Chương 455: Songs of Survival (II)

What the hell just happened? That was Long Tao's first thought as he felt the world vibrate slightly and a Qi storm surge in the far southeast of him. He immediately turned to face the direction, but whatever it was did not reach him. Despite that, it was something that released so much raw Qi that it approached the level of an Emperor. If he had been there to face it head-on, even he would have died without a single chance to save himself.

Something that could be felt potentially thousands upon thousands of miles away, even just so faintly, was... troublesome. There was one scenario where it wasn't--his Master. If that man was somehow the cause of it, then it was likely fine. But if he wasn't?... the realm might just be a touch more complicated to solve than he thought. **"What?" she mumbled as she felt something shake underneath her.

Peering her gaze into the realm, her jaw came unhinged the very next moment--starting from the center of the Luminous Jungle and north, there was... well, there was nothing. Where there were some hills and a massive forest dividing the jungle from the Azure Lake, there was now... nothing. A clean, straight path spanning some four miles in width, as though someone pressed the cosmos' largest blade on its dull side against the world. She shot to her feet, her heart skipping a beat; it was impossible.

Even if there were cultivators capable of such a feat, they certainly could not enter the Realm--and, even if they could, only Emperors and higher-grade ones at that would be able to do this. And there were no Emperors present within the realm, that much was for certain. No... even they couldn't do it so fast. It had literally occurred in the blink of an eye. One moment, the world was normal--the next, there was a massive chunk of it missing.

Either somebody in the realm possessed an artifact that even Emperors would yearn for or some other unfathomable phenomena occurred. Right! Unfathomable! She immediately spanned her mind out to contact those bastards. ** As soon as he felt his mind twinge with connection, he sighed and frowned. She knew why the old maiden was contacting him but had no answers for her. He was likely far more flabbergasted than she, having actually met quite a few Emperors in the course of his life.

And though there were regal and lofty figures that could undo him with a thought, he was beyond certain none of them would have been able to do what just happened in the realm. Not that fast, anyway. It had to have been an artifact of at least Imperial grade that had a remnant Imperial Soul stored in it, and the Soul itself caused the implosion. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!... at least, that was his best theory.

She wasn't alone in trying to contact him, far from it--soon enough, there were dozens and then hundreds of connections, but he ignored them all. Rather than lie or admit to his ignorance, he'd just pretend he could not talk with them. ** Wan Lan stopped in her footsteps--as did Dai Xiu--just as the flash of light overwhelmed their sight. They bore witness to the world they were approaching from the mountains simply... disappearing.

A massive swath of land that spanned well beyond what they could see simply vanished from existence. The trees, the rivers, the hills, and even a few mountains—they had all vanished in that flash of light. Before they could speak to confirm their suspicions, they felt it--a gust of wind that quickly became a squall that they had to defend against using Qi. They were at the very least two to three thousand miles from the seeming center of phenomena, and yet it nearly swept them off their feet and sent them flying.

Some of the weaker trees on the mountainside were ripped from their roots and shuttled to who-knows-where.

"... wasn't that... Master's?" Dai Xiu stuttered a question that Wan Lan posed to herself, too.

"Probably," she nodded.

"It reminded me of that time he used it to save us when we left my hometown."

"Hm. Do... do you think he's alright? Should we go check it?" Wan Lan would lie if she said she hadn't considered it, too. But...

"Whatever got hit by whatever Master reflected did not survive. I just wonder what could have caused Master to use the mirror."

"... I hope he's alright."

"He will be. Let's go. There's a good chance a lot of people will descend toward here now to investigate it. We can't dilly-dally and miss the chance at the lake."

"Hm." **"Master...?" Light mumbled as Rayce shifted toward her, looking at her inquisitively. Was she merely missing him?

"I miss him, too, Light. But soon--""--no, not that," she interrupted.

"I just felt Master's energy sweep through the other side of the realm."

"H-huh?"

"Is, is Master alright?!" Xing Feng asked.

"Hm," Light nodded.

"I left a part of myself on him. He's alive."

"Phew."

"What happened?" Rayce asked.

"I don't know," Light said.

"We will no doubt hear about it soon enough. Let's go. We're almost out of this place." Though Rayce wanted to inquire further, the girl's tone said she would not answer. And so, he merely followed after her, silently wondering whether Master knew that Light left a part of herself on him... ** Hooh? Its tired mind woke from the half-slumber, its one good eye peering past the darkness of the stone and to the vast voyage of the world.

There, beyond the rolling hills and mountains and that would-be tomb, it noted the large swath of nothing. An impossibly large swath of nothing. Just as it had craned its head to investigate, it felt something slither over its foot; alarmed, it craned the neck back down as quickly as it could, which was not particularly quick, only to find, well, an oddity. There was nothing there, best it could tell. Only words carved into the dirt. Words of a tongue so old that it was certain there was nobody else who knew of it.

The words were simple and crudely drawn, as though a child had done them, and only spelled out a very simple sentence: Don't touch mister. The last word, in particular, was an oddity, as it could mean several things: mister, father, general, or even deity in some contexts. It shuddered, realizing somebody had managed to slither past its impenetrable defenses, something that hadn't been done in tens of millions of years. And shuddered twice over that it was something possibly as ancient as it was--if not more.

Though a confusing sentence, it wasn't difficult to understand it; of all the things not to touch, it was likely being told not to touch whatever, or whomever, caused that massive expulsion of energy. A Spirit had died, and the death enraged it, yet... it stayed still. It was tired, beyond tired. For eons, it had served the Oath, and for as long as the realm existed, it would be bound by it.

The realm was not for long--in fact, this might be the last time it ever opened due to the moronic greed and hubris of those with a key. It truly wondered, whenever its aged mind would allow it, how humanity still endured. The endless greed, anger, hate, pettiness, wrath... Will it come back? It wondered as it glanced back at the words that reminded it of the distant, distant, distant days of early life.

Where it was just a palm-sized tortoise in a lake when a young girl picked it up and took it home, changing its life forever.