The ears of Wingless Butterfly twitched ever so slightly.
“Did you hear that?”
“Is that the sound of waves? Did some loudspeaker break somewhere?”
Jin Wang frowned and looked around, but couldn’t find the source of the sound.
The noise seemed to be surging from all directions, at first barely noticeable, but gradually becoming denser and clearer to the ear.
Yes, this was the sound of the tides.
Jin Wang often stood guard at the border of the Realm Sea and could distinguish it at once.
“Why would there be the sound of tides in a place like this? We’re nowhere near the sea, are we?”
Clap.
Xing Yue clapped her hands lightly.
“Alright, you can’t leave now.”
“What’s going on?!”
Jin Wang’s beautiful face froze in confusion.
“This is the tide that only exists in the depths of the Realm Sea,” Manjusaka answered her doubts, then solemnly added, “The true depths.”
A place where no one had ever set foot.
***
The sound of the tide surged and churned, and the waters arrived right on cue.
Wingless Butterfly snapped back to herself, looking around, only to realize she’d been enveloped in a semi-transparent sea of clouds without even noticing.
Within the haze, there was a subtle, almost invisible tint of pink reflected.
By the time she realized, an overwhelming pressure surged in.
Glancing down at her feet, her nostrils filled instantly with a suffocating sensation!
It was the terror one only felt at the very center of an endless sea.
Looking more closely, what surrounded them was not a sea of clouds at all, but wave after wave of tides, endless and unceasing, surging and roaring, the very sound beating against her eardrums!
“Everyone, gather up!”
Xing Yue’s eyes were brighter than ever before.
Within that endless tide, she sensed countless unspeakable spirits and wraiths, all about to swarm out of the water at any moment!
Whoosh!
From the tide, countless gray-black tentacles suddenly shot out.
Looking closer, they were more like gases spurting up from the sea floor—the thickest essence of the Realm Sea, clustered together, writhing in terrifying, tentacle-like twists.
“Golden Nation!”
Jin Wang shone as bright as a blazing sun, forcing back all the surging spirits and wraiths.
Yet still, something abnormal broke through the golden barrier and charged in with unstoppable force!
“God said… let there be light.”
“Count your sins…”
Wingless Butterfly and Manjusaka unleashed first-rank magic one after another to wipe them out.
But this was only the prelude, and already a feeling of imminent catastrophe pressed down on them!
“No, we have to break out before this anomaly fully forms!”
Xing Yue’s expression shifted.
So this was their preparation?
***
At this moment, to those below, it looked as if a tide had surged from somewhere and rippled through the vast sky, as if they were watching the ebb and flow of the sea from above.
The roaring sound of the tide stirred their innate fear of deep and unknown things, making the crowd restless and uneasy.
Luo You stared up at the sky in disbelief.
“That is…”
The Realm Sea!
And not just any part of it, but the deepest reaches that no human had ever set foot in!
Luo You had never seen it either, but at the sight of this, she could imagine instantly—that was the place teeming with danger.
‘Why is the Realm Sea appearing…?!’
A sudden impulse surged in her body.
Luo You looked at her own fingers; though she hadn’t transformed, the Star Ring appeared of its own accord, and one gem on it shone with the brightest white light she’d ever seen.
Absolute Spirit Coral…?!
A white tentacle wound itself around Luo You’s arm. Unlike before, there were now streaks of inky black scattered erratically across the Absolute Spirit Coral’s surface.
“Hey! Something’s about to come out up there!”
A cry of alarm rose from the crowd.
Luo You had no time to examine herself—she looked up, just in time to see a change in the tide above.
Shapes were emerging in the water—Demon Spirits leaping through the waves, and countless more terrifying things trying to break free.
With Luo You’s experience, she knew: if those things escaped, at least half of this city’s population—hundreds of thousands—would die.
Total annihilation wasn’t out of the question.
Buzz—!
Just then, it was as if the world was disrupted by some unseen frequency.
Her vision trembled violently, as if the World Line itself was shifting.
Immediately after, a tremendous and terrifying pressure descended.
Everyone below collapsed in trembling heaps, utterly unable to resist.
Even Luo You’s pupils shook violently in that moment.
With her body influenced by the Deep Crimson Authority, she felt the threat ten, a hundred times more clearly than anyone else.
Every cell in her body—every particle of divinity she’d absorbed—stood on absolute alert!
Only the Absolute Spirit Coral on her arm remained untouched.
[What could possibly make even divine particles fear it?!]
Shocked, Luo You invoked Azure Authority, trying to pierce through the change.
Buzz!
A white flash flickered in the sky. In an instant, the tide reversed; waves and spirits alike retreated at once, fleeing from an awe they dared not challenge.
Even the monsters on the verge of emerging were banished back into the depths of the tide by that blinding light.
This terrifying aura didn’t seem to belong to the Realm Sea at all.
As the endless tide slowly became illusory, the waters faded and scattered.
While Luo You was still wondering, her hearing—heightened by the Deep Crimson Authority—suddenly picked up a cry from a nearby building: “Zero-rank magic?! Damn it, if that thing’s coming, we’ll all die if we stay! Fall back—don’t go head-to-head, find another chance next time!”
It was zero-rank magic?
Luo You was stunned.
No wonder—nothing else had ever made her heart pound with such fear.
This was the Magic Union’s greatest weapon, the ultimate deterrent that kept their footing in the world!
The Black Candle Giant Spirit had fallen with regret under zero-rank magic years ago.
She narrowed her eyes.
So, the anomaly above had grown so severe that Xing Yue and the others were forced to use the Magic Union’s ultimate deterrent just to break free?
That group really had some tricks up their sleeves.
If the Four Ten Seats hadn’t been here, if only Xing Yue alone was present, even using zero-rank magic would have been out of reach.
The city would have been reduced to a true Dead City.
“Where did that voice just come from?”
Luo You locked onto the direction of the voice, preparing to go there—only to see an explosion suddenly tear through a third-floor building connected to everything around.
Fire burst to the sky, and shards of glass rained down.
Clearly, the other side was destroying all evidence as they retreated.
Luo You dashed in through the flames.
As expected, there wasn’t a soul inside, only panicked crowds startled by the blast.
“Tch!”
Finding nothing after a search, Luo You instinctively looked at her fingers—the Star Ring glowing with white light had vanished once more.
“The Realm Sea really is deeply connected to the Absolute Spirit Coral!”
Luo You quickly went back outside.
The churning tide overhead had completely dissipated, and the suffocating pressure was gone as well.
Now, breathing came easily; the crowd gasped for air, clutching their chests like drowning men newly pulled from the water.
Xing Yue and the others hadn’t left immediately.
Instead, they came down to calm the people, explain the situation, and sent some of their group to the blast site to put out fires and rescue survivors.
This incident was severe—it had caused mass panic, and a press conference would have to be held to make a statement.