As Yu Sheng walked forward, he suddenly felt a strange sensation—as if the entire world was reduced to nothing but the corridor before him and the dark red light at its end.

Black Forest, orphanage, Boundary City... everything seemed to have faded away, becoming objects of another world, while this "world" before him had already crumbled into ruins.

The sound of his footsteps echoed in the corridor, and the cry of babies came from ahead. Gradually, Yu Sheng no longer found the crying bothersome, as if he had become accustomed to it.

Hu Li followed beside him, holding Erin in her arms, who in turn held a squirrel. They passed through the red-lighted end of the corridor and entered the final door deep within the Anka Aela.

"Umbilical Cord" Connection Chamber.

A special and peculiar "chamber" appeared before Yu Sheng's eyes—though calling it a "chamber," it seemed more like a midsection inspection structure of a large vertical shaft. As described by the "Hunter," the ground was a circular platform stretching upward into the dimness above, populated by a massive silver-white structure of two main conduits and numerous auxiliary cables and bundles hanging down from the darkness, passing through the hollow center of the circular ground, and extending downward.

Yu Sheng carefully walked toward the edge of the hollow center of the circular ground, looking at the "umbilical cord" before him.

"This thing looks like a material transport conduit? And there are so many cables..." Erin craned her neck from Hu Li's arms, staring curiously at the thing before them, "Is this the 'umbilical cord' of the Dark Angel?"

Yu Sheng did not speak; he just held the railing at the edge of the hollow carefully, peering down.

The "umbilical cord" extended downward, and the depth below the hollow seemed immeasurable, leaving the underlying structure indistinguishable. Only a hint of faint shadow could be seen in the darkness, where what appeared to be a semi-translucent dome with a glimmering interior lay.

Yu Sheng's gaze fell upon a certain section of the umbilical cord as it stretched downward, his vision narrowing on it.

A part of the "connection bundle" in the middle was visibly damaged, though it was unclear by what force—the main conduit was directly missing a section, and there were smooth and abrupt "cuts" around the auxiliary cables, giving the impression as if some invisible "void" had devoured that part.

Hu Li, with her sharp eyes, quickly noticed the umbilical cord's state and immediately tugged on Yu Sheng's sleeve, "Savior! Over there, the conduit's broken—could this be why Anka Aela has been searching for its 'umbilical cord'?"

"Most likely." Yu Sheng said with a frown, and the moment after he spoke, a faint dizziness surged in his mind again.

His vision blurred, and he saw the circular ground beneath his feet turn into a layer coated with dark red viscous matter, resembling a "bone layer." The surrounding chamber walls transformed into blood-flesh structures akin to the inner walls of organs, while the "connection bundle" running through the chamber became thickened blood vessels and nerves, spasming slightly in the air as if in pain, where a strange structure resembling a "hand" suddenly protruded from the broken part at the hollow's edge!

Yu Sheng gasped, but the scene before him quickly returned to normal.

Erin and the squirrel both exclaimed in surprise, while the tail behind Hu Li flared open with a "bang."

"Holy crap..." The little puppet looked alarmed, "That scared me just now!"

Yu Sheng, however, still frowned deeply. Just as that "illusion" resurfaced for a brief moment, he seemed to hear something—a voice whispering to him, telling him something... Was it Anka Aela? Or the "child" gestating in the darkness below the umbilical cord?

He hesitated, then leaned forward, extending his hand toward the silver-white "connection bundle."

"Savior, be careful!" Hu Li hurriedly cautioned.

"It's okay, I can feel it, this thing isn't a threat to me," Yu Sheng reassured, placing his hand on the surface of the "umbilical cord," "The one that's truly afraid isn't us, it's..."

He didn't finish his sentence.

A powerful sense of weightlessness abruptly interrupted all he wanted to say—the circular platform in the center of the chamber collapsed.

Yu Sheng only had time for a quick curse before falling along with the collapsed floor and the broken railings. He heard Erin and Hu Li's cries from above, the wind whistling past his ears. In the corner of his vision, he saw the squirrel also leaping down after him.

Yu Sheng plummeted endlessly through the darkness, his mind reeling.

The squirrel wouldn't be hurt, right? She just jumped after them, so reckless...

She should be fine, Hu Li can fly...

The next second, he felt himself collide with something—the "umbilical cord."

Once again, he touched the "umbilical cord," touching its broken part.

"...We left our homeland long, long ago... My memories begin when the creators ignited the engine."

A calm, low, seemingly emotionless voice abruptly entered Yu Sheng's mind, interrupting all his chaotic thoughts.

All the colors around him suddenly vanished.

A monochrome world descended. Yu Sheng, eyes widened in astonishment, found himself floating in a gray, foggy conduit, with no top in sight, and no bottom. In the hazy depth surrounding him, faint images like memories emerged, coming into his view.

The massive ark lit up its engines, slowly accelerating as it emerged from a space megastructure of nearly artificial star-like scale.

The megastructure floated in the endless cosmic space, with a backdrop of violently burning and shaking stars.

A frightening rift seemed to split the entire Universe, cutting through the entire starry sky from the depths of darkness.

All the scenes were colorless, just like the world seen in Dead Communication, everything was composed of monotonous black, white, and gray. But somehow, Yu Sheng saw a glaring red from that terrifying rift—as if that red color could transcend time and space, crossing the boundary between life and death, directly reflecting itself in the essence of information.

In the next second, he saw the ark that had emerged from the space megastructure become a light dot among the stars, continuously accelerating amidst the gradually disintegrating stars.

It was not just one light dot.

There were thousands and thousands of light dots just like it, continuously accelerating under the same stars, fleeing in all directions.

"We are 'Anka Aela', a name given to us by the creators, but in your language, this pronunciation can be directly translated as 'ark'."

The low, slow voice seemed to resound directly in his mind and continued calmly.

"Thirteen thousand five hundred 'Anka Aela' set sail simultaneously.

"We carry the 'seeds' from the mother planet, searching for a place where we can sow them.

"This is the mission given to us by the creators."

Yu Sheng opened his eyes wide, watching those light dots among the stars entering jump state one after another—yet even exceeding the speed of light, they could not surpass the rift splitting the Universe.

The light dots extinguished in patches, in just a few breaths, tens of thousands of arks became the residual heat after the extinction of all things.

What happened afterward was a bit beyond his comprehension.

He saw those remaining light dots seeming to collide with an invisible barrier, saw them suddenly disintegrate during flight, turning into scattered glows without being attacked.

He saw some light dots eerily "return" to the moment they set off, then blankly stay in the starry sky until being silently swallowed by that rift slicing through the Universe.

He saw a light dot—possibly the last one, continuously leaping through chaotic and frenzied light and shadow, like a bird caught in a storm, being thrown far, far away by the surging waves and then landing in a void.

He saw it start to fall, beginning to change from the inside out. At one moment it grew flesh and blood, but in the next moment it turned into a mass of formless shadow. Suddenly torn apart by an invisible force into countless fragments, each fragment was a complete, miniaturized 'Anka Aela', but in the blink of an eye, countless fragments fused back together to form a cold light.

It went through countless transformations, completely becoming an incomprehensible existence, like... a glitch in a system.

At one moment, it learned to think, a chaotic, confused thought.

Yu Sheng conversed with it.

He confronted its mind.

In the surrounding faded mist, new scenes suddenly emerged. Yu Sheng felt himself drifting downwards, then walked forward.

The mist faded away, and he saw the thing in the depths of the mist.

A mass... an indistinguishable and indescribable "mass", quietly curled up on a pale fetal bed, seeming to be a mixture of many strange hands, feet, claws, fangs, wings, and tails, with countless other bizarre features. Its form was as if every creature in the entire ecosystem had been forcibly fused into one body, resulting in such a creation at the boundaries of imagination and reason.

And above this "Angel's Embryo", there floated a broken umbilical cord—extending from the body of that "fetal entity", floating upward in the grayish-white mist.

"...This is my child, isn't ta adorable?"

The calm, low voice gently said.

Yu Sheng did not answer, still quietly standing in front of the massive flesh mound.

How could he respond? How should he respond?

It was dead.

Perhaps from the moment it was first conceived, it was already dead.

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