Chapter 433

Chapter 434: When there is danger, senior uncle is the most…

Yu Sheng didn’t see how the last Black Robed Evil Cultivator who tried to ambush them died: by the time he reacted, the man was already evenly scattered across the battlefield.

The Black Robed Cultivators nearby, who a moment ago were barely keeping their protective arrays up, were caught in the blast’s aftershock. One formation after another shattered, every Protective Treasure was ruined, and they all died as well-the lucky ones lost only their heads, the unlucky ones turned into a billion pieces.

Immortal Yuan Hao lifted his hand, and the Haotian Demon-Subduing Ruler he had just thrown streaked up from the Impact Crater, circling back into the grand array of bricks, beams, and tiles revolving behind him. Then he turned, waved happily to Yu Sheng and the others, and said: “I was just worrying about how to contact you, so it’s good to see everyone safe… ah, Fellow Daoist Zheng is here too, that puts me at ease. Did you see the reminder I left on the window?”

Riding the Nine Tailed Fox up beside Immortal Yuan Hao, Yu Sheng nodded as his gaze swept the ruined battlefield on the ground, then looked up at the Old Hunk and asked: “We noticed the note and found the flaw in the cognition barrier, then tracked down Zheng Zhi. By the way, why are you here? Do you know where Xuan Che went?”

“Xuan Che is fine. I met him outside the city earlier and sent him north to scout,” Immortal Yuan Hao answered, then explained his own trail: “I went out to look for Fellow Daoist Zheng, but the ‘knowledge barrier’ covering Ink City was a pain to deal with. I couldn’t find any clues. While searching, I spotted a few sneaky figures. I tailed them and somehow walked right out of the city, and on the way I found Xuan Che wandering in confusion outside.”

He paused, lifted his eyes toward a far corner of the horizon, and went on: “As you can see, the land outside the city has completely changed. If this is also a ‘knowledge barrier,’ then the art is a bit too shocking… Those sneaky figures vanished once they entered this ‘forest.’ Xuan Che and I split up to investigate and found people coming and going here. I meant to observe in secret, but there were several experts among those Black Robed Evil Cultivators, and I slipped up and got exposed.”

The Old Hunk wiped sweat and sighed in wonder as he said: “You have to admit these Evil Cultivators have a few tricks. Flashy nonsense that gave me a cold sweat. Thankfully I beat them by a few moves.”

Listening at the side, Yu Sheng broke into an even colder sweat than Yuan Hao. He glanced at the landscape that looked like it had been hit by meteor bombardment and thought: [All my life I never imagined ‘beat them by a few moves’ could be used to describe this.]

While Yu Sheng was silently in awe of the Old Hunk’s combat power, Immortal Yuan Hao suddenly remembered something and looked toward Ink City with worry: “You came out from Ink City-what’s the situation inside now?”

Yu Sheng coughed twice and explained: “Two things. First, it isn’t accurate to say the ‘knowledge barrier’ covers only Ink City. The barrier already covers the entire planet-the whole of Sentinel Silence is affected by the Evolving Youth Form. Built on the shared cognition of billions, the barrier has even started to reconstruct reality. The ‘jungle’ outside the city is actually this planet’s true face.

“Second, the Ink City barrier has been lifted. We tore a hole in the planet-wide ‘screen.’”

From the first sentence Yuan Hao’s face grew more and more shocked, and when he heard that Ink City’s barrier was already lifted, the Old Hunk couldn’t help blurting out: “Hold on, let me sort this out… This is beyond what I expected. What is the Evolving Youth Form? And what do you mean by a planet-wide ‘reconstruction of reality’?”

“In short, the Evolving Youth Form is the culprit behind what Sentinel Silence looks like now,” Yu Sheng said without selling the mystery. He kept it as brief as possible and laid out the intel he had, all while watching the distance.

Every inch of ground was covered in eerie gray-white crystals. Plant-like crystal structures seemed to be “mimicking” the planet’s original ecology. The mountains veiled by hazy rain had fewer crystals, but huge suspicious shadows covered the slopes-maybe Yun Qing Zi’s work.

Immortal Yuan Hao listened, stunned at the truth buried on this world.

“With what we know, the Evolving Youth Form likely started its earliest ‘parasitic’ activity on Sentinel Silence five to six hundred years ago. It had already escaped from Garrison-3, brought down a Yun Qing Zi copy under its control, and landed here. Back then this was a resource-rich planet,” Yu Sheng said with a soft sigh as he reined in his gaze. “After another three to four hundred years of slow change, when the Evolving Youth Form entered its Metamorphosis stage, the mineral veins began to dry up fast… but both the locals and the investigators who came later treated it all as ‘perfectly normal.’”

“So the main body is hiding underground now?” Immortal Yuan Hao frowned and looked down with extra gravity in his eyes as he said: “There really is a layer under the surface that blocks Divine Sense. With my cultivation, I can only see the shallow soil, and there are huge patches of shadow.”

“So we’re looking for an entrance,” Yu Sheng nodded. “When Zheng Zhi came earlier he said he saw a Rift here, but when we got close, the Rift vanished.”

“The Rift vanished?” Immortal Yuan Hao frowned. “But those Black Robed Evil Cultivators were definitely coming and going right here…”

“That means the Evolving Youth Form can control the ‘passage’ to its own Core Zone, probably some kind of Portal,” Yu Sheng said, thoughtful. “It must have realized this place was exposed, threw out some minions to stall us, and then shut The Door.”

Irene tilted her head and said: “A Portal? That’s your specialty, right?”

“That only helps if we can catch where it opens ahead of time,” Yu Sheng shook his head. “Remember the Rift we found by the City Outskirts Refining Tower? Once that thing closed, we could never find it again. The channels the Evolving Youth Form opens should be similar. Unless you jam the passage while it’s open, it’s gone in a blink.”

The little doll opened her mouth, clearly ready to curse, but Yu Sheng covered it first.

As Irene started kicking like an angry kitty to wriggle free from under Yu Sheng’s arm, Immortal Yuan Hao suddenly looked toward a direction, and his face changed slightly.

Seeing that, Yu Sheng forgot about the squirming doll and asked: “What is it?”

“The life-saving treasure I left with Xuan Che just activated!” Immortal Yuan Hao said quickly, pointing far away. “Over there-let’s go!”

Before the words finished, the Old Hunk turned into a bolt of lightning, with hundreds upon hundreds of treasures streaking around him, and shot off.

Seeing this, Yu Sheng and the others didn’t stop to ask more. Foxy’s nine flaming tails lit up at once, and they gave chase.

They soon crossed the vast Crystal Jungle, and on the way they saw sharp flashes lighting the distant sky.

Thunder gathered inside the rain clouds. Guided by an invisible force, bolts kept dropping from above. The scene felt familiar.

The Nine-Tailed Silver Fox skimmed across the sky, crossed the boundary of the Crystal Jungle, and a barren wilderness came into view.

This wasteland wasn’t covered in endless crystal like other places. You could only see scattered clumps here and there. Among jagged boulders stood ancient ruins and equipment-maybe pipes left from the pioneering days-most of them so weathered they were hardly shapes anymore.

Dropping from the clouds, the group saw from afar a semi-transparent light screen standing among the wind-carved stones. Dozens of Black Robed Cultivators and Hermitage Members were attacking from all sides, and in the middle of the light stood Xuan Che.

He wouldn’t last much longer-though the life-saving shield ringed him, his face looked terrible from the drain.

High in the air, Immortal Yuan Hao grew anxious at the sight. Before Yu Sheng could speak, the grand array of bricks and beams rose behind the Old Hunk. The sky dimmed, wind and rain seemed to flip, and boundless spiritual radiance boiled out from his countless treasures in a deafening Resonance. He pointed at the attackers and shouted: “Hurt not my nephew!”

Hearing the roar, Xuan Che lifted his head from within the shield, joy flooding his face for a split second. The very next second, he saw a sky full of Spirit Bricks hurtling toward where he stood-each one packed with enough force to level mountains.

His face turned green. He had time only to gather what little strength he had left, raise every last protective art and treasure, and brace for the “grazing aftershock.”

Then a mushroom cloud rose.

The Black Robed Evil Cultivators and Hermitage Order followers surrounding the shield didn’t even have time to react before they were evenly sprinkled across the plain. The light screen among the rocks flickered violently under the stunning aftershock, and with a muffled shout, something very cool-looking flew out from inside.

“Che’er, don’t panic!” Immortal Yuan Hao called from above as he pierced the still-roiling battlefield, riding wind and thunder straight toward the figure that had been blasted free: “Senior uncle is here to save you!”