The Difference Engine in the studio emitted a steady, rhythmic ticking after Old Joe’s recalibration, yet the oppressive tension in the air didn't dissipate with his explanations. Lin Xiao sat on the heavy ebony chair, her mind cluttered with lunar arks, subterranean life, and burned scripts. She looked at Joe, her voice dry:

  "What happens now? Does this mean... I can’t go back home?"

  Joe walked silently toward the workbench integrated with a holographic spectrometer. He beckoned her over. "Before we decide on the next move, we must first decipher exactly what this 'accident' of yours is."

  He placed the bronze brick onto a translucent induction platform. Brass brackets automatically extended from the perimeter, projecting several streaks of faint blue scanning lasers.

  "I’ve seen countless antiquities, but this thing is an anomaly. Although its exterior is encased in bronze, I can sense a subtle pulse. It’s not a mechanical vibration; it’s a faint... vitality." Joe furrowed his brow, his gaze profoundly perplexed. "Even my sight cannot pierce its core, which means its dimensionality might exceed the detection limits of this studio. I need to initiate a high-dimensional deep resonance..."

  As Joe turned to adjust a complex matrix of vacuum tubes nearby, Lin Xiao instinctively leaned closer to the induction platform. Looking at the rust-encrusted bronze, her fear was inexplicably replaced by a strange sense of kinship.

  "Vitality?" she whispered, her hand reaching toward the rugged Taotie motifs without conscious thought.

  As her fingertip brushed against a sharp protrusion on the edge of the brass bracket, a sudden sting shot through her. A minute laceration formed, and a single drop of crimson blood fell from her finger, landing precisely upon the ferocious Taotie eye at the brick's center.

  The blood didn't slide off the metallic surface. Instead, like a drop hitting a sponge, it vanished instantly into the bronze grain.

  Then, the entire brick began to emit a low, thumping vibration—like a heartbeat. The once-solid bronze issued a series of microscopic, sibilant hiss-hiss sounds. The exterior began to liquefy slowly, like heated wax, accompanied by a viscous, heavy glug-glug flow of shifting matter. As the metal sloughed away, a chill, ozone-scented draft diffused across the platform, revealing the true form hidden beneath—it was neither metal nor stone, but a semi-transparent, deep violet crystalline organism, constantly writhing and evolving within itself.

  It looked like a complex viral structure magnified tens of thousands of times, with countless minute crystalline facets constantly rearranging and recombining across its surface. It possessed no features, yet it slowly extended several slender sensory filaments into the air.

  Old Joe's sharp intake of breath hissed through the silence, and the tool in his hand hit the floor with a heavy, jarring clang. "...What is this? A self-sustaining viroid? This... this is impossible."

  The entity showed no aggression. It waved its filaments blindly until it seemed to sense a familiar aura, gently coiling around Lin Xiao’s injured finger. Lin Xiao felt no fear; instead, an unprecedented warmth spread from her fingertip throughout her entire body. This bizarre lifeform seemed to be transmitting a faint, child-like sense of attachment to her.

  "It... it seems to be communicating with me," Lin Xiao stared blankly at the evolving violet organism.

  "It has no intellect, only instinct." Joe leaned down, his face nearly pressed against the violet creature, his tone filled with both fanaticism and bewilderment. "It’s self-repairing... it’s even adjusting its molecular structure based on your body temperature. This is insane. This level of technology... shouldn't exist inside that brick."

  Joe turned quickly, throwing the levers of the Difference Engine. The internal components erupted into a frantic, dense clack-clack-clack-clack! As the holographic spectrum flickered, the zzt-zzt of electronic overload filled the air. The scanners in the studio began to frantically capture the creature's data. An analytical glint sparked in his eyes: "Its semi-biological structure has been genetically modified to enhance survivability; it can survive without attaching to biological cells. Its shell can adapt its morphology through evolution, and combined with that hyper-mimicry it showed earlier... this even involves cross-species gene fusion. In my memory, very few could achieve this level of engineering."

  "Look here," Joe pointed to the flickering holographic spectrum, his voice dropping to a low whisper. "It’s continuously emitting a low-frequency ripple, similar to a deep-sea whale croon. It perfectly cancels out 'The Veil’s' surveillance frequency. I think... I can guess its purpose now."

  Joe looked at Lin Xiao, his eyes holding a layer of deep suspicion beneath the curiosity.

  "Miss Lin, exactly what kind of 'anomaly' did you bring to me? If this thing can evolve to the point of completely shielding The Veil, Simon and those subterraneans will lose their minds. But the question is... who manufactured it? And why was it hidden inside that bronze brick, waiting for your blood to awaken it? It is highly probable that this is the key to the current temporal fracture."

  Joe paused, his gaze moving from the screen back to Lin Xiao and her "new friend" on her fingertip. His tone took on the decisiveness of an adventurer: "Before we unravel these mysteries, I have a thought for our next move. Miss Lin, are you interested in testing your 'new friend'?"

  "...Testing?" Lin Xiao looked down at the pulsing violet crystal on her finger, her expression one of utter bewilderment rather than shock.

  Joe watched her, the fanaticism in his eyes receding, replaced by an unprecedented gravity. He halted his movements and explained in a low voice:

  "To put it simply, Simon’s 'Veil' is like a pair of hyper-sensitive ears, constantly listening for any unusual disturbance on the surface. The frequency this little thing emits happens to cancel out Simon's surveillance. But what I want to try now is to plug it into an energy node and see if it can use the Leyline's amplification to tear a hole directly through The Veil."

  Joe tapped the holographic map. The leyline nodes across Taiwan were flickering frantically under Veil’s comprehensive scan.

  "The entire island is now under a state of high alert. We cannot afford to make a ripple here. We will take this Maintenance Pod through the undersea conduits to neighboring Hong Kong. There, at the Wong Tai Sin Temple, lies a young and chaotic energy node. The administration there is lax, and the interference from both incense smoke and geomagnetic noise provides the perfect cover. We’ll conduct a small-scale test there to see if this viroid possesses the capability to neutralize The Veil."

  Lin Xiao looked at the crystal on her finger, a sudden, inexplicable sense of purpose rising within her. But Joe’s next words sent a chill down her spine.

  "But before that, Miss Lin, you must understand what this represents." Joe stared directly into her eyes. "If this thing truly deconstructs The Veil entirely, the world will descend into instant chaos. First, the Subterraneans will no longer be constrained or monitored by Simon; they will infiltrate the surface without restraint, and humanity will face a true crisis of survival. Second, the suppression of human genetic codes and brain capacity by The Veil will vanish. Humanity might undergo a collective evolutionary leap, but it is just as likely to spiral into self-destruction, unable to withstand the sudden influx of high-dimensional capabilities."

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  Joe fell silent for a moment, his voice heavy with a weariness that spanned ten thousand years. "This is a Pandora's Box. Your 'new friend' is the key to pry it open. Our trip to Hong Kong is merely to test its limits; as for whether we truly initiate a total unlock, we must be extremely cautious. Simultaneously, we must unearth exactly what kind of future this 'new friend' intends to forge for the River of Time."

  Lin Xiao looked at the violet-pulsing crystal, only now realizing that her fingertip carried the weight of civilization’s "Evolution" or its "End."

  "Alright... Hong Kong first." Lin Xiao took a deep breath, pulling her hand back toward her chest. Her expression shifted from bewilderment to resolve. "At the very least, let's seize the initiative."

  When the heavy cast-iron doors of the Maintenance Pod station closed, the torrential Taipei rain and the clamor of the chase were severed into another dimension.

  Lin Xiao leaned against the wall, letting out a long, shuddering exhale. For the first time all day, her frayed nerves finally slackened. She was drenched to the bone, her grey hoodie clinging coldly to her back. Muddy water from the Taipei alleys dripped from the tips of her hair, sending an involuntary shiver through her frame.

  Joe stowed away his instruments with practiced precision and turned to look at the exhausted Lin Xiao.

  "You’re tired. A baseline human’s stamina has its limits, after all." Joe pointed toward a set of wooden stairs at the back of the workspace. "Head up to the second floor, turn right at the end of the hall. There’s a guest room—it belongs to my assistant, Bella. She’s currently in Europe repairing a leyline node. You can rest there for now."

  Lin Xiao nodded, barely possessing the strength to speak. She lifted her hand; the violet crystalline organism had now thinned into several delicate threads, coiling tightly around her index finger. It pulsed faintly in sync with her heartbeat, as if offering silent consolation.

  Pushing open the door, she was greeted by a faint scent of myrrh and dried herbs—a woody aroma, slightly spicy and bitter, settling into a sweet resinous finish that instantly grounded her mind. This room was a stark contrast to the cold, mechanical atmosphere downstairs. Intricate hand-woven tapestries adorned the walls, a thick wool rug lay beneath her feet, and a wooden spinning wheel stood in the corner.

  Lin Xiao entered the bathroom, revealing a marble tub recessed into the floor. She twisted the faucet, and the rushing hot water echoed against the stone walls. Steam rose slowly, mingling with the silence and the lingering myrrh from the bedroom. The only sound was the gentle lap-lap of the water against the marble basin. Her racing heart finally slowed as she submerged her weary body into the dense mist. The warmth chased away the bone-deep dampness inch by inch. Closing her eyes, the chaotic swirl of myths, leylines, and The Veil finally began to recede.

  When she emerged, wrapped in a heavy linen bathrobe, her gaze was drawn to a silver frame on the nightstand.

  It held an exceedingly old silver gelatin photograph, its edges yellowed with age. The backdrop appeared to be late nineteenth-century London; the reflection of gaslamps shimmered on the slick, rain-washed cobblestones.

  In the photo, Old Joe wore a sharp, full-length black overcoat and a silk top hat. His deep, soul-piercing eyes were exactly as they were today, though they lacked the weary air of a recluse. Standing beside him was a tall woman, who Lin Xiao assumed was Bella. She was clad in an elaborate Victorian corset gown, its collar adorned with delicate lace. Her dark, curly hair was pinned up beneath a small pillbox hat decorated with black veiling. Her features bore a classical, heroic sharp edge, and a faint, almost provocative smile played upon her lips.

  What startled Lin Xiao the most, however, was the black cat cradled in Bella’s arms.

  The cat was a grotesque anomaly: at the very center of its forehead sat a single, massive golden eye, while behind it trailed three fluffy tails that forked like flickering flames. This creature appeared utterly docile in Bella’s embrace, its three tails interlaced like a piece of living art.

  "What... what is that?" Lin Xiao whispered. She reached out to touch the frame, feeling the temporal weight of a century.

  At that moment, the violet threads coiled around her fingertip began to writhe.

  This "new friend" seemed to sense a residual, familiar aura lingering within the room. It slowly detached from her finger, flowing and contracting within her palm. Accompanied by a faint shimmer of violet light, the threads squirmed, issuing a series of minute, ice-cracking click-clack sounds as the soft biological tissue rapidly solidified. Finally, with a delicate metallic ting, it transformed into a pair of exquisite earrings—hollowed-out bronze pieces etched with ancient cloud-and-thunder patterns (Yun-Lei).

  Lin Xiao froze for a second, then quickly understood its intent. The organism knew it couldn't remain in its bizarre form indefinitely, so it chose to mimic an accessory that was easy to carry and least likely to arouse suspicion.

  She sat at the dressing table and put on the earrings. The girl in the mirror was still pale, but the subtle, ghostly glow emanating from the earrings lent her an aura of unmistakable mystery.

  She collapsed into the thick wool comforter, listening to a faint resonance similar to a deep-sea whale croon vibrating near her ear—the protective frequency emitted by the earrings. Enveloped by the companionship of this mysterious helper and the warm, tranquil aura of Bella’s room, Lin Xiao could no longer support her heavy eyelids and drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.

  Downstairs, Joe sat at his dim workbench, a luminous global leyline map spread out before him. His fingertip tapped on the Hong Kong node at Victoria Peak, and he sank into thought. He knew all too well that the fracturing of the "Script" had exhausted Simon’s patience. The Illuminati’s next moves would no longer be mere probes; they would be an all-out extermination.

  "Protecting her on my own... it’s too much of a gamble," Joe whispered to himself. He pulled the sixteenth-century antique from his breast pocket—the exquisite "Nuremberg Egg."

  Its golden casing was etched with intricate vine motifs, shimmering with a dull luster under the kerosene lamp. Joe took a specialized stylus from the workbench and gently pried open the cover, revealing a complex maglev internal structure.

  However, at this moment, the multi-ringed structures—once engraved with elegant symbols that rotated in perfect equilibrium—were caught in a chaotic, high-speed tilt.

  At the very center of that maglev mechanism, the Atlantis Red Crystal, no larger than a grain of rice, was pulsing violently. A rapid, vessel-like thump-thump! thump-thump! echoed from within. With every flash of the crimson crystal, the watch casing emitted a faint, unsettling hum, vibrating at a frequency so high it nearly scorched Joe's fingertips.

  "Biometric signatures reaching a high-intensity critical point..." Joe’s eyes sharpened as he felt the searing heat radiating from the watch. This meant that thousands of miles away, Bella was embroiled in a life-threatening struggle.

  Right then, the communication device in the corner of the studio—a patchwork of brass horns and vacuum tubes—suddenly flared with a crimson warning light.

  Joe stepped quickly toward the corner and picked up the receiver. Before he could utter a word, a cool, elegant female voice—tinged with a slight breathlessness—filtered through the line, set against a backdrop of shattering glass and the frantic screams of a crowd.

  "Your archaic brick of a phone is unreachable again, old man." A sharp burst of static—zzt-pop!—cut through the connection. Bella’s voice resumed, punctured by heavy, distant rumble-crashes of collapsing structures and the faint, blurred wail of sirens. She let out a soft chuckle, followed by a crisp crack-snap of bone dislocating—it sounded as if she had just casually dispatched the last of her troubles. "I knew it. If the phone's dead, you must have buried yourself in that den of yours."

  "Bella?" Joe asked, his voice low and heavy. "The Red Crystal is reacting violently. What happened at the Louvre?"

  "Nothing much. I’d just finished repairing the leyline node and thought I’d take a stroll through the galleries. Then a pack of stray dogs in suits showed up," Bella replied nonchalantly. As she spoke, a heavy thud echoed from the other end, sounding like a stone pillar giving way. "The Illuminati. They’ve gone mad, sending two tactical teams to corner me inside the museum. It took a bit of effort to toss those pieces of trash into the Seine. Now tell me, what hell has broken loose in Taiwan to make them want to uproot even a minor employee like me?"

  Joe glanced toward the darkened room on the second floor, his tone grave. "The temporal flow has ruptured. I suspect Simon has initiated a global manhunt. I have a normal girl with me who was swept into this... and she’s carrying a very special 'new friend'."

  Silence lingered on the line for a heartbeat before Bella let out a low, amused laugh. "You truly are a master at creating total chaos, aren't you? But I’m done here; the Paris node is stabilized."

  "Can you still break away?" Joe asked.

  "I’m heading to the leyline entrance near Charles de Gaulle Airport now. First thing tomorrow, I’ll take the nearest Maintenance Pod to the Hong Kong node and meet you there," Bella instructed. "Until then, watch over that girl. Don't let Simon’s hounds snatch her away."

  "See you in Hong Kong."

  Joe hung up the receiver, and silence once again claimed the studio. He looked down at the Nuremberg Egg; the Red Crystal at its center had finally regained its steady, rhythmic pulse. He snapped the cover shut, tucking it back into his breast pocket with careful, almost tender precision.

  He turned toward the platform outside, where the Maintenance Pod rested like a shard of obsidian, a flash of absolute resolve flickering in his eyes.

  The photograph mentioned in this chapter utilizes the Silver Gelatin Process, a pivotal photographic technique introduced in the 1870s and reaching widespread popularity in the 1880s (the era of the London backdrop in the photo). Known for its delicate grayscale and remarkable longevity.

  The creature is the Huan, a legendary beast from the ancient Chinese text, Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing).