Chapter 404
Chapter 404: The Fissure… Disappeared?
Xuan Che, of course, noticed the shift in Mo Ran’s expression. He understood her mood a little too well.
“Ahem. So that’s roughly the situation,” he said, clearing his throat. “As far as I know, the recent cases of cultivator qi deviation and disappearances are concentrated in Ink City. Other regions of Shu Ji have very few reports. So if all of this really is Yun Qing Zi’s work, then there must be something here that he’s paying attention to. He wouldn’t pick this place without a reason.”
“But what could Ink City possibly have that’s worth an ancient power taking action?” Mo Ran’s brows knitted tightly. She sounded troubled, not only afraid but genuinely baffled. After a moment, she shook her head. “Ink City is Shu Ji’s largest city, but only because it once had the planet’s biggest spirit-mineral mine. Now the veins have long since run dry. There aren’t any special blessed lands or spirit treasures in the city… He can’t possibly be interested in nothing but abandoned ore veins, can he?”
Xuan Che frowned as well. “We can’t know that yet. But Yun Qing Zi is aiming for something enormous. He’s likely been hiding and planning at the border for hundreds of years. Any short-term action he takes may only be one piece of a much longer plan—including what’s been happening in Ink City lately.”
Mo Ran listened, thoughtful tension gathering beneath her composure.
Xuan Che paused briefly, then continued, “Also, don’t worry. A matter this big won’t be left for Ink City to face alone. The Grand Void Spiritual Axis is preparing as well. Once this investigation makes progress, or Yun Qing Zi shows himself, support from Capital Star will arrive at once.”
He added, “Later, I will contact Shu Ji’s star-guardian elder. For something this serious to be lurking on a planet he guards—and for him to be completely unaware—that’s also strange.”
Mo Ran seemed to relax a fraction. She nodded. “Mm.”
Xuan Che rubbed his chin, as if remembering something. “By the way, speaking of the star-guardian elder… if I remember correctly, the one assigned to Shu Ji should be Elder Dao Heng?”
He looked to her. “I don’t know him well. I only know he was originally an expert from the Heavenly Derivation Sect, and later, under the Immortal Alliance’s decree, he was jointly recommended by Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain and Nethergloom Valley and became the star warden here. How has he done in this post?”
“As you said, Elder Dao Heng was assigned here a hundred years ago by the Immortal Alliance,” Mo Ran answered. “In these hundred years, he’s been diligent in sheltering this planet and is widely respected.”
She continued, “He also acts in a low-key manner. Beyond his duties as star warden, he rarely interferes with worldly affairs and doesn’t often show himself. Especially in the last twenty or thirty years, Shu Ji has been peaceful, and the nearby planetary towns and the satellite cities in orbit have been stable too, so he’s appeared even less. Of course, that’s only publicly. In daily city meetings and planetary defense briefings, he still attends as usual.”
“No abnormalities?” Xuan Che asked.
“No abnormalities.”
“Mm…” Xuan Che nodded, thinking.
Then a faint buzzing broke the quiet.
He reached into his robe and pulled out a glowing spirit-link mirror. A new message had arrived—from Yu Sheng.
Xuan Che’s expression sharpened instantly. He raised a hand and opened it.
He read the content once.
Then his face went serious.
Mo Ran tensed. “Immortal Envoy… you look that serious. Did something happen again?”
Xuan Che finished reading, sat back, and looked up at her. “Sit steady first.”
Mo Ran stared. “…”
Xuan Che didn’t coddle her. Once he saw her sit, he cleared his throat.
“My elder senior uncle went with others to investigate the city outskirts. At the edge of Ink City, they were attacked by Yun Qing Zi’s black-robed cultivators. The enemy had many people and had trained large numbers of demon beasts. There was also an unknown outsider expert in command—a cultist from Holy Revere Hermitage. In addition, a large-scale spatial rift was discovered on site; the coverage range is currently unknown. There were also two immortal foxes from the Grand Void Spiritual Axis attacked on site. One is in critical condition, but thankfully—”
Halfway through, Mo Ran’s eyes started to go blank.
Without missing a beat, Xuan Che pulled out a medicine gourd, poured out an elixir, and flicked it straight into her mouth before continuing, “—but thankfully rescue was timely…”
It was, in fact, timely. The moment the elixir went down, Mo Ran jolted back from the brink of dao-heart collapse.
The sky had finished falling.
Xuan Che sighed softly, glanced down at the mirror again, and adjusted his posture. “Next, let’s talk about Holy Revere Hermitage. A Hermitage Order cultist appearing in the city outskirts was at least a Sage—possibly even at the Great Sage level.”
Mo Ran stared at him again.
It wasn’t done falling. It was still falling—with remarkable sustainability.
…
A thunderbolt tore across the sky. The flash lit the rainy night for a heartbeat, and the roar rolled between heaven and earth without end.
Yu Sheng lifted his head, staring into the cloud-choked, rain-hazed sky with the strong, sinking certainty that something was wrong.
Not a little wrong.
Nine-tenths wrong.
He stood on a fox tail, floating above the site where they’d fought the Hermitage Order cultist. Beside him, Immortal Yuan Hao—finally free to act now that the injured were stabilized—stood on a chainsaw sword that buzzed and rumbled in midair.
“This is where I pushed the door open before,” Yu Sheng said, reaching into the air ahead of him. His brow stayed tightly furrowed. “But now the feel is gone.”
Immortal Yuan Hao held a spirit brick as white and glossy as jade, waving it like a demon-revealing mirror as he scanned the air. He turned his head. “This space is very calm. We’ve found no hidden secret-realm entrance or layered spatial structure. Daoist Friend Zheng also examined the ground earlier. There were truly no abnormalities.”
“But that makes no sense,” Yu Sheng said, incredulous. “We opened a passage that huge. You saw it too, right? The sky looked like it was collapsing. It turned into a tilted mirror full of cracks, and on the other side… it looked like another world. It was pretty spectacular.”
“Yes.” Immortal Yuan Hao nodded. “I was occupied treating Shang An at the time, but I did see it. Based on what we witnessed, there should have been another layer of space hidden here. And with a secret realm of that scale, and a breach you tore open that large, it shouldn’t be able to hide itself again so easily.”
Yu Sheng didn’t answer. He only guided the fox tail beneath his feet, circling through several positions in the sky, searching for the same tug he’d felt before.
Immortal Yuan Hao followed on the chainsaw sword, still sweeping the spirit brick through the air.
On the ground, the two Irenes tilted their heads up, watching the two figures loop around above them. After a long while, they blurted in unison, “This art style is so damn cursed.”
Zheng Zhi blinked beside them. “Huh?”
“One rides a fox tail, one rides a chainsaw sword, and they’re circling around in the sky,” Irene (Pika) said, waving a hand like the explanation should be obvious. “You wouldn’t get it. Nope. When we get back, I’m going to binge games, novels, and dramas to cleanse my eyes. These two just ruined my last bit of fantasy about xianxia…”
“Replacing reality with fantasy is wrong,” Foxy said seriously. “You should watch less random junk. It’s bad for your brain.”
Irene (Pika) immediately planted her hands on her hips, righteous as could be. “I don’t even have a brain. Why would I be afraid of that?”
The moment the words left her mouth, everything went silent.
Even Foxy didn’t know what to say.
A few seconds later, Luna—who’d been in standby mode—lifted her head like she was rebooting and added slowly, “Mm. Right.”
Irene (Pika) narrowed her eyes, suddenly feeling like C Buckle was acting suspicious today. But before she could dig into that thought, two streaks of light flashed down from above—
Yu Sheng on a fox tail, Immortal Yuan Hao on a chainsaw sword—landing in front of them.
Irene (Pika) immediately forgot everything else and ran toward Yu Sheng, delighted. “Hey! You finally came down!”
This time, Yu Sheng dodged the lightning tackle the instant it came. He grabbed a fox tail beside him and held it up like a shield, blocking the sparking little menace. Only then did he wipe cold sweat from his forehead and let out a long breath.
“I’m down,” he said, grim. “But I couldn’t find where that fissure went.”
Irene (Pika) froze. “Huh? There’s a door you can’t open?”
“It’s not the first time,” Yu Sheng said, spreading his hands. “There are always weird accidents in this world. What do you want me to do?” He glanced back toward the gloomy sky and the towering ancient refining tower nearby. After a brief silence, he exhaled. “And you saw what was on the other side of that fissure. That wasn’t just some hidden space. The scale was way bigger than the space Holy Revere Hermitage carved out to hide the Pillar of Order. I suspect it has some new concealment or transfer mechanism I haven’t figured out yet.”
Irene (Pika) listened with a blank face. She didn’t understand, but she had plenty of experience with hearing things she didn’t understand. She stroked her chin, put on a thoughtful pose, pretended to think for a few seconds, then looked up.
“Ah,” she said. “Then what?”
“Then we go back,” Yu Sheng said. “There’s no point standing here getting rained on. We’ve got a pile of new clues, and the whole thing’s even murkier now. I need to go back and think it through.”
He pulled his gaze forward again.
Irene (Rebar) had come out of the abandoned factory and was standing in front of him.
Earlier she’d fallen into a mud pit. Then the rain had gotten her too. The grime hadn’t washed off much—if anything, she looked even more miserable now.
But she stood there with her chin up anyway, proud as ever.
She always seemed proud as ever.
“…And I’m going to give you a proper wash,” Yu Sheng said, voice flat with weary inevitability. “This is getting ridiculous.”