Inside the pit, a hundred meters in diameter, marking the entrance to the Fallen Abyss, black miasma churned violently. A massive sword, dozens of meters wide, hovered within the chasm, its engraved patterns radiating a faint, azure glow.
"Hum!"
A fierce resonance emanated from the pit as the black fog surged, seemingly desperate to burst free from the deep cavity.
The instant the sound erupted, the giant sword abruptly ceased its rotation, and the ethereal light tracing its blade flickered, as if the very fabric of space had momentarily solidified.
Only after a brief pause did everything resume its course.
"Hee!"
Yet, scarcely two minutes later, a much louder hum vibrated up from the abyss's bottom, suggesting the tip of the massive sword had sustained a violent impact.
The spinning behemoth and the wandering, luminous patterns paused their movement again, if only for a fleeting instant.
"Hum!"
"Hum!"
"……………"
The resonant hums came in rapid succession.
One day! Two days! Three days…
Time raced by! The frequency of the tremors increased until the preceding sound had not even fully dissipated before the next one crashed into it.
Gradually, the hums merged into one unbroken, heavy, continuous drone.
The colossal sword no longer froze intermittently; instead, it shuddered violently, and the azure light that once defined its blade’s markings had long since vanished.
Several days later still, the continuous droning sounded like rolling thunder.
"Hoo!"
After an indeterminate passage of time, finally, a mass of inky-black energy spiraled around the sword and shot out of the pit.
Crack!
Almost simultaneously, a piercing, splitting sound ripped through the air. A fissure, stretching eight or nine meters long, had appeared across the body of the great sword.
"Boom!"
The azure light barrier that had encased the entrance to the Abyss instantly dissipated.
The seawater, previously held back, surged inward, instantly flooding the surrounding space and rushing toward the pit like a stampede. However, the black energy surrounding the giant sword seemed imbued with immense power, successfully blocking all the seawater outside the opening—not a single drop managed to enter the chasm.
"Hum!"
"Hum!"
"…"
The great sword vibrated with ever-increasing intensity, as if countless massive hammers were beating against its structure.
Crack! Crack!
The sharp, tearing sounds grew denser and more frequent. "Splash! Splash!"
The heaving surface of the sea suddenly broke open, and two graceful figures shot out: a dignified, mature woman radiating aura, and a delicate, beautiful young girl.
"Master, what is happening?"
The girl gazed toward the distant horizon, filled with astonishment.
At the edge of her vision stood an island that speared toward the high heavens like a sharp sword—Sword King Island, situated just above the Fallen Abyss. But at this moment, the area around Sword King Island seemed to be engulfed by a category twelve hurricane, with tidal waves towering toward the sky, crashing against it in relentless assaults, threatening to shatter the mountain mass into fragments.
"It seems something has occurred at the Fallen Abyss," the mature woman declared, her face grim. "Xin Li, return to the Sea God Palace immediately and inform His Majesty the Fish King of this situation. I will notify the major sects of the Tianling Continent about this matter."
"Yes, Master."
The girl named Xin Li nodded, and her form immediately sank beneath the waves.
The mature woman retrieved several jade slips from her embrace; streaks of blue light pierced her brow and vanished into the artifacts.
Several days later.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh…"
Sounds of tearing air echoed in succession as figures, like meteors suspended in the firmament, suddenly materialized at the edge of the eastern sea of the Tianling Continent.
Long Tiangong, Hua Caidie, Yu Qinglan…
Meng Feiyang, Mo Tian, Hua Zhan… ……
The strongest individuals on the Tianling Continent arrived sequentially. Gazing at the turbulent, surging waves, an unshakeable anxiety shadowed their brows.
Upon arrival, they immediately noticed that the sea level had risen nearly a meter.
"Whoosh!"
Another white silhouette flew toward them.
Long Tiangong and the others showed subtle delight; the newcomer was Mu Xueyi.
"Xueyi, what did Patriarch Mu say about the changes at the 'Fallen Abyss'?" Yu Qinglan asked somewhat impatiently, having grown very close to Mu Xueyi due to Nie Kong.
"Esteemed sirs, I have only just received the news," Mu Xueyi stated solemnly. "According to Patriarch Mu, this is a sign that the seal on the 'Fallen Abyss' is on the verge of shattering. In one month at most, the seal will completely collapse, and the land that was sealed within the Fallen Abyss all those millennia ago will fully emerge above the sea."
"……………"
A profound shock ran through the assembled group.
Figures like them, standing at the pinnacle of the Tianling Continent, had vague knowledge of the great catastrophe ten thousand years prior. They knew that after the Spirit God War ten millennia ago, the central landmass of the Phantom Spirit Continent had been sealed within the eastern sea of the Tianling Continent—this was the "Fallen Abyss."
A land sealed for ten thousand years was about to reappear. Whether this meant fortune or disaster for the Tianling Continent remained unknown.
After a pause, Hua Caidie pondered, "Xueyi, does Patriarch Mu have any further instructions?" Hearing this, Long Tiangong and Yu Qinglan, among others, turned their gaze toward Mu Xueyi.
When the Snake Spirit Clan had laid siege to Jiyang City and were subsequently repelled, Patriarch Mu had created a truly terrifying scene across the Tianling Continent to intimidate the Spirit God Temple. Hua Caidie and the others remembered it vividly; in their eyes, Yin Xu Patriarch Mu was undeniably the foremost powerhouse of the Tianling Continent.
Now, faced with such a sudden change, they instinctively sought the Patriarch's counsel.
"He gave none," Mu Xueyi shook his head, feeling somewhat bewildered himself. "Patriarch Mu did not elaborate, only instructing me to notify the emperors and kings of the coastal nations to organize manpower immediately to relocate residents near the sea edges inland, to prevent numerous innocent lives from being lost when the sea level rises."
"If that is the case, then we shall first observe the changes…"
"…"
As the powerful figures dispersed, the news of the anomaly at the Fallen Abyss and the imminent rise of the sea level by several tens of meters spread across the entire continent in an extremely short period.
Instantly, countless people residing near the coast began migrating inland.
Fortunately, with the constant coordination provided by the major powers of the Tianling Continent, no major chaos erupted; everything proceeded in an orderly fashion.
One month later.
"Crack!"
The entrance to the Fallen Abyss erupted with a world-shaking sound. The fissure-ridden giant sword hovering in the pit exploded and completely dissolved.
"Boom!"
Immediately afterward, boundless black miasma surged up from the seabed.
The entire Tianling Continent was affected; the blazing sun hanging high above was shrouded in shadow, and the world seemed to plunge instantly into darkness.
Giant waves, a hundred meters high, rolled outward in all directions, centered on Sword King Island.
The sea level of the Tianling Continent rose at an accelerated rate. Watching the colossal waves furiously shatter villages and engulf forests, Long Tiangong, Hua Caidie, and the others, suspended in the void, were profoundly shaken. As their gazes met, they saw a trace of relief in each other's eyes—had it not been for Patriarch Mu’s advance warning, countless citizens of the Tianling Continent would surely have perished this time.
The black energy surging from the seabed grew denser, and the heavens became increasingly dim.
Eventually, even the vision of the Tianling powerhouses like Long Tiangong and Hua Caidie was restricted to a radius of barely ten meters.
It felt like the blink of an eye, yet also like millennia had passed, before the sky-obscuring black miasma finally began to dissipate. As their sight cleared, their eyes widened further. There, where the sea met the sky in the distant horizon, a boundless expanse of land had unmistakably appeared… (To be continued.)