Chapter 385: The Voyage Plan Is No Plan at All |
Hearing Zheng Zhi, Yu Sheng did not speak for a time, only stood with him and looked toward where the rift lay.
He could not actually see any “rift,” but through the limited bond of blood he had established with Zheng Zhi, he could dimly sense that something was there.
Vast, strange, boundless. What he could “see” with his senses seemed only a sliver extending from an even greater structure.
[What exactly is that thing?]
Irene reached out and poked Yu Sheng’s head as she asked: “Hey, Yu Sheng, do you think this has to do with the Celestial Sovereign’s Legacy?”
Yu Sheng raised a brow and asked: “Why do you say that?”
“Everything happened at once,” Irene said as if it were obvious. “Before this, big nephew just ‘fell’ into the alien realm on the main peak’s mountain road, and this time the great rift also appeared near the main peak. There is no way that is a coincidence.”
No sooner had the little doll said that than Foxy, who had been wandering over, nodded as well and said: “I think so too. In statistics and probability, when two highly unusual events occur in the same place within a short time, the probability that they are related is high.”
Irene blinked at Foxy’s explanation, then poked Yu Sheng’s head again and asked: “What does the dumb fox mean?”
“Why is that?” Irene asked.
“Because the Celestial Sovereign’s Legacy has always existed, and the fact that the Grand Void Spiritual Axis has been peaceful for so many years shows it was in a dormant state,” Yu Sheng said offhandedly. “Now a rift suddenly appears. That can only mean the long-quiet Legacy has begun to ‘move.’ Whatever principle underlies that ‘movement,’ it points to one thing: today’s trouble is only the beginning.”
Irene’s eyes went wide and she fell silent.
Foxy thought seriously for a moment. Her furry ears twitched as she asked: “Then why would it suddenly become active?”
Before Yu Sheng could answer, the image of those masked black-robed cultivators rose in everyone’s minds.
“Two possibilities,” Yu Sheng said with a shrug. “Either this ‘Legacy,’ well-behaved after so many years, simply decided to wake up on its own, or someone is stirring the pot and trying to ‘activate’ it. Which do you think?”
“No contest!” Irene shot to her feet on Yu Sheng’s shoulder and said: “Someone is definitely stirring the pot! I told you, the batch of black-clad assassins we caught in the alien realm was not the only group in motion. There must be many more hiding in every nook and cranny, making trouble…”
“We have to set out for that planet called ‘Sentinel Silence’ as soon as possible,” Yu Sheng said, reaching up to push the wobbling little doll back down onto his shoulder. “We need to find the man pulling strings behind the curtain, Yun Qing Zi. And stop swaying, you will fall off!”
Just then Immortal Yuan Ling, who had been conversing with the Dread Omen Wandering Star, walked over. Hearing Yu Sheng and the others, the old man’s expression grew grave as he said: “The flow of the leylines in this region remains unstable. It may be as you say: this is only the beginning. Unless we track down that respected senior Yun Qing Zi and resolve the problem of the Celestial Sovereign’s Legacy, something will happen here sooner or later.”
He paused, considered briefly, then said: “There is no time to lose. I will arrange a long-range immortal ark to take you to Sentinel Silence.”
As soon as the old man finished, Yu Sheng smiled and waved, as if he had been waiting for that exact line, and said: “No need. Our Hotel has a starship. Just prepare the travel clearance and the navigation coordinates for me.”
No sooner had Yu Sheng said this than Irene popped up straight again on his shoulder and exclaimed: “Our ship can fly?!”
“Of course it can,” Yu Sheng said, having to press the little doll back down once more. “We waited this long only because the ship was built by a Sacred Monastic Order and needed modifications, and because the main control system had to be reflashed. The modifications are not fully complete yet, but the hull paint is done. Part of the main control still needs tweaking, yet the star chart and navigation are already usable. That is enough for me.”
Irene blinked and asked: “What about the parts that are not finished?”
“We will keep working while we fly. All external jobs that require a shipyard berth are complete,” Yu Sheng said casually. “What remains is internal work, such as adjusting subsystems. The Special Service Bureau’s tech team is living aboard right now. I even opened a doorway on the ship that goes straight to the Bureau. If they need to change shifts, they can just head to the D-2 corridor, open the door, and return to Boundary City. The ship’s exact location does not matter.”
Irene listened, dumbfounded. Though an illiterate kindergarten correspondence student when it came to interstellar navigation, she could hear that something about this sounded off, and she asked: “… This is allowed?! I mean, I do not even know what a ‘subsystem’ is, but can we really take off with those not settled? And modifying things mid-flight… how does that not sound unreliable? Are we sure it will not explode halfway?”
“Relax. You know my piloting and operating style,” Yu Sheng said with complete confidence. “In theory, as long as the engine can still push forward, give me a drum washing machine and I can drive it to the star-system frontier. Subsystems make life easier, of course, but if I have to, I can brute-force it.”
Irene gaped and blurted: “… That sounds even less reassuring!”
Apparently, she alone felt uneasy. Hearing that their ship could fly, Foxy’s eyes lit up. Her tail lashed the air so hard it kicked up dust as she said: “I think Benefactor is right!”
Luna did not react so dramatically, but she did give a small nod and said in her slow voice: “Mm, yes.”
Irene blinked, looked from the supremely confident Yu Sheng to Foxy and then to Luna, and finally let out a long sigh as she said: “Fine. After all, you were the one who managed to fly that thing back in the first place…”
Immortal Yuan Ling had kept quiet because he did not know the situation inside the Hotel, much less what the starship Yu Sheng spoke of was like. Seeing the group reach consensus, he stroked his beard, stepped forward half a pace, and said: “Then I will arrange your passage permits and the navigation coordinates to Sentinel Silence.”
Yu Sheng nodded and said: “Good. Then let us go up and rendezvous with your senior brother and Immortal Qian Ji.”
Immortal Yuan Ling inclined his head slightly and lifted a hand. The floating dais that had carried them down drifted back without a sound.
Amid the towering suppressing pillars and countless heavy chains, the Dread Omen Wandering Star slowly rotated. That terrifying face turned toward Yuan Ling and Yu Sheng’s group as they returned to the dais to depart.
“Do not act rashly,” Immortal Yuan Ling said coolly from the edge of the dais, looking at the stone sphere. “Act rashly and you die.”
“You have tried many times, but I will not ‘die,’” the stone sphere said, slowly baring that array of serrated “teeth” in a sneer. No one could read what this inhuman, horrifying face truly thought. Every expression seemed merely a mimicry without humanity. “But be at ease. I am not going anywhere. I will stay here and watch. The brief flourishing and extinction of mortal civilization are meaningless to the eternal. In the end, you will vanish, and so will this poisonous planet. I can wait.”
The Dread Omen Wandering Star muttered on, then slowly lowered its face and whispered as if to itself: “At the end of all struggle lies annihilation. The only true principle in the world is this sad truth.”
It had not finished when a taut strand of black spider silk snapped across dozens of meters and cracked against the stone sphere with a sharp slap.
The Dread Omen Wandering Star fell silent at once.
“Nonsense. Hideous and full of creepy lines,” Irene said, hands on her hips atop Yu Sheng’s shoulder. She reeled the spider silk back and glared at the Dread Omen Wandering Star as she said: “I am telling you, with that kind of droning you would not even make it past a game’s opening cinematic. At best you would be gone in the tutorial.”
The floating dais rose, gathering speed, and soon bore Yu Sheng and the others away.
Left chained among the suppressing pillars, the Dread Omen Wandering Star remained motionless. After Irene lashed it with spider silk, it had gone completely still, though it was not unusual for the sphere to sit like a lump of rock, so even Immortal Yuan Ling took no special notice of this sudden and prolonged “stillness.”
It was not known how much time passed before the Dread Omen Wandering Star suddenly trembled in place, as if jolted awake from a temporary “shutdown.” The gigantic sphere shuddered all over. A shower of pale stone dust rattled down from its surface, and where the black spider silk had struck, a dark, abyssal crack appeared like absolute void.
The frightful “wounds” vanished at once. In only a few breaths, the fallen grit floated back up from the ground and refilled the missing stone.
Hesitating, the Dread Omen Wandering Star drifted upward. The chains binding it clattered. Brief, fine sparks danced between the immortal talismans etched into the chains. After a moment of confusion and thought, a murmured, dreamlike whisper seeped from its dark mouth as it said: “… Dread Omen?”
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