Chapter 440
Chapter 440: Living Star
Yu Sheng knew the Yanxing Entity counted as one of the dark angels—but that clearly wasn’t what he meant.
“Dark angels” was just the label most people used for anything that invaded from beyond their world. Heka Star, the Beauty God, Tree Angel, Shadowless Remains… every intruder got shoved into the same bucket and called the same thing.
But after meeting Anka Aila, Yu Sheng understood the truth was far more complicated than anyone imagined. “Dark angels” wasn’t an answer. It was a shrug. If they ever wanted to solve this so-called invasion phenomenon, they had to figure out what these things really were.
On that point, “Yun Qing Zi”—already in deep symbiosis with the Yanxing Entity—clearly knew something.
Unfortunately, he had no intention of cooperating.
He even sensed the “erosion” Yu Sheng was carrying out, and the blood that kept seeping deeper into the underground crystal network.
In less than a thousandth of a second, the Yanxing Entity reacted.
A sickening tremor surged up from the depths. The crystal structures tied into the cavern snapped like brittle bones; the illusion arts in the crystal mirrors shattered instantly, and the entire cavern began to collapse. The ground split first, yawning into a massive fissure. Deep inside it, faint streams of light from the planet’s veins pulsed, and crystal branches crisscrossed like roots drinking from hidden springs.
The crystal structure that carried traces of Yu Sheng’s blood was sliced free in one clean piece and dropped into the rift, plunging into the depths.
A brutal force slammed into Yu Sheng’s consciousness, as if his mind had been locked inside that discarded crystal prison. He saw himself falling—fast—toward an ending that waited in a lava lake deep in the mantle. And as he fell, through that hellishly hot underground expanse, he caught sight of the Yanxing Entity’s immense limbs, already spearing straight through the planet—
Its metamorphosis shell braced the crust like scaffolding. Tube-like conduits sank deep into magma and earth veins, feeding it energy. Crystal megastructures, like the skeleton of a colossal beast, shifted and flexed amid the quake, as if making final preparations for the ascension form to tear free.
Then the world went black—his descent, a chaotic after-death vision swallowing everything.
In the vast hollow of the mantle, on a crystal branch above an endless sea of magma, Yun Qing Zi’s figure surfaced from a cluster of crystal growth. He looked out over the infernal fire, watching the “crystal contaminant” that had been cut away fall into the lava—then vanish under terrifying heat in the blink of an eye.
The contamination was contained. The strange blood had been stopped outside the immune barrier, and the ascension form—hidden under layer after layer—had not been affected.
So why wouldn’t the unease go away?
“Yun Qing Zi” frowned, searching and searching, unable to find the source.
No.
He had to begin ascension early. Too much on this planet was already slipping out of control.
—
Lightning split the dark. A raging storm tore across the wilderness beyond the city-protection array, ripples of spiritual power churning in the air as the scorching dust thinned under wind and rain.
Two forces faced off before Ink City’s barrier.
Mo Ran gripped her sword and stood atop the high tower, the cold wind biting nearly to her bones. She stared out beyond the city, and with the next thunderclap, the sky flashed bright enough for her to see them: celestial ships arranged in battle formation, cultivators on sword flight spread across the cloudline like a living wall.
Before this standoff, the two sides had already erupted into a brief, savage clash. The lingering heat, the turbulent spiritual power in the air, and the ravines carved into the earth were all the proof that the “brief” part had only been luck.
But the enemy had stopped—not because Lord Yun Shan and the others had broken free of the Yanxing Entity’s control.
They had stopped because of one person.
Mo Ran drew a slow breath, awe threading through her fear as she looked past the barrier.
Immortal Yuan Hao—white-robed, white-haired—stood in the clouds with his hands clasped behind his back, quietly positioned between the two sides. Rain slid off him as if it couldn’t find purchase. His gaze drifted down over everything, calm and unreadable.
Behind him, the power of the Four Symbols and Five Elements formed a phantom rune array that rolled and cycled between heaven and earth. Countless streams of spiritual light spiraled within it, locking onto the army beyond the city from afar.
At his feet, a steaming rift split the land, running like a scar across the plain. It separated Ink City from the forces outside and stretched far into the distance.
With a single strike from a supreme powerhouse at the Dao Union Stage, even the cultivators under the Yanxing Entity’s influence had gone still. Not a single person dared move recklessly. After all, Lord Yun Shan’s people were trapped by a cognitive veil, not brainwashed into mindless lackeys like the black-robed cultivators before. Whatever was wrong with them, their basic judgment still existed.
Xuan Che stood behind Yuan Hao, hands lowered, posture rigid. Together they stared down at the distant horizon as if posing for a painting. Neither face betrayed a thing.
They spoke through secret transmission.
“Martial Uncle, what do we do next?”
“What else can we do?” Immortal Yuan Hao’s expression remained serene, even as his voice came out tight. “I’m panicking too.”
“What if they attack first?” Xuan Che stole a sideways glance, barely moving his eyes. “Can we beat them?”
“Like hell.” Yuan Hao’s lips didn’t move, but the scolding somehow still sounded loud. “You’ve been reading too many storybooks. How are we supposed to fight that many people? And look at those warships.”
He paused, still holding the perfect, unbothered pose of a grand expert.
“When we can’t hold it, we run straight back into the city-protection array. We’re buying time, not dying heroically.”
“Isn’t that… kind of embarrassing?”
“You silly child. Your martial uncle has survived countless trials by knowing when to bend and when to stand. Now stop letting your eyes wander. Keep acting.”
“Okay, okay.”
Out on the largest celestial ship beyond the city, a refined-looking middle-aged man had been staring grimly at the uninvited guest for a long time. At last he couldn’t hold back. He stepped forward onto empty air and cupped his fists.
“Senior, may I—”
“Yuan Hao of Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain,” Immortal Yuan Hao said, lifting one hand as if to still the entire storm. “I’m here to mediate. If you are still willing to obey the orders of the Grand Void Spiritual Axis, then retreat now.”
Lord Yun Shan narrowed his eyes.
A low, rumbling noise echoed inside his mind. He didn’t hear what the other side said. He didn’t understand the scattered syllables that occasionally rose above the roar. Yet he didn’t find it strange, and he didn’t feel curious about the stranger’s identity.
In fact, he couldn’t even see the distant figures clearly.
The entire world was hazy in his eyes. And that haze… had been there his whole life.
That was normal. The world was just like this.
It was only that Ink City looked… odd right now.
Odd?
Lord Yun Shan’s mind went dizzy and blank, as if something extremely important had just slipped away. He lifted his head in shock—and saw several nearby retainers lifting theirs too, wearing the same confused, dazed expression.
Why had he come here?
What had happened?
A moment ago, he seemed to have been fighting someone, but… fighting who?
Why was he fighting?
Was that Ink City in the distance?
The Mo Family Head should be over there, shouldn’t she? Then why did they all look like they were facing a mortal enemy?
A strange roaring sound echoed between heaven and earth—and it seemed to echo inside everyone’s heart.
On a hill at the edge of Ink City, Foxy’s ears twitched. She instinctively looked toward the living crystal jungle beyond the barrier.
Irene poked her head out from Foxy’s arms, scanning around uneasily. “What now? What’s with that dumb noise? Is something about to drill out of the ground again?”
Foxy couldn’t answer the doll’s nonstop chatter. She only held Irene tighter—then noticed the ground at the far end of the crystal jungle slowly bulging upward, as if a new mountain were growing out of the earth.
Thunder cracked. For a split second, the wind and rain across the world froze, as if the storm itself had missed a beat mid-fall.
In the rain, Luna extended a hand. She seemed to be watching the mountain rise at the end of the world, but no one could read her true focus from that pale, steel face. Shu Ji’s endless rainy season reflected on her smooth metal shell, and within the blurred shine of water and lightning, a vast wilderness faintly surfaced—wild grass spreading without end.
High in the air outside the city, Xuan Che suddenly noticed chaos spreading through the enemy’s formation.
“Martial Uncle,” he sent quickly. “Their lines are falling apart. The leaders look… wrong.”
“I see it,” Immortal Yuan Hao replied, barely dipping his chin. His face remained perfectly calm even as he prepared, at any second, to run like his life depended on it. “Don’t move. Something’s wrong. The movement underground—something’s off.”
Far away, the battle formation built from several nearby major cities had developed obvious gaps. People turned their heads in confusion as if they’d woken from a dream. Some abruptly drifted out of formation. Some turned and fled. Others dropped from the sky like puppets with cut strings, as if answering some silent call—diving straight into the writhing, shaking living crystal jungle below.
At the end of the plain, something astonishing began to force its way out of the planet’s interior. The terrain shifted. The eerie rumbling became the sound of the earth cracking open, and amid the rising dust, vast sheets of pale crystal burst from the ground, rising like mountains.
Mo Ran sucked in a sharp breath. Her sword hand trembled before she even realized it. She stared at the crystal mountain climbing from the plain’s far edge, and just looking at it made her mind feel like it might collapse.
“That is… what is that thing?”
No one answered.
The retainers couldn’t explain it. Only the same shaking fear spread through every heart. And just as helplessness began to rise—
A personal guard stumbled up onto the platform through the wind and rain, voice torn raw like a howl dragged out of a nightmare.
“C-City Lord! The orbital platform’s communications are back! They… they said… Shu Ji has a face on its surface!”