Chapter 555 Two?

The battle against the decaying remains of the otherworldly gods seemed endless and meaningless—the grotesque shadows of the past emanating from the god's corpse were infinite, and the persistent memories could not be eradicated by conventional means. In the ruins of this ancient temple forgotten by all things, the broken and corrupt gods, the echoes of the otherworldly past, and the entire space seemed to form a complete "cycle," with everything endlessly reincarnating, just like…

The souls of the dead who are unwilling to die but have no hometown to return to.

Yu Sheng and his group retreated to a high platform at the edge of the mountain, where they managed to gain a foothold by relying on the layers of foxfire that formed a barrier.

Twisted doors opened on the high platform, and one after another mass-produced dolls emerged from them, sweeping dense "Eileen Rays" at the writhing shadows below. Thick, muddy shadows surged in like a tide, and countless indescribable mutated entities crawled out of the shadows. Some were constantly being swept down, but others broke through the dolls' barrage of fire, even charging towards the high platform despite the terrifying foxfire flames.

The deformed creatures, engulfed in fire and smoke, charged forward, and the massive stone ground that formed the platform hissed as it was corroded. Yu Sheng fought back the enemies closest to him, and with each shadow he knocked down, he would feel that eerie "emptiness" again.

He tried to connect with the "Tide of Shadows" below the platform using his own blood, and attempted to use it as a springboard to communicate with the "divine corpse" in the center of the temple, but no matter how he tried, he could not sense anything.

It was all empty—utterly hollow, utterly void. The shadows had no purpose, and the rotting deity had no self-awareness. The alien god, who had been broken three thousand seven hundred years ago, had long since merged with the ancient doll named Eileen into a completely new individual. What remained... was not even enough to be a vessel for "death."

Yu Sheng vaguely realized that it was something even more incomplete than the "dark angels" he had dealt with before—its extreme incompleteness made it an even more difficult target to choose.

But the more this happened, the more Yu Sheng felt that something was wrong.

The boundary bridge is extending towards the border, and the broken tower is constantly repairing itself, a process filled with a sense of "persistence"... If the ominous goddess of the past has been merged with the ancient doll "Eileen," and the temple ruins are just an empty shadow, then what is driving the boundary bridge now...?

A slight warmth came from his body. Yu Sheng was stunned for a moment and immediately took out something from his arms.

It was a cube less than the size of a palm, made of a material similar to jade—the very "core" that fell out after the Zolda Black Stone broke apart.

Holding the unremarkable black cube, Yu Sheng repeatedly recalled the memories of the goddess of omens he had seen in the illusions recorded by the "little bear"—

An alien civilization born in the apocalypse, a sanctuary plan that failed due to insufficient cosmic mass, a world swallowed by an annihilating red light...

After the apocalypse, the story of that civilization came to an end.

...But the story of the "Goddess of Omens" doesn't seem to be over yet!

The Boundary Bridge was not built by the "People of Omens," and the "descent" of the Goddess of Omens to the Boundary clearly occurred after the destruction of her home world. So... there is a "gap" between the destruction of the Goddess of Omens' home world and her attempt to descend upon the Boundary 3,700 years ago!

How did Jie Bridge come about?

Based on the available intelligence, the entire "Descent" plan and the birth of the Boundary Bridge itself are more likely related to other Dark Angels, or even... something created by the "group" of Dark Angels!

Yu Sheng subconsciously clenched the cube core of unknown material in his hand until his palm was pierced by the sharp edges of the cube, and warm blood seeped into its jade-like surface bit by bit.

A sharp whistling sound tore through the air once again, and Hu Li launched another round of "Fox Carrot Missiles" into the distance. The fox tails, spewing propellant flames, flew over the sticky and writhing shadows and bombarded the mountain-like corpse of the god in the center of the temple ruins one after another.

The explosion roared, and blue flames erupted. The shockwave briefly halted the surging tide, and the rising foxfire spread and rippled along the temple square.

The massive corpse swayed slightly in the shockwave, as if ripples spread across the surface of the "mountain" composed entirely of chaotic shadows. After one impact after another, its internal "operation" seemed to finally slow down, and a small crack was torn open in the originally tightly covered surface.

The fox was busy unleashing the next wave of tails when it suddenly paused, then immediately jumped up, pointed into the distance, and shouted, "My benefactor! My benefactor! There's something there! There's something in there!"

Yu Sheng immediately looked up in the direction Hu Li was pointing, and the next second he saw that the surface of the alien god's remains, which was as big as a small mountain, had undergone a small-scale "collapse". The shadow that peeled off like mud was like an empty shell, and inside it... was some kind of ancient mechanism that was slowly running.

The temperature coming from the cube increased a little, and the information transmitted after the blood seeped in finally became a little clearer from the buzzing noise. Yu Sheng looked at the thing buried in the remains of the god's corpse, and suddenly his heart was shocked.

“That’s it, that’s it,” he took a deep breath and muttered softly, “Two… there are two!”

"Huh? What?" Eileen, perched on his shoulders, frantically directed the mass-produced doll army on site while shouting, "What the heck, two of them?!"

"Dark Angels! Two of them!" Yu Sheng slapped his thigh, fully realizing what was happening. "Boundary Bridge—this thing is essentially a Dark Angel too! Back then, 'Eileen' did solve the problem of the Goddess of Omens—but she didn't expect Boundary Bridge to be alive too!"

Eileen froze for a moment upon hearing this, then exclaimed, "Holy crap?!"

"The Boundary Bridge is just broken, not destroyed—the Goddess of Omens ceased functioning after merging with Eileen, but the Boundary Bridge has remained operational for the past 3,700 years!" Yu Sheng had now sorted out his thoughts, his mind racing, while simultaneously processing the information transmitted from the cube. "This 'interdimensional mechanism' cannot understand why its partner suddenly stopped 'operating,' so it has been trying its best to revive the deceased Goddess of Omens..."

"Holy crap..." The little doll was about to sing sweet nothings again, but the current situation made her so worried that she couldn't even curse. She could only stare at Yu Sheng with wide eyes, "Then, what do we do?"

“I’m not sure, but I think the best way is for me to go there and take a look,” Yu Sheng pointed to the center of the temple ruins. “That thing should be some kind of control mechanism for the boundary bridge. It has been staying here ever since the bridge was destroyed. Maybe I can find a way to turn it off.”

“It doesn’t sound very reliable,” Eileen said, as she effortlessly climbed off Yu Sheng’s shoulder. “But you don’t usually have many ideas that sound reliable either… In the end, you just rely on your life being worthless and your execution ability to get by.”

Yu Sheng was prepared to go all out, but he couldn't help but say, "No, can't you say something nice at a time like this?"

Eileen tilted her head back, blinked, hesitated for a moment, then waved her little fist: "Well then, good luck?"

Yu Sheng waved his hand and turned to look at Hu Li.

Before he could say anything, a large furry tail floated in front of him.

“My benefactor, the tail is ready.”

“...To be honest, I feel like there’s something strange about what you’re saying,” Yu Sheng muttered, but he didn’t hesitate at all when he flipped his tail over. Then he thought for a moment and added with a serious expression, “This time I have to try my best to get there alive—if I fall into those shadows halfway there, it will be a wasted opportunity.”

The fox spirit girl frowned; clearly, this was an unprecedented challenge for her.

So she released the remaining seven tails, which formed an escort formation around Yu Sheng.

But she clearly felt that wasn't enough.

After frowning and thinking hard for a while, she turned around and rummaged through her remaining storage tail.

Then two streams of ethereal, dazzling, and awe-inspiring light emerged from her tail—and as soon as they appeared, they began to circle around in mid-air, scattering specks of light while also emitting clear, melodious chirps.

Simply put, it just circles around and crows...

"Holy crap, boiled and salt-baked—" Yu Sheng stared in disbelief, "Wait, haven't you raised these two chickens even more ridiculously well since I last saw them?!"

“My benefactor, boiled and salt-baked meat should be able to protect you,” Hu Li said solemnly, looking at Yu Sheng. “Through my careful training, their strength is now comparable to Xuan Che's…”

Yu Sheng's expression froze for a moment: "...It's best not to let Xuan Che know this."

"Uh-huh."

“Alright, I’m off,” Yu Sheng took a breath, waved his hand while riding on the fox’s tail, “You guys stay here. If I don’t succeed, you’d better retreat immediately—the border area should be able to hold out for a while, and we can figure something out when we get back.”

"Yes, my benefactor!" "Yes, that's right." "Hey, hurry up and get out of here!"

The propulsion flame suddenly lit up, and a whistling wind suddenly came, but was blocked by the protective spiritual energy around the fox's tail.

Yu Sheng rode on the fox's tail and rushed straight to the mountain of corpses in the center of the temple ruins.

The battle on the ground continued, with the roar of foxfire explosions and the heat waves of rising flames coming one after another. Irene's rays tore bright and hot cracks in the dark and sticky shadows. Luna's figure flashed around the platform, constantly killing the approaching shadows and protecting Hu Li and the puppets on the platform.

Yu Sheng was rapidly soaring through the sky, surrounded by seven fox tails that formed the escort formation, and two spirit-realm peak-level roosters flying up and down around him, crowing loudly as they circled...

Eileen stood on the high platform, looking up at this scene, and after a long while let out a long sigh: "This is really damn weird."

Hu Li nodded his head.

Luna moved like the wind, whirling and landing back on the high platform. She took a moment to nod and said, "Yes, that's right."

Then he rushed out again.

(End of this chapter)