Chapter 701: Chapter 700: Secrets Hidden in the Mountains

A dazzling firelight streaked across the sky—it didn’t seem like those fortress torpedoes or orbital landing pods previously fired from near-Earth orbit.

It glimmered with a layer of enchanting and magnificent blue, and during its descent, streams of light spilled out, igniting the atmosphere with its effusive energy and even disrupting the high-altitude storm turbulence. A rapidly expanding giant fire ring grew around the light, blossoming like a red lotus in the firmament.

Is that a space bomb? Is that Boundary Land’s secret weapon? Or a new type of landing pod breaking through the atmosphere?

"...Fox?!"

The black-robed priest let out a scream filled with fear and shock, then the terrifying heat and pressure descended upon each cultist of the Hidden Monastery.

Some reacted quickly and started fleeing, some who realized escape was impossible had already put up shields, others who were at a loss could only scream and curse, while the priest in the saintly robe stood with a face like water on high ground. As the lotus of destruction descended from the sky, he suddenly raised his right hand, the sacred light all over his body expanded like a blazing sun, transforming into a majestic "holy statue," while the thorn crown atop his head burned with a strong glow.

Like the ancient demigod of Algredian legend that lifted the starry sky, he held up a massive barrier with a solemn and resolute posture, shouting loudly: "Witness the Saint Realm’s..."

And then the descending great fox smashed him, shield and all, headfirst into oblivion.

A mass of enchanting blue fire rose among the mountains, the immense flames sketching the outline of a fox tail, blooming softly like a flower in the subsequent massive shock wave—the earth shook, stones flew, and the land burned in Fox Fire, blazing debris hurled into the high sky by strong shock waves, pouring down like stormy fire at the mountain’s base.

The priests on the front line no longer needed to worry about the Shield Generator.

After a long while, the "Fox Tail Fire Lotus" blooming on the mountain finally dissipated slowly.

Yu Sheng held Erin in his arms, standing with Luna on a giant rock within the impact zone that hadn’t melted, looking up at the demon fox girl with her head planted in the ground.

The small puppet spoke jerkily: "I, I... my head buzzing, buzzing buzz..."

Beside, Luna nodded: "Yes, right."

"C-type buckle you, you... really cut corners, my tongue’s all numb, numb, you plus +1 give me..."

Yu Sheng couldn’t bear to watch any longer, he shook Erin’s head side to side, and with a click, he secured the small puppet’s partially detached neck.

The little thing looked amazed: "Ah, I’m good!?"

Yu Sheng had only recently discovered this feature of Erin’s original body—that her head could function normally whether connected to her body or removed, only faulty contact would cause it to stutter, like a dual-mode keyboard connected with a poor-quality cable, involving Bluetooth and wired connections fighting between the left and right brains.

The small puppet, upon recovering, immediately started chattering away again: "I’m not following that silly fox on orbital descent next time, says there’s Protective Spirit Qi and won’t get hurt from the fall, yet why is my brain buzzing, plus silly fox you just didn’t slow down at all the whole way, you even had people with you..."

The large fox with her head planted in the ground stomped her legs hard, a muffled voice came from the semi-molten stone pile: "Teacher never taught about slowing down... besides, orbital bombardment is a killing skill, how can you kill the enemy if you slow down!"

"Speaking of killing, I seemed to vaguely see a group of cultists below when falling," Yu Sheng seemed reminded, looked around, "...Now not a single one is left."

"Don’t know, didn’t notice," said the demon fox girl, muffled with her head in the ground, "though felt like I hit something hard when falling, crisp."

"Whether it was crisp, not discussing that," Yu Sheng’s eyes twitched, looking up at the fox girl stuck on the ground, "you’re stuck again, how long this time? We have serious business—should I open the door, borrow two packs of mining explosives from Sun to get you out?"

"No need, no need," Hu Li said quickly, waving her tail vigorously, then started pushing and kicking with all four legs, "this time I have experience, and adjusted my posture while descending, just wait, I’ll pull myself out～"

As she spoke, sounds of rock layers cracking came from the stone pile, Yu Sheng heard the noise, quickly grabbed Erin and ran away, Luna also turned and followed tightly.

The three had barely run ten meters when sounds like a thunderous crack came from behind, the great demon fox tilted to one side, her four legs found traction on the ground, then with all her might, she pulled her head out.

Immediately another round of flying stones and earth shaking, fortunately Yu Sheng was agile and quick to react, only got hit four times—later on not because he dodged, but the stones from the sky finished falling.

Turning his head, Hu Li stood tall on the ground—grinning foolishly at them.

Yu Sheng lost any temper he had on the spot.

"The location Baili Qing marked out is around this area," he pulled out his phone for a glance at the coordinate map, "energy reactions are inside this mountain body, the entrance should be nearby."

At this moment, the United Fleet has already occupied multiple orbital layers of the planet and released a large number of battlefield auxiliary satellites. The guiding signals from space can already assist ground forces, but due to the lack of more precise surface information, these guides can currently only provide latitude, longitude data, and general directions.

The Great Demon Fox came running over, earth trembling, and lowered its head, eyes meeting, staring at the small phone screen in Yu Sheng’s hand.

"Savior, my Divine Sense just scanned the mountain body nearby and indeed found a gap — possibly caused by previous orbital bombardments, there seems to be something under the gap."

"Hmm."

Yu Sheng nodded, but just as he was about to set off, he suddenly noticed Luna still appearing dazed beside him, showing no signs of following.

"Luna?" He looked at her with confusion, "Is there a problem?"

Luna didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she slightly tilted her head, staying motionless for a few seconds, as if seriously sensing something or hearing some sound only she could hear.

Not until Yu Sheng couldn’t help but ask again did Luna suddenly raise her head as if awakening from a dream.

"I hear sounds," she stammered, "many sounds, beneath us, I, I remember ’temple,’ I seem to have been to this place."

Erin, hearing half of it, couldn’t hold back: "Hey C-type buckle, your stuttering really makes people anxious."

Yu Sheng’s face quickly changed several times, turning to exchange glances with Hu Li.

Several minutes later, following the direction sensed by Hu Li’s Divine Sense, Yu Sheng’s group found the gap on a nearby slope.

The mountain collapse caused by the previous orbital bombardment destroyed the thick rock layers, tearing open overlapping layers of heavy alloy armor, exposing a corner of some large facility that was originally hidden inside the mountain.

"This place below looks like a factory? Or maybe an energy facility," Yu Sheng’s group hid behind nearby giant rocks, observing the gaping hole still billowing smoke, "it doesn’t resemble a temple, the style is different from other places."

Through the wide fissure in the mountain, Yu Sheng could clearly see a slanted, broken corridor below, one side of the wall split open, revealing deeper complex pipes and transportation systems, along with a massive structure resembling a reactor.

The demon fox girl had transformed into a human form and was resting her head on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, peering outside while sniffing: "Can’t sense anyone for now."

"Carefully head inside," Yu Sheng waved his hand, glancing at Luna again, "If you sense anything amiss or recall something, tell me immediately — if there’s no time, drag me into the Soul Wilderness."

Luna immediately nodded: "Okay, yes."

The group then crawled out from behind the giant rock, using the surrounding smoke cover, along with Hu Li applying a spell to conceal their presence, cautiously squeezing into the gap.

The mountain rocks collapsed and fractured, the ruins twisted and piled up, leaving almost nowhere stable to tread, let alone any pathway. Further inside, some places’ pipelines were severed, the walls above emitting crackling firelight, the remaining lighting system flickering under backup power lines, casting faint projections amidst the rubble.

Finally navigating this difficult stretch, Yu Sheng’s group stepped into the slanted, broken corridor. After only a few steps, they saw several corpses sprawled across the floor.

"These might have been the Hidden Monastery sect that originally guarded here," Yu Sheng approached to inspect, "they were killed by the shock."

"Perhaps they died when the orbital bombardment struck, now everything is chaotic, those guarding the facility might not even know a hole was broken here," Erin peered around, furtively glancing up at the surroundings, "this ghostly place appears huge, probably the entire mountain has been hollowed out."

Yu Sheng nodded softly, and right then, he suddenly felt a stirring in his mind.

A slightly familiar aura seemed to sweep past nearby, causing a faint pulse within the blood connection.

Instinctively, he looked towards the direction of the intuition, catching only a glimpse of a swiftly fading white shadow from the corner of his eye, disappearing so quickly it seemed like an illusion.

Erin noticed his reaction: "What? Yu Sheng, what did you see?"

"A white shadow, but unclear," Yu Sheng frowned, not easily dismissing it as a mere illusion, "We should be careful, there could be something extraordinary hidden here — if this place really holds secrets related to the planet’s depths, then what we might face could not be just ordinary cultists."

The little puppet blinked: "Ye-yes..."

In the next instant, as if to validate Yu Sheng’s words, an orderly and heavy footstep suddenly emerged from the corridor’s end!