CHAPTER 434: CHAPTER 434: WHEN THERE’S DANGER, SHIBO IS ALWAYS THE FIRST...

Yu Sheng did not see clearly how the final ambushing black-clad evil cultivator died — by the time he reacted, the opponent had already been evenly distributed across the battlefield.

As for those black-clothed cultivators around him, who were struggling to sustain the protective array and had long reached their limit, they were affected by the aftermath of the massive explosion. As the arrays broke apart one by one and their protective dharma treasures were destroyed, they all met their demise — those in the best condition were found headless, and those in the worst condition had their remains scattered everywhere...

Master Yuan Hao raised his hand and beckoned, and the "Heavenly Demon Suppression Ruler" he had just thrown out flew from the impact crater on the ground back into the large array of timber materials circling behind him. He then turned his head and happily greeted Yu Sheng and his group, "I was worried about how to contact you all, thankfully everyone is unharmed... Ah, Zheng Dao You is here too, which puts my mind at ease. Have you seen the reminder I left on the window?"

"We noticed the reminder and then detected the flaw in the cognitive barrier, which led us to find Zheng Zhi," Yu Sheng said as he rode on the back of the Nine-Tailed Fox, approaching Master Yuan Hao. As he spoke, his gaze subconsciously swept over the devastated battlefield below before lifting to look at the old veteran, "By the way, why are you here? Do you know where Xuan Che went?"

"Xuan Che is fine, I had already joined him outside the city earlier and sent him north to investigate," replied Master Yuan Hao, and then began to explain his experience, "I originally came out to find Zheng Dao You, but the ’Knowledge Barrier’ covering Mo City is truly difficult to tackle. I couldn’t find any clues, but during my investigation, I noticed a few sneaky figures — trailing them, I somehow ended up outside the city, where I found Xuan Che wandering aimlessly."

He paused, glanced in a certain direction, and continued, "As you can see, the entire area outside the city has changed appearance. If this is also a ’Knowledge Barrier,’ then this barrier technique is quite astonishing... Those sneaky figures vanished into this ’forest,’ and Xuan Che and I split up to investigate. Here, I saw people coming and going. I initially intended to observe secretly, but I didn’t realize several skilled individuals were among the black-clad evil cultivators, causing me to inadvertently reveal my presence."

The old veteran spoke while wiping his sweat, exclaiming in awe, "Those evil cultivators have some skills too, a flamboyant show scared me into a cold sweat, fortunately, I outmaneuvered them by a few moves..."

Yu Sheng listened beside him, breaking into a cold sweat even more than Yuan Hao. He twitched at the corner of his eye, glancing at the scene on the ground that resembled a meteorite bombardment, thinking to himself that he would never have imagined "outmaneuvered by a few moves" could be used in such a scenario...

While he marveled at the old veteran’s combat prowess, Master Yuan Hao seemed to suddenly remember something, and he looked worriedly toward Mo City, "You came from Mo City — what’s the situation in the city now?"

Yu Sheng coughed twice and explained, "Two things: First, what you mentioned about the ’Knowledge Barrier’ covering Mo City is actually not accurate. The accurate situation is that this cognitive barrier has enveloped the entire planet — all of Shuji has been affected by the ’Inference Star Body.’ The ’Knowledge Barrier’ built on the collective cognition of billions has even created a reality reconstruction effect. The ’jungle’ you see outside the city is actually the true appearance of the planet.

"Second, the ’Knowledge Barrier’ in Mo City has been lifted. We have torn open a gap in the barrier that covers the entire planet."

Master Yuan Hao gradually showed shock from the first sentence, and when he heard that the cognitive barrier in Mo City had been lifted, the old veteran finally couldn’t help but blurt out, "Hold on, hold on, let me sort this out... This situation has somewhat exceeded my expectations. What is the Inference Star Body? How does reality reconstruction that covers an entire planet work?"

"Simply put, the ’Inference Star Body’ is the culprit for Shuji’s current state..."

Yu Sheng wasted no time in revealing the information he currently knew to the old veteran, and meanwhile, he observed the distance.

In his view, almost every inch of land was covered by that eerie grayish-white crystal, with crystal structures resembling plants seemingly mimicking the planet’s original ecological environment. The mountainous region covered in a hazy rain screen appeared to have fewer crystals, yet there was a suspiciously large shadow covering the mountain, perhaps the handiwork of "Yun Qingzi."

Master Yuan Hao listened in shock to the truth buried on this planet.

"Based on the current information, Inference Star Body’s earliest ’parasite’ activity on Shuji may date back five or six hundred years ago... It had already escaped from Guard-3 by then, bringing a Yun Qingzi replica under its control down here. At that time, this place was still a mineral-rich planet," Yu Sheng retracted his gaze to the distance, lightly sighed, "After another three to four hundred years of sublimation period, as the Inference Star Body entered the ’Feather Transformation’ stage, the planet’s mineral veins began to deplete rapidly... but neither the local residents nor the subsequent investigators considered this anything but ’normal.’"

"So, the core of that thing is now hidden underground?" Master Yuan Hao furrowed his brow, looking at the earth with particularly grave eyes, "... Indeed, there is a layer below that obstructs Divine Sense probing. With my cultivation level, I can only see shallow mud layers with large areas of shadow."

"So we’re looking for an entrance," Yu Sheng nodded, "Earlier, Zheng Zhi mentioned seeing a fissure here, but for some reason, as soon as we approached, that fissure disappeared."

"The fissure disappeared?" Master Yuan Hao frowned, "But those black-clad evil cultivators were indeed coming and going at this location..."

"This means the ’Inference Star Body’ can freely control the passage to its core area, possibly resembling a teleportation gate-like structure," Yu Sheng mused, "It evidently noticed that the area was exposed, so it threw out a bunch of minions to block the way and then closed the gate."

Erin listened and immediately looked up: "Teleportation Gate? Isn’t that your specialty?"

"That would also require knowing where the passage opens in advance," Yu Sheng shook his head, "Remember the rift we found near the Refining Tower on the outskirts? After it closed, we couldn’t find it again—passages opened by the Inference Star Body should be similar. Unless you can ’jam’ them when they open, they disappear in an instant."

The little puppet opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to curse, but Yu Sheng covered it beforehand.

Just as Erin started kicking and flailing like an agitated cat, trying to wriggle out from under Yu Sheng’s arm, Master Yuan Hao suddenly looked up in a certain direction, his expression slightly changing.

Yu Sheng, noticing this, couldn’t care less about the squirming puppet in his arms: "What happened?"

"The life-saving magical treasure I left with Xuan Che has been activated!" Master Yuan Hao quickly said, simultaneously raising his finger towards the distance, "Over there—we must go quickly!"

Before he finished speaking, the old dashing man transformed into a bolt of lightning, surrounded by hundreds of streams of magical treasure light, and dashed out in an instant.

Seeing this, Yu Sheng and the others didn’t bother to ask further. Nine fiery tails suddenly lit up behind Hu Li, and they urgently gave chase.

The group soon crossed the vast Crystal Jungle, and halfway, they saw bright flashes occasionally lighting up the distant sky.

Thunder gathered in the rain clouds, the lightning drawn by invisible forces, continuously falling from the sky, creating a somewhat familiar scene.

The Nine-tailed Silver Fox swept across the sky, crossing the boundary of the Crystal Jungle, and a desolate wilderness came into everyone’s view.

This wilderness wasn’t covered with endless crystalline substances like other areas. Instead, sparse crystal clusters could only be seen in certain regions, along with some abandoned ruins or equipment and pipelines—possibly remnants from an ancient pioneering era—standing among jagged boulders, mostly eroded beyond recognition.

Yu Sheng’s group descended from the clouds, spotting from afar a semi-transparent barrier standing amid the eroded boulders. Dozens of black-clothed cultivators and Hidden Monastery members in foreign attire were attacking around the barrier, with Xuan Che standing at its center.

It seemed he couldn’t hold on much longer—even with a protective life-saving barrier around him, his face looked terrible, clearly heavily drained.

Seeing this from the air, Master Yuan Hao got anxious at once. Without waiting for Yu Sheng to speak, he summoned a massive earth and wood array behind him. Instantly, the world changed color, rain and wind suspending inversely, and countless spiritual lights resonated from between his numerous magical treasures. Then the old dashing man pointed towards the barrier: "Don’t harm my nephew!"

Struggling to hold on within the barrier, Xuan Che looked up with joy upon hearing the commotion above, only to see a deluge of bricks coming down towards where he stood—each one with devastating power.

Xuan Che turned visibly green and immediately concentrated all his spiritual power, using the last of his protective techniques and treasures to brace for the "aftershock grazes."

Then the mushroom cloud rose.

Dozens of black-clothed evil cultivators and Hidden Monastery believers attacking around had no time to react, being evenly scattered across the wilderness amid the rising mushroom cloud. Meanwhile, the barrier standing among the boulders flickered violently under the explosion’s awe-inspiring residual effects, accompanied by a blurred exclamation, as if something quite cool flew out from within.

"Stay calm, Che’er!" Master Yuan Hao shouted loudly from mid-air, wrapping himself in winds and thunder as he pierced through the still-rippling battlefield, flying straight towards the figure blasted out, "Uncle is here to save you!"