Xinyi watched Zane beg the two girls with a smile on her face, as if she were looking at her own child reaching the age of marriage, a trace of relief in her eyes.
"The Prefect of Jinzhou, the frontier strategist, and the Little Overlord have all arrived one after another. Hongzhen has probably already become the center of the vortex in Jinzhou."
Xinyi's words interrupted the two girls' interrogation of Zane, and they both withdrew their hands from the soft flesh at his waist.
"Lady Xinyi, you clearly didn't see Master, so how do you know she also came?"
"Could you have made it to Mt. Firmament on your own?" As soon as Xinyi finished speaking, she saw Rover's sparkling eyes and instantly understood that Zane hadn't had the nerve to tell anyone.
So without waiting for Zane to object, she slowly spoke, "Last time, Changli told me that little Zane wanted to come to Mt. Firmament alone to find the Sentinel. He waited for over a month and still didn't show up."
"Later, I asked Changli and only then found out that this little guy got lost while rowing a boat toward Mt. Firmament. In the end, after rowing for three days and three nights, he ended up at Rinacita."
"Finally, it was a family over there called Montelli that sent this kid back."
Looking at Zane again, he had completely turned into a black-and-white drawing style.
'My lifetime of reputation...', Zane thought, '...actually got ruined here.'
But Rover and the others didn't find it strange at all. After all, getting lost was very much like Zane.
It was just that Zane himself hadn't realized it.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the conversation finally shifted away from teasing Zane and returned to the main topic.
"How is the situation in Hongzhen?"
Hearing Zane's question, although Xinyi's expression remained serious, there was a slight hint of relief in her eyes.
"Thanks to the Prefect. She used her resonance ability to restore the time flow in this area of Hongzhen.", As Xinyi spoke, a bit more worry appeared beneath her already serious expression.
"But according to the Prefect, she hasn't been able to sense the Sentinel for some time now. Using her resonance ability under these conditions will only increase the burden on her body."
Hearing this, Zane rubbed his smooth chin. There was no need to ask, sister Jinhsi must have gone to Mianlong Court to look for the Sentinel.
Xinyi's next words confirmed Zane's guess.
"When the time flow went out of control, I saw the Sentinel fly toward its place of slumber. The Fractsidus must have trapped the Sentinel at that time."
"But they don't know that in front of Mianlong Court, there is a defense mechanism."
"It was built by craftsmen of Court of Savantae, entrusted by the people of Hongzhen in the past as part of their oath to guard the Sentinel during its travels. When the Sentinel returns, it activates automatically."
Through this defense mechanism, Xinyi had also surrounded and eliminated the members of the Fractsidus outside the perimeter of Mianlong Court.
"To reopen Mianlong Court, you need to first obtain the core, then return to the secret chamber and unseal it through the control hub."
"What about the other members of the Fractsidus?"
After hearing that Xinyi had killed part of the Fractsidus, Zane immediately asked the question he cared about most at the moment.
Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.
If the Fractsidus was secretly stirring up trouble, even if he wasn't afraid, too many flies would still be annoying.
Faced with Zane's question, Xinyi could only shake her head, indicating that she didn't know either.
This attack by the Fractsidus on Hongzhen could be said to be full of flaws.
Even though the guards of Hongzhen were caught off guard by the sudden assault, they quickly stabilized the situation.
By the time Jinhsi arrived, all the Fractsidus members attacking Hongzhen had already been wiped out.
Seeing Xinyi shake her head, Zane grew even more puzzled.
But Rover's eyes suddenly lit up, as if she had remembered something.
She seemed to know why the number of Fractsidus members was so small.
"Let's go."
Since he already knew Jinhsi's whereabouts, all he needed to do now was get to her as quickly as possible.
In the dark cave, the shrill cries of the residual echoes, out of sync, kept ringing in his ears, falling silent, then ringing out again.
Jinhsi took out some gauze from the Pangu Terminal and pressed it hard against the wound on her arm.
"Just a little more… hold on…"
Because she couldn't sense the Sentinel, Jinhsi's resonance ability was gradually fading. Compared to before, her strength was now less than one-tenth of what it used to be.
Jinhsi forced herself to stand and walked forward with determination.
"This is…"
After using the built-in grappling hook in the Pangu Terminal to cross a pool of water, Jinhsi suddenly noticed something placed on a stone slope not far away.
This mechanisms were built by the people of Court of Savantae, so the only ones who could have left traces here were them.
With curiosity, Jinhsi slowly walked up the slope. On it, she found a small table and a chair, and the documents that had originally been in a nearby box were scattered all over the ground.
Jinhsi picked up one of the research records and began to read it carefully.
But the further she read, the deeper the shock in her eyes grew.
This was a research report about "Second Resonance."
The people of Court of Savantae caused a collision between the retroflow instrument and the resonance of the Sentinel, restoring the originally distorted time by 1.29 seconds.
If the research of the Court of Savantae people was correct, when two entities in mutual resonance have their frequencies or resonance abilities collide intensely, the weaker side can unleash power beyond its own limits.
Of course, what surprised Jinhsi the most was the last sentence in the record.
"The order that person gave to C-001 is the only variable."
Through reading, Jinhsi understood that "C-001" in the Court of Savantae records referred to the Sentinel.
"A strange person…"
Jinhsi murmured the title softly, and a black figure flashed through her mind.
In the records, that "strange person" seemed to have issued some kind of command, which allowed the retroflow instrument to complete that 1.29-second resonance.
Then, thinking of the prophecy she had learned from the Fractsidus, that she and the Sentinel were destined to fight…
Jinhsi felt a headache coming on. For a moment, she suddenly understood why Zane didn't like thinking too much.
If "Second Resonance" was real, then the Sentinel's prophecy was actually meant to make her collide with it, to trigger "Second Resonance," allowing her to gain greater power and thereby reverse the chaos in the flow of time?
Besides that, the retroflow instrument that successfully resonated with the Sentinel must have been operating in some kind of overloaded state.
Applying that to a resonator…
It would probably be overclocking.
The term overclocking was not unfamiliar to Jinhsi, in fact, she was very familiar with it.
After all, every day in Jinzhou, there were resonators who died because of overclocking.
The shadow of death loomed over Jinhsi. She finally realized that this trip to Mt. Firmament was a dead end for her…
The numb sensation coming from her right arm pulled Jinhsi back from her thoughts.
"It's still too early to give up now!"
Jinhsi stood up and raised her head to face the group of residual echoes charging toward her.
These were guards created by the people of Court of Savantae by imitating the frequency of residual echoes to protect the core, and now, they had become the greatest obstacle preventing Jinhsi from reaching the core and saving the Sentinel.
A pale light from the sky illuminated her from behind, while Time and Harvest stood firm before her.
The scattered glimmers of light illuminated not only the path beneath her feet, but also the path forward for countless people of Jinzhou.
Although her resonance ability was constantly fading, she was still Zane's older sister. Even though she had to be tied down by paperwork, her close-combat ability was not much worse than Zane's.