Chapter 424: The Parasite |
“Attached” to the crystal heart, Yun Qing Zi looked muddled, his thoughts breaking and reconnecting. He often needed a long time to understand Yu Sheng’s questions and respond, yet there was no doubt that, at least for now, he was communicating with the rationality of a person.
No one knew how long that rationality would last.
Amid Yun Qing Zi’s halting recollections, Yu Sheng finally learned what had happened on this planet a thousand years ago.
A crystalline “meteorite” had fallen on Garrison-3 without warning. According to Yun Qing Zi’s description, when it first struck the ground it was much smaller than the “crystal heart” now in the cavern. At first it looked like a dusty, utterly ordinary stone, and it showed no sign of activity.
Moments after impact, however, the “stone” began to display the traits of a living thing.
It tried to burrow into the interior of Garrison-3, and in the process it rapidly assimilated and devoured everything around it.
At that time Yun Qing Zi happened to be on this planet, though today he could no longer remember why he had come.
“…This old fellow did not know what it was or whence it came, but after crossing blows with it, this old fellow saw many things,” Yun Qing Zi said slowly, as if sinking into memory, “It had already been to many places. Wherever it went, it parasitized the planet, and once the parasitism began, no one could stop the process. It had originally been meant to land on Sentinel Silence, only it veered off course as it descended. This old fellow thought I absolutely could not let such an evil thing leave, yet I never imagined I was not its match.”
He stopped, as if his thoughts had broken again. After a moment he raised his head and slowly looked around.
“Every ‘Yun Qing Zi’ you encountered along the way is the result of our mutual devouring and mutual counterbalance. The original Yun Qing Zi died in that first contact many years ago, but before dying, this old fellow refined a wisp of his soul into the monster’s ‘heart,’ breathing and growing with it. Each time it molted, this old fellow resurrected once. By now I have lost count.”
As he spoke, that face cast entirely from crystal actually smiled, the smile touched with a hint of pride.
“This old fellow did not defeat it in the past, but it has not won either.”
Yu Sheng listened in a daze as a flood of information and clues quickly threaded together in his mind, but soon he found a doubt among the earlier clues and blurted out: “Wait, are you saying you have been here all these thousand years? Then which ‘Yun Qing Zi’ was the one followed by the Black-robed Cultivators on Sentinel Silence? And what about the ‘Yun Qing Zi’ I saw earlier in that ‘vision’?” He suddenly stopped as another detail occurred to him and added, “And when we fought that crystalline jungle on the surface, crystals took on your form and kept muttering about the ‘Celestial Sovereign’s Legacy’… how much of that was you?”
He noticed that as his words fell, Yun Qing Zi’s expression changed at once, turning grave, solemn, and tinged with regret.
“That was also this old fellow. Any ‘Yun Qing Zi’ you saw is ‘Yun Qing Zi,’” the crystallized elder said slowly, “They all evolved from the single wisp of soul this old fellow left behind at the beginning. I had thought the seal would hold, at least for more than a thousand years, yet I never expected that thing to find a way to escape early. In one ‘cycle’ it found a loophole, slipped its true body away, and took with it a ‘Yun Qing Zi’ completely polluted and controlled by it, leaving behind here only a heap of ‘empty shells.’
“This old fellow knows what you are talking about. The ‘patron’ spoken of by those followers on Sentinel Silence, the person you saw in your vision, and those ‘Yun Qing Zis’ grown out of crystal—we are all linked together, tangled endlessly in a muddled dream. This old fellow often dreams. Over this thousand years, the thoughts and memories of every Yun Qing Zi have blended together until there is no telling one from another.
“In truth, if you had not suddenly appeared today and, with thunderous force, cleared away more than half the ‘iterations’ in an instant, this old fellow would not even have this brief moment of clarity. What you would see on this ‘heart’ would only be another mindless monster.”
At this point, the crystallized elder seemed to recall something. He struggled to prop himself up and peer outward as if searching for someone. Only after a long while did his gaze settle on Foxy.
Foxy had already returned to human form, but her signature nine tails remained striking.
Yun Qing Zi stared at her for a long moment, then pulled one corner of his mouth into a smile: “This old fellow, muddled for so many years, was awakened by that earth-shaking strike. That strike was truly magnificent, magnificent. Had we possessed such a strike back then, perhaps, perhaps… alas, perhaps it would still have been useless. That evil thing seems not to be something that can be slain by ordinary power.”
He began muttering, his thoughts turning cloudy again, but soon he recovered his clarity, raised his head, and fixed his gaze on Foxy: “Immortal maiden, fellow Daoist, does that strike have a name? I have lived for several thousand years and seen the ultimate techniques of many great sects, yet I have never seen a move that descends from low orbit. I truly wish to know… by what move were ‘we’ defeated?”
Foxy stared blankly at the crystalline elder, as if the question had never once occurred to her. She glanced at Yu Sheng, scratched her hair, then turned her head and said dutifully, “Fox Carrot Impact.”
Yun Qing Zi: “…”
The entire cavern fell silent. Even the flickering radiance on the surface of the crystal heart seemed to freeze and stop. Standing behind Xu Jiali, Bell almost dropped the mechanical sphere in her hands. The first to break the silence was Luna.
The Artificial Saintess nodded: “Mm, right.”
[Yu Sheng now knew that the two words Luna had spoken were basically the real-world equivalent of tapping the spacebar to wake a computer from screensaver, their main function being to exit standby.]
Yun Qing Zi finally reacted, yet still stared at Foxy: “…What name?”
Foxy dutifully repeated, “Fox Carrot Impact.”
Yun Qing Zi was stunned for two seconds, then suddenly burst into loud laughter.
For an instant, Yu Sheng even wondered whether the old man had been pushed too far. After all, not everyone can accept being defeated by a move called “Fox Carrot Impact.” [He could hardly blame him.]
But Yun Qing Zi seemed genuinely delighted, even exhilarated in a way others would find hard to understand. He laughed and laughed, until the crystals in the cavern resonated with his laughter: “Ha ha ha, good, excellent. Marvelous, marvelous. This old fellow did not win, and it did not win either. In the end the victor is this return to simplicity, this great Dao in its simplicity. What a truly brilliant move, and what a truly marvelous group of people. Come, ask whatever you like, quickly, while this old fellow still has a little time. In a little while there will no longer be any ‘Yun Qing Zi’ in this world who can speak with you, only a monster controlled by the evil thing.”
As his words fell, ominous cracking sounded from within the “crystal heart,” and its surface light suddenly flickered in chaos.
Hearing Yun Qing Zi’s words and seeing this scene, Irene’s eyes widened at once: “Huh? Old man, you…”
“Can you not tell? This old fellow is in his last flare of life,” Yun Qing Zi lifted his head and said casually, as if it were none of his concern, “Do not fuss. Anyone who could fight their way in here can tell priorities. I do not fully grasp the state of things outside, but you do, so if you have questions, speak up quickly.”
Irene opened her mouth, then swallowed the unnecessary words, and instinctively tugged at Yu Sheng’s hair.
“What exactly is the Celestial Sovereign’s Legacy?” Yu Sheng asked without hesitation. “From what you said, the Yun Qing Zi fixated on finding the ‘Celestial Sovereign’s Legacy’ is not aligned with you. He was controlled by the ‘crystal’ that escaped. Do you know what he wants to do?”
“This old fellow does not know what that ‘Yun Qing Zi’ intends, nor does he know how the ‘Celestial Sovereign’s Legacy’ even came to be mentioned, but one thing is clear. His every thought is influenced by that evil thing,” Yun Qing Zi answered. “The evil thing’s abilities are bizarre and mixed. It can divide itself, it can disturb human thought, it can parasitize planets, yet in essence it has no ‘wisdom’ and acts only on instinct. It influences intelligent beings in the process, causing them to unconsciously help it accomplish its purpose.
“Therefore, proceeding from this line of thought, whatever that controlled ‘Yun Qing Zi’ seeks to do must be coordinated with the evil thing’s actions, unconsciously helping it realize its goal.”
“Helping it realize its goal…” Yu Sheng furrowed his brow tightly. [A guess was already forming.] “Then the ‘crystal’ thing’s greatest goal…”
Foxy suddenly spoke: “To parasitize the next planet?”
Clearly she and Yu Sheng had thought of the same point.
Yu Sheng followed that line of thought forward: “Then what is the connection between the ‘Celestial Sovereign’s Legacy’ and ‘parasitizing a planet’?”
Perched on his shoulder, Irene’s brain actually worked for once: “What if the so-called ‘Celestial Sovereign’s Legacy’ is a planet?”
Yu Sheng felt a sudden jolt.
All his earlier hazy conjectures were lit up by that jolt.
“Grand Void Spiritual Axis!”
The “Dark Angels’” true target was to parasitize the Grand Void Spiritual Axis.
This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation