Translator: CinderTL
"Ah, the kingdom has fallen."
"The Tulip Kingdom keeps sending more troops, and they've completely taken over the factories, churning out weapons day and night."
"I heard several coastal ports of the Steel Kingdom have fallen, and civil unrest has erupted in their inland cities."
On Hurricane Island, amidst the ruins of collapsed buildings, a crowd of people stood with numb expressions.
In dark corners, raggedly dressed civilians whispered among themselves, their faces etched with resentment and sorrowful sighs.
This scene was merely a microcosm of Hurricane Island, where homeless civilians huddled in corners, reduced to numb cogs under the Tulip Kingdom's oppressive rule.
Many young and middle-aged men had been forced into labor, shoveling coal into boilers day and night to fuel the war machine.
For now, only the wealthy villa district at the island's center still clung to a semblance of dignity, its residents secretly plotting their escape routes, their faces clouded with worry.
"This is war..."
"But at least we've kept our lives."
Using magnetic field fluctuations to survey the island, the Star Spirit shook her head.
She had witnessed countless similar scenes, even the destruction of entire world civilizations.
Compared to the horrors she had witnessed in the World of the Dead, the kingdom war unfolding on Hurricane Island, though bloody and oppressive, stirred little emotion within her.
Chen Feng silently withdrew his Perception, refraining from interfering in the situation on Hurricane Island.
While he needed the nourishment of fear to nurture the growth of his Azure Armor, he had no desire to become a mindless, slaughtering beast.
Moreover, the Tulip Kingdom might not necessarily be his enemy.
Until this point, there had been no conflict between them.
In contrast, the Steel Kingdom, due to the Mermaid and Gata incident, had suffered the deaths of several nobles at his hands, leading to multiple nationwide manhunts.
By any objective measure, his feud with the Steel Kingdom ran far deeper.
Splash!
Chen Feng abruptly withdrew his Perception.
Composed and resolute, he plunged into the sea.
According to the Star Spirit's multiple location coordinates, one of them lay near Hurricane Island.
He needed sufficient resources to advance his awakening method. Even if the warships were far inferior to the world ark, they were still better than nothing.
Whoosh!
The seawater churned as he transformed into a streak of light, darting through the deep sea.
Golden Qi automatically repelled the surrounding water's resistance, and with his aura suppressed, the warships on the surface remained completely unaware of his presence.
Time flowed onward, the Star Spirit's voice echoing incessantly in Chen Feng's mind.
"It should be around here."
"Almost there! Almost there!"
The Star Spirit's excited chatter continued, unable to pinpoint the exact location.
Chen Feng amplified his Perception to its maximum, penetrating the reefs and scouring the seabed like a radar, constantly scanning the surroundings.
He discovered numerous skeletal remains and scattered cargo from sunken merchant ships buried in the sand.
Uninterested in these relics, Chen Feng accelerated his search, weaving through the waters around Hurricane Island.
Gradually, as time passed, he frowned slightly, sensing an anomaly.
"Something's off."
Narrowing his eyes, Chen Feng focused his gaze ahead.
Sunlight refracted in columnar rays through the water, illuminating several moss-covered wooden crates lying on the seabed.
These weren't the focus of his attention, however. It was the pitch-black reef looming behind the crates that caught his eye.
At first glance, it appeared ordinary, devoid of any peculiar features.
But when Chen Feng's Perception swept over it, he detected an engraved pattern on the reef's surface:
A serpentine tail, thick as a pillar, plunging from the heavens.
Spreading bat wings concealing the body and bestial head.
For some reason, Chen Feng suddenly recalled the black-robed figure he had slain at the Sea Eye Seal.
The black token the man carried had been engraved with a similar pattern.
"A remnant of the Crimson Sequence?"
The thought flashed through his mind as his Perception swept across the surrounding reefs.
His gaze sharpened as he noticed more of these patterns.
Some were hidden beneath seaweed, others buried in sand.
They appeared every few hundred meters, spreading across the seabed reefs like a creeping vine, as if encircling Hurricane Island.
Upon closer inspection, he realized that each pattern was near the skeletal remains of soldiers from the kingdom war.
"Who's there?!"
A cold shout echoed through the underwater depths.
Chen Feng froze, his eyes narrowing.
A thousand meters away, the seawater churned violently. Black, shimmering light flashed across the island's reefs beneath the surface, and a figure materialized.
Clad in a black robe with a hood obscuring his face, the Saint-level aura radiating from him pressed down like a suffocating weight. Fish exploded around him, their blood staining the seabed crimson.
"You?"
His crimson eyes burned with malice as he glared at Chen Feng.
He was about to strike when...
Thump!
His heart leaped, his pupils contracting.
The image of the Believers, their faces etched with caution and vigilance as they heeded the angel's command, flashed through his mind.
Slanted brows, black hair, black eyes, a face as cold and hard as sculpted steel—
The two faces overlapped almost perfectly.
"It's you!"
His heart pounded wildly, his pupils dilating in shock.
The black-robed figure cursed his misfortune and tried to retreat, attempting to merge into the dark island reefs.
But before he could move, Chen Feng spoke:
"You recognize me?"
Buzz!
The seawater solidified, turning into amber.
Gray seabed sand and seaweed in the reef crevices froze in place. The unfamiliar black-robed figure's eyes widened in terror as he stiffened, paralyzed by fear.
Immobilized, as if embedded in an invisible spatial wall.
A deep voice echoed in his ears as the domineering black-haired youth slowly floated forward, as if carried by an underwater current.
Glug!
Several seawater bubbles rose to the surface, and the black-robed figure's eyes were bloodshot.
Fear alerts flashed across Chen Feng's interface. His gaze sharpened like a blade, already grasping the situation.
"Speak," he commanded, his calm gaze sweeping over the strange patterns etched into the reef behind the figure. "What are you trying to do?"
"I..." The black-robed figure's fear intensified as he opened his mouth to speak.
He had been granted a measure of autonomy, yet he had never witnessed such overwhelming world-level suppression from anyone else—except for the angels he worshiped.
For a fleeting moment, his faith wavered. He instinctively opened his mouth to protest.
But then—
Boom!
The figure exploded into a bloody mist.
Tendrils of black mist dispersed, drifting eerily through the seawater.
Witnessing this, the black mist before Chen Feng frowned slightly, sensing the anomaly from moments ago.
"An angel's methods?"
The figure's self-destruction wasn't an escape attempt but a violent annihilation by Evil God Power.
This bore a striking resemblance to the Soul Flame.
Once such a mark was imprinted, a single thought from the highest authority could effortlessly extinguish all life within the target.
With this in mind, Chen Feng turned his gaze to the patterns etched into the surrounding reefs.
"Do you recognize these?" he asked Star Spirit, hoping her database might contain similar information.
"This appears to be a specialized Blood Sacrifice Ritual," Star Spirit replied without hesitation, nodding.
"Based on what you've told me and the current circumstances, this battlefield may be the key to activating the ritual. The lives lost in the war have likely been reduced to sacrificial offerings."
Buzz!
As her words faded, the reef patterns within Chen Feng's vision suddenly vanished.
As if fearing destruction, they swiftly transformed into crimson runes that converged and dissolved into the void.
Narrowing his eyes, Chen Feng sensed the anomaly but found himself unable to intervene.
"Looks like we were right," Star Spirit said in his mind. According to her analysis, this might be a chain reaction triggered by the death of the black-robed figure earlier.
It was even possible that the mastermind behind this ritual had already noticed them.
"So, the war on Hurricane Island likely had a hidden manipulator?"
"Could the Evil God Cult be behind this?" Chen Feng's heart stirred, a sudden suspicion flashing through his mind.
Looking around, he watched as one malevolent sigil after another vanished.
The patterns etched into the reef rocks lost all spirituality, crumbling into rustling fragments that scattered, leaving no trace of their original forms.
"Has the ritual been interrupted?"
"Uncertain," Star Spirit replied, shaking her head. She consulted her database, explaining, "This type of ritual appears to be gathering power, storing its Origin within special runes."
"The crimson sigils we saw earlier were likely transferring the Origin, abandoning this location."
Chen Feng pondered her explanation, his thoughts drifting back to the Sea Eye Seal.
A sudden sense of urgency washed over him, but he forcibly suppressed his extraneous thoughts and turned his gaze toward another section of the reef rock formation.
Hundreds of meters beneath layers of sand and sediment, he faintly discerned the outline of a buried, weathered warship.
The vessel, nearly a hundred meters long, lay entombed within the seabed's rocky strata.
Its metallic hull was marred by corroded yellow stains—the indelible marks of time's relentless passage.
Without hesitation, Chen Feng acted swiftly.
Chen Feng suppressed his earlier anxieties and turned to the Star Spirit.
"This should be the place."
Having received confirmation, Chen Feng turned his gaze back to the seabed.
The uppermost black reef was exceptionally sturdy, and the layers of marine sediment showed no signs of cracks or fissures.
Buzz!
In an instant, his fingers clenched into a fist.
Scarlet Gold light erupted once more from the seabed, blazing like a Falling Sun, capable of Burning Mountains and Boiling Seas.
Whoosh!
The pale gray stone wings fluttered gently, sending another white cloud sweeping across the sky.
The Small Stone Statues scattered across the seabed rose into the air above the Bountiful Continent, their gaze sweeping over a bustling city below.
Rows of villas lined gray-black streets.
Dignified Nobles in suits sat in carriages, while ordinary commoners hurried along the street edges.
It should have been a scene of peaceful harmony, with white doves pecking at the ground in the church square.
But then...
Coo! Coo!
The white doves in the church square suddenly took flight, their urgent cooing drawing attention.
"What's going on?"
"Don't be so dramatic. Isn't this just how doves behave?"
"No, something's wrong. Hasn't the church been unusually quiet lately? I haven't seen any of the Storm Church cultists for ages."
Murmurs rippled through the gray-brick square as a little girl, clutching a handful of corn, instinctively looked up at the flock of pigeons soaring overhead.
A faint, ashen-white flash flickered within the cloud layer, barely discernible and obscured by the pigeons' trails.
But then...
Her pupils contracted as her eyes widened, fixed on the sky.
"Th-this..."
She trembled, unable to speak, drawing the attention of those around her.
One by one, people tilted their heads back to gaze upward. Even the noblewoman seated on a public bench looked up in confusion.
In an instant, faces twisted with shock and disbelief as more and more eyes turned skyward.
Buzz!
The Blazing Sun, suspended at its zenith, should have been radiating scorching brilliance, illuminating the world.
Yet now, its light dimmed steadily, darkening as if about to extinguish.
As if an invisible maw were devouring it inch by inch, the entire World of the Dead plunged into twilight.
Daylight at noon, crimson sunset, night curtain falling...
In barely a dozen breaths, the Blazing Sun vanished, transforming day into night.
The faces staring upward froze in place, eyes wide with shock.
Shock, disbelief, and even a primal fear began to stir in their hearts.
Thump!
The seabed beneath Hurricane Island shuddered violently, massive fissures tearing through the coral reefs and bedrock.
Chen Feng, who had plunged hundreds of meters into the earth, slowly bent his knees as seawater rushed in, threatening to engulf the newly formed chasm.
Hum!
But then, his Martial Dao Momentum erupted, an invisible force coalescing into a barrier that sealed the submarine fissure.
All seawater was blocked, the crushing pressure borne entirely by Chen Feng's strength.
"It's a Suppression-Type Warship!" the Star Spirit exclaimed excitedly, abandoning all restraint as she materialized from Chen Feng's mind, her magnetic field fluctuations forming a virtual avatar.
While Suppression-Type Warships couldn't match the world ark in scale or possess its unique single-layer spatial dimensions, their overall systems were formidable, particularly their armaments, which rivaled those of a legendary cyborg. In terms of group combat, they might even surpass such a cyborg.
Hum!
In an instant, streaks of electromagnetic blue light shot forth from the Star Spirit as she scanned the warship's structure, searching for a suitable entry point.
Seeing this, Chen Feng ceased his intervention.
After a cursory glance at the warship's weathered hull, he sensed a shift in the surrounding light.
"Hmm?"
Amplifying his Perception, Chen Feng's gaze sharpened as he looked upward.
The sea surface had previously shimmered with golden reflections, refracting beams of light.
Now, however, the sea had transformed into an expanse of darkness, as if the outside world had plunged into night.
"Something's wrong!"
"Isn't it noon?"
The Star Spirit, acutely sensing the anomalies in the magnetic field and light, glanced up distractedly to investigate.
In an instant, both Chen Feng and the Star Spirit employed their respective methods.
Their expressions shifted simultaneously as they witnessed the darkening world outside.
"A solar eclipse?" Chen Feng frowned, receiving shared visuals from the Holy Shield Colossus.
The other six Small Stone Statues were experiencing similar conditions.
Whether on the Bountiful Continent, the Southern Continent, or any other sea region, sunlight was gradually vanishing.
The sun disappeared inch by inch, plunging the entire world into panic.
"It doesn't feel like a solar eclipse," the Star Spirit said, her small face growing serious as she analyzed the magnetic field fluctuations.
This wasn't a natural astronomical event; rather, it seemed as if some force was interfering with the laws of nature, altering the very fabric of reality.
A tense silence fell. The detection module the Star Spirit had been distracted by finally located a suitable entry point into the Warship.
Yet neither of them rushed to act. Instead, they stood their ground, exchanging speculative glances.
"Chen Feng, I have a bad feeling," Star Spirit suddenly said, her consciousness instinctively recalling the vision of world annihilation she had once witnessed.
Her voice was unusually somber, and a palpable sense of dread filled the air.
Even her small face now bore an expression of despondency and sorrow, as if she were already mourning a loss.
In an instant, the atmosphere froze.
Chen Feng stood silently, using the Holy Shield Colossus's vision to watch the final ray of sunlight fade into nothingness.
Darkness enveloped the world as the sun vanished completely.
(End of the Chapter)
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