Chapter 384

Chapter 384: The Bottom of the Demon Suppression Tower

The floating round dais, glowing with celestial talismans, passed beyond the main containment zone and continued descending into the cavern at the tower’s base. It was so deep it gave the illusion of reaching the planet’s core.

Light flashed within the rough, primitive stone walls around them. Brief arcs of electricity leapt between jagged stalagmites. The farther down they went, the more arcs appeared, until the underground seemed filled with flowing rivers of light.

Those rivers poured from the rock and crossed through the air, weaving and rushing. Their glow pulsed and tightened like veins—like breath.

Yu Sheng watched the dreamlike spectacle in silence, spellbound.

The light rivers moved without sound, yet he felt as if something inside them was speaking. He stared at the flickering glow until it began to feel like a rhythm, thump… thump… like a heartbeat.

Low. Slow. Gentle.

A heart beating deep within the planet.

Without thinking, Yu Sheng murmured, almost to himself, “It’s healthy.”

Irene blinked at him. “Huh? What the hell is healthy?”

“This planet,” Yu Sheng said, smiling.

For reasons he couldn’t explain, a faint, bright joy spread through his chest. It felt like the first time he returned to the purified Nightfall Valley and saw a single blade of grass break through the soil. He sat cross-legged at the edge of the dais, grinning at the living rivers of light. “It’s really doing well.”

Zheng Zhi watched him, confused, then leaned closer to Foxy and whispered, “Do you know what Brother Yu is talking about?”

“No,” Foxy answered without hesitation. “But Benefactor is right.”

She crouched beside Yu Sheng, squinting at the flowing light with pure delight. “It’s really good.”

Luna stood behind Yu Sheng as quietly as ever. The soft glow of the earth veins reflected on her smooth metal shell, painting shifting highlights across her surface. In those reflections, no one could tell what she was thinking.

Immortal Yuan Ling stroked his beard, appearing to observe the cavern’s environment, but the corner of his eye kept drifting toward Yu Sheng. He didn’t say anything.

The Dao must be realized. The more you ask, the shallower it becomes.

The old man tried, briefly, to keep his heavenly eye on Yu Sheng and comprehend what he could. After a while he grew dizzy, overwhelmed, and finally looked away—just as Yu Sheng spoke again.

“Do all planets have earth veins?”

“Not all,” Immortal Yuan Ling said after a pause. “Most active planets have earth veins. Some are strong and visible—energy streams like underground rivers moving endlessly through mantle and crust. The most famous phenomenon is Terra’s Loka’s Touch. Second is the Grand Void Spiritual Axis’s underground light rivers. Other earth veins are hard to see with the naked eye and require formations or spiritual instruments to observe.

“And some planets have no earth veins at all. Those are usually worlds whose deep activity has completely stopped—no life evolves on the surface anymore. Outsiders call them dead planets, silent planets, cold stars. We call them barren stars.

“But there are exceptions. Some worlds are classified as barren stars—no earth veins, no detectable flow—yet the planet’s interior remains active and the surface is lush, with mountains and rivers teeming with life. Such planets often breed strange things. Some people privately call them corpse stars and consider them ominous. But aside from being a little weird, there isn’t much basis for that kind of omen.”

Yu Sheng listened with open wonder. After a long moment, he shook his head with a soft sigh. “I’d never even heard of things like this before.”

“That’s normal,” Zheng Zhi said cheerfully. “Most people on our side don’t really understand planets. After all, the starry sky above Boundary City at night is basically just shadowspawn formed when the real universe projects onto the borderland’s spatial shell.”

Yu Sheng only smiled and shook his head. Then he stood.

They had arrived.

The floating round dais reached the cavern floor. It was an enormous underground chamber lit by the earth veins’ flowing light. Towering artificial pillars stood throughout, majestic and oppressive. Each was carved with profound ancient seals and inlaid with copper rings, crystals, and other materials that radiated solemn power. They were clearly part of the Demon Suppression Tower’s foundation.

And between those demon-suppressing pillars stretched countless chains.

They crisscrossed from pillar tops to bases, forming a net of iron links patterned with obvious dao methods. At the focal point, thick chains bound a massive body.

A stone sphere.

That was the only way to describe it. It looked like a gigantic stone ball—rough, cratered, and pocked like a planet’s surface struck by meteors. More bluntly, it looked like a smaller planet the size of a house. Wrapped in layers of chains and stuffed with talisman seals between links, it was grotesque and faintly horrifying.

More horrifying still: the moment Yu Sheng stepped off the dais, the stone sphere floated up. Fine cracks spread across its surface, racing into place until they formed a face.

Two hollow eyes like black holes.

And a mouth full of jagged teeth, curved into a smile.

“You’re really running yourself ragged, Yuan Ling,” the stone sphere rumbled. Its mouth opened and closed as gray-white dust sifted down. “At a time like this, you still have time to come see me?”

“Of course,” Immortal Yuan Ling said flatly, staring at the sphere in the center of the great demon-suppressing formation. “At times like this, I can’t afford to be careless about what’s down here. But you seem more obedient than the rest.”

“Of course. I’ve always been obedient,” the sphere said with a hoarse laugh. “Because I’m smarter than them. When the top cracked, Chao Hu was the first to rush out—and it dragged a few idiots from the level above with it. They all thought the Demon Suppression Tower collapsing meant Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain would fall into chaos. Only I knew the truth.”

It rotated slowly, chains clattering.

“If the Demon Suppression Tower ever truly collapses, it only means Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain is about to begin a day of slaughter. This tower is simply a little chance—some dignity—you leave for the enemies of man.”

“Enemies of man…” Immortal Yuan Ling murmured, stroking his beard. “I haven’t heard that term in a long time.”

“I hear you people split the enemies of man into all kinds of categories now,” the sphere went on, as if chatting idly. “Demons, vicious beasts, evil spirits, entities, heretical outsiders—a complete mess. The old days were better. One sentence covered it all: enemies of man, kill without mercy. Hah. Back then, you were much purer.”

Immortal Yuan Ling didn’t react to the mockery. He simply turned and introduced it to Yu Sheng and the others, who were watching with wary curiosity.

“This creature is named Omen Wandering Star,” he said. “It is a strange existence from the sea of stars. It can use subspace power to cross the void, disguise itself as a meteor, fall to the ground, and gnaw on earth veins for food. It has harmed countless lives.

“Three thousand years ago, it fell upon the Grand Void Spiritual Axis. Many great powers subdued it together and sealed it here underground.

“In a way, it deserves this fate. It has eaten countless earth veins, yet the earth veins of the Grand Void Spiritual Axis are poisonous to it.”

Yu Sheng listened, unsettled, gaining a new appreciation for how many twisted things existed in this world. Omen Wandering Star slowly rotated, its carved face turning toward Yu Sheng’s group as it widened its grin.

“A pleasure, a pleasure,” it rumbled. “Yuan Ling, aren’t you going to introduce them? You don’t usually bring outsiders down here.”

“They have nothing to do with you,” Immortal Yuan Ling said. “They are guests of Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain. I’m here to check the Demon Suppression Tower’s situation with them. Stay put.”

“Alright. Check away. This place is boring anyway,” the sphere said, swaying slightly. Then it added, almost casually, “Oh right. Yuan Ling—did Chao Hu really die? It rushed out and never came back.”

“It is dead,” Immortal Yuan Ling said calmly. “A Class-A containment body, and a vicious beast held on this level. Escaping is a capital offense. It was killed on sight.”

“Tsk. I told you it had no brain,” the sphere said with mocking delight. “Finally one loud idiot is gone. A shame, though. With it dead, Eight Gates Star will probably run into trouble. If I remember right, that’s a colonial star of your Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain? Or was it the Remote Mist Sect…”

Its mouth stretched wider. “Want me to help? I’m pretty good at adjusting planetary status. I don’t ask for much—just one small bite…”

Immortal Yuan Ling stared at Omen Wandering Star in silence.

The stone sphere slowly sank back down, wrapping the surrounding chains around itself twice more. “…Fine, fine. No means no. Why are you glaring like that?”

Yu Sheng ignored the sphere and walked with Zheng Zhi to the side of a massive stone pillar.

“The rift goes down from here,” Zheng Zhi said, bracing one hand on the pillar. Even though the ground looked solid, he moved as if afraid he might slip into an invisible pit. “It goes straight through the floor.”

Yu Sheng’s eyes widened. “…It’s still going down?”

“Yeah,” Zheng Zhi said, voice tight. “Still going down. It’s like it’s going to stab all the way into the planet’s core.”