Chapter 428

Chapter 429: Evolving Youth Form

Yu Sheng stared at the message for a second, then lifted his head at once and looked around.

Class IV cognitive reshaping. Planetary-scale reality reconstruction.

[Great. We are in big trouble.]

He muttered under his breath, then used the signal while he had it and called Bai Li Qing directly.

She seemed to be waiting. The call connected almost instantly. Yu Sheng didn’t waste words. The moment he heard her say hello, he went straight to the point: “Sentinel Silence has reconstructed reality.”

“As expected, and still the worst case,” Bai Li Qing said in a calm voice that somehow made people steady down. “But since we can still talk, the reality reconstruction on that planet hasn’t fully ‘sealed.’ The Evolving Youth Form’s Metamorphosis isn’t complete.”

“Tell me what this is, all of it,” Yu Sheng said fast. In the corner of his eye, cold rain slipped through the torn roof into the lobby again, yet seemed to pass from another layer and didn’t touch anything inside. Several glitchy, colorful silhouettes appeared in the rain, chatting as they “walked” through the glass wall by the front desk. “I need every bit of intel on the Evolving Youth Form.”

“I’ve sent over what the Special Affairs Bureau has, and I’ll summarize extra points,” Bai Li Qing replied briskly. “I just received samples from Garrison-3 and the retrieval team’s report. We can now say the Dark Angel parasitizing inside Sentinel Silence is the Evolving Youth Form. Its stage is late Metamorphosis to Ascension Body. Because of outside interference, it may complete Metamorphosis early and force an Ascension. That would finish within a few days.

“As for the Evolving Youth Form, it may be one of the oldest Dark Angels known. We even suspect it appeared in our universe before the first Angel, the Tree Angel, made its Descent, though we lack proof.

“Compared with other Dark Angels, the Evolving Youth Form has two main traits. First, it acts with a strong purpose. It constantly searches for new planets to parasitize. Second, it seems to follow a life cycle.

“At the start, it jumps into orbit over the target world like a meteor and does a brutal orbital drop. We call this the Child Entity stage.
“After landing, it drills underground and turns into a fast-spreading crystalline structure inside the planet. We call this the Submergence Phase. We don’t know how long it lasts, but near the end its growth accelerates geometrically.
“After Submergence, it prepares to ‘move on.’ It ‘eats’ everything it can use in the planet, including Earth Veins and high-energy ores. It stops expanding and rebuilds a new ‘core’ in its lair. That is the Metamorphosis stage.
“When Metamorphosis ends, the essence of the Evolving Youth Form contracts into a new core and breaks out of the planet, flying into space. That outbound piece is the Ascension Body.
“The Ascension Body can move faster than light, maybe even jump by using Subspace or some unknown means. Its core sleeps during that journey. When it reaches a new target world, the Ascension Body becomes the Child Entity again and starts a fresh parasitic cycle.”

Irene lay on Yu Sheng’s shoulder and listened to Bai Li Qing’s voice on speaker, then mumbled: “So, in simple words, it’s eat, sleep, run, repeat.”

Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched: “That’s not wrong.”

A new thought hit him: “If it does all that in the real world, how does no one notice it?”

“That is the real danger,” Bai Li Qing said fast. “The worst thing isn’t the parasitism, it’s the scale of its cognitive reshaping. From the moment Submergence starts, the Evolving Youth Form releases very wide cognitive interference. Inside that field, ordinary people cannot notice the Evolving Youth Form or any ‘anomalies’ it makes. They will live right next to its crystal growths, and when it drills deeper they will build towns over it.

“In history, different powers have spotted signs of its parasitism from very far away by watching abnormal planetary data with probes. But whenever people went in close to investigate, they concluded ‘everything is normal.’ Scholars spent years, poured in a lot of work, and needed luck to confirm the Evolving Youth Form exists and to outline its cycle. No one has ever caught it during Submergence or Metamorphosis. You are the first.”

Thunder rumbled like a rolling drum. A strange howl seemed to carry through the rain. Yu Sheng looked toward the lobby entrance. Outside, streets had lost their gravity and peeled off the ground. Buildings floated apart in chunks. New roads “grew” out from the sides of towers, twisting to connect several blocks.

Yu Sheng moved to the doorway and, watching the changes with care, spoke quickly: “It looks like its ‘cognitive barrier’ is breaking down. The world we see is going wild, and it’s still getting worse.”

“You’re likely standing in a fault line of the barrier,” Bai Li Qing said, now grave. “False reality and true reality are pressing and warping each other. Measurements lose accuracy during that process. What you see is neither the real Ink City nor a full Illusion Arts projection. This also makes the local environmental ‘depth’ unstable. If I’m right, it will keep getting worse.

“The Evolving Youth Form’s cognitive interference has a dangerous trait. It stacks by resonance as nearby minds sink deeper. Simply put, every mind it touches becomes part of the barrier. The ‘visions’ those people have then make the reality reconstruction even stronger.

“That’s also why its parasitism is so hard to spot. The deeper it goes, the more people believe everything is normal. That belief pushes back and changes the truth. By late Metamorphosis, even if you have True Vision, you will see nothing wrong when entering a planet it parasitizes, because-”

Her voice broke up. The sound cut in and out. The “depth” around Yu Sheng must have shifted again. Before the signal died, a faint line squeezed through the noise: “You are… inside a dream made by everyone on the planet…”

Static hissed. The call dropped. The phone showed “depth shift” and “connection lost” again.

Irene and Foxy traded looks.

Luna tilted her head toward Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng stared at his dead phone for two seconds, slipped it into his pocket, and pulled open a small Door beside him.

On the other side sat Bai Li Qing’s desk. She sighed and set her phone down.

Yu Sheng leaned halfway out through the Door and flopped onto her desk: “I didn’t catch your last sentence.”

Bai Li Qing sprang up from her chair.

It was the first time Yu Sheng learned that this cool, steady director could actually jump, and that she could bare her teeth when her shin hit the desk.

They stared at each other for two seconds.

Yu Sheng felt a little awkward. Bai Li Qing’s expression held a strange mix: three parts embarrassment, two parts anger she didn’t dare show, five parts doubt, and the other ninety parts he couldn’t name. Given her usual poker face, it was like she had used up a lifetime of expressions in those two seconds.

After a short silence, Yu Sheng apologized and offered: “Want me to back out and try again?”

“No.”

She sat down, rubbed her leg under the desk without changing her tone, and said with a straight face: “I said you are inside a dream made by everyone on the planet. The billions on Sentinel Silence are using their ‘cognition’ to help the Evolving Youth Form finish Metamorphosis. You should stop the process before its Ascension Body matures.”

“Uh, okay.”

Yu Sheng nodded and started to pull back.

As he was about to close the Door, Bai Li Qing looked up, serious: “Don’t underestimate it. Even if you… anyway, be careful.”

Yu Sheng paused, glanced at the broken, crazed Ink City outside the lobby, and turned back: “Don’t worry. I won’t underestimate it. Looking at that mess out there, I am already freaking out.”

Bai Li Qing might have smiled, or maybe her leg hurt again and her eye twitched. Yu Sheng couldn’t tell.

He shut the Door, took a long breath, and stepped into the absurd nightmare waiting beyond the lobby.