Chapter 395

Chapter 396: Sudden Attack

Yu Sheng was not even sure if people in this world used the term Highland Fox, but the “great-grand-uncle” of the red-clad girl did have a very square head. If that head was not smashed flat by someone, then this six-tailed Fox Demon had to be a Highland Fox that gained spirit.

Of course, this was not the time to nitpick details.

With Immortal Yuan Hao acting personally, the Highland Fox that had been barely breathing finally began to stabilize.

Just as things seemed to be turning for the better, a strange noise rose from nowhere, like glass squeezed to the point of cracking. In the rain, it sounded extra harsh.

Foxy heard it first. Her ears twitched, and she turned to look above a nearby building. Under the umbrella, her gold-red eyes flashed with a sharp ghostly light, and a low, warning growl rolled from her throat. In the same moment, countless pale Fox Fire bloomed around her, spreading through the air in the blink of an eye.

Almost at the same time, Luna stepped forward. Her sharp Fingertip Blades skimmed through the rain with a cold flash as she said: “Radar, we have a response!”

A heartbeat later, cracking sounds popped together. Hundreds of meters up, eerie Rifts split open in the sky. Fine lines spread like a smashed mirror along the falling rain. Faint figures appeared between those Rifts and sharpened fast as the space channels opened!

Irene yelped at once and shouted toward Immortal Yuan Hao as he worked: “Hey, we’ve got company! Can you pause what you’re doing for a second?”

Yu Sheng almost spat: “Do you hear yourself talking right now?!”

Immortal Yuan Hao’s face twitched, but he knew this was just how Irene talked. Without looking up, he answered quickly: “The injured cannot move yet. Help me hold them off for a moment!”

Yu Sheng turned at once toward the opening Rifts, snagging the big nephew beside him who was still in a daze as he said: “Hide near Immortal Yuan Hao.”

The next second, the expanding Rifts swelled outward, then with a tooth-aching rip every Rift shattered at once. Space collapsed like it was rolling back on itself. As it fell in, the rain around them suddenly took on a weird clear and fake look. Even the nearby buildings and the towering ancient Refining Tower in the distance turned hazy and vague. In that blurry Illusion Arts, a barren field of jagged rocks seemed to overlay the city’s edge.

Yu Sheng had no time to study what this meant, because one figure after another burst from the collapsing Space Rifts and charged straight at them!

At the front came a group of Evil Path Cultivators in black robes and Weird Masks. Many Vicious Beasts followed close behind, clearly monsters driven by those Black-robed Cultivators.

“It’s them!” the red-skirted girl cried. “They’re the ones who hurt my great-grand-uncle!”

A blinding flash split the sky as she spoke. The rain lit up, and several strange beasts dove down with the lightning.

Yu Sheng tossed aside his in-the-way Bamboo Hat. He held the Spiked Mace he had just hauled out of the basement in his right hand, and in his left he carried the Irene he had just grabbed from the living room (rebar). On his shoulder he braced a readied Irene (Darksteel Turret), then he strode forward to meet the charge.

Black Spider Silk shot wild in the rain. A winged beast brushed a strand and froze in midair for a split second. Yu Sheng smashed it with the Tetanus Staff, caving its head back into its chest. Then several searing beams cut the sky. The turret Irene on his shoulder blew apart another beast trying to flank him, the beam piercing and tearing its body into chunks that fell smoking to the ground.

The loss did not seem to bother the Black-robed Cultivators. More beasts burst from the Rifts, and the silent Black-robed Cultivators dropped from the air one after another. Treasures flared. Killing moves flashed.

“They started fighting without a single line of trash talk?” Irene shouted from Yu Sheng’s shoulder while warming up her beams. “Aren’t you supposed to throw out two insults and an opening speech before you go at it?”

Before Yu Sheng could answer, the red-skirted girl said loudly: “They didn’t talk when they hit us either! They appeared and attacked at once. That’s why they caught us off guard and hurt my great-grand-uncle!”

As she spoke, this Jade-faced Golden Fox skipped back two steps, dodging a pouncing beast. Her wrist flipped, and out of nowhere she drew an iron-colored long flute with a faint Chilling Light. The next second, the flute sang.

A sobbing, wavering tune spread out. Each curving note seemed to squeeze the meridians and organs. Ripples rolled through the rain like rings in a pond. Inside those ripples, every monster’s movement slowed by a beat. The girl used the opening to spring back light as a bird. Her golden fox tails swayed and spun, weaving one illusion after another with a Clone Technique.

Two beasts, trapped by the music and illusions, went dazed for a moment and were cut down on the spot by Luna.

Irene glanced back at the dancer with the Iron-colored Long Flute swirling through the rain, then turned to Foxy who was busy setting things on fire as she said: “Whoa, so local Foxes fight like this. Silly Fox, look at her style! Now look at yours!”

Foxy bared her teeth at Irene and the red-skirted girl, said nothing, then launched eight Fox Carrot Missiles. Eight silver-white Fox tails spat bright flame from behind. The shockwaves blasted the rain aside and boomed among the Black-robed Cultivators who were controlling the beasts.

The local Cultivators had never seen anything like it. The silent black-clad group finally gasped together. Caught off guard, they threw up Protective Spiritual Aura and life-saving treasures in a rush, but several weaker ones had their shields punched through and were swallowed by the fireballs before they could fall, burned to ash.

The flute in the rain fell silent at once. Yu Sheng heard a short, harsh squeal in the sound, like a blown note gone wrong. He looked back and saw the red-skirted girl coughing hard with wide eyes at Foxy. The gold tails behind her stood up like a sword graveyard.

[A local Fox, shocked out of her mind.jpg.]

“High Immortal!” She coughed and coughed until she could breathe again, then pointed at the clusters of Fox Fire drifting down after those tails exploded midair as she cried: “Your tails!”

Before she finished, Foxy turned around. With a loud hum, eight new tails appeared behind her. After a brief warmup, another string of roaring boosters sounded, and eight more Fox Carrot Missiles streaked up in bright arcs.

The sky filled with tails fired by a Nine-Tailed Silver Fox, with random high-energy lasers from a certain Doll mixed between.

The red-skirted girl stood frozen in midair. Suddenly she felt like her last few hundred years of practice had gone wrong. She lifted the iron flute to her lips, then forgot how to play. After a few seconds of doubt, she looked back at the five golden tails behind her.

She reached back, grabbed one tail, and yanked.

She howled on the spot, baring her teeth with tears in her eyes.

Yu Sheng was too busy fighting to look back, and he had no idea why the local Fox in the red dress started yelping and zigzagging around. All his focus was on the Black-robed Cultivators and their monsters. As he fought, something felt off.

It was like a faint gaze, hiding behind the Black-robed Cultivators and their beasts, watching the battlefield from a shadow where no one could sense it.

A Black-robed Cultivator lunged. Yu Sheng raised his Tetanus Staff on instinct, but before they clashed, a ghostlike figure slid into being beside the attacker. Luna crossed the darkness with light steps. Her Fingertip Blades drew a graceful arc through the rain and stabbed true into the man’s neck.

That watched-from-the-shadows feeling came again.

Yu Sheng frowned and asked Luna: “Did you scan any hidden enemy?”

Luna paused and slowly lifted her face. Her “gaze” swept across the field. “Radar shows no response.”

Hearing the Artificial Saintess say that, Yu Sheng did not relax at all. He was sure the feeling of being watched was not his imagination. Something was hiding here.

But it was not a normal “invisibility,” because if it were, Luna’s Multi-Frequency Enemy-Seeking Radar and Immortal Yuan Hao’s Divine Sense would have found it.

Suddenly, Yu Sheng remembered the moment the Space Rifts collapsed. He remembered how the cracks spread fast, and the buildings around them turned transparent and unreal. Even the grand ancient Refining Tower looked like it vanished. He also remembered that barren field of jagged rocks covering the city’s edge. It looked like two spaces were overlapping here.

[Wait, I think I get it.]

Almost at the same time, he heard Zheng Zhi call from behind: “Brother Yu!”

He turned at once and saw his big nephew by Immortal Yuan Hao, pointing to a corner of the sky.

“Someone over there has been staring at you,” Zheng Zhi said casually. “Feels hostile.”

Yu Sheng thought: [What?!]