightly closed alloy door. He Ao knocked on the alloy door; the echo behind it wasn’t hollow—it seemed the door was not thin. Then he shifted his gaze, groped around for a bit, and didn’t find a switch to open the door. Immediately, he didn’t hesitate, the blade spun, and the Shadowless Sword stabbed into the metal door, tracing a circle along the door’s seam. Then he slowly exerted force and pushed forward. The sturdy and heavy door suddenly swung open. Scattered starlight accompanied by a crimson flame instantly flooded into He Ao’s field of view. A slight cool breeze brushed He Ao’s cheeks, also passing over the thick smoke. He Ao turned his gaze to the side. A fiery red lava lake, emitting a strong blazing glow, appeared in his field of view. He Ao looked up at the stars overhead. He was at the top of the volcano, he had come out. He turned his head back, looking behind. The originally pitch-black, downward corridor had now turned into a brightly lit corridor sloping upward. At that moment when he pushed open the door, he had crossed through the chaotic "space" and directly arrived here. "Uncle, which way to the viewing platform?" Ahead, near the lava lake rocks, came the sound of a young man asking for directions. He Ao looked up to see a group of backpack-toting young travelers standing next to a skinny middle-aged man, softly asking for directions. "Walk to the left, keep going along the lava lake." The middle-aged man slowly raised his hand and pointed out a path. The young travelers softly thanked him and slowly left along the winding mountain rocks. "If I’m not mistaken, the road on the left is much longer than the one on the right." A slightly awkward remark in First District language came from behind the man. The man turned around, glanced at the young man holding an Invisible Blade behind him, and quietly remarked, "You arrived? Sooner than I imagined." "Are you waiting for me here?" He Ao walked up to his side, looking at the fiery red lava lake in front of him, the dense smoke brushing across his cheeks. "That guy inside there," The middle-aged man murmured softly, "When he encounters a particularly troublesome enemy, he tries to send the opponent directly out from here. The faster you come out, the greater the threat you pose to him, but he only sends out the one he perceives as the most threatening." "I don’t know. We might have interacted while we were still alive, but the him now has changed into a creature that hardly listens much," The middle-aged man picked up a rock from the ground, tossed it into the hot lava lake, turned his head to glance at He Ao, "Your language is different from ours? I have never heard your language before. You are not from the Federation but from some peaceful otherworld?" "In a sense, you could say that." He Ao replied calmly. The middle-aged man chuckled, "My fragmented memory seems to retain some kind of longing for otherworlds. When I was alive, I probably really longed to explore otherworlds." He sighed softly, turning to face He Ao, "Speaking of which, when did you discover me?" "From when you started trailing us at the coffee shop entrance." He Ao calmly replied. "I thought I hid it well," The man chuckled wryly, turning his head to look where the group of travelers had disappeared, softly saying, "I’ve given them directions 389 times, but in fact, no matter what route I suggest, they always take the same path forward and then reappear here three days later, "Whether I am here or not, they will still ask for directions, thank them, and then leave." He turned back to He Ao, "This world is quite boring, isn’t it? The entire world is just a boring illusion, after all. I can’t even leave this Volcano Park three hundred kilometers away, only just watch as things that have already happened keep repeating." "So you guided me to this place?" He Ao tilted his head and asked softly. "I just want to do something interesting," The middle-aged man’s gaze swept over the entire lava lake and seemed to peer through the starry sky beyond the lava lake, seeing the sprawling city in the distance, "For instance, I could tell you what really lies beneath this volcano."