CHAPTER 451: CHAPTER 451: DISINTEGRATION AND... TRANSFORMATION?

Yu Sheng and the puppet on his shoulder locked eyes, wide-eyed to narrow-eyed.

After two or three seconds, he frowned in confusion, "When did I call you?"

But Erin was even more confused, "Huh? Wasn’t it you who called? I just heard you greet me in your consciousness..."

Yu Sheng was dumbfounded for a moment, and then his mind conjured up the bizarre scene he witnessed when he "established a connection" with the Omen Wandering Star just now—

A chaotic space formed by endless layers of veil, a gigantic shadow flashing behind the overlapping veils, and the limbs stirring the chaos, resembling some kind of arthropod creature.

He reached out to the shadow behind the veil, but Erin in reality heard a "calling" from the mental realm.

Yu Sheng looked up, glanced at the Omen Wandering Star still in a "slumbering" state, then turned to look at Erin on his shoulder. She also turned her little face, her crimson eyes staring intently at him.

Clear, bright, saintly as before.

She looked like she possessed the kind of wisdom that anyone could easily swindle her out of her pocket money and even trick her into a loan to buy eight boxes of health supplements with cash-on-delivery.

Erin frowned sharply, "What are you looking at me for? Are you thinking about something very rude?"

Yu Sheng quickly shook his head, then with a few incredulous speculations, pointed to the stone sphere beside him, "Erin, do you... know this thing?"

"Huh? I know it?" The little puppet immediately widened her eyes, put her hands on her hips, looking quite displeased, "I’m the noble Alice Puppet, how could I know such an ugly ball—and didn’t you hear the old Yuanling say that this ball was caught and locked here three thousand years ago, where would I have met it?"

Erin’s answer seemed reasonable, but the slight frown on Yu Sheng’s forehead still didn’t relax; strange and even outrageous conjectures continued to swirl in his mind.

After all, he had already dealt with those "weird things" many times. If there was any experience brought to him by those bizarre events, the most important one would surely be—in this world where strange events emerge endlessly, any incredible thing can happen, and if you find some bewildering clue in the event, no matter how it defies common sense, it’s best to take it as real first.

Yu Sheng described what he had just seen.

Then Erin continued to stare wide-eyed at him.

Yu Sheng suspected that this little puppet’s head was about to go offline—if there was anything in her head that could actually go offline.

Hu Li looked at Yu Sheng and Erin, then glanced at the Omen Wandering Star beside them, raising a hand to point at the stone sphere and asked True Man Yuanling, "Why hasn’t this ball woken up yet?"

True Man Yuanling stroked his beard, but before he could speak, the Snake Princess not far away craned her neck and shouted over here, "I suspect it’s fainted from shit..."

Yu Sheng couldn’t help but burst out, "Is this snake always so harsh in her words?!"

True Man Yuan He let out a long sigh, "Alas, she was even harsher when we first caught her."

The Snake Princess raised several of her heads (besides the one lying on the ground looking heat-stunned like a dog head), righteously glaring at Yuan He, "So what?!"

Erin, however, seemed not to hear the commotion around her. She once again fixed her gaze on the Omen Wandering Star, staring intently at the massive stone sphere for a long time, before suddenly jumping off Yu Sheng’s shoulder and running next to the stone sphere.

After hesitating for two or three seconds, the little puppet reached out her hand, tapping on the grayish-white rough shell of the stone sphere.

"Crack."

A slight cracking sound instantly interrupted everyone’s conversation on the platform, even the Snake Princess, who was ready to start bickering with True Man Yuan He, immediately tensed up, nervously looking in the direction of the sound.

The horrifying grayish-white stone sphere’s surface showed a fine crack.

Yu Sheng stared wide-eyed at this scene, just about to ask Erin what she did, when he saw that crack quickly expand, followed by countless more fissure lines extending—accompanied by a series of cracking sounds, countless grayish-white fragments began to fall off the surface of the Omen Wandering Star!

Erin was instantly scared stiff by this scene, the little puppet quickly jumped back two or three steps, embracing Yu Sheng’s calf, "It’s not my fault! I just touched it and this thing just shattered directly! Damn! Are they going to make us compensate?!"

Yu Sheng opened his mouth, but before he could speak, the "Omen Wandering Star" was rapidly falling apart amidst the expanding cracks, disintegrating into countless fragments, with large and small grayish-white pieces and dust collapsing from the layers of chains, turning into a pile of remnants.

True Man Yuan Hao, Yuanling, and Yuan He were left dumbfounded by this sight, Xuan Che was standing to the side sweating profusely, the Snake Princess, who had been arrogant a moment ago, unhesitatingly curled herself into a snake ball, with only her human head cautiously peering out from the gaps in her tail, muttering, "...after doing this, just don’t do me... I’m a protected animal after all..."

But just at this moment, Luna, who had been standing at the edge of the crowd on standby, suddenly took a step forward. She positioned herself in front of Yu Sheng, her gaze locked onto the collapsing cloud of smoke and dust. After a moment’s delay, she blurted out, "There’s something."

True Man Yuanling furrowed his brows slightly and waved his hand.

A gust of wind arose abruptly, dispersing the drifting dust in the blink of an eye. After the smoke and dust had cleared, there appeared a chaotic tangle of thick chains, a multitude of grayish-white stone fragments scattered all over the ground, and something floating amidst the wreckage, suspended about a few dozen centimeters above the ground...

a small ball.

Yu Sheng blinked, staring at the floating object above the wreckage of the Omen Wandering Star— it was about the size of an apple, its surface bumpy, with a grayish-white stone texture, resembling a miniature model of a planet except for the lack of that terrifying hollow face on its surface. It looked exactly like a significantly shrunken...

"Omen Wandering Star."

The platform was silent. Not to mention Yu Sheng’s bewildered face; even the three well-traveled Old Immortals were dumbfounded at the moment. After holding back for a while, True Man Yuanling finally turned to Yuan Hao: "Senior Brother, you’ve traveled for many years..."

"Don’t ask me," the old handsome fellow shook his head, "I really haven’t seen this before."

Then several gazes naturally fell on the instigator— Erin was holding onto Yu Sheng’s leg, almost in tears: "I really don’t know what’s going on! I really just touched it!"

Just as the puppet’s words dropped, Yu Sheng noticed the "Mini Wandering Star" floating in the pile of wreckage suddenly wobble!

In the next second, the apple-sized stone ball drifted leisurely towards Erin.

The puppet turned her head and saw this scene, shocked instantly. With a scream, she leapt onto Yu Sheng’s shoulders, and the stone ball even floated up following her, continuing to chase.

"Oh crap! Why is this thing chasing me?!"

Erin screeched instantly and jumped off Yu Sheng’s shoulders into Hu Li’s arms, then ran out from Hu Li’s arms back to the ground, finally simply running in circles on the Demon Suppression Platform— but the grayish-white stone ball kept following her at a steady pace, and the puppet’s short legs couldn’t run fast enough to shake off the stone ball behind her.

Suddenly, a peculiar scene unfolded on the platform: a 66.6cm puppet running in the front, an apple-sized "Omen Wandering Star" chasing behind, intermixed with Erin’s weird screams, and occasionally the Snake Princess shouted approvingly.

Hu Li launched two tails trying to intercept the stone ball for Erin, but the ball’s "movements" were rather bizarre; it appeared unhurried yet bypassed the obstructing Fox Tail as if possessing foresight. Master Yuan Hao took out a brick but seeing Erin close to the stone ball withdrew it again; Xuan Che rushed forward attempting to knock down the ball with his fists and feet, but every move, every step was preemptively dodged by the stone ball, eventually failing to touch the opponent.

The scene descended into chaos.

Yet amidst this sudden "commotion," Yu Sheng noticed something. When Erin ran past him for the third time, he suddenly reached out and lifted up the little puppet.

The puppet was caught off guard, being lifted by the collar into mid-air, still maintaining her running inertia, flailing around. After two seconds, she belatedly turned her head, "Yu Sheng, what are you doing—"

Yu Sheng nodded, signaling Erin to look beside her.

Erin turned her head and saw the gray-white little stone ball floating next to her shoulder.

"Ah—"

Yu Sheng shook Erin, "Don’t scream, it’s not moving."

Erin paused for a moment, then turned and looked at the stone ball again, realizing it indeed wasn’t "sticking" anymore, merely maintaining a distance of several dozen centimeters, floating not too close nor too far, occasionally swaying lazily, appearing... even somewhat harmless.

"This thing seems to just want to float beside you," Yu Sheng said, holding the puppet in one hand and stroking his chin with the other, pondering, "There were several times it caught up to you, but you just focused on running and didn’t notice."

Erin was almost crying: "Why is it chasing me... It’s the one that shattered..."

Yu Sheng remained silent, just staring at her intently.

"Why are you looking at me," the puppet instantly shrank her neck, "I, I really don’t know it..."

"I know, ’you’ don’t know it," Yu Sheng exhaled gently, placing the puppet back on his shoulder, and muttered as if to himself, "No worries, we’ll figure out what’s going on."

Erin, bewildered, blinked her eyes; she couldn’t understand Yu Sheng’s intent nor what was happening. She turned her head and glanced at the "Omen Little Wanderer" floating next to her, still feeling a bit uneasy, and then she hugged Yu Sheng’s head— somehow this seemed to bring her some comfort.

Yu Sheng then turned his gaze towards Yuanling and the others.

"Now we should discuss the issue regarding this ’ball’."