Chapter 337
Chapter 337: Elder Senior Uncle Was Quite a Character
Yu Sheng gave Xuan Che a broad overview of the intelligence he’d gotten from the Special Operations Bureau. He told him about the cultists digging up a “Shadowless Remains” back in their home territory, and about the small craft that had gone missing while trying to transport the Anka Aila crystal away.
Yu Sheng knew Bai Li Qing would soon pass this information to all major powers anyway. In front of a “Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain rising star” like Xuan Che, there was no need for secrets.
Xuan Che’s expression shifted from calm to serious, and from serious to grim, until his eyebrows nearly rose off his face.
“…You suspect Featherwing-13B might also already be parasitized by dark angels?” he asked, trying to control his breathing. He failed. The tension still leaked through his voice.
“It’s only a possibility,” Yu Sheng said, waving his hand. “We still don’t truly understand what those Hermitage Order cultists built the ‘pillar of order’ for. The only cultist who could speak wasn’t in great shape—he fainted halfway through.”
Yu Sheng’s gaze sharpened. “But considering this ship clearly wasn’t cheap, and it even had a chapel meant for religious rites, there’s no way they built this thing on your side just for fun. Even if it wasn’t aimed at dark angels, it had to be a mission on that level.”
“…A mission on the same level as dark angels,” Xuan Che echoed, face tightening. “I can’t imagine it. I truly can’t.”
He lowered his head to think. Then his expression shifted slightly, as if a new thought had snagged on something.
“You also mentioned a small craft went missing?” he asked.
“Yes,” Yu Sheng said. “When they tried to send the angel catalyst out of Mistbound City, it was like the craft got possessed. It transmitted a string of creepy audio ahead of time, then jumped out and vanished.”
He studied Xuan Che. “Why? Do you have some thoughts?”
Xuan Che hesitated. “I can’t say I have a real theory. I just… suddenly remembered a strange encounter Elder Senior Uncle once told me about from his early travels.”
Yu Sheng’s eyes widened on instinct. “What did your Elder Senior Uncle run into this time?”
“Uh… ahem.” Xuan Che coughed, adjusting his posture. “Elder Senior Uncle is passionate about traveling the world. He has indeed encountered many bizarre things.”
He took a breath and began.
“He said that once, while crossing the stars, he passed through a ‘great void’ with no celestial beacons at all. His celestial ship suddenly failed. The void stretched for hundreds of millions of light-years with nothing in it. Even when Elder Senior Uncle exhausted his cultivation, he could only barely keep the celestial ship spirit disk from dispersing, and send out weak calls for help.”
Xuan Che’s voice lowered. “He could not move an inch. It was a hopeless situation.
“But just as he had no solution and had already prepared himself to die, a signal suddenly arrived in that empty hollow, answering his distress call.”
Yu Sheng’s brows drew together.
“Three days later,” Xuan Che continued, “he saw the wreckage of a massive ship appear near his celestial ship.”
Yu Sheng froze. “Wreckage?”
“Yes—wreckage. He couldn’t tell where it was built, only that it was enormous—more than ten times larger than Elder Senior Uncle’s celestial ship. Yet it had been torn into pieces by some unknown force, drifting through the void.”
Xuan Che swallowed. “And from that wreckage, there kept coming responses to his distress signal.”
Yu Sheng’s skin prickled.
“Elder Senior Uncle sensed something was wrong and did not dare respond,” Xuan Che said. “He forced himself to keep his ship at a distance. After holding like that for a day, suddenly… he saw the wreckage become whole in an instant.”
His voice went tighter. “It turned into a gray, gigantic ship. Lights were on. He could even see people walking by the portholes, talking and laughing.”
Irene, perched on the coffee table, leaned forward without realizing it.
“But from the very moment it ‘recovered,’” Xuan Che said, “it began transmitting signals that were unbelievably eerie. His ship received countless voices screaming for help, along with death cries, and the sound of the hull tearing apart.”
He paused, then said, “Then, in the next instant, the ship turned back into shattered wreckage again.”
Irene stared. Foxy’s tail went stiff.
“It flew behind Elder Senior Uncle’s celestial ship,” Xuan Che continued, “while transmitting a message: ‘Distress signal received. Proceeding to provide assistance…’”
Irene sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh my god. That’s scary—”
“I read a horror story like that when I was little,” Foxy chimed in, eyes bright. “After that, everyone on the ship died.”
“…It was terrifying,” Xuan Che said softly. “Even Elder Senior Uncle found it terrifying.”
He went on, voice steady but grim. “So he did not respond to any communication from that strange ship. But because his celestial ship was damaged, and he couldn’t get away from the great ship that kept trying to catch up and ‘provide rescue,’ he ended up trapped like that for ten full days.”
“The ship kept switching between wreckage and ‘intact,’” Xuan Che said, “until on the final day, the situation suddenly changed.”
He lifted his eyes. “That great ship stopped, then sent Elder Senior Uncle one last message. Only one sentence.”
Yu Sheng leaned forward. “What did it say?”
Xuan Che spoke the words carefully, like they tasted wrong.
“‘You must stop lapis lazuli from departing 4 soma 4-4 on June 12, 2044.’”
Silence stretched.
Yu Sheng stared. “…And then?”
“Then the great ship vanished,” Xuan Che said. “It seemed to enter a jump state, but it produced none of the spacetime turbulence that a jump should have. It was as if it simply fell into an invisible hole that opened in the universe.”
He shook his head. “It was never heard from again. Elder Senior Uncle investigated in every direction afterward, but he never found a trace.”
Yu Sheng’s frown deepened. “So how did your Elder Senior Uncle get out?”
Xuan Che hesitated, then said, “He told me he suddenly achieved enlightenment. Then he entered a trance through immortal arts, his Dao became clear, and with great wisdom he shattered the void and sent his celestial ship out of the great void…”
He coughed again, clearly uncomfortable. “But later, the senior brothers of the Divine Armaments Peak checked the celestial ship logs. They said that when the great ship left, the celestial ship somehow repaired itself. They advised Elder Senior Uncle to properly worship the artifact spirit.”
He added, as if offering clarification, “In borderland terms, it’s called a ‘machine spirit.’”
Yu Sheng stared at him for a long moment, expression blank.
Then he forced himself back to the important part. “About lapis lazuli departing…”
“There is no large ship in the world called ‘lapis lazuli,’ at least not among legally registered ships,” Xuan Che said, shaking his head. “Either the name matches but the hull type doesn’t, or the hull type matches but the name doesn’t. That ship… nobody knows where it came from.”
Yu Sheng thought it over, then looked up. “So you think the ‘strange ship’ your Elder Senior Uncle encountered has similarities to the Hermitage Order shuttle that was transporting the Anka Aila crystal and suffered that bizarre incident?”
Xuan Che nodded. “In both cases, the ship transmitted monitored signals implying all crew were dead even though everything looked normal. In both cases, after a single jump, it vanished from the world without a trace.”
He lifted a finger. “The difference is that Elder Senior Uncle was locked in a standoff for more than ten days, so he witnessed many strange changes. The Hermitage Order shuttle went from first symptoms to vanishing in a jump in only three minutes. It didn’t have time to display everything.”
Then, as if the conversation had nudged him onto another thought, Xuan Che shifted topics.
“Speaking of Elder Senior Uncle,” he said, “he may be returning to the Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain soon.”
Yu Sheng’s head snapped up. “He’s coming back? Didn’t you say he was traveling and unreachable?”
“Oh, yesterday my Master told me he contacted him,” Xuan Che said quickly. “It turns out that twelve years ago, when he went down the mountain to go clubbing, he ran into an old romantic interest from his youth. He was kidnapped into tying the knot.”
He nodded as if this were a perfectly normal sentence. “Thankfully, the Immortal Alliance discipline-rectification task force helped rescue him. In a couple of days, he’ll return to the sect.”
Yu Sheng didn’t move.
Irene didn’t move.
Foxy didn’t move.
Luna blinked slowly, then did what she always did and nodded. “Mm, right.”
The living room fell so silent you could hear a pin drop.
“Ah,” Xuan Che said, looking around in confusion, “why is everyone not saying anything?”
Yu Sheng stared at him like he was seeing a ghost.
After a long, painful pause, he finally managed, “So… you just said your Elder Senior Uncle went down the mountain…”
“Clubbing,” Xuan Che confirmed calmly.
“And then he ran into…”
“A romantic interest,” Xuan Che said, still calm. “He was kidnapped into tying the knot. It did smooth over one thorn in his Dao heart.”
Yu Sheng broke out in cold sweat. He didn’t know whether to complain first about going down the mountain to go clubbing, or being kidnapped into marriage by a romantic interest, or the existence of an Immortal Alliance discipline-rectification task force. And the way Xuan Che’s Master apparently reacted to all this… Yu Sheng didn’t even have the brainpower to unpack it.
Xuan Che sighed, sounding almost wistful. “Ah, my Elder Senior Uncle truly is good in every way, except his fate is bound to love debts. Since he stepped onto the road of cultivation, he hasn’t met a heavenly tribulation even once.”
He looked genuinely moved. “It all got exchanged for the passion tribulation…”
Yu Sheng said nothing. He only looked, slowly, at Irene on the coffee table, then at Foxy tilting her head at him with clear eyes, then at Luna doing another reboot-crash cycle.
“I think there’s a cultural gap here,” he said gravely.
Irene nodded hard.
Foxy nodded too.
Luna nodded as well. “Mm, right.”