Chapter 446
Chapter 447: Bloom
At last, the truth stood clear.
In the curtain space full of bright crystal colors, Yu Sheng let out a gentle breath.
He noticed that the crystal-like curtains around them were dimmer than before, and a faint, messy “noise” had begun to hum all around.
Yun Qing Zi seemed not to care about these changes. He still stood there with a slight smile, looking very relaxed. It was the peace of someone freed from a thousand-year burden. Besides that burden, everything else in the world no longer mattered to him. Every minute and every breath now felt pleasant.
Yu Sheng asked the last question about the plan: “If it fails, what will happen?”
Yun Qing Zi did not answer at once.
“You drew the Evolving Youth Form to the Grand Void Spiritual Axis and wanted to use the planet’s ‘abnormality’ to kill it. But did you think that the Dark Angels have incredible life force? It might not die right away. The dying could last for years. Then…”
Yun Qing Zi nodded lightly and said: “Many people will die.”
Yu Sheng fell silent.
“I said this method was reckless. It could fail. But I had no other road,” Yun Qing Zi said. “No matter what, once the Evolving Youth Form takes root on the Grand Void Spiritual Axis, it will have no chance to leave. Rebuilding Ascension costs a shocking amount of energy, and it will get no supply on this planet. As long as the Grand Void Spiritual Axis can hold out for a while, the world will forever have one less disaster. As for the cost…”
He paused, then suddenly grinned.
“For years I was fused with the Evolving Youth Form. Many things were not my choice, but the result is the same. I am already weighed down with sins. After the ‘falling star,’ my name will be rotten for ages anyway. A bit more blood on my hands hardly matters.”
Seeing this, Yu Sheng was a little surprised. But he soon understood, and with a feeling he could not name, he shook his head and said: “True. You also took my life.”
Yun Qing Zi’s face went stiff. With a complex look, he cupped his hands to Yu Sheng and said: “To tell the truth, you did frighten me then. And yes, I do owe you…”
“Forget talk of owing,” Yu Sheng said, cutting him off with a wave. “You were fused with that Dark Angel. Most of your thoughts were under its sway. You cannot cleanly divide the blame. Besides, my life is not worth much.”
Yun Qing Zi listened in a daze. His face changed a few times. In the end, all his feelings and doubts turned into a relieved sigh.
His figure flickered among the crystal curtains and dimmed a little more, along with the space around him.
“There really are too many things in this world we cannot understand. Seeking the Dao has no end,” the old man said with a sigh. Then he smiled and shook his head, and said: “Never mind. At least now I do not need to play that risky piece. Fellow daoist, in your hands the disaster of the Evolving Youth Form is ended.”
Yu Sheng’s face grew solemn and he asked: “Your state…”
“What state can I have?” Yun Qing Zi still smiled. “This time the Evolving Youth Form truly ‘died.’ I became part of this wandering, lonely seed long ago. Of course I will go with it. In fact, I should have faded the moment I left Sentinel Silence. I only thought…”
He slowly stopped. He turned, and through the gauzy curtain looked out at the pale vastness of space and, beyond the layered defense lines, the far shining Grand Void Spiritual Axis.
“I thought I would come back and take a look.”
His shape dimmed further. Then every part of him began to flicker like a bad signal.
Only then did Yu Sheng notice that it was not a whole “body” at all.
The Yun Qing Zi before his eyes was just a scene formed by beams of light, layered projections thrown from many angles by the surrounding crystal curtains. From Sentinel Silence to here by Teleportation, Yun Qing Zi could not even keep a Spirit Body anymore.
Yu Sheng reached out a hand. Before he could speak, Yun Qing Zi, with his back to him, stepped toward the vastness.
After one step, the old man’s figure vanished into rippling crystal curtains.
In the next second, the whole space shook hard. The crystal curtains in his view started flashing in chaos. Then all the flashing lights collapsed. Yu Sheng felt an irresistible force shove him outward. As his sight peeled away from this strange space, he seemed to pass through a tangled Rift of light and shadow.
A Homeworld glittering under sunlight. Giant crystal vines and leaves like mountain ranges. A lush garden. Noisy little creatures. Curious, funny things. Thought, knowing, watching, finding. Acts of creation. Stars falling from the sky. A seed. Darkness.
The Evolving Youth Form’s last memories swept through the Rift like foaming waves. In a blink, at the End Web of time, they faded into countless colorless scraps. Yu Sheng fell from the Rift back into reality and opened his eyes in the dark.
The wreck of the Fortress Torpedo was wedged among cold crystal branches. Faint flames leapt in the torn shell. Curving crystal matter twisted and tangled. Between the crystal feelers, the stars were cold and Deep Space was black.
Yu Sheng lowered his head. His body was covered in wounds and pierced by a sharp crystal branch. Blood soaked the branch, drifted into space, froze into tiny ice crystals, and floated around him.
Those gray black crystal tendrils were breaking apart in silence. There is no sound in space, but Yu Sheng seemed to hear the seed being torn little by little.
He slowly closed his eyes in the dark and listened to that tiny tearing. He listened to the faint, broken noise from the Evolving Youth Form’s core. He felt life flow away and felt his blood grow cold.
After who knew how long, he sighed inside.
In the next second, his body turned to ash on its own. Countless gray flakes, led by his will, drifted into the Evolving Youth Form’s remains and swept into the gray black crystal.
In the vastness, a point of light flashed.
At a defense Node of the Grand Void Spiritual Axis, alarms suddenly rang on the large Celestial Ship Taia. The cultivator watching the Dark Angels’ movements shouted a warning: “Report, the Evolving Youth Form is heating up inside! There are signs of activation!”
Sirens flared everywhere. Everyone tensed at once. The cultivators rushed to battle posts. But at the Youth Form Disc Platform, Immortal Yuan Ling only lifted his head and quietly watched the shadow in space.
As he watched, a patch of pure white light suddenly bloomed within the gray black crystal “vines.”
In the next breath, that white spread wide. Glorious crystal giant vines burst from the seed and grew wild. Plant structures larger than mountains sprawled through space. In just a few breaths, it became a brilliant crystal mass like a newborn star. A few breaths later, numberless crystal leaves and enormous flowers of almost majestic size flared open in full bloom upon that mass.
Mightier than mountains and broader than seas, the crystal flower bloomed wildly in cold space. Distant sunlight spilled over that sea of white, shining flowers and leaves, lighting space like a fierce, bright fire. The glow reflected from the crystal even brightened the night side of the Grand Void Spiritual Axis. A pure white sheen flowed along the line between dawn and dusk.
Then, within a few breaths, that star like sea of crystal blossoms lost all luster. In silence, it shattered like a pricked soap bubble.
The mass broke into countless pieces. In a blink, the pieces turned to weightless ghost dust. Tiny crystal specks flashed away in the sunlight. It happened as fast as a morning dream you fail to write down in time.
A few Celestial Ships fired their batteries by reflex. Searing globes of light tore through the dark, but they only passed through drifting dust. Before the other ships’ weapons could react, that fierce, blooming “new star” had vanished from the Grand Void Spiritual Axis’s orbit.
Even the gray black core, the Ascension Body, was burned to ash by that outburst.
The cultivators aboard the ships stared at the scene in shock. They looked at one another, confused, and whispered about what was happening. Someone hurried to the Taia’s star disk platform to ask the Sect Master and the Vice Sect Master what to do next. Another cultivator reported that they could no longer track the Evolving Youth Form’s signal at all; even the gravitational trace of a material body was gone.
Immortal Yuan Ling and Immortal Yuan Hao seemed not to hear the noise around them. They waved for the uneasy disciples to hold steady. Then, together, they looked toward the nearby Spirit Link Terrace.
Above the Spirit Link Terrace, the Illusion Arts projection showed the Otherworldly Hotel’s Triangular Emblem floating in the air. The comm channel was silent.
After an unknown time, when Xuan Che’s face was starting to grow worried, the Triangular Emblem gave a small tremble. Yu Sheng’s calm voice came through the channel: “Angel Fall.”
After a short silence, cheers burst out.
Even Immortal Yuan Ling’s tight face eased at once. Amid the disciples’ cheers, he let out a long breath, then raised his head and looked beyond the hazy shield.
The Homeworld hung safe.
He said: “Announce it to all regions, Angel Fall.”