“Ahhhhh—!!!”
Theia's scream was torn to shreds by the violent airflow.
This acceleration was far more violent and brutal than any before.
The entire world flew backward, stretching and warping in their vision.
The flying vessel hurtled through the thick fog above the Wailing Corridor.
The grayish-white mist was forcibly plowed open, carving out a straight vacuum channel.
The scenery on both sides—withered giant trees, hideous rocky crags, and wandering phantom demons—all blurred into smears of color, vanishing in a flash.
Behind them, the furious howl of the crimson thorn demoness finally reached their ears.
“Roar—!!”
The sound was sharp and piercing, carrying a violent tremor that shook their very souls.
But the howling lasted for only an instant.
In the next second, she was left far behind as the sound rapidly weakened and dissipated.
It grew muffled and surreal, as if separated by a thick curtain of water.
Within just a few seconds, the crushing pressure around them suddenly lifted.
The clinging, blood-red killing intent vanished.
Lin Gui gritted his teeth and slammed the lever controlling the vessel's speed all the way down with all his might!
The wind pressure cannon at the stern of the flying vessel instantly shut down.
The twelve wings distributed along the sides of the vessel shifted from their tilted “sprint” angle, quickly adjusting to unfold completely flat like the outstretched wings of a giant bird.
“Screeech—!!”
The sound of intense air friction immediately turned sharp and ear-piercing.
The speed of the flying vessel, which had been as fast as a shooting star, began to decelerate visibly.
But the deceleration was far from smooth and gentle.
The massive inertia caused the vessel to shake and jolt violently.
Theia and Eve were pinned hard against their seats by the inertia, barely able to breathe.
The grayish-white mist ahead was brutally pushed aside and churned up by the flying vessel, trailing long, billowing wakes along both sides of the hull.
Lin Gui counted down frantically in his mind.
69... 68... 66...
The numbers jumped erratically in his tension.
He finally lost all restraint and roared hoarsely:
“55... 54... 53!”
The speed of the flying vessel was indeed dropping.
But the reckless burst of acceleration from earlier had been far too violent.
At one point, the speed had surged to a level that was nearly uncontrollable.
Even though the wind pressure cannon had been shut down for over thirty seconds, the flying vessel still maintained a terrifyingly high speed.
The process of slowing down was agonizingly slow.
This staggering speed and energy disturbance was like tossing a massive boulder into a stagnant pond.
Ripples began to spread outward into the distance.
Over a dozen kilometers away, in several other territories of Epic demons, those terrifying entities that had slumbered for ages, rarely moving much, simultaneously directed their perception toward this direction.
To the east, deep within the frozen wasteland of souls that was perpetually covered in thick ice crystals, a pale mountain of bones trembled slightly.
Within the countless hollow eye sockets on the mountain's surface, eerie blue cold flames ignited in unison.
Bone-chilling mental ripples spread outward like a rising tide.
To the west, in a domain churning with pitch-black bogs and resentment, a colossal face pieced together from rotting visages slowly rose from the center of the mire.
It split open its hollow mouth, releasing silent, greedy waves of swallowing.
Viscous malice rippled outward.
Even further away, several blurry, colossal silhouettes loomed in the thick fog.
Some unfurled illusory wings that blocked out the horizon, while others extended twisted limbs as massive as mountain ranges.
Soul ripples of various natures, each equally horrific, acted like invisible tentacles piercing through the barriers of space to intertwine, shroud, and probe toward the path where the flying vessel was hurtling.
Lin Gui's countdown was torn to pieces by the howling wind.
“42... 41... 40!”
He could feel those cold gazes from afar piling onto his back like tangible shackles, layer upon layer.
Worse still, these startled Epic entities did not seem content with merely watching.
The bone mountain in the ice crystal domain began to slowly rise.
The sound of countless icicles shattering drifted faintly from over ten kilometers away.
The giant face in the bog dragged its viscous body, flowing in their direction.
The massive silhouettes in other directions also began to move.
Their movements were not fast, but every single step caused a dull tremor in the earth and a violent fluctuation in the soul realm.
The thick fog of the entire Wailing Corridor began to churn and change color erratically.
The dead silence was broken, and a grander, more chaotic commotion was brewing.
“20... 19...!”
The flying vessel's speed finally dropped to a controllable range.
The twelve wings unfolded completely flat, vibrating violently to provide maximum drag.
Lin Gui's hands were as steady as bedrock as he made precise micro-adjustments to their direction.
His eyes were locked dead ahead, where the undulating membrane was drawing closer and closer.
Speed, angle, distance... everything was being calculated frantically in his mind.
The countdown drew near its end.
“10... 9...!”
The blank zone of Avalon was close at hand.
Lin Gui's left hand rested once again on the activation button of the wind pressure cannon.
His heart beat like a drum.
If what lay ahead was not Avalon, or if behind that membrane lay a sheer cliff, a monster's nest, or the maw of another demon, he would not hesitate to fire up the wind pressure cannon and flee for his life along the secondary escape route he had planned long ago.
“5... 4...!”
Anxiety wrapped around Lin Gui's heart like icy vines.
He was afraid.
Afraid that after traveling all this way—through forests, rifts, ocean floors, and sheer cliffs—and afraid that Theia's hopes, Eve's prophecy, and his own judgment would all turn out to be in vain.
“3... 2... 1!”
The countdown hit zero.
The prow of the flying vessel touched the invisible, undulating membrane.
At that exact instant, a calm, rippleless voice that seemed to echo directly in the depths of his soul rang out in Lin Gui's mind right on time:
【Long-term commission: “Escort Theia to Avalon”...】
【Conditions met. Completed.】
The heart that had been in his throat finally settled back into his chest.
The flying vessel shuddered slightly and passed through the membrane, as if passing through a cool curtain of water.
The scene before them changed in an instant.
The thick, bizarrely colored gray fog vanished instantly.
The soul-suppressing whispers and shrieks disappeared without a trace.
Below them were no longer hideous rocky crags and wandering specters, but rather... a city-state dotted with flickering lights.
It sat quietly in a basin bathed in a soft, gentle glimmer.
In the center of the basin, a colossal black pillar towered, propping up a protective barrier that isolated the city-state from the outside world.
It resembled a giant umbrella, shielding everything inside from danger.
Beneath the barrier, the city walls were low, and houses were scattered in an orderly yet casual fashion.
There was no earth-shattering killing intent, nor any terrifying pressure.
There was only a sense of being completely cut off from the world... a profound peace.
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