Chapter 1418 — Pending Matters

A clear holographic projection materialized above the silver-white pillars, and Ophelia's figure appeared before Gao Yang. She had again assumed the same "posture" she had used earlier in the conference hall: a "vessel" that looked almost identical to the true "Ophelia Norton," seated upon a pale-gold throne, with a great many pipes and cables extending from behind her body and around the throne.

"Good evening," Ophelia's voice came through the image, as calm and placid as ever. "I hope I haven't disturbed your rest."

Tyr—and all the Tyrs—standing nearby looked at the Gondor princess floating in the holographic projection, then at Gao Yang, and asked hesitantly, "Should I step out for a bit? Are you two about to discuss something confidential?"

Gao Cen blinked in surprise at the deep-sea saltfish upon hearing this—presumably Tyr's unreliable behavior was so frequent that hearing something sensible from her now gave him an eerie feeling...

"No need," Ophelia's voice immediately came from the image. Though her vessel remained expressionless, her voice clearly carried a note of amusement. "It's nothing that needs to be kept secret—Miss Tyr, don't treat me as a stranger. I am Velodia, whom you know well. In Xuanyao City, we discussed a great many things together."

"...True enough," Tyr said, blinking. "But it's still a bit hard to get used to all at once... I'm used to dealing with 'Velodia' all the time, and now suddenly seeing you in this form..."

"Come on, I don't want to hear it from someone who idles her time away transforming herself into all shapes and sizes, cuts off her own tail, and kneads out six clones," Gao Heng said, casting Tyr a glance before turning to Ophelia. "Has something gone wrong on your end?"

"The core control system of the Deep Blue Well is back online," Ophelia said, her tone somewhat grave. "After the preliminary repair of the perimeter pipeline monitoring system, I discovered some... circumstances that had not been detected before, possibly connected to the Sentinels' earlier activities."

"Circumstances not detected before? Connected to the Sentinels?" Gao Song's brow furrowed instantly. "Explain."

"I found that several energy conduits had been infiltrated and their flow diverted, and that the output logs for the relevant sectors do not match up. In addition, a number of iron soldiers have mysteriously disappeared, their signals vanishing before the war broke out. Due to certain system errors, these data escaped my surveillance and have only now been discovered—these diverted energies and missing soldiers should be the reason those dark priests suddenly gained great power and collectively 'evolved,' and why the Creeping Calamity was afterward able to draw vast energy from the deep strata around the Deep Blue Well.

"But none of that is the real problem. The Sentinels' plot has now been thwarted, and all system faults are being repaired step by step. What truly matters is... while monitoring the 'pulse currents,' I received some signals—from the deep layers of the Deep Blue Netway."

"Some signals? Inside the Deep Blue Netway?" Gao Yang seemed to realize something. "Could they be..."

"I suspect they are the 'rune stones' the Sentinels deployed into the Netway," Ophelia's voice grew graver still. "It appears the deaths of the Sentinels and the Creeping Calamity did not cause these rune stones to deactivate automatically. They are still operating."

Gao Yang and Amber exchanged a glance in an instant, and both saw the same shock and tension in each other's eyes—what Ophelia had discovered was, without question, a blind spot in everyone's field of vision. This war had been so vast, this victory so exhilarating, that once the war ended, almost everyone had sunk into the joy of finally having won—and no one had thought that the rune stones deployed into the Deep Blue Netway were still operating!!

Amid that tension, Gao Yang suddenly felt profoundly grateful: when almost everyone had turned their eyes to the myriad affairs that followed victory, thank goodness there was still the Ophelia Matrix—a conscientious ancient artificial intelligence—meticulously discharging its duties. Without such a vigilant pair of eyes forever watching the Deep Blue Netway, heaven knew when the world would ever remember those rune stones!

"Could those rune stones still be carrying out the orders the Sentinels left behind?" Amber suddenly spoke up.

"Based on the data we have now, there should be no need to worry yet," Ophelia replied. "The signals collected so far are merely regular transmissions and responses. Though the specific content of the communications still needs to be deciphered, we can broadly confirm that they are the regular signals released when the rune stones communicate with one another. For now, there are no signs of large-scale activity."

At this point Ophelia seemed to ponder, pausing a moment before continuing: "The Deep Blue Well's monitoring system was never able to detect these rune stones before. I suspect that, under the Sentinels' conscious control, the rune stones actively evaded my surveillance, or used some technological means to shield themselves from it. But now the Deep Blue Well has received the signals the rune stones are releasing, which may indicate that these rune stones have entered some kind of... unguarded, automatic operating state. In a sense, that is a good thing."

"Standby mode... From the perspective of 'not causing trouble,' that is indeed a good thing. But the thought of so many time bombs buried in the magic netway deep within the planet, any one of which could go off who knows when—I won't be able to sleep soundly..." Gao Yang muttered through gritted teeth. "Is there any way we can 'fish' them out?"

As he said this, he glanced instinctively at Tyr beside him. "Like what the sirens did back then..."

"We could try, but it won't be easy," Tyr said. Though she had been silent, she had been listening carefully to the exchange between Gao Yang and Ophelia, and now she spoke up at once. "Our sisters have already experimented. Elemental beings like the sirens can indeed swim safely through the Deep Blue Netway, so in theory they could find those rune stones that have drifted into its depths. The problem is the scale of the Deep Blue Netway... it is simply too vast."

Tyr's tone was troubled, and Gao Yang had to nod. "Indeed. The Deep Blue Netway is the planet's 'power system,' and it doesn't merely spread through the material world—its branches run through all realms and elemental domains. Finding all the rune stones in a netway that vast is no small undertaking, especially since we have no idea how to navigate it..."

"Actually, those are the lesser problems," Tyr said, pinching her chin as she thought aloud. "However vast the Netway is, it has limits. However hard navigation is, we could gradually work out the patterns. The real trouble is that it runs through all the elemental domains. As you know, our relations with the native elemental creatures aren't exactly good..."

"Aren't you only on bad terms with the native water elementals? At most, add the wind elementals, who were dragged into the war against you by the water elementals," Amber's eyes went wide. The shadow assault goose had keenly sensed that the sirens' exploits might be even more spectacular than she had imagined. "How did all the elemental creatures get dragged into this..."

Tyr's face took on a somewhat embarrassed look. Rubbing her hands together, she murmured softly, "...I wasn't around for the early elemental wars. But I heard that after the Queen tried the ones with fizz, she went on to create the ones with pearls and the ones meant to be drunk hot..."

"...Holy shit!" Gao Yang swore he had never opened his eyes so wide in his life. "Unbelievable—what kind of elemental-world tyrants are you fish?"