Chapter 424: Parasite

The "Yun Qingzi" attached to the crystal heart was muddled, his thoughts coming and going in fits and starts. It often took him a long time to understand Yu Sheng's questions and respond, but there was no doubt that, at least for now, he was communicating with the outside world with the rationality of a "human."

Just that no one knew how long this rationality would last.

In Yun Qingzi's fragmented recollections, Yu Sheng finally learned what had happened on this planet a thousand years ago.

A crystalline "meteorite" had landed on Guard-3 without warning. According to Yun Qingzi's description, when it first fell, it was much smaller than the "crystal heart" in the cave now. Initially, it looked like a dull, ordinary stone with no signs of activity.

But just moments after falling, that "stone" began to exhibit characteristics of a living thing.

It started trying to burrow into Guard-3, rapidly assimilating and devouring all matter around it in the process.

And at that time, Yun Qingzi happened to be on this planet—though today he could no longer remember why he had come here then.

"I don't know what it is or where it came from, but after fighting it, I saw many things," Yun Qingzi said slowly, seeming lost in memory. "It... has visited many places. Everywhere it goes, it parasitizes the planet, and once the parasitism begins, no one can stop it. This thing was originally supposed to fall on Xu Ji, but it deviated off course when it descended. At the time, I thought I absolutely couldn't let this evil thing leave, but I never imagined I was no match for it..."

Yun Qingzi paused, his train of thought seemingly interrupted again. After a moment, he lifted his head once more and slowly looked around.

"In the final moment, I buried both myself and this thing underground, hoping to suppress it forever, but... the evil strangeness of this object exceeded my imagination.

"Every 'Yun Qingzi' you saw along the way is the result of us devouring and balancing each other. The original Yun Qingzi died in that first contact many years ago, but before dying, I refined a wisp of my spirit into this evil thing's 'heart,' breathing and growing together with it... Every time it transformed, I was resurrected once. I've lost count of how many times by now."

As Yun Qingzi spoke, his face, now entirely made of crystal, actually smiled—a smile tinged with a hint of pride.

"I truly could not defeat it back then, but even now, it hasn't won!"

Yu Sheng listened in a daze to this account, countless pieces of information and clues quickly connecting in his mind. But soon he noticed discrepancies with previous clues and blurted out, "Wait, you mean you've been here the whole time this past thousand years? Then which 'Yun Qingzi' are the black-robed cultivators in Xu Ji following? And what about that 'Yun Qingzi' I saw before in the 'illusion'?"

He stopped abruptly, then thought of another detail: "And earlier, when we fought fiercely with that crystal forest on the surface, there was also crystal taking on your form in the forest, muttering about 'Emperor's Legacy' and such... How much of that was you?"

He noticed that as soon as his words ended, the expression on Yun Qingzi's face changed immediately—serious, solemn, with a hint of chagrin.

"That was also me. Every single 'Yun Qingzi' you have seen is 'Yun Qingzi'—all evolved from that wisp of spirit I left behind initially," the crystallized old man said slowly. "I thought the seal would work, at least for a thousand years or more, but I didn't expect this thing to find a way to break free ahead of time... In a moment of inattention, it found a loophole during one 'cycle' and let its original body escape... It also took a 'Yun Qingzi' that had been completely contaminated and controlled by it, leaving only a pile of 'empty shells' here.

"I know exactly what you're talking about—the 'benefactor' those servants in Xu Ji speak of, the person you saw in the illusion, and those 'Yun Qingzi' growing out of the crystal—we are all connected, entangled together in a chaotic dream. I often dream; over this thousand years, the thoughts and memories of every Yun Qingzi have churned together, and we can no longer tell each other apart...

"In fact, if you hadn't appeared so suddenly today and wiped out more than half of the 'iterations' in a thunderous strike, I wouldn't even have this brief moment of clarity—what you would have seen on this 'heart' would have been just another muddled monster."

At this point, the crystallized old man seemed to suddenly remember something. He laboriously propped himself up and strained to look outward, as if searching for someone. After a long while, his gaze finally fell on Hu Li.

Hu Li had now returned to her human form, but her signature nine tails were still especially conspicuous.

Yun Qingzi stared fixedly at her for a long moment before a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "After all these years of muddled dreaming, I was finally awakened by that earth-shattering strike. That blow was truly magnificent, magnificent! If I had had such a strike to assist me back then, perhaps, perhaps... ah, perhaps it still wouldn't have worked. That evil thing doesn't seem to be something that can be killed with ordinary power..."

He muttered to himself, his thoughts seeming to drift into confusion again, but he quickly recovered his clarity, lifting his head to stare directly at Hu Li.

"Fairy, fellow cultivator—does that strike of yours have a name? I've lived in vain for several millennia and have seen many famous sects' ultimate techniques, but I've never seen such a move descending from low orbit. I'm truly curious... 'We' were defeated by what move exactly?"

Hu Li stared blankly at the crystallized old man before her, as if she had never considered the question. She instinctively glanced at Yu Sheng, then scratched her hair, turned back, and answered earnestly, "Fox Carrot Impact."

Yun Qingzi: "..."

The entire cave fell silent, and even the flickering glow on the surface of the crystal heart seemed to freeze, no longer pulsing. Bell, standing behind Xu Jiali, nearly dropped the mechanical ball in her hand—and then the first to break the silence was Luna.

The artificial saint nodded. "Mm, that's right."

By now, Yu Sheng had learned that when Luna said those two words, it was essentially the equivalent of randomly hitting the space bar after the computer entered screensaver mode—its main function was to cancel the standby state in reality...

Yun Qingzi finally snapped out of it as well, but he still stared fixedly at Hu Li. "...What name?"

Hu Li repeated earnestly, "Fox Carrot Impact."

Yun Qingzi was stunned for two seconds, then suddenly burst into loud laughter.

For a moment, Yu Sheng even wondered if the old man had been too shocked, since not everyone could accept the fact that they had been defeated by a move called "Fox Carrot Impact."

But Yun Qingzi seemed genuinely happy, even carrying a kind of exhilaration that others found hard to understand. He laughed heartily, and the crystal in the cave resonated with his laughter. "Hahaha, good, good! Brilliant, brilliant! I didn't win, it didn't win—in the end, what won was this return to simplicity, this great truth in simplicity! Truly an exquisite move, truly a wonderful bunch of people... Come, come, ask whatever else you want quickly, while I still have a little time—in a little while, there will be no more 'Yun Qingzi' who can talk with you in this world, only a monster controlled by that evil thing!"

As his words fell, an unsettling cracking sound came from inside the "crystal heart," and the glow on its surface suddenly began to flicker erratically.

Hearing Yun Qingzi's words and seeing the scene before her, Irene's eyes went wide. "Ah? Old man, you..."

"Can't you see? I'm having my final rally," Yun Qingzi lifted his head, speaking casually as if it had nothing to do with him. "Don't be a fussbudget. Anyone who could fight their way in here knows what's urgent—I don't really know what's happening outside now, but you do. So if you have any questions, hurry up and ask!"

Irene opened her mouth, but immediately swallowed the unnecessary words, and instinctively grabbed a handful of Yu Sheng's hair.

"What exactly is going on with the Emperor's Legacy?" Yu Sheng asked without hesitation. "From what you're saying, the Yun Qingzi who's fixated on finding the 'Emperor's Legacy' is not on the same side as you, right? He's been controlled by the 'crystal entity' that escaped from here. Then do you know what he actually wants to do?"

"I don't know what that 'Yun Qingzi' wants to do, nor do I know how the 'Emperor's Legacy' came about, but one thing is clear: all his thoughts must have been influenced by that evil thing," Yun Qingzi replied. "That evil thing's abilities are strange and diverse—it can split itself, interfere with people's minds, and parasitize planets. But essentially, it has no 'intelligence'; it acts only on instinct. However, in the process, it influences intelligent beings, making them unconsciously help it achieve its goals...

"So from this line of reasoning, the things that controlled 'Yun Qingzi' wants to do should also be to coordinate with the evil thing's actions, unconsciously helping it achieve its aims."

"Helping it achieve its aims..." Yu Sheng frowned deeply, a guess already forming in his mind. "Then the biggest goal of this 'crystal entity'..."

Hu Li suddenly spoke up from the side. "Parasitize the next planet?"

Obviously, she had the same thought as Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng continued thinking along this line. "Then what's the connection between 'Emperor's Legacy' and 'parasitizing a planet'...?"

Irene, sitting on his shoulder, surprisingly had a good idea. "What if the so-called 'Emperor's Legacy' is actually a planet?"

Yu Sheng felt a sudden clarity in his mind.

All the vague conjectures before were finally illuminated by this flash of insight.

"Taixu Spiritual Pivot!"

That "dim angel"'s true goal was to parasitize the Taixu Spiritual Pivot!