Chapter 500: Interrupted Jump

"Hmph!"

A cold snort.

Though her heart remained unsettled, she now understood the truth that circumstances outweighed personal will, so she suppressed all her emotions and turned to walk toward the edge of the forest.

The deep forest was dense, and all she heard was the wind rustling fallen leaves.

She walked slowly through it, clad in a white robe that radiated sanctity.

There, a damp, slippery purple snake coiled around her snow-white, fair arm and crept upward.

Along her arm, past the delicate collarbone, it slid into a deep crevice, its deep purple scales contrasting sharply with her pale, delicate skin.

Soon, the purple snake began to melt, seeping slowly beneath her snow-white skin, forming a strange, beautiful purple pattern on its surface.

From afar, it added an eerie beauty.

Not long after, the purple pattern flickered faintly, then dimmed, and her skin regained its smooth purity.

This was the Dao Weapon Strange Beast—its size and form subject to her will.

It could expand as vast as the starry cosmos, or shrink to the tiniest speck of dust.

One of the Cang Clan's ultimate weapons, it could grant even a Returning Void cultivator immediate combat power rivaling that of a Dao Union.

She raised her hand and lightly pressed against her chest, as if sensing the progress of the Dao Weapon Strange Beast's cultivation—but her expression was far from pleasant.

Undoubtedly, restoring and nurturing it would take far more than a mere day or night.

Sigh~

If not for that damned spiritual energy filtration system, she wouldn't have needed to damage her Dao Weapon Sacred Beast to conceal her trail…

But her immediate priority was to obtain a suitable identity on this planet and find a way to infiltrate the Central Continent.

The starry expanse was boundless, but to truly cross that threshold, she must reach the Central Continent…

Once she succeeded in crossing that threshold, she could use the supreme power of the Xuan Ancestors to conceal her Dao Union anomaly and deceive the human race's ancient elders.

In this way, she could contribute to the Cang Clan's return to dominance over the Central Continent—and to restoring the natural balance of this world…

Thinking of this, a flicker of fanaticism surfaced in her eyes.

She quickened her pace and soon vanished into the forest.

…

…

Meanwhile, Chi Jiu Yu, still in mid-jump and not yet arrived at the Fu Ling Star System.

She stared blankly at the flashing red lights ahead in the control room and the piercing alarm sounds echoing all around!

【WARNING! Anomaly detected in the destination rules of this jump. Analyzing…】

【Analysis complete!】

【Due to unknown interference, the probability of starship damage upon continued jump: 78.6%】

【Risk too high! Initiating emergency protocol! Forcing jump interruption!】

【WARNING! Forced jump interruption will cause severe turbulence. Please remain seated and hold on!】

What the hell is happening again?

Why are there so many accidents on this mission?!

In past missions, accidents happened often, but never this frequently!

【3, 2, 1】

Boom—boom boom!

Crash!

Uuuu~

Like nails scraping glass, metal twisted to its limit with a screech, thunderous and tidal, a cacophony of noises blending into unbearable shrillness.

The entire starship seemed flipped over, then flipped back again…

A massive pressure pressed down, as if trying to crush and knead the starship and everything inside it into a ball.

Any Jin Dan cultivator, without protective measures, enduring such an ordeal, would likely be left with only half a life.

Of course, Chi Jiu Yu felt no discomfort at all.

She was a Soul Transformation!

Not only did she feel no pain, she even found it interesting and thrilling—she even turned off the auto-activated protective systems…

Thus, the piercing alarms continued, and it was hard to say how long had passed.

Until the immense pressure began to ease, the shrill noises gradually faded, and the flashing alarm lights finally went dark.

Ahead in the control room, a line of text flowed across the star map.

【Forced jump interruption completed!】

Then Xiao Xue, the ship spirit's voice followed.

【WARNING! Due to forced jump interruption, the starship has departed its original star region!】

【WARNING! Current starship coordinates are unknown!】

【Collecting spatial data!】

【Attempting to reconnect to the Sword Sect battle network!】

【Attempting to access local network!】

Chi Jiu Yu: "…"

What the hell just happened?

【Spatial data collection complete. Local network connection successful!】

【Current starship location: Ji Ling Star System, Zhen Ling 52nd planetary system. Detailed coordinates being calculated…】

Ji Ling Star System?

Chi Jiuyu recalled for a moment, then checked the interstellar navigation chart.

"As I remembered."

This Ji Ling Star System is the closest star system to her current mission destination, Fu Ling Star System.

It is also one of the star systems guarded by Fu Ling Zhenjun.

Because the vast majority of its planetary systems have very low spiritual energy concentration and harsh environments, and lack any special resources, only a few planetary systems with higher spiritual energy levels have been developed and inhabited by humans.

Many high-level cultivators bring their junior disciples to these utterly spirit-devoid star systems for training.

"How nostalgic."

She herself had once been thrown by her master into a similar spirit-devoid star system to cultivate…

Besides alien lifeforms, she occasionally encountered elite monsters that only spawn with extremely low probability—Demon Cultivators.

That was also the first time she used her "Supreme Divine Art," instantly slaying a Great Demon Cultivator!

"Report the performance of all jump engines and external coating wear."

At Chi Jiuyu's command, data streams flowed across the semi-transparent screen ahead of the control room.

The jump engine is the most critical structure of the starship, followed by the external coating.

After all, the starship's hull is etched with teleportation array patterns, all of which require the external coating for protection.

Not long after, the voice of the ship spirit Xiao Xue sounded again.

"Due to forced interruption of the jump process, jump engine performance decreased by 1.42%. No impact. Jumping may continue."

"Estimated repair time: three standard hours."

The jump engine's material is unique, and its components are engraved with spiritual energy patterns, allowing it to self-repair.

"External coating wear: 1.3%. Jumping may continue."

After hearing the ship spirit's report, Chi Jiuyu nodded slightly:

"That's not bad."

Then, as if remembering something, she added:

"Activate spiritual energy detection at maximum power."

Never let your guard down.

Demon Cultivators love to cultivate simulated spiritual souls in places like this—she might just run into one.

The elder demons among the Demon Cultivators conceal themselves far better than those old foxes of the Taishang Dao Sect…

The Taishang Dao Sect's youth may be cautious, but their elders?

Those elder demons, by contrast, have all survived the upheavals before the Great Transformation, been "plowed over" by their uncles, and deeply understand the wisdom of "preserve the green mountains."

Of course, being Demon Cultivators, some are still stubborn and foolishly unrepentant.

Can't afford to be careless.

Suddenly!

A pale gold-green sword light burst forth from the Moon Shadow Secret Realm, circled her like a swimming fish, then halted before her, forming into an ancient-style pale gold-green longsword.

The blade trembled gently, emitting a youthful, clear voice:

"Yu-yu~ Master! Test! Test!"

Perfect timing—now is the ideal moment to test!

Chi Jiuyu: "..."

Why is my sword so obsessed with this?

You're my Lifesword!

As a sword, shouldn't you be urging me to focus on cultivating the Sword Dao and not waste my Supreme Sword Dao talent?

"We'll talk about that later," Chi Jiuyu rose from her seat, solemnly stating, "I need to inspect the interior of the starship now."

"Huh?"

Didn't the starship just run a self-check?

"Some areas can't be fully checked remotely—I must go there myself."

Saying this, she turned and left the control room, beginning her inspection of the starship's interior.

Simultaneously, she pulled out her phone, connected to the local network, and investigated the cause of the jump anomaly.

According to the starship's prior analysis during the jump, the issue lay at the destination point.

Such major events are usually promptly broadcast.

Hmm…

Could it be that bastard's fault? Is Fu Ling Zhenjun stirring up trouble again…?

But after thinking it over, she felt that was impossible.

After all, it was just a mission—one with multiple participants—and failure carried no real penalty.

To affect an entire star system merely because of a single impression of "incompetence" from her second grandson…

Unless Fu Ling Zhenjun had lost his mind!

The pale gold-green sword was confused but slowly drifted behind Chi Jiuyu, following her in reverse motion.

As for the reason…

It was simply because Chi Jiuyu didn't want to suddenly turn around and get stabbed by her own Lifesword—she'd specifically demanded this!

Thus, Chi Jiuyu refreshed news updates while inspecting every area of the starship.

With her Lifesword always trailing behind, she inspected with extra care.

After completing her round, the only issue found was that several starship Spirit Core fragments had scattered across the floor of the energy storage chamber due to prior turbulence—everything else was fine.

After successfully inspecting every section inside the starship, more than an hour had already passed...

In a long, narrow, cold corridor.

Chi Jiuyu shuffled step by step toward the starship's control room, pausing every now and then.

She stared at the news that had just refreshed on her phone screen, her brows tightly furrowed.

The headline was very simple — 【Massive Biological Weapon Assault on Fuling Star System】.

This urgent bulletin gave a detailed account of the whole story behind the attack on the Fuling Star System.

Naturally, it also mentioned how Zixuan Zhenjun of Fuling had reversed the very rules of the entire Fuling Star System with a single 'Myriad Phenomena Edict Talisman,' directly suppressing and slaying every biological weapon within the system.

Precisely because of this, the starship undergoing its jump had been affected.

The article also mentioned that anyone wishing to travel into the system to carry out a mission would have to wait two and a half days, until the upheaval of the rules had fully settled.

The relevant report had already been submitted to the Star Domain Garrison Commander; mission executors need not worry about overtime.

Some time-sensitive missions, on the other hand, would be compensated according to the mission's degree of difficulty.

"Myriad Phenomena Edict Talisman..."

Hiss~

Isn't talisman-making a 'sunset profession' these days?

So why does it sound so damn awesome!

Reversing the rules of an entire star system...

Are high-level talisman masters really this badass?! (End of Chapter)