Chapter 44: An Effortless Closing

Xiao U was now completely revealed before Lily's eyes.

The young woman, clad in a sky-blue form-fitting bodysuit, possessed a slender and graceful figure, reminiscent of drooping willow branches swaying in the breeze. With her fair skin, oval face, cherry-red lips, and eyes the color of pale jade, she looked in every way like a breathtaking beauty sculpted by the very hands of a deity.

"Truly... quite lovely..."

Lily praised Xiao U's youthful charm while deliberately puffing out her own prominent bosom, displaying the sophisticated allure of a mature woman.

The Jade Deity glanced sideways at Lily, who had begun competing in vanity, and chuckled softly within the Void Sea.

"Defense system calibrating, space-based defense cannon charging, target search... none."

"Estimated charging time: five minutes."

"Defense... cannon? What on earth is that, old man?"

"Is it anything like those fire-crossbows or the tubular devices on your Jade Palace?"

Having witnessed the destructive power of immortal battle chariots and artillery, Lily could not help feeling a pang of anxiety—though, like most tomb-raiders, she referred to such artifacts simply as "fire-crossbows."

"Is this really how you operate it? Don't go tricking me, old man."

"What are you panicking about, girl? After all, you've excavated plenty of these dead men's trinkets in the subterranean ruins of the Dragon-Soaring Kingdom."

"The Dragon-Soaring Kingdom?"

Lily quickly deduced that all the underground cities plundered by tomb-raiders must have been constructed by this very Dragon-Soaring Kingdom.

But what kind of nation was the Dragon-Soaring Kingdom, really? A realm of immortals?

Back in the day, that old man was also...

As Lily drifted off into her own thoughts, the Jade Deity walked in a circle around the device, carefully inspecting its condition once more.

"There hasn't been a proper defense cannon here for ages... I modified Xiao U's soul and placed it inside the remnants of a technological artifact left behind by the Dragon-Soaring Kingdom."

"These creations were originally driven by electricity."

"Through the old man's modifications, they now run on void-qi. By placing the void-gate deep within this shaft, I can control it."

"Ah, it seems this obelisk is positioned just right. I was worried this equipment wouldn't be able to unlock the chamber housing the obelisk."

Even as the Jade Deity spoke, the dome of the underground command center began to open.

The massive obelisk in question stood directly above the command center, though it did not appear to be part of the original master's design for this deep shaft.

The formidable electromagnetic defense cannon was nowhere to be found.

Lily raised her head, seeing a faint blue glow flickering in the darkness above.

It was the distinctive radiance of void-qi.

Before long, she sensed a massive concentration of void-qi gathering upon the obelisk, far exceeding any level she was currently capable of controlling.

"As expected, this damn gate is indeed in an active state."

"I was holding onto false hope earlier, thinking the gate might still be closed."

"It seems those trying to ruin our Jade Realm are not just the Star Gods and that Evil God."

The Jade Deity's tone carried lingering resentment, but it quickly grew resolute.

"Close the gate!"

Watching the void-qi continuously leak from the obelisk overhead, the Jade Deity commanded firmly.

"Only by closing this gate will those indiscriminate Stardust Army soldiers lose their power."

"The Blue Dragons and Electric Phoenixes, which rely entirely on void-qi to mobilize their strength, won't even be able to enter!"

The Jade Deity paused for a moment, seemingly probing the surroundings with void-qi.

"Ah, excellent."

"Even if the gate cannot be sealed tightly, I secretly added a fail-safe when this void-gate was first established."

The Jade Deity chuckled softly.

"I shall raise a towering void-wall, enveloping the entire Dongsong Peninsula."

"If those Star-people want to cross the river and the sea to reach Tianyu, they can forget about it."

"Then how are the people of Tianyu supposed to fight their way over?"

Completely bewildered yet roughly following along, Lily asked.

"Simple, I know the entrances on the void-wall."

"Once it is activated, I can definitely send the Jade Dolls across!"

"Are you certain?"

Lily's question caused the Jade Deity to hesitate for a fraction of a second, but he quickly replied, "No problem at all!"

"System data rebooting, repeat, system data rebooting! Defense cannon system, online."

With that, Xiao U's jade-green pupils began to glow, as if waiting for something.

"Oh right, time to infuse the qi."

The True God channeled his void-qi, and streams of white void-qi plunged into the facility like sharpened arrows.

The lights around the hall flickered rapidly, and the deep shaft grew bright.

Yet it was not artificial light that illuminated the shaft, but rather the white qi climbing upward along the walls and piercing straight into the obelisk.

The deep shaft was soon filled with a massive surge of white qi, which collided with the blue qi leaking from the obelisk, forcing the latter back into the monument's core.

Accompanied by the collision of the two opposing forces of void-qi, rhythmic clattering and banging echoed throughout the hall.

"Quite a commotion," Lily muttered, leaning against a seat devoid of any skeletons.

"Don't worry, girl. We'll have this gate shut in no time."

"The journey is arduous, but closing the gate is easy, hehe."

"Take a rest, child. I won't need you until the very end."

Lily waved a hand and let out a yawn.

Three quarters of an hour passed.

Overcome with exhaustion, Lily dragged a chair over and sat down right in front of the console.

Days of grueling escapes, relentless combat, and heart-pounding terror had pushed her body to its absolute limits.

Leaning back in the chair, she fell into a deep sleep.

...

"You cannot escape... I will find you soon..."

"I will find you soon, hahahahaha!"

The golden-armored figure of Fenrir flashed through Lily's mind once again.

Wielding a sharp blade, he lunged toward her with a ferocious expression.

"No... no!"

Lily cried out, startling herself awake from the nightmare.

"That fellow, that so-called... Star God, he's back in my mind."

Lily gasped for breath.

Yet the Jade Deity, who should have been easily able to block the Star God's influence, seemed equally startled this time.

"Strange, I didn't sense Fenrir's Dream-Weaving Technique at all."

Lily looked up at the obelisk overhead.

The abundant white qi had nearly forced all the blue qi back into the monolith.

It seemed the process of closing the gate was about to be completed.

"Never mind. Once the gate is finally shut, those Stardust soldiers and the Star God won't be able to act so arrogantly."

Lily shook her head, banishing the lingering phantom of the Star God from her mind.

"So, what do I need to do?"

After all, she was the closing-key that every faction was fighting over.

If the words of both the Jade Deity and the mad Star God were true, any deity, no matter how powerful, needed her special flesh-and-blood key to open or close the void-gate.

"Simple. Make a cut on your hand, mix your blood with your void-qi, and channel it into the device where Xiao U is housed."

"Hmph~ So that's what being a key actually means."

Lily let out a soft laugh, shook her head, drew her broken sword, and prepared to slash her hand for blood.

"Not yet. Wait until my white qi pushes all the leaking qi back into the gate, then channel your energy inside."

"Ninety-nine percent, repeat, system startup rate has reached ninety-nine percent, ready to initialize."

"Repeat, ready to initialize."

Xiao U's voice sounded once again.

"Now! Right now, quickly!"

Taking the cue, Lily slashed her palm open.

As fresh blood welled up, she gathered qi from her dantian, and the sky-blue void-qi stained with her blood surged into the obelisk.

"Beep... beep... beep..."

"System initializing, repeat, system..."

Accompanied by Xiao U's hypnotic voice, a deep bell-like toll echoed from the obelisk overhead.

With that single chime, Lily watched as both the leaking blue qi and the True God's suppressing white qi were rapidly sucked into the monument.

Following twelve crisp chimes, the obelisk fell silent once more.

All surrounding void-qi was drawn inward, plunging the deep shaft back into darkness.

Lily also distinctly felt the overpowering resonance of void-qi emanating from the obelisk vanish entirely.

"Heh~ This key of mine really does the trick~"

Muttering to herself, Lily quickly bandaged her wound.

"Ha, the gate is closed now, and the wall is about to rise as well. A joyous occasion indeed..."

Before Lily's cheerful words could fully fade away, another deafening explosion erupted from the obelisk—though this time, it was no bell chime.

"What... old man, didn't you already close the gate?"

The True God merely smiled.

Once again, a massive torrent of void-qi surged from the obelisk.

However, this time it was the pure white qi unique to the True God.

Like a flock of soaring white doves, they rushed upward from the deep shaft toward the sky above.

"What is happening? What's going on?"

The Dongsong soldiers stationed in the main keep felt the earth violently shake beneath their feet.

Before long, the floor of the keep's underground level blew open, instantly smashing the towering altar—which had protected Dongsong for centuries—into smithereens.

The white qi burst forth from the breach.

Like a flock of migrating birds, they streaked toward the Luma River a hundred miles behind Huining Castle and the coastal regions surrounding Dongsong.

The cat-folk refugees who had fled to the banks of the Luma River, along with the Stardust soldiers marching northward along the western coast of Dongsong, witnessed the exact same spectacle.

A white void-wall, thousands of fathoms high, rose abruptly from the ground.

As if forged by divine decree, it enveloped the entire Dongsong Peninsula within the might of the gods, cutting it off completely from Tianyu and the rest of the continent.

The Stardust Army's plan to swiftly breakthrough into Tianyu had failed.

They were trapped on the Dongsong Peninsula.

"So this is how a wall is built..."

"With this wall in place, even if Fenrir's army reaches the banks of the Luma River, they won't be able to cross."

"Besides, the void-qi strength of those pointed-eared bastards has likely been severely weakened."

"Truthfully, a most joyous occasion!"

The Jade Deity finally revealed a joyful smile.

Yet deep within Lily's mind, the image of Fenrir surfaced once again.

"Child, you have done well. But now, it is time for me to settle accounts with him."

This time, however, Fenrir did not seek out his "human key."

Or rather, the entity with those amber-yellow eyes...

Was not Fenrir at all.

"Old man! Something's wrong!"

Lily tried to send a telepathic warning to the old man, but it was already too late.

In an instant, the obelisk that had just finished spewing white qi swelled rapidly, and then shattered apart.

Massive chunks of debris rained down into the command center, mixed with a torrent of yellowish void-qi.

They quickly transformed into searing-hot void-fire, melting even the reinforced concrete walls surrounding the deep shaft.

"It is you..."

The Jade Deity sensed the gaze cast upon him from the unfathomable depths of the Void Sea the moment he generated the void-wall.

That gaze did not belong to his own universe.

No, it did not even belong to the Jade Seal Realm of the Yanhuang people.

"It is I, Seresian, long time no see."

"It has been a very long time indeed."

A bizarre laughter, bearing a chilling resemblance to Fenrir's, echoed through the space.

Yet the sound was like fingernails scraping across a blackboard, enough to shatter a person's sanity.

Unable to withstand the eerie laughter and the sheer void-qi pressure it contained, Lily felt blood begin to trickle from her nose, her brain feeling as though it were being ignited by the qi embedded in the sound.

Before her eyes, a figure materialized—a man clad in brown military fatigues.

He wore a skull mask and a FAST helmet.

The man's blue eyes bore a striking resemblance to those of the Stardust people.

He stared fixedly at Lily, gripping an automatic pistol tightly in his hand.

It was a Colt M1911 automatic pistol—a weapon that emphatically did not belong to the Jade Realm, nor to the Jade Seal Realm.

"Hello there~ little lady~"

The pitch-black barrel of the .45 caliber pistol aimed straight at Lily's head.

At that moment, Lily once again felt the overwhelming pressure of immense divine might.

"Ahahahahahahaha, magnificent, your two daughters are truly magnificent!"

Lily found herself unable to breathe.

She tried to dodge the falling debris from above, but her legs felt as if they were weighed down by a thousand tons of lead, completely immovable.

"Simply gorgeous, I love the aesthetic of you Eastern women the most."

"Truly~ utterly beautiful~"

"I just want to turn them into Barbie-like toys."

His voice drilled into her mind like demonic chants.

Meanwhile, the void-qi pouring from the fractured obelisk grew overwhelmingly powerful.

That yellow qi, accompanied by falling debris, began to actively corrode the Jade Deity's cluster of white qi.

"Damn you, it really is you, you bastard!"

"I only ever wanted my children to live in peace in this world!"

"Why won't you leave them alone?"

The Evil God let out a mocking, derisive laugh, showing utter disdain for the Jade Deity's words.

"Because you defiled one of my absolute favorite toys."

"Because I am profoundly annoyed."

"Because those Jade people are all a bunch of primitives who like to hack things up with bronze swords."

"Because you are utterly annoying, ever since you snatched away that divine artifact back then."

"Because I am going to exact..."

"Because I am going to take my..."

"Revenge!"

Accompanied by the Evil God's hysterical, frenzied roar, the yellow void-qi surged toward Lily like a tidal wave.

Lily gazed upon that horrifying divine might—power originating from beyond that great Jade Seal.

"Or perhaps because..."

Suddenly, the Evil God's tone shifted into one of playful amusement.

"This is just so much fun, haha~"

"Screw you, you lunatic!"

The Jade Deity manipulated his cluster of white qi to lunge toward the falling debris.

He saw the yellowish qi controlled by the Evil God cascading downward from above.

Perhaps it was finally time to fight this outer-realm Evil God face-to-face.

Yet, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Lily crouching on the ground, wailing in agony.

He could not start the battle here; he had to lure the entity into the Void Sea of the Jade Seal Realm!

"Child, the road ahead is one you must walk alone."

"May you defend your homeland with valor!"

"Crack!"

The space right above Lily's head was torn open, instantly sucking her into the rift.

"Old man... run..."

Lily only caught a glimpse of two masses of void-qi colliding violently amidst the shattered fragments of the obelisk.

"Bang! Bang! Bang-bang! Bang!"

The violent impacts and roaring flames soared upward toward the massive hole leading out of the deep shaft, shooting straight up toward Huining Castle.

Then, the unique, deafening roar of tearing space echoed in her ears once more.

The Jade Deity had drawn away the Evil God—that terrifying outer-realm deity whose power far surpassed his own.

Void-fires spread across the debris-choked hall, reducing the pitiful remains of the ancient dead to ash.

And Xiao U's holographic image flickered and vanished into nothingness beneath the falling rubble.

"Initializing... initializing... initializing..."

Amidst the final burst of static electronic noise, Lily was spat out from the spatial rift.

She plummeted into a familiar domain.

It was a magnificent underground ruin.

Towering, dilapidated cities stood amidst immense subterranean caverns, their skyscrapers rising like a jungle of steel and concrete.

They looked like giant stalagmites formed over countless millennia within a cavern, save for the fact that their surfaces were utterly ruined, bearing the devastating scars of a cruel and brutal war.

"I'm home... Longyou... Xijue..."

Her body slammed heavily onto an abandoned infantry fighting vehicle, and Lily lost consciousness completely.