For some unknown reason, the Fish-Dragon, having already flown out of the cave and needing only another burst of energy to plunge into the depths of the clouds, suddenly convulsed. A piercing shriek erupted from its body.
This was the first time Yu Ci had heard the Fish-Dragon make a sound. He had always thought the creature lacked vocal organs. In the darkness, Yu Ci vaguely saw the body of the Fish-Dragon swell, much like when it had devoured the black energy serpent. Perhaps this was its way of vocalizing.
The sharp sound waves pierced the eardrums. Instead of continuing to flee, the Fish-Dragon twisted its body and faced Yu Ci, revealing its crimson mouth once again.
Recalling how this creature had devoured Monk Zheng Yan's Divine Soul not long ago, Yu Ci scoffed, "Do you want to devour my Divine Soul as well?"
Although he wasn't sure if the Heart-Tugging Horn he held would be effective against the Fish-Dragon's move, for Yu Ci, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Without hesitation, he lunged at the creature.
The air around the Fish-Dragon began to flow abnormally. Even in the wild wind, its trajectory was clear.
The distance between Yu Ci and the Fish-Dragon was rapidly closing, giving him the illusion that the Fish-Dragon was using its incomprehensible suction force to draw him in.
But at that moment, the Fish-Dragon suddenly froze.
It seemed to have encountered some problem; its mouth was still wide open, but it had lost all the power it had previously displayed to stir the air. It even forgot to dodge, allowing Yu Ci to grab it by the neck, clench his fingers, seal its mouth, and lock it firmly.
Joy surged in Yu Ci's heart. His body, propelled by the strong force, flew out of the cave and leaped from the cliff wall, already a good distance away.
From the moment he exerted his force until now, everything happened in a flash. Many details were overlooked, and it wasn't until this moment that he felt a change in his body.
The change was the rapid movement of Qi and Blood within his body due to the intense physical activity. At this moment, Yu Ci felt as if he had returned to the moment on the small hill outside the sheer cliff city when he had triggered the strange power of the Divine Bronze Mirror: his Qi and Blood were surging abnormally, clearly affected by external forces.
Then it was the turn of his Divine Soul. The fluctuation of Qi and Blood, which was closely related to it, destabilized the Divine Soul. This bypassed the protective range of the Heart-Tugging Horn, and by the time the Divine Soul was disturbed, the Heart-Tugging Horn became useless.
Fortunately, the turmoil soon subsided, and he quickly recovered his composure.
Is this the "Soul-devouring" power of the Fish-Dragon? Its mechanism of action, from Qi and Blood to the Divine Soul, is completely opposite to what I had previously speculated!
With a mixture of relief and lingering fear, Yu Ci, leveraging the strong wind in the canyon, twisted his body and glanced towards the cliff wall. He found a suitable landing spot and, after a few consecutive rolls, successfully landed.
A few yards above him was the entrance to the Monster Nest.
Looking up, Yu Ci suddenly understood why the Fish-Dragon had been dumbfounded: from inside the cave, it was indeed a vast opening. However, from the outside looking in, it was an indistinguishable Illusory Cliff Wall.
With a brain no bigger than a fingernail, how could the Fish-Dragon comprehend such a thing? Suddenly losing its target, its "Soul-devouring" power was difficult to activate, and it was once again easily captured by Yu Ci.
This time, Yu Ci was determined not to let it escape again!
Once he was sure he had a firm grip on the Fish-Dragon, Yu Ci was about to climb back into the cave when a deep rumbling sound echoed from the depths of the distant canyon. Like thunder rolling in from the horizon, it approached, oppressive and looming.
"What's happening?"
The wind outside his body suddenly intensified, but an even stronger sensation instantly overwhelmed him.
The sensation was so sudden that at first, Yu Ci only felt a heaviness on his body and a stagnation in the circulation of his "Primordial Qi". At the same time, a gust of wind swept up from below, grazing his scalp and swirling away.
The strength of the wind made his face feel hot, and the ensuing turbulence swept his slightly stiff body back into the cloudy and misty void.
The violent wind suddenly intensified, causing Yu Ci's body to spin in mid-air. Fortunately, his spatial awareness was strong. After a few somersaults, he not only maintained his sense of direction but also used the momentum to burst his "Primordial Qi", breaking through the stagnant sensation and propelling his body towards the cave.
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Upon landing, Yu Ci suddenly found that his knees and ankles were stiff. Caught off guard, he was unable to absorb the impact and fell, rolling like a gourd. Only then did he realize that the sensation of stagnation he had just felt was nothing more than a bone-chilling cold.
The ground shook once again.
Yu Ci quickly looked at the Divine Map. He saw that a white line was stretching from the north to the south, beyond the limits of the map. It extended from the cliff wall to the cloudy and misty void, boundless and surging.
At this moment, the temperature within the cave plummeted. The winter in Sky Rift Valley, particularly deep within the valley, was already a frigid affair. But now, it was intensely cold. Yu Ci saw that the mist in the canyon was condensing into countless ice particles, falling softly like snow.
Then he understood. The expanse of white below, of unknown size, was an astonishing cold wave.
In the past, this depth was visited by the Shadowy Wind Cold Wave, but that was traceable, a reflection of the unique climate within the valley.
But this cold wave was different. It appeared abruptly, materializing directly around fifty miles deep into the Sky Rift Valley. It spread at a rapid pace, cutting the landscape shown on the Divine Map in half.
Cold air is heavy and should naturally descend, but the valley's air currents were chaotic. Somehow, they managed to generate a massive upward draft, pushing the cold wave upward. The cold air that had brushed against Yu Ci's scalp was propelled upwards by a powerful air turbulence from below. Its force was like a swiftly thrust spear, its reach far greater. In an instant, it covered hundreds of yards, driving the mist, reversing like a waterfall, truly astonishing.
The speed of the cold wave's upward surge was not fast, but this spear-like cold air turbulence, from that moment on, repeated at an astonishing frequency. One thrust covered hundreds of yards, driving the cold current, howling back and forth. This scene was almost pervasive within the range of the Divine Map.
Some particularly powerful ones no longer resembled spears but directly triggered waves of tsunamis, rolling the cold wave, surging back and forth. The layers of cold air spreading all around were advancing, and in just a few moments, the cave where Yu Ci was had reached a point where one's breath would freeze.
One could hardly fathom the intensity of the energy surging beneath this cold wave, generating such a violent impact, pushing against the cold wave upwards!
However, even under such circumstances, the Divine Map remained unaffected. Coupled with the fact that this cold wave covered dozens or even hundreds of miles, far beyond human reach, Yu Ci firmly believed that this was not a man-made disaster, but a Natural Disaster!
However, this Natural Disaster clearly had the tendency to brew chaos.
The depth of forty to fifty miles below Sky Rift Valley was precisely the area where the Demons emerging from the "entrance" were most widely distributed. With the onset of the cold wave, the Demons, which were normally active in this region, began to stir aberrantly.
On Yu Ci's side, the Demons were scarce, so it was not obvious. But looking at the Divine Map, those powerful Demons seemed to fear the cold wave greatly. Whether upward or downward, they all seemed intent on avoiding this Natural Disaster. In the blink of an eye, the Demon communities in this region were divided in half.
A small portion were lucky enough to dodge the brunt of the cold wave, heading deeper into the valley. But the majority, under the pursuit of the cold wave, leapt upwards in madness, like fish flung from a wave, struggling and then being slapped away.
At first, Yu Ci found it amusing, but gradually, his laughter subsided. According to this trend, to what extent would the cold wave push the Demons?
Thirty miles, twenty miles? Or even closer?
These mysterious Demons that had invaded the Sky Rift Valley, for the past few days, had probably been unable to adapt to the valley's climate or the conflicting species circle, and had remained stagnant in the dark regions, not climbing upwards. But now, under the pressure of the cold wave, they were relentlessly pushing upwards. Perhaps during this period, many Demons would die for various reasons, but undoubtedly, a group of stronger ones would survive. What then would happen?
Moreover, what would be the outcome of the species circles that the Lichen Sect and Sunset Sect had painstakingly rebuilt over decades, under this cold wave?
Yu Ci took a deep breath of the icy air:
"We're in big trouble!"
**********
"We're really in big trouble!"
In the same Sky Rift Valley, at a location not yet touched by the Divine Map, someone else was expressing a sentiment similar to Yu Ci's.
The cloud mist, turned into ice particles by the cold, danced wildly in the wind, exuding a suffocating chill. It was not just ordinary people who would be affected, even the Demons would freeze from the inside out if they breathed it in, dying a horrible death.
Yet in this vast white void, two shadows were still crisscrossing in flight, treating the cold wave as nothing. Of course, one of them was not doing so well.
After several flashes, a grey-white shadow almost completely merged into the fog and frost of the sky, but still could not avoid the pursuit of the figure behind him. A shadow always loomed over him in the void, covering a radius of three miles, with black energy swirling within, taking on countless bizarre forms, trying to trap the grey-white shadow.
Just as the grey-white shadow was about to be in trouble, a hissing sound rang out in the void. The grey-white shadow emitted hundreds of sharp bursts of energy, converging into one point, propelling his body, making several turns within the shadow's range, finally finding a gap, and like a distorted wave of light, he tore through the darkness and broke free.
However, outside the shadow's range, what greeted him was a large foot that had been waiting for him. It was clad in a finely crafted boot, but the force behind it was so powerful that the grey-white shadow grunted, was kicked squarely in the chest, and like a falling meteor, drew a diagonal line and crashed heavily into the cliff wall below, his whole body smashed into it.
The shadow in the void receded.
"We're really in big trouble!"
The one sighing was not the completely defeated grey-white shadow, but the one who had just sent him flying with a satisfying kick.
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I have also posted the following more chapters [All free] on: https://www.readgates.com/article/74a39e