Chapter 170: The Hole in the Sky

Three seventh-level heaven experts all stared at each other in terror. They had never encountered such a situation before. Unheard of, unseen before.

What power could render their bodies uncontrollable? How strong would it have to be?

Only saw the crack in the air gradually spreading, growing larger, like an infinitely expanding spiderweb, like boundless ripples in water, like an endless snowy plain stretching beyond sight. From below, it spread toward the sky, bit by bit, climbing up to the clouds.

Finally, they gathered together at the cloud tops, as if reaching an endpoint, finding the meeting point. The cracks in the air all healed.

"Boom!" a startling sound, as loud as the creation of heaven and earth!

The Royal Old Ancestor, Dongfang Wuji, and Zhang Gonggong, suspended in midair, instantly gained freedom, but also lost their balance; the powerful suction vanished instantly, and they fell from high above, crashing heavily to the ground.

However, they didn't have time for the slight pain they felt; they anxiously stared at the strange, mutated sky.

Above the sky, no clouds were visible; it seemed they were fleeing the crack's suction, drifting away to an unseen distance.

Above the sky, a huge rift split open! Inside the rift was a pitch-black expanse; no one could see clearly what lay within. Yet powerful waves emanated from within the rift, one after another.

That wave was like a human heartbeat—thump, thump, thump… That heartbeat seemed to connect heaven and earth, each beat rising and falling steadily, proclaiming peace between heaven and earth.

Everything returned to calm, except for that rift of unknown origin, which weighed on people's hearts.

The rift kept expanding, bit by bit tearing at the sky's curtain, spreading outward. Darkness followed, unclear whether sunlight was gradually being blocked or the sun had already been devoured.

……

It was not just those three culprits.

Even ordinary commoners far away at the horizon witnessed this strange sight!

A little girl playing jump rope ran home and asked her sleeping father, "Father, how did a big hole appear in the sky?"

"The sky has split open! Disaster is about to befall us!" The farmers in the fields fell to their knees, praying that heaven spare the crops they had painstakingly planted.

"Won't the sky fall down?" Chen Yi He asked Yanshan Haidao. At first he thought it was a "heavenly dog eating the sun," after all he had seen solar eclipses before and thought it was no big deal, but as he saw the rift grow larger and felt wave after wave of powerful surges, he realized it was not as simple as an eclipse.

Yanshan Hai kept shaking his head, not even bothering to stroke his usual beard; he had never seen such an unfathomable sight, "Could it be that our actions today have disturbed the heavenly gods?"

The well-informed Nun Shang Rong furrowed her brow, gazed at the sky, and murmured, "Heaven's dew cracked—foretelling great disaster!"

Whether it was the brothers of the Martial World Grand Alliance or the soldiers of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, none had seen such a scene; after pausing for about two or three finger snaps, the battle resumed.

"Kill!!!!"

"Never mind all that! Even if the sky falls, we'll just die together!"

Chen Yi He suddenly heard a voice from within his body: "My body, how could it harbor your soul?"

"My body, how could it harbor your soul?"

"My body, how could it harbor your soul?"

Chen Yi He never expected that the mysterious force within his body would react to the rift in the sky! "What on earth is going on?" He tried to send his thoughts to the "other self" inside him, but that thought was like rain falling into the sea—once it dropped, it could never be found again.

"Do you think it might be the work of Dongfang Wuji and Zhang Huayu?" Chen Yi He asked Yanshan Haidao again.

"I really don't know." Yanshan Hai shook his head; regarding this matter, he was powerless.

Before the mighty heavenly will, they were nothing but insignificant existences.

"Never mind all that, just kill!", the West Desert Sword Demon shouted, having today turned into a demon, single-handedly slaughtering hundreds or thousands of Embroidered Uniform Guard soldiers; the bloody light on his sword blade flashed brightly.

Bright to the point of being blinding.

……

"What on earth is going on?" the Royal Old Ancestor asked. Having lived in the Underground Sutra Pavilion of the Great Zhou Dynasty for over a hundred years, even longer, he was said to understand the world's unsolved mysteries, yet he did not know what this sky rift was.

Now these three individuals have lost their killing intent, because of that unknown rift in the sky.

"Hahaha! Hahaha! Really funny!" Dongfang Wuji laughed loudly to the heavens! As an Eastern Giant Demon, what he fears least is death!

He fears death the least!

What if the sky has a rift?

"Looks like all our fighting has produced this thing!", Zhang Gonggong also laughed.

All three laughed. Although they laughed, their laughter was still bright, yet they had not dispelled the killing intent they harbored toward each other.

……

"What is this again?" Zhou Wenhuang pointed at the rift in the sky and asked, nearly sorrowfully.

Zhou Wenhuang stumbled to the outer hall of Consort Xiao's chambers; his golden hair bun was askew, strands of hair mixing in, letting his hair hang loose in disarray; from nervousness, the grease on his face was thick and terrible. Where was any trace of imperial bearing? It turned out that even an emperor in peril is just an ordinary person.

The Captain of the Guard had also never seen such a heavenly phenomenon; he had followed Zhou Wenhuang for many years, always trusting only Zhou Wenhuang's words. But when he saw the sky rift, he immediately dropped to his knees, praying to the heavens, "Please, not like this! Please, not like this! May the heavenly gods calm their wrath, may the heavenly gods calm their wrath!"

"What are you kneeling for? I'm here—are you kneeling to someone else?" Zhou Wenhuang roared in anger! After saying that, he drew the sword hanging at his waist and bellowed at the Captain of the Guard, "You still haven't mounted your horse!"

Only then did the Captain of the Guard sheepishly rise and obediently mount his horse; he was Zhou Wenhuang's trusted confidant, his sole reliance!

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Take me with you!" Consort Xiao, without time to put on clothes, wrapped herself in a layer of white gauze and scrambled out of her splendid golden chambers.

Zhou Wenhuang glanced at the carriage—it was not his usual eight‑person palanquin; this cart was pitifully small. The Captain of the Guard said, "Your Majesty, we must disguise ourselves as ordinary folk; if we go out ostentatiously, rebels will surely intercept us midway, and the consequences would be unthinkable!"

This carriage is the usual waste cart for entering and leaving the palace; it can hold only one person. Unless Consort Xiao is willing to hide in the waste tub.

Consort Xiao didn't care about all that! She hurriedly climbed onto the carriage, strained to crawl into the waste cart. Now was not the time for her to worry about her status.