Chapter 435

Chapter 436: Crawling on the Spiderweb

Across the open plain, six or seven crystal springs burst from the ground. One by one, a Great Sage stepped out from the surging crystal clusters, each of them locking their gaze on Irene.

The little doll’s hair stood on end.

Just as Foxy was Summoning a fresh Fox Carrot Missile to blast the closest enemy, a sharp boom tore through the sky. A flash ripped across the clouds and dropped into a nearby crystal Rift, and with that flash came a familiar voice: “Take my Boundless Seal!”

A blazing fireball erupted from the Rift. The blast rang with the shriek of crystal tearing apart. Dust glittered like snow as a mushroom cloud rose into the rain.

Yu Sheng looked up and saw Immortal Yuan Hao in white standing in the air, his huge array of building materials floating behind him. Beside him stood Xuan Che, just rescued from the jaws of death. [As for why he almost died a moment ago, let’s not ask.]

Immortal Yuan Hao cupped his hands toward Yu Sheng, but before he could greet him, a lance of Thunder flared inside the mushroom cloud.

The next second, an ocean of lightning cleaved the sky. Wind and Thunder tangled together and dragged a thousand forks of lightning through the clouds like a storm, all of it crashing toward Yuan Hao and Xuan Che. A gale blew away the smoke and dust. When the cloud cleared, the Great Sage who had just taken a direct hit from Immortal Yuan Hao’s Spirit Brick was still standing in the Rift.

Its crystal shell was cracked all over, but it was clearly still “alive.” Its body had split apart, yet streams of fresh crystal matter poured in and rebuilt it at frightening speed.

“This one is troublesome.” Immortal Yuan Hao’s face turned solemn. He could tell the enemy below was not like the small fry he had handled before. The countless treasures in the array behind him spun and reformed with the five elements and four signs. A thick shield of spiritual light snapped into place. He shouted: “Che’er, hide behind senior uncle!”

Xuan Che did not dare run. He had just been half-killed by a flying brick and could not have run anyway. He stumbled back and ducked behind Elder Senior Uncle’s array. The very next instant, a rain of Thunder poured down like a storm, striking with the force of heaven’s punishment toward him and Yuan Hao.

Almost at the same time, the other Great Sages stirred to life and unleashed their rage at every hostile figure on the field.

Thunder, crystal clusters, and storm winds raged together. Boulders fell like shells. From Rifts ripping open in the ground, monsters surged up that might once have been Human but now were beyond recognition.

Yu Sheng acted at once. He used Door Opening and tossed Zheng Zhi back to No. 66 Wutong Road.

On a field this chaotic, his older nephew’s small body could get erased by a stray hit. Besides, once Immortal Yuan Hao started swinging, his Spirit Bricks tended to fly everywhere and clip his own teammates too.

Under Foxy’s and Immortal Yuan Hao’s bombardment, two Great Sages finally turned to dust, and the crystal Rifts beneath their feet were pulverized as well. But in the blink of an eye, new Rifts opened in other places. In the flood of crystals, new Great Sages climbed out again.

And whether it was a trick of the eye or not, with each Regeneration they looked more broken and more twisted, like heaps of deformed lumps forced into a body. Their attacks grew more frantic and more desperate.

“Foxy!” A chill of worry rose in Yu Sheng’s chest as he shouted: “Can you use that move again? The crashing one…”

Foxy shook her head hard: “No. That move drains me. I need a long rest after.”

Yu Sheng frowned. At the same time, the low, muddled whisper in his mind rose again.

Not long after they left Ink City, he began to hear that heavy, chaotic murmur. He knew exactly what it was.

It was the sound from Youth Form, still cocooned in Metamorphosis, like a cocoon humming in its sleep. It came from the depths of the planet, like a countdown to the end.

Youth Form had sensed the changes on the surface. It had sensed that something was tearing at its cradle. That strong and chaotic Dark Angel was trying to crush the disharmonious “voices” scurrying above its head, because its Ascension was close at hand.

They had to break its Metamorphosis before the Ascension Body matured.

Crystal squalls sliced the air as if ripping open the sky. Thunder rolled through the clouds and hammered the ground.

Irene hid in Yu Sheng’s arms. Her small body jostled as Foxy darted through the battlefield. She gripped Yu Sheng’s arm with both hands, stuck out her head, and stared toward one direction.

Another new Great Sage was crawling out of a Rift. Its huge, swollen, deformed crystal body swayed in the wind and rain. It looked especially fierce and ugly.

Rage. Extreme rage. And… what else? Unwillingness, spite, regret… and fear.

The doll tilted her head. The flow of time around her seemed to slow down. Even the bouncing of the Silly Fox grew gentle. In this slow stream of time, she fixed her eyes on that frantic crystal figure, and a strange, excited gleam grew in her scarlet eyes.

She saw it. Inside that shell of crystal, a soul that had been consumed and chained was fighting in pain. Fine black threads seeped from the soul, growing and spreading inside its crystal prison, then slowly leaked out through the crystal and drifted in the air, invisible.

When had those threads wrapped that soul? When they killed him last time?

Time had nearly stopped. Irene’s small head could not figure out what was going on, but she still reached toward that soul trapped in the crystal cage.

The Black Threads seemed to sense it, like the brood hearing a call from the hive. They came alive at once. They wove an unseen net and linked with the Spider Silk at Irene’s fingertip.

Irene now understood why the Great Sages revived from crystal kept staring at her.

“It is fear…”

She beamed, slipped out of Yu Sheng’s arms, and, on a battlefield where nearly everything had frozen, began crawling along the Spider Silk. She crawled toward the Great Sage of the Hermitage Order, the one Youth Form had swallowed. She laughed again: “It is fear!”

The doll’s face shone with excitement. Light grew in her crimson eyes. She crossed through flying crystal shards, streaking boulders, and the crystal monsters climbing from the earth.

She skimmed past Luna, who was leaping into the air to block Thunder with her Fingertip Blades.

[C Buckle looks so funny frozen like this.]

Irene crawled along the Spider Silk, and a silly thought popped into her head: [C Buckle looks so silly.]

Then the body of the Artificial Saintess trembled. In a battle where all things were nearly still, Luna seemed to sense something. She turned her head, slowly, as if searching the air.

Irene gasped softly and hurried forward: “Crawl crawl crawl, I crawl the fastest… C Buckle is super scary…”

She looked back again. Luna still hung frozen in midair. That slow turn just now felt like her imagination.

The little doll blinked in confusion, then quickly stopped thinking about it.

The sweet taste of fear was waiting just ahead.

She raised her head. The crystal prison faded away without a sound. A soul run through by countless Black Threads cowered in the dark.

At first the soul was tall. The next second, it shrank, like a tiny bug.

Irene tilted her head and looked at the tiny figure crouched at her feet.

She felt she had not looked down at someone from this angle in a very, very long time.

But long ago… she always spoke to small figures from this view.

[What were those small figures again?]

The doll did not remember.

She reached out and poked the soul with a finger.

“Hey.”

The Great Sage felt his body falling and falling, as if sinking forever in a nightmare he could never wake from. Pain and rage flooded all his memories and senses. Suffering spread through his soul like poison.

Being cut off from the End Web, trapped with pain and rage he could not release, was a torment worse than death.

When had it begun? When he first lost control inside a vision? When he opened his eyes and saw all the devotees kneeling around the crystal in the cave? Or earlier still… when shameful betrayal started to brew in secret?

He should have known it. Betrayal would come sooner or later. No one can stay close to the Dark Angels for long and still stand with the human side. That creature who called himself “Yun Qing Zi” had never been trustworthy.

A little hope and a lot of urgency led him into a terrible mistake.

Now this eternal, painful cage was the price.

“Hey.”

A voice exploded in the depths of his soul. It pierced the endless chaos and jolted the Great Sage awake.

He “opened” his eyes in shock.

Within a second, he clawed out his own eyes-on the level of the soul.

Agony ripped up from his spirit. He clutched at the darkness and screamed, but even so, he still could not help seeing what should never be seen. At the same time, he understood all the “knowledge” bound to that sight.

A vast Spiderweb named the End Web covered the world. Every strand was a line of woven fate. Every Node was the gathering of all Dire Omen under heaven. And the master of suffering and fear, who crawled upon that Spiderweb, was bending down to look at him.