Chapter 459: Star Body
Rainy night, outskirts, ruins, crystal clusters, angel tendrils—and a small ad from the Angel-Hunting expert.
Mo Ran felt like she must have drunk some very strong liquor to see such an absurd combination in the vast curtain of rain.
But soon she rubbed her brow and used reason to tell herself this wasn’t an illusion.
It was that “master” speaking to her—he himself should still be far away on the capital planet right now, but clearly, this powerful “Angel Hunter” had used some… unsettling “little tricks” to contact Xu Ji, a border planet far away.
He had taken possession of the angel he had killed.
Mo Ran took a soft breath. For a moment, a strange thought crossed her mind: “Is the Dim Angel more frightening, or is this Angel Hunter more frightening?” But she steadied herself, took another half step forward, adjusted her expression with effort, and adopted the attitude of welcoming a lofty immortal master. She bowed deeply toward the cluster of crystals: “Mo Ran greets Mr. Yu. I did not know you were visiting, and my subordinates were rude just now. Mo Ran apologizes on their behalf… but what is this?”
Then she saw the tendril beside the crystal begin twisting wildly again, as if it wanted to express something but failed. Then new light flickered across the crystal cluster, and after a while, new words finally appeared: “Hold on, I’m not too familiar with this yet… It’s fine, it’s fine, I just startled you… I’m just coming to check on the situation here and see if there’s anything I can help with. Today, Yuan Ling and the others were talking about Xu Ji—they’re worried about you over there.”
Mo Ran was startled. She felt a somewhat strange sensation in her heart, but quickly composed herself and bowed her head meticulously: “Mo Ran thanks all the honored immortals and seniors. Xu Ji has suffered this great calamity, and the current situation… is indeed not good. Mo City is still stable for now—we managed to keep the Star-Devourer’s ‘main tendrils’ from invading the city until the end—but the other cities have all suffered varying degrees of damage during the previous ‘Ascension’…”
From a distant alien star, a “perception” resonated with its own will in some indescribable way. Through this “resonance,” Yu Sheng’s consciousness wandered within this vast, unfamiliar new “shell.” He novelly experienced the various feedback this incredible “body” conveyed to him, while simultaneously striving to distinguish those tiny voices that were nearly drowned in the immense torrent of information—
Rain falling, clouds surging, plants growing, people moving in the city, lava flowing underground, someone dying, someone being born, someone digging up the crystals invading the city, Mo Ran speaking to him…
Yu Sheng tried hard to adapt, to feel all of this.
He thought of the first time he had tried to control that “valley,” but the feeling from Xu Ji was different from that alien valley. He felt his current situation was closer to the time he synchronized with the Alien Traveler—having gained an entirely new body, not just a “territory” under his control.
Was this the perspective of a Star-Devourer? Or rather… the “Mother Vine”?
Yu Sheng’s thoughts flowed through the scorching core of the planet. Every idea sparked like lightning through the crystal root-veins that ran like meridians throughout the entire planet. He saw tiny sparks flicker between the crystal branches buried deep in rock and soil, and in this process, his perception of Xu Ji grew clearer and more precise.
But at the same time, he felt a certain indescribable… “sluggishness.” A delay in the flow of consciousness, as if every thought needed a strange lag before it could “take shape.” At first, he thought it was because he hadn’t fully adapted yet, but after a while, he understood: it was because of “vastness.”
Even if thoughts flowed at the speed of light through the “star body,” the time for each “spark” to traverse a neural node could almost be described as “protracted.”
So Yu Sheng tried to withdraw his “main consciousness” from Xu Ji, retaining only the perception of the planet. Instantly, his thinking became clear and agile again.
How interesting.
Though he wasn’t sure of the principle, he had grown somewhat accustomed to things with unclear principles in his life. He quickly and quite magnanimously (to be fair, he was truly magnanimous now—Xu Ji’s core was over a thousand kilometers in diameter) accepted the situation and shifted his attention to his exchange with Mo Ran and his perception of the depths of Xu Ji.
Mo Ran lowered her head, waiting with extreme tension for Mr. Yu’s response.
She had unconsciously said many things just now—about Xu Ji’s future, Mo City’s current state, many things she was anxious about. Only now did she realize that many of those things shouldn’t have been spoken casually to Mr. Yu; they would probably only irritate him.
She felt she was still a bit young and reckless.
Mo Ran lifted her eyes slightly and saw that several retainers and personal guards had very sensibly retreated to one side, setting up a formation to prevent anyone from disturbing the communication between her and Mr. Yu. Now only she remained beside this living crystal cluster.
For the umpteenth time in her life, Mo Ran sighed inwardly—she really didn’t want to work this damn job.
But she couldn’t leave.
The surface of the crystal flickered. This time, a blurry human figure gradually took shape within the wandering light.
Mo Ran tensed up even more, not daring to breathe.
“Sounds like it’s quite complicated,” came a somewhat distorted voice from the crystal, its pitch rising and falling as if the speaker was still adjusting something. “I can’t help with the really tiny details right now, mainly because I’m not familiar with this new body yet. If I mess around carelessly, I’m afraid I might collapse your houses and such.”
Mo Ran hurriedly said, “Mo Ran would not dare to presume…”
“But I can help with other things,” Yu Sheng continued. “After this, go inform Tan Yuan and White City, as well as a few nearby cities, that the geological instability will improve soon. Also, the mountain range to the north won’t continue collapsing—I’ll find a way to reconstruct the support structures beneath it. I think that should help a bit.”
He paused for a moment, then added, “Originally I wanted to go tell them directly, but seeing your reaction just now… I’m afraid if I showed up in person, I’d scare them.”
By the time Mo Ran heard the middle part, her eyes had already gone wide.
Yu Sheng apparently misinterpreted her reaction: “Ah, is there a problem?”
“No, no problem,” Mo Ran snapped back to attention and quickly shook her head. “Mo Ran first thanks you on behalf of the people of all cities. Just those two things you mentioned are already an enormous help! If the sky collapses and earth splits can stop, we can halve our worries!”
Yu Sheng was pleased. Then he thought for a moment and said, “Let me adapt a bit more. Later, I’ll clean up those crystal remains on the wasteland outside the city for you, and also deal with those fissures torn open by the tendrils when they broke through the surface… Although this planet is pretty badly damaged, I’ve looked it over roughly, and it can still be lived in after repairs.”
Mo Ran listened with a slightly strange expression. She felt Mr. Yu’s wording was a bit odd, but she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was wrong.
Yu Sheng, however, didn’t notice the subtle change on Mo Ran’s face at all.
His mind was occupied with a flood of thoughts.
Mo Ran was communicating with a living planet for the first time—she was terrified.
Yu Sheng was being a living planet for the first time—he was terrified too.
Both were panicking at the same time, so much so that neither even noticed the obvious fact that “Xu Ji is now a living planet that can communicate with people.”
After a while, they gradually came to realize something. Mo Ran was the first to tentatively ask, “Mr. Yu, are you… Xu Ji now?”
Yu Sheng was taken aback, then thought for a moment. “It seems you could put it that way.”
Then it hit him. “Ah, that means I need to talk to Yuan Ling and Yuan Hao first… Am I occupying territory belonging to Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain?”
Mo Ran got stuck there too. She opened her mouth for a long time before squeezing out a few words: “Is it… or isn’t it?”
Then the young city lord fairy began mentally mapping out relationship diagrams in her head, but even after three minutes, she couldn’t make heads or tails of it…
After all, “A Dim Angel ate a planet, and then a person ate the Dim Angel” was such an explosive event that even picking a single detail and tossing it to the experts and professors at Tera Academy would keep them arguing for two centuries. How could she figure it out in such a short time?
“This… this matter will probably need the immortals of Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain to discuss slowly,” Mo Ran stammered. “After all, Xu Ji as a whole is considered sect territory of Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain. But Mo Ran thinks… thinks this isn’t something that can be debated in a short while. And how can you be said to have ‘occupied’ this place? If anything, you’re more like one of those stories where someone transforms into the universe…”
Yu Sheng actually had no idea what Mo Ran meant by “transforms into the universe.”
But he could see that the city lord girl truly couldn’t answer his question—if he pressed further, her cold sweat would be heavier than the surrounding rain.
“Alright, I’ll talk with Yuan Hao and the others later,” Yu Sheng’s figure waved at Mo Ran from within the crystal cluster. “You go ahead and get busy. If you run into geological or weather troubles, contact me. I’ll try to help.”
Mo Ran hurriedly bowed respectfully, but just as Yu Sheng’s figure was about to fade, she spoke up again: “Mr. Yu, how should Mo Ran contact you?”
Clearly, things had happened so bizarrely that even the city lord girl’s mind was a bit twisted.
Yu Sheng paused upon hearing this, then raised his hand and pointed beneath his own figure: “Just call the contact number below the screen—if you have ‘border communication,’ even better. You can search for me directly with this number.”
Mo Ran: “…Ah, okay.”
Then Yu Sheng disappeared, leaving only a string of numbers gleaming on the crystal cluster’s surface before her.
(An unusually new animation, “New·Records of Unusual Creatures·Prologue,” is now on Bilibili. Please go support it. The production team is almost entirely fans. Because it’s mostly made for fans, the current numbers are average—it needs support.)
(Chapter end)