Chapter 300: The Hidden Giant Tower

After the artificial saint disappeared, the last few remaining Brass Knights on the scene were quickly wiped out, leaving only Yu Sheng and his group on the devastated street.

The situation was obviously less than satisfactory.

“She just ran? After all that, she vanished in the blink of an eye?” Ai Lin jumped off Yu Sheng’s shoulder and ran all around the spot where the artificial saint had last stood, looking around with an irritated shout. “She could teleport even after being beaten like that?!”

Xuan Che’s ice-cold sword was still floating behind him, and he hadn’t let his guard down yet. Hearing Ai Lin’s complaint, he furrowed his brow. “It didn’t seem like ordinary teleportation—rather, it resembled a technique I’ve heard of called ‘Return’.”

Yu Sheng was taken aback. “‘Return’? What the hell is that?”

“They say the latest model of artificial saint has a technique that allows them to preset a ‘Holy Coffin’ for emergency repair and self-preservation. Once they sustain severe damage while carrying out a mission, they get teleported back inside that ‘Holy Coffin’ instantaneously. I’ve only heard about it before, but this is my first time encountering it,” Xuan Che admitted honestly, a hint of awe still on his face. “So that’s how it works… I should think carefully about how to deal with it.”

“What the hell!? That’s such a cheap ability!” Ai Lin was completely shocked. “How can this C-buckle be so nasty…”

Xuan Che frowned. “From what I know, that so-called ‘Holy Coffin’ does have limitations—its activation distance can’t be too far, and it can only be used once in a short period. Logically, that automaton should have escaped and hidden nearby. We should search more carefully…”

Before he finished speaking, Yu Sheng’s voice came from the side. “Indeed, it’s nearby.”

Hu Li, who had been sniffing around trying to locate the enemy, immediately stood up, her eyes shining as she looked at Yu Sheng. “Benefactor, do you know where she ran?”

A faint smile appeared on Yu Sheng’s face. He looked around at the dense fog that was slowly gathering again, his mood gradually improving—because just now, he had once again felt an even clearer connection transmitted through the blood mark.

“She ran well,” Yu Sheng said cheerfully, walking unhurriedly toward a certain spot. “No wonder… if she hadn’t run, I wouldn’t have discovered it.”

He stopped on an empty patch of ground, then reached out into the air, groping as if trying to touch a hidden door.

And this was precisely where the residual force from Xuan Che’s first punch had swept through.

Yu Sheng realized he hadn’t been mistaken earlier—something really was hidden here, concealed very well, but now the resonance of blood had pierced the veil of concealment. In his “sight,” a faintly glowing crimson line was shimmering through this empty space.

He finally found the “boundary” where that “line” was located, and then directly reached out to pry it open—like inserting a hand into a slightly ajar door crack, he began to strain, pulling it apart bit by bit with both hands.

The surrounding fog immediately accelerated its flow. A turbulent, malevolent atmosphere gushed out violently from the invisible rift, accompanied by a series of unsettling, grating noises. Ai Lin widened her eyes in astonishment as she watched Yu Sheng forcibly “pull open” a door glowing with faint crimson light in midair. The door grew wider, and all around it, large cracks like spiderwebs rapidly emerged from the space as the door opened!

The cracked patterns in the air spread to over a hundred meters in the blink of an eye, then continued violently outward to the distant streets, to the nearby buildings, to the sky and the ground. A massive, cocoon-like crimson web appeared in the dense fog with astonishing, oppressive momentum, and eventually enveloped the entire block. The surface of this “web-cocoon” now bore a shocking wound—the source of which was the rift Yu Sheng was gradually tearing open with his hands!

“Damn, this thing’s pretty tough!” Yu Sheng felt enormous resistance, but his movements didn’t stop at all. Instead, the resistance stirred a fierce competitive spirit in him. Finally, he simply braced one foot against the rift and used his whole body to force the wound wider and wider, his face excited like a child’s. “Hey! Come on and show yourself! Let me see what you really are!”

Beside him, Xuan Che was staring dumbfounded. A power he had never seen before was interfering with his spiritual sense. As Yu Sheng tore open the veil with his bare hands, he even seemed to hear a huge spatial structure issuing a deathly moan—yes, the veil wailed, lifeless yet rapidly dying, and then finally collapsed with a sound like shattering glass!

The massive “cocoon” was torn apart. A single small wound caused the entire structure to cascade into collapse. The crimson web-like patterns shattered into pieces, exploding outward in all directions like a violent storm. The dense fog shook violently. The original street scene twisted and scattered like a collapsed stage backdrop, and a hidden space was finally exposed to everyone.

Ai Lin: “…Holy crap!?”

As the veil dissipated, she saw a wide-open space covered in dark material. The gray, rock-like ground was dotted with eerie, pale purple crystals, embedded like an ugly, bizarre scar among the city’s buildings. Crystal clusters of various sizes formed a grotesque, monstrous “jungle,” and in the center of this jungle stood a towering spire.

It was a colossal tower exuding an aura of mystery and darkness. The majestic, imposing structure seemed built from countless black stones, yet it faintly gave off a metallic sheen. High above, many smaller towers or “branch structures” floated near the main tower, connected to it by slender bridges and even chains.

When Ai Lin strained her neck to look up at the tower, she noticed that the upper part always had a blurry, almost visual-misalignment-like “texture,” as if several phantom towers were superimposed. After just a few seconds of staring, she felt dizzy.

She looked away, and the little puppet noisily fired off three soul-searching questions: “What the hell is that!? How did this happen!? Where did it come from!?”

Even Yu Sheng, who had personally torn apart the veil, looked up and was stunned. He had sensed the artificial saint’s hiding place but never expected to see such a breathtaking sight after breaking through the barrier. Hearing Ai Lin’s racket, he could only spread his hands. “I don’t know!”

“This thing has been hiding in this dense fog all along?” The other Ai Lin also ran over, nimbly climbing onto Yu Sheng’s shoulder while speaking rapidly. “And no one found it for so long… Holy crap! This is as shocking as discovering a nest of cockroaches in the closet during a big house cleaning!”

Yu Sheng shuddered instantly. “Don’t say such terrifying things!”

Hu Li also ran over to Yu Sheng’s side, looking up at the tower. “Benefactor, what do we do now? Should we go take a look?”

Before Yu Sheng could answer, the little puppet on his shoulder immediately shrank back. “Do we really have to go? This thing doesn’t look right… I feel like mobs will spawn everywhere inside.”

Hu Li thought for a moment. “But that C-buckle might be hiding inside.”

Ai Lin: “Well, then again…”

Xuan Che had frowned the moment the giant tower appeared. He stared fixedly ahead, and after a long time, he finally broke the silence. “This is it!”

Hu Li and Ai Lin instantly fell silent, turning their gazes in unison. Yu Sheng was the first to speak. “Huh?”

“Remember what I mentioned? That in the past year or two, traces of the Sacred Seclusion Conclave appeared on the border planets under the jurisdiction of Taixu Lingqu?” Xuan Che quickly said. “On one occasion, when the mountain-guarding cultivators raided the hideout of those evil devils, they saw a giant tower—but at that time, the tower wasn’t finished, nor was it hidden; it was built in a large underground cave. I’ve seen the recorded footage from then. If that tower had been completed, it should have looked just like this!”

Ai Lin was stunned for a moment, then immediately turned to Yu Sheng. “Then do we have to go in and check it out?”

But Yu Sheng reached out and tapped the little puppet’s head. “You dummy, at a time like this, we need to report it to the authorities first! A single clue is worth tens of thousands!”

As he spoke, he casually pulled out his phone—clearly, his common sense was perfectly normal here.

But Ai Lin widened her eyes. “But there’s no signal in this place, right?”

Just as she finished speaking, she saw Yu Sheng casually open a small door in the air beside him, on the other side of which was the living room of 66 Wutong Road.

Then, Yu Sheng quickly typed a message on the Border Communications reporting platform, reached the phone through the small door, and pressed send.

Ai Lin: “…”

Yu Sheng turned his head and met the stunned gazes of Ai Lin and Hu Li—Xuan Che showed no reaction, since he lacked sufficient understanding of the wonders of 66 Wutong Road.

“What are you looking at me for?” Yu Sheng frowned.

Hu Li looked delighted. “Benefactor is truly quick-witted.”

Ai Lin’s reaction was more direct. “…You’re really a genius.”

“Heh, that’s nothing, just basic stuff,” Yu Sheng said indifferently, shaking his phone before putting it away. “Alright, the report’s been sent. Now we find a safe place to lie low and wait for the Special Affairs Bureau’s response.”

Ai Lin was surprised. “Huh? We’re not going in? I thought you’d report and then go in to scout—that doesn’t match your usual style.”

Yu Sheng: “What’s my usual style?”

Ai Lin thought for a moment. “The kind where dying wouldn’t be a pity…”

Yu Sheng: “…That’s not how that phrase is used!”