After confirming that the castle was no longer moving, Lin Yuan began to lift the Space Lockdown.
The black and silver patterns covering the desolate valley gradually faded from the rock walls. He didn't withdraw all his magic at once, but first released the outer perimeter, then checked whether the coordinates of the city walls and rooms were stable, and finally lifted the restrictions near the main gate.
The space mage in charge of monitoring immediately attempted to teleport a copper coin.
The True Magic circle lit up, and the copper coin disappeared from the left hand, then landed precisely in the right.
He breathed a long sigh of relief, "The space is back to normal."
"Where's the castle?" Mira asked.
"All rooms remain in their current positions. As long as the core doesn't reboot, it's no different from a normal building for now."
No sooner had he finished speaking than half of a spire in the distance collapsed.
Large quantities of black bricks rolled into the barren valley, raising a cloud of dust.
The space mage quietly added, "An ordinary building that has fallen into disrepair over the years."
The rescued individuals have been taken to the camp for treatment. Before leaving, the investigation team leader completed a preliminary assessment, confirming that all twenty-three people survived and that Belma Town suffered no damage.
The most important part of the mission has been completed.
The remaining tasks are to confirm that the mobile core will not restart and to retrieve the spell records from the castle that can be handed over to the Magic Council for research.
Lin Yuan, Mira, and three investigators re-entered the clock room.
The giant black bell split in two from the center, and the six-armed puppet was stuck between the gears, with only the red light on its chest occasionally flashing. Investigators began measuring around the base and numbered and boxed the damaged parts one by one.
"It has at least three hundred years of history." The space mage squatted beside the core. "It was originally a refuge castle for some nobleman. In the event of war, the entire castle could be moved to a pre-designated location."
Mira looked at the broken chains scattered on the ground. "Then why is it running around everywhere?"
"The preset coordinates were already corrupted. In order to continue operating, the core had to keep searching for new locations. Eventually, even the internal rooms lost control."
So nobody's manipulating it?
"It seems not at the moment."
Lin Yuan did not participate in the discussion.
He stood before the cracked giant bell, his senses sweeping over its now-cease-rotating core again and again. The normal magical connections had vanished with the broken chains, but a tiny void remained deep within the core.
There is no distance there.
It wasn't folded or cut off; it simply didn't belong to the existing spatial structure of the castle.
"Everyone, step back," Lin Yuan suddenly said.
All three investigators stopped their work simultaneously.
Mira didn't press further, but grabbed the two people closest to the core and pulled them back. The last person picked up the recording box and followed them to the door of the clock chamber.
Lin Yuan reassembled the Boundary-Severing Blade.
The short, black-silver blade probed into the core crack, encountering neither metal nor a magical barrier. The moment the tip touched the void, the edge shattered into countless tiny squares.
Lin Yuan immediately sheathed his sword.
The vanished blade tip reformed after half a breath.
Mira frowned. "What was that just now?"
"Have no idea."
Your True Magic has been eaten?
"Unlike being devoured, that small section of space was divided into many layers."
Lin Yuan picked up a gear from the ground and threw it toward the core crack.
The gear flew halfway when its front end suddenly broke into neat little pieces. The metal did not break, and all the pieces even retained their original shapes, only they were contained within invisible squares.
The next moment, the gear fell back to the ground, restoring itself to its original state.
No one spoke in the clock room.
Lin Yuan raised his hand, and the black and silver patterns that had just been deactivated lit up from the ground again.
The Space Lockdown quickly tightened, covering only ten meters around the giant bell. The walls, base, and scattered parts were simultaneously secured, but the void deep within the core remained.
It was completely unaffected.
"Can't it be sealed off?" Mira asked.
"I've locked down all the coordinates here."
"Then why is it still here?"
Lin Yuan looked at the patch of darkness, no bigger than a fingernail.
"Because the other end isn't here."
The void suddenly lit up.
Pale blue lines stretched out in the darkness, forming countless squares of the same size. They had no True Magic circles, nor any ancient characters that Lin Yuan had ever seen, only strings of unfamiliar symbols that flashed by.
An investigator instinctively raised his whiteboard. "Is this some kind of technique?"
"Let's go out first," Lin Yuan said.
"But--"
Mira had already pushed the two who still wanted to observe out the door, one in each arm. The third person, clutching the box tightly, followed them.
"You go too," Lin Yuan said to Mira.
Do you think I'll listen?
"Won't."
"Then let's not waste our time."
The light blue squares are still expanding.
They climbed up the clock face along the core crack, cutting the surrounding metal into increasingly fine, neat squares. The castle's own magic had completely faded, but the crack seemed to have just awakened from a long slumber.
A slight tremor came from a corner of Lin Yuan's soul that he had never been able to reach. Ten blurry figures flashed through his consciousness, too fast to see clearly.
Instinctively, its spatial awareness led it to probe along the crack.
There is no desolate valley, no Belma Town, and no coordinates belonging to this world.
He saw only a darkness composed of countless points of light, and a blurry, massive city wall at the edge of the darkness.
That wasn't a room that was taken from the moving castle.
The other side of this door isn't in this world at all.