Chapter 386
Chapter 386: Immortal Yuan Hao’s Worry
Deep within the valley, near the black forest, the starport.
With all the advanced gear the Special Operations Bureau engineering crew brought, the construction progress was almost unbelievable. The bare starport foundation Yu Sheng had once “grown” straight out of the earth now looked like a high-tech starship base.
Centered on the Otherworld Hotel, the massive docking platform now had automated beacon towers and storage stations built around it. The power was connected. Two roads—one to the black forest, one to Fairy Tale Town—now had streetlights. At night, the platform blazed with light, and holographic guidance signs circled the starport, making it look shockingly legitimate.
Of course, since Hotel didn’t have enough people to run and maintain a real starport day-to-day, the facility’s future upkeep would still have to be outsourced to the technical team the Special Operations Bureau sent.
Now both Yu Sheng’s group and the people from Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain had gathered on the platform, staring up at the towering Otherworld Hotel in front of them.
The repainted ship, with its modified hull, was still mostly a deep, solemn black. But the ominous, oppressive dark-red paint had been replaced with white, and large white patterns had been added to the midsection armor so it looked at least a little like something from a respectable organization.
As for the dark, spiky protrusions at the prow—the top of the tower—those couldn’t be removed. They were packed with antennas and key hardware like hyperspace generators, and some spikes were basically part of the antenna array. So Engineer Sun and Engineer Liu, who was responsible for the hull refit, discussed it and decided not to remove them. Instead, they added continuous roof-like outer shells over those obviously evil-looking spikes, turning them into “miniature towers” tucked beneath sloping roofs.
After all that, the ship—which already had a vaguely religious vibe even in its dark, oppressive style—leaned fully into the cathedral direction. Planted on the ground, it felt like a church had been warped and stretched into a giant tower with strange proportions, with something like a chapel perched at the very top.
The side towers that had always floated around the main tower via an antigravity device—carrying the shield generator and hyperspace subsystems—had been “worked out,” too. They were repainted, fitted with shells, and turned into bell towers surrounding the cathedral-ship.
Hard to say whether it was coincidence, but when Yu Sheng looked at the rebuilt Otherworld Hotel, the first thing he thought of was the Flame Warden Cathedral Luna and her knight order had built in the sheltered wasteland. You had to admit, Holy Revere Hermitage at least knew architecture. Anything built on that foundation ended up matching the same aesthetic.
The main feature of that aesthetic was that the moment you looked at it, it felt like heroic background music could start playing, and then a ridiculously huge health bar would pop up over someone’s head.
Yu Sheng wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
“I swear I’ve seen something like this in a game I played recently,” Irene muttered after craning her neck for a long time. “The very first scene had this style. I even suspect that in the next second, some damn-near-unbeatable thing will come charging out of that tower, with feet taller than a person. And I’ll be rolling around under its toes, holding a toothpick like I’m trimming its nails, hacking forever and never moving the health bar at all…”
The description was so vivid it almost carried a painful sense of lived experience. Yu Sheng couldn’t help saying, “Sounds like you’ve been through it.”
Luna looked up quietly for a long time, then let out a soft sigh. “Now it looks a lot better.”
A technician in a Special Operations Bureau uniform stood off to the side, holding a transparent tablet that screamed advanced tech. He reported to Yu Sheng, “The star chart and navigation parameters for the Featherwing Sector have been synced into the main system. Also, because the control core was reset, all subsystems on the Otherworld Hotel are still offline, including the weapons subsystem. Please keep that in mind—avoid danger as much as possible.”
Yu Sheng waved him off. “Relax. We aren’t taking this thing out to fight. The ship’s main purpose is to take me to places I haven’t been so I can open coordinate anchors. Once we get there, we’ll get off and handle things ourselves.”
The technician opened his mouth like he wanted to add more warnings. The ship really couldn’t be called ready for a long voyage: all subsystems were offline, and the main system reflash wasn’t even finished. From a professional standpoint, this ship wasn’t much different from a drum washing machine with an engine bolted to it.
But after hesitating, he still didn’t say anything.
Because Director Bai Li Qing’s warning was still ringing in his ears: Hotel was a place full of extraordinary people. Everyone was talented, and everyone had their own way of doing things. In short—don’t ask too much about their business.
While Yu Sheng spoke with the technician, Immortal Yuan Ling and the others who’d come along to “visit” were amazed by the valley that served as Hotel’s headquarters.
“I never imagined Yu Sheng had such a self-contained cave abode,” said the tall, thin Immortal Yuan He, twisting a strand of beard as he looked toward the black forest. “I’d heard Xuan Che mention it before, but I never expected the valley to look like this. Across the valley floor, there are faint cycles of more than a dozen different auras. They’re connected, yet independent—like ten separate pocket heavens. Amazing! If we could rent this place to raise spirit beasts, experiments would be so much easier!”
“Stop dragging your filthy beasts around to wreak havoc,” Immortal Yuan Ling said, glancing at his junior brother. “Besides, the valley used to be an Otherworld. It only looks like this now because of Yu Sheng’s ability. As far as I know, any living thing that breeds and lives in the valley falls under Yu Sheng’s blood curse and becomes part of Hotel. If you can bear to hand over those rare creatures you worked so hard to raise, then by all means, bring them here.”
Immortal Yuan He froze. After a moment, he leaned closer and whispered, “Second Senior Brother, that doesn’t sound like righteous cultivation.”
Immortal Yuan Ling kept a straight face. “The borderlands don’t care about that. And if we’re being honest, I think those lousy disciples of yours raising cockroaches and mosquitoes look more like evil cultivators.”
Immortal Yuan He coughed awkwardly. “I already punished them, I already punished them. From now on, anyone who tries to coast through the final exam with that method gets a D-minus.”
Elsewhere, Immortal Yuan Hao stood with Xuan Che. Martial uncle and martial nephew whispered about something, occasionally looking up to study the flying church planted into the ground. After a while, they came over just as Yu Sheng finished the handoff with the technician.
Immortal Yuan Hao stepped forward and cupped his hands. “I discussed it with Xuan Che just now. For this trip to the border, I still need to go with you.”
The moment he said it, Immortal Yuan Ling’s expression shifted—clearly ready to object. Immortal Yuan Hao quickly raised a hand to stop him. “This time I won’t let Che’er cause trouble. Junior Brother, you can rest easy.”
“It’s not about causing trouble,” Immortal Yuan Ling snapped. Distrust colored every word. “I’m afraid that once you head to the border, you’ll suddenly get the urge to ‘wander the world’ again, and then you’ll disappear for years without a word!”
Immortal Yuan Hao looked embarrassed. “N-no, Junior Brother, that’s not fair. When has your senior brother ever been that irresponsible…”
“One hundred twenty years ago you went down the mountain to buy two jars of wine and vanished for seven years!” Immortal Yuan Ling glared. “Later, word came from the outpost in Bamosian and I had to bring people to pick you up—you were digging into someone’s ancestral grave!”
Immortal Yuan Hao coughed twice. “Ahem. Let’s not bring up the past.” He usually looked dignified, like a perfected lord, but in front of his second junior brother he couldn’t muster any poise. “I have reasons for going. Listen to me first. Do you remember what the Black-Robed Cultivator said?”
He grew serious. “Yun Qing Zi lives in seclusion in the border, but not on Shu Ji. It’s on a planet similar to Shu Ji that rains all year. I’ve been thinking about it all day, but no matter how I look, there’s nothing like that near Shu Ji…”
Seeing the seriousness on his face, Immortal Yuan Ling finally set aside his distrust. He frowned. “You mean…”
“Ancient great ones who survived the period of rewriting the histories often have all kinds of bizarre methods,” Immortal Yuan Hao said. “Yun Qing Zi disappeared a thousand years ago, and no one knows what he’s been doing since. And Shu Ji is far from the Grand Void, so news arrives slowly… I’m worried that after years of work there, Shu Ji and the surrounding region may no longer look like what we remember.”
Immortal Yuan Ling didn’t speak. He only nodded slightly, signaling his senior brother to continue.
“I’ve dealt with all kinds of strange realms for years. I understand deception and hidden domains,” Immortal Yuan Hao said. “I can’t claim I surpass the great forebears, but at the very least, if Yun Qing Zi has set up an unobservable secret realm near Shu Ji as a base, I should be able to find it.”
He paused. “And another thing: ancient great ones are extremely hard to deal with. Yu Sheng and the others are capable, but they still lack experience fighting top-tier cultivators, especially when it comes to the bizarre tricks those experts use. If I go with them, I can at least be of help.”
Then Immortal Yuan Hao hesitated and looked up at the Otherworld Hotel standing on the dock. “And finally, there’s one more reason.”
Yu Sheng couldn’t help cutting in. “What reason?”
Immortal Yuan Hao’s mouth tightened. “…I have fairly rich experience with travel accidents.”
Yu Sheng blinked. “…?”