Chapter 350 – Devil’s Cave Surrounds the City
Tu Ran returned to the massive glass viewport in the cockpit. Pressing her forehead against it, she gazed outside for a while. In that short time, the purple planet had already fallen behind the spaceship, no longer dominating the backdrop. In its place was the darkness of space dotted with scattered points of light, like a handful of tiny diamonds casually tossed into the cosmos.
Those were stars, distant and far away. Tu Ran withdrew her gaze.
She went back to the rooms she had already searched—the quarters of the spaceship’s former crew—and began looking for any information about the mysterious world of the Rulers.
She needed to prepare for the upcoming landing.
Tu Ran meticulously searched every room, gathering anything with writing on it and putting it together in one place.
Finally, she sat on the ground with one leg curled beneath her, surrounded by scattered books, papers, and documents. Her eyes skimmed over the words, her hand supporting her forehead as she sank into deep thought.
What now?
She couldn’t read.
The writing looked like a mess of random punctuation marks, offering no hint of its meaning. She couldn’t even tell if she was holding the pages in the correct orientation. A wave of helplessness, like a primitive person trying to decipher modern characters, washed over her.
To make matters worse, there wasn’t a single picture in the materials—not one.
Frustrated, Tu Ran scratched her head, racking her brain for any abilities she had that could help her recognize the text. No matter how hard she thought, she came up with nothing. Even the abilities she had found in Xie Xie’ao’s collection didn’t include anything related to deciphering writing.
Eventually, Tu Ran gave up. She retrieved a recording device from her spatial storage and scanned all the text on the pages.
If she couldn’t read it, she’d bring it back for Xie Xu to look at.
Once the materials were fully captured, Tu Ran propped herself up with one arm, keeping the recording device steady. She recorded the internal structure of the spaceship—even though it was quite simple—and then moved closer to the control platform, turning the lens toward the universe outside the glass.
She recorded everything she could see, regardless of whether it would be useful.
Once she had finished filming, Tu Ran put the recorder away and tossed it back into her spatial storage. She walked to the center of the spaceship’s control platform and sat down in the chair.
It was hard, entirely made of metal, and uncomfortable on her backside—it was much less soft than the silver-gray carpeted floor.
But the floor had no protective measures, and if there was any turbulence… After considering the options, Tu Ran decided to sit in the chair.
Her view was a vast, endless void, occasionally interrupted by streaking stars. She sat quietly, waiting for the spaceship to land.
The spaceship’s alarm system was blaring nonstop, probably triggered when she suddenly appeared, though she had no idea who had activated the alert. The blue and green warning lights kept flashing.
The spaceship hadn’t initiated an automatic defense system after detecting an intruder, which Tu Ran found puzzling.
It was common even on Blue Star for a self-destruct mode to activate in case of an invasion, ensuring mutual destruction with the enemy. Yet, the Rulers’ ship didn’t seem to have this.
Tu Ran couldn’t figure it out, so she decided not to dwell on it.
The flashing lights cast a glow on her back, making her face alternate between light and shadow.
Tu Ran took the opportunity to rest her eyes for a moment. It wasn’t until she clearly felt the spaceship’s tremors and the shift in the internal airflow that she slowly opened her eyes.
A beam of strong light hit her directly in the eyes.
The moment the light struck, all the drowsiness in her mind vanished.
Instinctively, she reached up and touched her helmet. Thankfully, her new helmet had an automatic brightness adjustment feature, so her eyes weren’t immediately blinded by the intensity of the light.
The spaceship was landing, but it wasn’t a smooth descent.
Tu Ran gripped the armrests of the chair with both hands and didn’t get up immediately.
The beam of light was being emitted from a spaceship about the same size as hers. It followed her every move, lowering as her ship descended, as though it was monitoring her, afraid she might try to escape during the landing.
Tu Ran could only say they were worrying too much.
The spaceship grew closer and closer to the ground, and the buildings gradually came into Tu Ran’s view from below.
Towering structures, one after another, stretched up to the sky, resembling a vast, ominous lair rising from the ground. The sense of oppression was overwhelming.
The buildings weren’t straight; they looked more like mountain rocks that had melted under the heat of magma—layered, abstract, and twisted—howling and screaming against the backdrop of the dark red sky.
Irregularly scattered across them were countless deep, bottomless caverns, resembling ant nests. Though nothing could be seen inside, Tu Ran couldn’t shake the feeling that countless pairs of dark green, ghostly eyes were watching her.
The ground shook slightly, and the spaceship landed smoothly. Tu Ran raised her hand to unfasten her seatbelt, her gaze never leaving the view in front of her.
Numerous small green lights flickered on in the dark caverns of the lair. Small flying machines began emerging from the holes, soaring through the air, their sights fixed directly on Tu Ran.
Suddenly, a gust of wind rushed in from all sides. Tu Ran turned to look, noticing that the spaceship’s two doors were rising. The cold wind from the Rulers world poured inside.
The Rulers had already landed their flying machines just outside the open doors of the spaceship, staring at Tu Ran from a distance.
In their gemstone-like green eyes, a vertical line stood out in the center, their wariness and alertness unmistakable.
Tu Ran stood facing the wind, unmoving like a mountain.
More and more of the Rulers landed, forming a neat line. At the front was a humanoid creature with orange-yellow eyes, dressed in an exotic outfit that seemed out of place.
The orange-eyed leader stood with his hands behind his back, his mouth a tight line. A low, indistinct murmuring sound emanated from some part of his body.
His eyes were fixed on Tu Ran, clearly attempting to communicate with her, but she couldn’t understand what he was saying.
“You might want to summon that eye,” Tu Ran suggested. She could understand the words spoken by the eye.
The orange-eyed leader’s brow, unadorned with any eyebrows, clearly raised in irritation. He displayed evident impatience.
Tu Ran guessed that he hadn’t understood what she said.
What could have been a peaceful exchange was abruptly halted by the language barrier.
The orange-eyed leader revealed his hand from behind his back, raised it, and waved it through the air. A visible semi-circular arc appeared, gleaming silver with a hint of orange. The orange-eyed leader quickly pushed his hand forward, sending the arc toward Tu Ran at a rapid pace.
As it moved, the arc thickened and expanded, its color deepening from silver-orange to red. By the time it reached the spaceship where Tu Ran stood, it had transformed into a fiery dragon, its colors matching the sky. Its massive mouth opened wide, seemingly intent on swallowing the spaceship.
Tu Ran’s pupils were illuminated by the flames, her body surrounded by a sea of fire.
[Space Cutting]
The scorching heat and intensity of the flames were irrelevant to Tu Ran in that moment.
She had created a cubic isolation space around herself. Though she stood at the heart of the flames, she existed in a different space—one completely separated from the burning fire.
From the orange-eyed leader’s perspective, Tu Ran seemed to be enclosed in a mirrored surface, existing in a separate layer. Her face was illuminated by the firelight, shining even brighter than the flames themselves.
The sturdy spaceship melted within the flames, droplets of lava falling, flowing, and forming rivers—yet none of it touched her.
In the center of the transparent orange eyes, the black steel needles of the leader briefly faltered.
A highly destructive laser shot out of the fire, carrying with it the force to strike a lethal blow, heading straight for his face.
The sound of “gurgling” echoed from the back of his head, with a tone of disdain, mockery, and contempt, unapologetically revealing his feelings.
He raised his hand, and an orange glow illuminated the surroundings. A void-like shield emerged from his palm, clashing with the white laser beam, creating a sharp, ear-piercing sound as they collided.
The energy of the laser spread out visibly, splashing in all directions.
He remained relaxed, his vertical pupils even slightly loosening. Clearly, this small attack was nothing he took seriously.
“Is this the ability of the Rulers?”
A more languid and carefree voice sounded from behind him.
**TN
The Devil’s Cave surrounds the city (idiom); fig. surrounded by evil spirits
