Chapter 686: Mysterious Desolate Planet

Three big heads and one small head pressed together at the doorway, poking out to look at the situation on the other side of the door. Three faces were full of bewildered confusion, wordlessly staring at each other.

Even Luna’s face seemed a bit lost.

Outside the door was a strange, alien land. A thick, grayish atmosphere covered the sky, and in the distance rose a towering, rugged mountain range. The gray-black stone peaks seemed covered in thick snow, but that "snow" glowed with an eerie dark blue. Deep valleys between the mountains occasionally emitted low rumbles, with hot springs erupting from beneath cliffs. The water-laden plumes of steam were mixed with pungent toxic fumes.

Nothing resembling plants or animals could be seen anywhere in sight. Only occasionally did a massive shadow slowly drift through the thick clouds in the distance, evoking thoughts of some giant atmospheric floating creature crossing the sea of clouds. But the next second, that shadow would dissipate with the shifting mist. The wind howled unceasingly over the jagged rocks in the mountains, the sharp, hollow sound deeply unsettling.

No matter how you looked at it, it didn't resemble a well-developed habitable planet. The environment was even harsher than the "Under-Nest" of the Gray Dwarf planet.

"...No way, this is what those cultists call 'Holy Domain'?" Eilin's eyes widened, her light blue pupils reflecting the barren, treacherous mountains. "Seriously, is it a survival challenge here? The doctrine of those fanatics doesn't exactly look like they're on a self-mortification path..."

"Something's off," Yu Sheng frowned deeply. "I don't know what their 'Holy Domain' is supposed to look like, but a fully developed capital planet can't possibly be this wild. For one thing, I opened the door based on the coordinates of that Dark Star cruiser—so where's the big ship? Where's the starport?"

Luo's voice came from the communicator behind them: "What's going on! I can't see! Boss, did you slip? Opened the door crooked again?"

"First of all, my door-opening is never crooked. That time I startled you back then was part of a project test. Second, the 'Holy Domain' looks wrong. It's a primeval landscape outside, and I can't see where that 'Dark Star cruiser' is," Yu Sheng turned back. "We'll go check it out first—wait for my news."

Luo nodded vaguely, then watched as Yu Sheng and the others stepped through the illusory door and disappeared from the rest hall of the ship.

An unpleasant, pungent odor filled the air. The cold that could freeze a person stiff made Yu Sheng subconsciously rub his hands together—though with his current physical condition, he probably wouldn't die in this environment. The moment Huli landed beside him, she sneezed several times loudly, then rubbed her nose and muttered, "Weird smell..."

"No hostile units detected," Luna agilely crossed a small rugged slope, quickly scanning the surroundings with her sensor radar from a higher point before returning to Yu Sheng's side. "Environment, unsuitable for human survival. No artificial traces found."

Eilin perched on Yu Sheng's shoulder: "Hey hey, C-type buckle, how can you run so fast in high heels..."

"Why don't you get down and walk yourself?" Yu Sheng turned to glance at the golden-haired puppet on his shoulder. "Isn't this body of yours capable of swinging around on wires? You seemed pretty agile when you fought..."

"Swing your head! That's the Silken Thread Dance Steps! Love Doll's skill!" Eilin tugged hard at Yu Sheng's hair. "And I'm not going down. You just want to see me climb rocks on the slope. You're rotten to the core, I swear. Last time you tricked me into thinking there was something good in the nightstand and locked me in the drawer..."

Yu Sheng quickly and clumsily pried the two little claws off his head, finally calming Eilin down. Then he checked the "signal" from that drop of blood again and looked up in a certain direction: "That's not right. I feel like it's right around here... deviation within a hundred meters. Where the hell did we end up?"

Huli leaned in: "Benefactor, how about I send the scout chickens to investigate the surroundings?"

Yu Sheng nodded reflexively: "Go ahead... wait, scout chickens?"

Before he finished, Huli flicked her big tail, and two clear, melodious cries pierced the sky. Two beams of spiritual light shot straight up from the fox's tail—a scene filled with radiant glow and auspicious colors. Two multicolored, spiritual-energy-enveloped fox-escort chickens flew out—one was Bai Qie, the other Yan Ju...

Those two feathered beasts were at least a size bigger than when Yu Sheng last saw them. Their wings spanned nearly two or three meters, and as they flew over the mountain peaks, they emitted all kinds of colorful light and sparks.

How to describe it? They looked flashy enough, but from a distance, they resembled that cheap six-yuan first-charge bonus in a lousy browser game...

And that wasn't all. After Bai Qie and Yan Ju ascended, Huli seemed a bit worried about the safety of her two divine chickens, so she promptly launched four of her tails as escort fox-turret cannons for the scout chickens.

A pile of fluffy things rumbled into the sky and vanished into the thick clouds of this desolate alien planet in an instant.

Eilin craned her neck, and after a long while finally couldn't help but say: "...Honestly, silly fox, can your two chickens already transform? I feel like they could almost beat that snake in the valley now?"

"They can," Huli said casually. "They could last month. Snake Princess flickered her tongue at Bai Qie, and Yan Ju pecked a bump on her head."

Eilin: "..."

Just then, the two gorgeous spiritual lights in the sky had circled around the nearby mountain peaks several times. A moment later, Yu Sheng saw one of the flames suddenly plunge rapidly behind the mountain. Huli immediately sensed something and looked up: "Benefactor! Bai Qie found something!"

Before the words faded, the fox-girl rolled forward, transforming in an instant into a gigantic nine-tailed fox. One tail swooped over, wrapped Yu Sheng, and placed him on her back. Then with four legs pushing off, foxfire roared as she ascended, flying toward where the flame had fallen.

Luna followed closely behind, using Shadow Leap to keep up.

Yu Sheng gripped the fur on Huli's back tightly, protected by her spiritual energy. He peered ahead, seeing the barren, rugged ground rapidly retreating below. Faintly, he could make out the primitive hot springs spewing toxic substances, treacherous cliffs, and crisscrossing ravines and fissures on the surface.

In the distance, barely visible, stood a massive wall of mist like a curtain at the edge of the sky and earth, surrounding these towering mountains like some kind of "boundary."

Yu Sheng withdrew his gaze from the horizon and noticed an especially huge rift valley cutting across the mountain range. Under that rift valley lay darkness that stirred unease in one's heart, its depth likely exceeding even the "Abyss" beneath the Demon-Suppressing Tower at Thousand-Peak Spirit Mountain.

Yu Sheng subconsciously stared at that rift, his brow gradually furrowing.

Strangely, he thought of a concept he had once heard from Elder Yuanling—"Desolate Planet."

A "dead planet" whose dragon vein had dried up for various reasons, or perhaps never had one at all. Its core was dead, its planetary evolution had stalled, and its surface was either devoid of life or had an eerie, incongruous ecosystem. Often, terrifying and bizarre phenomena occurred across the entire planet. The cultivators of Thousand-Peak Spirit Mountain even gave such planets a more frightening name: "Corpse Stars."

"This planet doesn't seem to have a 'dragon vein,'" Yu Sheng muttered. "Don't you think the atmosphere here is a lot like what Elder Yuanling described as a 'Desolate Planet'? That kind of dead star."

"I don't know," Eilin said bluntly. "Old man Yuanling talked about that?"

"A bit like it," Huli's voice came from the front. The great fox turned her head. "I saw some materials about desolate planets in the Algledi's astrological database. That big rift valley on the surface just now looked a lot like the crust disintegration caused by a dried-up dragon vein—but the Algledi call these planets 'Cold Stars,' believing they have been cooled from their cores since birth..."

"Is that so..." Yu Sheng nodded, then paused. "Wait, when did you access the Algledi's astrological database?!"

"I borrowed Luo's account. Isn't she an Algledi?" Huli said casually. "Benefactor, you run all over the universe but never pay attention to star charts, navigation, or the like. I thought I'd learn a bit, just in case it could help. Even if it doesn't seem very useful, since you're a spaceship immortal..."

Listening to the fox-girl's earnest tone and looking at her serious expression on her face—well, it was hard to tell, since her face was all furry now—Yu Sheng felt a bit touched. But the truth in his heart was hard to say:

It wasn't that he didn't care about star charts and navigation—he just couldn't learn them!

This thought circled in his mind for a long time. Yu Sheng finally decided to keep a straight face and maintain an air of unfathomable mystery. Then he pulled out his phone: "I'll send Baili Qing a message first, let her know the situation has changed—and ask her to take a look at what's going on. Maybe she's seen enough to know... Hm?"

Yu Sheng frowned, looking at the offline alert on his phone.

"No signal..."

"Isn't it normal to have no signal?" Eilin craned her neck to look at the phone screen. "Unless you opened the door too far off, this place, whether it's the 'Holy Domain' or not, is definitely inside Hermits territory. No signal in a lawless zone."

Listening to the little puppet's analysis, Yu Sheng just frowned. But just then, a jolt came from beneath him, interrupting his train of thought.

Huli was descending.

Bai Qie and Yan Ju flew out from the nearby clouds and mountain mist, crowing, clucking, and calling like hawks as they circled up and down around Huli, making all kinds of ruckus, clearly excited.

Eilin's sharp eyes caught sight of what was on the ground.

"Look!" the little puppet pointed her arm. "That seems... like a camp?"

In a sheltered spot blocked by cliffs and natural boulders, Yu Sheng saw traces of man-made objects—what seemed to be pre-placed modules of some planetary habitat module, alloy walls supported by crude metal frames, antenna devices that appeared to have stopped working, and scattered wreckage lying among the gravel and dirt.

(End of chapter)