Lin Xiaohe and Little Black exchanged glances.
They both understood that Little Black’s Giant Burial Mound had likely slipped through some loophole—it wasn’t exactly legitimate.
Should they respond? If they did, would they be exposed as fakes?
Little Black’s tiny, jet-black eyes fixed on Lin Xiaohe, waiting for her decision.
Lin Xiaohe’s heart pounded nervously.
She wasn’t afraid of the Zerg per se, but she couldn’t ignore their sheer numbers.
If a real fight broke out, even if she could get away unscathed, what about her family? What about Wesley and the others? And all those ordinary humans who had chosen the Star Grain Party?
The other side, receiving no reply for so long, grew more urgent in its tone: “What’s your name? Did the Zerg Master send you?”
Zerg Master?
Lin Xiaohe didn’t know how many Zerg Masters existed, but she was certain the one he meant wasn’t her.
Confused, the voice pressed: “Why won’t you speak? Huh? How strange—why are you so weak, yet possess such immense psychic energy?”
Lin Xiaohe’s hair stood on end. How on earth was she supposed to explain this?
Little Black was a half-baked amateur—his knowledge about Giant Burial Mounds was patchy at best.
If she responded based on what Little Black had told her, she’d easily be led into a trap.
After some thought, Lin Xiaohe figured that saying more meant making more mistakes, while saying less meant fewer mistakes—so she simply stayed silent.
Fortunately, the other side had its own logic: “Did your power get weakened when you crossed the Holy Gate?”
Holy Gate?
The Holy Gate that Chu Huaizhi, Guo Hai, and the others were guarding?
If they could guard it, why couldn’t they do anything about the Zerg?
One question after another swirled in Lin Xiaohe’s mind, but she had no one to ask.
Zhou seemed to be a chatterbox and didn’t suspect for a second that this little Giant Burial Mound was fake.
“Do you still remember the mission the Zerg Master sent you here for?”
Lin Xiaohe kept quiet. Little Black kept quiet too.
Zhou’s tone sounded a bit disappointed: “You don’t remember? Sigh. I found the person the Zerg Master wants dead—a human named Lin Xiaohe. But I lost track of her again. I can’t smell her presence anymore.”
The Zerg had their own way of identifying individuals—they didn’t rely on sight, but on the fourth-dimensional projection of each being.
Anything without a fourth-dimensional projection was just food.
Anything with one was worth paying attention to.
Lin Xiaohe’s fourth-dimensional projection was strange. At first, it had shown the classic Sanctum mark.
But now, it was gone.
Zhou had never encountered such a case before. Normally, whether you were a fourth-dimensional being or a fifth-dimensional one, your fourth-dimensional projection should remain constant.
“What a strange human. Little one, your power has been severely weakened! Your consciousness is so feeble, you can’t even speak.”
“Sigh. You shouldn’t have been so reckless. I hope when the Zerg Master sends reinforcements, he’ll send someone smarter.”
Zhou seemed to have been cooped up for far too long. Even knowing the other side couldn’t reply, he kept rambling on: “Those plants on Sui Star are such a nuisance. They just won’t die off completely. Oh well—it’s all for dealing with the coming of Eternal Night, so I’ll just have to tolerate them.”
After a long, babbling stream of chatter, Zhou abruptly disconnected.
But Lin Xiaohe’s mind was in turmoil over everything he’d said.
The Sui Civilization?
What did the Zerg have to do with them?
Wasn’t that the civilization that the previous human civilization had encountered? What did he mean by “won’t die off completely”?
Did that mean there were still remnants of the Sui Civilization somewhere in Federation territory?
And that battle she’d had on Cyros Star with the leader of the Sui envoy—had it actually taken place in the fourth dimension, or in the real third-dimensional space of the Federation?
Also—what was this “Eternal Night” that had both the Zerg and the Sui Civilization so on edge?
Lin Xiaohe felt like she was trapped in a labyrinth of mysteries. Every time she solved one, she found herself surrounded by even more.
The universe had existed for far too long. Countless civilizations had risen and fallen.
Some passed like a puff of wind, leaving not even a single gene fragment behind.
Others had once been brilliantly glorious, but under the erosion of unimaginable time and the sweeping vastness of space, they left only faint traces for people to speculate about.
Lin Xiaohe once again felt how small she was.
This smallness didn’t come from a lack of personal power—it came from the perspective of civilization itself. It was like a single droplet of water compared to a vast ocean.
These ancient civilizations, just by observing the universe from the sidelines, had gathered information a million times greater than hers!
Just like now—Zhou had laid it all out, and Lin Xiaohe still couldn’t understand what he was talking about. It only left her more confused.
This wasn’t because Lin Xiaohe wasn’t smart—it was a lack of information!
A seed took root deep in Lin Xiaohe’s heart.
What were the Federation and the Empire in the grand scheme of things? This star sector might not be nearly as vast as she’d imagined.
One day, she would leap out of this well and see the wider world.
Lin Xiaohe pulled her consciousness back to the third dimension and decided to first figure out exactly what the Holy Gate was.
Without a second thought, she went straight to Cassian.
Cassian had locked himself in his room, frantically trying to contact the Federation military.
But for every measure, there was a countermeasure. Melina had simply shut down the shuttle’s communication systems. With Lin Xiaohe around, they had no need to worry about staying in touch anyway.
“Bandits! Lin Xiaohe’s been led astray by bad company.” Cassian’s heart ached.
Just like any parent—if their own child went astray, it was obviously someone else’s fault, never the child’s own nature.
Cassian believed Lin Xiaohe was a kind, brilliant, and sharp young woman. The only reason she now acted like a bandit was because those slick old foxes had taught her bad habits!
See? Lin Xiaohe had even come to visit him and brought good food.
Cassian opened the door and let her in.
He stared at the tray in her hands: “What’s this?”
“Stir-fried little… uh, I mean, stir-fried Void Devourer tail.”
Cassian’s smile froze on his face.
Was he supposed to eat that?!
Chu Huaizhi had only eaten one stir-fried “little lobster” and had been unconscious for ages.
Lin Xiaohe set the tray on the table and urged him, “Don’t worry, I modified the recipe. It’s perfectly safe.”
Cassian looked everywhere but at the plate of stir-fried Void Devourer. “You wouldn’t come without a reason. Spit it out—what do you want?”
As long as she didn’t force him to eat that plate of stir-fried Void Devourer, anything else was negotiable.
Lin Xiaohe plopped down on the couch like she owned the place. “I want to ask about the Holy Gate. The whole Federation knows it exists now, but nobody knows what’s inside it.”
Cassian let out a long sigh.
If this were the past, the Holy Gate would have been classified beyond top-secret.
But now, with the Leviathan Plan leaked and the Zerg mounting a full-scale invasion, the Holy Gate wasn’t quite as secret anymore.
“The Holy Gate… is a star sector discovered by a Federation exploration team during a survey. In that region, the laws of physics and time are extremely chaotic. Every probe we sent in was destroyed.”
“At first, the Federation didn’t pay much attention to it. After all, the universe is full of strange places. At most, a few scientists wanted to study what caused the physical laws there to break down.”
“Then one day, the observation outpost set up outside the Holy Gate detected signs of life inside. But that was impossible! It was like saying humans were designed by an alien civilization—it completely defied common sense.”
“Later, creatures did start coming out of the Holy Gate. The black beetles we’re all familiar with. They appeared very rarely—maybe one or two every six months.”
Lin Xiaohe stared fixedly at Cassian. “And? I refuse to believe the Federation and the Security Ministry would spend that many resources and deploy that many personnel to guard the Holy Gate over just one or two black beetles!”
