Chapter 25

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Chapter 25: The Source of the Sky Curtain

Three days before the Shan Hai Jing Execution Team set off.

On the thirty-third floor of the Space Administration’s administrative building, in Conference Room 3303 of the Time Bureau.

When Luo Yu walked into the conference room that day, it was nearly full. The chief and several surrounding seats were occupied, making her think she was late. She instinctively glanced at the wall clock: it was nine fifty-eight in the morning.

She picked an empty seat and sat down, placing her laptop on the table. Just as the clock hit fifty-nine minutes, another person entered the conference room. Luo Yu turned to look and saw Zhu Huai, her buzz cut even shorter than before, striding over with her usual carefree air. She hadn’t brought her laptop, and with a casual demeanor, she pulled out a chair and sat cross-legged beside Luo Yu.

“Everyone’s here, close the door,” the person at the head of the table said in a deep voice.

The secretary sitting by the door stood up and closed it, plunging the conference room into silence. After a moment, they heard the head speak again: “This month, there have been significant personnel changes within the Bureau and the entire administration, but it won’t affect any of you present, so don’t feel too burdened.”

Once this was said, the television in the conference room lit up, showing recent abnormal events in various regions of parallel time indicated by the Monitoring Department. Four historical eras—“Qin, Han, Tang, and Ming”—all had instances of cross-time live screens, posing significant risks to historical processes that needed to be shut down and recovered as soon as possible.

At this moment, the head spoke again: “Due to changes in the Bureau, no Execution Teams have been dispatched this month. With these four parallel times showing abnormalities, Luo Yu, you’ll lead the team personally to see what’s going on.”

Luo Yu was looking at her open laptop when she noticed that Zhu Long’s profile in the internal contact list was still greyed out, showing that she was “on leave.” Since the Personnel Department announced earlier this month that she was relieved from her position as Deputy Director, Zhu Long’s status had remained “on leave” for nearly a month.

“Luo Yu, any questions?”

She lifted her gaze from the laptop to the head. “No questions.”

“Good, then the Shan Hai Jing will depart first. After a month without a mission, it’s crucial to have an experienced engineer aboard, so Zhu Huai, you’ll be joining the team this time.”

Zhu Huai, sitting next to Luo Yu, replied nonchalantly, “Fine.”

“The accompanying scientist will still be Ying Zhao. Luo Yu, just pick another regular team member when you return.”

Ying Zhao, sitting across from Luo Yu, showed no expression. “Okay.”

Next, the conference room reviewed the progress of the investigation regarding the cross-time live screens, but it seemed there hadn’t been much advancement.

Half an hour later, the meeting adjourned, and once the head left, the group began to exit the conference room. Luo Yu returned to her office and called in the experienced team member Hu Jiao, who often led missions, to discuss the upcoming task arrangements.

After finalizing the candidate list, Luo Yu submitted the names of the personnel for the mission, and an hour later, the approval came through.

However, just one day before departure, she suddenly received a message: the Time Bureau had secured a new team member quota for the Shan Hai Jing, but time was limited. There were currently two trainee members as candidates, and one of the regular team members would need to be replaced with one of these trainees. After the mission, they would be evaluated based on their performance for selection.

Sitting in her office, Luo Yu looked at the personnel change notification that popped up on her screen, frowning slightly.

“Luo Yu, what does Zhu Long mean by this?” Zhu Huai’s voice interrupted her thoughts, pulling her back from her pre-departure musings.

“It seems something happened in the Bureau,” Luo Yu thought for a moment and then looked down at the panel, entering a series of numbers. She turned to Zhu Huai, “Let’s try this one.”

“Whose number is this?” Zhu Huai asked while inputting the numbers.

“Hu Jiao’s.”

“Alright, everyone has an encrypted satellite phone except for me?” Zhu Huai finished entering the number, restarted the communication device, and sent another call request.

Luo Yu shot her a glance. “I don’t have one either. Hu Jiao’s was something I set up to leave a message for Zhu Long before we departed. It was just a precaution; I don’t even know if she used it.”

A few minutes later, the returner indicated the signal was connected, but there was no sound from the communication device. After a short wait, a somewhat puzzled voice came through: “Is this how you use this thing? Hello… hello?”

“Hu Jiao, it’s me, Luo Yu.”

“Oh my, sis!” The volume from the communication device suddenly increased, causing the people standing in front of it to take a step back.

“Is it convenient for you to talk right now?”

“It’s convenient, I found a spot to connect, thought it was Zhu Long looking for me.” Hu Jiao regained her composure, lowered the volume, and started speaking in a conspiratorial tone. “Sis, the Bureau has been searching for you guys and has swept through the known time tunnels twice. Where have you been? Is everyone okay?”

Zhu Huai scoffed, saying sarcastically, “Is this for real? You know how to look for us? I thought you were holding our memorial service already.”

“Ah! Huai Jie! You’re also here!”

Zhu Huai rolled her eyes, “Yeah, thanks to you, Huai Jie is still breathing.”

“Alright, the signal is unstable. Let’s not waste time. Hu Jiao, what happened in the Bureau? Is Zhu Long still on leave?” Luo Yu asked.

“Yeah, she’s still on leave. The International Special Operations Department, together with the Bureau’s Inspection Department, has tracked down the organization behind the sky curtain deployment. They’ve sent the Deputy Director of the Special Operations Department personally to take away a batch of materials these past few days. The four live streams you collected this time are important clues and evidence. The recovery center has kept status on the Shan Hai Jing’s recovery as effective, so the Bureau has been trying to find you. The rescue team has gone out five times; I’ve personally led two search missions for you.”

Luo Yu listened intently and contemplated for a moment before saying, “We did get a bit lost this time.”

“How far? Five thousand years? Eight thousand years?”

“We are now, thirty thousand years ago.”

“Ah…” As Hu Jiao’s astonishment began, there was another wave of interference from the communication device, and the connection broke again.

Luo Yu, along with the others, stood in front of the communication device, momentarily silent, still reflecting on Hu Jiao’s previous words.

Ti Ran, seeing their serious expressions, remarked, “Your world sounds a bit complicated.”

Luo Yu smiled wryly and shook her head, “It’s not just a bit complicated. Factional struggles, conflicts over interests, power plays—there’s a lot going on.”

At this moment, the communication expert standing nearby adjusted the external equipment and turned to them, “The two calls today have already pinpointed your time-space satellite orbit. We still need to adjust the stability. If you want to maintain encryption, I suggest not sending requests in the short term. Otherwise, it may be caught by the monitoring network of your space station.”

Luo Yu nodded, “Okay, we need to sort these things out when we return. Thank you both for adjusting the stability again. If possible, I’d like to try contacting that person again tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow is fine.”

Seeing the situation, Ti Ran added, “Today was just our first attempt at communication; it seems to be going well. The frequency we have for your time-space has a greater synchronicity angle than the historical time-space you usually visit. So, the validity of the channel lasts at least another thirty days — no need to worry.”

After she finished, she showed them the latest time-space positioning model and succinctly explained the current findings.

The group chatted in the research room for a while and enjoyed some snacks brought in by the assistant robot, then left together. The two engineers needed to go to the equipment department to find resources to enhance the stability of cross-time signals, agreeing to attempt another call request tomorrow.

Outside the workstation, Luo Yu, Zhu Huai, and Ying Zhao watched Ti Ran board her aircraft and leave before they climbed aboard the flying vehicle sent by the cave villa’s caretaker, heading directly back to the cave villa instead of the hangar.

“The source of the sky curtain has been under investigation for over a year, and they’ve always claimed there was no progress. Now that we’ve just left, they suddenly say they found something? And it sounds like the International Special Operations Department is leading this?” Ying Zhao expressed a string of questions upon entering the house.

Since the discovery of cross-time live streams, the Time Bureau had conducted investigations on those livestream rooms and streamers. However, there was no connection among the streamers, and the broadcast content lacked consistency, which led to the conclusion that the individuals behind the scenes selected what they considered suitable streams and stole the images for deployment.

But this year, the appearance of more targeted technological enlightenment streams should not be the result of theft; rather, the organization behind the scenes directly participated in planning the content of the streams. The quality and content of these recent streams clearly showed a difference from the previous ones, and the hosts remained off-camera, with their voices processed.

Luo Yu raised her hand, signaling them to wait a moment, and then entered her suite to fetch the backup player of the recovery panel from the bedroom. This player contained the backups of the four streams they had recovered this time, which she had watched two or three times over the past days.

Holding the player, she stepped out of the suite. Zhu Huai and Ying Zhao were already seated on the soft cushions, and she joined them, patting the tablet in her hand. “The organization behind this is likely being traced due to the recent streams; the Special Operations Department’s involvement suggests the aim behind this is significant. The fact that the Deputy Director went directly to the Time Bureau indicates a serious reason…” She looked up at the two of them, “The cross-time historical livestream may imply there are attempts at overthrowing the government.”

“Are you saying…” Ying Zhao furrowed her brows, “The people initiating the cross-time livestream want to restore the feudal empire? They want to go back to the past and reopen a high-tech dynasty?”

Luo Yu looked at her, “Yes, that’s just a specific manifestation. The real aim is probably to fundamentally alter the current global situation through history.”

The mention of the global situation made the atmosphere in the lounge tense. In their time-space, the environment had deteriorated continuously over the years. The scarcity of resources had ignited conflicts among nations, creating an underlying tension in what seemed like a peaceful surface—a simmering magma beneath it all.

Yet, given their current understanding of and exploration into the multiverse, their world’s technology level hadn’t reached a point where it could change the development of time-space through historical retracement. The series of butterfly effects involved could not be controlled by human effort.

It seemed clear that the global situation had to be dire for someone to resort to such extreme methods, attempting to overturn the order.

Seeing that the two were still silent, Luo Yu continued, “Regarding Zhu Long’s message: on my way back, I thought carefully. She wanted us to destroy the recovery panel, possibly because the Special Operations Department has already listed us as suspects.”

Zhu Huai and Ying Zhao exclaimed in unison, “What?”

“We used the time capsule under the guise of a mission to close and recover the livestreams under investigation, causing the Special Operations Department to lose those clues and evidence. Now, with us unaccounted for, doesn’t that seem a bit suspicious?”

After hearing this, Zhu Huai slammed her fist on the round table, “But we didn’t request to participate in this mission ourselves!”

Luo Yu let out a cold laugh, “Yes, I originally thought someone tampered with the Shan Hai Jing just for the sky curtain, and it wouldn’t matter who went on the mission. But looking back now, it’s not that simple; this mishap was also aimed at us.”

The three of them silently exchanged glances in the quiet lounge for a long time. This mission was one that had been specifically assigned for them at the mission meeting, and they almost simultaneously recalled that day in Conference Room 3303 during the task allocation, along with the old man sitting at the head of the table, the current director of the Time Bureau, code name Fuxi.