Chapter 622: Meltdown

The snowflakes falling from the sky grew denser and denser, and a wailing wind began to blow through the streets. Just moments ago, there had only been a clear and calm winter night here, but now the entire block seemed shrouded in a blizzard. As the wind and snow intensified, the mist that had coiled through the streets did not dissipate; instead, it thickened to the point where buildings several dozen meters away were barely visible.

Yu Sheng felt as though the "boundaries" of the entire world were blurring. Many things in his perception had become jumbled together; he even felt that the ground beneath his feet had turned into an unstable phantom.

But at that moment, streaks of blue fox fire abruptly appeared in the blizzard. The flames, brimming with spiritual energy, seemed to arrange themselves into some complex formation, swirling and tumbling through the storm. Wherever the fox fire passed, lines of runes blazed into existence out of thin air, and the surrounding fog and snow briefly cleared.

The group wasted no time. Seizing this moment of stability, they dashed through several dozen meters of wind and snow toward the entrance of the underground parking lot, which had already transformed into a bizarre cave.

Before they stepped into the cave, the surrounding streets were completely swallowed by the blizzard, becoming a series of overlapping silhouettes in the snow and mist.

The howling wind abruptly died down, as if blocked at the cave entrance by an invisible barrier.

Yu Sheng frowned and glanced back at the path shrouded in wind, snow, and thick fog, then turned his gaze to observe his surroundings.

He saw the parking lot ramp stretching ahead. The reinforced concrete floor was torn and fragmented, with rocks and soil piled on the pavement. Many strange black substances covered the surface, resembling obsidian or some similar molten and cooled product. The space at the end of the ramp was vast, still appearing to be a parking lot, yet large chunks of stone and earth were fused into it, expanding the entire space several times over.

In the distance, mist obscured the view, making it impossible to see the far end of the parking lot.

Without a doubt, this "parking lot" had already become an anomalous domain—but it was not any anomalous domain Yu Sheng knew of.

The fluorescent lights on the ceiling were still working, so the parking lot wasn't completely dark. Yu Sheng led the way with Hu Li, cautiously observing the environment as they walked. Erin trotted along behind him on her short legs, while Luna walked silently at the rear, staying alert to their surroundings.

As they passed a pillar covered in black substance, Hu Li suddenly stopped and tugged at Yu Sheng's sleeve.

He followed her gaze and his eyes narrowed.

At the base of that concrete pillar, beside a private car swallowed by the black substance, a tall figure lay quietly.

Yu Sheng walked over and confirmed that it was the out-of-control artificial saintess he had seen in the illusion earlier.

But she had already stopped functioning—her vitality had dissipated so completely that even Yu Sheng hadn't sensed her presence. Only Hu Li's sharp eyes had spotted this black shell that almost blended in with the surrounding obsidian-like material.

Luna hurried forward and crouched down to examine her fellow. Her movements were gentle, even seeming somewhat flustered. She tried to open a panel under the other's cervical spine and connected her own finger to a groove beneath it, but after a moment, she withdrew her hand and silently shook her head.

"Mind... has melted down," she said in a low voice. "It was... a remote self-destruct command."

Yu Sheng's expression turned grim. "Remote self-destruct?"

"The controller... detected it was out of control," Luna struggled to say. "Recovery command... was invalid. So... remote destruction."

She raised her hand, pointed at her own head, then looked into Yu Sheng's eyes.

"I... originally had one too. But... you washed it away."

Yu Sheng was silent. He just looked down at the cold shell—in his perception, because it was completely devoid of life, it seemed like a pitch-black empty husk, no different from the surrounding rocks and soil. But after a moment of silence, he suddenly raised his hand. "Luna."

A cut opened on his palm, and crimson blood flowed out, drifting in the air like a length of bright silk.

The blood fell onto the anonymous saintess's shell and quickly seeped in. However, Yu Sheng only heard some hollow echoes; the shell showed no response, and not a single new breeze stirred in the wilderness of his soul.

Erin walked over. She seemed to have noticed something. She stepped forward and used both hands to pry open the anonymous saintess's hand—that hand was stiff and cold, stubborn as an iron clamp. But the little puppet's original body was surprisingly strong; the hand was forced open, and a few shiny game coins and several colorful candies fell out.

Erin looked somewhat at a loss, staring at the items rolling on the ground. She picked them up and looked up at Yu Sheng.

Yu Sheng simply bent down, rubbed Erin's head, and put away the game coins and candies.

He thought that perhaps until the moment her mind melted down, the anonymous artificial saintess still believed she was human, and thought that if she just ate a few candies, she would be fine.

And at that moment, a slight creaking sound suddenly came from not far away, interrupting Yu Sheng's thoughts.

It sounded like something was cracking, accompanied by a teeth-grinding, tearing, and scraping noise.

Everyone instinctively looked toward the source of the sound.

Snowflakes had begun to fall inside the underground parking lot as well—though very small, fine snowflakes were clearly passing directly through the ceiling, silently drifting down into this vast underground space. Amidst this eerie indoor snowfall, an unstable rift suddenly tore open the mist at the far end of the garage, and shifting figures appeared within the rift.

Yu Sheng vaguely heard voices from the other side of the rift: "... the recovery signal... should be just ahead... quickly... the rift's duration is limited..."

The next second, an invisible wind suddenly swept through the underground garage, dispersing the mist.

More than a dozen copper knights, a large number of Inquisition soldiers in black combat uniforms, and several figures in white robes appeared before the group's eyes.

Those white-robed priests looked at Yu Sheng's group in astonishment.

The presence of several strangers in the already anomalous domain of the parking lot clearly caught them off guard, leaving everyone momentarily stunned. But the next second, one of the Inquisition priests who appeared to be the leader reacted—this "sage," clad in a white robe with gold patterns, with white hair and beard, and looking exceptionally tall, suddenly widened his eyes and raised his hand to point ahead: "Heretics!"

The copper knights immediately charged forward with heavy steps. The church soldiers in black combat uniforms quickly sought cover and raised their rifles to fire, while the remaining white-robed priests swiftly hid behind the soldiers and knights. However, facing this scene, Yu Sheng, standing opposite them, instead began to laugh.

Yu Sheng laughed happily, genuinely feeling a surge of inner joy, like suddenly getting an ice-cold cola on a scorching summer day, or having a pillow handed to you just as you're dozing off. His pleasure came from the bottom of his heart, and the game coins and candies clenched in his palm creaked.

The next second, several fox fires wove together into a blazing net in front of him. Eerie fireballs shot out from the net, streaking through the air with trails of light. The particle beams poured from the opposite side violently slammed into the spiritual energy barrier Hu Li had created, ripples spreading with sharp explosions!

Taking advantage of this moment when Hu Li was exchanging fire with the enemy, Yu Sheng quickly equipped his blood needle launcher, dodged to the side to avoid a charging copper armor, then confidently left his back to Luna beside him, raised his hand, and fired a burst of blood needles at the black-clad soldiers opposite.

His arm felt the slight sting of blood being drawn. This minor pain was not annoying; instead, it made Yu Sheng's mind even clearer. His consciousness smoothly synced with the simple artifact spirit mounted in his armguard, and the tiny blood needles darting through the air seemed to each have eyes. Yu Sheng's perception soaked into them, guiding them to pierce the light power armor of the Inquisition soldiers.

The tough alloy carapace that could withstand a hail of bullets seemed nonexistent against the seemingly fragile, slender blood needles. Those "needles" burst into tiny blood blossoms on the chest plates of two church soldiers, then silently seeped into the steel like a sponge absorbing water. The two enemies didn't react at first—they didn't even feel hit by anything. But the next second, a terrible pressure crushed their entire bodies.

Their armor began to activate, rapidly giving birth to flesh and bone within the alloy. The servo motors at their joints let out ecstatic shrieks of life, while unstable plasma surged through the power backpack's conduits. Then, the power armor began to "grow" inward, the frenzied proliferation of blood vessels, nerves, and bone-like structures violently crushing the human bodies inside.

One soldier desperately tried to remove his armor, but the electromagnetic latches had already fused into a seamless metal skin. Countless neural synapses sprouted from beneath his visor, and activated cables burst through their sheaths, frantically drilling into his skull.

Beside him, another Inquisition soldier didn't even have time to react before becoming a prisoner in his own armor. After his first and last scream, he abruptly turned around and began firing wildly at his nearby teammate.

The particle rifle cheered, the muzzle blooming with splattering plasma. The newly formed heart in the energy magazine pulsed with powerful beats. This newborn dead thing fully released its brief, blazing vitality until its structure completely overloaded and burned out, turning into a pale, fine, ash-like powder that sifted down.

Immediately after, a blood grenade was thrown into the center of the battlefield. It silently exploded, and a large cloud of crimson mist began spreading violently like a living thing, actively drifting toward all hostile living beings within range.

Those three who groveled their way out of the Demon Suppression Tower might be scum, but when it came to crooked cultivation, they really knew their stuff. Their artifact-forging techniques in the Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain would have gotten them arrested by the Security Immortals in no time, but placed in a righteous sect like the Traveler's Inn—which was so righteous it was almost suspicious—everything was just right.