CHAPTER 433: CHAPTER 433: GREAT WAY TO SIMPLICITY

When the entire city’s populace suddenly awoke from a long-lasting illusion, and realized that the "everything is normal" city they saw had actually been occupied by bizarre "planetary parasite substances" long ago, and even the entire planet had turned into a nightmarish, bizarre, horrifying appearance, the ensuing chaos was imaginable.

To be honest, awakening millions of people in this manner was not the best plan—if only the "Inference Star Body" had left a little more time for everyone, Yu Sheng would have considered having Erin and Mo Ran collaborate to gradually awaken Mo City from the collective cognitive barrier in stages, and prepare arrangements and measures for pacification and aftermath in advance.

However, the now intelligent "Inference Star Body" would not allow such things to happen—in order to mature into its "Ascension Body," breaking through Mo City’s cognitive barrier in an instant was the only way to tear open a path, as for the ensuing chaos... that could only be left to Mo Ran to figure out.

Now, the curtain was pulled back, and "reality" rushed in, as the residents of the city woke up from their "daily lives" of a moment ago.

In the Artifact Refining Workshop on the outskirts of the city, countless craftsmen were bewildered to see the surface of the old furnace covered in thick, bizarre crystals, with crystal clusters emerging from the gaps in the pipes, recklessly growing on the roof;

Citizens awaited the impending storm at home, when they suddenly looked up to see outside their windows covered in thick crystal clusters, the short nightmare of a spider-webbed moment ago still lingering in their minds, forcibly maintaining their "awareness" in a not at all gentle manner;

In the mall, customers sheltering from the storm fell into chaos amidst exclamations and screams, they suddenly saw a gigantic crystal tree piercing through the entire building, although those enormous crystal branches had actually breached through the walls and ceiling a hundred years ago and had even become part of the structure;

An exquisitely decorated Mechanical Flower Boat, full of passengers, thrillingly passed through the crystal thorns between the high buildings, the air filled with terrified shouts, though the boat had traversed this path hundreds or thousands of times, it was only this time that the passengers realized that each time they nearly brushed past the sword-like sharp crystals, the faces of the tourists standing on the deck were only a hair’s breadth away from those pale blades...

Chaos began to spread throughout the entire city, and in their panic, most ordinary people with shallow cultivation levels had no idea what to do, even among the calm-minded cultivators, many wavered in their Dao hearts, finding it hard to maintain their composure.

Mo Ran quickly stabilized the situation in the City Lord Mansion, and immediately began contacting heads of various departments in the city—time was tight, there was no time to explain the whole story, she had no choice but to order all cultivators under Mo City’s control to immediately stabilize their minds and first maintain order within the city, while also ordering the closure of all external traffic in Mo City, effective immediately, no one can enter or leave the city.

Her orders raised doubts among many, but no one at this moment questioned the commands of the head of the Mo Family.

Mo Ran’s final order was to cut off communication between Mo City and all other cities on Shuji, intercepting all external communication channels including civilian long-distance voice transmission and divine sense messages.

She was not sure how useful this would be, after all, no one knew all the transmission paths of the Inference Star Body’s cognitive pollution, but one thing she was very certain of—at the moment when Mo City "woke up," this city had already become the largest "abnormality" on the planet Shuji, until the matter was resolved, all "voices" and "gazes" directed at Shuji from elsewhere on the planet were harmful.

Even if those were merely "fellow citizens" concerned about Mo City’s situation.

As for Yu Sheng, after that illusory "roar," he felt that gaze from the depths of the planet...

An "eyesight" loaded with shocking pressure swept through Mo City, the source of the gaze was this planet beneath everyone’s feet, although ordinary people seemed oblivious to its presence, Yu Sheng felt it clearly—his blood had once been soaked in the "shell" that the Inference Star Body left on Guard-3, and now, this blood-based connection once again made him feel the "heartbeat" deep within Shuji.

The Inference Star Body detected a crack in the cognitive barrier, It realized a city had awakened.

The silver Nine-Tailed Demon Fox streaked across the sky, a brilliant firelight carving through the stormy weather.

In front of Hu Li, the ancient Refining Tower, entwined with countless crystalline substances, shimmered a misty brilliance in the rain, the City Defense Array, with these towers as nodes, was closing up, many panicked Mo Family cultivators watched the symbols and nodes on the Refining Tower, then looked up in astonishment, watching the fiery fox streaking across the sky.

They received orders from the City Lord Mansion, "the person riding the Nine-tailed Silver Fox" is the ally of Mo City, all controls must allow passage.

But the truth was it made no difference whether they allowed passage or not, because before the City Defense Array could close up, the swift fiery fox had already passed through the barrier over Mo City.

Erin tightly grabbed a tuft of fox fur beneath her, turning her head to glance at the energy shield over Mo City that had already closed up, she couldn’t help but sigh: "It’s amazing their City Defense Array still holds up... considering the whole city has been so crystal-infested."

"During the Feather Transformation process, the Inference Star Body will try its best to hide itself, creating too many inexplicable ’abnormalities’ in the real world will greatly increase the risk of the cognitive barrier being punctured, so before becoming the Ascension Body, It actually won’t damage the city’s basic functions," Yu Sheng casually replied, "but on the other hand... things like the City Defense Array don’t actually affect the Inference Star Body, Ignoring it is very normal for It."

Erin blinked: "Useless? Then why did Mo Ran raise this array?"

"...It’s for defense against people."

"Defense against people?"

Yu Sheng’s expression was grave: "Defense against people from nearby cities, defense against those still affected by the Inference Star Body, who want to ’help’ Mo City—they would bring the cognitive pollution back."

Erin’s eyes widened slightly in realization.

Meanwhile, Zheng Zhi, sitting beside Yu Sheng, had his eyes wide open, observing the situation in the vast wilderness outside the city.

The wilderness was filled with crystal structures like a jungle—much larger in scale than the crystal jungle on Guard-3, and the entire jungle seemed to pulsate and squirm like a living being.

"Over there!" Zheng Zhi suddenly raised his hand, pointing to a certain direction deep within the jungle, "It looks like there’s a gap over there!"

Yu Sheng then pressed down Hu Li’s head and rushed towards the direction Zheng Zhi pointed out.

Just as they were halfway there, an astonishing fireball suddenly rose from that crystal area.

The fireball was dazzling like a blazing sun, terrifyingly hot, its shockwave sweeping through the jungle, reducing countless giant crystal trees to dust in an instant. Then Yu Sheng heard the belated roar—the thundering sound rolled across the sky, even stopping the wind and rain, causing the rain curtain above the jungle to scatter and fly back, shattering the dark clouds, and even allowing the sunlight to briefly shine on this land.

Amidst the rolling thunder, Yu Sheng vaguely heard a voice—

"Take my Heaven-Flipping Seal!"

The next second, he saw another fireball rise in that direction, even larger than the previous one—though not as powerful as Hu Li’s earlier orbital headbutt, it was also a magnificent, jewel-like mushroom cloud rising into the sky.

Accompanying the mushroom cloud was a second loud shout:

"Take my Primordial Demon Suppressing斗!"

"Boom!"

"Take my Heavenly Demon Suppression Ruler!"

"Boom!"

"Take my Eight Directions Purification Seal!"

"Boom—"

Continuous explosions rose in the Crystal Jungle, the dazzling fireballs and shockwaves rampaging across the land like savage beasts, stopping the wind and rain, shattering the clouds, and that voice shouting amidst the explosions sounded especially familiar.

Yu Sheng stared dumbfounded at the distant upheaval, then unhesitatingly patted the fox’s head. The Nine-tailed Silver Fox transformed into a streak of fire, charging straight towards that construction site where tiles flew all over.

From afar, Yu Sheng saw Master Yuan Hao standing mid-air.

The elderly yet handsome figure with white hair blowing in the wind, robes fluttering, stood with hands clasped behind his back, floating mid-air, surrounded by layers of profound and mysterious Immortal Talismans. Tiny electric arcs formed a vast array as large as a city behind him, where wind, rain, thunder, lightning, gold, stone, fire, and earth cycled and transformed like they were performing various heavenly Daoist Techniques, forming their own cycle, endlessly.

And within that array, floated hundreds and thousands of Magic Treasures—

Long, short, thick, flat, with air holes in the middle, with grooves along the edges...

A thousand Magic Treasures circled behind Master Yuan Hao, forming another large array that kept changing and reorganizing.

Yu Sheng even suspected this array might be called Timber and Earth.

Both Hu Li and Yu Sheng, as well as everyone else on Hu Li’s back, were stunned into silence by this scene. Erin stared for a long moment before blurting out, "Holy shit, it’s freaking AAA Building Materials Wholesale Master Hao—"

But those most shaken by the scene weren’t Yu Sheng and his group, but another group on the ground below.

In the devastated Crystal Jungle, Yu Sheng saw numerous deep pits like those left by meteorite impacts, with rolling heat waves, many black-clad cultivators lay dead inside, yet even so, some strong ones managed to hold on—a few weakly glowing Protective Arrays scattered on the ground, barely held shields underneath which were several severely injured black-clad evil cultivators. Even through the bizarre masks, Yu Sheng could almost see their terrified yet maniacal eyes.

In the moment Master Yuan Hao was slightly distracted by Yu Sheng’s arrival, a black-clad cultivator who appeared to be in the best condition suddenly raised his hand.

A flying sword, imbued with a malevolent purple glow, silently slipped out of his sleeve.

Clearly, it was a Lifebound Magical Treasure that wouldn’t be used lightly unless absolutely necessary, tempered with much effort, and imbued with many bizarre and elusive powers—the black-clothed cultivator had great confidence in this strike. He knew that not only was the sword extremely fast and powerful, but it also had the special effects of concealing killing intent and breaking through Magic, with secret techniques that could sever souls and disturb the mind, and further, it could leave bone-erosive remains after each attack...

Master Yuan Hao didn’t turn his head, casually pointed a finger downwards, and a brick came crashing down.

The Heavenly Demon Suppression Ruler, without special effects, attack power 1 trillion.