Chapter 383

Chapter 383: Damage Report

Deep inside the Demon Suppression Tower, within the core containment zone that resembled a vast vertical shaft, Immortal Yuan Ling and Immortal Qian Ji moved through the wreckage with grim faces.

Yu Sheng’s group stepped through the door and walked in.

“I came to check the situation,” Yu Sheng said to Immortal Yuan Ling, “and I brought Sect Leader Yuan Hao over. How is it here?”

“As you can see,” Immortal Yuan Ling sighed, gesturing into the shaft, “it’s a mess everywhere. This is probably the biggest accident the Demon Suppression Tower has faced since it was built. But at least the response was timely.”

They were standing midway down the shaft on a semicircular platform that jutted from the inner wall. Beyond it, many mechanism bridges built along the walls had been destroyed. Disciples from Divine Armament Peak—Spirit Mountain’s artifact refiners—hovered in midair, inspecting the broken structures. Containment cells embedded in the walls had collapsed or were still smoking. Tower personnel, assisted by large automatons, were clearing debris and reopening pathways.

But more shocking than the ruined cells was the massive fissure running almost from top to bottom through the entire shaft.

The wall, made from an unknown material so sturdy it looked unbreakable, seemed as if it had been torn open by brute force. The gash bent and stretched upward into hazy, endless heights and plunged downward until it vanished into darkness. At its widest, it spanned dozens of meters. Even now, sparks and flashes from ruptured spiritual materials burst from it at random.

“Hoooooly crap,” Irene muttered from Yu Sheng’s shoulder. “No wonder so many demons and ghosts ran out. Your containment zone got split right down the middle.”

Immortal Qian Ji let out a long breath. “Yes. When I arrived, I was startled as well.”

“Even for me, dealing with this is tricky,” Immortal Yuan Ling said, voice heavy. “And the worst damage isn’t what you can see. When the core formation stopped functioning, many ferocious monsters sealed at the very bottom rose up at once. Not a few have intelligence. Once they sensed the restrictions weakening, they began ripping things apart layer by layer, working upward from the bottom and outward from within. About half of what escaped outside was released by them in passing, simply to create more chaos.

“So the lower levels are complicated now—not only structural damage, but also miasma and contamination left behind by demons, devil cultivators, and runaway entities. Cleaning it all will take time.

“Thankfully, the internal space of the Demon Suppression Tower is vast. Many unused levels weren’t damaged. The demons we recapture can be moved there temporarily.”

Irene listened for a while, then finally blurted, “I wanted to ask earlier. You’ve got so many demons and ghosts locked in here—some that would cause world-ending chaos if they ever got out. Why not just kill them? At least kill the most dangerous, hopeless batch. Why keep them like ticking bombs?”

“It’s not that easy,” Immortal Yuan Hao said before Immortal Yuan Ling could answer, shaking his head with tired amusement. “The ones we can execute directly are executed after identity verification and investigation of their crimes. The ones kept long-term in the Demon Suppression Tower are kept for a reason.

“One reason is that their crimes truly don’t merit death, and they still have a chance to return to the right path. Like Serpent Princess—sealing her here is giving her that chance.

“Another reason is that some bizarre things are very difficult to kill. If you forcibly destroy them, the contamination and backlash that erupt can be far more dangerous than containment. When you weigh it, keeping them sealed is the lesser risk.

“And the most special cases are certain ancient beasts, or even devil cultivators who have grasped a hint of the Dao. Those prisoners have already tied themselves into the cycle of heaven and earth. One breath, one life, one death—the impact goes far beyond themselves. Killing them outright can damage the Grand Void Spiritual Axis in the short term, even the environment of the entire Featherwing star sector, and trigger natural disasters that harm the people. So they must be kept here and refined slowly—centuries, even millennia—until there’s a way to dissolve them harmlessly.”

Yu Sheng stared, stunned. “…That’s a thing?”

“Yes.” Immortal Yuan Ling gave a bitter smile. “This time, there was a primeval behemoth linked to the earth veins that tried to break free. Qian Ji and I were forced to kill it. Originally it was meant to be refined at the bottom for eight hundred years.

“It died cleanly enough, but Eight Gates Star just sent news that the local magnetic pole shifted by at least two degrees. We still don’t know how many harvests it will affect.”

Yu Sheng’s face went blank. “…Are you cultivation people all kind of insane?”

Even Irene looked lost for a beat. Then she snapped out of it and turned to Foxy. “Hey, Silly Fox. Does your side have stuff like this too?”

Foxy thought for a moment, then shook her head. “I’ve never heard of that. Maybe the rules of the world are different? Also, on our side, most planets’ parameters are controlled by machines. If the magnetic poles shift, they adjust themselves back…”

Irene blinked. “…How is that not even more insane?”

Immortal Yuan Hao and Immortal Qian Ji both stared at Foxy for several seconds. Then, bright-eyed, they asked in unison, “How does that work?”

“Let’s not discuss principles,” Yu Sheng cut in quickly, seeing the two engineering-minded immortals about to interrogate a cyber fox whose education was, at best, informal. “She can’t explain it to you anyway. Right now, the main thing is figuring out what caused this accident—and whether it can happen again.”

Immortal Yuan Ling’s expression shifted. “You mean…”

“The rift Zheng Zhi observed is still there,” Yu Sheng said grimly. “It’s just temporarily stabilized.”

“It’s over there,” Zheng Zhi said at once, pointing. “It basically overlaps with that… rift in the inner wall, and it keeps extending downward. But I still can’t see how far it goes. It’s too dark down there.”

Immortal Yuan Ling frowned, stroking his beard as he thought. After a few seconds, he made a decision. “Then I’ll take you down to the bottom of the Demon Suppression Tower and have Daoist Friend Zheng use his spirit eyes to see what exactly is going on. Senior Brother, you stay here with Immortal Qian Ji and keep checking the damage at this level.”

“Of course,” Immortal Yuan Hao said lightly. Then he remembered something and pulled a red spirit brick from his sleeve. “The earth veins below are in turmoil. I worry some wicked thing may be stirring. Take my Ten Directions Heaven-Suppressing Ruler for protection.”

Immortal Yuan Ling looked at the “weapon” his Senior Brother had produced. A muscle in his cheek twitched. He forced his face back into solemn calm. “Senior Brother… you know I’m not good with weapons. Your Heaven-Suppressing Ruler… I’m not used to it.”

“Alright,” Immortal Yuan Hao said thoughtfully. “Then how about a Primeval Demon-Subduing Targe? A Heaven’s Demon-Quelling Hammer? A Four-Directions Spirit Seal? A Sky-Flipping Seal?”

As he spoke, he rummaged through his sleeve and pulled out an entire pile of divine armaments he’d personally refined at Divine Armament Peak. The platform flooded with dazzling light and overflowing spiritual energy. Artifact spirits resonated in chorus, releasing airy music like a fairy song.

Yu Sheng squinted into the glow and realized, with growing disbelief, that most of them were… variations of spirit bricks. Some were sharp-edged. Some had handles. Some had chains, hooks, backward teeth. One was even two bricks connected by an iron rod like a dumbbell—yet it was solemnly named the Boundless Cosmos Demon-Repelling Rod.

If they weren’t radiating golden light and spiritual power, someone could’ve dumped that pile into concrete and built a wall.

Immortal Yuan Ling’s face went faintly green. Before his Senior Brother could pull out anything else, he grabbed Yu Sheng and hurried to the platform’s edge. With a flick of his dust whisk, he summoned a floating round dais that glowed faintly into existence. He herded everyone onto it, and the dais shot downward toward the depths of the Demon Suppression Tower.

Immortal Yuan Hao leaned over the upper platform’s edge, still holding up a brick that radiated chilling light. “Do you want the Limitless Treasure Talisman—”

“Put it away!” Immortal Yuan Ling shouted up as he controlled the dais downward. “Don’t drop it and smash the earth veins!”

Only after yelling did he notice Yu Sheng and the others staring at him. The old man cleared his throat, visibly awkward.

Yu Sheng held back for a long time, then finally asked, “Xuan Che’s Elder Senior Uncle… is he really your top artifact-refining grandmaster?”

“…Yes,” Immortal Yuan Ling admitted.

Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched. “That is… a very unique aesthetic.”

“You don’t understand,” Immortal Yuan Ling said, trying to defend his Senior Brother—for the sect’s dignity if nothing else. “His artifact-refining skill is truly top-tier. He simply doesn’t care about appearances. His artifacts are made in the most practical, effort-saving style. But their power should never be underestimated.”

Yu Sheng immediately remembered that barren meteor crystal being smashed into fragments with a single brick.

He agreed wholeheartedly.

The dais sped past the mid-level shaft region. After a corridor packed with talismans and inscriptions, Yu Sheng noticed the structure below changing.

The shaft wall lined with countless cells and caves came to an end. Below stretched a deep, vertical rock cavern. Faint spiritual light flickered in the depths, brightening and dimming like breath—like a pulse.

“Those below are the earth veins,” Immortal Yuan Ling said beside him. “The star-core power of the Grand Void Spiritual Axis is stored within.”