Chapter 329 The Gaze from Deep Space Never Leaves

On the far side of the moon, the screen remained a deep gray.

There are no lights there.

There are no flight routes.

There is no stable communication relay.

There is only intermittent old exploration data and large areas of unupdated terrain shadows.

Lin Feng stood in front of the screen and pulled up the low-orbit patrol records for the past 72 hours.

"After Lunar Orbit Station 1 went into operation, the patrol coverage of the main orbit increased threefold. The mining area, teleportation array, greenhouse bunker, and the area around the Taiyi Furnace have all been included in stable monitoring."

He paused for a moment before switching to another set of data.

"But the background noise from the far side of the moon is still incorrect."

On the screen, a thin, almost invisible gray waveform slowly undulates.

It has no dramatic peaks or obvious bursts.

Like a line hidden beneath the calm surface of water.

Wang Mingyuan looked at the waveform: "How many times has this happened?"

"The seventeenth time," Lin Feng said. "Each time it lasts very short, the shortest being four seconds and the longest being twenty-one seconds. The frequency is unstable and the energy level is not high, but the location where it appears is very fixed."

The president of the court leaned on his cane and slowly raised his head.

"Deep on the far side of the moon?"

"To be more precise, it's below the shadow zone deeper within the Aitken Basin." Lin Feng circled the coordinates. "Currently, all publicly available information can only explain it as interference from deep mineral veins. But the problem is that this signal doesn't reflect, spread, or attenuate."

There was a moment of silence in the conference room.

It does not reflect, diffuse, or attenuate.

These words, when placed in any physical system, are enough to make one uncomfortable.

The logistics minister frowned: "Could it be our own equipment? The Great Sun Spirit Guiding Array, the Lunar Flow Guiding Array, and the Taiyi Furnace—none of them are traditional engineering projects, so it's normal for them to interfere with each other."

Lin Feng did not answer immediately.

He just released another picture.

Those are surviving waveform archives from the Los Angeles void catastrophe.

The moment the gray waveform overlapped with the dark red old waveform, even the breathing in the conference room became a little quieter.

The two are not the same.

But a certain segment of the underlying noise is remarkably similar.

It's not a complete fingerprint.

It's more like an old seal that's been soaked in water and is now blurred, but you can still tell what was pressed on it.

Wang Mingyuan's gaze finally darkened.

How many people know this conclusion?

"Currently, there are only three elders with the highest authority: the Joint Control Room, the Deep Space Group of the Academy of Sciences, and the Array Court," Lin Feng said. "On the lunar surface, Li Xiang was only given a vague version of the anomaly alert; he wasn't told the results of the void file comparison."

"Keep it down."

Wang Mingyuan did not hesitate.

"The atmosphere outside is too heated right now. Once they find out that the far side of the moon might be related to the void, all the previous enthusiasm for lunar exploration will immediately turn into panic."

The court president tapped his cane.

"But if it really is related to the void, stalling won't solve anything."

Wang Mingyuan looked at the darkness that was turned away from the earth.

"That's why we can't let fanatics go."

He raised his hand and touched the shadowy band on the far side of the moon.

"Suppress the hype. Raise the selection criteria to the highest level. In the next batch of candidates for lunar missions, eliminate all those who fail the psychological assessment."

"What we need are people who can tighten bolts in a vacuum, not crazy people who think they're going to become immortal just because they see the stars."

……

Kunlun, the Heavenly Palace on the Clouds.

Gu Qing stood on the star-gazing platform, quietly watching the moon.

He has not directly intervened in every step of human progress for a long time.

The system's cognitive fading continues to operate.

The world's reliance on Kunlun is gradually turning into trust in its own industrial system.

This is a good thing.

At least that's what Gu Qing originally thought.

Until that gray waveform entered his field of vision.

In ordinary instruments, it is just a faint anomaly.

In Gu Qing's eyes, it was like an eye that had opened in the darkness.

It's very light.

It's very far.

It's like looking through countless layers of damp cloth.

But it does exist.

[Residual high-dimensional gaze traces detected.]

A cold, impersonal system notification appeared in my mind.

Gu Qing did not speak.

He simply raised his hand and brought up all the causal fragments left behind when that high-dimensional behemoth descended over Los Angeles years ago.

Countless streams of scarlet data flashed before his eyes.

death.

Pollution.

Swallow.

Mental breakdown.

And that cold malice that doesn't belong to the current physical rules of the universe.

The calm in Gu Qing's eyes gradually faded, revealing a faint chill.

He did not delve further into the cause and effect of the moon's back.

The waveform wasn't erased directly either.

Because he knew that the truly dangerous things could not be solved by simply covering them up.

If there really is something hidden on the far side of the moon, humanity will see it sooner or later.

The only thing he could do was to ensure that when they saw it, they wouldn't think he had conquered the stars.

Gu Qing withdrew her gaze.

"Elevate the report of anomalies on the far side of the moon to a civilization-level observation sequence."

[Should we synchronize with the secular system?]

Gu Qing remained silent for a moment.

"Synchronize a portion."

[Synchronization range?]

"Give it only to Wang Mingyuan."

……

At the same time.

In the Kyoto joint control room, Wang Mingyuan's private access screen suddenly lit up.

No source found.

It consists of only one very short line of text.

Don't believe the silence of deep space.

Wang Mingyuan stared at the line of words for a long time without moving.

In the office, the others were still discussing plans for exploring the far side of the moon.

Lin Feng was saying, "Remote scanning alone is probably meaningless. The high-density rock layers on the far side of the moon and the cold pressure from the moon will severely interfere with data transmission. We need a physical deep-penetration team, equipped with low-frequency arrays and drilling equipment, to go down to the edge of the shadow zone."

The logistics minister immediately frowned.

"Now? The lunar landing system has just stabilized, and Lunar Orbit Station 1 has only been operational for a short time."

"Precisely because we've just stabilized, we need to take this opportunity to thoroughly investigate any potential hazards," Lin Feng said firmly. "If that thing is just interference from the mineral vein, confirming it early can prevent internal panic. If not..."

He didn't continue speaking.

Wang Mingyuan raised his hand and closed the private access screen.

The line of text then disappeared.

It's as if it never happened.

"Preparing for in-depth physical exploration."

The sound in the conference room immediately stopped.

The Dean of the Court looked at him: "Scale?"

"Squad system".

Wang Mingyuan said, "We will not use a large number of personnel, we will not open up temporary recruitment, and we will not allow anyone without deep space experience to participate."

Lin Feng nodded: "I suggest drawing personnel from the existing staff of the Guanghan Base. Li Xiang is familiar with the Shadow Zone Engineering, Lao Liu is familiar with the lunar heavy-load equipment, and we'll also assign two Golden Core Guardians and one Netherworld Spiritual Pollution Observer."

"The Netherworld system?"

The logistics minister was somewhat surprised.

The Dean of the Array Court slowly spoke: "If it's related to the void, ordinary divine sense may not be safe. The Netherworld system is more sensitive to spiritual pollution."

Wang Mingyuan did not object.

He simply stared at the grayish-black area on the far side of the moon.

"Send someone to communicate with Youming."

……

Underworld.

The mist of the underworld churns and rolls.

A young underworld official knelt before the Mirror of Retribution, his face turning pale after hearing the order.

He wasn't afraid of death.

People in the underworld system have no shortage of experience dealing with inanimate objects.

But the moon is different.

That is not a ghost realm, not the lingering spirits of the dead, nor a place that can be completely covered by the laws of the underworld.

It was a vacuum where even death seemed too warm.

Zhao Feng sat high up, his fingers lightly tapping the armrest.

"Afraid?"

The young underworld official remained silent for a moment.

"Afraid."

Zhao Feng smiled.

"Being afraid is the right thing to do."

He raised his hand, and a grayish-white bone talisman landed in front of the young underworld official.

"Keep this with you. If you encounter anything unclean, don't try to be brave or think about making a name for yourself. Just report back what you see immediately."

The young underworld official took the bone talisman and asked in a low voice, "What if it can't be transmitted back?"

The smile on Zhao Feng's face faded slightly.

"Then die a slower death."

The young underworld official was stunned.

Zhao Feng looked at him, his tone calm.

"Giving those behind you an extra second is a good deed."

……

Guanghan Base.

When the mission to explore the far side of the moon was assigned, Lao Liu was dismantling a broken set of circulation pumps in the supply compartment of Lunar Station 1.

After listening to the mission briefing, he threw the wrench into the toolbox.

"I knew it."

There was a moment of silence on Li Xiang's end: "Know what?"

"I knew you researchers would eventually end up in the dark."

"This is not a decision I made alone."

"I don't care who made the decision," Old Liu said, checking the exoskeleton's locking mechanisms. "I only have one question: how much equipment are we bringing?"

Li Xiang sent over the list.

Old Liu glanced at it and his brows immediately furrowed.

"too much."

"These are all necessary equipment."

"Necessary my ass," Old Liu retorted immediately. "The shadowy area on the far side of the moon isn't a lab corridor. If you bring so much stuff down there and there's a landslide, who's going to drag it away? If there's a pressure loss, who's going to rescue it? If there's a backflow of the formation, who's going to dismantle it?"

Li Xiang was scolded by him.

Old Liu removed half of the non-core components, leaving only the low-frequency detection array, the portable drilling core, two sets of Taiyin pressure anchors, and three sets of spare life support kits.

"Take what's dangerous, throw away what's worth saving face."

Li Xiang looked at the revised, compressed list and ultimately did not object.

"it is good."

Old Liu then muttered something under his breath.

"If only we had done this earlier, it would have been fine."

A few hours later, the deep exploration team assembled at the No. 3 airlock of the Guanghan base.

Old Liu, Li Xiang, two Golden Core guards, and a young underworld official from the Netherworld.

Five people.

not much.

It even seemed shabby.

But Wang Mingyuan's orders were very clear.

This was just a simple act of reaching out.

Reach into the shadowy far side of the moon, a place never truly touched by humankind, and see what lies hidden there.

Before the airlock was opened, Li Xiang suddenly turned around and glanced at the Guanghan Base in the distance.

The Taiyi Furnace is still lit.

The living quarters of the greenhouse bunker were dimly lit.

Lunar Orbit Station 1 swept across the sky like a slowly moving, cold star.

Everything humans have built on the moon is still rough, fragile, and ugly.

Yet it felt so real that it made one's heart sink.

Old Liu noticed his gaze.

"What are you looking at?"

Li Xiang said, "It's nothing."

Old Liu sneered: "Afraid you won't be able to come back?"

Li Xiang did not deny it.

Old Liu fastened his helmet, and his voice came through the channel, as always, rough and hoarse.

"If you're scared, fasten your safety harness."

"Don't die a horrible death."

Outside the airlock, the darkness of the moon slowly unfolded.

In the distance, the shadowy area facing away from the earth resembled an endless chasm, silently stretching across everyone's path.

The first heavy-duty exploration vehicle started its tracks, rolled over the grayish-white lunar dust, and headed deep into the far side of the moon.

Behind them, the lights of the Guanghan Base gradually receded into the distance.

Before them, deep space was as quiet as if it had never looked at anything.

......