Chapter 418: Hu Li's Ultimate Move

Yu Sheng and his group fought while retreating, and during this process, they once again destroyed a massive body of "Yunqingzi".

The tens-of-meters-tall crystal mass emitted a blinding radiance under the puppets' focused heat rays, and the accumulated energy tore apart the crystal pile shaped like an old human. Pale crystals mingled with gray-black fragments exploded into countless pieces, raining down like a storm over the crystal forest—yet, just like before, within moments, another "Yunqingzi" emerged from a ground fissure in the distance.

Every crystal tree here, every crystal cluster, every crack underground was only a small part spreading outward from some massive main body.

"This is impossible to fight, Yu Sheng!" Ailin, sitting on Yu Sheng's shoulder, shrieked while frantically directing the remaining mass-produced puppets to maintain fire suppression. "This is even more absurd than trying to trim a giant king's toenails with a flaming stick!"

Yu Sheng frowned deeply. Once he realized that this entire crystal forest was a single massive living entity, and "Yunqingzi" seemed to be just a "mimic limb" extending from it, he had to start considering whether to retreat. Yet, for some reason, a vague unease lingered in his heart, making him feel he had missed some detail, delaying his decision to withdraw.

At that moment, whether due to excessive blood loss or the "connection" established by blood strengthening again, the dizziness and indistinct whispers that had been circling his mind once more assailed him, even stronger than before, and within them appeared something else.

Yu Sheng instinctively looked up at the sky above the crystalline jungle.

An eerie pallor covered everything in his vision, as if all color had drained away. The starry sky in the distance had once again turned into a twisted, whirling vortex. Far off, "Xuji" pulsed violently at the center of the starry vortex like a heart, as if calling out to this crystal forest on Guard-3. At the edges of the crystal forest, illusory, spirit-like translucent "limbs" slowly rose into the sky, as if responding to Xuji's call.

He lowered his head, looking at his feet. In his daze, his gaze seemed to pierce through thick rock and soil, revealing the crisscrossing crystal branches, fissures, and cavities buried deep in the crust. He saw a heart of crystal buried deep underground, withered, yet with something else... "clinging" to its surface.

That heart... or perhaps the "foreign object" attached to it spoke to him—

"It noticed you... Don't let it send the message back!"

"Yu Sheng? Yu Sheng! Yu Sheng!"

A loud shout came from beside him, followed by a pain on his head. Yu Sheng snapped awake and found Ailin gnawing hard on his head.

"Maybe we should retreat!" Ailin shouted. This time, she didn't even complain about his "zoning out to death" as usual. "With just these freshly produced mass-produced units, we can't outlast this whole 'forest'!"

A buzzing roar filled his ears. The information glimpsed through the blood connection burrowed through his mind like living things, seemingly trying to spread some contamination, but Yu Sheng just found the noise annoying. He shook his head hard to clear it and spoke quickly: "No, we need to find a way to 'block' this thing here."

"Block? Block what?" Ailin didn't understand. "Is something trying to leave?"

"This 'forest' is trying to transmit a signal to Xuji," Yu Sheng said hurriedly. "But something is suppressing that process—not for long, though. We have to stop the transmission, or something huge will happen on Xuji!"

Ailin was almost crying: "Easy for you to say. How are we supposed to fight this thing... I don't even think it's showing a health bar..."

Yu Sheng thought quickly, then said: "These crystal clusters aren't that structurally strong. We just proved we can break even the largest formations with brute force—but the forest is too vast. When we break part of it, other parts immediately regenerate the damaged structures...

"I've already established a certain connection with this thing. I can sense its regeneration is limited. As long as we destroy most of its surface structure in a short time, its regeneration won't keep up. It's already in a weakened state. Once regeneration falls behind, its 'cycle' will collapse on its own."

The whistling sound of crystal clusters sweeping through the air came from above. The mass-produced puppets, along with the foxfire barrage, intercepted another "bombardment". As the number of puppets decreased further, Ailin's tone grew more anxious: "That's like saying nothing—how much effort did we spend just to break one 'Yunqingzi', and now you want to annihilate the entire forest at once? What are you going to vaporize it with?!"

Yu Sheng looked up at the center of the "forest", frowning deeply. After a moment's thought, he gritted his teeth: "The Heterogeneous Inn."

"…But its weapons can't be used anymore!"

"I'll smash off its top subsystems," Yu Sheng said, wincing at the thought. "They're useless anyway."

Ailin was stunned: "…Holy shit! What a waste!"

Yu Sheng could only smile bitterly and sigh.

But just as he was considering which subsystems of the Heterogeneous Inn to smash, a furry tail tip suddenly brushed against his back.

Yu Sheng looked up and saw the massive nine-tailed silver fox lowering her head toward him.

"Benefactor," Hu Li said, surrounded by ghostly foxfire, her golden-red eyes glowing eerily in the flames. "How about I give it a try?"

"You give it a try?" Yu Sheng was taken aback. "How? Launch a ten-thousand-tail assault? Saturation bombard the entire forest at once? Even that might not be enough..."

"I have another move," Hu Li tilted her head. "My mother taught it to me, but I've never had a chance to use it. I can only use it once when I'm very full, and only in an open place with sky."

Yu Sheng listened, bewildered. Hu Li seemed unable to describe exactly what that "move" was, but seeing the serious expression on the nine-tailed fox's face (though it was hard to tell since her face was furry), Yu Sheng decided to trust the girl's judgment.

"Then give it a try—what should we watch out for? What do you need us to do?"

"After using this move, I'll be pretty hungry and unable to move for a while. I might need help getting 'unstuck' afterward," Hu Li nodded. "But before that, you all get far away... as far as possible."

Yu Sheng instinctively exchanged glances with Ailin and Luna.

"Alright!"

Almost as soon as Yu Sheng finished speaking, the flames around Hu Li erupted violently—stronger than ever before, more intense than any time before!

In the blink of an eye, the massive nine-tailed silver fox was completely engulfed by the foxfire, her entire form appearing as if forged from flames. Then she nodded to Yu Sheng, slowly took a few steps back, and suddenly leaped into the sky.

The fox began to race toward the sky—like a meteor in reverse, spiraling, carrying ever-intensifying foxfire, carving a bright trail like a sword slash through the atmosphere of Guard-3.

Ailin stared up in astonishment: "…Holy crap, what the hell is that silly fox doing? I can't figure it out…"

But before the little puppet could finish, Yu Sheng grabbed her, opened a door, and tossed her through.

On the other side of the door was the edge of this impact crater—the place where the group had landed on Guard-3.

Then all the remaining mass-produced puppets on the scene were recalled by Yu Sheng back to the valley.

"Let's go too."

Yu Sheng glanced at Luna, then stepped back through the door.

Once at the edge of the crater, Yu Sheng realized just how astonishing the scope of this "crystal forest" was.

Originally, the area covered by crystal clusters was only on the small "plain" at the center of the crater. But in such a short time, the crystals emerging from underground had covered almost every inch of the crater—now the entire "battlefield site" was completely covered by a forest of pale crystals with gray-black streaks, and as far as the eye could see, it was all "them".

Eerie, malevolent, unsettling, yet exuding an indescribable... power and beauty.

Yu Sheng looked up and saw the bright streak in the sky still rising—Hu Li was racing through the sky, passing through the clouds in an instant, then continuing upward, accelerating, until she was invisible to the naked eye.

The crystal forest in the crater seemed to sense something.

A deadly threat from the sky.

A chaotic resonance suddenly struck Yu Sheng's mind. He saw the crystal forest violently "tremble", as if every individual was frantically writhing to break free. Then he "saw" something deep underground pulsing and squirming violently, as if trying to immediately break free from the layers of bindings around the "crystal heart". The next second, his gaze was drawn to the sky—through the "perspective" of the crystal forest, he suddenly saw Hu Li's figure.

The massive silver-white fox had already reached low Earth orbit.

Hu Li's body had expanded several times over, the fox entirely condensed from foxfire, unfurling her nine tails like a fire lotus blooming in space. Mysterious and complex runes appeared at the tips of each tail, and countless flames, flowing like living things, spiraled and rose in the space around her.

Then, the nine-tailed celestial fox slowly adjusted her posture.

Her nine tails gathered together, foxfire condensed into an energy shell, an eerie radiance illuminated space, and she aimed down at the planet's surface.

Re-entry into the atmosphere.

A thousand celestial arts, this is orbital; myriad techniques of the celestial fox, this is the space-based bombardment technique.