After seeing the unfamiliar starry sky outside the porthole, everyone in the control room fell into an eerie and uneasy silence.

A member of the Hermitage, in slightly better condition, climbed up from his position and staggered towards the tall, thin old man in white robes. His steps were difficult, not just because of the impact caused by the "Order Pillar" withdrawing from the jump, but also because the gravity system of the entire "Tower" had malfunctioned, causing the direction of gravity in the hall to become chaotic.

"Sage, where are we now?"

The old man in white robes, referred to as "Sage," had a somber expression, one hand tightly gripping the armrest of his seat. It was only after a long while that he spoke in a deep voice: "...The jump process was disrupted. Navigator, report the situation."

"Y-Yes!" another Hermitage member hurriedly replied, "Our pre-set jump point should have been at the gravitational collapse point near the 'Bright River Nebula,' a very recognizable bright dust cluster, but now it's nowhere in sight within the visible range of all external monitors. Comparing the star map... the entire navigation system is offline, and manual comparison will take a long time."

"First confirm the damage status of the Order Pillar, check for leaks in the inner shell, and then find a way to repair the subsystems," the Sage instructed, "Prioritize repairing navigation and engines, figure out where we are—and then there's this damned gravity system!"

"Y-Yes!"

The Sage took a slow breath, calming his voice down again: "What's the status of the spatial calibrator and the 'Holy Coffin' room?"

"We just made contact with the core compartment. The spatial calibrator is undamaged, the Holy Coffin room has some damage, but the 'Saintess' hasn't been affected and is still recovering."

The Sage lowered his eyelids, keeping those around him from seeing his eyes. He tapped the armrest irritably with his fingers and muttered to himself in a voice too low for others to hear: "...That failure..."

After an unbearably tense moment, he looked up, his voice steely: "Speed up the repairs, get the 'Artificial Saintess' out of that iron coffin as soon as possible."

"But, but the Saintess was severely damaged this time, especially the Mind Barrier. Forcibly stimulating it could cause problems in the future..."

"As long as she doesn't melt down today, future problems can be dealt with in the future," the Sage immediately interrupted his subordinate, "I need her back in combat position immediately... I have a very bad feeling that our troubles aren't over yet."

"Yes!"

The Sage nodded, his expression finally less tense.

A Hermitage member next to him, seeing this, finally dared to speak up: "Sage, what do you think attacked us? Could it be some kind of Special Service Bureau's jump interference technology?"

The Sage slowly shook his head: "The Order Pillar carries the most powerful Phase Engine and core defense system. To interfere with it, it would require a large, fixed disruptor set up near a Star Gate or fortress facility. The Special Service Bureau only recently learned of the 'Deep Layer Boundary City' existence. They wouldn't have time, nor reason, to build such a thing there."

He then fell silent for a few seconds before slowly speaking: "In the combat data sent back by the Artificial Saintess, those suspicious individuals who broke into the fog... all started losing control after they appeared, and the collapse of the stealth barrier was also because of them. But the key is, who exactly are those people, and how did they do it..."

He suddenly stopped, raising his head to stare blankly at the porthole.

A look of unprecedented shock and even horror appeared on the old man's face as he widened his eyes, staring firmly in that direction as if witnessing the most absurd, bizarre, and terrifying scene in the world.

Immediately, one gaze after another also turned in the same direction as the Sage.

One person, one of the "they" the Sage had just mentioned, was lying on the porthole, surveying the members of the Hermitage in the hall.

He was wearing an entirely ordinary, even street-market-looking casual jacket, with one arm holding a fluffy thing like a tail. He was exposed unprotected in the cosmic space, watching everyone in the hall like a curious observer.

Then, he realized he had been noticed, saw the terrified faces in the Control Hall, and this "humanoid creature" smiled—a pleasant and sunny smile. He just smiled like that and raised a hand to make a "yeah" gesture to the members of the Hermitage.

Cries of terror filled the Control Hall, followed by the angry reprimands of the "Sage" and several leaders trying to maintain order.

"Quiet! Everyone calm down! Dispatch the Knight, take care of that monster!" the old man in white robes shouted loudly.

The figure outside the porthole began to climb sideways, gripping the protrusions on the Tower's outer shell.

"He's moving!" someone in the hall exclaimed again, "He's headed towards the radar array!"

"External monitors, switch the external monitors' footage over... Damn, more than half of the external monitors were destroyed in the earlier impact! That area is a monitoring blind spot!"

"Send out the drone for cleaning the hull, they have cameras too!"

"The 'Knight' has entered the passage, undocking in three minutes!"

The hall was in chaotic turmoil, as after just experiencing a deadly crisis, the entire "Order Pillar" had drifted into dangerous uncharted territory. A "person" lying outside the porthole staring at everyone seemed to be the last straw that broke the sanity of many, while others, despite their fear, struggled to maintain order and wanted to deal with the being that looked human but couldn't possibly be one.

The "Sage" sat in the middle of the crowd, saying nothing, merely looking with a livid expression towards the now empty porthole direction.

The "person" has completely moved to a spot where he can't be seen from this side anymore—in the blind spot of the "Order Pillar" shell's field of view. What is he doing there? What is he planning? How did he "follow" us after the Tower's failure to transition? Who exactly is he? What exactly is he...?

Yu Sheng crawled cautiously along the shell of this peculiar ancient Tower, still holding Hu Li's big tail with one arm.

This reminded him of Erin crawling in the shadows of various corners at home—like under the table, under the coffee table, under the couch. The little puppet was always scuttling around those places.

But he felt he was different from Erin. The little puppet crawled in the shadows; he was doing it healthily and moderately in the sunshine.

Even the purpose of his crawling was positive energy—he wanted to find an entrance to sneak in and bring surprise and joy to the cultists hidden inside this "Flying Tower."

If not joy, that's fine; at least he was having fun now.

He stopped on a relatively flat part of the shell to take a short break and then looked up at the dark, boundless space and the beautiful stars quietly adorning the darkness.

"So beautiful..."

Yu Sheng muttered in his mind.

He couldn't speak the words out loud because he couldn't breathe here.

At first, this was very unaccustomed for him, and he was mentally prepared to stare blankly with Erin and the others after half an hour—after all, he thought he wouldn't make it since opening his eyes in outer space.

But after a while, Yu Sheng discovered that breathing wasn't essential for him.

It was just a clinical feature attached to the state of "being alive."

At least that's how he understood it.

Looking at the vast universe deep space in front of him, Yu Sheng felt that his mind seemed to be expanded by this boundless space.

It's said that some skilled cultivators over at Qianfeng Ling Mountain could also survive in space. He wondered how they managed it... Did they also "optimize" breathing away?

He wondered if Erin could also move around in space like this, considering she seemed not to have heart or lungs.

What about Hu Li? She's pretty skilled... She probably could do it?

Yu Sheng thought randomly like this, but then his thoughts were interrupted by a sudden voice in his mind: "Hey, Yu Sheng! Yu Sheng, are you still alive? Are you dead? Do you need to come back to die?"

With such an annoying tone, it was definitely Erin.

"Still alive, just floating in space," Yu Sheng responded irritably, "Let me tell you, this Tower set up by the cultists... it's actually a damn spaceship, you know? But when this thing started teleporting, I 'fiddled' with it a bit, now it seems I've broken it, and it's drifting around... I'm hanging on its shell, trying to find a place to sneak in, but haven't found a suitable spot."

There was no response from Erin's side for several seconds, seemingly shocked.

Then she exclaimed: "Oh my gosh! How is that possible?"

"I'm pretty surprised too," Yu Sheng replied mentally, "By the way, let the fox know, her tail hasn't moved since it got here, don't know if I've broken it."

After a while, Erin responded: "I told her, and she said it's just the distance is too far, lost connection, and the tail is useless after disconnecting. You can toss it somewhere or toss it home through a door, and she'll make you a tail warmer later..."

Yu Sheng thought about it, opened a door leading to No. 66 Wutong Road beside him, and threw the tail inside.

"I threw it back home—how's the situation on your side?"

"Special Service Bureau people are here, Xuan Che is explaining the situation to them. That Commander from the Deep Dive Team was just asking about you, I told him Hu Li used her tail to launch you out, and he immediately gave himself an injection..."

Yu Sheng: "..."

"Hey, when are you coming back?" the little puppet asked.

"I'll try to see if I can sneak into this 'Tower' first—without blowing it up, since it seems pretty fragile," Yu Sheng said, "If possible, I'll try to bring back some local specialties, since chasing this far and returning with nothing feels awkward."

"Alright then, don't die too quickly."

"Got it, got it."

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