Chapter 314 – The Ascenders’ Squad and the Origin of the Version Invasion

City 14. That steel border wall—symbol of the AI God’s absolute dominion and the final severance from the old era—stretched across the barren wasteland like a crouching metallic beast, forming a firm boundary between the desolation and the relatively free inner city.

This was a highly restricted zone, under the AI God’s iron grip.

Between City 14 and the surrounding cities, countless fortress-like outposts stood in dense formation.

Each of these outposts was heavily fortified and armed to the teeth, connected by energy channels that formed an almost impenetrable blockade.

Tens of thousands of psychics clad in standard-issue power armor patrolled ceaselessly like tireless worker bees. Their eyes were sharp as eagles, letting no suspicious individual approach or leave City 14 unchallenged.

Every outpost came equipped with high-intensity energy scanners and identity verification systems. Any unauthorized intruder would face swift and devastating destruction.

Above, the sky canopy that covered the world halted abruptly at the edges of City 14, as though blocked by some invisible forcefield. The barrier was absolute.

Through this uncovered patch of sky—free from the canopy’s grasp—the rare, golden sunlight could be clearly seen. And at night, the ancient constellations shone once more.

This small opening in the heavens had become one of the rarest and most precious sights in this world of steel and data.

Like a ghost, Lu Yan’s figure appeared silently at the outskirts of the border checkpoint.

He walked slowly, unhurriedly making his way toward City 14, surrounded by countless firepower points.

Most of the patrolling psychics nearby were only at the level equivalent to the Foundation Establishment Realm.

The strongest among them—commanders of the outposts known as Archangels—were no more powerful than Nascent Soul cultivators.

With his aura fully suppressed and all traces of his presence shielded, Lu Yan remained completely undetected. To them, he was no more than a breeze passing by.

Their gazes swept over him as though he were air—no reaction, no suspicion.

And so, step by step, Lu Yan passed through layer upon layer of supposedly impregnable checkpoints, without attracting a shred of attention.

After discovering the terrifying way the Sky Canopy locked onto karmic fate and how this single uncovered city could potentially serve as a vital breach point to oppose the AI God, Lu Yan had made his decision without hesitation.

He crossed half the Cyber World in person to reach City 14.

To avoid being detected along the way, Lu Yan couldn’t use powerful techniques like spatial teleportation or Earth Burrowing Light, which would release massive energy fluctuations.

Instead, he relied on normal flight. Even with his current cultivation level, the journey took several days.

As he gradually entered City 14’s territory—out from under the Sky Canopy’s grasp—Lu Yan could feel it clearly. The oppressive fate-tracking threads in the air dissipated, and that suffocating gaze from above vanished entirely.

This place now met the basic requirements for conducting deeper divinations. But Lu Yan did not act immediately.

He planned to enter the city first, gather detailed intel on the world’s current state—especially on the recent changes in the AI God—before using his supreme art of Fate Manipulation to derive clearer answers.

While he was contemplating his next move and pressing deeper into the city…

Suddenly, about ten li away, an explosion erupted at one of the steel outposts.

BOOM!

A thunderous shockwave tore through the air, engulfing nearby outposts in its wake.

Countless psychics were incinerated before they could even react—reduced to ash and debris in the blink of an eye.

“Alert! Alert!”

“Unauthorized breach detected! Unknown intruder!”

“Requesting fire support! Repeat, requesting fire support!”

“Activate Destroyer-Class weapon authorization! Target: A-7 zone!”

Alarms blared across the communication network, interwoven with frantic shouts.

The once-silent steel fortresses began shifting, metal clashing against metal, gears grinding. Within seconds, every outpost underwent a monstrous transformation—fortified exteriors splitting open to reveal massive energy cannons.

BOOM!!!

Before anyone could react, dozens of devastating spirit-energy blasts erupted from the cannon mouths like furious dragons, launching an indiscriminate barrage upon the explosion site and surrounding area.

Lu Yan’s sharp eyes caught sight of several agile, oddly dressed figures weaving through the spirit storm, trying to evade.

But they were ultimately caught and vaporized. Not even ash remained.

Moments later, as the energy waves faded, swarms of nano-repair robots surged from the ground.

They rapidly cleaned the battlefield and began rebuilding the obliterated outpost with astounding efficiency—restoring it exactly as it was before. As if the battle had never happened.

Lu Yan watched this cold efficiency with a flicker of emotion in his eyes.

Then his gaze shifted to a nearby outpost, one that had remained strangely calm.

Behind it, five figures dressed in the same standard silver-gray power suits as the patrolling psychics were moving supplies—supposedly preparing to aid the recently destroyed post.

But a closer inspection revealed something deeply off.

The psychic energy signatures on these five were faint and hollow—like a thin mist clinging to their bodies, not the deeply fused energies of true psychics.

There was no doubt.

These five were fakes—complete imposters.

And those unfortunate souls annihilated earlier? Most likely disposable bait used to divert fire away from these five.

“How interesting.”

Lu Yan’s gaze deepened, a knowing smile curling at the corners of his lips.

…

At the same time, the five infiltrators of the so-called Ascenders’ Squad, who had slipped into the ranks of the patrol and used others to draw attention, had no idea their sloppy disguise had already been completely seen through by Lu Yan.

Only after joining a real patrol squad and passing several internal checkpoints did they finally breathe a collective sigh of relief.

“We should be near the edge of the Sky Canopy’s range by now. The gaze of that damned Eye of God should be weakened, maybe even unable to track us directly,” said one member in a hoarse voice through the team’s encrypted comms channel.

“Yeah. As long as we can safely enter City 14 and shake off the canopy’s coverage, we’ve basically cleared the preliminary round of this Legion Conflict mission,” another calm voice responded.

“Preliminary? This crap is just the preliminary? Is the Lord God trying to kill us?” a third, more flippant voice groaned with lingering fear.

“Hmph. These missions aren’t just about brute strength. You’ve gotta use your head too,” snapped the more level-headed member.

“This is an EX-grade mission. That giant Sky Canopy covering the world? It’s obviously some massive surveillance system.

“Those fools who just stayed in the wilderness like deer in headlights—they deserve to get purged.”

“If you react quickly enough to blend into the cities, and use the Lord God’s tools or permissions to conceal your identity and aura, the odds of avoiding that Eye’s scan aren’t that bad.”

“I’ve heard City 14 has already become a haven for all sorts of monsters and madmen,” another chimed in.

“Rumor has it, several title-level Reincarnators and infamous elite squads are already gathered there.

“We’re not going to get through the Sky Canopy or defeat the AI God using normal means. Our best bet is to build ties with the native resistance inside the city.”

“I heard the top dogs are all working on befriending key figures, trying to gain information and support. We’d better move fast too or we’ll be left behind.”

After some quick discussion, the five members of the Ascenders’ Squad once again suppressed their auras and continued blending in—moving slowly but steadily deeper into City 14.

What they didn’t know was that every word of their encrypted comms conversation had been clearly picked up by the seemingly unremarkable Lu Yan nearby.

“Reincarnators? EX-grade mission?”

Lu Yan’s expression froze for a moment.

His gaze pierced through the illusory disguises, seeing past the silver-gray battle suits to the figures beneath.

“So these are that kind of Ascenders?”

Even with his calm state of mind, Lu Yan couldn’t help but feel a trace of surprise.

Beneath the armor were not traditional humans.

Each had an animal-headed visage but stood upright like humans—sacred yet uncanny.

One wielded a serpent staff, with a jackal’s head and a scholar’s bearing.

Another was a muscular warrior with the form of a hulking crocodile and a massive blade in hand.

And the most eye-catching—an eagle-headed figure, a burning solar disc floating behind him, radiating the majesty of a ruler.

Lu Yan recognized them instantly.

These were the Ascended Ones of Shurima, a faction from a game he once knew.

They should never have appeared in a cyberpunk version.

Yet combined with the terms they mentioned—“Reincarnators,” “EX-grade mission,” “Lord God Space”—a bold and terrifying realization took shape in Lu Yan’s mind.

“The Lord God has invaded this cyberpunk version… and repackaged the invasion as an EX-grade Reincarnator mission?”

“Could this be the path the Lord God chose… to reach the realm of ‘this world’s sole existence’?”

A flood of wild, tangled thoughts surged through Lu Yan’s mind like a storm.

From a version standpoint, the Cyberpunk World and the Lord God’s space were fundamentally distinct. They existed on different planes.

If the Lord God truly managed to carry out a large-scale Version Invasion here, it would be an unprecedented opportunity.

A shortcut to a higher existence.

If the Lord God could do this to Cyberpunk, could it also invade other versions?

If so, it would mean the Lord God had already broken free from its own version’s constraints.

It could transform all known and unknown versions into trial grounds for Reincarnators—to harvest, test, and conquer.

The Lord God would no longer be limited by any single set of rules. It would use infinite versions as its pasture, its proving ground, to filter out elites and grow stronger.

It would ascend to a new realm—standing above all versions.

But this theory raised far too many contradictions and impossibilities.

For one—how did the Lord God disconnect Reincarnators from their original version’s update system?

And how could it send beings across versions without triggering identity collisions or paradoxes?

There were too many unanswered questions.

Lu Yan took a deep breath. His gaze grew heavy with unprecedented solemnity.

Instinctively, he activated his supreme technique—Fate Manipulation—to peer into the truth behind it all.

He expected difficulty. Perhaps even violent backlash from the Lord God or other unknown powers.

But to his astonishment, the deduction was… effortless.

Smooth to the point of absurdity.

And when the result finally revealed itself in his sea of consciousness, Lu Yan froze.

Because the final answer… the source behind all the inconsistencies… the reason this Version Invasion could happen at all…

It all pointed to a single origin.

“The source of it all… is me?”

(End of Chapter)