A tense atmosphere condensed in the hall covered by dim light, and the air seemed to have frozen in this atmosphere, and the low buzzing sound of the ancient equipment deep in the hall seemed to come from a very distant place, which sounded unrealistic and illusory to Asharena - but after this tense state lasted for several minutes, nothing happened in the hall.

The magic balls that rose to mid-air were still floating in the air. Their appearance did not "stimulate" anything. The door leading to the corridor was wide open, and the light that spread from the corridor was suppressed by unknown forces within a few meters from the door. A hazy gray-black mist phantom formed behind the exploration team members.

Apart from that, there were no harsh alarms, no guards awakened, no indescribable things that jumped out of the darkness—there seemed nothing in the hall except the strange environment.

"Maintain alertness," Alice's cold voice broke the depressing tension. While giving orders to her soldiers, she looked up at the shadow structure deep in the hall, which was as shadowy as a "giant tree". A crack suddenly opened on the smooth forehead of the Iron Man commander, and then some artificial crystal was poked out from it. This exquisite sensing device projected a flashing light curtain. Although the light curtain itself was quickly swallowed by the surrounding darkness, its scanning field had quickly completed the scanning of the surrounding environment. "There is no active target in the environment, no energy traps and running spells."

The accompanying Siren advance team members also began to act, maintaining the intimidating "fighting posture". The two walked around the hall in groups, with scales, tentacles and hard carapaces causing numb "footsteps" on the alloy floor.

Ashalina watched these "deep sea allies" walk towards those dark areas bit by bit, and felt that they were about to fall into shadows in the next second, but in fact, their hazy figures were never completely swallowed up by the darkness - the dimness in the hall was not completely pitch black, and although the light created by the lighting and magic light balls were suppressed, they could still provide some lighting.

"Safe." "It's safe here too - there are only some buzzing equipment." "There are some terminals that are still running here, and there's nothing unusual." "There are only a bunch of pillars here..."

The voices of the Siren came from the depths of the darkness, and then the advance team members temporarily removed their respective "combat postures" and returned to the team. Although the Siren's combat posture is powerful, it is not suitable for performing fine technical operations and exploration actions.

At this time, Asharena breathed a little relieved, but she still didn't dare to completely relax her vigilance - maybe there was no danger here, but in the space station built by the setter, there was such a hall completely covered by an abnormal environment, which was extremely strange. She frowned and looked at the shadowy equipment and the faint "lights" around her, and couldn't help but mutter softly: "What the hell is this..."

"There are very powerful shadow power here... but I don't know if this shadow power is foreign or the setter stayed here from the beginning," Berlanta, the red dragon beside her, whispering, while walking towards the largest "tree"-shaped structure in the center of the hall. "No matter what, this thing is obviously the core here..."

"Be careful, don't go there alone!" Seeing this, Asarena quickly reminded her in the back, and then led her people to follow Berlanta's footsteps.

Soon, the entire operation team came to the feet of the strange thing in the center of the hall. Cassandra raised her head vigorously and saw countless dark "thorns" and crystal structures growing from the floor into the air, spreading near the ceiling into a huge tree-canopy structure. Between the tangled thorns and crystals... there seemed to be something else hidden.

Asarena raised her hand again, and another magic ball of light appeared in her hand. Although the light emitted by the ball was suppressed by the surrounding dark environment, at a closer distance, it still illuminated a small area on the surface of those "thorns".

"… Quantity can make up for the quality," Asharena said casually as she looked at the area illuminated by the light ball, "making more light sources can more or less let us see what's happening here."

The dragon tribes on the scene immediately released more lighting spells. Nearly a hundred magic light balls formed over the exploration team almost instantly and floated up along the huge "thorn crystal structure". Ashalina opened her eyes wide and stared at the places where the light balls flew past. In the moving small-scale light spots, she was able to see more details of this "thorn crystal" - these flickering and sharp crystals appeared deep purple-black, and from time to time the moving light source showed a changeable luster. They were entangled with each other. Although they looked like vines, they were obviously not a plant, but more like... a mineral that grew in disorder.

Asarena watched the light balls fly to the top of the thorns and watch them attach to the thorns. In the process, she finally saw clearly that this group of thorns that looked like a "giant tree" seemed to be just a piece of growth. In the depths surrounded by the thorns, some large-scale equipment could be vaguely seen, which seemed to be a pillar. A large number of branch structures radiated out at the connection between the top and the dome, and several things like control terminals extended at the bottom. A large number of purple-black thorn creatures grew out of the huge equipment and were wrapped layer by layer into a tree.

"There is something... wrapped up," Berlanta also noticed the large equipment vaguely visible in the depths of the thorns. She frowned and approached carefully, but did not dare to touch the sharp purple-black crystals rashly. "This looks like a large terminal, which looks a bit like the assembly hall, but it seems to be a higher level... There is a vague movement inside. Is it still running?"

Asarena didn't say anything. She just walked slowly around this huge "thorn", carefully observing the shape of this thing. At this moment, a strange look suddenly came into her eyes, causing the Dragon Seal Witch to stop suddenly.

"There is something here!" She subconsciously let out a low voice, then waved her hand to summon a magic ball of light. The ball of light emitted a dim and obscure light and slightly dispelled the darkness around her, which made her finally see the strange form clearly. The next second, she felt a chill suddenly hit her heart.

It was a dirty trace like a rotten and scorched mark, as if some terrible force with great corrosion had invaded this place and left a mark several meters on the floor. This corrosive trace spread throughout the thorns, and it seemed to have spread within it for a distance. The thorns in contact with it showed a decayed and damaged state. The purple-black crystal was stained with a layer of dirty gray-brown, and the crystal surface was covered with cracks, and the entire "polluted area" even spread upwards to a height of several meters.

The others rushed over immediately after hearing Asharena's exclamation. After seeing the traces of pollution and corrosion on the floor and among the thorns, Berlanta was the first to widen his eyes: "This is..."

"The traces left by the tide," Asarena stared at the dirty mark, feeling her heart pounding, "There is no mistake, the characteristics are too obvious."

Berlanta's eyes widened and suddenly reacted: "Check around quickly!"

All the players took action immediately and began to conduct further inspections of the darkened hall. However, after a careful inspection, the only traces of pollution found in the end seemed to be the only one discovered by Asharena.

"...The pollution against the tide is continuous and there is no dispersion," Berlanta shook his head gently after hearing the results of other people's inspections, "So this should be the only pollution..."

"And it was the pollution left behind many years ago..." Asarena bent down and carefully looked at the disturbing traces on the floor. Her eyes moved forward along the traces, and finally landed on the crystal thorns that clearly showed signs of decay. "These thorny things..."

"Now it seems that these crystal thorns are preventing the spread of pollution and protecting the central device," Alice RS-6 was heard from the side. The Iron Man commander's eyes were flashing with a slight energy light. Her gaze was slowly sweeping over the marks on the ground and the declining crystal thorns, "... they have stopped moving."

Asarena didn't speak for a while, and she pondered for half a minute before breaking the silence: "The tide is dead, right?"

"That's what the death certificate and autopsy report given by the Theocratic Council said," Berlanta nodded, "The conclusion was given by several senior consultants, so there should be no problem."

"So, what we are facing is an ancient clue, something that has happened... The power of the tide has tried to pollute the sky, but it was stopped by these thorns," Ashalina said softly, slowly standing up and looking at the thorns not far away that were infected by the tide power. "We need to collect some samples, especially these contaminated samples."

"I'll do it." Cassandra volunteered, and she took a step forward, and at some point she had already taken out the container and cutting device for collecting samples.

She came to the gray-brown crystal thorns that were contaminated by the anti-tide power, and carefully touched the thing with the high-circular cutter in her hand.

The next second, the sound of crystal rupture came into everyone's ears, as if some subtle balance that had been maintained for hundreds of thousands of years was suddenly broken. Before Asharena reacted, the large area of ​​polluted crystal thorns collapsed into pieces of debris all over the ground in the blink of an eye.

"This..." Cassandra was also startled by the situation. She turned her head and looked at the others innocently, "I just touched it a little, you guys are watching..."

"Maybe this thing is too fragile," Nicholas's voice suddenly sounded from behind, his slightly trembling low voice seemed particularly serious at the moment. "This is not important, what's important is... something seems to be exposed."

Kassandra turned around and saw that the "thorn bush" that had been completely wrapped in the large equipment in the center of the hall had now appeared. In the center of the broken mouth, a device like an operating terminal could be seen exposed.

The structure extending behind the thing is connected to the giant columns in the thorn bush, and the light on its surface has been extinguished. The device has obviously stopped moving, but Nicholas could feel... a faint energy flowing deep in this sleeping terminal.

This is different from the devices in other cabins that are completely silent due to energy interruption.

"This thing is still running, just shutting down the external interaction part, and I might be able to try to reactivate it," Nicholas said with uncertainty. "Also, we have to report back what we found here."

Asarena nodded immediately: "I'll take a few people to the nearest communication port."

Acting in the vast space, whether it is the Dragon Clan's communication spell or Alice's Iron Man network, they have exceeded their respective communication limits, and even the sirens' psychic singing cannot be contacted with the local people, but Asharena and the others still have a way to contact the surface here - what they rely on is the "induction" between Gowen Cecil herself and the Sky Station.

There are some "communication ports" distributed in this space station. After activation, Gao Wen, who is far away on the surface, can directly contact the engineering teams operating in the Shangcangqiong Station, and even "see" their activities here. Therefore, the cabins with communication ports are also regarded as important "transfer points" by the engineering team - these strongholds are the only way they can communicate with the surface.

After Asarena took some of the personnel out of the "Shadow Hall" and headed to the nearest communication port, Nicholas and others who remained in the hall continued to study the huge thorns and the large-scale installation wrapped in thorns.

No matter where these thorns come from, one thing can be seen - they stopped the spread of anti-tide pollution many, many years ago.

After confirming this, the seemingly weird and terrifying purple-black crystals are not that scary.

It is against the pollution and corrosion on the floor, and it is a good thing.

"Now let me see what this thing is for..."

Floating in front of the thorny thorns, looking at the ancient terminal exposed from the thorns, Nicholas's voice was eager to try.

He had roughly found a way to wake up this terminal, but he had been observing here for a long time out of caution.

Standing not far away, Berlanta and others were obviously more nervous than Nicholas. They stared at the movements of the commander-in-chief, watched him floating next to the silent machine and carefully observed, and repeatedly tried, and they did not dare to breathe - although many of them did not need to breathe.

After a long time like this, Nicholas finally confirmed the next operation. He took a step forward and gently "twitched" a certain structure deep in the terminal with invisible force.

A slight buzzing sound immediately. The next second, the device that had been sleeping for many years gradually woke up. A series of flashing lights appeared on the surface of the terminal and the structure connected to the giant column at the rear. Then, Nicholas saw a shaking and jumping holographic image appearing above the terminal, and a line of text of the navigation man appeared in the middle of the projection.

Before departure, members of the engineering team, including him, had already made up for the knowledge of the Settlement's writing.

They understood the text on the projection, but were confused about its meaning—
Chapter completed!