Chapter 2912

They had been painstakingly honing themselves in the Great Vase for two hundred years—was it not for this very day, this very moment?

The black dragon statue protruded its head from the city wall, hovering before the Crimson General. The gentle wind stirred her robes and brushed the dragon's long whiskers.

One person, one dragon—four eyes locked.

The Crimson General extended her arms, embracing the dragon's head and pressing her face tightly against its cheek, slowly closing her eyes.

She knew the time to part had come.

"Thank you for staying with me in this world for so long!" she whispered softly, a myriad of feelings surging in her heart,

"—Father!"

Orphaned at a young age, she had grown up in the impoverished, desolate city of the wilderness; her earliest and deepest memory was of wind and sand, armies, and her stern father.

Now, these three elements gathered once more beside her, forming the final silhouette of her previous life's brilliance and tragedy.

From childhood, she had been trained and sacrificed; ordinary father-daughter affection was never hers to enjoy. Zhong Shengguang's burdens were too great, and she rarely figured in them.

He loved his daughter in his own way, though outsiders could neither perceive nor understand it.

Even the Crimson General herself had long ceased to care so deeply.

But from now on, she would turn a new page.

In another world, she and the people and soldiers of the Panlong Army would embark on a new journey. On that road, the one walking beside her would no longer be Zhong Shengguang.

And her life would gain an entirely new meaning.

All that she was about to possess was what Zhong Shengguang had wished to give her but could never achieve.

The black dragon's enormous eyes suddenly shed tears, which fell upon the Crimson General's armor.

His companionship with his daughter ended here.

This single tear condensed all his helplessness, guilt, joy, and blessings toward his daughter.

The Crimson General opened her eyes, slowly releasing her hold.

The black dragon raised its head and let out a long, resonant cry to the heavens.

Within that cry, from tail to head, it swiftly dissolved into yellow sand, scattering in the great wind.

The Crimson General spoke softly:

"Farewell forever, Father."

The soldiers behind her silently bowed their heads, offering the highest respect and final farewell to the former master of Panlong City.

After a long while, the Crimson General flicked her finger against the blade of the Floating Life Sword and murmured:

"Floating life temporarily lodges in a dream within a dream!"

Having dreamed this far, it is time to awaken.

She and her army should also return to reality.

The Crimson General glanced at the dream cocoon in her hand, pressing it against her chest.

Embrace rebirth, together with us.

And with me.

Thereafter, the vast sky came hurtling toward them.

If one were to pull the viewpoint back to the Red Sea at this moment, one would see that the ceaselessly wandering chaos entity was continuously expanding—each circuit it made in the sea increased its bulk by twenty percent.

This was because the hidden deity's body, which had been drifting in the Red Sea, had suddenly disintegrated!

The connections among the seaweed were no longer tight; they fragmented into countless pieces, now roughly the size of the starfish He Lingchuan had seen in the Liuli Sea of the Lingyun Palace.

Whenever the chaos passed through, it would absorb a portion of the seaweed into its body, thereby increasing its own volume.

After several such circuits, the original sky-obscuring hidden deity vanished entirely, completely absorbed by the chaos!

At this point, the volumes of the two colossal entities overlapped, making the chaos's form unprecedented in magnitude.

Then it surged forward and swallowed the Panlong World whole in one gulp!

Earlier, everyone had felt the sky darken—this was the cause.

The colossal chaos, after another circuit in the sea to gather strength, launched its final assault upon the Panlong Secret Realm!

Previously, it had repeatedly struck the secret realm without success. But this time was different.

During its acceleration, the secret realm above suddenly blurred.

From the underwater perspective, it appeared as if the originally smooth, mirror-like water surface had been disturbed by pebbles, causing the scenery above to lose clarity as well.

The Crimson General, amidst the chaos, witnessed this scene, sighed softly, and understood that due to He Lingchuan's fall, the secret realm had lost its master and was forced to vanish in place.

Yet precisely because of this, the most formidable barrier blocking the chaos ahead would disappear.

Nothing could now obstruct it.

"No destruction, no establishment." She murmured, "All conditioned phenomena are illusory."

The chaos made one final, unreserved acceleration and rammed headfirst into the water surface.

To the Panlong Army and civilians within the chaos, it was as if they witnessed their world shatter in an instant, the vast heavens suddenly crushing down upon them.

Heaven and Earth Collide!

The force of this impact was unparalleled.

Unlike the chaos's previous repeated setbacks, this time the water surface above shattered instantly in response—like a colossal mirror pierced through by the chaos in a clean, decisive blow.

Above the "water surface" lies the human realm!

The energy bursting from the collision was vast and turbulent, instantly surging out of the Trapped Dragon Moat and racing along the earth's surface, shaking mountains and rivers, startling all living beings.

Only the terrain within the Trapped Dragon Moat was destroyed, as if struck by a magnitude-ten earthquake; outside the moat, only a hurricane swept past, layer upon layer pushing toward the distance.

Given time, this aftershock will still affect the entire human realm—no corner, from the ends of the earth to the heavens and the yellow springs, will be exempt.

After three thousand years of relentless effort, the stubborn barrier between the real and the illusory was finally shattered by the chaos.

It no longer needed to linger day after day beneath the water surface—for the immense chaos, that place was simply too small.

The human world is vast and boundless—only there can it naturally stretch out.

With this great collision of void and substance, the Great Vessel's "Breaking the Void" has been successfully achieved; next comes "Manifesting Substance"!

At the moment of contact with the air of another world, chaos did not remain as it was, but turned into a sky-filling red mist!

The word "sky-filling" is no exaggeration—the entire sky above the Earth Mother Plain was completely shrouded by it.

And at the moment of impact, everyone in the Panlong World stared straight up at the sky until a blinding white light exploded before their eyes.

They first experienced in the "light" a pain like being burned by fire—this light seemed to scorch every nerve, leaving them nowhere to escape.

The Red General never said that the journey from void to substance was comfortable and painless, and they had prepared themselves for it.

The "people" of the Panlong World shed their original forms, reborn as heroic spirits, shouting in the light.

Returning to the human world required only one final step; having endured hardships in life and death, they had long grown numb to this pain.

Fortunately, this process lasted only two breaths.

The brief intense light and pain suddenly vanished, replaced by a expanse of dark red.

They felt as if soaked in a dark red hot spring—warm, comfortable, at ease, the prior pain completely erased, with a hint of languid ease, like waking after a long sleep.

Though the surroundings were chaotic and indistinct, they all heard, in unison, a clear and firm voice:

Thump, thump, thump.

It was the heartbeat.

Each of their heartbeats was steady and strong.