Chapter 442: Toward the Stars

Within and outside Ink City, countless eyes witnessed a scene they would remember for a lifetime.

The Ascension Body, as massive as a mountain, tore open the earth, broke out from inside the planet like a moth from a cocoon, and rose into the sky amid the torrential downpour of Xuji.

Crystal shards fell like a waterfall; mountains crumbled and the earth shattered.

The crystalline tendrils, having lost core control, fell into a final frenzy, tearing horrifying trenches and rift valleys across the planet's surface. The thick cloud layers were churned by the tendrils and the Ascension Body, forming countless inverted whirlpools in the sky. The atmosphere charged amid violent turbulence, and storms and thunder raged between heaven and earth.

In the distant north, the plains had been hollowed out from below; after the underground crystal structures collapsed, the entire land was sinking. South of Ink City, a distant mountain range split in two, and terrifying flashes of light burst from the mountains. The cluster of crystal material squeezed out by the crustal movements turned into a magnificent and horrifying 'fountain,' its eruption clearly visible from space.

Mo Ran rushed into the air, then watched helplessly as another refinery tower collapsed with a roar in the storm.

Beneath her feet, the entire city was issuing a mournful cry on the verge of collapse, teetering on the edge of disintegration. Ink City was built atop a massive spiritual ore vein. In a sense, the city's 'foundation' was itself a cast monolithic 'mining platform.' This special structure made it more solid than any city, even capable of resisting 'natural disasters' at the level of geological reshaping. But with the successive collapses of Refinery Towers No. 6, 7, and 12, the ancient mining platform that served as the city's base had reached its limit.

For a moment, Mo Ran even felt that the entire city had tilted past the critical point, that everything was about to end.

She even suspected that the planet would disintegrate the next second.

But just then, she noticed that the collapse and tearing process on the ground was gradually stopping.

Those out-of-control massive tendrils twitched in the wind and rain, then one by one became still. The tremors deep in the earth rapidly subsided, and even the most dangerous rift valleys began to heal.

As if something occurred to her, Mo Ran slowly raised her head and looked outside the city. She saw the torrential rain, as if scouring the entire world. The 'Ascension Body,' which had already risen to the clouds, was caught in the center of the storm. The rain curtain, mixed with traces of blood, seemed conscious as it rushed toward that massive crystal, wrapping it in layers, pouring and soaking it with 'rainwater' without cease.

"Rain..."

She murmured, unable to imagine what great power was using this rain to stop the disaster. Just then, streaks of light suddenly appeared at the edge of her vision, jolting her from her brief daze.

Mo Ran looked up in astonishment and saw several immortal boats weaving crookedly through the rain curtain. Cultivators from other great cities jumped from the edges of the immortal boats and flew straight to the various nodes of the city's protective formation.

Streams of spiritual light interwove and flowed among the clouds, quickly saturating Ink City's protective formation. The formation, which had nearly gone out due to the collapse of Towers 6, 7, and 12, was rekindled at a visible rate, and the tottering city quickly stabilized.

Yunshanjun also jumped down from the deck of an immortal boat. He was no longer the refined and casual man he had been before. Now his hair and beard were disheveled, his clothes were in disarray, and there was a fresh gash on his forehead.

He flew to Mo Ran, his lips moving a few times, then he clasped his hands and bowed. 'I can only leave these people behind—I have to take the rest back to support Tan Yuan and White City. Patriarch Mo, just now, just now...'

'Don't say any more,' Mo Ran quickly interrupted the senior, who by seniority should be considered her uncle, and then took a light breath. '...Let's survive first.'

'Alright.'

Yunshanjun flew away on his sword. Mo Ran turned back and saw a ray of rosy light pass beneath the clouds. The light landed before her and transformed into the familiar handsome young man.

'Immortal Envoy,' Mo Ran immediately bowed to Xuanche. Although her heart was full of questions, seeing this 'Superior Envoy' from the Void Spirit Hub made her feel a bit more settled. 'What do we do next? This rain...'

Xuanche did not answer. He simply waved his hand, then turned around and looked together with Mo Ran at the massive crystal still slowly rising in the storm in the distant sky.

'That is the Ascension Body,' he said softly. 'What happens next is beyond our ability to intervene... Mr. Yu will handle it.'

In this incredible 'field of vision' assembled from the entire rain belt, Yu Sheng was staring fixedly at the Ascension Body that emitted an eerie light.

Without the extrasensory experience he had 'trained' in the valley and the Dark Forest earlier, he felt he would hardly have adapted to this current vision so quickly.

Now, the 'connection' between him and the crystal was being strengthened unprecedentedly, and as time passed, it grew stronger every second.

He could even 'hear' the roar coming from deep within the crystal—though to ordinary people, that roar would be nothing but noise capable of instantly shattering their sanity.

'This is a trap!' the frantic voice roared. It seemed to be Yun Qingzi's voice, but mixed with the noise of countless people screaming. 'You tricked us!'

Yu Sheng laughed. Although at this moment he didn't even have a 'body,' his smile was still directly reflected in the storm—his face appeared in the clouds, grinning more happily than ever.

'Yeah, so what?'

His voice mixed with thunder, circling the Ascension Body in the storm, echoing in layers through the atmosphere.

Yu Sheng had spent a long time setting this trap—to make it work, he not only needed Xuji's long rainy season, but even had to actively borrow the power of the Star-Borne. He allowed himself to be devoured by the Star-Borne, allowed himself to be 'destroyed' by it, and even imitated Yun Qingzi's method by making himself part of the Star-Borne's internal 'cycle,' all to understand the internal structure of this 'Angel.'

The Ascension Body was protected by a thick 'molting shell.' That shell was far thicker and sturdier than imagined. If he used ordinary 'blood penetration,' Yu Sheng probably wouldn't be able to 'penetrate' its interior until this Dark Angel had torn the entire planet to pieces.

The only method he could think of was to make the Ascension Body leave its protective layer on its own, exposing its relatively 'fragile' core directly to the rain.

The rain on Xuji had been falling for a very long time. This long rainy season, occupying most of the year, was a normal 'natural phenomenon' on this planet. Even a 'Dark Angel' should find it difficult to detect the slight 'abnormality' in the rain.

The only place where the whole process could go wrong was the variable 'Yun Qingzi.'

As the 'brain' of the Star-Borne, the intelligent Yun Qingzi would likely detect the changes in the rain. If he became alert in advance, then this matter would not have succeeded so easily.

Fortunately, Yu Sheng's judgment was correct—Yun Qingzi's perception of the surface world was not that sharp, and his thinking was not that clear.

Between Yun Qingzi and the Star-Borne was a state of chaotic symbiosis. As one 'unexpected incident' after another occurred on Xuji, the Star-Borne's instinctive reaction to 'crisis' would prevail, and It ultimately chose to undergo 'Ascension' ahead of schedule.

The crystal shell on the surface of the Ascension Body began to disintegrate in the storm. The crystal structure, eroded by the blood rain, seemed to instantly decay and wither over eons, turning into an extremely fragile, loose 'cortex,' falling to the ground with the washing rain.

A few minutes later, smoke began to emerge from within the massive crystal structure of the Ascension Body, as if a strong acid had invaded its interior. Large patches of deathly, vague gray marks began to spread rapidly into its depths.

But even so, this 'mountain' still climbed laboriously through the atmosphere, like a tenacious seed, flying recklessly toward the top of the atmosphere through the blood rain that could melt it.

The roaring sound from inside the Ascension Body disappeared at some unknown point. In the connection established by the blood, Yu Sheng only felt an extremely unsettling... dead silence.

Then, he found that the 'seed' had actually begun to accelerate again.

It seemed to have put all its reserves—the energy accumulated during centuries of parasitism on Xuji—into this one acceleration.

Then, accompanied by a series of unsettling explosive cracks, the shell of the Ascension Body finally completely vanished, along with large amounts of internal structure rapidly collapsing and disintegrating. At this moment, it simply gave up maintaining its structural integrity, throwing all unnecessary tissue into the rain clouds—and this 'shell casting' briefly blocked the storm within the clouds.

A hideous mass of gray-black crystalline matter, like a tangled weave of countless withered roots, detached from its core and burst through the clouds.

Yu Sheng's heart tightened—

'Damn it!'

There was no rain above the clouds.

The next instant, he saw the ugly seed burst out of Xuji's thick atmosphere—the Star-Borne's final core bathed in glaring sunlight, its surface moisture instantly evaporated in space. Moments later, the gray-black crystalline roots coiled in the core began to slowly unfold in the sunlight. One by one, unsettling black cracks appeared around those roots, then the cracks connected into a sheet, transforming into a massive vortex.

Deep within the vortex, the faint light characteristic of a hyperspace passageway could be vaguely seen.

The next second, the 'seed' rushed into the vortex, and the hyperspace passageway closed.

For a brief time afterward, the whole world seemed to fall silent.

The devastating geological activity on Xuji gradually subsided, and all crystalline matter stopped moving.

The storm outside Ink City gradually weakened, and the wind and rain returned to the normal state for this season.

The fighting inside and outside the city ended. The survivors looked around in a daze, uneasy about what came next.

Then, the calm was broken.

The Exotic Inn, docked in high orbit around Xuji, issued a broadcast alert of the highest emergency level—

'The Star-Borne has entered hyperspace—the Void Spirit Hub is in danger!'