Lin Xian felt that everything he wanted to say next would just become meaningless chatter.

Taking the wine glass from Monica, Lin Xian remained silent. Monica took a sip of red wine and glanced at him sideways. Seeing his silence, she immediately raised her eyebrows slightly and said, "You're worrying too much. Look, even though we're in a train deep under the ocean, we still need to sleep when it's time to sleep."

She walked to the porthole, her face reflected in the starry glass of the pitch-black deep sea. "One moment alive, one moment dead—perhaps both life and death are predetermined. Since that's the case, why not try to break through the power of evolution and see where the limits of the human species lie?"

"Limits?" Lin Xian swirled his wine glass, speaking meaningfully, "Can we use the power of darkness to defeat darkness itself?"

Monica smiled faintly and looked at Lin Xian. "You just want to say, if the dark civilization wants to exterminate Blue Star, why would they give humanity the power to resist? Many people have thought this way. When I was fleeing on the orbital network before, I met some people too. The optimists believe this is the power of assimilation, a transformation by higher civilization forces—humanity has gained new life. The pessimists think this is an experiment by the dark civilization, and that human evolution ultimately makes us nothing but test subjects. The dawn we pursue is just futile effort."

"And you? What do you think?" Lin Xian asked.

Monica shrugged. "I accept both views. Or rather, I accept neither."

"Actually, what the truth is doesn't really matter, right? Without abilities, humans resist with technological weapons. With abilities, humans invest in researching evolution to fight back. It's like a drowning person—whether it's straw or thorns that float by, they'll desperately try to grab onto it without hesitation."

After speaking, she looked at Lin Xian with profound eyes. "Lower civilizations don't have the right to choose. If the dark civilization had exterminated Blue Star on Doomsday, treating it as nothing more than a speck of dust, would any of our thoughts, hatred, or efforts have meaning?"

"Eliminating you has nothing to do with you." Lin Xian responded calmly, recalling this sentence he had once read in a science fiction novel.

"Exactly." Monica walked toward Lin Xian. "Being able to double our ability index, even if the survival rate only increases by 1%—isn't that worth taking a gamble?"

"You're right." Lin Xian quite agreed, letting out a long sigh. "After daybreak, if there are no other troubles, we'll prepare to try this crystal lattice evolution. Fortunately, the Falcon Sea Group members are here, and we even have someone to guide us."

Upon hearing this, Monica asked in return, "What about Phoenix Society? Don't you have a way to contact them?"

Lin Xian's gaze swept over the countdown, then looked at the red wine in his glass. He downed it in one gulp, placed the glass on the table, turned around with a stern expression, and walked toward the front carriage.

"Should... know soon enough."

Watching Lin Xian leave, a hint of smile appeared in Monica's eyes. She turned to look at the light and shadow on the porthole, murmuring, "Strength is the foundation of struggle, sacrifice is the ladder to victory. Our captain... he just cares too much about us team members."

Lin Xian walked through the quiet carriage, but his heart couldn't calm down at all. Although they seemed safe for now, he didn't have the same sense of peace he'd felt on the train after previous escapes from danger. Partly because of their current underwater environment, and partly because of that countdown.

As the time approached, saying he wasn't nervous would be a lie. The timing seemed to be around dawn, but Lin Xian seemed to have no choice but to wait where he was, which made his usually cautious heart filled with lingering unease.

When passing through carriage 3, Lin Xian stopped and approached the Silver Dragon Ten Thousand Mistakes. This disaster plant with dimensional space power had saved them three times: once at the Bottomless Lake, once during the Star Abyss crossing, and then during last night's escape from the underwater vortex. Now planted in the cultivation chamber, the dark purple flowing light within the roots of the disaster plant had become restrained and dim. The flower that had bloomed had disappeared, and it now looked like an ordinary grass flower.

"Just like a magical artifact—clearly just a plant, how could it possess such miraculous functions..."

Lin Xian studied it for a while, full of confusion. He looked up toward the direction of the rest area, thought for a moment, then walked over and opened Director Ding's rest room door again. This time, upon opening the door, he discovered that Director Ding was already awake, quietly putting on her clothes.

"You're awake?"

"I was already awake when you came just now." Director Ding carefully finished dressing, then put on her white lab coat and black-framed glasses before standing properly and looking at Lin Xian. "This was the longest release of dark energy by the Hell Black Chrysanthemum. All carriages were filled with it. The team members experienced a tense and dangerous escape, and factors like energy consumption and injuries, combined with being in an enclosed underwater environment with highly oxygen-rich air, led to drowsiness and deep sleep conditions. This has been analyzed in my previous observation research, though this time it's more severe. This is a critical stage of evolution. Considering this, Teacher Chen and I allowed Viola to take complete control and didn't wake you."

Hearing Director Ding's words, Lin Xian finally felt relieved.

"I didn't expect it would absorb so much black energy. It seems it wasn't just about that monster hunting." Lin Xian said.

Director Ding put her hands in her pockets, calmly analyzing: "When we rushed down the cliff, we passed close to the Oceanic Titan. In the ocean, this energy probably isn't in gaseous form. But it indirectly shows that this world-class disaster entity itself contains terrifying energy levels."

Lin Xian nodded and looked at Director Ding. "How do you feel? How much change have you noticed in yourself?"

Upon hearing this, Director Ding picked up a small spirit value detector from the table. Holding it in front of Lin Xian, her eyes flashed with vibrant green light. Soon, the peak spirit value was detected.

8000!

"My last test was yesterday morning in Haiyan City, at exactly 9:00 AM. The result was 6900. A 15.94% increase within one day—this evolution speed is extremely exaggerated." Director Ding said.

"Indeed."

Lin Xian took a deep breath, remained quiet for a moment, then looked up at Director Ding.

"Do you know what happened before the Silver Dragon Ten Thousand Mistakes' flower bud burst?"

"No, I was just about to ask you." Director Ding said seriously. "There wasn't the spatial bubble like during previous bursts, but I sensed a strange fluctuation, and everyone's dark marks disappeared simultaneously."

"You didn't see anything?" Lin Xian frowned.

Director Ding focused her gaze and asked in return: "It seems you had a different experience?"

Lin Xian paused, then told Director Ding about the dimensional entity including the countdown matter. Since he couldn't contact Chu Yan and Phoenix Society now, Director Ding was the perfect person to discuss such super-physical phenomena with.

After listening to Lin Xian's words, Director Ding's usually impassive face showed a rare subtle expression—some surprise, but more curiosity.

Director Ding wiped the detector, a sharp gleam unique to researchers shining behind her glasses. After thinking for a while, she answered: "Time dimension? Humanity hasn't even finished arguing about the eleven-dimensional membranes in string theory. If you can visually see time, it means the space you're in must be of a higher dimension."

Lin Xian responded: "Space? Created by Silver Dragon Ten Thousand Mistakes? Could it be some kind of hallucination projection, like something released by abnormal entities such as the Oceanic Titan?"

"Not impossible, but it doesn't make logical sense. Additionally, seeing the time dimension with event guidance suggests what you saw were indeed events happening on the timeline."

"Why?"

Director Ding answered: "Let me explain it this way—from a two-dimensional perspective, you can't see the shape of three-dimensional objects. When a three-dimensional object passes through a two-dimensional plane, you can only see constantly changing two-dimensional slices. If two-dimensional beings existed, to understand three-dimensional objects, they would need to combine these to reconstruct, or rather, imagine. The process of synthesizing these two-dimensional slices together is time. So time isn't a dimension but a kind of cosmic motion. You said you saw events happening minutes in the future. From a three-dimensional perspective, it's like honeycomb grid images extending infinitely toward different event directions within a three-dimensional framework. Of course, these are just theoretical imaginations. I can only say what you saw probably wasn't as simple as hallucinations."

Director Ding lightly placed the instrument on the table, her fingers unconsciously tracing the cultivation chamber glass: "Additionally, the countdown projection you saw... seems more like a high-dimensional information wrinkle manifestation in the three-dimensional world. Like how you saw our Infinite's event changes from a high-dimensional mode. If projecting onto the three-dimensional world through this pathway, then no matter which event development direction you look toward, it doesn't prevent this vision from appearing in your eyes."

Lin Xian felt overwhelmed, strangely feeling like he was back in university high-energy physics class. He thought for a while, then said with a frown: "How does it sound like the power of disaster plants, the countdown, even forbidden artifacts, can all be understood from a high-dimensional space perspective?"

Upon hearing this, Director Ding paused, lowered her head in thought, then looked at Lin Xian: "You've proposed a very constructive idea!"

"What?"

Director Ding looked around, then picked up the mobile terminal from the table and without another word began calculating something, her gaze burning with intensity as if wanting to quickly prove something.

"In the No. 5 Star Abyss, I collected much data on time dilation and redshift effects, combined with Mochizuki Shinji's big data calculations. But currently, including Phoenix Society, no one has successfully calculated it. My consistent principle is to scientifically verify divine phenomena. What you just said might be a breakthrough approach."

Lin Xian opened his mouth, thinking to himself that he had wanted to discuss the countdown issue with Director Ding to ease his anxious mood. Who knew it would seem like he'd given Director Ding some useful information, making her start researching.

Seeing Director Ding completely absorbed and focused now, Lin Xian didn't say much more. He went to the cockpit alone, carried Teacher Chen back to her room, then sat alone in the driver's seat, staring blankly at the pitch-black, bottomless deep sea outside the porthole.

Viola stood beside him, posture proud, hands behind her back, speaking:

[I detect unstable emotions and breathing from you, with negative signals. This doesn't match the current situation where the team escaped danger with no losses, plus gained extremely high skill growth and abundant blood crystal harvests. Your emotions and clear thinking have decisive influence on this team's survival. May Viola know what problems you've encountered?]

It's nothing.

Dawn is coming soon. I hope we can successfully surface and see the daybreak.

Viola turned her head, continuing the previous question: [After experiencing high-risk escapes and ability usage, body overload, and then excessive supplementation from purified dark energy—according to Ding Junyi's team health monitoring report, this should be a positive direction. In previous data, besides team members' energy recovery, it included accelerated trauma healing. There were no negative directions. So my judgment is there's high probability you encountered difficulties beyond these positive events. Extremely small probability it's side effects from excessive purified dark energy supplementation. This requires updating the team health monitoring report database.]

"Is that so?" Lin Xian turned to look at the AI brain robot: "Absorbing dark energy can also help injuries heal faster?"

[Including but not limited to stem cell supplementation, disease resistance, willpower enhancement, increased libido and other phenomena]

"What?"

Viola said: [The genetic evolution of the human body is a positive improvement process. Various functions and hormones may be excessively secreted. To alleviate this situation, I recommend you engage in sexual activities with Chen Sixuan, KIKI, or other females with whom you have positive emotional connections. This will help improve your positive emotions.]

Lin Xian closed his eyes and pinched his trigeminal nerve: "You misunderstood. It's not that problem."

[From Grace's data logs, I learned that after multiple thrilling escapes or battle conclusions, you often have passionate interactions with females in the vehicle. Is this coincidence?]

Upon hearing this, Lin Xian directly froze.

"No, it's not related to that conclusion. It's just in this environment, we face too many dangers, rarely have opportunities... forget it, why am I explaining this to you."

Lin Xian said directly: "Viola, I need to explain something to you."

Viola turned around, standing elegantly before him.

[Please speak]

Lin Xian took a deep breath and said in a low voice: "2 hours, no—no matter what happens next, if I die or lose rational judgment ability, cannot operate Infinite, cannot protect my teammates, then transfer your management authority to Chen Sixuan and KIKI."

[Viola understands. You have survival concerns about...]

"Let me finish." Lin Xian raised his hand to interrupt, then continued: "I communicate with Grace through the Flickering Bullet. This connection also exists with Chu Yan. So if something happens to me, I will release the Sky Dome train. Your next target is to rush to Phoenix Society's Phoenix City, helping Chu Yan and Phoenix Society control the Southern Celestial Gate at all costs. Understand!"

Viola was silent for a second, tilting her head slightly, 'looking' at Lin Xian with her featureless face.

[May I understand that you are afraid of dawn?]

Lin Xian's gaze focused, then he said with stern expression and voice:

"No, I'm just worried that dawn and destruction..."

After listening to Lin Xian's words, Director Ding's usually impassive face showed a rare subtle expression—some surprise, but more curiosity.