CHAPTER 430: CHAPTER 430: THE MOUNTAIN AT THE CENTER OF ATTENTION

Boundary City, deep in the Special Service Bureau building, in the chief’s office, Baili Qing exhaled gently, then while rubbing her thigh that had just bumped into the desk, she stood up and walked to the wide floor-to-ceiling window.

Outside the window, an intangible fog began to flow immediately, transforming into various images under her gaze, most of them were scenes captured by Xu Jiali at Guard-3, including sampling operations on the surface and deep underground the "Crystal Heart". The rest were many scenes recomposed from within her consciousness—about the "Inference Star Body" and the intelligence just transmitted from the Feiyu Star Domain, all compiled, woven, deduced, and transformed into various "possibilities" for the planet’s future.

Vast crystal structures surged out from the depths of the planet, crystal clusters blossomed like flowers on the torn crust surface, the enormous Ascension Body emerged from the planet, uncontrolled crystalline matter grew wildly in the absence of the "core", cities were engulfed by crystal, billions drowned in a planetary Dream Realm emerging from its chrysalis...

The flowing fog rolled and rose, the images presented in the fog continuously reorganized and dissipated, after a long time, the fog finally calmed, and a pair of light gray eyes floated deep in the dense fog.

"Sister," the eyes quietly looked at Baili Qing, "constructing infinite possibilities from finite intelligence about the Dark Angel is meaningless—moreover, this time the variable is ’Yu Sheng’."

Baili Qing exhaled softly: "I know."

"What are you thinking about now?"

Baili Qing was silent for a moment, tugging at the corner of her mouth: "Mostly, I’ve just slightly regained the feeling of overtime from the previous time."

"Anything else?"

"And leg pain."

"There’s no way around it, I don’t have hands right now."

"...I know."

...

Yu Sheng hurriedly browsed through the information Baili Qing sent to his phone, and during this process, he gained some more understanding of the "Inference Star Body."

As Baili Qing said, the most mysterious and dangerous aspect of the Inference Star Body is not its physical form but rather its cognitive interference which intensifies with the deepening of parasitic levels, and the "reality reconstruction" built on layers of cognitive interference.

Under the guise of "everything normal", the Inference Star Body’s crystallization likely already covers the entire planet, it has long filled every corner of Mo City, anomalies right under everyone’s nose yet always in the blind spots of everyone’s subconscious.

Theoretically, if there was only cognitive interference released by the Inference Star Body itself, then this degree of "Knowledge Barrier" couldn’t possibly be hidden from Master Yuan Hao nor from Xuan Che’s Divine Sense Investigation, however, there are billions of residents on this planet—those ordinary people affected by cognitive interference use their collective "observation" to directly rewrite the reality structure of Shuji’s surface.

This "coverage" established on the reality level has surpassed the traditional sense of "illusion" so much so that even those with talents like Zheng Zhi who can briefly see through the cognitive barrier created by the Inference Star Body, or like Yu Sheng who once temporarily tore open the "crack" above the city during the previous encounter with the Great Sage of the Hidden Monastery, cannot truly puncture the entire curtain—

Because the collective knowledge of countless Dream Walkers on this planet will immediately repair the gaps in the curtain, correcting this world to their subconscious "normal" state.

And now the only good news is that this layer of seemingly impenetrable "curtain" is clearly having problems, the "Dream Realm" built upon the collective cognitive barrier of the entire planet’s people is colliding with reality, both sides are mutually compressing and tearing, creating the bizarrely distorted "Mo City" now in front of Yu Sheng—hidden in this warped and absurd city is likely a rift that could completely tear open the curtain.

As for how this "conflict" occurred... Yu Sheng is not sure. Perhaps it was because of the battle at Guard-3? Or maybe Zheng Zhi and Yuan Hao did something left behind in Shuji? Or both?

No matter what, this is clearly an opportunity.

Yu Sheng put away his phone and looked into the depths of the rain curtain ahead.

The slanted city buildings piled up like collapsed cream at the edge of visibility, gathering and rising along a common direction, a large amount of architectural structure piled there into a weird mountain, the surface of the "mountain" undulated slowly in the rain like a living thing, various deformed neon lights and intermittently flickering projections flowed like water over the mountain, amidst the flicker, one can still faintly discern the appearance of some landmark buildings and main city roads.

Soundless thunder once again rumbled from the direction of the "mountain", rolling across the sky.

Ever since leaving the hotel room, similar thunder has been echoing from that direction.

Although Yu Sheng doesn’t know where Master Yuan Hao and the others went nor found other trace clues near the Immortal Gathering Continent, the relentless thunder seemed to serve as a guide, hinting at the direction he should advance.

Based on the materials provided by Baili Qing, Yu Sheng can now roughly determine the state of "Shuji".

The Inference Star Body’s parasitism on this planet has entered the late Feather Transformation stage, just a step away from becoming the Ascension Body, at this stage, the cognitive interference it creates has already covered the entire planet—thus in theory, now the entirety of "Shuji" is actually in a distorted state.

But this "distortion" is not uniform—the source is the Inference Star Body, but what sustains its operation is countless "ordinary people" affected by cognitive interference, thus this Dream Realm covering the entire planet is actually supported by numerous "support points".

Every populated place is a support point.

Mo City is the largest city on this planet.

The most densely populated area of Mo City is the "support point of support points."

That "mountain"... should be it.

Hu Li transformed once again into a gigantic Nine-tailed Silver Fox, her Protective Spirit Qi shaking off the descending storm. Yu Sheng and Erin sat on the Silver Fox’s back, while Luna’s figure flickered like a phantom in the shadows of the rainy night, closely following along the periphery.

Another twelve Brass Knights’ hazy silhouettes occasionally appeared in the rain.

In this "boundary" layer formed by the mutual compression and clash of the Dream Realm and reality, the line between illusion and reality became blurred, to the point that even the Knights around Luna found it much easier to project themselves into reality than usual.

"There’s interference everywhere around us," Erin sat next to Yu Sheng, tightly clutching the fox fur beneath her while frowning deeply, "Did you notice those humanoid outlines that occasionally flash by the roadside? And those colorful phantoms lingering in mid-air... they’re all Minds at the edge of the Dream Realm. My head is pounding."

Yu Sheng nodded: "I noticed — the closer we get to that ’mountain,’ the more there are. It seems we’re heading in the right direction... the ’reality reconstruction focal point’ of Mo City is just ahead."

Erin blinked, and then suddenly seemed to realize something, looking up and staring directly at Yu Sheng.

"It seems like you’ve got another disaster coming up, huh?" The little Puppet suddenly said.

Yu Sheng didn’t expect this little guy to suddenly stare at him just to say that, leaving him at a loss for words: "You... fine, disaster or no disaster. I’m used to it."

"This time, it’ll be quite severe."

Yu Sheng: "...Well, thank you for your ominous words."

Erin: "Mm-hmm~"

Yu Sheng: "..."

By this point, Hu Li had already crossed the last stretch of broken road along the city’s axis. The Nine-tailed Silver Fox leapt over a plaza structure floating in the air, finally arriving at the foot of the "mountain."

The mountain seemed to have grown in height once again, with buildings merging and twisting on its surface into even more incomprehensible and chaotic structures. A wide structure, potentially a former aerial track, enveloped the mountain surface, winding its way toward the summit.

Countless buzzing noises surrounded them, and Hu Li instinctively slowed her pace.

Yu Sheng saw countless shadows — translucent, colorful humanoid outlines gathered at the foot of the mountain like passersby from another dimension. Some walked along the road, others sat leisurely on winding benches, and some floated in mid-air, appearing to be reading. Others sat cross-legged, as if meditating in cultivation.

These were the Mind bodies lingering at the edge of the Dream Realm — at this moment, they might be performing daily activities in Mo City’s real world, conversing with friends or engulfed in work. Yet, their subconscious had begun to perceive the dissonance deep within their Cognition, causing part of their Mind to "drift" here and instinctively converge toward other Minds.

A massive outdoor display device was awkwardly embedded in the building at the mountain’s base, with flickering holograms hovering above —

"...Phenomena of sleepwalking are spreading throughout the city, cases of demon possession are on the rise again... it is advised to stay away from the suburbs at night...

"The shadows surrounding the Old Refining Tower have been confirmed as collective illusions; residents witnessing anomalies need not panic...

"The storm has arrived on schedule, with a new wave of cold air entering from the south... the weather in the city is expected to intensify, and citizens who haven’t reached Energy Introduction should not engage in prolonged outdoor activities...

"This city is fine, this planet is very #%@... everything is fine, everything #￥ is fine, everything ￥@#% is fine..."

Yu Sheng’s gaze was fixed intensely on the projection device half-buried in the building, watching the constantly shifting texts and the surreal and eerily familiar landscapes of Mo City alternately flashing between the words.

On the steep "mountain," more and more "billboards" brightened, and the sequentially illuminated projection illusions fluttered in the rainy night like a continuous row of welcoming banners —

"Welcome to Mo City, the bustling metropolis at the border.

"Today, Mo City is at peace.

"Today, nothing occurred in Shuji.

"Welcome to Mo City, welcome to Mo City, welcome to..."

"Boom!"

A deafening thunder resounded, rumbling through the sky.

The indistinct figures gathered at the "mountain" foot seemed to sense something, many raising their heads blankly to look towards the sky, while the flickering holographic projections on the mountain vibrated violently. Countless words driven by the thunder scattered into the air.

Yu Sheng followed the sound and looked up, under the enhancement of his extraordinary vision, he saw a cool, aloof woman dressed in a black long skirt, with jet-black hair neatly tied up, standing at the mountain’s peak. She held a sharp sword, looking down with a hint of indifference at the mountain’s base.

(The physical book of "Deep Sea Embers" is now available for pre-order, available at various platforms and stores. We hope for your support. There are exclusive gifts and an intermission theater only in the physical edition~~)