CHAPTER 442: CHAPTER 442: FLYING TO THE STARS

Inside and outside Mo City, countless eyes witnessed a scene they would remember for a lifetime.

A mountain-sized Ascension Body tore open the earth, breaking out from inside the planet, and rose into the sky amidst the torrential downpour over Shuji.

Crystal shards cascaded like waterfalls, mountains crumbled and lands destroyed.

The crystallized tendrils, having lost core control, fell into their final frenzy, ripping open horrifying ravines and trenches on the planet’s surface. The thick clouds were stirred by the tendrils and the Ascension Body, forming countless vortices in the sky. The atmosphere charged amid violent turbulence as storm and thunder rampaged across the heavens and earth.

In the distant north, the plains beneath had been hollowed out, and with the collapse of the underground crystal structure, the entire land was subsiding; to the south of Mo City, a distant mountain range split into two. Terrifying flashes burst out from the mountains, the crystal cluster material squeezed out by tectonic movements transforming into a magnificent and terrifying "fountain," visible clearly even from space.

Mo Ran rushed into mid-air, watching helplessly as another Refining Tower crumbled amidst the storm.

Beneath her feet, the whole city emitted a wail on the verge of collapse, teetering on the brink of disintegration — Mo City was built atop a massive vein of spiritual ore, and in a sense, the city’s "foundation" was even a monolithic "mining platform." This unique structure made it more solid than any other city, capable of withstanding "natural disasters" of geological reshaping magnitude, but with the successive collapses of Refining Towers No. 6, 7, and 12, the ancient mining platform that served as the city’s base had reached its limit.

For a moment, Mo Ran even felt that the entire city had tipped past the critical point, feeling as though everything was going to end.

She even suspected that the whole planet would disintegrate in the next second.

Yet just then, she noticed that the process of collapse and tearing on the ground was gradually halting.

The massive tendrils, out of control, twitched in the wind and rain and then fell still one by one. The tremors from deep underground were quickly subsiding, and even some of the most dangerous ravines were gradually healing.

Mo Ran seemed to realize something. She slowly raised her head to look outside the city, seeing the torrential rain pouring down as if washing the entire world. The "Ascension Body," which had already risen to the clouds, was swept up in the storm’s center, with the rain streaked with blood as if it had a consciousness, rushing towards that gigantic crystal, wrapping it layer by layer, persistently dousing and saturating it with "rainwater."

"Rain..."

She murmured to herself, unable to imagine what kind of extraordinary power was restraining this catastrophe through the rain. Right then, beams of flowing light suddenly appeared at the edge of her vision, startling her out of her brief daze.

Mo Ran looked up in astonishment to see several Immortal Boats staggeringly piercing through the rain curtain. Those cultivators from other big cities jumped down from the Immortal Boats’ edges, darting straight towards the various nodes of the City Defense Array.

Streams of spiritual light intertwined and flowed within the clouds, quickly saturating Mo City’s City Defense Array. The array, which had nearly extinguished due to the collapse of Refining Towers No. 6, 7, and 12, was relit at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the teetering city quickly stabilized.

Lord Yun Shan also jumped down from the Immortal Boat’s deck, looking far from his usual elegant and leisurely self, with his hair disheveled and clothes in disarray, and a new Blood Trace on his forehead.

He flew in front of Mo Ran, his lips moving a few times before he clasped his hands in salute: "I can only leave these people — the rest need to be taken back to support Tan Yuan and White City. Mo Family Head, just now, just now..."

"Don’t say so much," Mo Ran swiftly interrupted the elder who in seniority should be considered her uncle, then took a light breath, "...let’s survive first."

"Alright."

Lord Yun Shan flew away on his sword, and Mo Ran turned back to see a glow crossing the cloud base, falling before her, transforming into a familiar, handsome young man.

"Immortal Envoy," Mo Ran immediately bowed to Xuan Che, although filled with questions, seeing this "Upper Envoy" from the Taixu Spirit Hub still brought her some reassurance, "What should we do next? This rain..."

Xuan Che did not answer, merely waved his hand, then turned around, standing with Mo Ran, watching the distant sky where the enormous crystal still slowly rose amidst the storm.

"That’s the ’Ascension Body,’" he said softly, "what happens next is beyond our intervention... Mr. Yu will handle it."

...

In this incredible "vision" formed by the entire rain belt, Yu Sheng was intently staring at the "Ascension Body" emitting an eerie glow.

If not for the enhanced sensory experience gained previously in the valley and the Black Forest, he felt he might have struggled to adapt to the current vision so quickly.

Now, the "connection" between him and that crystal was being intensified to an unprecedented degree, growing stronger by the minute.

He could even "hear" the roar emanating from deep within that crystal — though to ordinary people, that roar was just noise potent enough to shatter sanity instantly.

"It’s a trap!" the frenzied voice roared, seemingly in Yun Qingzi’s voice but mingled with the clamor of many others shouting, "You deceived us!"

Yu Sheng then laughed, even though he didn’t even have a "body" at the moment, his smile was directly reflected in this storm — his face emerged in the clouds, mouth wide in a grin, happier than ever.

"Yeah, can’t I?"

His voice mixed with thunder, resonating around the Ascension Body in the storm, echoing layer by layer in the atmosphere.

Yu Sheng took a long time to set up this trap—to make it effective, he not only needed the long rainy season of Shuji but also had to actively borrow the power of the Inference Star Body. He allowed himself to be consumed by the Inference Star Body and then let himself be "destroyed" by it. He even imitated Yun Qingzi’s method, making himself part of the Inference Star Body’s internal "cycle," all to figure out the internal structure of this "Angel."

The Ascension Body was protected by a thick "Feathered Shell Layer," its heavy and sturdy outer shell far surpassed imagination. If he used the usual "Blood Penetration," Yu Sheng might not be able to "penetrate" its interior until the Dark Angel had torn the entire planet to shreds.

The only method he could think of was to let the Ascension Body actively leave its protective layer, exposing its relatively "fragile" core directly to the rain.

The rain on Shuji had been falling for a long, long time. This long rainy season, occupying more than half the year, was a normal "natural phenomenon" on this planet. Even the "Dark Angel" should find it challenging to detect a little "anomaly" in the rain.

The only place where the whole process could potentially go wrong was the variable "Yun Qingzi."

As the "brain" of the Inference Star Body, the intelligent Yun Qingzi was quite likely to detect the changes occurring in the rain. Once he became aware prematurely, the chances of success would decrease significantly.

Fortunately, Yu Sheng’s judgment was correct—Yun Qingzi’s perception of the surface world was not that sharp, neither was his thinking that clear.

Yun Qingzi and the Inference Star Body shared a chaotic symbiotic state. As a series of "accidents" continued to occur on Shuji, the Inference Star Body’s instinctual reaction to the "crisis" would prevail. In the end, it chose to initiate the "Ascension" prematurely.

The crystal exterior of the Ascension Body began to disintegrate in the storm, and the crystal structure corroded by blood rain seemed to decay and wither in an instant, turning into a fragile, loose "grey matter," washed down to the ground by the rain.

Minutes later, smoke began to emerge from the massive crystal structure inside the Ascension Body, as if strong acid had invaded its interior. Large patches of lifeless, blurred grey stains began to spread rapidly in its Deep Layer.

But even so, this "mountain" still clawed its way up through the atmosphere, like a tenacious seed, continuing to fly towards the top of the atmosphere in the blood rain that was strong enough to melt it.

The roar from within the Ascension Body vanished at some point, and in the connection established by blood, Yu Sheng only sensed an extreme, unsettling... stillness.

Then he discovered that the "seed" had started accelerating once more.

It seemed to have utilized all its reserves—all the energy accumulated over centuries of parasitism on Shuji—on this one acceleration.

Following a series of unsettling explosive booms, the outer shell of the Ascension Body finally disappeared completely, bringing with it a large portion of the internal structure, which quickly crumbled and disintegrated. At this moment, it simply abandoned maintaining the integrity of its structure, casting all unnecessary parts into the rain clouds—this time, "shedding" momentarily blocked the storm in the clouds.

An ugly mass of intertwined, gnarled grey-black crystalline material that resembled withered roots broke away from its core and suddenly burst through the clouds.

Yu Sheng’s heart tightened—

"Damn it!"

There was no rain above the clouds.

The next moment, he saw that ugly seed breaking out of Shuji’s heavy atmosphere—the final core of the Inference Star Body bathed in blinding sunlight, its surface moisture evaporating instantly in space. Moments later, the twisted, curled-up grey-black crystalline roots within the core began to slowly unfurl in the sunlight, and unsettling black fissures appeared around those roots. These fissures then connected into a vast vortex.

In the depths of the vortex, the dim light and shadow characteristic of a hyperspace pathway could be faintly seen.

The next second, the "seed" plunged into the vortex, and the hyperspace pathway closed behind it.

In the following brief moment, the entire world seemed to have fallen silent.

The destructive geological activities on Shuji’s surface gradually subsided, and all crystalline materials ceased operations.

The storm outside Mo City gradually weakened, and the wind and rain returned to the normal state they should embody in this season.

The battles within and outside the city came to an end. Those who survived looked around in bewilderment, anxious about what might come next.

Then, the calm was shattered.

The Otherworld Inn docked in the high orbit of Shuji issued a broadcast of the highest emergency level alert—

"Inference Star Body has entered Super Space—Taixu Spirit Hub is in danger!"