The silence stretched so long that even the sound of breathing became unnaturally clear.
Zhang Wen stood before them, the gaze hidden beneath his black mask sweeping calmly across everyone, as though observing something far deeper than words or expressions.
The Affinity values floating within his vision showed almost no fluctuation.
Ming Yuan remained at a perfect one hundred without the slightest movement. Kang Hao was the same.
Long Yantian had just reached one hundred completely. Lin Taiji remained at ninety-nine. Liu Long had risen to nearly eighty, while Gui Ying, who had started lower than anyone else, was steadily increasing bit by bit.
Zhang Wen understood clearly that those numbers were not born from admiration.
They came from fear.
After allowing the silence to press down long enough, he finally spoke in a calm voice.
"Alright. I have seen enough."
The eyes of several people trembled slightly.
"The final step… try to defeat it."
The Heaven-Severing Umbrella instantly appeared in Zhang Wen's hand. The surrounding air distorted as if space itself had been torn apart. An irresistible pulling force erupted, swallowing the bodies of all six individuals before anyone could react.
The world went dark.
Only endless darkness remained.
In the next instant, each of them fell toward an unknown domain.
Lin Taiji flipped her body midair immediately. Wind roared past her ears. When she looked downward, her heart turned cold.
An immeasurable ocean stretched endlessly beneath her.
There was no land, no islands, not even a visible horizon, as if the entire world consisted of nothing but an infinite sea.
She scanned her surroundings but found no one else.
At that very moment, she realized her cultivation had been suppressed to Saint Level One.
BOOM!!!
The ocean below exploded violently. An enormous mass of water surged skyward as though the sea itself had detonated. A colossal wave rushed toward her with unmistakable intent.
Lin Taiji instinctively retreated through the air.
Clang!
Beneath the crashing wave, massive fangs snapped shut exactly where she had been moments earlier. The impact shook the air itself.
Her pupils shrank as a gigantic shark emerged from the sea.
Its body was as vast as a small mountain range. Ancient scars covered its rough skin, while lifeless pale eyes locked onto her with predatory malice.
But what truly drew Lin Taiji's attention…
was not the shark before her.
It was what existed beneath the ocean.
Beneath the pitch-black surface of the ocean, countless shadows moved silently.
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Some stretched long like colossal serpents. Others spread wide like mountains. And some were so enormous that their full forms could not be seen at all. The sea began to rotate slowly, as though disturbed by the movements of incomprehensibly massive beings.
Lin Taiji focused her gaze downward.
In that instant, she felt death staring back at her.
Because beneath the water were not only demonic beasts.
There were corpses.
Pale human arms drifted motionlessly. Twisted faces floated in silence. Lifeless bodies remained suspended as if preserved for countless ages.
They did not sink.
All of them floated at the exact same depth, as though some unseen force prevented them from descending into the abyss.
Suddenly, several corpses slowly lifted their heads at the same time.
Eyes that should have remained forever lifeless opened wide.
A numb chill spread across Lin Taiji's scalp. She was certain of one thing.
They intended to kill her.
The ocean trembled once more.
A massive shadow passed slowly beneath her body. Its sheer size instantly reduced the previously seen giant shark to insignificance. Even after several breaths passed, the shadow still had not ended, as if the creature itself rivaled a portion of the ocean in scale.
Water pressure surged upward. The air grew unbearably cold, making breathing difficult. The sea surface began to bulge upward, as though something was rising from depths no living being should ever reach.
At the same time, five completely separated dimensions displayed identical scenes.
Endless oceans.
Boundless waters without land or refuge.
Ming Yuan, Kang Hao, Long Yantian, Liu Long, and Gui Ying had each been cast into their own isolated seas, separated from one another. Different dimensions. Different oceans. Different horrors awaiting them.
Above them lay an empty sky.
Below their feet stretched an infinite abyss.
And deep beneath the surface, countless creatures moved silently in the darkness.
Kang Hao hovered midair, staring downward cautiously. His expression remained calm, yet every muscle in his body unconsciously tightened. Several enormous shadows circled beneath the water like predators evaluating prey.
He let out a quiet laugh and muttered,
"I swear… for the rest of my life, I'm never setting foot near the sea again…"
The moment his words ended, the entire ocean surface suddenly collapsed inward, as if something had swallowed the sea itself.
The darkness below opened slowly.
A colossal form moved beneath him. Even the smallest visible portion of its body dwarfed the seabed itself. A violent pressure wave surged upward, forcing even Kang Hao to retreat instinctively.
In another dimension, Ming Yuan stood suspended in the air, completely motionless. His eyes were calm, like a mirror untouched by ripples. He paid no attention to the sea beasts circling below.
He attacked immediately.
Countless stars began falling from the sky.
Each star burned fiercely as it descended toward the ocean. Explosions thundered as they struck the surface, yet instead of erupting into chaos, the sea quietly parted and swallowed them whole, as though it had consumed such destruction countless times before.
Ming Yuan narrowed his eyes slightly.
Every time a star vanished beneath the water, something below moved closer to the surface.
As if it were awakening.
In another dimension, Long Yantian hesitated not even for a moment. His figure shot straight into the ocean. Waves exploded outward as his body pierced the surface. The freezing pressure of the deep sea failed to shake him in the slightest.
His bloodline belonged to rulers of the ocean since ancient times.
Yet after only a few breaths beneath the water, his expression changed.
Countless eyes opened within the darkness simultaneously.
They stared at him as though he were an intruder.
Long Yantian looked ahead and muttered,
“Now this is getting terrifying…”
Elsewhere, Gui Ying floated above another sea entirely.
Her expression remained calm as she gazed downward coldly.
The entire ocean beneath her was crimson red, like an endless sea of blood. Fragments of flesh and shattered bones drifted across the surface. Each wave carried incomplete remains of unknown creatures slowly through the scarlet tide.
And beneath that blood ocean…
Something moved.
It was not a demonic beast.
It resembled an enormous mass of fused bodies, crawling slowly beneath layers of thick blood. A faint chewing sound rose continuously from the depths below.
In yet another dimension, Liu Long dove directly into the sea.
He descended deeper and deeper. The light from above gradually disappeared until darkness consumed everything.
Then he stopped.
His entire body froze.
Before him was no seabed.
No ground.
No direction.
The space beneath the ocean opened into a vast emptiness, like another inverted world existing below reality itself. Within that darkness, something moved.
Its form could not be defined.
It possessed no fixed shape, no boundary. Parts resembled flesh. Parts resembled tentacles. Parts resembled eyes that constantly formed and vanished.
Liu Long’s mind struggled to comprehend what he was seeing.
But it failed.
He could not understand what it was.
He could not tell whether it was alive.
He understood nothing at all.
Yet merely witnessing its existence caused his soul to tremble, as if he were facing something that was never meant to be seen.
