Chapter 398: Communicating with the Puppets

"Thank you, Lord Wei, time is urgent; I must leave at once—there are elders in Langya Heaven who can greatly aid my tribulation crossing!" Xue Dada, a great master of the Tribulation Crossing stage, didn't state it outright, but that essentially explained his haste.

If Wei Yuning were still just an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator, he wouldn't even bother to explain.

After finally seeing Xue Dada off, Wei Yuning let out a long sigh.

Back inside the celestial shuttle, he ran into Ji Qiuhé, who was heatedly discussing something with the Fire Cloud Daoist.

"Tell all the fellow cultivators to return; let's set off quickly and not be delayed by the Puppets any longer!" Wei Yuning said.

"No need for you to say that; everyone has been waiting for news of you in that restaurant after you emerged from seclusion!" Ji Qiuhé pointed to a large house not far away.

As a whole, the celestial shuttle can pass directly through a teleportation array, and the cost is only double that of a single person.

The teleportation fee remained ten high‑quality spirit stones, and the party set off again.

The group was frightened by the incident at Di Kun Ju, so this time they had no intention of halting their journey; they moved from one teleportation point to another without pause.

Half a month later, after passing countless minor teleport points, the party finally arrived at a large starry‑sky teleportation point. They were already near the fringe of the myriad heavens and ten thousand realms.

The teleportation array sits on the "Half‑Day Star"; its name comes from the fact that the barren star where the array lies only shows a half‑sun in the distance, the other half of the star being blocked by a small world.

Seeing the mountain and the horse dies running—it's even worse in the starry sky. The farther one gets to the edge of the myriad heavens, the farther apart the material planets become; this small world is at least thirty‑something star systems away from the teleportation array.

The Half‑Day star is enormous, but its lifespan is already in the later stage; it emits a slightly dim red glow, and the Half‑Day Star is shrouded in this reddish afterglow all day long.

There are no habitable worlds in this starry sky, and the Half‑Day Star is no exception. However, this planet does have an atmosphere; the air is not suitable for breathing and the ground is unsuitable for planting, but for cultivators this environment is already far better than that of the open starry sky.

As long as they are under a basic magical shield, cultivators can live normally.

Here lies a medium‑sized town of twenty‑thousand residents and several large trading markets.

After a brief stop, although a few female cultivators thought of buying something at the market, they were urged by most of the group and had to abandon the plan and continue onward.

As usual, the group entered the celestial shuttle and headed toward the dim starry void inside the teleportation array.

It was still that strange weightless sensation.

Wei Yuning sat side by side with Qin Wu at the pilot seats. The celestial shuttle they are currently using is the one in Qin Wu's hands; the shuttle that Wan Jun gave to Wei Yuning was put away after its trial run.

That shuttle bore the "Lightning Shield" emblem of the Celestial Realm Cultivators' Alliance, and the Celestial Realm has many enemies in the dark corners of the starry world; since their destination is the Eternal Immortal City, Wei Yuning deliberately switched to Qin Wu's shuttle to avoid trouble.

He is now extremely proficient at piloting the celestial shuttle.

Advanced celestial shuttles are somewhat like autopilot; after setting the destination on the star map inside, they can travel along the optimal route, also avoiding large nearby obstacles in the starry sky, while for small obstacles the shuttle simply barrels through them with brute force.

When the teleportation began, Wei Yuning habitually closed his eyes, waiting for it to finish.

Based on past experience, each teleportation passes in a hazy, half‑asleep state. But this time, the drowsy feeling never arrived.

He looked puzzled at Qin Wu beside him; even as a Dragon Warrior, he was also dozing.

"Has my cultivation truly advanced?" Wei Yuning looked outside the shuttle, where dark‑red lines surged toward him in the black void, then swept backward; directly ahead was indeed an endless black corridor.

He had once imagined what a teleportation would look like, but only today did he see it with his own eyes.

After watching for a while, he found it boring and thought, "If teleportation is like this, I'd rather just sleep!" Just as he was about to close his eyes to rest, a shadow suddenly flashed from the side of the shuttle and flew forward.

Wei Yuning's spirit jolted—could one even race in the teleportation channel? This was truly a once‑in‑a‑lifetime sight!

He was finding it amusing when, suddenly, the shadow ahead stopped, and the spot where it halted lay directly in the shuttle's forward path.

That was less funny; racing aside, now there's an obstruction—can one really play like this in a teleportation channel? It was beyond his comprehension.

In the blink of an eye, the shuttle sped toward the shadow. Instinctively, Wei Yuning activated the shuttle's forward lights—a luminous array powered by celestial stones, which had been effortless for centuries.

"What's going on, robot?" Wei Yuning was stunned.

Under the bright light, a floating white metal "Roly‑Poly" robot hovered ahead, blue‑tinged flames spewing from beneath it, its eye on the head flashing red.

Its appearance was identical to the robot on the Half‑Day Star, except one could move while the other could not.

In the critical moment, Wei Yuning's mind remained exceptionally calm. It seemed that this so‑called metal puppet race was far from simple; he even suspected that the cultivators here, in their fight against the Puppets, faced more than mere trouble—the Puppets likely held a huge advantage—but for various reasons the enemy did not press further, opting instead for a smarter tactic.

He had never imagined he would one day race inside a teleportation channel, but today he had to. As a top‑tier artifact for cultivators, the celestial shuttle is extremely agile; beyond basic controls, higher‑level control relies on spiritual consciousness, which is far more flexible than manual operation.

With a rapid turn and then a swift reversal, Wei Yuning successfully avoided colliding directly with the Puppet, skimming past it.

Yet because the maneuvering space was too tight, the shuttle still made close contact with the Puppet.

Though no sound was heard, a sudden rapid tremor came from the side; Wei Yuning, in one breath, tossed a dozen celestial stones into the shuttle's energy inlet, and it miraculously worked, stabilizing the shuttle again.

Forward, forward, forward!

Wei Yuning issued another command to the shuttle; a "buzz‑buzz‑buzz" sounded, and within the teleportation channel the shuttle roared forward in a near‑disassembled state.

The situation was extremely bizarre.

"Clack‑clack… beep‑beep‑beep… wo‑wo‑wo…" After several odd sounds rang out, a steady voice suddenly came through the tapping on the shuttle's top.

The entire voice was bizarre yet clearly switched into the common language of the cultivation world.

"Are you an immortal?"