Chapter 398

Chapter 399: After the Wreckage

Terrible energy scoured the heavens. The blazing beam cut the rain like a river of light and, across a wide stretch, even drove back the endless downpour.

Where the beam passed, rain flashed into steam. Clouds curled and shook. Shockwaves smashed the layers of cloud and, for a heartbeat, sunlight broke through. As the beam faded, that thin ray of sun pierced the clouds and shone on the distant ancient Refining Tower.

A moment later the clouds closed, and the rain came down again.

The surviving black-robed cultivators felt the horrifying power gathering the instant Irene raised her hand and scattered like birds. Foxy and Luna did not even have time to block them.

The remaining beasts went wild under the raging aftershocks, then were mowed down by dense Fox Fire barrages.

A red-dressed jade-faced golden fox girl stared blankly up at the sky for a long time, hugging her tail and shaking, speechless until the rain fell again. Then she shivered and squeezed her tail tighter.

Zheng Zhi stood dazed for a while and turned to the side.

Just then, the six-tailed highland fox woke up again, saw Irene sweep the sky with a Light Cannon, cried, “My life is over,” and promptly fainted yet again.

This time, Immortal Yuan Hao ignored the unconscious highland fox. He rose, fixed his gaze on the little doll still floating and crackling with stray arcs, rubbed his chin, and murmured after a long, thoughtful pause: “So how does that even work?”

Foxy sniffed the air, bolted to one corner of the field, and fished the other Irene, the rebar-bodied one, out of a muddy puddle. To its credit, that body was not only strong but sturdy. Even after falling from that height, it had not come apart, though it did look dizzy.

“You okay?” Foxy asked as she hooked a hand under the scruffy doll and yanked her free, then rubbed mud off the doll’s face with both palms.

The rebar Irene blinked woozily and took a long moment to sync with her body again. Then she looked up at Foxy and said: “I almost died. I almost died.”

At the same time, the other Irene, the Pro Max model made of darksteel and now lightning-charged and over-saturated, drifted down in a wobble. Residual charge still crackled all over her, and even her voice buzzed when she spoke: “That was so exciting.”

Foxy’s hair and tails puffed up at once. She dropped one tail to the ground as a makeshift grounding line and stared: “That body can overcharge?”

“I just found out,” Irene answered, sparks popping with each word: “I thought I was about to blow up, but then I realized I could blast him and I did. Oh wait.”

She smacked her forehead, suddenly annoyed: “I forgot to keep him alive. I vaporized him.”

She snapped her head up, staring at the slice of sky her Light Cannon had swept, muttering in a rush: “This is bad. Yu Sheng definitely wanted a live one. A Hermitage guy popped out of nowhere, and not a low-level grunt. If we had taken him alive, think how much we could have asked. And I erased him.”

Footsteps sounded nearby. Luna walked over, glanced down at the still-sparking doll on the ground, and said in a mild voice: “Irene, your control is poor.”

“I just was not used to it,” Irene shot back, electric eyes glaring at Luna: “And if you are so good, you try it. You did not even throw a punch.”

She paused, glanced up at the sky, and added, a little unsure: “Maybe, maybe there is a chance the cultist left some scrap behind. We could pick it up and maybe save something. They say Holy Revere Hermitage is great at bioengineering, and the higher their rank, the harder they are to kill. Silly Fox, why are you giving me that look?”

“I think you are talking nonsense,” Foxy said very seriously: “Think about it. Is that possible?”

“If it is not, then it is not,” Irene grumbled. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Immortal Yuan Hao and Zheng Zhi walking over. She shut her mouth.

“Where did Yu Sheng go?” Immortal Yuan Hao spoke first, the old hunk’s face unusually solemn, with a crease of doubt: “I saw a flash of Thunder just now.”

He stopped, a strange feeling tugging at him. Reason, experience, and his senses all told him that when that bolt flashed, Yu Sheng had been wiped out. The moment had been brief, too quick for the eye to follow a body breaking and vanishing, but the result seemed obvious.

His divine sense even felt Yu Sheng’s life flicker out.

Yet Irene and the others acted like nothing was wrong.

The mismatch was so bizarre that, for the first time in his life, Immortal Yuan Hao doubted his own judgment. He did not know what was going on, but somehow it felt like now was not the time to worry about Yu Sheng. [Am I the one who is confused here?] He frowned and glanced at Zheng Zhi.

Zheng Zhi looked just as lost.

Irene coughed twice. As the hotel’s veteran at handling Yu Sheng’s post-crisis cleanups and the second in command, she knew it was time to smooth things over. She tipped her chin up and said: “Relax. He will be back in a bit. Do not ask too much. You will see.”

Then she looked at Immortal Yuan Hao and added: “You too. In a bit you will not know.”

Neither of them understood a word.

Irene clearly had no plan to explain. She changed the subject at once: “How is that square-headed fox doing?”

At once, the red-dressed girl who had been inching closer while hugging one tail perked up her ears. She shot a quick look at her great-granduncle, then stared nervously at Immortal Yuan Hao.

“I have stabilized his life force. He will not die for now,” Immortal Yuan Hao said. Though full of questions, he set them aside when he saw Irene’s clear lack of interest in explaining: “But his heart meridians and spiritual sense took heavy damage. We need to send him to Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain for treatment.”

“Fine,” Irene waved: “When Yu Sheng gets back, we will open a Door and send the wounded over. Let’s go rest first.”

They soon returned to the collapsed, abandoned factory.

Immortal Yuan Hao raised a shield over the roof to keep out wind and rain. Under it, the badly hurt six-tailed highland fox was breathing steadily again.

Luna scanned the patient’s vitals, then stood in a corner out of the way and entered standby.

Zheng Zhi pulled out his phone and started thinking about how to write today’s report. With a mess this big, he had to brief the Bureau.

The rebar-bodied Irene tried in vain to wipe the mud off her dress and hair, but it was hopeless. At last she flung her hands in defeat and decided to wait for Yu Sheng to come back and use Door Opening to take her home for a shower.

The red-dressed jade-faced golden fox girl stood shyly by the highland fox like a kid waiting for a grown-up to speak, nerves all over her face. After that fierce and eerie battle, she was clearly even more rattled around this group of strange experts.

Foxy noticed. As a fellow canid, she felt a bit of kinship and tried to ease the girl: “Do not be so tense. If you stay nervous, you shed fur easily.”

But hearing that from a Nine-Tailed Silver Fox high immortal only made the local fox more tense. She hugged her tail so hard it looked like she might pull it out by the roots.

“Silly Fox, maybe talk less. Firing off your tail like a missile scared her,” Irene said as sparks hopped around her. She patted Foxy’s tail, making Foxy’s whole coat stand on end, then smiled at the red-dressed girl and asked: “Right, what is your name? Things were so crazy I forgot to ask.”

“I am Ling Long,” the jade-faced golden fox answered at once, ducking her head. Then she added quickly: “My great-granduncle is Shang An. Our hometown is Eight Gate Star, but for the last hundred years we have mostly lived on the Grand Void Spiritual Axis.”

Ling Long rattled off the basics. Immortal Yuan Hao lifted his brows and said: “You said an Immortal guided you here to seek a chance, but you were not clear before. Now that we have a moment, explain it to me. What Immortal? What guidance? Do you know what this so-called chance even is?”

“A chance is a chance,” Ling Long said, scratching her hair, a bit confused herself: “Great-granduncle says it might be secrets of the Dao left by an ancient powerhouse, but we have to see it to know. As for the Immortal…”

She paused, thinking back: “Neither of us saw his face. We only heard his voice in an Illusion Arts. He said his name was Yun Qing Zi.”

The abandoned factory fell silent.