Chapter 929


Chapter 37: As Everyone Knows, The Shortest Distance Between Two Points Is a Straight Line

Above the Tidal Gorge, the government army’s camp.

A violent roar and tremor from deep within the earth quickly alarmed the large force stationed outside, sealing off the incident site and serving as the last defense.

“What’s going on? What’s happening?! Calm down!!!”

Tents collapsed, barricades and stakes built for defense fell apart under the intense shaking. The overwhelming tremor even made elite soldiers of the Ling Wei Army wobble precariously like weebles, struggling to maintain their balance.

Although Wen Fu, with the help of the beautiful Madame Qin Xuan from the Yin Yang Department, managed to stand and shouted to maintain order, he couldn’t single-handedly quell the panic and chaos brought on by nature’s wrath.

The terrifying earthquake lasted for a solid half an incense stick’s time. When the violent shaking finally ceased, the Prefect, feeling a bit dizzy, steadied himself and quickly scanned his surroundings.

Before he could say anything, startled cries suddenly erupted throughout the chaotic army!

“Look! Down… below!!!”

Wen Fu instinctively glanced in the direction of the voice, his pupils instantly constricting.

It turned out that over 90% of the hundreds of holes connecting to the inner layer of the Tidal Gorge had completely collapsed during the earlier dragon roll.

Rubble and dirt piled up, completely burying the exits, and even the few holes that hadn’t been blocked drastically changed shape due to the tectonic shifts.

In stark contrast, a massive depression over ten zhang deep had split open in the center of the basin, with several jagged cracks radiating out from an unfathomable pit, extending all the way to the sloped edge of the basin.

The scene suggested that the entire Tidal Gorge, and even the larger surrounding area, was about to collapse, as if some ultimate terror was about to burst forth from the earth, turning everything around into nothingness.

“This…”

Standing on the high slope, Wen Fu gazed down at the turned-upside-down basin gorge, his shock nearly spilling out in words.

But as if recalling something, he quickly turned around.

“This is bad! Hurry, send someone to Yanyuan City to confirm the impact of the dragon roll; such a strong tremor… No, I’ll go personally! Madame Qin Xuan, this place is up to you, reinforcements will arrive soon, please stick to the plan!”

“Understood.”

The Prefect and his entourage hurried away, while the elegantly robed beautiful woman watched their figures vanish into the distance before shifting her gaze back to the tumultuous basin below, letting out a few sighs.

“The signs of a great upheaval are becoming increasingly evident…”

……

Below the gorge.

“Splash ~”

Amidst the piled rubble, a suddenly expanding golden shield broke forth like a sprouting seedling, slowly pushing aside the heavy boulders weighing hundreds or thousands of pounds, and out walked the Black-haired Girl.

“This is truly absurd; I hope none of those guys ended up dead…”

Standing beside the rubble, Vilyric looked around.

She had fallen to quite a deep place.

In this dark cavern, apart from the collapsed piles of stones, there was absolutely nothing else. The sudden earthquake not only caused the ground beneath everyone to collapse and fall but probably also altered the geography of this Tidal Gorge entirely.

In other words, the map provided by Murong Yun was no longer of reference value.

But it was strange.

As soon as she crawled out from the pile, Vilyric had been consciously using SP to scout her surroundings, yet she hadn’t found any traces of Ling Feng and the others.

If they were simply scattered due to the fall and terrain changes, they shouldn’t have been split apart by such a vast distance.

Thinking about it…

The Priestess suddenly recalled something.

Regarding the incredible situations Murong Yun mentioned when he encountered that holy beast, Qilin.

According to his description, the Qilin had not launched any substantial attacks upon appearing; it merely made a symbolic sweep with its tail, and then everything around him seemed to turn upside down, quickly returning him to the surface of the Tidal Gorge…

If that guy wasn’t exaggerating, such a situation could not simply be explained by basic physical displacement; it likely involved some profound spatial powers.

Moreover, Ling Feng’s earlier absolute assurance that Yuan Zhi and the other would be fine… was also a bit concerning.

“Is there truly something extraordinary about this place…”

Regardless, she decided to move around for a bit. Although the reasons behind the inexplicable earthquake had scattered her team, it didn’t affect the Priestess too much. Moreover, with this enormous shake, it was possible they had directly bypassed the step of activating that Tidal Stone and had entered the true key area of the gorge.

Resolved, the girl proceeded forward through the collapsed caverns.

She walked for quite a while, yet the surroundings remained eerily quiet. She hadn’t sensed Ling Feng or anyone; even the dense sinister aura that once lingered in the underground area had inexplicably vanished.

However, in its place was a subtle, elusive force that was difficult to detect, seeping with a vaguely eerie presence.

It was not safe here at all; in fact, it was more dangerous than anywhere outside.

Realizing this, Vilyric stopped, pensively touching a nearby rocky wall.

Indeed… both the walls and ground felt dry, lacking any of the long-standing dampness from being soaked by underground river water.

This place must be where Murong Yun initially met the Qilin, yet perhaps even he had not noticed this truly terrifying latent force.

The Priestess continued down the only path in front of her.

After walking for about ten more minutes, Vilyric stopped again, her brow slightly furrowed.

Something was definitely off.

Despite Vilyric’s leisurely pace, her speed couldn’t be compared with ordinary people. From her starting position to now, she had at least moved nearly ten kilometers, not to mention the expanded SP coverage…

How could there possibly be such a vast empty area beneath the Tidal Gorge?

This completely defied spatial structure.

Moreover, even if Ling Feng and the others were moving simultaneously due to being separated by the earthquake, so much time had passed—if they weren’t moving in opposite directions, they should have appeared within the range of her exploration by now.

Surely, at the very least, she should have encountered a few of them.

But in reality, from start to finish, Vilyric hadn’t sensed even a single earthworm; in this quiet and lifeless space, aside from the peculiar airflow and that odd aura, there seemed to be nothing else.

“…”

She raised her hand, the Arcane Tree transforming into an exquisite silver short blade, held in the hands of the Black-haired Girl.

Then, the silver blade emitted a soft glow.

That light resembled a special marker; as Vilyric attempted to move around, its color and intensity changed systematically, as if guiding the girl toward a specific direction.

“Just as I thought.”

There’s definitely something wrong with the space here.

The exact nature of the situation was still difficult to judge, but since the “Void Trace Blade” modeled after the “Kabbalistic Tree of Life” had given a specific reaction, it indicated that this space environment must be in an unstable anomalous state, with a pathway leading to another region.

This should not normally occur.

Abandoning the meaningless advance, Vilyric simply closed her eyes and chose to follow the guiding of the “Void Trace Blade” for a straight movement.

“Radiant Protection.”

After all, there were only lifeless things around; she spread her “Radiant Protection” barrier beside her and reinforced it, ignoring the physical size constraints and wall collisions, advancing like a golden war chariot smashing through.

“Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom!!!!!!!!!!”

The sounds of walls collapsing, heavy objects crashing to the ground and violent impacts echoed in her ears, but Miss Vilyric remained unfazed, charging forward with her eyes covered.

When the way ahead was blocked, she just smashed through with brute force.

When stones fell, she would simply use the barrier to hold them off.

Even if the ground collapsed again and the terrain changed, it couldn’t stop the girl’s steps from moving toward her set direction.

Finally, the fluctuations of the Void Trace Blade in her hand hit their peak, signaling that the point of space interweaving was within reach.

Vilyric opened her eyes once more.

She… had returned to the starting point where she had initially fallen.