Chapter 434

Chapter 435: Contaminated Sub-bodies

When there is danger, senior uncle is the safest; when it’s safe, senior uncle is the most dangerous. But on rare occasions, even in danger, senior uncle can be the more dangerous one.

The shield Xuan Che had held up against dozens of people shattered the instant Immortal Yuan Hao provided “support fire.” That said… Xuan Che did break out of the siege. The intention was good, the execution was bad, but the person being “rescued” was sturdy.

“I suddenly feel like Xuan Che’s life is pretty rough,” Yu Sheng said from Foxy’s back, looking into the distance.

Irene glanced at Zheng Zhi and said: “You two both have tough lives.”

Zheng Zhi hurriedly waved his hands and said: “His is hard fate. Mine is big luck. Not the same.”

“Is that so?”

“Enough. This isn’t the time to argue about word choice,” Yu Sheng cut them off, eyes fixing on the smoke-filled depths not far away as he added: “Looks like there’s more trouble.”

Almost to prove him right, a bolt of lightning flared inside the smoke the moment he finished.

The lightning shot straight for Foxy in midair, but Foxy’s Protective Spiritual Aura blocked it. The blast wave blew apart the mushroom cloud Immortal Yuan Hao had raised, and moments later the rain clouds gathered again. Through the falling rain, Yu Sheng saw a familiar figure.

Tall and imposing in a white robe, like a marble statue of a classical demigod come to life-a middle-aged man wrapped in lightning stepped out of the smoke. He walked on the air, face dark, eyes fixed on them.

The instant he recognized the man, the guess Yu Sheng had felt at the sight of thunder in the sky was confirmed. He blurted out in shock: “You didn’t die?!”

But the figure floating in the distance acted as if he hadn’t heard. He stared only at the little doll sitting beside Yu Sheng. His face was blank, thin arcs of lightning danced in his eyes, and those eyes shone with a cold, crystal-like light.

Foxy cautiously shifted position in midair. The Hermitage Order “Great Sage” turned his eyes along with her, still expressionless, still locking onto the doll on the Nine Tailed Fox’s back.

As Yu Sheng frowned in confusion, Luna drifted closer at Foxy’s side and murmured: “A Clone Body-but its state is wrong.”

“Clone Body?” Yu Sheng’s eyes widened. He grasped a few things at once, but before he could ask what “wrong state” meant, the White Robed Priest moved again.

He raised his hand toward Irene. In an instant, layers of lightning formed behind him. The entire space felt like it was charging up. Even the falling rain glittered with tiny sparks, and outside Foxy’s Protective Spiritual Aura, the air snapped and popped with static.

Seeing that, Irene actually grinned and said: “Hey! This again? Never learn, do you?”

Before the words finished, the little doll flicked her hand. Dozens of Space Rifts popped open across the plain, and as those Rifts unfolded and flipped, one glassy-eyed mass-produced Irene after another arrived on the field.

The first thing the Mass Produced Dolls did after Teleportation was lift their heads in unison and fire “Irene Rays” at the “Great Sage” in the air, sending a dense barrage sweeping across him. At the same time, Irene thumped Foxy’s back and said: “Silly Fox!”

No more needed to be said. Foxy understood and dove toward the ground.

Sure enough, the “Great Sage” tracked the real Irene with his eyes. A few dozen tiny Scorching Light Beams couldn’t kill him, only ripples shook in the air around him. His focus never left the true Irene. When she rode the Nine-Tailed Silver Fox and swooped toward the ground, he snapped his hand.

The Thunder in the air… dispersed.

In the place where the lightning had last gathered, countless black Rifts bloomed instead. Big and small, they filled the sky. The next second, a rain of pale crystals poured out of the Rifts and fell toward the earth like a storm.

“What the heck?!”

Irene glanced up and went dumb. Her original plan was to Summon the Mass Produced Dolls and “catch” them on the ground, then she would pull aggro and fly over the dolls’ line. That way, when the Great Sage dropped a wave of lightning, the Mass Produced Dolls would be instantly charged. Maybe not full “Pro Max” charge, but a few dozen overloaded beams fired together ought to blast the Great Sage to death…

Her plan was perfect.

The crystal downpour ruined everything.

Crystals hammered the ground like a meteor storm. Foxy wove through the rain of shards. Clusters slammed into Foxy’s Protective Spiritual Aura and exploded nonstop. Crystal Shards splashed across the plain. The freshly Summoned Mass Produced Dolls panicked and scattered, then, unable to dodge the skyborn bombardment, triggered their return command one after another and popped back to the Valley.

“This is wrong!” Irene shouted as the size of her “army” shrank by the second. “Where are these crystals coming from… isn’t he lightning-type?!”

Yu Sheng was no less shocked. He looked up and saw the white-robed “Great Sage” still conjuring bizarre “crystal Rifts.” The falling clusters piled across the wasteland, and more crystals crawled out of Rifts on the ground. They sprouted from rock and soil as if answering a call. The scene… looked so much like what happened on Garrison-3!

Foxy growled low. She finally caught her chance, found a gap in the crystal barrage, twisted hard, and launched several tails.

The tails, trailing long jets, streaked straight for the “Great Sage.” He didn’t dodge, taking the salvo head-on as if life and death meant nothing to him.

With thunderous booms, Fox Fire blossomed into blazing spheres in the sky. When the flames thinned, the shadow of the White Robed Priest emerged in the smoke.

There was no “white robe” left.

His body had been blown into pieces, but not a drop of blood flowed. A dozen chunks of different sizes floated in the air, their torn faces shining with crystal luster. The ghastly scraps drifted in the wind and rain. Then every piece twitched and writhed, swelling into even stranger shapes, while countless thin crystal “twigs” stretched from the breaks and laced the fragments together, trying to re-form a whole…

Now everyone understood what Luna meant by “wrong state.”

“Good grief, Progenitor of Dolls! He’s already been eaten…” Irene’s eyes went wide. “Aren’t they on the same side?!”

“On the same side as who? The controlled ‘Yun Qing Zi’? Or the Evolving Youth Form behind him?” Yu Sheng was calm now. Seeing the White Robed Priest turn into warped crystal left him with no surprise, only a sense that this was the expected outcome. He said: “Play with blasting caps and saw open light bulbs and this is what you get. From the start I figured these cultists would blow it sooner or later-and someone else would have to clean up the mess.”

As he spoke, the “Great Sage” slowly turned his ruined head. Cold eyes were set in the shattered face. Even torn apart, those eyes still fixed on Irene. His crystalized brain lay bare in the air, and a leftover implant flickered urgently, like it carried pure resentment.

Creeped out by that stare, Irene shrank into Yu Sheng’s arms and muttered: “What do you want? How can you still be this salty in that condition…”

“I suspect that before the Evolving Youth Form ate him, his deepest grudge was getting poked to death by a doll’s finger-and the power in that finger was charged by him,” Yu Sheng said lightly. “Anyone would remember that into their next life, and while drinking Lady Meng’s soup on the Bridge they’d kick Lady Meng aside and rant for two hours first.”

“Who’s Lady Meng?” Irene asked. “Did you meet another doll?”

Yu Sheng didn’t answer. Foxy had already finished prepping the next Fox Carrot Missile and fired without hesitation.

Already heavily damaged and not yet through Regeneration, the “Great Sage” shattered into flying shards at once.

Pale crystal matter drifted down with the wind and rain, flashing with eerie light through the lingering Fox Fire.

Yet seeing this, Yu Sheng didn’t relax at all. He only grew more alert.

Huddled in his arms, Irene suddenly sensed something. The little doll poked her head out and stared at a spot on the plain.

She blinked. The ground in her view swelled, then rock and soil burst apart.

Crystalline matter surged from the crack like a spring. In the center of the “spring,” a familiar figure rose.

The “Great Sage” again-this time made entirely of crystal.

“I figured this would happen…”

Yu Sheng sighed when the “Great Sage” reappeared, clearly expecting it.

But before that sigh was done, a second and third “crystal spring” erupted across the wasteland. With tooth-aching sounds of crystal scraping, breaking, and rejoining, one “Great Sage” after another walked out of the clusters.

“…?”

Irene poked Yu Sheng’s arm and asked: “Did you plan for this too?”

“This isn’t right!” Yu Sheng said. “On Garrison-3 those Yun Qing Zi clones regenerated one at a time. Why are they popping up together here on Sentinel Silence?!”

“This is a poop monster,” Irene sighed. “They kept the model, secretly changed the mechanics, multiplied the numbers by ten, and threw the whole mess in your face… and the worst part is they still don’t drop good loot.”