Chapter 28 The White Corridor

"Retreat! Lin Yuan! Retreat immediately!"

In the Command Center, Chen Weiguo's roar cracked with the intensity of his turbulent emotions.

On the screen, the ten black vortices closing in from all directions resembled a tightening web of death, leaving everyone who saw it with cold limbs and a tingling scalp.

None of them had expected that a single probe would provoke such a massive response!

Ten "Void Devourer"s!

This wasn't just poking a hornet's nest; this was throwing someone directly into it!

"No! Wait!"

Just as Lin Yuan was preparing to obey the order and issue the retreat command, Academician Wang's hoarse but exceptionally firm voice stopped him.

"Don't move! Lin Yuan, stay where you are! Don't move!"

"Academician Wang?!" Chen Weiguo turned his head sharply to look at him, his eyes bloodshot. "Do you know what you're saying?!"

"I know!" Academician Wang stared fixedly at the screen. In his eyes, there was no fear, only a nearly fanatical thirst for knowledge. "Look! Everyone, look at the trajectories of those 'Void Devourer's!"

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately cast their gaze toward the holographic star map.

They saw that the ten black vortices, as they approached the edge of the "Safe Zone" at high speed, all, without exception, showed a clear deceleration!

It was as if they had crashed into an invisible, soft yet tough wall, frantically impacting, twisting, and deforming, yet they were unable to advance even a fraction of an inch!

That invisible barrier formed by the "repulsion field," like a boundary set by the gods, firmly blocked all chaos and destruction outside!

At the junction of the black vortices and the invisible barrier, the space was torn into countless gorgeous and deadly cracks, and violent energy collided and annihilated there, forming a scene as magnificent as the birth of a star.

But none of this could shake that small "Safe Zone."

"It... it blocked them..."

"My god! It really blocked them! That repulsion field really can restrain the 'Void Devourer's!"

In the Command Center, after a brief, deathly silence, a cheer louder than any before erupted—a cheer of survival!

Everyone hugged each other in excitement, laughing and crying.

They were safe!

They had found it! They had found the only "pure land" in this deadly Cosmic Graveyard where they could settle down!

Lin Yuan was also stunned.

He maneuvered "scavenger no. 2," hovering in the center of the "Safe Zone," watching the apocalyptic scene outside, feeling as if he were sitting behind bulletproof glass, watching a group of sharks frantically ramming into a wall.

Thrilling! It was fucking thrilling!

"I... holy shit..." He stammered as he reported to the Command Center, "Academician Wang, you... you are truly a genius! This place is really... really safe!"

"Hahaha! I knew it! I knew it!" Academician Wang looked at the screen, laughing until tears streamed down his face. "Entropy increase and entropy decrease! Chaos and order! The universe is always balanced! Wherever there is 'poison,' within seven steps, there must be an 'antidote'! We found it! We found it!"

Chen Weiguo's body also trembled slightly with excitement. He patted Academician Wang's shoulder hard, then picked up the communicator and said in an unprecedented, proud tone: "Comrade Lin Yuan, you are now in the safest place in the entire 'Cosmic Graveyard'."

"Now, set aside all your concerns and begin your work. That medical ship, that 'Temple' that can decide the future of our civilization, is waiting for you."

"Yes!" A sense of indescribable heroism welled up in Lin Yuan's heart.

He glanced at the "Void Devourer"s outside that were still fruitlessly ramming against the "wall," and the last trace of fear in his heart vanished.

With such a super "Safe House," what the hell was he afraid of?

He turned the drone around and, pushing against that gentle repulsive force, flew straight toward the white medical ship.

This time, he was no longer timid; with engine power at full throttle, he soon arrived beside the medical ship.

Observing it from close range, the ship was even larger than he had imagined. It was made entirely of a milky-white, ceramic-like material, its surface smooth as a mirror, with no visible seams, as if it had been formed as a single piece. On the hull, the symbol of the Rod of Asclepius emitted a soft green light, giving one a feeling of tranquility and peace.

There were a few areas of damage on the hull, but they were minor, looking like they had been caused by high-speed debris impacts.

Lin Yuan chose a breach about three meters in diameter in the middle of the hull and carefully crawled inside.

The moment he entered the ship, Lin Yuan felt as if he had entered another world.

Outside was a chaotic, dark, and silent cosmic ruin.

Inside, it was a spacious, bright, and spotless white corridor.

The walls, ceiling, and floor of the corridor were all made of the same material that emitted a soft white light, illuminating the entire space as brightly as day. In the air, there was no strange odor, only a faint scent, similar to disinfectant but better.

Everything was too clean, too quiet.

So quiet that it made one's skin crawl.

"Damn... this place is cleaner than the operating room at our base." Lin Yuan muttered to himself, "Just how obsessive-compulsive were these aliens?"

"Lin Yuan, be careful." Li Na's voice came through the earpiece; she was now one of Lin Yuan's dedicated liaisons. "The environment here is too abnormal. A spaceship that has been wrecked for tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years cannot possibly remain this well-preserved."

"I think something's wrong too." Lin Yuan replied while maneuvering the drone to slowly advance down the corridor.

On both sides of the corridor were rows of tightly closed, equally white metal doors. On the doors were some alien characters he couldn't understand.

"Academician Wang, what do these words mean?"

"Don't rush, we are currently using the 'Oracle Civilization' database to compare and translate... Got it!" Academician Wang's voice came through. "The door on the left says 'Resting Cabin No. 1,' and the one on the right is 'Nutrient Distribution Center'... Keep moving forward, Lin Yuan. According to the hull structure diagram, the main medical area should be at the core of the ship."

Lin Yuan nodded and continued forward.

He passed by a huge place that looked like a cafeteria. The tables and chairs inside were still neatly arranged, and on the tables, there were even some metal things that looked like dinner plates.

Everything looked as if the crew had just left temporarily and would be back soon.

But where were the people?

Where had the people on this ship gone?

The eerie feeling in Lin Yuan's heart grew heavier. He would rather have seen a battered, corpse-filled warship than stay in such an excessively clean "ghost ship."

He maneuvered the drone, activated the scanning function, and scanned everything around him.

【Scanning...】

【Target: 'Tree of Life' class medical ship - Standard Alloy Dinner Plate】

【Energy Reaction: None】

【Structural Integrity: Extremely Low】

【Analysis: Composed of basic titanium-nickel alloy, no special value.】

He scanned the wall again.

【Scanning...】

【Target: 'Tree of Life' class medical ship - Self-Cleaning Biological Coating Wall】

【Energy Reaction: Extremely Low】

【Structural Integrity: Medium】

【Analysis: This coating can continuously decompose organic pollutants to keep the environment sterile.】

"Self-cleaning coating? No wonder it's so clean." Lin Yuan realized.

If this technology could be brought back, how many housewives would it liberate? No, wait, how many high-precision sterile laboratories could it be used in!

He continued forward, passed through several corridors, and finally, in the very center of the ship, he saw a completely different place.

It was a huge circular hall, and in the center of the hall was a massive, circular gate made of some kind of transparent crystal.

Directly above the gate, a line of large text was marked in eye-catching green characters.

"It's translated!" Academician Wang's voice was trembling slightly. "It says... 'Central Gene Temple'!"

"Gene Temple?"

"Yes! This is it! The most core part of this ship!"

Lin Yuan maneuvered the drone, slowly approaching the huge crystal gate.

Through the gate, he could vaguely see that inside was an even larger space, and in that space, countless translucent objects emitting various colored lights, resembling jellyfish, were floating.

An indescribable energy, full of the breath of life, permeated from behind the gate, making Lin Yuan feel as if his "soul" was warm and extremely comfortable.

"This is it! The treasures must be inside!" Lin Yuan became excited.

He began to look for a mechanism to open the door.

This gate had no physical switches or handles. It was as smooth as a single block of crystal.

"Technology Department, any discoveries?"

"Report! We found an energy interface and a... handprint-like indentation on the wall next to the gate. We speculate that it requires a specific energy key and genetic authorization to open."

"A handprint? Then that's screwed. My mechanical claw can't count as a hand, right?" Lin Yuan was a bit disappointed.

"Don't rush!" the Technology Department said. "We are analyzing its energy interface protocol. Maybe... we can try to 'trick' it open!"

Just as the Technology Department was nervously working on the decryption, Lin Yuan suddenly felt that the warm, sleep-inducing breath of life around him seemed to... change.

A faint, yet extremely cold energy, carrying death and decay, emerged from nowhere and mingled with that breath of life.

"Huh?" Lin Yuan's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately became vigilant.

He maneuvered the drone, turned around abruptly, and aimed the scanner at the empty, silent white corridor he had just come from.

【Wide-area scan... Initiated!】

A heat map instantly covered his field of vision.

In the corridor, it was still a cold blue.

However, right at the corner at the end of the corridor, an extremely faint green dot representing a "living organism," almost blending into the background, appeared silently.

Then, that dot began to float slowly toward Lin Yuan at a steady pace.