Chapter 604: Skeletal Giant Eagle

Dilapidated hotel.

Liu Qingyan stood in a pool of blood, her gaze passing through the dim, small window, seeing two opera-robed figures leave the theater from afar and walk along the street in a certain direction.

“Where is Lord Chen Ling going?” A flicker of doubt crossed Liu Qingyan’s eyes.

Liu Qingyan had just witnessed the entire process of the Gray Realm intersection and had seen all the audience members in the theater flee in panic… She had assumed that with the outside being so dangerous, Lord Chen Ling would stay in the theater. She hadn’t expected him to take the initiative to walk out, and judging by the direction, he was heading straight toward the area where the Gray Realm was intersecting.

Liu Qingyan didn’t hesitate much before turning to walk out of the hotel, wanting to trail behind Chen Ling from a distance.

But as soon as she stepped into the pool of blood, she paused slightly.

Liu Qingyan looked down at her own blood-stained, tattered clothes and messy hair mixed with blood clots, a flicker of hesitation crossing her eyes… Although she didn’t care about her appearance, if she were to meet *that person* later, everything would be different.

Even if there was only a one-in-a-thousand chance of meeting, she didn’t want to have a “long-awaited reunion” looking like this.

Liu Qingyan looked back in the direction they had left. A red thread extended from her heart, passing through the void and connecting to the distance… With this thread of faith, no matter where Chen Ling went, she could find him.

So, even if she was delayed now, it wouldn’t be a problem.

Liu Qingyan stepped quickly over the corpses at her feet and arrived in front of the hotel’s dilapidated bathroom door. She gently took off her muddy cloth shoes and stepped barefoot, her feet white, into the pool of blood.

Blood-colored ripples spread through the dark and cramped bathroom.

Liu Qingyan turned the valve, and the entire shower head collapsed into countless parts, clattering to the ground. Only a broken pipe remained, spraying water everywhere, drenching every corner.

*Whoosh—*

Liu Qingyan shed her clothes, letting the cold water wash away the filth and blood from her body. The dark red sewage spread out from her, like a pure white flower being washed and reborn, blooming silently amidst the blood-colored darkness.

Amidst the sound of gurgling water, the corners of her cinnabar-like lips curled up slightly.

……

*Hum—*

*Boom—!!*

A violent roar came from afar, and dust drifted down from the ceiling. In a cramped underground warehouse, over a dozen figures were huddled together, shivering.

With a violent tremor, the building above their heads creaked. A baby in swaddling clothes let out a cry, but was quickly silenced by a hand clamped tightly over its mouth.

“Baby, I beg you… you absolutely cannot cry right now!!” a middle-aged woman said, her face deathly pale. “If you attract those disasters, we’re dead for sure.”

In the surrounding darkness, over a dozen disheveled figures watched this scene and fell into silence.

This was a restaurant in the Red Dust Realm. When the Gray Realm intersection occurred, most of them were still eating and didn’t understand what was happening. However, before they could even walk out the door, they saw a skeletal giant eagle descend from the sky, pulling up the casino next door with one claw.

The scene was like an eagle casually picking up a bamboo rat from the ground. The sturdy steel bars were like paper under its claws. They watched helplessly as hundreds of people fell out of the ruined casino like dumplings, one after another, falling to their deaths on the ground.

After that, they were all stunned and could only hide in the restaurant’s underground warehouse, praying they wouldn’t become the same kind of meat dumplings.

“How… how long do we have to hide here?” a man asked hoarsely.

“I don’t know… until these disasters are all driven away?”

“Are you crazy? Didn’t you see that monster crush the casino with one claw? Who could drive away a monster like that??”

“Aren’t there the lords of the Floating Life Painting? They will protect Red Dust; they won’t just sit by and watch!”

“Yes, yes, the Floating Life Painting! We still have hope!”

“Then when will they come?”

“……I don’t know.”

The group fell into silence again.

The woman in the corner kept her hand tightly over the baby’s mouth. The latter could only make muffled whimpering sounds. Perhaps because the woman was pressing too hard, the baby’s face began to turn blue, as if it couldn’t breathe.

Seeing this, the woman’s heart ached like it was being stabbed by a knife. She subconsciously loosened her hand slightly, and the next moment, the child’s crying started again.

The group’s expressions changed. They turned to look at the woman and whispered urgently:

“What are you doing? The noise is too loud! What if the disasters are attracted here??”

“I… I know, but…” The woman hurriedly tried to cover the baby’s mouth again, but before she could act, a violent shaking suddenly came from above!

*Boom—!!*

It was like a wall collapsing, or a thunderclap exploding on flat ground. The ceiling of the warehouse above their heads was pierced by several grim white bones, and then suddenly ripped away!

The underground warehouse, which they had thought was impenetrable and had given them a strong sense of security, was easily torn apart. A pale giant eagle grabbed the twisted and broken remains of the restaurant, along with the ground and the top of the underground warehouse, and soared into the sky.

The skeletal wings, blocking out the sun, danced in the air. The howling wind swept all the debris around the street into the clouds. The people who had been hiding in the underground warehouse were now exposed on the ground, staring blankly at the sky like a flock of lambs waiting to be slaughtered.

The skeletal giant eagle’s claws tightened slightly, and the restaurant shattered into countless pieces, falling from the high altitude to the ground, leaving the surrounding residential houses in ruins.

As billowing smoke rose, the skeletal giant eagle tilted its head slightly. Its hollow eye sockets seemed to lock onto the people in the underground warehouse, and it began to circle and dance in the air, flapping its wings.

“It’s here… it really found us!!” a man hugged his head in terror.

“What do we do?! I don’t want to die yet!!”

“Why hasn’t the Floating Life Painting come yet???”

“……”

The crowd looked up at the skeletal giant eagle that blocked out the sky. Some were completely terrified, while the few who still had some sanity left tried to crawl back to the ground from the edge of the warehouse, but were forced back by the hurricane pressing down from the sky, sitting on the ground in a disheveled state.

Just then, a melodious opera voice came from the other side of the street, appearing and disappearing in the sighing, howling wind.

“Even if the enemy lines are set fiercely, your mother commands the brave troops to show their talent;

Fight one battle to break one, seventy-two battles, all leveled…”

It was the voice of a young “Sheng” role, sonorous and powerful, majestic and melodious, seemingly constantly approaching.

Hearing this voice, someone in the underground warehouse was slightly stunned and subconsciously turned to look in the direction the sound came from. But because they were still trapped in the underground warehouse, they couldn’t see the people on the ground, only the dust and smoke rolling in the air.

“Did you… did you hear opera singing?”