It turned out that even an Immortal King would crumble in the face of the silent treatment.
The old tortoise stopped cursing.
It wasn't because it was afraid, and certainly not because it was tired.
It was simply because Xu Xian was completely ignoring it.
If he wanted to ignore it, fine, let him...
It crossed its short legs, folded its small arms, and sat on the ground.
Fine!
It would just watch and see what kind of tricks Bai Mang could pull.
In its heart, it secretly added a new entry to its ledger, putting the name Bai Mang on the very first line of the first page.
Setting aside whether it could ever return to the Upper Realm, it was determined to make Bai Mang's life a living hell, hounding him to death.
With the assistance of the Little Book Spirit, Xu Xian spent over four hours sorting through the chains that connected the sky and the water.
He dragged them all to one side.
Right in front of the old tortoise, he summoned the Sword Tower once again.
After repeated reminders from Shuer, Xu Xian unleashed three swords in succession.
Heaven-Burning Sparrow.
Yellow Spring Burial.
Nishui Han.
The three swords emerged together, and the world flickered through four colors: white, red, black, and blue. Then, the Book Sword Immortal descended upon the mortal realm.
This time, the Little Book Spirit pulled two swords directly from its small book chest, holding one in each hand. It stared at those thin iron chains with a fierce gaze and a serious expression.
"I'm going to cut them!"
Xu Xian sensibly retreated a few steps.
The Little Book Spirit took aim and shouted in its milky voice.
"I'm cutting!"
The massive Book Sword Immortal didn't hesitate, striking exactly where it was told.
A single sword stroke fell.
Heaven and earth trembled.
The dense iron chains shook violently, and a layer of restrictions peeled away.
A second sword stroke fell.
The sky turned dark and the earth grew dim.
Countless iron chains snapped with a series of loud cracks, and the entire world seemed to boil.
The remaining cold chains lashed out wildly like a moving spiderweb.
Caught in the middle, the old tortoise had nowhere to hide and took the full brunt of the two strikes.
During the first strike, it intended to endure it head-on.
It realized it couldn't.
By the second strike, it had already retreated into its shell.
It cursed incessantly in its mind.
Bastard.
Bastard.
Complete bastard.
A mournful wind howled, the sea of clouds churned, and the water rippled. The Little Book Spirit's strength was exhausted, and it suddenly went limp. Based on previous experience.
Xu Xian immediately caught the Little Book Spirit in his palm.
The Little Book Spirit lay limp, struggling to look up. It took a slow glance and murmured, "I'm still so handsome."
And then,
It fell into a peaceful sleep.
Its small body, like the massive phantom, faded into nothingness.
Xu Xian shook his head bitterly and thought to himself, 'Truly a narcissist!'
However.
Those two sword strikes were indeed very handsome. The Little Book Spirit was right; if an opponent didn't dodge that move, it could likely slay even a saint.
Unconsciously, his confidence grew even stronger.
On the water, the chains that had been severed lost their connection to the Nether Tortoise. In the blink of an eye, they returned to their normal size.
Each one was as thick as a large tree, even thicker than the chains on the Divine Sword Pool.
Some lay on the water like withered grass, while others hung from the sky like drooping vines.
They were thick and long, numbering no less than a thousand. They formed a sharp contrast with the spiderweb of chains still wrapped around the stone stele and the Nether Tortoise cowering in its shell.
Xu Xian's gaze swept across the scene, and he couldn't help but smile from the heart.
The swords were tested.
Delusion was obtained.
The stone stele was taken.
This trip had not been in vain.
The frustration he felt earlier due to the requirements for the fourth floor of the Sword Tower was temporarily relieved.
He felt much better instantly.
He waited for the wind to calm, the clouds to stop, the water to settle, and the cold chains to grow still. The old tortoise secretly poked its head out and took a peek.
The light in its eyes was bright and clear.
Finally, it crawled out entirely and stood up, looking back as if it were still in a dream.
"Holy..."
Its throat bobbed as it said in disbelief,
"You actually cut them?"
Yes.
In that moment, it smelled the scent of freedom.
But it was only for a moment.
Because in the next second, it saw that face again.
A face that only said four words.
Up to no good.
In this instant, it suddenly understood the meaning of a certain phrase.
Escaping the wolf's den only to enter the tiger's lair.
It knew very well.
Its future days were destined to be dark and hopeless.
...
The cold chains on the stele were connected to the Ruoshui of the Nether Pool and the ten-colored sky.
When they snapped, the Nether Pool reacted.
Unlike the calm within the Watery Grotto-Heaven.
On that day, the Nether Pool was restless.
It was just before dusk.
The nether water did not glow, but massive waves roared across the marsh, rising without any wind.
The waves churned like giant dragons, crashing toward the banks of the Nether Capital.
Without wind or rain, the waves still beat against the shore with terrifying force.
They swept through repeatedly.
The sound left the demon commoners of the Outer City in a state of panic, and the waves left the demons of the Inner City feeling uneasy.
Even the demon gods were startled awake.
They stood atop the Demon God Palace, looking at the frenzied Nether Pool with surprise and fear in their eyes, but mostly confusion at the unknown.
They asked themselves; in ten thousand years, such a scene had never occurred, and it wasn't even recorded in the history books.
"What... what exactly is happening?"
"Truly, it's like seeing a ghost."
"Could it be... that the Nether Pool is truly waking up?"
Various speculations played out, yet no answers could be found.
Such a situation,
It was definitely not something humans could achieve; only the great power of nature could do this.
Not limited to the Nether Pool, the Nether River was also affected and became restless.
The stone-salvagers of today bore the brunt of it, becoming the first victims.
They immediately began swimming frantically toward the shore.
But even so, some were still swept into the waves and carried downstream.
The banks of the Nether River near the Nether Pool were also affected one after another.
The demons living along the banks hurriedly fled.
The demon beasts roared even more frantically, as if they were obsessed.
Inside the Nether Hall, the High Priest was disturbed and crossed over. She looked at the restless Nether Pool before her and fell into deep thought.
She didn't even notice when the Small Priest appeared by her side.
The Small Priest was also shocked by the scene before her, her eyes dazed.
She looked at Jin Qing and called out softly.
"Sister."
Jin Qing snapped back to her senses and responded.
"Hmm?"
Jin Yu's eyes shifted as she asked weakly, "Bai Mang won't be in trouble, will he?"
She had seen with her own eyes that Bai Mang had entered the water and hadn't returned for nearly seven days.
With the Nether Pool like this, she was naturally worried.
Jin Qing remained silent, only lowering her gaze.
Would something happen to him?
Both her intuition and her logic told her.
No.
In fact.
She suspected that what she was seeing now was very likely Bai Mang's doing.
Or at least caused by him, even if such a guess was bold and far-fetched.
But she thought that if all of this had to be linked to someone, the only person she could think of was Bai Mang.
Otherwise, why would this happen for no reason?
It wasn't like this before he arrived.
Jin Yu didn't continue questioning. She was actually thinking the same thing—whether this was Bai Mang's doing—but she didn't say it out loud in the end.
She was afraid.
Afraid that her sister would laugh at her for being silly...
That was all!
However.
It wasn't just the Nether Pool that was restless, nor was the Demon Abyss the only place that wasn't peaceful. In unknown corners of the world outside, strange scenes were playing out one after another...
Tornadoes rose over the calm sea.
Massive cracks tore through majestic mountain ranges.
Dormant volcanoes suddenly erupted.
Ice springs bubbled up in the middle of the yellow sand deserts...
For example...
A lake in the Central Plains experienced a massive flood.
For example,
Magma flowed beneath the earth of the Hundred-Thousand-Mile Ice Field.
For example...
Roars echoed from a deep pool in the East Desolation.
And for example...
The Eight Sacred Lands of the North Sea were simultaneously ravaged by massive waves.
Experts peeked at the heavens and saw the first signs. They attempted to deduce the cause, but their calculations only showed that a great catastrophe was coming to the world, a reckoning for the mortal realm...
Calamity!
Calamity!!
Calamity!!!
And,
Inside a certain underground grotto-heaven that no one had ever reached, a pair of blood-red giant eyes suddenly snapped open.
The gaze within them seemed to pierce through the firmament in an instant, seeing the heaven beyond the sky.
It whispered, its voice resonating like a mantra.
"How long has it been?"
"Has it really been this long?"
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