Chapter 681: The Living Saint

Under the cover of the stealth field, a torpedo launch port in the middle of the Dimension Traveler silently opened, and then a faint flash of light streaked out from it, vanishing into the vast universe in an instant.

Yüsheng hugged a fox tail and flew into space, draped in the distant, cold starlight, heading toward the colossal star gate structure.

He felt at that moment like a hero charging at a windmill—riding the Saturn V underneath, carrying the Fangtian Huaji in his left hand, and Xu Chu in his right hand.

And his "windmill" stood in the shadow of the stars, bathed in the heat and faint light of a failed star.

Yüsheng even sensed a bit of romanticism from this scene—but clearly not everyone thought so.

"To be honest, this sight is really damn bizarre," Eileen's utterly uncivilized voice rang in his mind, the little doll muttering away. "If one day the Borderlands come to interview us about how we saved the world, I won't know how to explain it—the very first battle started with you riding a fox tail and ramming headfirst into the enemy's star gate..."

Yüsheng couldn't hold back a laugh: "Couldn't you find a better way to put it..."

At that moment, another voice sounded near him: "Benefactor, benefactor, can you hear me~"

Yüsheng was startled and looked strangely at the furry big tail beneath him: "Huli? Does your tail have communication functions?"

"I added a little function temporarily," Huli's voice sounded very happy. "As long as you're within the tail's protective spiritual energy range, we can directly transmit sound~"

After that, she paused and emphasized with a hint of pride: "Fox spirit, skilled in transformation!"

"I always feel your concept of 'transformation' is a bit vague, and you don't need to add functions to the tail—I'm connected to the Dimension Traveler, so you can just speak on the ship and I can hear you... but never mind, it's fine," Yüsheng shook his head, then looked up into the distance. "Be careful, don't get too close to that space station... slip through the blind spots of the defense platforms."

"Mm-hmm~"

The protective spiritual energy emitted a faint flowing light in space, the azure flames deliberately restrained. The fox tail beneath Yüsheng followed a precisely calculated arc over the edge of the brown dwarf. This "substar's" chaotic magnetic field environment and the unstable "hot spots" on its surface provided excellent cover, further reducing the probability of being detected by the star gate's defense forces.

The massive star gate came into view. Against the oppressive backdrop of the brown dwarf above, covered with dark red hot spots, the star gate structure emitting an ominous red light looked like a blood-soaked jewel ring that had fallen from the belly of the "failed star" into the universe. Distant starlight, as it passed through the central area of the star gate, was twisted and torn by the powerful forces there, appearing as flickering illusions when it entered his sight.

At that moment, some ships were passing through the star gate. They "emerged" from the red light curtain, with ripples spreading along their outlines, and then vanished instantly into the depths of the stars. The Dimension Traveler's database identified some of their types—mostly various cargo ships, or armed escorts for cargo ships, and a few shuttles with ornate religious decorations, clearly on some dark mission that couldn't bear the light (that last remark was Eileen's).

"It seems that the 'Hidden Sect' is not as completely closed off as outsiders imagine," Yüsheng said with a sigh. "Their border traffic is quite busy."

"After all, such a large organization needs to exchange goods with the outside world to function," Huli's voice muttered in Yüsheng's ear. "And they also go to other people's places to cause trouble every now and then."

Yüsheng, gripping the fox tail with one hand and holding his chin with the other, muttered in thought: "...It seems we need to be careful not to interfere with the star gate's normal operation, or we'll easily be discovered..."

"Benefactor, hold tight, we need to accelerate past these fire platforms."

"Okay."

A faint streak of light flashed through the dark space, falling from above the main ring of the star gate toward the dark steel ground below.

The nearby star gate defense forces did not seem to notice a faint and abnormal "starlight" flying out from the hot spot of the brown dwarf—the weak energy reaction and the radar signature even smaller than the smallest shuttle failed to attract anyone's attention.

But it turned out that in the eyes of a behemoth like the "star gate" and its surrounding space defense positions, an adult human riding a fox tail was as easy to overlook as a speck of dust.

But this was not the fault of the star gate's designers or the defense position commanders. After all, this was a star gate, a true behemoth. On a war board, it wouldn't even be classified as a "building"—it would be directly categorized as a "special terrain" monster. To cause effective damage to something like this, you would at least need a battle-type fortress torpedo—the kind with an antimatter warhead the height of a seven-story building. And even with that level of attack, if it was even slightly off, it might not necessarily disrupt the star gate's operation.

Who would consider, at the design stage, what damage an "intruder" the size of a dust speck could do to this level of space megastructure?

So at least for the entire first half of the approach to the star gate, Yüsheng felt things were going quite smoothly.

But just as he thought everything would continue smoothly, a warning sensation suddenly surged in his heart.

The fox tail beneath him suddenly accelerated—Huli's voice then reached his ears: "Benefactor! My tail seems to be locked onto by something!"

Immediately, Yüsheng felt the fur on the fox tail beneath him bristle up!

"Talk about—ex-tre-mely—itchy!"

"Sorry, benefactor, I can't control it!" Huli's voice was both nervous and embarrassed. "I, I, I... I'm bristling! Something is watching me!"

Yüsheng also sensed that "gaze" from an unknown source at that moment. He instinctively turned his head, and in his peripheral vision, he saw a pure white flash suddenly burst out from a corner of the star gate ring. Compared to the star gate, the flash was as small as a speck of dust, but its presence was as blazing as the sun!

The next second, he saw clearly what it was.

It was a humanoid creature—he could only describe it that way, because to the eye it was just a blazing mass of light with a human outline. It had no face, its posture was tall and sacred. As it charged from the surface of the star gate into space, a pair of enormous light wings materialized from behind it. The wings flapped gently, their radiance undulating, emitting a nearly... saintly power.

"What the hell is that—"

Yüsheng cried out in surprise, and then saw that the creature's hand tightly gripped a greatsword seemingly condensed entirely from energy, constantly spewing flames of light. The next moment, the greatsword pointed this way from afar, pure white light gathered at the edge of the blade, and then was suddenly released.

A blazing white light pierced space, and a beam cannon shot over like that.

Yüsheng didn't know how powerful that beam was, and he didn't want to know. Gripping the fur of the fox tail tightly, through their subtle mental connection, the propulsion flame at the back of the fox tail erupted, allowing him to barely brush past the edge of that beam and shoot out. Even with that near miss, the protective spiritual energy around the fox tail exploded and nearly extinguished!

"What the hell!" Yüsheng turned to look and saw that the winged glowing creature was already chasing him. At the same time, it raised its greatsword, and another beam shot past his scalp. "...Holy crap, it can even rapid-fire. Luna, quickly see what this thing is!"

As he said this, the holographic projection in the control hall of the Dimension Traveler had already been activated. The scene Yüsheng saw in space was directly transmitted to the ship—the humanoid creature with wings and saintly aura appeared in the hologram.

Luna abruptly stood up from her chair: "It's, it's a Living Saint !"

"What's a Living Saint ?" Yüsheng's voice sounded in the hall. "Ah, it's chasing really tightly... Whoa, almost hit!"

"It's, it's an 'Emissary,' ascended by the Lord, a 'Divine Emissary,'" Luna tried to explain, stammering in urgency. "But, I'm not sure, back then, I couldn't see clearly..."

"Alright, I get it, it's a boss unit stronger than you, right," Yüsheng said quickly. "No, this can't be fought. Eileen, do the math—"

The little doll stood up from her chair before Yüsheng finished: "Bloody disaster! Immediately!"

"Then I feel reassured as hell—"

Yüsheng let out a loud shout, then in space he tightly grabbed two tufts of fur on the fox tail. Turning his head to look at the main ring of the star gate now not far below him, he gritted his teeth: "Huli! Accelerate and crash directly into the star gate! I'll open a crispy spot on it!"

The propulsion flame behind the fox tail erupted again. Yüsheng felt the violent acceleration almost crushing his internal organs. At almost the same time, that humanoid creature called the " Living Saint " chased up again, and raised its hand to fire another beam.

The protective spiritual energy around the fox tail shattered instantly, and even the hastily raised second shield melted in a second. The residual scorching light swept over his body, and Yüsheng immediately felt that he was forty percent cooked.

He felt the fox tail beneath him gradually disintegrating. The spiritual power forming the tail began using its remaining strength to execute a final acceleration.

A glimmer of holy white light appeared at the edge of his vision.

Yüsheng slightly turned his head. Against the backdrop of the star gate ring gradually growing larger, he saw the tall "holy light creature" charging straight at him. Its face, completely blurred in the light, seemed to be smiling—like the perfect, lifeless smile on an artificial saintess.

The " Living Saint " raised the greatsword high in its hand. After this not-so-long chase, it seemed intent on ending the pursuit with a decapitating strike.

Yüsheng turned his head. In the corner of his eye, he could already see the forest of towers and antenna systems on the main ring of the star gate. The cooled corona of the brown dwarf hung high above the star gate, with dark red hot spots writhing like blood in the black hydrogen sea, forming the "sky" in his current field of view.

He fell from the sky, dropping toward the dark steel megastructure of the star gate.

The fox tail unleashed its final burst. As it launched Yüsheng outward, its remaining structure slammed heavily into the Living Saint 's greatsword, exploding into a grand ball of fire in space.

Yüsheng raised a hand toward the humanoid silhouette that had torn through the fox fire and was still pursuing, making a finger-gun gesture.

"Bang—"

Space was silent, but Yüsheng's voice rang out with impact.

(End of Chapter)