Chapter 1253 The Third Sanctum 1

This moment felt both like an instant and like countless years.

Han Xiao's vision slowly became clear as he gradually saw his surroundings.

This was an endless world of white with no gravity. His body floated in midair. Countless white light spheres floated all around him, some small, some large. Looking from afar, every light sphere seemed to be playing blurry images.

"The Third Sanctum does indeed look no different from what Oathkeeper described…"

Han Xiao looked around curiously. Suddenly, he turned around and saw that the light gate entrance he came from was trembling intensely as if it was going to collapse.

Suddenly, out of intuition, he extended his hand and closed his fist.

Buzz!

At this time, a stream of special energy suddenly appeared in his body. Six warm streams of energy seemed to have appeared out of thin air and gathered on his palm, turning into a glowing unique pattern.

The next moment, the entrance seemed to have received some kind of support and instantly became stable, turning into a slowly spinning light gate like a glowing mirror.

"What's this?"

Han Xiao was surprised. Earlier, he only thought of not wanting the entrance to disappear, and suddenly, he intuitively felt that he could make it happen, which was exactly what happened.

He looked down on his palm and observed this mark that appeared out of nowhere. It looked like it was a combination of six patterns, and it did not seem whole.

"That's weird. When did I have this thing inside my body?"

Han Xiao was just about to open the interface to check his status, when to his absolute shock, he discovered he could no longer open the interface.

This was the first time ever the interface did not respond!

Han Xiao frowned. He clenched his fist and tried to command the energy inside his body, the next moment, streams of golden Mechanical Force shot out.

"Hmm. Although the interface can't be opened, my status did not change. I'm still at my peak."

Han Xiao sensed the state of his body and heaved a sigh of relief. Although he could not open the interface for the time being, it did not affect his abilities.

Since the very start, everything he felt was real. All the abilities he learned became his own techniques that he could use anytime. If it was a player, they would not even be able to use any ability at all without the interface. For example, when building machines, he had to personally finish all the processes, while players only had to wait for the progress bar to finish. The difference was huge.

This was Han Xiao's first time inside a Sanctum. All he could do was slowly figure things out.

He tested several abilities and realized he could use almost all of them. The only ones he could not use were the abilities that were related to the outside world such as quantum network communication functions and the Dimension Factory. Even the King's teleportation function became unusable.

Although he somehow stopped the Sanctum entrance from disappearing, all means of communication he had with the outside world were no longer working. His call with the Holy Accord organization was also cut off.

"Interesting. The Sanctum is very special. Not only is the King suit useless, even the interface can't be opened…"

Han Xiao narrowed his eyes, and his brain quickly spun. Staring at the mark on his palm, he suddenly had a flash of insight.

"Six patterns… six… if I remember correctly, that's about the same number of Third Sanctum fragments I have, isn't it?"

Han Xiao's eyes sparkled.

Despite not being able to see the interface now, he still remembered things like that.

Initially, he only had two [The Third Sanctum] fragments, one from the [Primal Esper Ability Collector] milestone and another from beating up the elderlies of Holy Accord.

The mission requirement of the third round of [A Relay Across Iterations] was to enter any one of the Sanctums. The reward was three Sanctum fragments of the respective Sanctum. Although he could not see the interface now, Han Xiao had a feeling that the interface might still be operating. He could not see the notifications, but the mission rewards were still given.

If that was the case, he had five Third Sanctum fragments.

As for the one extra fragment, Han Xiao had a few speculations about it. According to Oathkeeper's experience, the biggest possibility was that by entering any Sanctums, he would automatically obtain its respective fragment.

If this theory was true, the number would match, and it would explain this situation. This meant that this mark did not appear out of thin air but had always been sleeping inside his body, and the activation requirement was to enter the corresponding Sanctum.

"I had no idea about the use of Sanctum fragments, but they stabilized the Sanctum entrance just now… Does this mean that the Sanctum fragments are related to the level of authority I have in the Sanctums? The more fragments I have, the more things I can do?

"Oathkeeper said he felt like he was in a dream when he was in the Sanctum and his mind was not clear, but my mind is only a little bit distracted and not as fuzzy as he said. Is this also because of the Sanctum fragments?"

Han Xiao could not help but ponder.

Suddenly, he regained focus and shook his head heavily.

"These things can only be speculated now. I can't waste too much time. I should find out what happened after I go out and can see the interface… The priority now is to observe the Sanctum!"

Han Xiao focused, controlled his body, and flew to the nearest light sphere. He opened his eyes wide, wanting to see the illusions in it clearly, but it was still very blurry.

He hesitated for a moment, reached out the hand that had the Sanctum mark, and carefully touched this light sphere.

Swoos.h.!.+

At the moment he came into contact with it, an enormous stream of information gushed into his mind like a tsunami.

Suddenly, illusions appeared before Han Xiao's eyes. It was as if he saw the entire rise and fall of a race, creating a glorious civilization, breeding great people generation after generation, improving its technology rapidly. It was eventually destroyed in a disaster.

Han Xiao remained stunned for quite some time before removing his hand. He realized that he could only remember parts of the illusions he saw. Some knowledge appeared in his head out of nowhere that seemed to be a part of the technology this civilization created in its development.

"This knowledge mainly revolves around biology and gene tech. It's only a part of this civilization's technology…"

Han Xiao digested this surprise and went back to touching more light spheres.

After several tests, he had a rough idea of the mechanics of the Sanctum and concluded a few patterns from speculations.

Firstly, every light sphere was an Information Form collective body that recorded the information of various things, mainly civilizations. Usually, one light sphere represented one civilization. None of them existed historically and should all be from the past Iterations.

Secondly, he could read the information inside the light spheres by touching them, but he could only remember parts. The number of things he could remember should be related to the level of authority he had, meaning the number of Sanctum fragments he possessed.

However, there was a limit to the number of memories he could keep. At a certain point, when he read new light spheres, he would forget a part of the information he read earlier.

According to the nature of the Information Form, the number of memories he could keep every time he entered the Sanctums was very likely limited and would only be reset the next time he entered. This meant that the amount of knowledge he could bring out of the Sanctums each time was limited too, and the limit probably still depended on the number of Sanctum fragments.

Thirdly, after touching multiple light spheres, he noticed that the technology he acquired was mostly related to biology, genetics, and Esper Abilities. This might be the difference between Sanctums, meaning that the knowledge of these civilizations in the past Iterations was stored separately based on its type. Different Sanctums might represent the different types of knowledge. The Third Sanctum most likely contained the biology, genetics, and Esper Ability related technology.

Fourthly, some light spheres contained information about Beyond Grade As from different Iterations. By reading it, he could immerse himself in their life experience and even acquire some of the information they knew.

However, there were only Espers in the Third Sanctum. According to Han Xiao's speculation, if he read the light spheres about Mechanics or Mages, he would very likely acquire the knowledges, technology, spells, blueprints, or other things these Beyond Grade As had.

"Jayz didn't lie…"

Han Xiao was shocked.

Although parts of these patterns were speculation, he felt that it should be very close to the truth!

Other than completing the revival goal, Oathkeeper almost did not gain anything at all the last time he entered the Sanctum. It might be because his level of authority was not high enough.

However, he had six fragments in the Third Sanctum to begin with. His authority level was a full five levels higher than Oathkeeper. He should be able to do much more.

Having thought of Jayz, his request appeared in Han Xiao's mind.

"Let's see how the Sanctum revival system works."

Han Xiao focused and took out the mediums that Oathkeeper had given him.

As soon as he thought about testing how the Sanctum revival system worked, the mark on his palm seemed to have sensed it and flickered.

Swoos.h.!.+

The next second, thin lines of light suddenly shot out from some light spheres and met before Han Xiao's eyes. With a bright flash, a glowing mark hovered in midair.

Han Xiao sized it up and was delighted.

"This mark… it's the Sanctum revival mark Oathkeeper drew."

Han Xiao reached out and touched this mark right away. The mark instantly turned into a stream of light and landed on the back of his hand.

At the same time, a stream of data flowed into his brain that recorded the instructions on how to use the Sanctum revival mark and the list of targets this mark could revive.

Sadly, Jayz was not in the list.

"Looks like it failed…"

Having realized that, Han Xiao sighed.

Either this medium of his was not recognized by the Sanctum, or there was some kind of restriction on reviving targets from other Iterations like Jayz said.

Although they did not spend a lot of time together, Jayz left a heavy impression on him. Since the revival had failed and he could not meet Jayz again, Han Xiao felt complicated.

"Never mind, this is just fate."

Han Xiao shook his head and cleared up his emotions. His thoughts jumped from Jayz to the Celestial Star Alliance, and he murmured, "The Information Form collective body of the Celestial Star Alliance Iteration should also be inside the Sanctums, right?"

As soon as he thought of that, the Sanctum mark reacted and glowed, pointing to a direction.

Seeing this, unprepared, Han Xiao was surprised.

Then, he flew in the direction the mark pointed and stopped beside a bunch of light spheres.

"Are these the Information Form light spheres of the Celestial Star Alliance Iteration?"

As he thought that, he read the content of one of the light spheres and immediately verified his speculation. It indeed contained the information of a certain civilization from the Celestial Star Alliance Iteration.

Regaining focus, Han Xiao looked at the mark on his hand with surprise.

"Looks like I guessed correctly. The Sanctum fragments represent authority, but it's surprising it can even lead the way… Well, I guess it makes sense. There's so much Information Form information inside the Sanctum; finding a specific piece of information is like finding a needle in a haystack."

As soon as he said that, Han Xiao's body shook, and a daring thought appeared in Han Xiao's head. He mumbled, "If it can lead the way like an index, if I search for the Iteration information of the Galaxy and find it, does that mean that we're already…"

Buzz!

Before he even finished, the Sanctum mark pointed in another direction.

"There really is‽"

Han Xiao's breath stopped for a second, and his heart sank.

He bit his lips, followed the direction silently, and came to a light sphere.

He stood in place for quite some time before he finally prepared himself mentally, took a deep breath, and slowly touched this light sphere.

However, the next moment, Han Xiao was dumbfounded.

There was no content in this light sphere. It was empty!

"Why isn't there anything‽"

Han Xiao had touched many light spheres. This was the first time he had come across this.

He then tried to search for the three Universal Civilizations of the Galaxy and the other advanced civilizations.

Every search worked, but none of the target light spheres had any information in them at all. They were all empty sh.e.l.ls.

Han Xiao was shocked yet could not help but feel relieved.

He was worried about seeing the information of the explored universe inside the Sanctum. It would mean that just like the Celestial Star Alliance, Galaxy was only an illusion of the past. However, this was beyond his expectations. Although he could search for the target civilizations, they were all empty. Han Xiao did not know what it meant, but at least it was not the worst scenario.

"Interesting, what is going on?"

Han Xiao frowned and pondered, beginning to speculate.

"The reason they're empty sh.e.l.ls… does it mean that Galaxy is the ongoing Iteration, meaning it's the present, and its related information will only be recorded by the Sanctum after we experience the Great Reboot? If that's really the case, it should be good news…"

This time, Han Xiao suddenly thought of something, and his expression changed slightly.

"Therefore, these empty sh.e.l.ls… are the gravestones the Sanctum prepared for this Iteration?

"Is the Sanctum trying to say that nothing can escape death?"

Han Xiao became silent.

He silently looked at the empty light sphere before him. At this moment, his heart was filled with a strong sense of grief.