"There's one other person who knows no less than Ockham," Sandora said, looking into my eyes. "Abyss Shilin herself!"
I thought about it, then asked her sincerely, "You mean we should go have a heart-to-heart with Abyss Shilin and see if we can move her?"
Sandora raked me with her eyes twice before snorting. "Stop joking around at a time like this. I'm serious. Based on our recent encounters with Abyss Shilin, I've realized that she isn't incapable of communication. A Jun, you should remember her characteristics too: she has no personal preferences and no concept of allies or enemies when it comes to any faction. Her actions are entirely determined by logical requirements and calculated conclusions. That means that in her eyes, the barrier between the New Empire and herself isn't a conflict of factions, but merely whether communication is currently necessary. Isn't that much easier to resolve than factional hostility? At the very least, the chance of dialogue is no longer zero. Abyss Shilin should still retain all her memories. Given her life form, she ought to know everything that happened during the Old Empire era. Look, she even knows about the Void Cataclysm. The things stored in that woman's Memory Bank probably surpass anyone's imagination."
"That's true." I nodded deeply in agreement. "The questions we've struggled with all this time and still can't figure out may very well have complete answers in Abyss Shilin's hands... But how are we supposed to contact her and get her to tell us all that? She's not exactly easy to talk to, and more importantly... the New Empire is still her enemy. Even if there's a temporary ceasefire, she has no reason to communicate with the New Empire."
"We can only study that slowly later," Sandora said with a sigh. Then