Steam Era: The Lord of 'Puluo' Chapter 882 - 513: Who Stole the Human Energy? (Part 3)

The first to arrive at the textile factory were the masked individuals. They entered the sixth workshop. Director Li, although he did not go to the sixth workshop, has never seen the masked individuals.

From the on-site surveillance footage, after the masked individuals entered the sixth workshop, they never appeared in any surveillance footage again, nor were any traces of them found during the subsequent search operation by the Public Security Team, indicating that the masked individuals likely entered a hidden form space."

While speaking, Chuuni drew a circle in the sixth workshop and marked it with the words ’hidden form’.

Li Banfeng said, "The place where I confronted the wide-brimmed hat wearer is not in the sixth workshop."

Chuuni also made a mark on the wall: "The location where Director Li and Dumpling entered the wall is here, where Dumpling left the factory area is also here, the location where Director Li confronted the wide-brimmed hat wearer is also here, there should also be a hidden form space here,

This hidden form space is very special. From Dumpling’s description of the site, this hidden form space can find the original shape of the objects."

"What does ’original shape of the objects’ mean?"

Chuuni brought a photograph: "This is a photo taken in the early 20th century, when the Ruirong Textile Factory was just established, with only one workshop. Bureau Chief Li, take a look at the layout of the factory area, does it seem somewhat similar to the location where you fought?"

Li Banfeng looked at the photo and recalled the scene when he fought at the "Centipede Workshop."

The courtyard’s layout and the workshop’s location indeed have some similarities, but one cannot confirm they are the same location just based on a single photo.

Chuuni didn’t finalize the statement either: "I just made a rough guess. There’s only this one photo of the factory courtyard, but there are a few photos inside the workshops. See if they are of any reference value to you."

After looking at the photos inside the workshop, Li Banfeng basically confirmed that it was indeed the Centipede Workshop.

The main steam pipeline, the cylinder, the piston, and the machine tool’s position and layout were exactly the same as what Li Banfeng had seen.

Li Banfeng nodded slightly: "It’s here."

Chuuni sequentially produced many documents: "After the Ruirong Textile Factory started production, it quickly became a banner of Yuezhou, with the operating situation continually improving and the factory area constantly expanding,

This workshop was not demolished after being retired. Instead, an exhibition hall was built on its foundation, indicating its status in Yuezhou’s industrial history,

Later, this exhibition hall was dismantled, and the equipment was sent for iron smelting. Since then, many incidents have occurred at the Ruirong Textile Factory,

The early incidents weren’t well documented, with many contents glossed over, but by the 1980s, newspapers and magazines reported numerous similar events."

Chuuni cut and pasted the related reports into a booklet, which Li Banfeng roughly browsed through. The titles of the reports were very striking.

Crying sounds persisted through the night at the textile factory; grievances linger in the abandoned old workshop.

Two employees got lost within the factory area; what did they actually encounter?

Eerie silhouette suddenly appeared in the factory area, leaving the security personnel in a night of fright.

...

Looking at these news articles, and reminiscing about the days of browsing on the phone, Li Banfeng sighed deeply; it seems the skill of headline writing hasn’t been lost.

"Are these news articles reliable?"

"Most are not reliable, but some news can find certain bases, like this one. A textile factory worker claimed to have seen a hundred meters long monster in the factory area at night,

Considering the data, the length of a hundred meters is clearly exaggerated. But combined with other news, in the Ruirong Textile Factory, there are six reports of encountering monsters at night, with eyewitnesses claiming to have seen snakes and giant insects, there are slight variations in descriptions, but overall, they depict long-bodied odd creatures."

Li Banfeng looked at the date of the news. If the monster they described was the "Centipede Workshop," it proves the history of the Inner State People coming to the Outside Provinces isn’t short.

Chuuni brought out another document: "Twenty-two years ago, Ruirong Textile Factory officially shut down. Two years later, the first well-documented case appeared."

Li Banfeng looked at the document; twenty years ago, a giant spider appeared in the textile factory, resulting in three deaths and eleven injuries.

"Since then, various cases have not ceased at the Ruirong Textile Factory, with some cases spreading rapidly, even making the textile factory a focus of folklore."

"This is hard to understand," Li Banfeng shook his head slightly at the document, "why wasn’t the textile factory demolished?"

Chuuni couldn’t find an answer: "This matter has puzzled me for a long time too. The only reasonable explanations currently are two: one is that the Ruirong Textile Factory has high research value, the other is that it might have a powerful hidden energy source. Once demolished, current technology cannot effectively control the dark energy,

Since the establishment of the Dark Star Bureau, within the scope I can investigate, a total of thirty-five cases have occurred at the Ruirong Textile Factory, including twenty-three disappearance cases that remain unsolved to this day, and twelve cases involving strange creatures,

Among the cases involving strange creatures, the sixth workshop and the wall area where Bureau Chief Li entered the factory are high-occurrence sectors. In disappearance cases, lost personal belongings were found multiple times in these two areas,

Based on the existing data, it’s speculated that the sixth workshop and the wall area both have hidden form space entries. Whether the two are the same space remains to be verified,

In this case, both Bureau Chief Li and Dumpling did not encounter the masked individuals within the hidden form space. A relatively reasonable deduction is that there are two hidden form spaces in the sixth workshop. The sixth workshop and the area by the wall correspond to the entrances of two different spaces."