Chapter 434

Chapter 434: When There Was Danger, Martial Uncle Was the Mos…

Yu Sheng didn’t even see how the last black-robed evil cultivator died. By the time he processed what had happened, the man was already evenly distributed across the battlefield.

The others, barely holding their defensive formations together a moment ago, were already at their limits. The remaining shockwaves finished the job. One shield after another shattered. Protective treasures cracked, burned out, and fell. The survivors died where they stood—lucky ones reduced to corpses, unlucky ones reduced to something you could no longer call a body.

Immortal Yuan Hao lifted a hand and beckoned. The Haotian Demon-Subduing Ruler he’d thrown rose from the impact crater and flew back into the swirling construction-materials grand array behind him. Only then did he turn around, beaming at Yu Sheng’s group.

“I was just wondering how I could contact you. Good thing everyone’s safe.” He spotted Zheng Zhi and brightened even more. “Ah, Daoist Friend Zheng is here too. That puts my mind at ease. Did you see the reminder I left on the window?”

“We did,” Yu Sheng said, riding Foxy up beside him. “We noticed your hint, realized there was a flaw in the cognitive screen, and that’s how we found Zheng Zhi.”

His gaze flicked over the ruined battlefield below before returning to the old man. “By the way, why are you here? Do you know where Xuan Che went?”

“Xuan Che is fine.” Immortal Yuan Hao’s voice sobered. “I met up with him outside the city earlier, and I sent him north to scout.”

Then he explained what had happened to him. “I came out to find Daoist Friend Zheng, but the cognitive barrier around Ink City was truly difficult. I searched everywhere and found no clues. While investigating, I noticed a few sneaky figures, so I tailed them.”

He glanced toward the crystal forest. “Somehow, without even realizing it, I ended up leaving the city. On the way, I found Xuan Che wandering outside the city in a daze.”

“As you can see,” he continued, “even the land outside is completely different now. If you call this a cognitive barrier, then it’s an astonishing technique. Those sneaky figures vanished once they entered this forest. Xuan Che and I split up to investigate, but I saw people coming and going around here. I meant to observe quietly, yet several of those black-robed evil cultivators were real experts. I slipped up and exposed myself.”

He wiped sweat from his brow, looking profoundly moved. “Those evil cultivators really do have some tricks. All that flashy nonsense scared me into a cold sweat. Luckily, I was just a few moves better…”

Yu Sheng listened, sweating even harder than Immortal Yuan Hao. His eye twitched as he glanced at the ground that looked like it had been hammered by meteor impacts. He couldn’t help thinking that he’d never imagined “a few moves better” could mean this.

Immortal Yuan Hao seemed to remember something and looked toward Ink City with concern. “You came from Ink City. How is the city now?”

Yu Sheng cleared his throat. “Two things. First, calling it a cognitive barrier around Ink City isn’t accurate. The cognitive screen covers the entire planet. All of Shu Ji is affected by the Yanxing Entity. That screen, built on the collective cognition of billions, has even reconstructed reality. What you’re seeing out here—the jungle—is the planet’s real appearance.”

He took a breath. “Second, Ink City’s cognitive screen has been lifted. We tore a breach in the barrier covering the planet.”

From the first sentence, Immortal Yuan Hao’s face grew more and more shocked. By the time Yu Sheng finished, the old man held up both hands as if trying to physically stop the information from hitting him.

“Wait, wait. Let me sort this out. This is beyond what I expected.” He stared. “What is the Yanxing Entity? And what do you mean the whole planet is under reality reconstruction?”

“To put it simply,” Yu Sheng said, “the Yanxing Entity is the culprit behind what Shu Ji has become.”

He didn’t waste time. He told Immortal Yuan Hao everything he knew, as briefly and clearly as he could.

As he spoke, his gaze kept drifting across the horizon. Nearly every inch of land was covered in that eerie gray-white crystal. Plant-like structures formed from crystal matter spread in mimicry of the planet’s original ecosystem. In the far mountains, shrouded in rain and mist, the crystal growth seemed thinner—but suspicious, massive shadows lay across the ridges. He couldn’t tell whether that was Yun Qing Zi’s doing.

Immortal Yuan Hao listened, stunned, as the planet’s buried truth unfolded.

“Based on what we know,” Yu Sheng said, drawing his gaze back, “the Yanxing Entity’s earliest parasitic activity on Shu Ji might go back five or six hundred years. Back then, it had already escaped from Garrison-3 and landed here with a Yun Qing Zi copy under its control.”

He exhaled. “After that came three or four hundred years of latent shift. Once it entered metamorphosis, the planet’s ore veins began to dry up rapidly. Yet whether it was the locals or later investigators, everyone kept thinking everything was normal.”

“So its true body is hiding underground right now?” Immortal Yuan Hao frowned, gaze heavy on the earth. “There really is a layer down there that blocks divine sense. Even at my level, I can only make out broad shadows in the shallow soil.”

“So we’re looking for an entrance,” Yu Sheng said, nodding. “Zheng Zhi said he saw a fissure here when he came over, but for some reason, the moment we got close, it vanished.”

“The fissure vanished?” Immortal Yuan Hao’s frown deepened. “But those black-robed evil cultivators really were coming and going from this spot…”

“Then the Yanxing Entity can control the passage leading to its core zone,” Yu Sheng said. “It’s probably a teleportation-gate type structure. It realized this place was exposed, threw a bunch of lackeys at us, and closed the gate.”

Irene, listening, immediately looked up. “A teleportation gate? Isn’t that your specialty?”

“That still requires catching where it opens in advance.” Yu Sheng shook his head. “Remember the fissure we found at the refining tower on the city outskirts back then? Once it closed, we could never find it again. The Yanxing Entity’s passages are probably the same. Unless we jam it the instant it opens, it’ll disappear in the blink of an eye.”

Irene opened her mouth like she wanted to start cursing, but Yu Sheng clamped a hand over it first.

She kicked and thrashed like an angry kitten, trying to wriggle out from under his arm.

Immortal Yuan Hao didn’t even look at them. He had turned toward the distance, expression shifting.

Yu Sheng tightened his hold on Irene. “What is it?”

“My life-saving treasure I gave to Xuan Che has activated,” Immortal Yuan Hao said quickly. He pointed. “Over there. We must go—now!”

Before he finished, the old man had already turned into a streak of lightning. Hundreds upon hundreds of treasure lights spiraled around him as he shot away.

Yu Sheng and the others didn’t dare waste time asking questions. Nine blazing tails flared behind Foxy, and they sprang after him in urgent pursuit.

They crossed the vast crystal jungle at full speed. Halfway there, blinding flashes flared again and again in the far sky.

Thunder gathered in the rain clouds. Guided by an unseen force, lightning kept striking down. The scene felt strangely familiar.

Foxy swept across the sky, cleared the edge of the crystal jungle, and a barren wilderness came into view.

This land wasn’t choked in endless crystal like the rest. Only scattered clusters pushed up in certain regions. Old ruins, equipment, and pipework—likely left from Shu Ji’s earliest frontier days—stood among jagged boulders, most of them weathered beyond recognition.

Yu Sheng’s group descended through the rain.

From a distance, they saw a translucent curtain of light standing among the eroded rocks. Dozens of black-robed cultivators and Hermitage Order members in foreign clothing were attacking it from all sides.

In the center of the light curtain stood Xuan Che.

He clearly couldn’t hold much longer. Even with a protective, life-saving barrier around him, his face looked terrible, exhaustion etched into every line.

The instant Immortal Yuan Hao saw it from the air, he panicked.

Without waiting for Yu Sheng to speak, he activated the construction-materials grand array behind him. In a heartbeat, heaven and earth changed color, wind and rain inverted, and hazy spiritual light surged as his countless treasures resonated in unison.

Then he raised a hand and pointed at the attackers.

“Do not harm my nephew!”

Inside the light curtain, Xuan Che looked up at the shout, joy flashing across his face—

—and then, in the next second, he saw spirit bricks blot out the sky as they smashed toward the battlefield, each one carrying trillion-level power.

Xuan Che’s face went green.

He hauled every scrap of spiritual power he had left into place, stacked every remaining defensive spell and treasure, and braced himself for the aftershock brushing past.

Then the mushroom cloud rose.

The black-robed evil cultivators and Hermitage Order cultists surrounding the barrier didn’t even have time to react. They were erased into the rising blaze, scattered across the wilderness in the space of a breath.

The light curtain among the boulders flickered violently under the remaining force. With a muffled yelp, something that looked distinctly un-cool got launched out from inside.

“Che’er, don’t panic!” Immortal Yuan Hao shouted from midair. He surged forward with the force of wind and thunder, cutting straight through a battlefield still shaking with aftershocks as he flew toward the figure that had been blasted away. “Martial Uncle is here to save you!”