Chapter 392: Emergency Rescue

The moment he saw that massive fissure, Zheng Zhi sucked in a sharp breath, not forgetting Yu Sheng's earlier reminder to "report immediately upon seeing anything amiss," and shouted on the spot: "I see it! The Gao Ta ahead has turned into a fissure! Just like at Qianfeng Ling Mountain!"

However, before his words had even fallen, that sky-piercing, earth-splitting great fissure suddenly vanished from his sight, and the terrifying, bizarre scene just ended like a dream abruptly cut short.

The group suddenly stopped, and Yu Sheng turned to look at Zheng Zhi: "A fissure again? What scale? What state?"

Zheng Zhi also stopped, staring in shock at the imposing silhouette of the ancient refining tower in the distant rain curtain, his expression suddenly becoming somewhat at a loss: "Uh, it suddenly disappeared again... it only appeared for a few seconds."

A bolt of lightning suddenly slashed across the sky, the sudden burst of intense light illuminating part of the magnificent structure on the side of the ancient refining tower; Yu Sheng instinctively turned his head to look at that Gao Ta, seeing it blurred in the rain's silhouette, the illuminated part seeming to come alive, trembling and shaking under the dim sky light.

And the next second, before he could think through what that fissure Zheng Zhi had just seen and then suddenly vanished was about, he smelled a scent of blood coming from nearby—very close, very strong, even he could smell it.

By this time, the group had completely left the last bustling area on the city's edge and entered the abandoned zone adjacent to the former mining facilities, and that scent came from a cluster of old buildings nearby.

With Erin tucked in his arms, Yu Sheng led the way, stepping first into this labyrinth-like complex of buildings interconnected by numerous giant pipes, transport cables, and mechanism tracks.

Towering industrial facilities surrounded the refining tower, which stood like a mountain; the mechanism devices that once roared now lay silently immersed in the eternal rainy season of this equatorial region, those pitch-black factories and mechanism giants like massive skeletons, washed by the rain, silent and hollow.

Yu Sheng knew that around the refining towers encircling Mocheng, such building clusters were everywhere; they were supporting facilities for the former processes of spirit mine extraction, refining, and coarse processing, but after the mining projects gradually ceased, these huge and complex old factories were difficult to demolish or repurpose, so except for a small portion converted into tourist attractions, most of the urban areas adjacent to the refining towers had become the "Rust Belt" on Mocheng's edge.

Except for the automatically operating mechanism devices that periodically came to check whether the basic structures of these urban areas were stable, these regions seemed as if they had been completely forgotten by people.

"Radar, there's a reaction."

Luna spoke in a low voice, then suddenly bent down, opening a weapon compartment on her leg from beneath her nun's skirt hem, equipping ten fingers with sharp blades.

Hu Li's tail behind her slowly rose; she looked up at something not far away, a faint light flashing in her eyes, and clusters of fox fire rose and swirled around her, the dim flames spreading and burning along the oil-paper umbrella in her hand, not harming the umbrella in the slightest, yet seeming to transform it into a burning canopy, growing brighter and brighter in the rain curtain.

Erin even poked her head out from Yu Sheng's clothes, lying on the latter's shoulder and looking around nervously, while carefully rubbing a lightning ball in her hand—the body she was using to go out today was the one made of Spirit Fox Black Iron.

Yu Sheng looked up and noticed that the roof of a nearby factory had collapsed in one section, as if struck by something not long ago.

They cautiously approached that factory, and then suddenly, Hu Li's ears twitched.

She heard a voice, carrying tension and urgency, coming from the rain—

"... Grand-uncle, hold on, don't sleep, absolutely don't fall asleep, the pills are about to take effect... Grand-uncle, you've already returned to your original form! Hold on!"

Yu Sheng heard it too; he quickly exchanged a glance with the fox demon girl, then ran swiftly toward the direction the sound came from.

Going around a wall that had also collapsed from being struck by something, he finally saw the source of the voice and the blood scent—he saw a girl in a red dress kneeling in the rain, desperately treating her companion, and the object of her treatment was a huge fox demon—about half the size of Hu Li's original form, with six tails, but now the fox demon's straw-colored fur was soaked with fresh blood, its breath faint, obviously in a dire state.

And almost at the same time, that girl in the red dress also noticed Yu Sheng's group suddenly appearing nearby; she shivered all over and suddenly looked up: "Grand-uncle, someone's here!"

Immediately, she noticed Hu Li standing beside Yu Sheng, holding an oil-paper umbrella soaked and burning with fox fire, with nine tails swaying gently behind her.

The girl in the red dress paused, then suddenly sniffed hard, her face showing a look of shock yet delight—as if suddenly grasping a straw for survival, she quickly got up and stumbled over: "Silver Fox Immortal! It's, it's me! We've met once, at Taiyou... Can you help my grand-uncle? He's about to..."

Before the girl in the red dress finished speaking, Yuanhao Zhenren beside her had instantly moved like teleportation to the side of the six-tailed fox demon whose breath was faint and who had already returned to his original form, and quickly spoke: "Girl, do not panic, let me take a look."

At the same time, Yu Sheng's gaze fell behind the girl in the red dress—he saw five golden fox tails.

Those tails should have been extremely beautiful and spirited in normal times, but now they were obviously injured, soaked through by the rain, hanging down in a wretched and listless manner, looking miserable.

"Hey! Silly fox!" Erin immediately looked up and glanced at Hu Li beside her, "Your distant relative!"

Hu Li did not pay attention to the little doll's words; she just walked to the side of the girl in the red dress, thought for a few seconds, then leaned in to sniff the other's scent—the latter instantly tensed up all over, even her wet tail bristling in the rain—then Hu Li finally remembered something and had an epiphany: "Oh! It's you!"

She came over and poked Yu Sheng's arm with her tail: "Benefactor, it's that jade-faced, golden-furred five-tailed fox we met on the Immortal Boat Platform at Taiyou..."

"I know," Yu Sheng nodded, "I guessed it."

He could indeed only guess—after all, this was the first time he had seen the human form of this local fox, and he did not have Hu Li's sense of smell that could recognize people by scent alone.

While speaking, Yu Sheng and the others had all arrived beside that strange fox demon lying on the ground and dying; Yuanhao Zhenren was now pressing his hand on the latter's body, helping to calm his injuries, while the girl in the red dress stood nervously beside Hu Li, her face full of worry.

"What's going on with you? Weren't you at Taiyou before? How did you get here? How did he get injured? Were you attacked?" Yu Sheng casually asked a string of questions.

"I and my grand-uncle were originally guided by an immortal to come here seeking opportunities, but after arriving here, grand-uncle suddenly sensed something, saying there was danger," the girl in the red dress quickly answered, speaking rapidly, "We wanted to run immediately, but as soon as we moved, we fell into a strange place, and there we encountered a group of black-clad strange people and many demon beasts who ambushed and tried to kill us..."

"We fought with all our might but couldn't beat them, and couldn't find a way out, but later, somehow, those black-clad people seemed to suddenly receive some order and all withdrew, and my grand-uncle and I barely escaped, then fell here in a confused state..."

The five-tailed fox demon in front of them had spewed out a lot of words in one breath like popping beans, but the content was somewhat messy, not knowing whether it was because her mind was still somewhat confused or because the events happened too suddenly.

Yu Sheng also heard it in a confused state and unconsciously frowned: "Ah, guided by an immortal? Coming here to seek opportunities?"

While speaking, he looked up, gazing at the factories, pipes, and that mountain-like refining tower in the rain, blinking his eyes.

"... Going to the abandoned mines in the old industrial zone on the border to seek opportunities?"

He felt this matter had an air of unreliability.

But the little doll on his shoulder suddenly spoke: "Hey, change your wording, 'Going to the spirit vein ruins in the border wasteland to seek ancient relics,' doesn't that sound much more reasonable?"

"Then saying it that way does seem much more reasonable," Yu Sheng rubbed his chin, then immediately realized, "Wait, how do you know so much... Have you started getting obsessed with novels again?!"

"Yes, yes, I used your account to read them," Erin nodded without hesitation, then looked at Yuanhao Zhenren beside her who was rescuing the injured, "Hey, how's the situation? Can he still be saved?"

"Under normal circumstances, there's no hope," Yuanhao Zhenren said without looking up, his opening words startling everyone, then immediately changing his tone, "But meeting me is his fortune—as long as he still has the will to survive, I can protect his life force from extinguishing. However, conditions here are limited, I can only protect his life force; to truly save him completely... I'm afraid my junior brother must step in, he is a master of the medical Dao."

"Then I'll open a door now, and you send him over?" Yu Sheng immediately said.

"Wait a moment, let me stabilize his condition first," Yuanhao Zhenren waved his hand, "Right now his heart meridians are completely severed; moving him might kill him... Do not panic, it will be done in a moment."

Yuanhao Zhenren's few words were both terrifying and casual, leaving the five-tailed golden fox beside him stunned, but judging by the old master's attitude, he should be quite confident.

Erin, lying on Yu Sheng's shoulder, curiously examined the fox demon lying on the ground, not knowing what she was thinking, and after a while suddenly blurted out: "Hey, Yu Sheng, this fox looks a bit ugly."

Yu Sheng broke out in a cold sweat: "Hey, that's not polite."

"But it really is a bit ugly, much uglier than the silly fox's original form, the face is square, the head is square too..."

More cold sweat appeared on Yu Sheng's head; he looked up at the six-tailed fox demon lying on the ground with eyes closed in a semi-comatose state, and actually couldn't hold back either: "There are many types of foxes, this kind is called a Tibetan fox..."

(End of this chapter)