Chapter 426: Piercing Through |
The rain stretched on in endless veils, colder than usual, and a stray, disorderly wind blew between the buildings, whipping the threads of rain into a tangled frenzy. In the damp haze, distant neon blurred into broad, indistinct swaths of color that shimmered with a wavering, uncertain glow.
Black-canopied boats and clockwork flower barges drifting among pavilions had received a navigation warning from the Office of Regulation. They one after another moored beside the nearest structures, seeking to avoid the worsening weather. Alarms claimed a mass of cold air was sweeping south from the wilderness and would become a vortex near the refinery tower, bringing a storm down upon the entire city.
Through the wide window, Xuan Che could feel the turbulence fermenting in the air outside. [Something has noticed it… noticed a discordant gaze within the city.]
He drew in his mind and kept his face composed as he looked at Mo Ran, the city lord, seated opposite him.
Mo Ran wore a smile as she reported on Mo City’s recent upgrades and repurposing of the surrounding refinery towers. From time to time she turned her head to speak with the invisible presence in the air, the so-called Star-Guardian Elder Dao Heng.
Ten minutes earlier, a servant had even entered the room to bow and offer greetings to Elder Dao Heng.
Xuan Che betrayed not the slightest anomaly.
His divine sense swept the room again, then the entire city lord’s residence.
Mo Ran bore no hostility. No one here bore hostility. They were not those black-robed cultivators. Even if Mo Ran harbored ill intent, she would hardly stage so ridiculous a performance as a “star-guardian you cannot see.”
Xuan Che humored her a while longer, then found a pretext to take his leave without a ripple.
Mo Ran and “Elder Dao Heng” saw him all the way to the residence gate.
Mo Ran took in the street, where few people remained, then turned and inclined her head to Xuan Che: “A gale and heavy rain will strike the city soon. If you are not in a hurry, Immortal Envoy, I can arrange a celestial skiff.”
Xuan Che cupped his hands: “No need. A little wind and rain have their own flavor. The Grand Void Spiritual Axis rarely sees this kind of weather, and I actually mean to walk the city a bit. Thank you for your hospitality today. City Lord of Mo, no need to see me farther.”
They parted. Xuan Che stepped out through the protective array of the city lord’s residence. Outside, the wind and rain surged at him like a pack of beasts catching the scent of prey, only to be checked in an instant by his protective spiritual aura, which sent them swirling away. Only thin threads of cold seeped in, clearing his mind instead of chilling it.
He walked into the depths of the rain. His steps seemed unhurried but were swift in truth, and in moments he had crossed several blocks.
A few passersby in straw raincapes and conical hats hurried over the street. One, running, muttered that the weather had changed strangely, while another assured him Mo City was always like this and that downpours every few days were common this time of year.
A drunk staggered out of a tavern nearby. The cold wind and rain in the street made him stumble the moment he stepped out. He raised his head toward the sky, cursed as he walked on, and the feeble protective aura around him wobbled in the wind and rain. Drawing closer, Xuan Che heard him grumbling: “…just long enough for a drink… when did it start raining. Rotten luck… wonder how many will skip the mines tomorrow…”
Without a ripple, Xuan Che slipped past him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a black-canopied boat trimmed with lanterns and surrounded by drifting iridescence gliding low between two nearby towers. Faint singing floated from the boat. A young woman in a gauzy dress stood at the prow. She seemed oblivious to the strengthening storm and made no move to seek a nearby building to moor.
Xuan Che narrowed his eyes.
The rain truly did not seem to touch the gauzy-dressed woman, nor did it wet the canopied boat.
He reached into his breast and took out the Lingxi Mirror.
The Lingxi Mirror had received a message from Garrison-3. Yu Sir spoke of the eerie crystalline forest, of Yun Qing Zi’s fall a thousand years ago, and of the truth buried deep underground.
The unknown Dark Angels possessed the ability to parasitize planets. Garrison-3 was the first victim. Sentinel Silence was the second. And their next target was very likely the Grand Void Spiritual Axis.
At present, the Dark Angels were very likely still hidden somewhere on Sentinel Silence. At the same time, there should also be a “copy” of Yun Qing Zi under their control hiding on this world. Those black-robed cultivators working under “Yun Qing Zi” were essentially already converted into the Dark Angels’ “retinue.”
As for the Hidden Order cultists who burrowed even deeper… they might not be plotting against the Grand Void Spiritual Axis, but they would certainly move once the Dark Angels became active again.
Xuan Che skimmed the messages at speed, then sank his divine sense into the Lingxi Mirror and, without any outward sign, sent back what he had just sensed and deduced. He relayed it to the sect, to the Grand Senior Uncle who had remained behind, and Mr. Yu, who had not yet returned from Garrison-3.
…
“Sentinel Silence’s ‘Star-Guardian’ has very likely met with misfortune, perhaps even disappeared decades ago. From the records I pulled in the city lord’s office, Elder Dao Heng had close contact and normal private dealings with the major cities of Sentinel Silence only at the very start of his tenure, then soon withdrew and kept to seclusion.
“In the records, the ‘Star-Guardian’s’ official duties are performed with strict regularity, to the point of being too regular. Other than activities required of the Star-Guardian Elder, Mo City’s archives hardly mention anything else about ‘Elder Dao Heng.’
“Mo Ran herself is clear-headed and conversational. The problem lies in her cognition.
“Everyone’s cognition is off, everyone.”
Immortal Yuan Hao frowned over the message that had just arrived in the Lingxi Mirror from Xuan Che and fell into thought.
After a moment, he went to the window and pushed it open.
Wind and rain surged in, yet were blocked at once by the hotel tower’s environmental shield. Only a thin chill dampness drifted into the room.
On frontier worlds carved from the wilds, most buildings had environmental protection built in. It was one of the “traditional features” of pioneer planets. Most of the time, their strength was only enough to fend off wind, rain, heat, and cold.
Immortal Yuan Hao peered into the rain and, after a while, drew from his breast two white, jade-like bricks, which he casually tossed out the window.
Zheng Zhi, who had been thumbing through short videos on his phone, happened to look up and jumped, nearly thinking this handsome immortal was chucking objects out of a high window to smash someone’s glass. A heartbeat later, he saw the two square objects rise again into the rainy night. Their surfaces glowed with misty spiritual light, and in the blink of an eye they vanished into the distance.
Immortal Yuan Hao watched the two “bricks” fly out and his expression grew more and more grave.
The old handsome immortal turned suddenly and looked at Zheng Zhi, who was sitting up from the sofa: “Fellow Daoist Zheng, look yonder, toward the refinery tower. Do you see anything amiss? I feel something is wrong, yet I cannot see through what lies there.”
Puzzled, Zheng Zhi rose and came to the window, staring with wide eyes.
His gaze pierced the misting rain. He focused for a long time.
Then his eyes flew open.
Pale, gray-black crystalline matter, like immense and indescribable branches, rose at the city’s edge and presently coiled about the refinery tower. The tower itself had become, at some unknown moment, a mass of pitch-black shadow, as if a rift that pierced sky and earth had been driven upright at the city’s end.
They had not just appeared. [They had always been there.]
Startled, Zheng Zhi staggered back two steps. Just as he opened his mouth to tell Immortal Yuan Hao what he had seen, the terrible sight at the far end of the rain vanished again.
But his odd reaction had not escaped Immortal Yuan Hao’s notice.
Immortal Yuan Hao asked: “Fellow Daoist Zheng, what did you see?”
Zheng Zhi licked his lips and answered, still shaken: “A vast structure like branches, coiling around the refinery tower. It looked like some kind of crystal…”
The instant the words left his mouth, a chill swept over him.
It felt like an unseen gaze that had prowled blindly nearby had suddenly noticed his existence and cast a dreadful glance this way. [It saw me.]
The next second, the anomaly erupted.
The warned-of storm arrived. In the blink of an eye, the rain outside turned to a squall. A cold wind howled, dense rain like knives. It tore through Huixianzhou’s meager external shield as if it were paper.
Wind and rain poured into the living room, soaking everything near the windows in an instant. The rain seemed to carry a devouring, corrosive power. Anything it touched was as if cut and gouged by invisible blades and began to vanish rapidly into the air. Then, just as quickly, everything returned as if nothing had happened, and the wind and rain that had burst into the room rolled backward out the window.
The street outside vanished and reappeared. A tower was wiped away at the middle, then in a blink restored. A mechanical flower barge came wobbling out of the rain, its sides flashing warning lights. The huge hull crashed into the roof of a nearby restaurant, throwing up a tremendous spray like a stone hitting water. In the spray, flowers bloomed in profusion, and the barge recoiled in reverse, once more intact.
Silk and bamboo music drifted from the barge. A dancer swayed gracefully in a window. A young lady appeared at the rail, terror on her face, seemingly about to leap in flight from the barge that had just wrecked. Immortal Yuan Hao moved to act, but the entire vessel vanished into the storm before he could move.
The entire city began to hum, low and deep, like a great beast stirring from sleep.
“Perception Barrier?” Immortal Yuan Hao’s face was dark as water. He swung around toward Zheng Zhi: “Fellow Daoist Zheng…”
Beside him there was only empty air. Zheng Zhi had already vanished from the room.
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