CHAPTER 469: CHAPTER 469: HANGING ON THE WALL

The streets were bustling with people, and who knows how many had gathered in this city from surrounding areas to join the celebration. The market was extraordinarily lively, with stalls displaying an array of locally distinctive trinkets and foods that dazzled the eyes. There were also street performers whose acts seemed utterly absurd to Yu Sheng—

After all, in this civilization where everyone trains in martial arts, one could only imagine how fierce the stunts performed by a group of loose cultivators would be. Let’s put it this way: if those on stage were ordinary people, their deaths might even transcend Yu Sheng’s imagination (and experience)...

Yu Sheng carried a small puppet, followed by the silent Holy Lady and the exceptionally cheerful fox girl. The four of them, with a ball in tow, slowly wove through the bustling and almost bizarre alien city.

Erin was adorned with several trinkets she had bought from street vendors—some were genuinely blessed, some claimed to be, and others weren’t but were intended to be blessed by Yun Qingzi later. The little puppet had thoroughly turned herself into a gaudy display, still fiddling with a string of beads purportedly made from some celestial stone, boasting, "Yu Sheng, look how pretty this is! I’m going to put it on my bedside table when we get back... That silly fox only knows how to buy food; she doesn’t have any taste in aesthetics..."

She chattered on, then haphazardly wrapped the string of beads around the Omen Wandering Star—which was already adorned with various random items, looking like a colorful lantern ball floating in mid-air. Then she clapped her hands and swayed on Yu Sheng’s shoulder: "Festivals are great, shopping is great too... so happy!"

She squinted her eyes but suddenly lowered her head, tapping Yu Sheng’s head: "By the way, what were you and Yuan Hao talking about just now? It seemed so serious..."

Yu Sheng raised a hand to steady the constantly swaying little figure on his shoulder. Hearing her question, he didn’t answer immediately but pondered for a moment and asked, "Kongdaman—does this name ring a bell to you?"

"Kong... what?" Erin scratched Yu Sheng’s hair, looking puzzled, "What kind of weird name is that? Never heard of it."

"Doesn’t ring a bell?" Yu Sheng mumbled thoughtfully and then sighed with relief, "That’s right, you can’t even explain how you ended up inside that painting."

Erin was clueless but quickly forgot her previous confusion and became happy again, shaking Yu Sheng’s head while raising her hand: "Hey, look over there! There’s another painter selling paintings over there... But that painting looks even less like you!"

Yu Sheng glanced up and indeed saw another stall with a painting hanging, titled "XXXX True Monarch Yu Sheng." Judging by its style, it seemed meant to ward off evil when pasted on a door...

His face turned green on the spot.

Fortunately, these paintings were abstract to the point of absurdity, and the local "deity images" of the Taixu Spirit Hub had some stylistic peculiarities, which resulted in notable differences between these paintings and the real person. Yu Sheng wasn’t at the point of having to cover his face while walking down the street—plus, even if some people occasionally took notice and scrutinized him, ordinary folks wouldn’t usually associate a "True Monarch" capable of slaying the Dark Angel with an "ordinary person" wandering the streets sans any spiritual power, which at least gave him some peace of mind.

But despite some relief, he couldn’t help but grumble, "How many stalls is this now... Damn, who came up with this idea first?"

"Who needs to come up with it first? If no one on an entire planet thinks of this after such a big event, it would be stranger," Erin shook her head knowingly, usually confused even about her own affairs, yet now analyzing with a self-satisfied air, "I’m telling you, just wait a few years; every household will be pasting your likeness on their doors during festivals. Your face will be altered beyond recognition by facial recognition software, and every street corner will have stories of your different versions—some to ward off evil, some to attract wealth, some for healing, even some to govern both love and contraception based on where you’re placed. The more absurd ones will even give you three incense sticks and a half-pound pig head daily..."

The fox girl’s ears perked up with a "ding," looking around: "Pig head? Where is there a pig head?"

Yu Sheng was left utterly flabbergasted by the puppet’s stream of chatter: "Where did you come up with all this... you speak as if you’ve actually experienced it."

"I’m a mysticism expert!" the puppet thumped her chest, "I’ve been a mysticism expert for... many years now!"

Hu Li’s ears drooped: "No pig head, huh."

Luna stepped forward, patting Hu Li’s shoulder, seemingly to comfort her: "Mm, right."

"C-type buckle, can’t you say something else?"

"Mm, right..."

Amidst the lively clamor around him, Yu Sheng remained silent but suddenly smiled, shaking his head lightly. He looked up at the sky, diverting a wisp of his mind—

Fine rain fell from the sky, incessant and unceasing. Through the gloomy, dense clouds, a few faint rays of sunlight pierced through, falling with the drizzle onto the ruins of the Refining Tower, spreading across the vast wasteland at the city’s outskirts. Despite days of cleaning, it seemed they would never finish clearing the pale crystals.

A cluster of crystals protruding from a fissure on the ground trembled slightly, with faint glimmers coursing over its surface. Almost simultaneously, similar faint glimmers appeared on nearby clusters, leaping from one to another, expanding in waves like ripples swiftly spreading across a pond.

Deep underground, where people couldn’t see, similar glimmers spread rapidly, resonating, traveling, and diffusing.

Yu Sheng’s thoughts surged through the enormous body of the planet, traversing the staggering support structures beneath the crust, inspecting crystal chambers, caverns, mantle plumes, and lava rivers shrouded in crystal.

The distant Taixu Spirit Hub was still immersed in the festival atmosphere, while the long rainy season in Shuji seemed so quiet, as if it were another world. Yet deep underground in Shuji, there were crystal structures moving slowly, emitting a deep rumble, presenting another scene.

Yu Sheng felt like he could understand what Erin’s multitasking felt like — he had been doing similar things recently.

He was pondering deep within the planet, cautiously operating the "corpse shell" left in this world after the death of the Inference Star Body, without affecting the stability of the crust.

North of Mo City, deep beneath the earth, a magma lake buried at the interface between the mantle and crust was being slowly stirred by giant crystalline limbs, while fine crystal fragments were transported from deeper places and dumped into the magma lake.

Soon after, the residue was separated, and the re-cast crystal material was retrieved, only to be discarded quickly, with new "materials" collected and dispatched into this "geological furnace" once more.

The giant magma lake and its surrounding structures of transportation, retrieval, and analysis composed of crystal material worked together, resembling a bustling living factory. In a sense, this structure could be considered an organ within Shuji, the "living planet".

Or perhaps it could be said this was one of Yu Sheng’s organs.

On the edge of the magma lake, on a smooth crystal cliff, huge words slowly emerged: Shuji Revival and Industry Transformation Experimental Furnace.

After a while, two slogans surfaced beneath this line:

Safe production to avoid cramps, standardized operations to prevent perforations.

A massive face appeared from the crystalline dome above the magma lake, as Yu Sheng looked down at this "internal forge" he had painstakingly shaped over several days, a satisfied smile emerging on his face.

If Erin were to see this place, she would definitely ridicule him for it looking worse than a latrine...

Afterwards, Yu Sheng’s thoughts continued to wander within the planet, verifying the stability of previously identified fragile areas, checking the repair progress of some main crystal branches cracked due to "Ascension", while marking special locations, finding places where energy reactions had accumulated, or remnants of ore veins and thermal wells that could still be developed.

This is a large and long-term task, but fortunately, it doesn’t take much effort for him.

Shuji is already a declining mining star on the border. After the Inference Star Body disaster, the condition of this planet was exacerbated — previously, Yu Sheng could only lament this situation, powerless to help, but now that he has "assimilated" the planet and essentially become its Star Guardian, he cannot stand by and watch the planet completely decline.

He doesn’t want one of his "shells" to gradually become a lifeless place, carrying the atmosphere of millions’ desperate and hopeless downfall in days to come.

Moreover, from another perspective, to find a way to cross worlds and uncover the secrets behind the Dark Angels, he does indeed need a springboard to leap towards the stars — Shuji Star, which has experienced Angelic parasitism and is located at the border of the Feiyu Star Domain, is a promising option.

So, regardless, he must manage well this planet under his protection, take care of its people, and continue to maintain good relations with the Feiyu Star Domain.

Now, it’s time to check on the situation of the female City Lord of Mo City.

With a thought, Yu Sheng’s "mind focus" instantly shifted from the depths underground to the planet’s surface, his vision traversing layers of rock, soil, and crystal, and projected into a mansion in the center of Mo City.

He saw Mo Ran.

Clad in a black dress, she was conversing with several retainers, seemingly discussing the progress of restarting the industrial zone. Most of the crystals in the hall had been cleared, but some crystal clusters remained embedded in the roof corners.

Yu Sheng was about to greet Mo Ran but suddenly paused.

He saw a huge painting hung behind Mo Ran, and on it was clearly "XXXX Yu Sheng True Monarch"...

Yu Sheng: "..."

Would this ever end!