Chapter 149: Audience's Warning

Thump—thump—thump!!

Muffled drumbeats mingled with the wailing wind and snow, as if they were about to shatter the earth and the ocean.

At this moment, all the incantation-covered seaweed in Winter Harbor retracted back into their reflections, like a strange octopus pulling in its tentacles. Huge, churning waves splashed tens of meters high, and a massive black outline began to rise gradually from the spray.

Because the distance was too great and the wind and waves were too strong, Chen Ling couldn't see what the thing looked like. Moreover, the part of the thing exposed above the sea seemed to be just the tip of the iceberg; from a distance, it looked like the peak of a giant mountain rising from the seabed.

Dense black tentacles extended from the seabed, dancing wildly between the sea and the sky like twisted lightning stirring the waves. If one looked closely, they would find that those "tentacles" were actually the incantation-covered seaweed that had just emerged from the reflections.

Chen Ling stood on the engine, roaring away from Winter Harbor, staring fixedly at the behemoth in the distance, his heart trembling.

He didn't know what that thing in the sea was, but judging by its size alone, it was enough to kill every calamity he had seen so far in seconds. Even that massive Fifth-Stage bone eagle flying in the Gray World wasn't even a tenth the size of the part the opponent had exposed above the sea...

If size could represent the stage of a calamity, then this one in the sea had to be at least Seventh-Stage or higher?

No wonder Winter Harbor was extinguished so easily. With a calamity like this hiding along the coast of the frozen sea, even if it only used a few tentacles casually, it could silently kill tens of thousands of people.

The bad news was... the calamity in the sea seemed to have been angered by them.

As the waves were pierced and shattered by the seaweed filling the sky, those black shadows swept across the coast of Winter Harbor, rushing toward the train that was speeding away from the area. Their speed was so fast that they created sonic booms in the air, catching up two-thirds of the distance in an instant.

As these seaweed struck, a grayness began to spread rapidly in the surroundings. The sky visibly turned a heavy leaden gray, and all color in the world was stripped away. At this moment, the unstable balance between the real world and the Gray World was broken, and they began to converge at an accelerated rate!

"Brother Zhao Yi... my eyes are broken." Ling'er huddled in the corner of the control room, watching the colors in her eyes disappear. She rubbed the corners of her eyes hard and spoke with a hint of a sob.

"Ling'er, it's not your eyes that are broken." In Zhao Yi's eyes, only monotonous black, white, and gray remained. He comforted her while gritting his teeth to drive the train, "...It's the world that's broken."

On top of the train, the blood-colored coat also lost its color under the convergence of the Gray World. Seeing this, a flash of doubt crossed Chen Ling's mind.

When he was in the Gray World before, that splash of red was clearly preserved... Why was it gone now?

Chen Ling suddenly thought that the last time he was in the Gray World, he was wearing the bright red opera robe that came with his resurrection, but this time, he was only wearing a coat stained red with blood... So, what was preserved by the Gray World wasn't his color, but the color of that bright red opera robe?

Chen Ling didn't have time to think about it, because the pieces of seaweed coming through the air were already in front of him. As the incantations on the surface of those seaweed lit up, a terrifying pressure swept over!

At the same time, a stinging pain came from within Chen Ling's body. Incantations began to flash beneath his skin, seemingly about to burst out soon!

Just as Chen Ling felt his body was about to slip out of his control, the void behind him twisted suddenly, and pairs of scarlet eyes opened out of thin air!

Those were countless angry gazes, as if his favorite toy were about to be snatched away by someone. Threats and warnings crossed time and space, descending upon this world with immense pressure. The seaweed flying in mid-air stopped instantly!

Before Chen Ling could recover, the incantations beneath his skin faded rapidly, as if they had never existed. Those seaweed suddenly recoiled back into the churning waves, like tentacles that had been burned, retracting even faster than they had come.

When Chen Ling looked back, there was nothing behind him.

He didn't know what had just happened, but he could probably guess that the "audience" couldn't help but intervene... However, logically speaking, they shouldn't interfere with his life or death. Was there another reason?

Although Chen Ling couldn't figure it out, he breathed a sigh of relief. Regardless, they had survived the attack of that terrifying calamity.

As the train gradually disappeared at the end of the horizon, in the churning waves, that massive giant shadow was still staring fixedly at the direction they had left.

A series of hoarse whispers with strange tones came from it:

"It's that one from the Ghost Abyss..."

"Why isn't it staying in... the Ghost Abyss... and coming to our Forbidden Sea... to do what?"

"Is it... provoking us...?"

"Enough... just by ourselves... we are no match for that one... let him go..."

"Break through that last... human city-state. The entire North will belong to the Forbidden Sea... don't cause extra trouble."

The eerie whispering gradually disappeared. Under the churning waves, the behemoth gradually sank to the seabed. Broken ice floated on the surface of the seawater, reflecting the shadows of countless seaweed.

……

The train roared across the frozen earth, the wild wind carrying shards of snow drifting in the air.

Chen Ling flipped from the roof of the train into the control room and saw Zhao Yi "intimately interacting" with the withered hand on the dashboard, sometimes gripping it, sometimes loosening it, sometimes twisting it gently, seemingly already adept at it.

"Chen Ling, are we safe?" Zhao Yi wiped the sweat from his forehead and asked.

"Temporarily safe."

Chen Ling's gaze fell on Zhao Yi's back, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"Zhao Yi..."

"Yeah?"

"Doesn't your back hurt?"

Zhao Yi was stunned for a moment, only then remembering that his back was still hurting. He grinned and said, "It hurts, how could it not? I'm in so much pain right now... help me take a look, how's my back?"

Chen Ling stood behind Zhao Yi and didn't speak... On Zhao Yi's back, a deep whip mark that reached the bone had almost split him in two, but no blood was seeping out.

At the edges of the split flesh, pitch-black, dense incantations were wriggling slowly, seemingly devouring his body.

"Was this left by that seaweed just now?"

"Yeah, it whipped my back once, I almost died of pain..." Zhao Yi twisted his back. "Chen Ling, hurry up and treat my wound, don't let it get infected."

"..." Chen Ling shook his head. "This wound isn't right; I can't treat it..."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Chen Ling pondered for a moment. "There's a divine doctor in Aurora City named Chu Muyun. Go find him after you enter the city and let him take a look."

"Is my wound that evil?" Zhao Yi turned his head to see what his back looked like, but he couldn't see it at all. After trying for a moment, he gave up on the idea and asked instead, "Alright... where are we going now?"

Chen Ling's gaze fell outside the carriage, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"Pick up our 'audience'... and then, enter the city."