Alien Hotel.

Chapter 426 Penetration

The rain continued incessantly, and seemed even colder than usual. A disorderly wind blew between the buildings, swirling the raindrops into a chaotic mess. In the misty haze, the distant neon lights became large, indistinct patches of color, shimmering with an illusory glow that was hard to discern as real or unreal.

The awning boats and mechanical pleasure boats floating among the pavilions and towers received a navigation warning from the Control Department and moored near the nearest buildings to avoid the worsening weather—an alert had been issued that a cold front was moving south from the wilderness and would turn into a cyclone as it approached the Refining Tower, bringing a storm to the entire city.

Even through the large window, Xuan Che could feel the restlessness brewing in the air outside.

Something sensed something... sensed the discordant "gaze" in the city.

Xuan Che composed himself, his expression calm, and looked at the city lord Mo Ran sitting opposite him.

Mo Ran was smiling as he reported to him on the renovation and reuse projects of the surrounding refining towers in Mo City in recent years. He would also turn his head from time to time to talk to the invisible "Elder Dao Heng of Zhenxing" in the air.

Ten minutes earlier, a servant had entered the room and greeted Elder Daoheng.

Xuan Che showed no sign of anything amiss.

His divine sense swept across the room once more, and across the entire city lord's mansion.

Mo Ran harbored no ill intentions, and none of the people here were hostile. They were not those "black-robed monks"—even if Mo Ran harbored evil intentions, she wouldn't resort to such a farcical performance using an "invisible star guardian."

Clearly, everyone here has a problem with their understanding.

Xuan Che continued to stall for time, then found an excuse and quietly took his leave.

Mo Ran and Elder Dao Heng escorted him all the way to the gate of the mansion.

“A great storm is coming to the city soon,” Mo Ran said, glancing at the streets where there were few pedestrians left. He then turned to Xuan Che and bowed slightly. “If you are not in a hurry, I can arrange a celestial boat.”

“No need, a little wind and rain has its own unique experience,” Xuan Che cupped his hands in greeting. “The Taixu Spiritual Pivot rarely sees this kind of weather. I’d like to take a walk around the city. Thank you for your hospitality today. City Lord Mo, please stay.”

After they parted ways, Xuan Che stepped out of the protective array of the City Lord's Mansion. The wind and rain outside rushed towards him as if a pack of beasts had smelled their prey, but they were blocked by the protective spiritual energy around him in an instant. The energy swirled and dissipated around him, leaving only a few wisps of cold air seeping in, which made his mind even clearer.

He strode into the depths of the rain, his steps seemingly slow but actually quick, and in a short while he had already walked several blocks away.

Several pedestrians wearing raincoats and straw hats hurried across the street. One of them muttered as he ran that the sudden change in weather was unusual, but the person next to him reassured him that the weather in Mo City was always like this, and that torrential rains every now and then were very common this month.

A drunkard stumbled out of a nearby tavern. The cold wind and rain made him stagger as soon as he stepped outside. He glanced at the sky and began to mutter curses as he walked. The protective spiritual energy he barely maintained swayed in the wind and rain. As Xuan Che got closer, he could hear the drunkard muttering, "...Just a few drinks...and it started raining. Damn it...I wonder how many people will skip work at the mine tomorrow..."

Xuan Che subtly avoided the drunkard. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small boat decorated with lanterns and surrounded by iridescent lights, passing low between two nearby buildings. He could faintly hear singing coming from the boat, and a young woman in a gauze dress was standing at the bow. The woman seemed completely unaware of the increasingly strong wind and rain, and showed no intention of having the boat find a nearby building to dock.

Xuan Che narrowed his eyes slightly.

The rain seemed to have never fallen on the woman in the gauze dress, nor on the awning boat.

He reached into his robes and took out the Spirit Mirror.

The Spirit Mirror received a message from Garrison-3. In the message, Mr. Yu mentioned the strange crystalline forest, the circumstances of Yun Qingzi's fall a thousand years ago, and the truth buried deep underground.

The unknown Dark Angel possesses the characteristic of parasitizing planets. Guard-3 was the first victim, and Shuji was the second. Its next target is likely to be the Taixu Spiritual Pivot.

The Dark Angel is most likely still hiding somewhere in Shuji. At the same time, there should also be a "Yun Qingzi copy" under its control hidden on this planet. Those black-clad cultivators who are instructed by "Yun Qingzi" have probably all been transformed into the Dark Angel's "fellowship".

As for those hermit cultists hidden deeper within... they may not necessarily have designs on the Primordial Spirit, but they will certainly take action when the Dark Angels become active again...

Xuan Che quickly scanned the messages, then discreetly probed the Lingxi Mirror with his divine sense, transmitting the situation he had just discovered and his guesses back to his sect. He also sent them to his senior master who remained in Huixianzhou and to Mr. Yu who had not yet returned from Garrison-3.

……

"The 'Star Guardian' of Shuji has most likely met with misfortune, and may have even disappeared decades ago... According to the records retrieved from the City Lord's Mansion, Elder Daoheng only had relatively close exchanges and normal private interactions with the major cities of Shuji when he first took office, and then quickly became reclusive..."

"The records show that the 'Star Guardian' performed his duties very regularly, even to an excessive degree. Apart from the activities required of the Star Guardian Elder, there is almost no mention of any other matters concerning the 'Dao Heng Elder' in the records of Mo Cheng."

"Mo Ran herself is lucid and speaks calmly; the problem lies in her perception. Everyone's perception is somewhat off, so..."

Yuanhao Zhenren frowned as he looked at the message Xuanche had just sent on the Lingxi Mirror and fell into deep thought.

A moment later, he went to the window and casually pushed it open.

The wind and rain outside rushed in, but were instantly blocked by the hotel building's own protective barrier, leaving only a few wisps of cold, damp air blowing into the room.

On these colonies developed from wild lands, most buildings have this kind of built-in environmental protection design, which can be regarded as a "characteristic tradition" of many pioneering planets - although in most cases their strength can only block wind, rain and heat.

Master Yuanhao gazed into the rain for a while, then took out two jade-white bricks from his robes and casually tossed them out the window.

Zheng Zhi, who was scrolling through short videos on his phone nearby, looked up and saw this scene. He was startled and almost thought that this handsome god was also throwing things from a high place and smashing people's windows. But the next second, he saw the two square objects fly up again in the rainy night, their surfaces glowing with a hazy light, and disappear into the distance in the blink of an eye.

Master Yuanhao looked at the two flying "bricks" with an increasingly solemn expression.

“Fellow Daoist Zheng,” the old man suddenly turned around and looked at Zheng Zhi, who was sitting up from the sofa, “come and take a look at the distance, in the direction of that refining tower… is there anything unusual? I have a feeling that something is wrong, but I can’t see what’s going on over there.”

Zheng Zhi, puzzled, got up and went to the window, staring wide-eyed out.

His gaze pierced through the misty rain, and he stared intently for a long time.

Then his eyes widened suddenly.

A pale, eerie gray-black crystalline substance rose from the edge of the city like an enormous, indescribable "branch," now coiling around the refining tower—which itself had somehow transformed into a pitch-black shadow, as if... a rift piercing the sky and the earth, vertically cleaving the edge of the city.

They didn't just appear recently.

They seem to have always been there.

Zheng Zhi was startled and subconsciously took two steps back, but just as he was about to tell Yuan Hao Zhenren what he had seen, the terrifying scene at the end of the rain curtain disappeared again.

However, his unusual behavior had already caught the eye of Master Yuanhao.

"Fellow Daoist Zheng, what did you see?"

“A massive structure, like tree branches, was wrapped around that refining tower—it looked like some kind of crystal…”

Zheng Zhi licked his lips, still somewhat shaken, and said, but the moment he finished speaking, he suddenly felt a chill.

It was as if an invisible gaze, which had been blindly wandering around, suddenly became aware of its presence and cast a terrifying glance in their direction.

It saw itself.

The next second, a sudden change occurred!

The previously warned storm arrived, and the rain outside the window instantly turned into a raging storm. In the howling wind, the dense rain was like knives, easily tearing through the thin protective barrier outside the Huixianzhou Building.

The wind and rain suddenly rushed into the living room, instantly soaking everything near the window. The rain seemed to possess a strange, devouring, and corrosive power, as if everything that came into contact with the rain was being cut and gouged away by invisible blades, and began to disappear rapidly into the air—but then they seemed to recover as if nothing had happened, and the wind and rain that had rushed into the room were also swept back out the window.

The street outside the window disappeared and reappeared; towering buildings were wiped in half and then restored to their original state in the blink of an eye. A mechanical flower boat flew crookedly from the rain, warning lights flashing on both sides of the boat. The huge boat crashed into the roof of a nearby restaurant with a bang, splashing up amazing waves like a stone falling into water. Flowers bloomed in the waves, and the flower boat flew back backward, completely intact.

Elegant music drifted from the flower boat, and graceful dancers swayed in the windows. A girl with a terrified expression appeared on the ship's side, seemingly wanting to leap away from the large ship that had just crashed. But just as Master Yuanhao was about to make a move, the entire ship vanished into thin air in the wind and rain.

The entire city began to emit a low, rumbling sound, as if a giant beast was about to awaken.

"The obstacle of perception?" Master Yuanhao's face was ashen, then he suddenly turned to look at Zheng Zhi, "Fellow Daoist Zheng..."

He was all alone; Zheng Zhi's figure had long since disappeared from the room.

(End of this chapter)