Chapter 432

Chapter 433: The Great Dao Is Simple

When a whole city suddenly wakes from a long illusion and learns that the “normal” city in their eyes had already been taken over long ago by a strange planet wide parasite, and the whole world has turned into a nightmare, the chaos that follows is easy to imagine.

To be honest, waking up millions all at once was not the best method. If the Evolving Youth Form had given them more time, Yu Sheng would have asked Irene and Mo Ran to wake Ink City in stages, set up staffing in advance, and prepare plans to calm and help people afterward.

But a self aware Evolving Youth Form would never allow that. Piercing Ink City’s cognitive barrier right before its Ascension Body matured was the only way to open a path. As for the chaos after, that would be Mo Ran’s problem to handle.

Now the curtain was pulled back. The real world rushed in. Residents snapped awake from the “daily life” of one moment before.

At the city outskirts, artisans in the weapon forges stared as thick, eerie crystals covered the old smelters. Clusters pushed out of pipe seams and grew wild across the roofs.

People at home looked up from waiting out the coming storm and saw the windows outside buried under crystal. The short nightmare of spiderwebs still clung to their minds, keeping them “awake” in a very rough way.

In the mall, shoppers hiding from the weather fell into panic with screams. A huge crystal tree had pierced the whole building. In fact, those giant crystal limbs had stabbed through walls and roof a hundred years ago and become part of the structure.

A finely dressed flower barge full of passengers threaded dangerously through crystal thorns between towers. Cries rose in the sky. The barge had sailed this path hundreds or thousands of times, but only now did its riders realize they had brushed past those sword sharp crystals every time. The faces of tourists at the rails were only inches from pale blades.

Chaos spread across the city. Most ordinary people with shallow cultivation had no idea what to do. Even many firm cultivators had their minds shake in that instant.

Mo Ran stabilized things at the City Lord’s Manor first, then contacted the heads of every office in the city. There was no time to explain the whole story. She ordered all cultivators under Ink City’s control to steady their minds and keep order at once. She also ordered the city closed to all outside traffic. From this moment, no one in and no one out.

People had questions, but no one argued with the Ink Clan leader’s command.

Her final order cut off all communication between Ink City and the other cities on Sentinel Silence, blocking every channel from private sound transmissions to letters sent by divine sense. She was not sure how much this would help, because no one knew how many ways the Evolving Youth Form’s cognitive pollution could spread. But she knew one thing clearly. The moment Ink City “woke,” it became the biggest “abnormality” on Sentinel Silence. Before the problem was solved, every “voice” and “gaze” pointing toward Ink City on this planet would be harmful.

Even if those were the worried messages of their “fellow citizens.”

As for Yu Sheng, right after that illusionary “boom,” he felt a “gaze” from deep inside the planet.

A sightline of crushing pressure swept across Ink City. Its source was the world beneath their feet. Ordinary people seemed not to notice it, but Yu Sheng felt it clearly. His blood had been soaked in the cast off shell of the Evolving Youth Form on Garrison 3. That blood tie let him feel the “heartbeat” in the depths of Sentinel Silence once again.

The Evolving Youth Form sensed the tear in the barrier. It knew a city had awakened.

A silver Nine-Tailed Fox streaked through the sky. In wind and rain it drew a bright fire trail.

Ahead of Foxy, ancient Refining Towers wrapped in crystals flickered with hazy light. Using these towers as nodes, the City Protection Array was closing. Many uneasy Ink Clan cultivators guarded the talisman nodes on the towers. They looked up at the fire fox flying overhead with shocked faces.

They had received orders from the City Lord’s Manor: the one riding the Nine-Tailed Silver Fox was an ally of Ink City. All checkpoints must open for them.

It hardly mattered, because before the City Protection Array fully closed, the quick fox had already passed through the shield over Ink City.

Clutching a handful of fox fur, Irene twisted to look back at the glowing shield in the sky and said with some wonder: “I’m surprised their City Protection Array still works. The whole city is eaten up by crystal.”

“During Metamorphosis, the Evolving Youth Form hides itself as much as possible. Making too many unexplainable ‘anomalies’ in the real world raises the risk that the barrier gets pierced. So before it becomes the Ascension Body, it actually avoids breaking basic city functions,” Yu Sheng said. “But on the other hand, a City Protection Array doesn’t do much to the Evolving Youth Form itself. It is normal for it to ignore the array.”

Irene blinked: “If it’s useless, why did Mo Ran raise the array?”

“To guard against people,” Yu Sheng said, face grave.

“Guard against people?”

“To keep out folks from nearby cities. They’re still under the Evolving Youth Form’s influence. They will try to come ‘help’ Ink City. And they’ll bring the cognitive pollution back with them.”

Irene’s eyes widened a little.

Sitting beside Yu Sheng, Zheng Zhi had his eyes wide the whole time, studying the vast wilds outside the city.

The plain was covered with a jungle of crystals, far larger than the crystal jungle on Garrison 3, and the whole forest rose and fell like something alive.

“Up ahead!” Zheng Zhi pointed toward a spot deep in the forest. “I think there’s a rift there!”

Yu Sheng pressed a palm to the fox’s head, and they sped toward the place Zheng Zhi had pointed.

They were halfway there when a blazing fireball suddenly rose out of the crystals.

It burned like the sun, searing hot and terrifying. The shockwave swept the forest and crushed countless crystal trees into powder in a blink. Only after that did Yu Sheng hear the late thunder. The rolling roar stopped the wind and rain, turned the storm back on itself, shattered the clouds, and even let sunlight fall on the land for a moment.

Amid the rolling thunder, Yu Sheng faintly heard a voice: “Take my Heaven Overturning Seal!”

A second later, another fireball rose from the same spot. It was even bigger than the last. It could not match Foxy’s orbital head-butt from before, but it still blossomed into a round, perfect mushroom cloud.

With the mushroom cloud came a second shout: “Take my Primeval Demon-Subduing Targe!”

“Boom!”

“Take my Haotian Demon-Subduing Ruler!”

“Boom!”

“Take my Eightfold Purity Seal!”

“Boom!”

Explosions kept shooting up from the crystal jungle. Blazing orbs and shockwaves smashed the land like wild beasts, stopping the wind and rain and breaking the sky. The shouting voice sounded very familiar.

Yu Sheng stared, then slapped the fox’s head without hesitation. The Nine-Tailed Silver Fox turned into a streak of fire and shot straight toward the construction site where spirit bricks flew like shrapnel.

From far away, Yu Sheng saw Immortal Yuan Hao floating in midair.

The Old Hunk’s white hair whipped in the wind. His long robe billowed. Hands behind his back, he hovered as layers of deep, mysterious immortal talismans circled him. Behind him, sparks gathered into a vast array as big as a city. Wind, rain, thunder, metal, stone, fire, and earth cycled within it like the laws of heaven and earth winding on without end.

Floating inside that array were hundreds upon hundreds of treasures.

Long ones, short ones, thick ones, flat ones, ones with air holes in the middle, ones with grooves along the edge.

A thousand treasures formed another shifting, recombining grand array behind Immortal Yuan Hao.

Yu Sheng even suspected this formation was called Civil Engineering.

Foxy, Yu Sheng, and everyone on the fox’s back were shaken by the sight. Irene stared for a while, then blurted: “Whoa, that is Master Hao from AAA Building Materials Wholesale!”

But the most shaken were not Yu Sheng’s group. It was the people on the ground.

In the scarred crystal jungle, Yu Sheng saw countless deep craters like those left by meteor strikes. Heat rolled up from each pit. Many black robed cultivators lay dead in them. Even so, some strong ones still held on. A few weakly glowing shields flickered on the ground, and under those shaking barriers were several badly wounded black robed evil cultivators. Even through their strange masks, Yu Sheng seemed to see faces full of fear, driven mad by that fear.

As Immortal Yuan Hao glanced aside at Yu Sheng’s arrival, a black robed cultivator in the best shape suddenly lifted a hand.

A flying sword, gleaming with nasty purple light, slipped from his sleeve without a sound.

It was clearly a life bound treasure, the kind one would not use unless there was no choice. He had poured who knew how much effort into it and crammed it with who knew how many strange powers. He was confident in this strike. The sword was very fast and very strong. It could hide killing intent and break spells. It carried secret arts to cut at the soul and disturb the mind and would leave behind a lingering, bone gnawing…

Immortal Yuan Hao did not look back. He pointed down with a casual flick. A brick fell.

The Haotian Demon-Subduing Ruler had no special effects. Its attack power was one trillion.