[HSRGSS] Chapter 95: Xianzhou Cangcheng, Devourer of Worlds Rahu

In the Year 6300 of the Star Calendar, the Xianzhou Cangcheng encountered a living planet during its journey.

At this moment, the sky above the Cangcheng died, shrouded in darkness.

Of course, it was not because of nightfall, but because the sky itself was being devoured alive by something.

A crimson planet, known as the Devourer of Worlds, Rahu, hung high above the clouds of the Cangcheng, pulsing endlessly like a beating heart.

Before long, it slowly split open its shell of rock, sinew, and vines, spewing forth countless monsters—it was both a ravenous beast feasting without end and a mother about to give birth.

Writhing, the living disaster planet opened its planet-sized maw and forcibly filled every inch of space above the Cangcheng.

Soon, the jade towers that once gleamed across the sea of stars were as insignificant as dust beneath the scarlet-glowing surface of Rahu.

Deep within that colossal mouth lay a terrifying darkness.

In this chaos, the sense of oppression did not come from above, but from beneath one's feet, as the entire land groaned, twisted, and fractured in agony under the living planet's gravity.

In no time, the Cangcheng's proud pavilions and palaces, with their intricate beams and flying eaves, gave off a grating, tooth-aching shriek as they were ground beyond the limits of matter.

Glazed tiles crashed down like torrential rain, shattering to dust, while sturdy pillars bent and burst apart in an instant, as if they were rotted wood.

Now, the dust was no longer a drifting haze, but a thick, suffocating yellow-grey tide that devoured what little light remained.

"RUUUN—!!!"

A shrill, cracking scream was barely audible over the collapse of buildings and the roar of dust.

The wreckage of starskiffs burned as the air filled with the iron scent of blood, choking dust from shattered buildings, and a sweet, rotting stench wafting from within Rahu.

Those lucky enough to survive the first wave of destruction scattered like ants scalded by boiling water, scrambling frantically through the ruins, each step risking a misstep onto the warm corpse of a neighbor.

"Someone! Help!"

A woman cried out hoarsely, her hair in disarray, half her face caked with blood and ash, clutching a swaddled baby tightly to her chest.

Her baby's shrill, ragged cries cut through the chaos like a dull knife scraping nerves raw as the woman rushed blindly toward the shelter of a ruined archway.

Unfortunately, in the shadows, a monster born from Rahu lay in wait and devoured them both.

"No! My strale!"

Not far away, a fat merchant in fine clothes had lost his mind—his bloated body was wedged between a collapsed shelf and half a broken wall, clutching a huge bag stuffed with heavy brocade pouches, apparently his life's savings in strale, the currency of the Xianzhou Alliance.

A handful of strale spilled from the torn mouth of the bag, jingling as it scattered across the bloody dirt.

Yet the merchant paid no mind to the approaching sounds above and frantically tried to shove more strale back into his arms, his chubby fingers bleeding from the sharp edges—until a shadow loomed over him.

A monster had just crawled out from a nearby crack and landed before him.

It resembled a skinned giant lizard, but with insect-like segmented limbs and a spiral-toothed maw. Drool mixed with sticky mucus dripped onto the merchant's bag, sizzling as it ate through the fabric.

At the sight of his corroding bag, the merchant finally looked up and met the monster's compound eyes, filled with nothing but pure hunger, void of all intelligence.

Nearby, a massive broken metal beam pinned down a young Cloud Knight, his breastplate caved in, one leg twisted grotesquely beneath him, bone jutting through his uniform.

A pool of vivid red blood spread beneath him as he gripped the broken shaft of his halberd, the jagged end pointed toward the hellish, writhing sky.

An indescribable itch and burning sensation spread from deep within his bones and organs, as if countless roots were tunneling and growing wildly through his flesh.

"Ugh... Huff..."

He tried to inhale, but only ragged, bellows-like wheezing escaped his throat before an irresistible cold and stiffness swiftly overtook his body, erasing the agony.

As a Xianzhou native, the immortality granted by the blessing of Abundance now became the cruelest curse.

All of these gruesome scenes were witnessed by a white-haired girl who was still just eleven.

Her classmates, friends, and elders—all dead.

She was exhausted, unable to run any farther, and completely hopeless as she stood frozen, watching helplessly.

At this moment, rescue from the Luofu was nearly there, since they were the closest Xianzhou to the Cangcheng.

Upon learning of the disaster that had befallen the Cangcheng, the Luofu had immediately assembled the Cloud Knights for rescue.

"We're almost there! Keep accelerating the warp!"

In the galaxy, a woman leading a fleet of Cloud Knights looked grim and tense as she shouted orders.

"Report! New intel—ninety percent of the Cangcheng has been destroyed! Casualties have reached ninety-five percent!"

"It must be another trick of an Emanator of Abundance, attacking with a living planet! Damn it!"

"No point worrying about that now! Just save whoever you can!"

Even though the reinforcements raced toward the coordinates of the disaster, by now only a sliver of the Cangcheng remained, the rest already swallowed by Rahu.

Soon, it would all be gone.

In this disaster, the white-haired girl was very lucky, as she happened to be hiding in the last surviving fragment of the Cangcheng, crouching quietly beneath it.

"Damn Abundance... Damn Abundance... Damn Abundance..."

Her eyes were empty, her face etched with despair as she muttered the word again and again under her breath, as if carving it into her mind.

"Someone... Anyone... Please..."

Step-Step-Step—

As the girl muttered with empty eyes, footsteps suddenly sounded behind her.

However, she did not turn to look—in truth, she barely cared.

Only when a figure stepped ahead of her, its side profile catching the light, did she see it was a young man around eighteen.

"System, I don't like this beginning. Are you kidding me? Everyone's already dead—who am I supposed to show off to? You're terrible for using this timeline."

Lucian glanced around, then looked at the white-haired girl behind him.

"Seriously, why start out with so much tragedy? Who am I supposed to impress? Her mind's already broken, and she already hates Abundance to the core now."

[DING! Detected problems with the current script. Because your appearance meets the criteria, the script will restart.]

Buzz—

In an instant, everything around them froze in place—it was as if time itself had stopped.

Moments later, the world suddenly shattered, and the scene before Lucian changed once more.

===

"NOOO—!!!"

Shouting loudly, the white-haired girl, drenched in cold sweat with terror etched on her face, woke from her dream.

It was clear that her dream had tormented her.

It was only natural.

Such a dream was truly hell, a mortal purgatory for an eleven-year-old girl like her.

'A nightmare... Thank goodness...'

She pressed her hand against her chest, breathing hard to calm herself.

As if remembering something, she quickly glanced out the window and saw that everything was still beautiful.

Delicate beams, gleaming palaces—everything was as she remembered.

For the Xianzhou Cangcheng, they were the most prosperous among all the Xianzhou.

"Jingliu!"

"Jingliu, are you home~?!"

"Come out and play~!"

As Jingliu stared at the window in a daze, several voices suddenly called from the courtyard—they were children's voices, the voices of her classmates and friends.

Jingliu blinked her eyes, then quickly got up, dressed herself, and prepared to go out and play with them.

In this huge house, she was all alone, for her parents had both died as martyrs.