Chapter 440: Living Star

Yu Sheng naturally knew that the Derivation Star was a Dim Angel, but that clearly wasn't what he wanted to ask.

"Dim Angel" — that was what ordinary people called the Derivation Star. All invaders from beyond the world like this were referred to as Dim Angels. Heka Star, Beauty Goddess, Tree Angel, Shadowless Skeleton... they all shared this common designation.

But after coming into contact with Anka Aila, Yu Sheng had realized that the truth behind these "otherworldly invaders" was far more complex than people imagined. "Dim Angel" was merely a vague term. Understanding their true nature was the only possible way to resolve this "invasion phenomenon."

On this point, "Yun Qingzi," who was already highly symbiotic with the Derivation Star, clearly knew something.

Unfortunately, "Yun Qingzi" didn't seem inclined to cooperate.

He had even detected the "erosion" Yu Sheng was carrying out — detected the blood that was continuously seeping deep into the earth.

In a thousandth of a second, the Derivation Star reacted.

An unsettling tremor came from deep underground, and the surrounding crystalline structures connected to the cave rapidly fractured. The illusion of Yun Qingzi in the crystal mirror dissipated in the blink of an eye, and then the entire cavern began to disintegrate and collapse. First, a massive fissure split open the ground. Faint currents of earth veins could be seen in the gap, and crisscrossing crystal branches connected those vein springs. The crystalline structure containing Yu Sheng's blood components was cleanly "cut" away, falling down the fissure into the depths.

Yu Sheng felt his consciousness disturbed by a powerful force, as if he were trapped in this discarded crystalline cage. He saw himself falling rapidly, the end of the fall a lava lake deep in the mantle, and during the fall, in that underground space as scorching as a hell, he saw the Derivation Star's colossal limbs that had already pierced through the entire planet.

Its carapace shell propped up the earth's crust. Tubular structures for transporting energy were immersed deep in lava and earth veins. The crystalline giant frame, like the skeleton of a monstrous beast, was shifting positions under the vibrations, seemingly making final preparations for the "Ascension Body's" departure.

The next second, darkness fell, and the chaotic afterlife vision of death enveloped everything.

In the great cavity of the mantle layer, on one of the crystal branches above the endless magma lake, Yun Qingzi's figure emerged from the crystal cluster. He gazed at the infernal sea of fire, watching that lump of "crystal pollutant" cut from the main body fall into the lava and be swallowed by the terrifying heat in an instant.

The pollution had been contained. That bizarre blood was intercepted outside the immune barrier, and the "Ascension Body" beneath layers of protection had not been affected... But what was this lingering unease that wouldn't dissipate?

"Yun Qingzi" frowned deeply. He couldn't find the source of this unease.

No, the "ascension" must be carried out ahead of schedule. Too many things on this planet had already spiraled out of control.

...

Thunder shattered the darkness. Violent wind and rain raged over the wilderness outside the city-protecting formation. An unsettling residual spiritual energy stirred in the air. Hot dust and smoke slowly dispersed in the wind and rain.

Two factions were confronting each other in front of Mo City's protective formation.

Mo Ran gripped her sword tightly, standing on the high tower. She felt the chill carried by the cold wind nearly piercing into her bones. She stared fixedly at the sky outside the city, and with the next thunderclap, she saw immortal boats of various sizes forming battle formations and cultivators standing on flying swords lining the clouds in the lightning.

Before falling into this standoff, the two sides had actually already engaged in a brief but fierce conflict. The residual heat, turbulent spiritual energy, and the countless ravines on the ground were the result of that brief battle.

The reason those gathered outside the city, like Lord Yunshan, had stopped was not because they had broken free from the Derivation Star's control, but because of one person.

Mo Ran took a light breath and looked outside the city-protecting formation with a trace of awe.

White-robed and white-haired True Person Yuan Hao stood with hands clasped behind his back on the clouds, quietly positioned between the two confronting sides. His gaze calmly surveyed all things in the rain. Behind him, the power of the Four Symbols and Five Elements formed an illusory talisman formation, circulating majestically between heaven and earth. Thousands of spiritual lights weaved and spiraled within the formation, locking onto the army outside the city from afar.

At Yuan Hao's feet, a fissure still billowing with hot steam stretched across the ground, dividing the space between Mo City and the army outside, extending far into the distance.

With a single strike from a great power at the Supreme Harmony with Dao Realm, even the cultivators outside the city controlled by the Derivation Star instantly calmed down until now. None dared to act rashly. After all, people like Lord Yunshan were only trapped by cognitive interference, not brainwashed into Yun Qingzi's minions like those black-robed cultivators earlier. Their basic judgment was still intact.

Xuan Che stood with his hands at his sides behind Yuan Hao, staring expressionlessly at the distant horizon with his master-uncle, both at a forty-five-degree downward angle.

The two communicated via telepathy.

"Master-Uncle, what now?"

"What else can I do? I'm pretty panicked too..." True Person Yuan Hao said, expressionless. "These people outside are merely trapped by a barrier of knowledge. I can't exactly go on a killing spree, right?"

"What if they attack first?" Xuan Che secretly glanced sideways. "Can we win?"

"No way! Have you been reading too many storybooks? There are so many people, how could we win? Especially with all those warships! If this posture collapses, we just run straight into the protective formation. We're here to buy time..."

"Uh, wouldn't that be a little embarrassing?"

"Silly child, your master-uncle has roamed the world for many years and grown through countless tribulations. It's all thanks to knowing when to bend and when to stand straight... Don't move your eyes. Keep that expression up!"

"Oh, oh."

As they spoke, on the large immortal boat in the clouds outside the city, that refined middle-aged man had been staring gravely at the uninvited guests in midair for a long time. Finally, he couldn't help stepping forward into the sky and cupped his hands in salute. "Esteemed senior, may I ask..."

"Yuan Hao of Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain, here to mediate this matter," True Person Yuan Hao raised his hand, his expression indifferent. "If you are still willing to heed the commands of the Taixu Spiritual Pivot, withdraw now."

Lord Yunshan narrowed his eyes slightly.

A rumbling, buzzing noise echoed in his mind. He didn't hear the voice coming from the other side clearly, nor did he understand the occasional clear syllables in that noise. But he didn't find the noise strange, nor was he actually curious about the identity of the person opposite him.

In fact, he couldn't even see clearly what the two people standing in midair looked like.

The entire world in his eyes was a blur, and this blur... had lasted his entire life.

This was normal. This was how the world was. But now, Mo City seemed a little strange. Strange?

Lord Yunshan suddenly felt a daze in his mind, as if he had suddenly forgotten something very important.

He looked up in surprise and saw several of his closest retainers also looking up in confusion, casting similarly bewildered glances his way.

Why had he come here? What had happened? He seemed to have been fighting someone just now, but... who? Why was he fighting? Was that Mo City in the distance? The head of the Mo family seemed to be standing there, but why was she so on guard?

A strange roaring sound echoed between heaven and earth, and seemed to reverberate in every person's heart.

On a small hill at the edge of Mo City, Hu Li's ears twitched. She subconsciously looked toward the crystalline forest outside the protective formation. Ailin poked her head out from Hu Li's arms, looking around uneasily. "What, what, what's that damn noise again? Is something else about to crawl out of the ground?"

Hu Li couldn't answer Ailin's babbling questions. She just hugged the puppet tightly, and then suddenly noticed that the ground at the far end of the crystalline forest was slowly bulging upward, as if a new mountain was "growing" out of it.

A thunderclap rang out, and the wind and rain in the sky weirdly paused for a moment during that thunder, as if the rain was skipping a beat.

Luna reached out her hand in the rain. She seemed to be staring at that slowly rising "mountain" at the end of the plain, but no one could tell from her pale steel face what this "artificial saintess" was truly thinking or where her gaze was focused. The eternal rainy season of Xuji reflected on her smooth metal shell, but through the wind and rain, a vast wilderness with endless wild grass vaguely emerged.

Outside the city, in midair, Xuan Che suddenly noticed the chaos gradually spreading among the immortal boats and sword-riding cultivators on the distant clouds.

"Master-Uncle, the enemy battle formation seems to be in disarray," he immediately said via divine sense telepathy. "The expressions of those leaders are off."

"I see it," said True Person Yuan Hao, who was struggling to maintain a poker face and keep up the expert demeanor while simultaneously preparing to flee at any moment. He nodded slightly, his expression unchanged. "Don't act rashly yet. Something's wrong... the underground movement is off."

On the distant clouds, the battle formation assembled by cultivators from several nearby large cities had clearly broken apart. People kept looking around in sudden shock as if waking up, some breaking away from the formation. Some turned and left, others fell from the sky, as if hearing some call and quickly diving into that writhing, shaking living crystalline forest.

At the end of the plain, something astonishing was slowly emerging from underground. The terrain there was changing. The strange roar from deep underground gradually turned into the terrible sound of the earth splitting open. Amid rising dust and smoke, large patches of pale white crystal burst out of the ground and rose like mountains.

Mo Ran sucked in a cold breath, her hand holding the sword trembling uncontrollably. She looked at the mountain of crystal rising at the end of the plain. Just witnessing it made her feel her own mind faltering. "What... is that thing?"

Deathly silence surrounded her. Her retainers clearly couldn't answer her question. Only the same trembling and fear spread among the people. And just as an immense sense of powerlessness rose within her, Mo Ran suddenly heard a voice behind her.

A personal guard stumbled onto the platform through the wind and rain. His voice sounded as if he were screaming out of a nightmare.

"The, the communication from the orbital platform has been restored! They, they say... they say there's a face on the surface of Xuji!"

(The End)