Chapter 302: Interference

Hearing Yu Sheng's suddenly emerging Plan B, Xuan Che was stunned on the spot, because he had no idea what "Plan B" meant.

Erin, however, was not surprised at all—though she didn't know when a Plan B had appeared, she was long accustomed to Yu Sheng's ability to conjure new ideas from thin air at any moment.

Hu Li was even simpler; she didn't think at all. The moment Yu Sheng spoke the two words "tail," she immediately turned her head and pulled a tail from behind her without hesitation—this caused Xuan Che's second bout of stupor.

Only then did the fox-girl realize what had happened and quickly looked at Yu Sheng: "Benefactor! I'll go with you!"

"I'm going alone this time," Yu Sheng said rapidly while holding Hu Li's tail, "The situation up there is unknown, and I'm not confident myself. If you follow, the risk is too great."

Hu Li stared straight into Yu Sheng's eyes, but upon noticing his resolute attitude, she, who was always sensible, said nothing more and simply nodded obediently: "Alright, then where should we launch?"

Yu Sheng had already formed a plan: "Aim for the tower's peak—I saw that place was the first to start 'flickering.' If this thing is opening a portal, the rift should be up there."

The silver-white fox tail began to tremble slightly. Yu Sheng instinctively tightened his grip on the middle section of the tail. Although there was no third-person perspective, he could sense that his current appearance might have some points of criticism. He then shooed both Erins off his shoulders; one Erin, while jumping down, shouted: "Hey, what's your specific plan once you get up there? Open a huge door to cut this thing off and stop it?"

"I haven't figured it out yet; I'll go up and take a look first," Yu Sheng answered with complete honesty, "If it really doesn't work, I'll use the method you suggested. My door can cut through space directly; theoretically, it can stop it—either way, if it fails, we'll meet on the ground in half an hour."

No sooner had he spoken than the fox tail in his arms erupted with a bright flame. Amidst the sudden expansion and explosion of the fox fire, a powerful shockwave surged. Yu Sheng let out an "Ai-ma!" as he clutched the large fluffy mass, and his entire body shot straight toward that towering giant tower.

Erin stood on the ground, shielding her eyes with her hand as she looked up at Yu Sheng flying farther and farther away, and couldn't help but exclaim: "... It really looks like he was blasted up by a fart."

Then she added another sentence: "But this time he's actually returned to my familiar action habits... the kind where you're not worth saving."

Hu Li, standing nearby, muttered with a hint of resentment: "Sigh, Benefactor didn't take me."

Erin: "He didn't take me either!"

Xuan Che paid no attention at all to what Hu Li and Erin were muttering. From the moment Hu Li pulled off her tail until Yu Sheng was launched, he had been busy stabilizing his Dao Heart. Now that his Dao Heart was stable, his worldview hadn't recovered yet. Only after Erin and the others finished speaking did he raise a finger to point at Hu Li, then at Yu Sheng who was already nearly flying to the tower's peak: "You... he... you all..."

Erin, not waiting for the other words to finish coming out of his mouth, waved her hand: "You are shallow and unlearned."

Xuan Che let out a long sigh, pulling a few pills from his robe, tossing them into his mouth, and muttering dejectedly: "... Yes, I am indeed shallow and unlearned."

Erin was startled: "Hey! Just because I said you're shallow and unlearned doesn't mean you have to take poison right here!"

Xuan Che: "... These are Stomach-Invigorating and Digestion-Relieving Pills."

By this time, Yu Sheng no longer knew the situation on the ground; his entire attention was focused on the Gao Ta rapidly approaching him.

The tower's flickering speed was increasing faster and faster; the upper part of the tower's body had even completely fallen into a state of illusory transparency. Cannon fire flying in from a distance landed consecutively on the Gao Ta's surface, visibly passing straight through it.

Yu Sheng didn't understand the principle behind this, but he guessed the transmission progress bar of this thing was probably at the end—however, fortunately, it was ultimately such a massive structure that the black technology of the Holy Ascetic Order couldn't transfer it out of this alien realm in an instant; there should still be a little time left before it completely left here.

Holding the fox tail, he flew through the overwhelming firepower. Missiles, beams, and high-energy particle clusters tore through the sky, whistling sharply in the nearby air. But the Special Bureau must have noticed a weirdo—no, a remarkable person—clutching a fox tail and charging up into the sky, because Yu Sheng soon noticed the barrage around him thinning out; all attacks coming from behind changed direction and began concentrating their bombardment on the lower half of the Gao Ta.

The fox tail arrived near the tower's peak, circling at an extremely close distance.

Yu Sheng tried to adjust the floating orientation of the fox tail. He tugged at the fur on its side, and the nine-tailed fox on the ground immediately sensed it, moving the tail's position according to Yu Sheng's indication, pressing it tightly against the tower's peak, which had become transparent and seemed no longer in the current dimension.

This feeling was strange; Yu Sheng felt that even in the most outrageous dreams he had ever had, or in the most fantastical books he had ever written, such a scene had never existed.

Riding a fox tail through a hail of bullets to intercept a cultist stronghold preparing for a jump—without hundreds of thousands of words of preceding setup, just a few words of this sentence popping out would count as a serious mental illness.

But now he was right here, holding a fluffy mass, floating atop this illusory giant tower.

He reached out his hand, trying to touch that transparent phantom.

He felt he only touched a slightly trembling air.

What should be done next? How could he intercept this building that was starting its "transmission"?

If it were the Special Bureau, under prepared conditions, they should have interference methods similar to a "Jump Disruptor" or a "Gravity Well Generator." If it were Xuan Che's homeland, those immortals should also have large-scale formations or magical treasures capable of blocking such transmission, but none of these things were present before his eyes.

Yu Sheng extended his hand into the empty air. He knew there wasn't much time left, but at this moment, he instead felt his heart extremely calm.

He gently closed his eyes, beginning to perceive and ponder.

Pondering guides the direction forward; perceiving ensures that pondering isn't so outrageous—he recalled the sensation of opening a door and tried to open a door inside this tower.

Although this tower was no longer "here," it still left a shadow here. Where there is a shadow, it means the "connection" still exists.

A door is the manifestation of a "connection," proof that two spaces, two locations, have established a link. As long as there is a tiny bit of connection, a door can be opened.

Thinking this, Yu Sheng touched a doorknob.

He tried to turn it, but before the door opened, he suddenly felt something else.

It was the trembling of space.

It was the spacetime structure being disturbed by this tower.

This "disturbance" formed ripples invisible to the naked eye. Yu Sheng didn't understand it and couldn't see any principled connection between this spatial ripple and the Gao Ta's "transmission," but he guessed that the stability of these ripples surely concerned the blood pressure and heartbeats of the cultists hiding inside the Gao Ta.

That was interesting.

Yu Sheng "gazed" at the ripple released from the Gao Ta and, using the method of opening a large door and "assigning value," added a noise to one of the waves.

Then he heard a "Boom!" and everything in front of him went black—

Inside the top-level control area of the Gao Ta's "Order Pillar," dozens of Holy Ascetic Order priests stood uneasily before various control devices, waiting for the Gao Ta to escape the dangerous state.

The exposure of the Sanctuary was a huge surprise; no one expected the Artificial Saintess to fail twice in a row, and even fewer expected the powerful spatial shielding system to suddenly collapse for inexplicable reasons. The Special Bureau's reaction speed and the intensity of the troops deployed were the second surprise—when the two "Hunt Owls" appeared on the early-warning radar, the Sage immediately issued an emergency jump order, but even so, the Gao Ta still took a solid round of hits during the first wave of firepower bombardment.

Fortunately, the Gao Ta's shields and hull withstood the heavy firepower from the "Hunt Owls," and the phasing-induced intangibility that followed allowed the "Order Pillar" to dodge most of the subsequent attacks.

Now, the unsettling violent tremors at various points of the Gao Ta were gradually subsiding, and the foggy images transmitted by external monitors were gradually being replaced by the misaligned light and shadow of the jump system's activation. Finally, it was safe.

The cultists in the control hall all breathed a sigh of relief. Although the mission had failed to some extent, the joy of timely recovering the organization's important assets relaxed everyone. A tall, thin old man wearing a white short robe, sitting among all the cultists, slowly nodded, preparing to arrange follow-up inspections and repair work.

However, just at this moment, a series of terrible tearing explosions and tremors far more intense than the first wave of firepower bombardment spread throughout the entire Gao Ta. It was as if a series of heavy bombs had exploded inside the giant tower. The strong vibrations made everyone in the hall stumble and sway. While exclamations echoed around, piercing system alarm sounds came from all directions:

"Jump interference! Alarm, fatal error! Jump interference! Phase conversion failed... Navigation offline! Alarm, navigation offline! Jump interference!"

Immediately following the alarm sounds, piercing noise appeared. Various system alarms blared together. Chain reactions caused by multiple system crashes made the several technicians guarding the control consoles emit screams bordering on wailing. A member of the Ascetic Order jumped straight up, looking at the tall, thin old man in the white robe in the center of the room: "Sage! We are under attack! Unexplained jump interference!"

"Abort the jump! Quickly!" The white-robed old man also lost his composure, "Before the phase engine annihilates!"

"Aborting! All personnel prepare for impact—we are dropping out of hyperspace!"

The next second, the final thunderous boom and violent vibration almost knocked half the people in the hall unconscious.

Those still conscious also stumbled, with blood flowing from their noses and mouths. They staggered, barely recovering their ability to think from the intense stimulation of spatial dislocation, then simultaneously looked out the window.

Outside the thick polymer porthole was a strange and dark starry sky.

The entire "Order Pillar" had its jump parameters reset by some unknown force and was thrown into a desolate area among the stars.

(End of this chapter)