Chapter 873 - 872: Plande... Sky Island?

"You can't do this... I'm the queen of the Dark Moon Royal Court... I'm serious, you can't do this..."

Under Lucrecia's control, the magnificent Magic Flying Carpet (in motion mode) silently crossed the clear sky, while the burlap sack on the carpet kept squirming, with Hong murmuring inside.

She had been murmuring for almost the entire way.

Yu Sheng sighed beside her, feeling quite sorry for her: "Hey, just bear with it... Couldn't find a pink burlap sack..."

The squirming in the burlap sack grew louder: "...That's not the point!"

Little Puppet went over to poke the sack: "I suggest you stop moving around, if you push twice more you'll fall off the carpet—Sister Lucy said if you want to experience the joy of driving, turn the barrier off, now this is a convertible..."

"...I can fly!"

"Give it a break, you can't even crawl in this state, do you know how hard it was to get you up just now?" Little Puppet stood akimbo, "If you keep dropping things along the way, we'll have to clean up after you..."

Beside him came the bantering between Little Puppet and a certain "Queen of Dark Moon," while the breeze brushed past his face. A bunch of large fluffy tails warmly spread behind him, and Yu Sheng relaxed, leaning against the tails of the fox girl. As the radiant sunlight hit him head-on, he couldn't help but squint slightly.

This world seemed to have no sun; it was illuminated by a grand arc of light spanning the sky. Lucrecia said the trajectory of that arc looked familiar, resembling the path of a man-made megastructure known as "Phenomenon 001" from the Old World. And along that arc's path, many tiny glowing patterns could be seen—something that even the well-informed Deep Sea Witch couldn't decipher.

Roaring water approached gradually as the flying carpet passed beneath a suspended river. This Sky River pierced the clouds, with a magnificent waterfall cascading from its edge to the ground, and areas where the water branched were covered in vast mist.

The moist air approached, and the fox girl's ears twitched amidst the mist. She lowered her head, looking at Yu Sheng lying on her tail: "Savior, what are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking this is a great place, and also considering where to place the 'Calibrator' if we were to build it here," Yu Sheng let his thoughts drift, speaking slowly, "I'm also wondering... how many people could be settled on such a large piece of land."

"How many people to settle?" Hu Li blinked in confusion, "Why do we need to settle people?"

Yu Sheng opened his eyes and glanced at the burlap sack wiggling not far away. After hesitating for a moment, he still shook his head.

"It's not time to say yet, there are things I'm not quite sure about."

Hu Li grew more curious upon hearing this, but seeing Yu Sheng's cautious and hesitant expression, she smiled gently and nodded: "Okay."

Just at that moment, Zheng Zhi, who was sitting at the edge of the flying carpet and had been gazing into the distance with curiosity, seemed to have discovered something. He suddenly raised his hand, pointing afar: "Hey! Brother Yu, Sister Hu Li, look over there!"

Honestly, the nephew "suddenly discovering something and loudly reminding" was somewhat triggering. Yu Sheng, hearing this commotion, nearly jumped; even Little Puppet, who was busy poking the burlap sack, stopped and turned quickly to look in Zheng Zhi's direction.

Luckily, nothing fell from the sky, and the sky that had just calmed down didn't suddenly tear open with a thunderous crack.

Erin patted her chest: "What is it, nephew, you scared me... What the heck?"

She saw the edge of the earth.

It turned out that the vast land beneath them was just a giant island floating in the sky. At the boundary of the plains, the earth appeared jagged and fragmented, with a cloud sea surging at the fractured edge, and through the gaps in the clouds, the deep and endless sky could be seen—floating rocks like the ones Yu Sheng had observed from the ground were now everywhere beyond the boundary in the cloud sea, some as large as satellite islands, others too small even for Erin to stand, merely rolling stones in mid-air.

Even Lucrecia, who was controlling the flying carpet, stood up and looked into the distance with some surprise.

Yu Sheng, noticing her reaction, casually said: "...Well, no need to ask, the Old World definitely doesn't look like this."

"Many archipelago city-states floating on the Endless Sea; now they're Floating Continents on the Cloud Sea..." Lucrecia murmured as if talking to herself, "Ask dad when we go back, he'd surely say it's all part of the plan..."

Yu Sheng stood beside her with a stern face, pretending not to hear Miss Witch's mutterings.

Then another buzzing sound reached everyone's ears, and Yu Sheng looked over, seeing a heavy drone flying nearby. The drone and the flying carpet exchanged a few flashes of light across a hundred meters.

That must be the reconnaissance drone sent by Baili Qing.

"Hey, I can see the 'entrance hall'!" Erin pointed somewhere on the ground, shouting, "It's over there, Yu Sheng, your portal is still standing there~"

Yu Sheng also saw the temporary command post set beside the Reincarnation Gate—the area once surrounded by Mist Forest Sea was now just part of the plain, and the solemn triangular gate stood on a lush plot near the continent's edge.

"Well then..." Erin marveled, "Before, the surroundings were all covered by old trees, couldn't see anything... Turns out this place is so spectacular?"

While speaking, the flying carpet had started slowing down, gradually descending towards the camp.

Hong seemed to sense something, and the burlap sack next to Erin stopped squirming instantly.

From inside the sack came the voice of Her Majesty the Queen: "I have a request..."

"Don't worry, I understand."

Yu Sheng said as he casually picked up the sack and turned around, stuffing it into Hu Li's storage tail.

"Wait until we see Baili Qing and confirm there's no one around before taking you out."

About a dozen minutes later, in the frontline camp on the surface, Yu Sheng met Baili Qing, who had been waiting there for quite some time.

After a brief confirmation of the camp's situation and explaining that the crisis at the Dark Moon Royal Court had subsided, Baili Qing led Yu Sheng and his group into the barracks and then had the others leave the scene.

"Although I might already have guessed the answer," after dismissing everyone, Baili Qing turned to Yu Sheng, "… where's Red?"

The fox girl turned her head, pulled out the storage tail from behind, and shook it on the ground. With a thud, a sack fell out.

Yu Sheng pointed: "This sack here."

Baili Qing's eyes and mouth twitched simultaneously: "It's… different from last time."

The two sacks had turned into one.

Yu Sheng nodded: "Well, the sack can hold more."

Then they heard Red's voice coming from inside: "… Do you guys really need to seriously discuss such matters?"

Yu Sheng immediately coughed twice, sat down next to the table, and looked seriously at Baili Qing: "Let's get to business. Red, do you mind…"

"Go ahead, I don't mind," Red's voice sounded muffled, "you all helped solve the disaster that lingered from my Hometown World until now, and Ah Qing… is one of the people I trust the most. There's nothing I can't say."

Yu Sheng nodded: "Okay."

Afterward, he recounted everything that had happened in the Dark Moon Royal Court.

Once Yu Sheng finished sharing everything he knew, the room fell silent.

Baili Qing's face was expressionless, making it difficult for others to know what she was thinking. After remaining silent for a while, she turned to look at the sack beside her.

The gray sack looked somewhat comical with Red hiding inside, not making a sound or showing her face, as if she was asleep or perhaps lost in her thoughts.

Baili Qing thought—it was much like when she was criticized by Red as a child and hid in the big cardboard box in the corner of her bedroom, pretending it was her giant dragon's nest.

Yu Sheng mentioned that on their way back, Red and Erin bickered the entire way, exchanging trash talk and even arguing over the color of the sack.

"How's the situation at the camp?" Yu Sheng suddenly asked, interrupting Baili Qing's thoughts.

This seemed like an intentional way to break the oppressive atmosphere or change the topic, but it was indeed a matter to discuss now.

So Baili Qing immediately adjusted her posture and nodded seriously.

"The camp itself hasn't been impacted. The distortion and collapse of the Forest Sea stopped outside the walls, but we've lost contact with many detection devices and node stations previously set up in the forest—it seems they cannot be retrieved.

"To prevent things from escalating rapidly beyond control, I preemptively transferred some critical equipment and personnel to the other side of the gate. Now that stability has returned, I'm organizing for their return…

"Additionally, as you can see, the environment of this world has undergone a drastic change after the Forest Sea receded. This place is actually a massive island floating in the sky… or one could say, a small Floating Continent. Most of the data and reports collected during our prior exploration of the forest have lost relevance, and I'm redeploying drones and exploration teams to reassess the surrounding environmental conditions.

"From the current feedback from preliminary drone reconnaissance, the extent of this Floating Land far exceeds the size of what Lady Lucrecia described, the Old World's Plande City State, and there are also various sizes of 'fragmentary islands' floating in the Cloud Sea beyond the Floating Land, which was not mentioned in records of the Old World…"

Erin climbed onto the table, curiously asking, "What about further out? Are there other islands beyond this Floating Island? I mean ones comparable in size to this main island. And what's below the Cloud Sea? Is there anything below?"

The Little Puppet asked a string of questions rapidly, but Baili Qing was used to this and just calmly shook her head.

"With the current limited equipment and manpower, we haven't managed to explore beyond the island yet. However, based on a recent wide-area scan, it's hard to say about the situation below the Cloud Sea, but there's a significant chance of other large Floating Islands existing further away… the radar indeed picked up some large signals, though we haven't had the chance to confirm."

Erin drew out her tone, nodding: "Oh—"

Baili Qing then cleared her throat twice.

"Next, we should discuss another major issue, concerning the 'big tree' at the center of the plains."