Chapter 370

Chapter 371: Impact

Yu Sheng’s eyes flew open.

He saw only a hazy glow and thick confusion. It felt like a heavy curtain had fallen, and that curtain disturbed sight, sound, and even Spiritual Intuition. It blocked every attempt to pierce through. He could not see the other side. The voices in his ears were a dull roar, and he could only vaguely tell that countless figures were moving behind the curtain.

He felt as if he were wind, moving through faceless crowds. Then his view rose fast, as if he were looking down from the sky. The next moment he felt like he had become one person in that crowd, standing solemnly and waiting for something to happen.

All of it was shrouded by the heavy curtain.

He saw those blurry figures arrayed around something enormous, as if forming ranks. Someone in the air directed things. Streams of light flew toward the giant object and lit up lines across its surface.

He heard a muffled voice at his ear: “Send it into the Nine Heavens… if all is well… when mountains and rivers are remade…”

The scene shook hard. Darkness fell like night. While he wondered what had happened, he saw fireflies beyond counting rising into the sky. Giant objects mixed among those “fireflies,” some shaped like towers and palaces, some like floating mountains and islands. A Heaven Swallowing Behemoth gave a long, low call high above.

Drums beat urgently, thump thump thump thump.

Yu Sheng soon realized those were not drums. That was his heart.

His heart pounded on its own. His blood rang in his ears. And a fierce “intent” kept rising in his mind, like something that stabbed through time and space straight into his head.

Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.

Use every method. Use them all. It does not matter which one works. Try them all.

The Celestial Sovereign commands it: saturated self rescue.

Saturated self rescue. Hold up the firmament. Launch the Celestial Ships. Self-Sacrificial Integration. Take tendons and bones apart and melt them into the Earth Veins. Dig tunnels underground. Carve words on stone. Leave a record in the core. Leave a roar between heaven and earth. Fly outward, as far as you can fly. Dig downward, as deep as you can dig.

Each to their duty. Each to their duty. The Celestial Sovereign commands it.

That fierce intent howled like a storm through the mind. The wild tide of thought from billions seemed to form a mighty field that passively “radiated” its power outward.

Yu Sheng did not get swept up by it. He still tried to observe, to push past the heavy curtain and see what lay beyond.

Just then, he sensed something.

His “gaze” fell on a different place outside the curtain.

There was an individual there, a presence that seemed to be acting on its own. A “mind.”

Yu Sheng’s heart leapt. At first he thought some being behind the curtain had noticed his spying and stepped out of history. But soon he realized the newcomer was not part of the curtain. It was another “observer,” much like him.

Someone else is here?

The moment that thought formed, he felt that “other observer” turn its gaze on him.

It had found him.

Shock flashed in that gaze. Before Yu Sheng could guess who the other was, a “voice” stabbed straight into his head and exploded in his heart: “Who are you?!”

He had not even reacted when that figure shot at him in a straight line, filled with killing intent and fury: “Do not touch it. How can the Sovereign’s Legacy fall to petty thieves!”

Yu Sheng had no idea what was going on. He only caught the words “Sovereign’s Legacy,” which made him think of the visions he had seen within the curtain. But his “body” could not dodge the charge at all. It was not that his reflexes were slow. It was his first time inside this curtain, and he had no idea how to “move” in this muddled place.

The next second, the blurry shadow slammed straight into him.

Maybe the attacker thrust a sword. Maybe it was a palm strike. He could not tell. The curtain that warped all senses made the enemy’s shape twist and blur. Yu Sheng only felt his “projection” here get pierced by the other’s “projection,” yet he felt no pain or discomfort, because what he had here was only a shadow.

The one who crashed into him, however, staggered back a long way.

Pale smoke rose between them. The attacker’s body seemed to be burning. It corroded fast in the smoke. The stranger let out a muffled groan, suppressed the corrosion with difficulty, and stared at Yu Sheng with deep wariness.

“Good,” he said, resentful yet with a hint of respect. “Fellow daoist, your methods are strong. No wonder you dare spy on this Sovereign’s Legacy. I will remember you. But today I am here with only a wisp of soul. If you insist on a fight, let us compare techniques another day.”

With that, the blurry figure turned to leave and vanished in a blink.

Yu Sheng was still confused. From start to finish he had done nothing, not even spoken a word, and the other had rushed over, hurt himself, praised Yu Sheng, dropped two formal lines, and left. Who could make sense of that?

“Hey, wait,” Yu Sheng yelled at the direction the figure had disappeared, eyes wide. “Who are you?”

No sooner had he finished than the blurry figure whooshed back, half of his body still smoking. He cupped his hands toward Yu Sheng and said: “I am Yun Qing Zi.”

Yu Sheng: “…”

The smoking figure spun and left again, disappearing quickly.

Yu Sheng stood there in a daze for a long time, thinking the man’s mind was not very normal.

He shook his head and prepared to leave this baffling place.

Just as he was about to open a portal back to reality, the smoking figure rushed over again.

Yu Sheng jumped and raised his guard on reflex. Even if that collision had not hurt him, anyone would be spooked by a jittery guy barreling through the fog.

The figure stopped a few meters away, stared at Yu Sheng through the hazy curtain, and said bluntly: “I left in a hurry and forgot to ask. Who are you?”

Yu Sheng: “…”

He was now fully certain the man’s brain was not quite right.

“My name is Yu Sheng,” he said offhandedly.

He did not bother hiding his name. Not because the other had reported his own and politeness demanded a reply, but because Yu Sheng did not care.

“Good. I will remember,” the one who called himself Yun Qing Zi nodded, cupped his hands again while still smoking, then turned and left.

Yu Sheng looked after him, half crying and half laughing. He discovered that when a person is so speechless he can only laugh.

A sudden thought came to him. Would the guy come back again? With that odd idea in mind, Yu Sheng paused his portal and simply waited.

He did not even know what mood he was in.

After waiting quite a while, the other did not return. It seemed Yun Qing Zi had truly left.

“Fine. He is not completely crazy,” Yu Sheng muttered, shook his head, and finally opened the Door to go.

A wave of dizziness rolled through his mind. His five senses rushed back into his body. He opened his eyes and found himself on the living room sofa at 66 Wutong Road.

At some point he had lain down. Foxy’s tails were under his neck like a pillow. He hugged one tail to his chest, and two more furry tails covered him like blankets.

Foxy curled up on a yoga mat next to the sofa, hugging her own fluffy tail and sleeping soundly.

Yu Sheng rubbed his eyes, sat up, and sorted out his foggy thoughts.

He went back over what he had seen in those Illusion Arts behind the curtain and confirmed it was not a “dream.”

Including that jumpy “Yun Qing Zi” who had shown up at the end.

Were those visions behind the curtain the so called Sovereign’s Legacy, or clues to it?

What was that overwhelming group intent? They seemed to be preparing to resist an end of the world level disaster. Was it the calamity of Oblivion? Was information from the old world leaking over again? Why did he see it?

Who exactly was “Yun Qing Zi”?

Yu Sheng frowned. He felt he should tell Immortal Yuan Ling.

A voice across the coffee table cut off his messy train of thought.

“Brother, you are awake?”

Yu Sheng looked up and saw Rapunzel sitting at the table with her nightmare of holiday homework.

“You still have not written those last hundred words?” Yu Sheng was shocked.

“But it is the last hundred words of the essay,” Rapunzel said, face like the sky had fallen, eyebrows twisted in grief. “I already tried adding more commas and as many of the de, di, and de as I could. I even made every ellipsis take six spaces. I am still four lines short.”

Yu Sheng: “…”

After a moment, he glanced at the empty cushion beside her. “Where is Mermaid?”

“Cinderella came to find her. The two of them took a bunch of little dollheads to the orchard for a picnic,” Rapunzel said, eyes getting wetter. “Red Hood would not let me go. She said I have to fill the last four lines, that I am in tenth grade now, and an essay should at least fill the page.”

Yu Sheng listened, both speechless and sympathetic. He sighed, typed a text to Immortal Yuan Ling saying he would come by later, then moved to sit beside Rapunzel: “Alright, let me see your essay.”

“Okay,” Rapunzel brightened at once and held up her Chinese test paper. “Just help me pad three lines. I already thought of the last sentence.”

Though she could rip Demons apart with her bare hands, she was still a kid. [That thought rose on its own.]

Yu Sheng took the sheet. His eyes fell on the essay at the end.

Essay title:

“My Brother Yu Sheng.”

The first line:

“My brother Yu Sheng is often terminally ill, but he always stays strong and optimistic……”

After a beat of silence, Yu Sheng lifted his eyes to the grinning Rapunzel beside the coffee table.

She looked exactly like a big blondie up to mischief, full of trouble.

“Rapunzel,” he said.

“What is it, bro?”

“Write it yourself.”