Chapter 347

Chapter 348: Killing Intent!

Yu Sheng felt a jolt in his heart, as if a vast and boundless force, or rather an “intent,” surged like a storm through his mind, crossing time and space straight at him; his vision blurred, a light dizziness reset his senses, and when he opened his eyes again, the darkness was gone and he was standing in endless yellow sand.

Foxy hugged her two tails like Rambo and watched the surroundings with full alert, Irene’s weight pressed heavy on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, Luna stood a short distance off to the side, and Xuan Che was already popping pills.

Irene stared at the sea of sand and let out a soft gasp: “Wow… if no one told me, I’d never guess you could reach a place like this by walking down from that mine shaft.”

Xuan Che spoke while standing nearby: “This is one of the Otherworld ‘illusory realms’ you can reach by taking that ramp. Everyone be careful. Based on reports from the cultivators who scouted earlier, even in confirmed Otherworld scenes, the details and what appears will change more or less each time you enter.”

Irene answered casually, then eyed Luna’s front-facing silhouette for a while before blurting: “Hey C Buckle, how are you walking in the desert in high heels without sinking in? What’s the trick?”

Luna flexed hands and feet, trying to explain how she moved so easily on sand, but after a long effort she couldn’t form a long sentence and only squeezed out two words: “Training.”

Listening to the chatter, Yu Sheng felt more and more that something was off, and finally couldn’t help asking: “When you came in just now, did you hear anything? Like many people shouting together.”

Foxy tilted her head: “Many voices shouting together? I didn’t hear that.”

“You didn’t?” Yu Sheng instantly knew why he felt so out of place just now. [So it really was only me who heard it?]

Xuan Che’s face turned serious at once: “What kind of shouting?”

“I couldn’t hear clearly. It was all echoing, like a low rumble, but I barely caught a few words. Something about ‘activate’ and ‘grand formation’.”

“Activate a grand formation?!” Xuan Che stiffened, then snapped his head toward the deeper dunes, as if guarding against a trap. Yet after scanning the area, he found nothing except the far-off, ruin-like shadows poking up from the sands. He felt no sign of any formation being activated.

“There is no array here, unless it’s so advanced it has blended with nature and can’t be sensed,” Xuan Che said with a shake of the head, “but since Mr. Yu heard it, that means something strange is going on.”

Without another word, Foxy leapt forward, light flaring around her as her body swelled into the enormous Nine-Tailed Silver Fox.

Yu Sheng reached to his side and pulled open The Door, took out his Tetanus Staff, then opened a smaller Door and hauled out a threaded-steel Irene to mount on his shoulder.

The little Doll came out dazed and needed a few beats to understand what was happening.

“Let’s check over there first,” Xuan Che said as he drew his icy, chilling sword. Pointing toward those ruin-like shadows in the distance with his other hand, he added: “The exit should be inside that ruin.”

Yu Sheng sprang onto Foxy’s back and called: “Go!”

They rushed for the shadows. The demon fox ran like lightning, Xuan Che turned to a streaming breeze, and even usually sluggish Luna moved with that graceful, ghostlike footwork. With her short-range Teleportation, she ended up leading the whole team.

Soon Yu Sheng finally saw what those “ruins” really were.

“What… the?”

They stopped near the “ruins,” and Yu Sheng tilted his head back, staring at a golden-armored giant half-buried in sand, leaning on a long halberd, fallen on its side. He was struck dumb.

The shadows that had been unclear from afar were a cluster of giants over ten meters tall. Each wore golden armor and helmet, each held a halberd, and thick faceplates hid their faces. Some stood like statues. Others had fallen and were half-buried by sand.

“Are these… also the ‘locals’ of your Grand Void Spiritual Axis?” Yu Sheng stood on Foxy’s head and still had to look up at those towering golden figures. After a long stare he turned to Xuan Che in amazement: “They look taller than Snow White’s Thunder Titan!”

Xuan Che frowned, leapt forward, and landed on the arm of one golden giant to examine something. After a moment he dropped down: “Automaton.”

Yu Sheng raised a brow: “Automaton?”

“Yes, top-tier ones. Assault Titans,” Xuan Che said, his face growing heavier. “And…”

“What else did you find?”

Xuan Che lifted a hand and traced a few lines in the air, drawing a profound, ancient-looking rune with spiritual light before speaking in a low voice: “The mark of the Reclining Cloud Ten Halls.”

“Reclining Cloud Ten Halls?” Yu Sheng thought for a beat, then remembered at once: “Wait, that’s one of the five major sects on the Grand Void Spiritual Axis, the one you said specializes in forging and fortress building… these Automatons were built by them?!”

Xuan Che nodded slowly, yet doubt tinged his voice: “But I never heard they constructed this model of Assault Titan. Automatons at this level, if actually built and deployed, could never escape the Heaven Servants’ notice.”

“And don’t forget this is the Otherworld,” Irene added. “How could Automatons they made end up inside an Otherworld?”

Xuan Che shook his head, face still tense.

Just then, Irene suddenly snapped her head up and stared into the shadows between the Assault Titans: “There’s killing intent!”

[More killing intent?] The thought flashed through Yu Sheng’s mind, and his Spiritual Intuition tightened. The next second, he saw shadows roil and rise, and a chorus of whooshing wind split the air.

Several figures in black robes and black armor, wearing weird masks, burst from the shadows like thunder and wind, heading straight for Yu Sheng’s group under the giants’ feet.

“Whoa! There really is killing intent!”

Yu Sheng had time to shout only that before a chilling light shot straight for his Door. It was a Flying Sword wrapped in wind and thunder. He hurried to block, the force numbing his arm. Foxy stepped back two paces to bleed off the impact, and her nine tails blossomed open as a sky-filling barrage of Fox Fire rained down on the black-robed cultivators.

Irene’s Black Spider Silk and Scorching Ray burst out together, jamming several enemies’ attacks. Using that brief delay, Xuan Che quickly burned a few Talismanic Runes he had been holding, swallowed several Elixirs, then charged a black-robed cultivator with a plain, straight punch: “Medical Brawl Exploding Fist!”

Yu Sheng nearly slid off Foxy’s head. [He really went with that move name?]

The next second, he saw the black-robed cultivator narrowly dodge Xuan Che’s fierce punch, then flash-step back, a long sword appearing in his hand as he thrust at Xuan Che’s face.

Xuan Che reacted fast. He slipped past the thrust and drove a palm forward; thunder boomed inside the strike, compressing and igniting the air with an ear-splitting blast: “Doctor Patient Relationship Correction Palm!”

The black-robed cultivator staggered half a beat, whether slowed by the palm’s wind pressure or stunned by the ridiculous name. Xuan Che’s palm landed solidly. Yet the expected explosive death did not happen. Strange lights surged from the man’s black armor, then came a sharp cracking. A talismanic treasure hanging at his chest shattered to pieces, letting him take the blow unharmed. He retreated at once to open distance, and the killing intent in his next sword swing rose to a peak.

At the same time, several other enemies focused on the most eye-catching target on the field, the Nine-Tailed Silver Fox. A squad of black-robed cultivators formed a battle array, a hazy glow rising between them. They tanked a full volley of Fox Carrot Gatling by brute force, then lunged for Yu Sheng standing on Foxy’s head.

It was simple. Yu Sheng stood on a giant fox with two Irene turrets on his shoulders, one shooting Spider Silk and the other firing lasers. He looked like a swaggering boss. Who else would they hit?

But then a ghostlike figure sprang from the sand. She danced through the array and broke their formation, blades flashing so sharp that the leader had to stop short and twist away in panic.

Luna moved with light, elegant steps, slipping through the enemies at speed as metal clashed in a rising chorus.

Once she entered combat, she seemed like a different person, nothing like her usual slow, sometimes frozen state.

The lead black-robed cultivator felt a great danger from this metal Doll who had appeared out of nowhere.

It wasn’t just killing intent. Staring hard at Luna’s tall figure in the sands, he sensed something else gathered around her, a pure “intent of death” brewing in the air.

Behind that smiling, pale face, a gaze watched the dead.

“Everyone be careful!” the leader shouted a warning at once: “This Automaton has-”

Before he finished, Luna vanished and appeared point-blank the next instant, ten Fingertip Blades stabbing straight in.

The leader was clearly powerful. Even under such a sudden strike, he reacted and whirled his sword, blocking all of Luna’s attacks. He leapt back and a phantom treasure mirror rose behind him, its surface shining with flowing light. It reflected Luna’s figure at once and pinned her, locking her in midair.

“Nothing special…” the black-robed cultivator felt a spark of joy and stepped in to take the “metal Doll’s” life.

The next second, an endless wasteland rushed over him.

The Nether River hung upside down across the sky. A gray plain stretched without end. A soul-chilling wind howled. A blonde girl in holy armor stood before him like a knight.