Acai's Sky

Branch 3: Xingcha Ancient Road: Recasting the Ladder to Heaven

The "Broken Back Corridor" is worthy of its name.

This place seems to be the ultimate graveyard of ancient interstellar wars. Countless unimaginably huge starship wreckages are like the corpses of giant dragons, violently broken and twisted by invisible forces, crushed and stacked on each other, forming metal cliffs towering into the "cloud" (stardust cloud) and bottomless dark chasms.

The air was thick with the smell of rusted metal, ozone, and a dusty smell called "the decay of time."

The huge stress makes the space structure here extremely fragile. The tiny space ripples visible to the naked eye are like water waves rippling among the wreckage. Occasionally, when they collide, silent sparks of annihilation will burst out.

Riding on the "Worker Bee" heavy engineering shuttle equipped with powerful space stabilizers and thick armor, the team struggled to pass through the starship keel that was as intertwined as the ribs of a giant beast, and arrived at the target area - a depression half-buried by the wreckage of a starship bridge that had collapsed like a mountain.

After clearing away the thick metal dust and solidified energy residue, the half-broken bronze base finally revealed its true appearance.

The base is about ten feet in diameter and is made entirely of a strange metal that is neither gold nor jade, but exudes the luster of ancient bronze. The surface is etched with a dazzlingly complex array of runes, and there are faint stardust flowing between the rune lines.

In the center of the base, the prismatic crystal the size of a human head and covered with spider-web-like cracks - the "Space Anchoring Crystal" - was emitting a faint but stable azure starlight.

Around the crystal, eight thick, equally cracked and rusted energy conduits connected, like the roots of a giant tree, deeply embedded in the base. The entire base was fractured and collapsed in many places, and the runes were dim, as if it would completely collapse at any moment.

"The extent of the damage...is more severe than expected."

Tong Shishan piloted the miniature scanning robot close to the base. The data it sent back made her face tense. "The core crystal's energy is seriously dissipating. The internal spatial coordinates are chaotic, and the stability is less than 30%. Four of the eight 'Void Energy Conduits' are broken, and the rest are severely aged."

"The rune array is over 60% damaged, and its self-repair function is completely disabled. The most troublesome thing is..."

"A strong spatial stress field has been detected beneath the pedestal. Any slight error in the repair process could trigger a chain reaction, sending us and the entire area into spatial turbulence."

"Materials list check."

Tong Jiaqi's cold mechanical voice rang out, "To repair the cracks in the crystal shell: five ingots of 'Star Pattern Mithril' (purity > 90%); to repair the energy conduit: ten ingots of 'Glowing Gold' (purity > 85%), three branches of 'Star Marrow Crystal Cluster' (length > 30 cm); to repair the rune array: liquid 'Star Essence' (refined on site), and microparticles of 'Immortal Divine Gold' (a trace amount, used to reinforce key nodes)."

"We have star-patterned mithril and glowing adamantium! The purity is definitely enough!" The golden raccoon patted his chest and pointed to the ore piled up in the engineering boat cabin.

"There are also star marrow crystal clusters!" Jin Yuanbao hugged a warm crystal cluster branch.

"The star essence needs to be extracted from the minerals rich in star power within this star debris, which takes time." Tong Shishan added, "As for the 'Immortal Divine Gold' particles..."

She looked at Ah Cai. This item was extremely rare, having only been seen on the Pixiu golden lock in the Nine Palaces Locking and Key Formation.

Ah Cai's mind moved, and she pulled out a small jade box from her storage space. Opening it, she found a few dark golden particles, barely larger than a speck of dust, yet emitting an aura of eternity and immortality. These were the remnants she had collected after the Pixiu Golden Lock shattered. "Is that enough?"

"That's enough! Miss, you are so far-sighted!" Tong Shishan's eyes lit up.

"Great! We have all the materials!" Ah Cai cheered up. "Xuantian, what about the space calibration plan?"

"The deduction is complete." Xuantian hovered above the base, and the star map on the tortoise shell projected an image of the vast universe, echoing with the faint spatial fluctuations remaining in the base of the teleportation array.

"During the repair process, we need to inject pure star power at three key points, using the star map as a guide, to correct the disordered spatial coordinate records. However, the injection of star power requires extreme precision, the timing is fleeting, and it will disturb the space, so it requires strong suppression measures to protect it."

"Leave the spatial disturbance to me."

The tomb guardian beast, Glutinous Rice Ball, spoke for the first time, his voice deep and deep like the rumbling of earth veins.

It walked to the edge of the base, the dark blue soul fire burning calmly, and its small body exuded a heavy aura that stabilized the universe.

"Start repairing! Shishan, you are responsible for commanding the engineering robots to perform physical repairs! Jiaqi, monitor the global data! Golden raccoon dog, gold ingots, accurately deliver materials! Rong Mama, Gu Mama, the secret guard team, guard all directions, beware of the activation of the ancient array defense mechanism! Xuantian, Nuomi Tuanzi, prepare to deal with space changes! I will coordinate!" A Cai made a prompt decision and assigned tasks.

The restoration work is carried out in a tense and orderly manner, just like the most delicate embroidery on the edge of a cliff.