So this was what Shally saw before, huh? Yu Lian mused.
It was a silent forest of steel. Life-support systems hummed inside devices resembling mechanical trees, yet made almost no sound. Even the occasional ripple of liquid was utterly smooth.
But it was precisely the total lack of background noise that made the place so unnerving.
Yu Lian could clearly sense the strange aura of spiritual energy mingled with life force permeating the area. It was lush and powerful, yet so cold it held not a trace of vitality. There was, of course, no real flourishing life here—only an overly deliberate, cloying sweetness.
It was like a cake with too much artificial sweetener.
Naturally, such a dense "breath of life" should have drawn the attention of all manner of powerful beings from the Void Realm. Yet none had come. They had probably installed a Stone Hat Array or some other concealment measure.
"A cloning facility? A battery farm? As expected, this is downright anti-civilization."
Speaking of which, the Kominans, famed across the galaxy for their biotechnology, had once developed similar biological battery technology. During the barbaric age of galactic exploration, they had even used criminals and slaves as biological batteries, claiming it was merely a different form of forced labor.
The Aero Empire later took their methods to new heights. At the height of that military empire's power, they used not only criminals and slaves, but prisoners of war as well.
That technology was eventually abandoned, not because the righteous Empire and Alliance had destroyed the Aero people, but simply because it was too inefficient.
Still, during the war that destroyed the Aero Empire, some mad scientists really had proposed that ordinary people made inefficient biological batteries, with unsatisfactory energy conversion—but perhaps psychics could solve the problem.
After all, even