Chapter 314: Return Voyage

Yu Sheng himself found it difficult to describe his feelings at this moment.

When he had completely "taken over" this spaceship known as the "Pillar of Order," fully merging his consciousness with these cold metals and beginning to attempt to welcome the baptism of the cosmic vacuum in a non-flesh-and-blood form, an endless vastness accompanied by extreme loneliness, yet bathed in starlight and feeling tranquil and peaceful, a contradictory and surging state of mind surged up simultaneously, leaving him unable to calm down for a long time.

This was completely different from the feeling he had when he took over that "Night Valley."

He could not say what caused this distinction—because of the vastness of space? Or because of the special nature of this body of steel itself? Perhaps both.

And he was not resistant to his feelings at this moment.

He stood at the end of the control hall, gazing at the endless deep space outside, while simultaneously, from the spaceship's perspective, examining his current position and state; his consciousness roamed through this activated "Gao Ta," "understanding" everything within this new shell in a way only he could comprehend.

After an unknown amount of time, his gaze fell on a certain direction, and then he raised his hand slightly forward.

Just like the first time he reshaped the mud and stones beneath his feet in Night Valley, he clumsily moved his new "limbs."

Numerous hidden grilles near the base and in the middle structure of the "Pillar of Order" unfolded in space, beams of dark red light gradually lit up, conventional engines ignited, and the "Gao Ta" began to accelerate slowly.

Then some auxiliary engines lit up in succession, beginning to adjust the spaceship's direction of travel.

A few minutes later, Yu Sheng stopped and began checking other systems on the spaceship.

He discovered many places that were already damaged or in poor condition—some had been bombed and damaged by the Special Bureau's firepower when the spaceship escaped from Fog City, while others were overload damages caused by the phase engines emergency shutting down due to interference during the jump.

When Yu Sheng "took over" the spaceship, these damages already existed, and since he did not understand the principles of these things, he naturally could not repair them at this moment.

It seems we still have to wait until we return to let the Special Bureau's experts help study them, see if they can repair them, and after they are fixed, perform a new "blood infusion" on these damaged parts to "refresh" their state...

Yu Sheng's mind turned with various thoughts while confirming the spaceship's current readiness status.

Fortunately, although there were some damaged areas, the spaceship's basic functions were intact; the part used for jumping was in the worst condition, but the impact on Yu Sheng was the smallest.

He could use his own methods to "compensate" for the missing key structures of the phase engines.

After testing a huge pile of functions and pondering many ideas repeatedly, Yu Sheng finally took a light breath, concentrating his spirit to synchronize completely with this ship, while spreading his hands and making a gesture as if pushing open a great door.

The phase engines charged, and transmission parameters began to generate—

Accompanied by a vibration spreading through the entire hull and a deep roar echoing through the ship's interior space, the "Gao Ta" floating in space suddenly became illusory, as if several phantoms overlapped in one place; starlight from afar penetrated directly through its huge and transparent structure, while at the same time, a trembling crack appeared inside the Gao Ta's phantom, as if a gradually tearing spacetime rift had formed within it, and the entire spaceship began to collapse and flip towards that internal crack...

At the same time, deep in the valley.

A roaring sound came from the clearing near the Black Forest, startling a squirrel gnawing an acorn on a tree branch by the woods, a hunter chopping firewood, and Little Red Riding Hood, who had just finished four sets of exam papers, one essay, and ten pages of in-class exercises after finally getting home from school and wanted to find a quiet, uninhabited place in the woods to scroll through videos for a while.

The squirrel screamed and jumped down from the tree, hopping onto a large rock at the edge of the clearing to look in the direction the roar came from: "Another big project? Another big project! Haven't heard about it?"

The hunter also walked out holding an axe and immediately saw a large area of ground undulating and writhing at a distance from the Black Forest entrance, facing the direction of the Grave... Inn Hub.

That was originally a wasteland, nothing but stones, but now that wasteland was leveling at an astonishing speed; the soil and rocks were "melting," then turning into some kind of gray-white solid form—Yu Sheng basically used this kind of "material" to build houses; immediately after, the leveled ground began to undergo further changes, forming deep pits and high platform structures of astonishing scale, looking as if reserving a "foundation" for some huge thing, while hard roads extended from the edge of this rapidly changing wasteland, connecting to the small road linking the Black Forest and Tongx Town...

Little Red Riding Hood also led her wolf pack out at this moment, staring wide-eyed at the distance.

The hunter's low voice came from the side: "... Did you hear Yu Sheng mention any major construction plans recently?"

"Haven't heard about it," Little Red Riding Hood also looked completely confused, her eyes wide open, "Didn't he just build that so-called Hub? The interior decoration isn't even finished yet, how is he making something this big again?"

"What do you think this is for?" the hunter muttered in confusion.

"A big water pit!" the squirrel jumped up, landing on the hunter's shoulder, "Such a huge pit, with diving platforms around it, must be for a swimming pool! Maybe prepared for mermaids—"

"Mermaids can't swim," Little Red Riding Hood refuted seriously.

"Then she can sink inside," the squirrel was overjoyed—even though it was unknown why she was overjoyed, "and you guys can cast lines from the high platform..."

Little Red Riding Hood opened her mouth, but before she could speak, another roar came from the sky, interrupting everything she wanted to say.

She looked up in shock, and the squirrel and hunter beside her also looked up in shock (although the hunter had no face).

A distorted crack was rapidly expanding in the sky, and then many huge phantoms began to appear around that crack; almost in the blink of an eye, those phantoms "flipped" over in a dizzying manner, forming an illusory Gao Ta floating in the air—the Gao Ta was hundreds of meters high, solemn and majestic, with many sub-tower structures resembling "floating pods" floating around its top, connected to the main tower, looking eerie yet magnificent.

Even the wolves beside Little Red Riding Hood began to look shocked.

Immediately after, the Gao Ta's form shifted from illusory to solid, and after adjusting its posture slightly, it slowly descended towards the just-completed "foundation pit" beside the Black Forest.

It landed precisely in the huge pit; like two human hands coordinating skillfully, the "rock" structures around the pit immediately deformed, firmly fixing this towering "building."

The squirrel finally screamed: "... What is this!! Hunter, do you know what this is? Little Red Riding Hood, do you know what this is?"

The hunter said nothing, and Little Red Riding Hood shook her head after finally coming to her senses: "I don't know, but it must be something Yu Sheng made... probably to create symmetry with that tower of Princess Rapunzel in the north?"

Squirrel: "That tower of Princess Rapunzel doesn't fly either! This thing flies!"

And just then, Little Red Riding Hood suddenly saw an illusory door appear near that tower.

She immediately breathed a sigh of relief—finally, something she recognized appeared.

The great door opened, and Yu Sheng walked out from inside, staggering.

Little Red Riding Hood rode her wolf straight over, arriving in front of Yu Sheng in the blink of an eye; she stepped forward and supported Yu Sheng, who looked weak and dizzy for some reason: "Hey! Are you okay? What's going on?"

Yu Sheng waved his hand with a pale face: "Don't talk first, dizzy, so dizzy... ugh—"

Before he finished speaking, he began to retch to one side, but after retching for a long time, nothing came out, making him feel even more suffocated.

Little Red Riding Hood was also a bit nauseous from the sound of his retching, but in the end, she firmly held onto Yu Sheng's arm without letting go; after nearly a full minute, the latter finally improved a bit, struggled to lift his head, and blurted out: "Oh my... being kicked out of a dream by Erin with one foot isn't any better than this... is long-distance jumping this dizzying?"

Little Red Riding Hood sat there listening in shock: "Huh? What jumping?"

Yu Sheng took a long breath, forced a smile onto his face, and pointed at the spaceship sticking nearby: "This one, I brought back from outer space, a local specialty."

Little Red Riding Hood's expression became even more blank; Gao San's brain quickly understood the meaning of the other person's sentence but could not comprehend the rationality of this matter: "Ah... ah? You said local what specialty?!"

"I'll explain later," Yu Sheng finally recovered most of the weakness and dizziness brought by the long-distance jump; although still a bit groggy, his head was no longer buzzing, so he pulled his arm out of Little Red Riding Hood's hand, "I'll pull Erin and Hu Li and the others in first..."

Saying this, he groped in the air beside him and casually pulled open an illusory great door.

On the other side of the door was the living room at No. 66 Wutong Road—Hu Li, Erin, and Xuan Che had gone home not long after escaping via the Gao Ta teleportation, and had been waiting at home during this time.

A moment later, several more shocked figures appeared beside the Black Forest.

The little doll stood on the ground, tilting her head back as hard as she could, as if trying to snap her neck off, looking at the towering spire before her; after a long while, she blurted out: "... You really dragged this entire tower over, didn't you?!"

Yu Sheng: "What do you mean 'dragged'? This is called a trophy—and didn't I say I would bring back local specialties?"

Erin was shocked: "... What the hell, a spaceship as a local specialty from space?!"

Yu Sheng: "Just say if it's reasonable or not."

Erin was instantly speechless.

And just at this moment, Xuan Che turned around from the side, clasped his hands in a bow, and spoke with exceptional sincerity: "The methods of a master truly possess the power of Lei Ting."

Upon hearing this, Yu Sheng instinctively scratched his head, feeling quite embarrassed by the other's praise; before he could even open his mouth to be modest, Hu Li also crowded over, his tail swaying like a fan on the third setting, his eyes shining: "Gracious Sir, entering the enemy ship alone, slaying the general and seizing the vessel, you can be called a Boarding Immortal!"

Yu Sheng: "..."

(End of this chapter)