Chapter 391: Sentinel Silence in Suboptimal Health |
Mo City lies near the equator of Sentinel Silence. On this frontier world, where much of the environment is inhospitable, it is one of the few major cities situated within the original habitable band. It is also the perpetually rainy city pointed to by key clues extracted from the memories of that captured Black?robed Cultivator.
Hearing the guide’s offhand remark, Yu Sheng’s expression shifted. He asked, curious: “Unsettled how? Has public security deteriorated?”
“It’s not about policing. They say a lot of weird things have been happening lately,” the guide answered in the tone locals use to spook outsiders. “Word is that cases of cultivators falling into qi deviation have surged. People hear or see truly terrifying things while meditating, even just sleeping and dreaming, and even those with deep cultivation aren’t exempt. There are even rumors of someone who died of fright while in meditation. That last claim is being debunked now, though.”
Another guide chimed in: “Folks like us, who’ve only learned basic Qi Induction and simple breath?nurturing methods, don’t seem much affected. The rumor calls it a heart?devil plague that targets cultivators above a certain level. It’s got everyone on edge.”
“Widespread qi deviation, auditory and visual hallucinations,” Yu Sheng frowned and glanced at Xuan Che, “and on a frontier planet at that.”
“What does the Star?Guardian Elder say?” Xuan Che stepped forward half a pace, his face solemn.
“Those lords don’t have time for a minor city’s troubles,” the guide waved a hand. “Mo City’s City Lord is organizing an investigation. The news says they haven’t found much yet. The public notice mainly reminds people to put proper safeguards in place when meditating, to avoid staying up late or giving way to anger, and to steer clear of controversies that can shake the dao heart. I think that last reminder is the least useful. The rumor?mongers and the debunkers are at each other’s throats. Their dao hearts are anything but steady.”
Yu Sheng had no idea how to follow that.
Fortunately, Xuan Che and Immortal Yuan Hao could carry the conversation. The two of them spoke a while longer with the guides, gleaned a bit more of Mo City’s recent headlines, and asked briefly about Sentinel Silence’s overall situation in this period. They did not dig too deeply. After all, ordinary starport guides could only know so much.
Calm. Ordinary. Far from the capital Grand Void Spiritual Axis, with little to recommend it beyond a few resources, Sentinel Silence was one among countless frontier planets with no real presence in the Featherwing Star Domain. It was not even a major conduit to the outside world, since a mere 1.25 light?years away the Yaolu system had, some ten?plus years ago, erected a large stargate facility with direct links to the Alglade region and to the Deep?Space region. That installation had siphoned off nearly all traffic.
As for Sentinel Silence, true to its name, it was simply a quiet little place in the long frontier.
“It used to be lively, though,” one of the guides said with a touch of feeling. “Back when there were spirit?ore veins here and on the neighboring worlds, we were buzzing. Every day saw more freighters than you could count holding in high orbit. In the busiest solar year, a bit over four hundred days, we lofted seventeen heavy cargo platforms. Nowadays, well, there’s still some mining, but most of it’s restricted. They say some places were dug too hard and have started to harm the geomantic veins, so they must be protected.”
He shook his head, then caught himself: “Enough idle talk. You’re going straight down to the surface, right? Let me check… yes, your berthing fees for the big ship are all paid, so you can leave her safely here. Atmospheric entry windows are fully open across the board right now. We just need to register your in?atmosphere transport. Shuttle or small immortal skiff?”
No sooner had he spoken than Foxy bounced forward and piped up: “Me, me, me!”
The guide froze: “Uh?”
Foxy loped off to the side, flopped flat, and transformed into a giant nine?tailed fox. Then she trotted back, happily pawing at the “temporary mobile Immortal driving permit” hanging from her neck to show it off.
“Ah, I see, I see,” the guide said once it clicked, nodding in quick understanding. He drew out a mirror?like talisman to inspect and register the jade placard at Foxy’s throat, all the while giving Yu Sheng the standard reminder: “Please observe traffic regulations. Do not exceed speed limits in low?altitude flight. Operating a transport within the atmosphere while intoxicated is prohibited.”
Yu Sheng nodded along, then asked, suddenly curious: “Am I the one who can’t drink, or is she the one who can’t drink?”
The guide thought about it and said: “Neither of you should drink.”
Right then Immortal Yuan Hao stepped up, flicked his wrist, and produced his chainsaw sword with a whir: “Register this for me as well. I usually ride the sword.”
Staring at the Immortal Elder blithely producing a chainsaw sword, the guide went a bit slack?jawed. For a local of the Featherwing Star Domain, seeing someone ride a chainsaw sword was a great deal stranger than seeing someone ride a nine?tailed fox. With the aid of his spirit mirror he examined it at length, then raised his head uncertainly and asked: “Honored Immortal Elder, this ‘flying sword’ of yours… it isn’t actually a spiritual treasure, is it?”
Immortal Yuan Hao spared him the explanation. He tossed the chainsaw sword into the air, sprang onto it, and stood there steady as you please: “Just tell me whether I’m riding a sword.”
The guide’s eyelid twitched. As an ordinary person his cultivation was shallow, but as a starport employee his experience was broad. With the spirit mirror’s help it was plain at a glance that the Immortal Elder’s chainsaw sword had no flying?sword function at all. The only reason it could be “ridden” was that the Elder’s spiritual power was overwhelming.
But in the end, numbers rule the day.
The guide dutifully registered the chainsaw as a flying sword, then registered Xuan Che’s icy flying sword as well, which finally counted as a normal vehicle. The formalities complete, Yu Sheng’s party departed the orbital starport.
A colossal silver?white nine?tailed demon fox carved a bright arc of flame from the station’s edge, nine plumes of thrust blazing in the void as she arrowed toward the gray?blue world below.
Beside the nine?tailed fox rode Immortal Yuan Hao on his chainsaw sword.
And beside Immortal Yuan Hao flew Xuan Che, the team’s one honest?looking youngster whose aesthetic still resembled something normal.
On the starport platform, the guides watched the streaking light recede and sighed in unison.
“No wonder that’s a silver?fox High Immortal from the Grand Void Spiritual Axis. Is this really the current style of the capital’s immortal foxes? Such an overwhelming spectacle in flight, totally different from our local foxes.”
“Not necessarily. A few days ago the five?tailed golden fox from the Grand Void looked pretty normal. I didn’t see her tails spitting fire.”
“Maybe it’s a fox thing. Once you hit nine tails, anything a High Immortal does counts as normal.”
“Then what kind of background does that Borderland man have? Even a nine?tailed silver fox takes his orders.”
“Who knows. He carries two credentials. His captain’s license bears the personal signature of Special Service Director Bai Li Qing, and his travel pass bears the personal signature of Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain’s Immortal Yuan Ling. I think this is one of those matters better left un?asked.”
After a period of high?speed flight, the thick atmosphere of Sentinel Silence swelled in their view.
Light from the orange?red sun washed the planet’s upper air, which gleamed in the darkness of space.
Yu Sheng could clearly feel that the facilities and traffic around Sentinel Silence were far fewer than around the Grand Void Spiritual Axis.
That was normal. The Grand Void was the capital of the entire Featherwing Star Domain, whereas this place was merely a distant frontier mining world on the wane.
Even so, something still felt off. As the gray?blue planet grew larger in sight, the sense strengthened that the world emanated a kind of… weakness.
It was not because of sparse orbital infrastructure, nor because it looked bleaker and quieter than the Grand Void. No matter what, this was at least a fully developed biosphere. However “desolate” it might be, it was far livelier than a bare, lifeless rock. The surface appearance certainly suggested as much.
Yet that visible “vitality” failed to dispel the unaccountable impression Yu Sheng felt of “frailty.”
[This planet… is not in good shape.]
Frowning, unsure how to explain why he could simply sense that a world was “subhealthy,” he turned to his big nephew.
Zheng Zhi was taut all over, clutching a handful of fox fur and hardly daring to move.
As someone who had spent his first twenty?odd years living quietly in Boundary City, leaping into the atmosphere strapped to a nine?tailed fox with flame jetting from her tails might have been a touch too stimulating for a first space trip.
“Do you see anything wrong?” Yu Sheng asked.
Zheng Zhi jolted visibly, and only reacted after Yu Sheng repeated himself. He cautiously peered past the fur at the rapidly looming gray?blue world and said: “N?no. I don’t see anything.”
“I see,” Yu Sheng murmured, then told the others what he felt.
As expected, no one could make sense of his “feeling.”
But no one dismissed it, either.
They could not explain it, but one thing was plain.
This planet’s condition really did seem a little abnormal.
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