CHAPTER 1505: CHAPTER 1505: HISTORY AND COLD

Bright rays of light streamed through the window, spilling into the quiet room.

"When might the Dean wake up?" Ye Yun withdrew his gaze from the sleeping figure on the hospital bed, raised his head, and looked towards He Ao beside him.

"Uncertain," He Ao shook his head slightly, gazing at the figure on the bed, "The problem he encounters now is on a mental will level. He must conquer his own insanity to wake up."

Ye Yun was originally responsible for the work in Xidu and Nandu, but he specifically came to Beidu to investigate the cooling issue.

Li Cheng’s main network was in Beidu, and He Ao had planned on bringing Li Cheng here, then going directly to Nandu to find Ye Yun. Unexpectedly, Ye Yun was already here, saving him some trouble.

Not hiding his whereabouts, upon discovering Ye Yun’s presence, he joined Ye Yun to find a room for recuperation in the Research Institute’s headquarters and placed Li Cheng inside.

Earlier, his understanding of the Angel’s madness was not deep, hence he maintained an optimistic view on Li Cheng’s awakening.

Though he remains optimistic now, Li Cheng’s true awakening depends on him overcoming it himself.

If Li Cheng can stabilize his perception of humans and suppress his madness with willpower, he can wake up smoothly.

If he fails to suppress it, he will be assimilated by the Talent Sequences and become a true ’Angel’.

"Later, we can have Zhang contact the Dean’s old friends, family, or colleagues," He Ao turned his head and looked at Ye Yun beside him, "We can have them visit the Dean often, which helps his awakening, but don’t reveal anything about the Dean or the Angels to them."

Ye Yun, responsible for Nandu, was in Beidu, while Zhang Ansha, who should have been the interim Beidu head, was on duty outside.

"Okay," Ye Yun nodded slightly, not questioning the reason, "I’ll pass the message to Zhang when he returns."

He paused slightly, "Do we need to arrange some medical equipment?"

"Disinfection equipment can be tried," He Ao said softly, "But monitoring equipment likely won’t work for him anymore."

"Understood." Ye Yun nodded slightly.

He Ao, in the corner of his eye, glanced at Ye Yun beside him.

He could sense a subtle change in Ye Yun’s attitude towards him.

This wasn’t entirely due to He Ao being the most influential person at the Research Institute now. It was also because Ye Yun was one of the few who knew He Ao had become an Angel.

But there’s no helping it; Ye Yun’s attitude was as friendly and peaceful as possible, although that couldn’t change his internal perception.

Perhaps owing to the foundational understanding and friendship established earlier, Ye Yun’s attitude isn’t noticeably different, mostly treating He Ao as a ’respected friend,’ thus this ’reminder’ returned by his attitude hasn’t overly affected He Ao’s sense of self.

Finding somewhere completely unfamiliar, staying solitary for a while, reshaping a life’s narrative might rapidly stabilize He Ao’s reason.

Yet, the issue lies in that the scheming Divine Being behind the scenes likely won’t grant time to breathe.

He Ao shook his head, glanced one last time at the sleeping Li Cheng, then turned away with Ye Yun towards the door.

Meanwhile, he looked at Ye Yun and asked softly, "How is the investigation on the widespread cooling situation you mentioned before?"

"No definite results yet," Ye Yun replied swiftly, "But from the data collected, the cooling seems to be approaching a singular temperature target."

"Approaching a singular target?" He Ao looked at him in confusion.

"Since different regions have varying degrees of cooling," Ye Yun nodded slightly, continued, "In high-latitude areas, the temperature drop isn’t very noticeable, nearly no cooling occurs, but in low-latitude areas, the drop is pronounced,"

He said softly, "For instance, Beidu’s April weather is originally cool, so it’s only dropped a few degrees so far; it’s just colder, showing signs of late spring chill, whereas Nandu dropped nearly ten degrees today, with tropical areas dropping nearly twenty degrees swiftly,"

He paused, continued, "I came north to verify the cooling situation with Zhang, although he seems to have gone out, so I just arranged for some people to assist in collecting northern weather data."

Upon hearing this, He Ao nodded slightly, "What do you think the ultimate target of this widespread cooling is?"

"Cooling is still ongoing," Ye Yun nodded slightly, "I dare not confirm to what extent the temperature will reach, but likely heading below zero; according to Beidu’s obtained information, some northern regions have already begun snowing heavily."

"This cooling seems to be global," He Ao said softly, "There’s a significant drop in the Western Lands as well."

Upon hearing this, Ye Yun was briefly stunned, then pondered aloud, "So is this another global Transcendent event again? The force able to influence global temperature on such a scale..."

"Don’t worry, whatever they plan, at least it hasn’t succeeded yet," He Ao smiled and shook his head, "We still have the chance to prevent it."

"Certainly," Ye Yun lifted his head, looked at He Ao beside him, nodded slightly, "Giving up isn’t an option for us."

He Ao opened his mouth, just about to say something when his expression suddenly changed slightly.

"What’s the—" Ye Yun beside him raised his head, looking towards him.

But before Ye Yun could react, his body was seized.

In the next instant, their bodies swiftly cut across the sky, accompanied by the fierce whistling wind.

Towering buildings flashed past them until they stopped in a suburban area.

As their feet touched the ground, Ye Yun raised his head to look around, "When was a film city built here?"

At this moment, among scattered fields and grasslands lay ancient pavilions and palaces.

"Not a film city." He Ao shook his head slightly, gazing at the disorderly surrounding pavilions and palaces, furrowing his eyebrows slightly.

The styles of these pavilions spanned from ancient to modern times, ranging from thousands of years ago to a few decades ago.

But without exception, they all looked very new, with none appearing to be over ten years old.

"Who’s there?"

Just then, urgent footsteps were heard from afar.

Soon, a familiar face emerged in He Ao’s field of view, staring at He Ao, slightly stunned, "He Ao?"

"Zhang, long time no see." He Ao looked at the man in front of him, smiling slightly.

Zhang Ansha was the one who led He Ao into the Research Institute. The order to transfer Zhang Ansha to Beidu was also made by He Ao, but his schedule was tight, dealing with the aftermath of the last incident, so he hadn’t had the chance to meet Zhang.

Zhang Ansha observed He Ao closely, after seeming to confirm He Ao was indeed alive, he exhaled slightly and laughed, "You’ve truly risen; now, I must heed your orders."

"Then using such a tone might earn you scolding," He Ao laughed, "But I’ll pardon your faults for now."

"Haha, thank you, Dean He, for your generosity." Zhang Ansha quickly stepped closer, standing beside He Ao.

Their banter eased some of the tension, with the young individuals accompanying Zhang Ansha also relaxing.

"Ye Yun?" At this moment, Zhang Ansha turned his gaze and saw Ye Yun standing behind He Ao, somewhat puzzled, "You came too?"

"I came with Dean He," Ye Yun said slowly.

"Did He Ao specifically go to Nandu?" Zhang Ansha was slightly taken aback, then, under Ye Yun’s questioning gaze, he coughed lightly, "Right, you’re in Beidu now. You told me before, I was just focused on the abnormal events happening nearby and didn’t react for a moment."

"Did something happen here?" He Ao looked at Zhang Ansha and asked slowly.

"I received a report earlier about a ghost event nearby," Zhang Ansha pointed to a house not far away that was crushed half by a mobile pavilion, "The villagers around here all claim to have seen their deceased relatives last night. I wondered if some eerie items were at play, so I came over with some people to check it out."

Then he turned around and looked at the surrounding pavilions, "And then these ancient buildings just..."

"Suddenly appeared, descended from the sky?" He Ao asked slowly.

"Yes," Zhang Ansha was taken aback, then looked at He Ao somewhat puzzled and said, "How did you know?"

"I just came back from Mote City, where it also rained ’historical buildings’," He Ao said slowly.

In fact, it was upon sensing the nearby formless foundational world fluctuations that he rushed here.

"Mote City also had such a scene?" Zhang Ansha was slightly taken aback, then sighed, "These buildings suddenly appearing startled us, but fortunately, the area here is open, full of good fields, and we happened to be nearby, quickly helped to evacuate, otherwise, the consequences would be unthinkable."

"Were you just now so tense because you encountered some ’enemy’?" At this moment, Ye Yun interjected.

Upon mentioning this issue, Zhang Ansha paused abruptly, then turned his gaze, looked around the pavilion, and only after confirming that no weapons were being fired from within did he slowly say, "In these buildings, there are ’people’?"

"People?" Ye Yun was slightly startled.

He Ao was also somewhat puzzled.

"Yes, when we passed by certain palace walls and pavilions," Zhang Ansha was also puzzled, "some ancient soldiers emerged and attacked us."

"Were their clothes the same?" He Ao suddenly asked from the side.

"No," Zhang Ansha shook his head, "they seem to be from different eras, but I’m not well-versed in this, so I can’t confirm."

"They’re different," a young man behind Zhang Ansha said, "One group of soldiers attacking us was probably wearing clothes from a thousand years ago, but another group was on the watchtower shooting crossbows at us, their attire was something only soldiers from two thousand years ago would wear."

"Right, this young man knows a lot about these things, very professional." Hearing this, Zhang Ansha immediately turned around to introduce.

"I’m just quite interested in history." The young man awkwardly nodded and said slowly.

"Were you able to attack these ’people’ you encountered?" He Ao looked at the young man and asked slowly.

"Some could be attacked; others were like illusions, with swords and bullets passing right through them, but their arrows or crossbow bolts, on the other hand, could solidify and wound us,"

The young man paused, his eyes sweeping across the surroundings, "But they all quickly disappeared, unlike these buildings, which persist in manifesting."

"We haven’t encountered ’people’ for a little while now," Zhang Ansha also added, "Most of them seem to have disappeared."

These historical illusions, unable to manifest real ’life’ for long?

"However, looking at it this way," Zhang Ansha contemplated from the side, "the ’elder ghosts’ the villagers mentioned might also be similar, shadows from the past?"

"We can’t rule out this possibility." He Ao nodded slightly.

He looked up at the surrounding classical buildings.

A slight cold wind brushed his face, bringing a chill.

The sky, initially with a slight glow, gradually dimmed, with scattered ice crystals falling from above.

"Is it snowing?" Ye Yun beside him reached out, catching the scattered ice crystals.

"Would it snow around this time? This late spring cold is too much, isn’t it?" Zhang Ansha also confusingly reached out, grabbing an ice crystal, observing its shape, "Snowflakes, indeed?"

At this moment, Ye Yun seemed to remember something, immediately picking up his phone, opening the messages.

Then he lifted his head, looking at He Ao, "It’s snowing in Nandu as well."

"It’s snowing in Nandu too?" Zhang Ansha was slightly taken aback, "Isn’t that city known as the ’furnace city’?"

But as the words fell, he realized something, speaking slowly, "Is this some large-scale Transcendent event?"

Immediately after, he recalled Ye Yun requesting weather data for Beidu, looking at Ye Yun, "Did you come to Beidu also for this matter?"

"Yes," Ye Yun nodded slightly.

And while they were discussing, He Ao only looked up, watching the scattered ice crystals, laying on the eaves of the classical buildings before them.

This sudden drop in temperature, is it related to the appearance of these historical buildings?

Did the Divine Being behind the scenes arrange two events simultaneously this time, or two different manifestations of the same event?

In contemplation, He Ao picked up his phone and opened an app.

Lin Chichi had mentioned earlier that she found some core clues regarding the temperature drop and had gone off to investigate.

He found the chat with Lin Chichi; she hadn’t replied nor given any progress report.

Most of the time, this girl would reply instantly upon seeing messages; was she too caught up in something to see the messages, or had she encountered danger?

As the Leader of the sect, if this girl encountered danger, she would immediately seek Grace from ’K’.

The City of Rong Guang, centered around the Angel Doll’s automatic feedback system, would automatically accept Sacrifice and bestow Grace even without him present.

Though Lin Chichi didn’t have a strong Talent Sequence, she was still rather capable with Grace.

He Ao directly dialed Lin Chichi’s phone number.

Beep——

Amidst a crisp sound, the phone prompted, ’The number you have dialed is out of the service area.’

Has she gone to an uninhabited area? Did she take a satellite phone with her?

At this moment, He Ao paused slightly, turning his head to look southward.

He seemed to have ’heard’ Lin Chichi’s ’voice.’