CHAPTER 458: CHAPTER 458: ANOTHER NEW TERRITORY?

In the darkness, everything quieted down.

Yu Sheng lay in bed tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep for a long time.

He thought about many things, about the Dark Angel, about the many people he currently knew, and about the future construction plans for the valley. He also thought about his hometown, the place flowing with blood-colored sunlight — he realized he hadn’t thought of home for a long time, to the point where... the images in his memory had faded somewhat.

He turned over again, seeing the picture frame of Omen Wandering Star and Erin quietly placed on the bedside table. In the night color spilling in from the window was a hint of silver radiance. The Alien Planet’s sky hung with three full moons. The orbital mechanical Immortal Palace "Changmi Palace" was like a silver star, slowly flying through the night sky between "Taiyou" and "Constant Darkness".

Yu Sheng realized something — although he complained all day about Erin not sleeping peacefully, about her rolling and thrashing in her sleep, grinding her teeth, and talking in her dreams, yet today, without a puppet crawling all over the bed beside him... he still couldn’t sleep.

A soft clicking sound came from the darkness; one of the boxes in the corner was opened, and a pair of scarlet eyes sneaked peeks from under the lid.

The eyes met Yu Sheng’s gaze as he lay on his side in bed, staring.

"— Ha!"

A yawn came from inside the box.

Yu Sheng smacked his lips and shifted to the side.

A small shadow darted out of the box in a flash, beginning to roll all over the bed, wriggling sideways, spinning in place, using its head to push the sheets like a bulldozer...

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, watching the little puppet rolling around: "Isn’t the box a little uncomfortable after all?"

"Nope, it’s really comfy inside, feels like going home!" Erin lifted her head, casually grabbing Yu Sheng’s blanket and wrapping a corner around herself, "Just not used to it, so I decided, one of my bodies still needs to sleep on the bed, or else you’ll get too cocky..."

Yu Sheng was both amused and exasperated, not knowing how the word "cocky" was pinned on him, but he hadn’t yet managed to ask when he realized the little puppet was already snoring.

A few minutes later, Erin suddenly kicked the blanket open, then swung her whole body sideways, throwing a kick towards him.

Yu Sheng instantly felt at ease, skillfully using the blanket to build a "wall" between himself and the little puppet, then turned over and fell asleep.

Half-awake, he didn’t know how long he’d slept, only feeling himself rise and fall within several disconnected and bizarre dreams, occasionally greeting Erin in the dream, but mostly just drifting in a tranquil and warm darkness.

His consciousness drifted far and long in such a relaxed state, then suddenly sank downward—

He didn’t wake up from this sinking but felt as if he had suddenly "connected" to something. After another moment, this connection began to quickly "expand," with ample information flooding into his mind. In the vast darkness, he began to "see" things—rain curtains, the earth, cities, crystals...

"Touch" gradually recovered, Yu Sheng moved his "body" slightly, then suddenly came fully awake, not daring to move again.

Shuji.

...Is this thing still connected!?

Yu Sheng lay still in the darkness, only daring to extend his perception again after a while. He carefully verified the connection between himself and that distant planet, little by little, just like the first time he took over the "valley".

Even more cautiously than that.

...

Light rain drizzled continuously, the sky dim, with the rain mist reflecting distant lights.

But compared with that previous storm, this continuous light rain was already a gentle and favorable weather.

Mo Ran, dressed in a black dress, walked through the ruins on the outskirts of the city.

The descending rain curtain was stopped several meters away by Protective Spirit Qi, retreating to both sides on its own.

She raised her head, looking at the colossal ruins ahead that resembled a broken mountain.

That was once the Sixth Refining Tower—this giant tower, which originally soared into the clouds, was destroyed by a terrifying force from the depths of the planet, broke into three segments, and collapsed onto the earth. Most of its structure now lay quietly in the hills outside the city, surrounded by an inert Crystal Jungle, while the broken tower base still tilted at the city’s edge, blending with the ruins here.

In the rain curtain, those ancient and enormous pipes and supporting structures stood like rugged giant bones, bending chaotically towards the direction where the giant tower lastly toppled and broke. A huge rift, visible only from an aerial view, penetrated the tower base. Around the rift, crystals grew abundantly, and below the rift was a shaft leading directly to the Spirit Vein.

The shaft was originally part of a mining platform, but now the vein underground had been exhausted, replaced only by endless gray-white crystals, within which the deep lava’s dim red glow and faint Spiritual Energy streams were visible, sneaking past crystal walls and vanishing into the lava.

Further from the collapse site, one could see numerous bustling figures—the City Repair Department’s staff and nearby residents were jointly clearing the streets of grey-white crystals, some left by the claws of the Inference Star Body invading the city, but mostly accumulating and eroding over the past hundreds of years.

Such "cleaning" scenes were evident everywhere, on every corner of Mo City’s streets and alleys, where everyone with leftover strength was diligently clearing those ubiquitous eerie crystals—and those with more energy were busy at various Mechanical Camp Offices and Artifact Refining workshops or repairing the walls and City Defense Array.

People were striving to restore the city to the stable appearance in their memories—though to everyone, even the image in their memory of the city was false.

No one knew how much of the city could eventually be restored, but Mo Ran understood that with Mo City’s current situation, restoration of those collapsed Refining Towers was absolutely impossible—it would be a miracle to fill the rift on the mining platform’s edge within ten years.

Yet Mo City still remained the best state-composed city on this planet, without a doubt.

Mo Ran exhaled gently, then straightened her posture even more, walking stably and reliably through the streets.

No one knows how the future of the city will be, but she can steadfastly walk through here, giving people at least some hope.

"City Lord," a trusted aide emerged from the rain and quietly came to Mo Ran’s side, "Three trade ships from Yao Gate Star just landed at the Immortal Boat Platform on the outskirts of the city, bringing a large batch of pills, food, and urgently needed Xuan Crystal and Spirit Marrow to repair the Spirit Vein network."

"Good," Mo Ran’s expression finally showed some relaxation, she nodded lightly, "Leave one ship’s cargo, and the rest... Inform Tan Yuan and White City to come and collect it, we don’t have extra manpower to deliver it to them."

"Yes."

The trusted aide hesitated to speak.

Mo Ran stopped walking and looked at him: "Is there anything else?"

"This morning, many people gathered again at the Immortal Boat Platform," the aide said with a visibly unpleasant expression, his voice only audible between the two, "Several wealthy families want to ’visit relatives’ at the Ten Courts, and they found things from the treasury on their Immortal Boat."

"Kill them."

"Kill... directly?"

"Public trial, then execute. Hang the bodies on the city gate, list the charges clearly, and announce for ten days—though it’s a law from the Pioneer Period, it hasn’t been abolished, and now is the time to use it. Anything else?"

"No, that’s all."

"Alright, you can leave."

The trusted aide’s figure withdrew two steps and silently disappeared into the rain.

Mo Ran gently exhaled, her expression unchanged, as she continued walking forward in the rain.

Some think of rebuilding, some think of escaping disaster, some help their neighbors, some take advantage of the chaos, some still dare not wake, and some fall into madness the moment they awaken.

Everything that should be will be, everything that should come will come, and everything that should pass will pass—being the Lord of this city inevitably means dealing with many troubles.

This is what her father taught her.

...Just that these "troubles" are indeed quite unbearable at this moment.

Mo Ran tightened her face, sighing in her heart.

The city is in ruins, and the entire planet has been heavily polluted by the Dark Angel. Order is barely maintained, teetering on the edge of collapse every day, underground resources have long been exhausted, rebuilding materials are nowhere to be found, and the planet itself holds little value anymore. After the severe damage, Shuji visibly continues to decline rapidly and thoroughly.

Of course, the Taixu Spirit Hub certainly won’t abandon this planet—but how far this "non-abandonment" will go is uncertain, as after all, it’s just a distant and resource-depleted border planet.

And it’s been polluted by the Dark Angel.

Mo Ran sighed again in her heart, her gaze unconsciously sweeping across the nearby remnants and ruins.

Everywhere are those eerie and unsettling gray-white crystals, and the once active crystalline tendrils now sprawling dead from the ground.

These lifeless "corpse shells" are everything left to the Guardian People by the Inference Star Body after devouring the planet’s resources.

A cluster of crystals grew out from a ground fissure, flickering in the rain.

Mo Ran hesitated, her prolonged exhaustion made her reactions sluggish, so much so that she didn’t immediately realize what had happened.

Then that cluster of crystals flickered again.

The surrounding trusted aides reacted.

"Protect the City Lord!"

One aide hurriedly raised his voice to caution, following which several figures shielded Mo Ran, while two others had their flying swords unsheathed, poised to strike at the suddenly "alive" "corpse shell" in the next moment.

But Mo Ran suddenly saw some "marks" appear on the crystal cluster, after a moment of shock, she promptly halted her subordinates: "Stop!"

The trusted aides didn’t understand, but instinctively complied with the command. Mo Ran steadied herself, with brief hesitation, boldly approached the cluster of crystals.

The surface of the crystals softly shimmered, and amid the illusionary light, a pattern emerged.

First was an ambiguous triangle logo, then a smiling face, followed by a sentence—

"In trouble, find a travel agency, contact number: XXXXXXX..."

From the ground fissure beside the crystals, a tendril slowly extended, waving in front of everyone.

Mo Ran nearly let out another scream.