Chapter Five: The Lighthouse

Four hundred meters inside the branch tunnel behind the dormitory courtyard lies the 104 Temple. It is one of the transit hubs for Base 151, connecting to the No. 1 Giant Mech Warehouse to the north and the nuclear reactor to the south. Viewed from high above, the main structure of 151 resembles a massive H-shape with a span of 1.5 kilometers. The 104 Temple serves as the vertical segment on the left side of the H, while the parallel 105 Main Tunnel forms the right. Each tunnel is buried beneath the parallel ridges of the South Mountain, with two ventilation towers—each five meters in diameter and 160 meters high—rising from each ridge.

The two were riding the 104 commuter cable car.

Shang Lu had not expected to find an aerial cableway inside a tunnel. Beneath the 30-meter-high dome of the 104 Temple, cables were suspended for personnel, while tracks were laid on the ground for cargo, effectively separating the two types of traffic.

The 104 Temple was brightly lit; Chen Yu mentioned that it remained illuminated twenty-four hours a day, as every post at 151 required constant staffing. Settling into the cable car, Shang Lu finally had time to observe his surroundings. He marveled once again at the grandeur and bustle of this tunnel engineering. Looking down, trailers crawled slowly along the tracks in both directions, emitting a rhythmic clanking sound. Dark, mountain-like stacks of crates were strapped tightly with cable ties and seals, marked with deep red warning labels. Shang Lu suspected they were flammable or explosive materials as they moved slowly beneath his feet.

This area was a platform, as busy as a shipping dock. Cranes sat on the walkways flanking the tracks, and personnel from other tunnels converged here. Apart from military green short-sleeved shirts, there were deep blue work uniforms. Their voices were a chaotic, noisy mix—Sichuan dialect blended with Mandarin, Henan dialect, and even Cantonese.

Looking up, the incandescent glare of the sun-lamps was blinding, making one instinctively want to hide. Under such intense light, everyone felt like a small, scorched insect.

The cable car had six seats, but only Chen Yu and Shang Lu occupied it.

"We are heading toward 'One Tree,' where there is an observation station," Chen Yu said. "One Tree used to be a tourist spot with a lookout tower where you could see the night view of Chongqing. Later, we built a taller one on the hill next to it, over seven or eight hundred meters above sea level—higher than Chuntainling—from which you can see toward the Tea Garden area."

The cable car ventured deeper into the tunnel, and soon the surrounding human clamor faded. Shang Lu looked ahead; the towering tunnel seemed endless.

It gave him the illusion that gravity was pulling forward, as if they were on an elevator descending into the bowels of the earth.

"Where is the Angel?"

"It was at Dashiba yesterday. It has been there for nearly a week."

Shang Lu paused. "Dashiba? Dashiba in Jiangbei District? Isn't that in the city?"

"Oh, no, no. It’s at the Dashiba in Nanchuan District, near the Shiqiaoba Reservoir, more than forty kilometers away from us," Chen Yu explained. "There are six Dashibas in Chongqing."

"Is it getting closer?"

"Yes," Chen Yu nodded. "But its speed is very slow. Angels are always very slow."

The cable car arrived at the station. Chen Yu led Shang Lu to swipe their cards for the elevator, which he said went straight to the top of the observation station.

The station featured a large platform over seven hundred meters above sea level at the mountain's peak. It had white marble floors and was enclosed by pale yellow glass resembling floor-to-ceiling windows. A row of heavy-duty CBRN suits hung in a large cabinet along the side. In the center was a duty room arranged like a radar station, though it lacked actual radar. At this hour, the observation deck was empty, save for the duty officer sitting before a ring of computer monitors. On the desk sat four telephones: three black and one red, three small and one large.

When they stepped out of the elevator, the sun had already set and the sky had darkened. Chen Yu greeted the duty officer.

"Ding Xiang!"

"Bai Bai?" The duty officer was a female lieutenant with short black hair. She looked up at him. "It’s rare to see you here. What’s the matter? Finished your shift?"

"All the work for today is done. The Chief of Staff wanted to keep us for a meeting, but luckily I slipped away," Chen Yu said. "I brought the Junior Chief Engineer here to see the Angel... Come, come, Ding Xiang, let me introduce you. This is Shang Lu, the technical specialist dispatched by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Automation to Base 151 and our base's Junior Chief Engineer."

The girl looked Shang Lu up and down, then stood up and reached out through the small window of the duty room.

"Hello, Junior Chief Engineer. I am Ding Xiang, a technician at the Base Direct-affiliated One Tree Observation Station."

Shang Lu shook her hand.

"How is the Angel?" Chen Yu asked.

"Still moving slowly," Ding Xiang replied. "It is currently in the vicinity of Taipingchang Town and the Hongshengji Reservoir, within a radius of about one kilometer. You know we cannot measure its precise position from long distances; the Riemann probes have limited accuracy."

"How is the space curvature?"

"The part currently detected is approximately a unit sphere. The tidal force density is within the estimated range. The exact surface area of the four-dimensional contact cannot be estimated for now," Ding Xiang shook her head. "It’s too far away. We’ll have to wait until it enters visual range."

"Can the contact area accommodate Red Lotus's fist?" Chen Yu asked. "If we can fit our fist inside, there isn't an Angel we can't kill."

"I estimate that shouldn't be a problem," Ding Xiang smiled.

Ignoring their incomprehensible conversation, Shang Lu turned and walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows of the observation deck. Looking out toward the Tea Garden area, the earth beneath the brilliant starry sky was deathly still. The towns that once housed humanity had long been emptied; hollow buildings sat in the silent night, devoid of a single sound.

Only the mysterious dark red lights flickered in the darkness. From a distance, they were no larger than sesame seeds, like fireflies, laid out in regular patterns across the earth—thousands of them, forming a grid.

"Those are the Riemann probes," Chen Yu said, standing behind Shang Lu. "They are our early warning system. They can detect space curvature invisible to the naked eye. When spacetime twists, it means a higher-dimensional object is approaching."

"An Angel?"

"An Angel," Chen Yu nodded.

Shang Lu leaned close to the glass, straining his eyes. However, undulating ridges blocked his view. These hills were Chongqing’s defensive barriers. Behind the massive shadows of these black mountains, Shang Lu could not help but feel a strange sense of security.

What in this world could destroy high mountains?

They were part of nature—mighty, heavy, standing immovable for millions of years.

At a gap in the hills ahead stood a solitary peak. It stood straight, looking like a tall building in the night, or perhaps a giant rock jutting out from the earth. Its strange shape caught Shang Lu's attention. He wanted to see it more clearly, but the light was too dim.

"The Angel is in that direction, Taipingchang Town." Chen Yu tapped Shang Lu on the shoulder and pointed forward, past the ridges and valleys. "Ding Xiang, what is the change cycle for that thing?"

Ding Xiang, sitting in the duty room, glanced at her computer screen.

"Three minutes left."

With that, she pulled the hanging cord on the wall.

The alarm on the ceiling of the observation station began to blare, and blinding red light rotated around the room.

"Too loud, Ding Xiang, can you turn it off?" Chen Yu covered one ear and pointed at the alarm with his other hand. "It’s just us here."

"Regulations state I must pull it," Ding Xiang said. "Even if no one is here, I have to pull it."

"What does the alarm mean?" Shang Lu asked.

"It means you’re about to see the thing," Chen Yu said. "One minute to countdown."

"Thirty seconds."

"Ten seconds."

"You don't actually have to be so focused, and there's no need to hold your breath. The Angel isn't lightning; it won't slip past you in a flash. It usually makes quite a stir," Chen Yu leaned against the railing of the observation platform. "Unless you're blind, it's hard to miss it..."

Shang Lu’s face suddenly turned red—a deep, crimson red.

In his pupils, Chen Yu saw a line of extreme, piercing brightness.

No one knew why such a brilliant, crimson pillar of light appeared in the air. Its source was far, far away—beyond the mountains, beyond the mountains again—slanting upward into the night sky, instantly illuminating nearly the entire world, as if a searchlight with the power of a star existed in the distance. Chen Yu jerked his head around. He saw the massive searchlight begin to rotate. It swept from the sky toward the ground, crushing and scouring the earth like a swinging blade, obliterating everything in its path, setting the forests and fields ablaze with roaring flames!

In an instant, the world turned deep red.

"That is the Angel," Chen Yu said. "We usually name them based on their visual characteristics. This Angel is called the Lighthouse Angel."

Shang Lu gasped for breath. Only then did he realize his own arrogance. The enemy Base 151 faced was such a terrifying monster, and he had actually been harboring wishful thinking.

The fire raging in the distance lit up the night sky. In a fleeting glimpse, Shang Lu saw the solitary peak he had noticed earlier. That lonely, rock-like shadow still stood, rooted among the hills. The firelight illuminated one of its sides: it was a deep red giant with broad shoulders and a chest, possessing four long arms. It faced the direction of the Angel and the flames, standing immovable.

Is that Red Lotus?

Shang Lu wondered.

Is that young girl controlling it? What is she thinking right now?