Chapter 378

Chapter 379: Plain Stats

The rifts in the sea of clouds kept increasing. As more large rifts opened, the monsters breaking free grew harder to handle.

Yu Sheng shoved the nonfighters Zheng Zhi and Cinderella into Wutong Road 66 right away, then joined the others on Cloud Viewing Terrace for nonstop battle.

A long, snake-thin creature with a feathered crest and hands and feet dove from the air, letting out a shriek so sharp it made heads pound. Before it hit the ground, countless strands of black spider silk appeared and skewered it, locking it in place. A split-second later, a blazing scorching light beam swept past and sliced that creature-and another one crawling out of a nearby rift-clean in two.

One Irene, the “rebar” one, sat on Yu Sheng’s shoulder and sent Black Threads crawling everywhere to catch anything that came near the terrace. The other Irene, the “black iron” one, stood on the ground and fired one scorching light beam after another into the sky as she yelled: “Ha ha ha, you small fry! Hot or not? Is that hot? I charged all night-right now I’m crazy strong! Send more and I’ll-hey, Foxy, watch where you’re stepping!”

Foxy pounced from midair and pinned a giant humanoid demon under her paws. Fox fire surged and burned it to ash in a blink. She did not look back as she answered: “Then find a higher perch to stand on-I can’t see my feet well in this form!”

“That’s because your snout is too long!” shouted the “black iron” Irene as she sprinted around to avoid getting stepped on. “I was sitting on Yu Sheng’s other shoulder-then I fell off!”

Yu Sheng reached out, scooped Irene up with one hand, and held the little doll in his arm. With his other hand he swung his tetanus staff and scanned the field.

Rapunzel, scythe in hand and hair turned to armor and weapons, was locked in a fierce fight with a powerful ape beast. She had no fancy forms, only the “hunting technique” drilled into her by years of life-and-death fights with demonic creatures, so every move aimed to kill. The magic in her hair could become any weapon or armor at her side, and she used blades, spears, and polearms with ease. She fought like a golden predator.

But her most dangerous weapon was not the big, heavy swings. It was the hair that lifted in the wind as if by accident.

Those fine strands drifted around her, so thin you might miss them if you were not looking. Silently, they settled onto the ape beast’s skin. When the beast sensed the killing intent and tried to leap back, it was already too late.

Rapunzel’s golden scythe fell. The beast raised an arm on instinct to block, but tiny blood blossoms burst from its body in the hundreds and thousands. The golden hair had wormed into its limbs, then ran along its meridians and vessels, found the several hearts inside it, and cut every one into fragments.

The beast crashed down. The blood-stained strands drew back and, while still in the air, flowed back into shining gold.

Rapunzel grinned, purple-red monster blood on her cheeks, looking very pleased.

These things were way easier than her vacation homework.

Then a tooth-aching creak sounded from the sky, drawing every eye.

Yu Sheng looked toward the sound. Above the cliff at the side of Cloud Viewing Terrace, a “passage” unlike any rift so far was slowly opening.

The slit gleamed with crystal light, like a gorgeous crystal cavern was unfolding. It was eerie but strangely beautiful. As the opening widened, what drifted out was not a grotesque monster, but a sharp crystal spire.

A huge crystal, several meters tall and shimmering with rainbow hues, floated out of the opening and descended like something in a slow, solemn descent.

Danger spiked in Yu Sheng’s chest. He saw thick Demon Suppressing Chains strapped around the crystal’s middle. The Runic Seals on them were packed tight and burning hard. Bands of light stretched from the rift as if trying to haul the crystal back. But as the damage inside the Demon Suppression Tower spread, all those bindings weakened fast. In a blink, half the chains snapped.

The next second, as the crystal slipped free, everyone on Cloud Viewing Terrace heard a pleasant, gentle chime.

It sounded like wind chimes, like jade tapping jade. The lovely notes came from within the crystal, so pretty they felt like heavenly music.

The instant it chimed, most of the fighting on the terrace faded. Everyone felt a deep, lazy calm rising from the heart. Even the ugly, savage demons and beasts seemed “purified,” their killing intent softening until they lounged there without malice.

But in sharp contrast to that “comfort” and “relaxation,” a few smarter monsters suddenly showed naked fear in their eyes.

A demon shaped like a standing lizard, scales from head to toe, staggered and fell the moment it saw the crystal. Watching the Runic Chains snap strand by strand, it actually blurted out in human speech: “The… Desolate Meteor Crystal!”

Before it finished, the fight drained from its eyes. The crystal chimed again, and a peaceful, drowsy look spread over its inhuman face. Then a rainbow sheen raced over its scales. In a few breaths, the monster turned into a lifelike crystal statue, made of the same stuff as the floating jewel.

Yu Sheng’s hair stood on end: “What is that thing?!”

Rapunzel, who had been having a great time, froze. She found her hair could not pierce the crystal. When her scythe hit it, it felt like her strength had been pulled away, her will to fight thrown into an ice cellar and melting by the second. An urge to stop, to lie in the sun, even to turn into a rock and do nothing at all, rose from the depths and would not be denied.

Just then a black figure slipped across the battlefield like a ghost.

Luna seemed completely unaffected. She hopped past the others, her fingertip blades harvesting enemies that had lost the will to fight and were already turning into crystal statues. She walked the line between the living and the dead, each step exact and graceful, with not a breath or motion wasted. After a few slow-but-fast “dance” steps, she reached the floating crystal and stabbed.

The crystal was so hard that even her unidirectional crystal alloy blade, sharp enough to cut battleship armor, could only strike sparks. It did not leave a mark.

But that “useless” strike cut off the pleasant chiming inside. The once-harmonious vibration broke into a chain of harsh, weird noise.

Yu Sheng’s vision swam. Suddenly he saw a golden-haired knight with twelve bronze knights in the Soul Wilderness, all of them whacking the crystal with swords, spears, staves, and clubs.

He jolted: “It has a soul?!”

“Maybe not a soul, but it certainly has a mind,” came Immortal Yuan Hao’s voice from above. “The Desolate Meteor Crystal is a dangerous oddity my master found a thousand years ago after a strange meteor shower. It fell from an Otherworld called ‘Desolate Sky.’ In that realm it is a high-risk Entity. After leaving its home environment, it mutated but survived to now. It thinks, it schemes, very dangerous. But if you process its chime, you can use it to suppress monsters that easily go berserk. So for years we kept it locked at the bottom of the tower as a ‘demon-quelling stone.’ Now it seems… it cannot be kept.”

As he spoke, the crystal’s chiming faded away. Rainbow light on its surface turned ashy gray, and it dropped to the ground from half a meter up. It made no more sound, but still wobbled slightly, as if even without its “soul,” its shell remained alive.

It was even trying to regenerate its soul.

“Needs to be smashed,” said Luna as she stepped back lightly and turned to Yu Sheng. “Too hard for me.”

“Easy,” said Immortal Yuan Hao.

He drifted down. Yu Sheng saw him flip his palm, put away the short, brick-like Ten Directions Heaven Suppressing Ruler, and lift his hand again. Another weapon appeared there-

Its head was square, neither metal nor wood, blazing red and cold to look at, with a handle half a meter long.

Yu Sheng: “…”

It was just a bigger spirit brick with a stick welded on. Call it a war hammer if you wanted, but really… yeah, it was a hammer. [Do not say it. Do not say it.]

Yu Sheng was about to make a joke, but Immortal Yuan Hao gave him no chance. The old hunk took one step, every motion full of masterly poise, white clothes like snow, white hair floating, white brows like swords. He raised the red hammer high and called out as it fell: “Heaven’s Demon Quelling Hammer!”

Bang. With one thunderclap, the crystal that Luna’s fingertip blades could not chip shattered into a storm of fragments.

Nothing fancy. No pretty looks. No flashy effects, no elemental counters, no clever divine arts or refined dao techniques. Just plain stats, stacked high enough to finish the job.