Chapter 626 An ominous sign, like a poison clinging to the bone.
A strange and complex pungent smell permeated the air. It was the smell of air being ionized by particle beams, mixed with gunpowder smoke and toxic exhaust fumes. The special spatial phenomenon caused by "alienation" isolated most of the impact of the battle, but it also transmitted a small amount of "aftershocks" to this real dimension. The anti-theft alarms of several cars were triggered, and the hollow and monotonous alarm sound of the vehicles echoed in the underground parking lot.
The spatial rift had collapsed, and all the Hermitage followers who had invaded this place were dead. The Great Sage, who was at the center of the explosion, was completely wiped out. His self-destruction at the last moment did not seem to be to perish together with Yu Sheng and his group, but simply to erase the traces of his existence and... to close the spatial rift in advance.
Hu Li was the first to think of this. She had now returned to human form and was frowning deeply: "We should have captured someone alive earlier... Now we have no spoils."
“I didn’t expect that old man to be so decisive, especially since his teammates were all around him!” Eileen scratched her messy blond hair—it was all messed up from rolling and running around on the ground earlier. “He just snapped at me without warning. I didn’t do anything to him, so why did he get so angry…”
Then Luna and Huli stared at her together.
“…Okay, maybe it’s partly my fault too,” Eileen raised her hands in surrender (one of which was still clutching her beloved frying pan), “but I think the main problem is his poor mental fortitude…”
As she was muttering to herself, Yu Sheng's almost deathly voice suddenly came from beside her: "I'm still lying here, isn't anyone coming to see me...?"
Upon hearing this, Hu Li was the first to rush over. She sat down on the ground, lifted Yu Sheng's upper body, rested his head on her lap, covered his body with her big tail, and hugged his cold arm to warm it.
Yu Sheng sighed with satisfaction: "...This is much warmer."
Eileen and Luna also came over. The former, with her head down and hands on her hips, said, "You look like you can't be saved. You've lost too much blood."
"Why don't you guess where all my blood went?" Yu Sheng's face was pale as he grimaced at the tall, doll-like girl in front of him—actually, she wasn't that tall, at 1.67 meters, she was still the shortest among the people in the hostel, but compared to 66.6 centimeters, she was obviously incredibly tall—after a long while, a smile appeared on his face, "You've grown taller."
“Yes, I just said I’ve grown taller,” Eileen laughed, slowly squatting down next to Yu Sheng’s head. “See, now I have to squat down to talk to you.”
“Now I finally have a rough idea of what kind of ‘energy’ your body needs. No wonder you couldn’t charge it before,” Yu Sheng blinked with some difficulty, an irresistible “exhaustion” seemingly forcing him to close his eyes. “When we get back… we need to study this carefully to find out what’s wrong with you.”
“Alright, let’s go back and study this carefully,” Eileen nodded, then looked at Yu Sheng’s barely breathing state, “How much time do you have left?”
“I’m already exhausted. I should have ‘gone’ more than ten minutes ago,” Yu Sheng slowly exhaled. “I just couldn’t bear to die because I saw you there fixing the giant’s toenails…”
Eileen blinked, then suddenly reached out cheerfully and gently brushed Yu Sheng's eyes: "Alright, now you can focus on the game, we won."
The doll's hand brushed past, and Yu Sheng's eyes remained open.
Eileen was taken aback: "...Hey, no, that's not how it's portrayed in TV dramas. After I swat your hand over, you have to close your eyes and have that peaceful, departing expression on your face, looking like you have no lingering attachments. Then your hand has to fall out of Hu Li's arms. What's with you staring at me like that?"
Yu Sheng: "I just wanted to remind you to send a message to the Special Operations Bureau before you go back, to let them know what's going on here. Also, don't forget to take the body of this 'artificial saint' next to you... and bring it back to the spaceship. Also, go back to the valley to check on your nephew and let him know you're safe. And Eileen, pay attention to the changes in your body. If you shrink again, record the time and the sensations you feel during the shrinking process..."
"Oh, I got it, I got it. Why are you nagging like Little Red Riding Hood?" Eileen was exasperated and impatiently reached out to press Yu Sheng's eyes. "Hurry up and finish reading the message. We can talk about it later."
Yu Sheng did not respond further.
Eileen removed her hand and glanced down.
"Oh, it's closed this time."
Hu Li also felt the arm she was holding suddenly sink. She tilted her head and thought for a moment, then bent down and gently licked Yu Sheng's face.
Eileen watched this scene from the side and poked Hu Li's head: "Hey, you're not doing it right. You have to lick him when his eyes are open, otherwise he won't know."
Hu Li looked up at the doll, bewildered, and then thought seriously for a moment: "My benefactor smells wonderful right now—"
Eileen: "...Then it's no use for you to eat it now. He'll come back to life in thirty minutes, so it'll be the same as if you didn't eat it at all."
Hu Li was still pondering this line of thought when she asked, "So, could our benefactor be considered a type of enoki mushroom?"
Even Luna, who was standing nearby, couldn't stand it anymore: "You guys, that's enough, that's enough."
Hu Li finally sighed, slowly placed Yu Sheng's body on the ground, gently patted him with its tail, and then stood up to look at the place.
The nameless artificial saintess lay not far away. During the previous battle, no matter what the situation was, Hu Li always kept a fox tail to protect that pillar. Luna also tried her best to restrain the bronze knights to prevent the aftershocks of the battle from affecting that place.
Luna walked over and silently looked at her compatriots lying on the ground.
“I don’t know where you live,” she murmured softly. “I’ll take you back to where I live.”
She bent down and gently picked up the cold steel, only to find that it was slightly lighter than she had expected.
The fox reached into its tail and pulled out a rune card with the inn's logo. It activated the card instantly—the crimson patterns on the card came to life, and the wisps of red lines spread and expanded in the air like blood vessels and nerves growing out of thin air, forming the shape of a phantom door in the blink of an eye.
She pushed open the door, and there was the view of the portal hub hall on the other side.
"Let's go home."
...
At the same time, deep within the distant Dark Currents region, in the "twilight zone" near the Great Triangle Nebula, a bountiful garden planet is basking in sunlight.
The entire planet has been highly developed, but the advanced artificial ecosystem has reshaped all the mountains, jungles and rivers. Everything on this planet has been precisely designed and modified. Every river and every tree is in the most suitable position and presents the most perfect state. Under the forests are factories and circulation systems that operate day and night, and among the mountains are towering temples and city buildings.
No one could have imagined that such a paradise could exist deep within the Dark Currents Starfield, a region rife with chaos, violence, and warlord conflicts.
The capital planet of the Hermitage, known as the "Holy Realm".
High atop a mountain, deep within a magnificent, golden temple.
Faint hymns echoed through the corridor, and the long hall, adorned with portraits of saints and sculptures of heroes, was brightly lit. At the far end of the hall stood a massive "rebirth device," with pure light pouring down from above, making the entire device seem to be bathed in holy light.
The device consisted of a large mind transmitter and several biomass culture chambers surrounding it. Its solemn black surface was adorned with countless beautiful golden lines, and scripture drapes covered part of its outer shell. These drapes and lines were not mere decorations, but were intended to prevent certain spirits wandering in the depths of the starry sky from being attracted by the device and causing fatal pollution or interference during the mind transmission and soul reshaping process.
No one moved about in the silent hall. Only a few servants wearing mind shackles stood in the shadows of the doorway near the rebirth device, ready to serve at any moment. After a certain instant, these servants seemed to receive some kind of command and all looked up in unison in the direction of the rebirth device.
The lights in the long hall flickered a few times, and then a series of indicator lights and holographic projections lit up on the surface of the mind transmitter. The entire device then began to run automatically, and some sounds came from a culture chamber on its side.
The scripture curtain covering the culture chamber suddenly burst into flames and turned to ashes almost instantly.
A servant witnessed this scene and, in his terror, tried to warn others. However, the flames from the spontaneous combustion of the cloth seemed to simultaneously burn away his memories of the previous moment—as the ashes of the scripture cloth dissipated in the wind, the poor man's expression returned to its previous numb and pious state.
The next second, the incubation chamber opened, and a figure with a dignified face, white hair and beard, and a burly build appeared inside.
The Great Sage, Gorrendel—at this moment, his face was filled with rage.
He returned here after a crushing defeat, reborn from the ashes.
The servants quickly stepped forward and reverently served their master, wiping away the biomass solution from his body and draping him in a robe adorned with golden runes.
The reshaping of flesh and blood signifies a shameful defeat. Every activation of the rebirth device leaves a stain on the saints' perfect "path of holiness." Therefore, no inferior believers are allowed to witness this in the long hall; only servants with mental shackles are permitted to attend to them.
“The Holy See awaits your report…” a servant said, bowing his head.
Grendel took a deep breath to calm himself, then nodded slightly: "I understand."
The chaos in his mind continued to torment him. The faster-than-light transmission of his consciousness across the starry sea had caused a certain degree of distortion in his body's perception. He still saw hallucinations from time to time—the bizarre spider-like alien, the hateful doll crawling around on the ground, and that frying pan…that frying pan!!
Unstable psionic energy surged in the air, and the two closest servants immediately knelt on the ground, trembling and groaning in uncontrollable pain.
"Blasphemy against aliens...inferior beings..."
Gorrendel cursed under his breath, but ultimately managed to suppress his anger. He knew he had to leave the long hall in the best possible light—defeat was already a disgrace, and losing his composure would only damage his honor. He couldn't appear too pathetic in front of the living saint and the Holy See; that would do him no good.
The great sage stepped onto the stairs.
Then, he heard a slight clicking sound.
It looked like something had broken.
The next second, before Grendel could even realize what was happening, a terrifying pain and a dizzying sensation suddenly struck him—he took only one step towards the steps, and felt as if his legs were instantly crushed by an unstoppable force. His newly reborn, theoretically flawless body suddenly lost its support, and he tumbled down the steps in a sorry state, lying on the ground.
Grendel sat up in horror, looking at his legs, only to see a jumble of twisted, broken flesh and bone.
A comminuted fracture below the knee – this scene is all too familiar.
A profound sense of astonishment, accompanied by a chilling feeling that slowly crept into his heart, gradually transformed Grendel's bewilderment into terror.
Why...why is this happening?!
(End of this chapter)
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