Alien Hotel.

Chapter 709 The End of the Long Road
A deep blue flame erupted from the cracks in the earth, and a silver-white nine-tailed fox burst forth from the ground, carrying smoke and dust with it. The fox ran all the way to a nearby hill.

"We're out! We're out!" Eileen squealed excitedly as she rode on the fox's back. "Wow, this was so exciting! It felt like the whole world was collapsing. You silly fox, you're amazing! Body cultivation is such a great civilization..."

As they spoke, another pure white light drifted over from the side, and an artificial angel with wings slowly landed beside Hu Li. She looked curiously at the large bunch of wagging tails behind Hu Li, then tilted her head slightly to look at the sky, seemingly lost in thought.

“I don’t even know where we are,” Hu Li muttered, looking around as he spoke. “The passage we took when we went into the mountains has all collapsed, and most of the caves below are unfamiliar paths. I think we drifted at least ten kilometers when we rushed up here.”

“The surrounding terrain has changed,” Luna said in a somewhat serious tone.

The setting sun and the distant smoke of battle dyed the sky red. As far as the eye could see, there was a vast expanse of desolate wasteland. In the distance, a forest was billowing with thick smoke, and nearby, a large hill had been plowed by artillery fire. Among the rubble and huge shell craters, some twisted debris could still be seen.

The path we used to enter the mountain facility is completely lost.

The ground was trembling slightly, and an unsettling, low rumbling sound came from the depths of the earth from time to time, its direction impossible to discern.

"It sounds like an earthquake," Huli said nervously. "No, it's not just an earthquake..."

"Really?" The little doll on her back looked up. "I only heard some rumbling sounds."

“Nonsense, of course you can’t feel it when you’re sitting on my back,” the great fox demon turned its head and grinned at the cheap passenger on its back. “You’d be a fool to feel the shock absorption from my limbs being suspended.”

The little doll didn't take it to heart at all; it simply straightened up, shading its eyes with its hand as it looked into the distance.

She saw plumes of smoke, large and small, rising near the horizon.

Then, with a loud rumble, a hill not far from them suddenly collapsed and split open. It seemed as if a passage leading to the depths of the lower part of the mountain had been opened in the collapsed mountain, and thick smoke, along with gushing crystal dust particles, shot straight into the sky.

"No, no, something feels off," the little doll suddenly tensed up, "What big thing is Yu Sheng up to down there..."

She had only spoken halfway when she suddenly heard a voice in her mind: "Eileen."

"Yu Sheng? What happened?" the little puppet said quickly, "I just saw the nearby mountain suddenly collapse! And there are many huge plumes of smoke on the horizon further away..."

“Go and inform Baili Qing that all ground troops must immediately withdraw to space,” Yu Sheng’s voice sounded very serious. “I will mark the available surface rendezvous points, and the artificial saintess and the knights will go to the nearest rendezvous point and bring them along.”

"Huh? Oh, okay," Eileen paused for a moment, but quickly recovered, and while arranging for her other bodies to send messages to Baili Qing, she quickly inquired about the situation, "What's going on with you? Why did you suddenly order the troops to withdraw? I think we're about to take this planet..."

“There is no longer any need to occupy it,” Yu Sheng interrupted her. “The ‘Holy Throne’ and the dark angels behind it dug to the limit of this planet’s interior hundreds of years ago. Now this crust is entirely supported by the power of the angels—and the planet is about to disintegrate.”

"Holy crap!"

……

Brilliant holy light surged around the Earth's core, like a radiant ocean of light radiating astonishing heat, yet there was also a pitch-black hole in the center of this sea of ​​light that swallowed all light. This scene appeared eerie and incongruous, like the darkest shadow within the light.

Countless spatial rifts, large and small, are scattered across the surface and surroundings of the Gate of Eden. The distant starlight is reflected in these rifts, and dense crystalline branches grow from them, tightly entwining the radiant and holy body hundreds of meters away.

The body's light was gradually dimming, and the spiritual energy that made up its flesh and blood was shrinking again, until only an empty skeleton remained.

Only that face, seemingly formed from the fusion of countless people, remained fixedly staring in the direction of the Gate of Eden.

The Holy See discovered that he could not stop the loss of power; all the matter and energy that made up this body were rapidly becoming nourishment for the Gate of Eden.

"Why……"

He muttered to himself unconsciously.

“Have you forgotten? ‘Powering the Gates of Eden,’” Yu Sheng’s voice came from among the wildly growing crystalline branches, patiently answering the Holy See’s question. “This is the last and strongest wish you, and the entire Secret Order, made—and now that wish is about to be fulfilled.”

A brief silence followed.

After the silence came a fierce struggle.

The light-forged body tried its best to break free of the crystal shackles on its body. For a moment, Yu Sheng even doubted that this terrifying creature would actually break free of these constraints—a burst of holy light even pierced through a small section of the earth's crust above, and the planet's outer shell cracked open there, revealing a terrifying gap through which starlight could be seen. A shattered mountain fell from the sky and plunged into the scorching sea of ​​holy light near the earth's core.

There are also fragments of planets of various sizes falling from above, which are captured by the holy light around the Earth's core and orbit the Gate of Eden like satellites.

The terrifying energy fluctuations gradually subsided once again.

"This is a terrible place."

A voice, calmer than before, suddenly reached Yu Sheng's ears.

Gone was the affected gentleness of before, gone was the pretentious tone; there was only genuine tranquility, and a hint of weariness and nostalgia.

Yu Sheng looked at the "Holy Throne" with some surprise. He saw the skeleton raising its head, with a blurry, indistinct shadow covering it.

Wearing thick protective clothing for field work, with a scruffy beard, a tired expression, and a calm face.

"It's terrible, really terrible. It's cold, dry, the earth's veins are depleted, the atmosphere is toxic, crops can't grow, and even things grown in the ecological warehouse often get sick and die for no reason."

"Even this galaxy is a mess—pirates, interstellar warlords, military conglomerates, angel cultists and warp madmen who always seem to pop up from every nook and cranny... Every planet is at war, either already destroyed or in the process of being destroyed."

"In this filthy place, even the rats that come out of the sewers are cleaner than people."

Yu Sheng looked at the other person calmly.

The middle-aged man in heavy work clothes closed his eyes, and then his face transformed into that of a young man.

"Some of us were exiled here, some were prisoners of pirates, and we even have a scientist who was a Star Noble of Alglade before being expelled by the astrological society."

“We pooled our resources and got an industrial aircraft carrier from the warlords—we found a safe zone in the gravitational fault line, and we felt we could change this place.”

“You have indeed changed this place,” Yu Sheng said slowly. “Is this what you planned?”

"...If the road you've traveled is too long, it's hard to stay on the same path," the face on the skeleton transformed into a short-haired woman, her star-shaped eyes revealing that she was once an Algrid elf. "But in any case, we built order in this wretched place: twelve habitable planets, a fleet, laws, an industrial system. Even the worst place is better than those warlords' conscription planets."

“We once represented progress and hope here,” the short-haired woman’s face faded, and a blond young man appeared on the skeleton, “but the transformation is never-ending, and the price is getting heavier and heavier.”

"Like that ranch planet? And your series of 'Holy Spirit' technologies?"

"...You should be able to tell that we also use this technology on ourselves."

As the light shimmered, the Algrid elf reappeared on the face of the Holy See. She raised her head and calmly gazed into Yu Sheng's eyes.

"Your stories have deeply touched me."

Yu Sheng sighed softly.

The holy light around the "Holy Throne" seemed to surge slightly, and a glimmer of hope seemed to reappear on his face.

“Therefore, you must go all out from now on,” Yu Sheng said calmly on the surface of the Gate of Eden, “to fight against me, to give your all, so as not to fail this thousand-year quest.”

All the crystal branches suddenly tightened, and countless cracks on the surface of the Gate of Eden began to grow again. The enormous light-forged body of the "Holy Throne" struggled desperately, but was gradually dragged into the dark hole at the center of the earth.

Inside the sacred planet, the surging holy light began its final roar. Scorching waves erupted from the hollow planetary core, spreading outwards in waves and impacting the already crumbling and cracked fragile crust.

The planet roared like a giant bell, and the geological structure, supported by the power of angels, began to disintegrate layer by layer from the inside out. Countless rocks and crystals detached from the dark dome of the earth and fell like a storm into the ocean of holy light at the heart of the earth.

The Gate of Eden began to grow, devouring all matter and energy that entered its predatory range and could serve as raw materials for the gate.

The "Holy Throne" (the Shadowless Skeleton) also fell rapidly toward the Gate of Eden, and almost in the blink of an eye, half of its enormous body had been swallowed into the hole.

Even the body of a dark angel cannot withstand this creation, which is capable of tearing apart space and time and even piercing through the barriers of the world.

It began to be crushed bit by bit, countless faces rapidly changing on that head, and countless bodies emerging in turn on its remaining structure.

Finally, even the last remaining skull touched the surface of the Gate of Eden.

Yu Sheng's face tilted slightly downwards.

"Did you do your best?"

“Yes,” the head said calmly.

"Any other last words?"

"No."

“Very well, your path of worship has come to an end.”

"..."

Then, the head quietly disappeared into the spacetime rift opened by the Gate of Eden, becoming its nourishment.

(End of this chapter)