Chapter 443

Chapter 443: Frozen in Darkness

Everything seemed to return to the beginning.

The crisis that started at the Grand Void Spiritual Axis ultimately still pointed back at the Grand Void Spiritual Axis.

When Shu Ji’s warning arrived through faster-than-light communication, Capital Star’s planetwide alarm screamed to life. From the remote Mist Sect to Nethergloom Valley, from the Heaven-Sustaining Star Formation at the pole to the low-orbit guard post above the equator, wailing sirens slammed into the air and into everyone’s chest.

Ancient planetary defense protocols activated.

Thousands of towering palaces in orbit began emergency maneuvers. As one protective formation after another flared to life, a translucent, swirling curtain of light started sealing over the planet’s sky. Capital Star’s garrison assembled and surged into space at full speed, building inner and outer defense lines with Nethermoon as the anchor. Elders in seclusion, hidden ancestor patriarchs—everyone was summoned and dragged awake.

No one had time to steady their breathing. They hauled out sect treasures, divine weapons, and dharma treasures, flooding the defense line in glittering streaks of light.

At Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain—

Between the peaks, a hazy rift opened. It flipped outward, expanded, and the cathedral-shaped starship Hotel jumped directly from Shu Ji’s high orbit, arriving in the sea of clouds before Parted Clouds Palace.

Immortal Yuan Ling stood on the plaza before the grand hall, watching the massive ship descend through the cloud sea, his face dark as still water.

A nine-tailed silver fox flew in and landed before the hall, shifting into human form. Yu Sheng and his group returned to that familiar place once more.

From the heart of Shu Ji’s terrifying storm to the cloud-sea grand hall of Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain—the change was violent enough to make the world lurch.

Especially for Yu Sheng.

A moment ago, he’d been looking down at an alien planet through the storm’s eyes. Then, only minutes after his resurrection, he forced Hotel to teleport to the Grand Void Spiritual Axis. When he jumped off Foxy’s back now, if Luna hadn’t reached out to steady him, he would’ve toppled straight into the cloud sea behind him.

Immortal Yuan Ling hurried over, but before he could speak, Irene blurted out, voice sharp with panic.

“Old man, has the Yanxing Entity arrived yet?”

“Not yet,” Immortal Yuan Ling answered fast. “But the defense line is in place. Experts and armaments from every sect are still rising into orbit. Soon I’ll lead the mountain-guarding disciples to low orbit—we just don’t know what direction it will come from.”

“Honestly, I doubt your ‘defense line’ can stop that thing,” Irene muttered. “But having a plan is better than nothing.”

Yu Sheng had finally steadied himself enough to speak. He lifted a hand, waving it off.

“Be optimistic. Yanxing Entity is only an ascension core now, and it’s badly damaged. Its energy is basically spent. Maybe it really can be stopped…”

Irene pursed her lips and didn’t answer.

Immortal Yuan Ling’s gaze slid past Yu Sheng to the two figures behind him.

Immortal Yuan Hao stood there with Xuan Che. Yuan Hao looked fine. Xuan Che could no longer hide his exhaustion.

“Can’t we intercept it early?” Immortal Yuan Hao asked bluntly.

“No way,” Immortal Yuan Ling said, shaking his head. “Anything that enters hyperspace is almost impossible to intercept. And Yanxing Entity’s jump method isn’t like normal celestial ships or starships. I only caught a faint tracking signal from Shu Ji at the very start—then it cut out. Even now, we can’t confirm its jump speed.”

Yu Sheng frowned.

“So it might reach the Grand Void Spiritual Axis in a few days,” he said slowly, “or even months… or it might show up in orbit the next second.”

Immortal Yuan Ling didn’t answer. He only nodded, his expression ugly enough to make the silence heavier.

After a moment, he asked, voice tight with worry, “How is Shu Ji?”

This crisis had erupted faster and more violently than anyone expected. Yanxing Entity was beyond what any human power could handle. He had sent reinforcements earlier, but Shu Ji was too far from the border. The nearest sect forces hadn’t made it in time before Shu Ji was sealed into an “otherworld” by dark angels.

And when communication finally returned, the warning came with it: Yanxing Entity was already charging toward the Grand Void Spiritual Axis.

Even though their own homeworld was now under shadow, Yuan Ling couldn’t stop thinking of Shu Ji.

“Shu Ji suffered huge losses,” Yu Sheng said quietly, “but most of that was from centuries of erosion and reshaping. In the end, the planet held together, and most of the population survived. I forced Yanxing Entity into early ascension to weaken it, while avoiding the planet breaking apart. That’s the limit of what I could do.”

Immortal Yuan Ling blinked.

Then he bowed deeply to Yu Sheng.

“This is an achievement beyond measure…”

“Don’t talk about achievements yet.” Yu Sheng waved him off. “We need to think about how to deal with Yanxing Entity. If that thing touches the Grand Void Spiritual Axis, everything I set up is worthless. And without follow-up reinforcements from here, the survivors on Shu Ji probably won’t live long either.”

Immortal Yuan Ling’s expression hardened. “What do you need us to do? Every sect of the Grand Void will cooperate with everything we have.”

Yu Sheng didn’t answer.

What did he need?

If Yanxing Entity appeared in orbit the next second, nothing would be ready in time.

He needed a storm like Shu Ji’s.

He needed another trap.

He needed time.

He needed to soak Yanxing Entity’s core in blood rain again—and Yanxing Entity, and Yun Qing Zi, would have to cooperate long enough for it to work.

No matter how he turned it over, it didn’t feel possible.

And then—another alarm cut the sky.

Sharp, piercing, and wrong. It wailed through the Yun Shan Fog Sea of Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain.

Immortal Yuan Ling, Immortal Yuan Hao, and Xuan Che all changed expression at once.

An inner disciple streaked down from the clouds, nearly smashing into the ground before Yuan Ling. His face was deathly pale.

“M-Master! It’s here—Yanxing Entity is here!!”

Immortal Yuan Ling sucked in a breath so cold it hurt.

“So fast?”

So fast.

They’d discussed this worst-case possibility, but hearing it confirmed still made everyone’s stomach drop.

Yu Sheng turned and glanced at Hotel parked in the cloud sea.

He knew how fast he’d come.

He’d taken only a brief moment—mostly to rebuild his blood-and-flesh body from the storm and readjust to a human perspective—then used his door-opening ability to teleport Hotel straight to the Grand Void Spiritual Axis without using a hyperspace corridor at all.

And Yanxing Entity… was only a little slower.

If that was its jump speed, then across the distance from Shu Ji to here, it might as well have been instant. How was it doing that?

Was this the true “descent” power of a mature dark angel?

The shock flashed by. Yu Sheng didn’t have time to dwell.

“Stop thinking,” he said, lifting a hand. “Get into orbit first!”

Hotel’s engines roared. The starship rose from the cloud sea, and dozens of fully armed celestial ships climbed with it. From all across Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain, streaks of light shot toward low orbit.

Inside Hotel’s command hall, the holographic communications platform lit up.

Yu Sheng faced the projection above the comm unit. Immortal Yuan Ling, Immortal Yuan Hao, and Xuan Che were now aboard Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain’s main flying ship, Taia. Behind them, the wide Spirit Disk Hall spread out, filled with piloting disciples moving with tense urgency.

Beyond Hotel’s observation window, hardened polymer glass and a faintly glowing shield framed the view. The planet’s curve fell away fast, and the emptiness of space rushed in.

Countless points of starlight filled the void. Between them, a half-transparent, planetwide barrier shimmered like a second sky.

“Where is Yanxing Entity right now?” Yu Sheng demanded.

“It’s still in high orbit,” Xuan Che said, expression strange. “A rift opened a few moments ago, and a lump of gray-black crystal drifted out. But after that, it hasn’t moved at all.”

Yu Sheng’s brow tightened.

“Still in orbit? Not moving?”

“Yes.” Xuan Che nodded, then pushed a feed directly to Hotel. “Firmament Hall just sent this. Look.”

Yu Sheng stared at the image, his frown deepening with every second.

Yanxing Entity’s remaining core hung in the vast black, motionless.

Small black fissures floated amid the starlight—the fading folds left behind in spacetime as the hyperspace corridor closed. Against that broken-cradle backdrop, the core was an ugly gray-black crystal mass. Root-like structures curled and knotted through it, frozen in a posture like a death spasm.

A faint glow still lingered inside.

But it looked like that faint glow was all that remained.

At some point, Luna appeared behind Yu Sheng. She stared at the hologram for a long while before speaking.

“Looks like it’s dying.”

Yu Sheng didn’t answer.

He reached for the connection in his blood, trying to call to the crystal hanging in orbit.

The only response was hollow, blurred howling—like wind that sometimes swept across the Soul Wilderness.