The room looked just like the crystallizer's Main Control Room. There were many active crystallizer machines. He had already expected such sights, so Han Sen wasn't surprised by their presence.
But this crystallizer-like room was inhabited; Han Sen saw a person inside.
Han Sen did not know if the person was dead or alive, as he was standing inside a tank made of crystal. The tank was full of liquid, which surrounded and supported the man.
The man had short black hair, and he was clad in a set of crystal armor. It looked similar to the one Han Sen had taken from Tina.
Aside from that, there was nothing outstanding about the man. By all accounts, he looked like an ordinary human. There were no extra physical abnormalities that would have suggested him to be a creature or spirit.
"Is that a human?" Han Sen was not sure. He used his Dongxuan Aura to scan the tank. Strangely, his senses could not penetrate the surface. He was unable to get a reading of the man's energy and determine if he was alive.
But when Han Sen approached the tank, he heard a voice. It said, "The machine has an error. God's Baptism cannot be completed. Please wait or turn back."
Han Sen looked around, unsure of where the voice had come from. But Han Sen could definitely tell it was an Al of sorts; it wasn't the voice of something living.
Han Sen chose not to leave just yet, though. This place surprised him, and the wait could give him a chance to understand the place some more.
Something must have happened there, which had resulted in the crystallizer equipment breaking.
"If I am correct, this crystal tank is the equipment used for God's Baptism." Han Sen walked around the room, thinking. After a brief examination, he turned his attention back to the tank.
Han Sen was confused. He wasn't sure if the man in the tank was a person supposedly undergoing the baptism, or if he was the operator of the room.
"What happened here? Why is this place broken? Is it living or dead?" Han Sen had a lot of questions.
The room did not look damaged, and there was nothing special there aside from the man in the tank.
"Connection to control room has been successfully established. Would you like to open the door?" The beetle symbol on Han Sen's hand began to glow, and then the voice of the Al sounded again.
"Open." Han Sen was happy about this. He was now sure that place belonged to the crystallizers.
"It looks like the sanctuary has a connection to the crystallizers. I just don't know if they discovered the sanctuary like humans did, or if they actually created it." Han Sen looked at the light from the beetle, lost in thought.
A crystal wall parted silently. Han Sen looked towards it and was surprised. There were many crystallizer buildings beyond the wall, but many had been brought to ruin. The place was crumbled and broken.
Han Sen commanded the beetle to walk him around, as there were no perfect machines or buildings there. All the structures there were large, and they were similar to what could be found in the Forbidden City.
The further Han Sen ventured through that place, the more ruins and destruction there was to witness. Han Sen eventually came to a ruin that was in better condition than the others.
After Han Sen came to the edge of the building, he looked out and saw something very strange.
There was a sky out there. It wasn't strange to see the sky, as the sanctuary had a sky. But the sanctuary's sky was different from the sky of a normal planet. There were many planets in space, but no one knew what was above the sky in the sanctuary.
Han Sen stood where he was, looking out into space. It looked just like the space he could see from any planet in the Alliance, but the stars he could see from there seemed closer than usual. It made him feel suppressed, somewhat.
Han Sen flew up into the sky and took a look at the crystallizer buildings from above. He noticed the place had been built atop a meteor, and it was actually floating through space. Han Sen did not know if he was in the Alliance, though, as there were no constellations he could see that were familiar to him.
Han Sen summoned his beetle. After entering, he brought out his map of the galaxy. He only wanted to give it a go and see if it worked, and it did. The map displayed his location without issue.
Han Sen was in a system called the Ya Chuan System. There were seven or eight areas there that had been taken by the Alliance.
Han Sen determined the specific place he was in; a barren stretch of space that the Alliance hadn't yet claimed. But at least he knew now that he was back in the Alliance. It would take a long time to get to familiar territory from where he was. It would be annoying to go back, so Han Sen remained on the meteor.
The beetle scanned the meteor, and Han Sen learned that the meteor was once part of a planet that had shattered. The crystallizer buildings were part of a big control room, and this was all that was now left of it.
Han Sen couldn't learn anything more amidst those ruins, so he returned to the room. He checked out the man in the tank. The armor the man wore was a geno armor, and that meant he was not in the top ten Son of God's. He hadn't come there for a baptism.
"Then who is he? Was he one of the people that once controlled this place? Or was he perhaps an invader?" Han Sen looked at the man.
Han Sen did not know if he was living or not, so he didn't dare open the tank.
To be able to own geno armor, you had to be very powerful. Han Sen wasn't confident. He wasn't in the Fifth Sanctuary, and he could not make use of his own geno armor.
Han Sen had a set of crystal armor, but his body could not harness a sufficient amount of power to make use of it efficiently. As Han Sen mulled what to do, he heard the sound of katcha. Something broke, and then he witnessed the crystal tank open.
The crystal tank, that was as tall as a tree, started to open up from the upper regions. When the tank opened, the liquid didn't splash out as Han Sen had expected. Instead, it hovered in the air, remaining inside the now open tank.
Han Sen looked at the man with caution. As he was thinking about whether or not to leave, the man opened his eyes.
A pair of black eyes stared at Han Sen, and it made his heart jump.