Chapter 386: Immortal Yuan Hao’s Concern |
Deep in the valley near the Black Forest, at the starport.
With the Special Service Bureau’s engineering teams bringing in a mountain of black technology, the construction pace here could only be called unbelievable. The bare starport foundation that Yu Sheng had once “grown” straight out of the earth now finally resembled a high-tech starship base: centered on the Hotel, an enormous berthing platform was ringed by automatically operating beacon towers and storage stations, the power grid was live, and streetlights now lined the two roads that ran from the starport to the Black Forest and toward Fairy Tale Town. At night the platform blazed with lights while holographic guidance markers orbited the starport, and the whole scene looked convincingly functional.
Of course, given that the Hotel organization had almost no manpower and could not possibly shoulder a real starport’s daily operations and maintenance, even with abundant automation and so-called maintenance-free design, the facility’s upkeep would ultimately be outsourced to technical crews dispatched by the Special Service Bureau.
Now Yu Sheng’s group and the people from Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain had all gathered on the starport platform, craning their necks to look up at the towering Hotel.
The ship, repainted and refitted with a revised hull, still wore solemn black as its primary color, but the ominous, oppressive dark-red accents had been replaced with white. Large white tracery covered the midships armor so it at least looked somewhat like something a righteous organization would field. The sinister spikes at the bow, however, could not simply be removed. They were crammed with antennas, hyperspace transducers, and other critical hardware; in fact, some spikes were integral parts of the antenna array. So, after conferring, Sun Gong and Engineer Liu chose not to strip them off but to sheath them beneath a continuous rooflike outer skin, turning the spikes into “miniature spires” peeking between roofs.
After this tinkering, the ship’s original, faintly ecclesiastical air within its oppressive, dark palette tipped all the way into the church aesthetic. Planted on the ground, it looked like a church that had been distorted and stretched by odd proportions into a giant tower, with a little chapel perched at the very tip.
As for the auxiliary towers that had always floated around the main spire on anti-gravity—mounting shield emitters and the hyperspace subsystem—Sun Gong and Engineer Liu “conferred” again, repainted them, added shells, and turned them into bell towers circling the church-ship.
Whether by coincidence or design, the first image that leapt into Yu Sheng’s mind when he saw the refitted Hotel was the Cathedral of the Sacred Flame that Luna and her knight order had built out in that sheltered wilderness. Say what you would about the Reverent Monastic Order; at least in architecture they had taste. Using their style as a base and refitting from there had produced remarkable visual consistency.
The chief feature of that style was the way it made your ears ring with a surge of stirring background music, while something in front of you suddenly sprouted an absurdly oversized health bar overhead.
Irene, perched on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, craned her neck for a long while before muttering with conviction: “I swear I have seen something like this in a game I played recently,” she said, then added in a low grumble, “the opening scene had exactly this vibe. I half expect some ridiculously hard boss to charge out of that tower any second, one whose feet are taller than a person. Then I will be rolling around under its toes, giving it a pedicure with a toothpick, and hacking away for ages while the health bar doesn’t budge.”
Her vivid, rapid-fire description carried such bone-deep authenticity that Yu Sheng could not help remarking with sympathy: “You sound like someone with a lot of firsthand experience.”
Luna, standing quietly to the side, looked up for a long time before letting out a soft sigh: “Now it is much easier on the eyes.”
A technician in a Special Service Bureau uniform stood nearby with a see-through, unmistakably high-tech tablet and reported to Yu Sheng: “The Featherwing sector’s star charts and navigation parameters have been synced to the main system. Also, with the control core reset, all subsystems on the Hotel are still offline, including the weapons subsystem. Please bear this in mind and avoid danger.”
“Relax, we are not taking this thing out to fight,” Yu Sheng said with a wave. “Its main job is to carry me to places I have not yet been so I can set coordinates. Once we arrive, we will disembark and act on our own.”
The technician opened his mouth, inclined to add more caveats from a technical perspective. The ship really could not be called ready for a long voyage: subsystems offline, main system reflash not yet complete. Professionally speaking, it was not much better than a tumble washer with an engine bolted on. He hesitated, then held his tongue.
Director Bai Li Qing’s warning was still in his ears: the Hotel was full of extraordinary individuals, each with their own way of doing things. The less you pry into their business, the better.
While Yu Sheng conferred with the technician, Yuan Ling and the others, who had come along to “have a look,” were marveling at the valley that served as the Hotel’s headquarters.
“I did not expect Yu Sheng to have a ‘cave estate’ that is its own little world,” said the tall, slender Immortal Yuan He, twirling a strand of beard as he gazed toward the Black Forest. “I had heard Xuan Che mention it, but I did not imagine the valley would look like this. I can faintly sense more than a dozen distinct cycles of aura in the valley floor, all connected yet as mutually independent as ten pocket heavens. Wondrous. If this place could be rented to breed spirit beasts, it would make our experiments far more convenient.”
“Do not unleash your brood of abominations everywhere,” Immortal Yuan Ling cast his junior brother a sideways look. “This valley was originally an ‘otherworld,’ and it is only thanks to Yu Sheng’s power that it now holds this form. As I understand it, any living thing that thrives in this valley is bound by his blood curse and becomes part of the Hotel. If you can bear to hand over your hard-won menagerie of rare creatures, by all means, bring them.”
Immortal Yuan He froze, then lowered his head, pondered for a moment, sidled closer, and whispered: “Second senior brother, that does not sound like orthodox cultivation.”
“Folk in the Borderland do not fuss over that distinction,” Immortal Yuan Ling said with a straight face. “And if we are pointing fingers, I would say your disciples who raise cockroaches and mosquitos look more like demonic cultivators.”
Yuan He gave an awkward grin: “They have already been punished. Anyone who tries that trick again to skate through the semester finals will get a D minus.”
Otherworld, Immortal Yuan Hao stood with Xuan Che. The senior uncle and his sect nephew murmured back and forth, every so often lifting their heads to study the flying church stuck like a pillar in the ground. After a while the pair walked over just as Yu Sheng finished his handover with the technicians. Immortal Yuan Hao stepped forward, cupped his hands, and said: “I have been discussing things with Xuan Che. For this journey to the frontier, I should accompany you.”
No sooner had he spoken than Yuan Ling pulled a face that clearly said he had words to say. Immortal Yuan Hao lifted a hand to stay him and added: “I will not be taking Che to make trouble this time. Rest easy, junior brother.”
“That is not the point,” Immortal Yuan Ling shot back, the old man’s tone full of deep mistrust. “I am afraid you will head for the frontier and suddenly feel the itch to ‘tour the world,’ then vanish for years without a word.”
Immortal Yuan Hao’s expression turned embarrassed: “Now, now, junior brother, that is unfair. When has your senior brother ever been so inconsiderate…”
“One hundred and twenty years ago you went down the mountain to buy two jugs of wine and disappeared for seven years,” Yuan Ling said, eyes wide. “Then word came from a Bamosian orbital watch that I should bring people to pick you up. We found you had dug into someone’s ancestral tomb.”
“Ahem. Let the past stay in the past,” Immortal Yuan Hao coughed twice. The handsome old immortal who usually looked every inch the Immortal Lord could not muster a trace of dignity before his second junior brother. “I do have my reasons this time. Hear me out. Do you remember the Black-robed Cultivator’s report? Yun Qing Zi is hiding somewhere in the frontier, but not on the planet Sentinel Silence. He is on a planet like Sentinel Silence, one where it rains all year. I have been thinking about that all day, but no such place exists near Sentinel Silence.”
Seeing that his senior brother’s manner was serious, Yuan Ling finally reined in his distrust, frowned slightly, and said: “You mean…”
“Many ancient great cultivators who survived the Chronicle Reforging have all sorts of uncanny methods. Yun Qing Zi disappeared a thousand years ago; no one knows what he has been doing since. Sentinel Silence lies far from the Grand Void, and messages from there arrive somewhat delayed. I worry that after years of careful work, the Sentinel Silence system and surrounding regions are no longer as we remember them.”
Yuan Ling did not speak, but he nodded for his senior brother to continue.
“I have spent years dealing with uncanny realms of every stripe and know a thing or two about methods of concealment and secret realms,” Immortal Yuan Hao said gravely. “I would not claim I can surpass the great cultivators of old, but if Yun Qing Zi has indeed established an unobservable secret realm near Sentinel Silence for his base, I should be able to find it. On the other hand, ancient great cultivators are extremely difficult opponents. Yu Sheng and his companions are all highly capable, but they lack experience dueling top cultivators, especially the bizarre techniques those masters favor. If I go with them, I can help.”
Here Immortal Yuan Hao hesitated, lifted his eyes to the hotel-like spire on the platform, and added: “Lastly, there is one more reason.”
Seeing the handsome old immortal on the verge of saying something and then stopping, Yu Sheng could not help interjecting: “What reason?”
“…I have considerable experience with navigation accidents.”
“…?” said Yu Sheng.
This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation
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