Space turned upside down, gravity malfunctioned, and all perceptions seemed to be instantly tangled, then the body plummeted into the sky, quickly falling towards a crumbling earth.Yu Sheng saw a sky of inexplicable chaos, without sun, moon, or stars, only uneven sallow light floating in the high altitudes. Murky clouds flowed between the light clusters, with weightless boulders and remnants of buildings suspended between the clouds and the ground.
And on the surviving earth stood the vast and magnificent "Kingdom," its border already shattered, yet glorious cities still stand on the land. High walls built of enormous stones stretch across the wilderness, ancient fortresses and divine temples bathed in the twilight glow, vast stone bridges and aqueducts spanned over the cities and fields, and a river flowed through the city, left its riverbed, and streamed upwards into the sky.
Yu Sheng and his party fell in this fractured world, but halfway through the fall, their speed suddenly reduced—Hu Li reacted in time, a series of protective spiritual light enveloped each of them, Yu Sheng merely felt his body as light as a feather, swaying back and forth for over ten minutes before slowly landing on the ground.
Erin landed not far from him, and as soon as the little puppet landed, she raised her hand in excitement, exclaiming, "Safe landing~ we're on our feet!"
"Alright, alright, on our feet, on our feet." Yu Sheng took a breath and casually remarked while observing the surroundings.
Just as he finished speaking, a muzzle nudged his elbow from the side, "Savior, I'm on all fours~"
Yu Sheng gave a subtle look at the great demon fox vigorously wagging its tail: "Well... no need to be so precise."
Then, in the corner of his eye, he saw the knight awkwardly scrambling up from the ground - this height-fearing unfortunate soul now had legs made of jelly (though his armor was rigid), it was clear that the fall had terrified him.
Hu Li continued to nuzzle Yu Sheng's elbow with her muzzle, "Savior, savior, he's on all fours too."
Yu Sheng: "..."
At this moment, a shadow flickered at the edge of their vision, as Luna gracefully emerged from the shadows, looking up at the sky.
"So, from this side, it looks like this..."
Yu Sheng lifted his head, seeing a vague reflection of the Jinglin Sanatorium near the clouds above, with some fragments that had detached from the "Kingdom" gradually drifting through the clouds towards another world.
Yu Sheng stamped his foot hard on the ground, feeling the solid sensation beneath his feet.
Here, many things seemed to have escaped the constraints of gravity, yet many others seemed unaffected.
Is this the appearance of all things in chaos when the world is on the brink of collapse?
As he pondered, he saw many small shadows falling through the clouds — it was the mass-produced Erin Pro Max squad flying on bricks, having completed their interception mission against the stone gargoyles, and now crossing the rift to reach this side.
After having experienced the sudden fall after passing through the rift earlier, the group of Erin from the sky only dropped slightly before quickly regrouping their stance, avoiding a scenario where bricks rained down like a deluge.
Yu Sheng let out a sigh of relief, considering that if they had experienced a saturation bombardment of bricks from the sky at this moment, apart from Hu Li with her body cultivation, no one else would possibly withstand it...
"Hey," Erin then ran up to the knight, raising her chin, "You're a local, which way do we go next?"
The knight seemed a bit dizzy but after hearing Erin's words, he immediately shook his head, quickly sobering up and looking around.
He found himself standing in a desolate clearing, where the earth was dry, vegetation sparse, in the distance, a forest reduced to ashes could be seen, along with twisted shrubs clinging to the ground.
"I..." the knight hesitated to speak, "This area and my memory..."
"No way?!" the little puppet immediately widened her eyes, "At a time like this, you're telling me you're lost too?!"
The knight was silent for a moment, then hesitantly pointed in a direction, "It should be this way, through the city, which leads to the Royal City. There originally was a small castle in the forest direction, but all I see is ruins... the castle might have been destroyed."
The little puppet still had her hands on her hips, looking at the "clumsy knight" in front of her with an untrusting expression, but finally nodded, "Alright, at least it's the local's suggestion..."
Yu Sheng frowned and glanced in that direction, within the distant swirling dust, faint shadows could be seen lingering.
"Although it's the local's suggestion, the other locals here may not welcome us... Luna, gather more people."
"Understood... Shilude Squad, Alfne Squad, are on standby in the Holy Hall."
Yu Sheng nodded, raising his hand towards the air.
A phantom door appeared beside him, its edges trembled slightly, but quickly stabilized.
"As expected, the door experiences interference here, but can still function normally," Yu Sheng watched the scene thoughtfully, "overlapping borders, after all..."
The door opened, and the two squads of Artificial Saintess led by Shilude and Alfne passed through the door, accompanied by over a hundred Brass Knights.
As well as an armored transport vehicle.
The emblem originally belonging to the Venerate Saints Monastery on the transport vehicle had been erased, now bearing the triangular mark representing the inn on its front.
The little puppet looked up, a bit dumbfounded when she first saw Yu Sheng open a gigantic door. Now, seeing the armored transport vehicle, she was completely stunned: "Wait, why is there something like this here?"
"Inside are reserve bodies," Luna said, "If there are casualties, we can reload minds on site without delaying the battle."
The little puppet opened her mouth, looking at the C-type buckle in front of her, and the many CCC...-type buckles behind it. She wasn't sure what she was thinking, and suddenly jumped up to grab Yu Sheng's sleeve: "I want this! I want this too!"
"What do you need this for? Every production model you have comes with teleportation... Alright, alright, stop shaking. Go find Dorothy for it later, she has many armored cars under her command, and they all have Mechanical Souls."
Only then did the little puppet calm down, smoothly climbing onto Yu Sheng's shoulder, pointing towards the distance: "Onward～"
Yu Sheng shook his head helplessly, hoisting Erin as he turned to climb onto Hu Li's back. He watched as Miss Hu Li wrapped her tail around the knight as well, and a mighty procession began marching towards the Royal City.
The current composition of the team was as follows—
The Cyber Fox Deity carrying people in the front, with the Artificial Saintess leading the Knight Order on both flanks, followed by armored transport vehicles with alien technology, and overhead flew an air superiority formation made up of over a hundred Gothic Dolls, with earthen and wooden sword formations at their feet.
Yu Sheng looked left and right, feeling that his group clearly appeared to be a force for justice.
Then the force for justice he led erupted into a fierce armed conflict with the hospitable locals.
The roaring explosions shattered the silence of the wilderness area, the radiance of force field heavy swords tearing through the mist around the ruins—while attempting to traverse a burnt forest at the edge of the wasteland, Yu Sheng's group was attacked by a large number of monsters suddenly emerging from the charred woodland soil.
Those monsters resembled dried vines twisted into various animal shapes, buried underground for who knows how long. Their emergence even created continuous deep pits covering a third of the forest, truly startling everyone.
However, compared to those stone gargoyles or gigantic monsters that crossed the rift earlier, their strength was unimpressive, and this attack did not cause significant damage—
Three mass-produced puppets were destroyed, one of which was accidentally thrown by an overly enthusiastic brick thrower, sadly perishing under a teammate's brick. Additionally, a Brass Knight accidentally fell into a pit and self-detonated under siege.
The destroyed three mass-produced puppets were quickly supplemented—Erin summoned three more from the valley, and also had other puppets return to the valley for a supply of bricks... flying swords.
The self-detonated Brass Knight also rejoined the battlefield moments later—having only lost a suit of armor and some pride.
A tattered note fluttered to the ground, which a mass-produced puppet quickly fetched and handed to Yu Sheng.
Erin, sitting on Yu Sheng's shoulder, peered over while muttering: "Even this leaves a pictorial record?"
Yu Sheng flipped the paper. On the back of the crude tree line drawing were brief words.
"…Once near the high wall's fruit orchard… the dwarf demons living in the tree holes… still guard their fruits to this day."
Yu Sheng turned his head and saw the knight intently watching the paper in his hand.
But this time, unlike when he first saw the paper, the knight was not as agitated, nor did he attempt to request it from Yu Sheng. He just watched quietly, seemingly with a warm and reminiscent gaze from the empty helmet.
"What are dwarf demons?" Yu Sheng casually asked.
"…Legend has it they are elves living in the woods," the knight said softly, "They make fruit trees flourish and prevent disease, so when harvest season comes, one-tenth of the fruits fall from the trees, disappearing into the soil under the cover of night… People would say they were eaten by the dwarf demons in the woods."
"…An interesting story."
Yu Sheng slowly said, placing the paper carefully on him.
"Judging by this trend, we'll have to fight our way through," Erin grumbled, "Feels like anything could pop out at any time to block the way around here… No wonder Yu Sheng, you're not doing the usual secret infiltration this time."
Hu Li tilted her head: "Have we ever done secret infiltration before?"
Erin: "At the very least, each time at the beginning of an operation, that's how it was announced. Don't worry about how the plan unfolds afterward."
Hu Li: "…Savior has his reasons for his arrangements."
Yu Sheng did not pay attention to the little puppet and Hu Li's mumbling. He merely sighed lightly, seemingly talking to himself: "The world is dying, so everything is coming to life… That's how it is."
A figure crossed the mist, returning to the formation after several shadow teleportations—a member of the Shilude Squad's Artificial Saintess, who had just completed an exploration mission in the vicinity.
"The surroundings are safe, no enemies detected for now, only a weak heat source scanned nearby."
"Weak heat source?" Yu Sheng awoke from his thoughts, raising an eyebrow, "Let's go have a look."
So the team continued forward, crossing the collapsed charred forest, passing through what seemed like low ruins of a village, until a heap of small campfires came into Yu Sheng's view at the end of the road.