When Xue Ji returned to the island, all she found on the shore were Shen Dai and Xia Jin, unconscious.
“Wake up. What happened?”
She roused them both, and the moment they shook off their daze, they hurriedly told her everything.
“Iva was taken…”
From their description, that monster had even harmed Iva. Fury surged in Xue Ji’s heart.
“You two, get everyone else off the island immediately. And I mean it—take a plane. The sea is far too dangerous.” With that, she vanished from where she stood.
Though the waters around the island still seemed calm, that was only because of Ling Xiaoxiao’s influence. The truth was, every ocean on the planet was in chaos, and the very battlefield where Ling Xiaoxiao fought had been elevated into a no-go zone for humanity.
That meant she was facing a catastrophe that, in theory, could wipe out civilization itself.
On top of that, the highest-level supernatural disasters had erupted across all four oceans. The whole world was shrouded in a suffocating gloom of despair.
An oceanic civilization no one had ever heard of had revealed itself. Colossal sea beasts rampaged, and even the seawater itself seemed to devour human beings.
And somewhere in the depths of the ocean, something unspeakably terrifying was watching everything unfold.
There was no way to be everywhere at once. The current crisis was beyond anything human civilization could handle, and Ling Xiaoxiao couldn’t possibly suppress that forbidden zone anytime soon.
At this moment, Xue Ji knew she had to step up.
“Disciple, hold on!” An aged voice called out from the east.
A streak of fiery light shot toward Xue Ji.
She looked curiously at the young man who had arrived before her. Dressed in a flowing black robe and carrying a massive heavy ruler on his back, he was none other than Xiao Huohuo from her high school days.
“Whose voice was that just now? Xiao Huohuo… classmate?” Xue Ji had a guess, but she wasn’t certain yet.
Xiao Huohuo clasped his hands in a polite salute and explained, “It’s my master, the Venerable Cangyan.”
“Master, come out already! This isn’t the time to be slow!”
An ethereal, sage-like old man emerged from the young man’s body. When he laid eyes on Xue Ji, he couldn’t help but pause in a daze.
“Child, do you still remember me?”
Xue Ji was taken aback as well. Yet another figure from a thousand years ago had crossed the river of time to meet her again.
“Of course I remember you, Master. But now’s not the time for catching up—I have to go.”
She was about to take off, but turned back and said:
“Master, and junior disciple—could I ask you both to lend a hand on the Canglong?”
……
Without even a moment to reminisce, Xue Ji returned to the Canglong and immediately joined the emergency meeting with all parties.
The moment everyone saw her, they let out a collective sigh of relief.
Commander Ye got straight to the point. “As the Sage’s intel confirms, the ocean has become our enemy. Several island nations have already gone silent. The situation is grim.”
“Our top priority right now is to clear the anomalies along the coastal regions.”
The Canglong’s super AI was monitoring the sea surface in real time and feeding back updates to everyone.
The most urgent threat was the invasion of sea-beast civilizations along the eastern coast. Hordes of marine monsters, astonishingly well-coordinated, were launching alternating, disciplined attacks, slowly eating away at the land.
It had all happened so fast that most coastal cities hadn’t even been evacuated. To buy time, the military had no choice but to fight a delaying action, retreating step by step.
Against such an immense frontline, the newly developed supernatural forces were simply stretched too thin.
Large-scale destructive weapons were severely hampered by the protective blessings on the sea monsters, drastically reducing their effectiveness. Even with the super AI providing near-perfect battlefield transparency, the forces were still struggling.
“The transportation system is under too much strain—it’s on the verge of collapse.”
“We can’t fall back any further. We have to at least hold the line, or the casualties will be catastrophic.”
“But what are we supposed to fight with? Out of three million people, only half a million are supernaturals. And that’s not even counting the fact that one-versus-a-hundred is an optimistic estimate given the numbers!”
Xue Ji thought for a moment, then spoke up. “Let the Spirit Folk come out.”
Commander Ye shook his head helplessly. “Only a limited number of them can emerge. And that King Deer, in particular, is practically impossible to bring out.”
“But it’s different now. If we can manifest the Spirit Folk’s hidden realm completely, we can do it.”
Everyone’s eyes lit up at that.
“So you’re saying you have a way?” Commander Ye asked.
Xue Ji nodded and used the AI to simulate her idea.
For Spirit Folk to operate outside for extended periods, they’ve always relied on contracts with humans. The last time she brought Scarface and the others out, they used a similar method.
So, if they could establish that same connection with the hidden realm itself, the restriction that kept Spirit Folk from leaving would be lifted.
Upon hearing this, Yu Gongzi marveled, “It’s risky, but it’s definitely feasible.”
“But how exactly are you going to sign a contract with the realm itself?”
“Through you, of course. Aren’t you the contract keeper of the boundary stele?” Xue Ji gave him a look like he was an idiot.
“After all these years as its guardian, haven’t you ever been curious about the principle that lets you freely traverse between worlds?”
Yu Gongzi flushed with embarrassment and fell silent.
Commander Ye understood and ended the meeting. After ten straight hours of high-intensity work, he finally allowed himself a moment of respite, took a big gulp from his cup, and quietly watched Xue Ji and her group leave.
Over the years, as Ling Xiaoxiao’s partner, his feelings had evolved from youthful admiration to something like seeing her as his own daughter.
And Xue Ji’s arrival had not only untangled Ling Xiaoxiao’s emotional knots but also shouldered part of the burden of fighting the supernatural alongside her.
In the presence of these extraordinary beings, he was just an ordinary man.
His own child had perished years ago in the struggle against the mysterious.
In his eyes, no matter how great or small their abilities, everyone who threw themselves into this fight was someone’s child—even the backbone of a family.
His emotions stirred, and Commander Ye picked up the comms. “You all—I know this might sound redundant, but please stay safe.”
Yu Gongzi gave a graceful word of thanks. Xiao Huohuo quickly snapped to a salute. And Xue Ji smiled softly.
“Got it, Uncle Ye.”
……
On the front line of the Quanzhou battlefront, rain poured down in sheets. To cover the retreat of the civilians in the rear, a division of supernatural troops was carrying out a rearguard action.
A harrowing siren song echoed through the air, and eerie blue light flickered across the bodies of countless sea beasts.
The rain-like barrage of firepower from above struck the sea monsters—their bodies shielded by the ocean’s blessing—and seemed a full era behind the times.
Pure modern firepower was gradually losing its effectiveness in this war.
Facing the tide of sea beasts, even ten thousand supernatural soldiers felt like nothing more than a tiny leaf on a raging river.
Xue Ji’s best friend, Zhao Cheng, was also in the ranks. At that moment, he was composing a text message to Shen Dai—or rather, his last words.
“Shen Dai, I’m on rearguard duty in Quanzhou. Stay away from the sea. I love you.”
There were no tears. There was no time for tears.
Earth-type ability users had dug traps in advance, halting the first wave of assault like a giant serpent swallowing the charging sea beasts.
Next came the coordination of wood and fire abilities—the plants generated by wood-type users made perfect fuel for flames.
A towering wall of fire rose, but against sea beasts, the fire’s effectiveness was drastically reduced.
Even so, they managed to score quite a few kills.
Lightning-type ability users piloted specialized flight gear and created artificial thunderstorms above the sea-beast horde, using nature’s own fury against the enemy.
The troops were well-trained, and with the elemental ability users working in tandem, they actually managed to slow the charging horde.
It wasn’t yet time for physical enhancers like Zhao Cheng to shine, but when that time came, everyone knew what the outcome would be.
The battle raged for nearly four hours, and the elemental users were running on fumes.
What was even more bizarre was that sea beasts had also appeared behind the troops—they were surrounded.
The encirclement had happened silently, bypassing both sensory abilities and radar equipment.
A tall, gaunt creature with an octopus face, leading a swarm of sea demons with octopus tentacles, was devouring the supernatural force from the rear.
That thing sang in some bizarre, off-key cadence, and the elemental users’ concentration shattered, leaving gaps in their attacks.
Zhao Cheng hung up on the incoming call from Shen Dai. He wasn’t about to sit around and wait for death.
“Commander, let us go kill those screeching monsters!”
Zhao Cheng and the other physical warriors made the proposal.
The commander sighed. At this point, there was no harm in trying.
“Comrades, let’s go together.” He made his final arrangements, picked up his weapon, and joined them.
Though those tentacled sea demons could disrupt the use of elemental abilities, their physical bodies were fragile. Zhao Cheng and the others fought their way to the octopus-headed leader.
They swarmed the creature, beating and kicking it until its eerie song finally stopped.
The commander took a special compressed-energy round and blew the monster’s head off with a single shot, silencing the grating noise in everyone’s heads.
But then came a soul-crushing realization: aside from the initial wave of sea beasts taken out by elemental attacks, the only enemy they’d actually been fighting all along was that one octopus-head.
The main sea-beast force, after being stalled in the first wave, had simply circumvented them—tunneling through the mountain beside them and pushing straight to the rear.
“The encirclement was an illusion! They bypassed us and are heading for the rear!”
“Send word immediately!”
“The second wave… the second wave is coming!”
The commander bit his own hand hard to force himself to stay calm. He had to get the intel uploaded.
“There is an enemy type that can bypass AI-assisted radar and sensory abilities, and alter our perception. Designate as one of the highest battlefield threats.”
He finished typing, then looked up at the second wave of sea beasts surging like a tide. His head dropped.
The elemental users were completely spent. There was no way they could hold on with just the physical fighters left.
“Upload failed?! How is that possible!” Despair filled the commander’s voice.
“How could this happen—our communications have been compromised!” the technician cried out.
Zhao Cheng stood frozen, numb to everything unfolding before him.
“Dammit… DAMMIT!”
The roar of thunder and rain drowned out their shouts. Even their final fury was swallowed by the storm.
The howling of the monster horde was right in their faces.
A bone-chilling cold made them shiver.
Suddenly, the world fell silent.
“Am I dead?” Zhao Cheng looked around, only to find his comrades staring wide-eyed ahead, utterly transfixed.
A tall, gray-haired wolf-woman had driven her sword deep into the earth. Before her, the monstrous wave was frozen solid into statues of ice.
“Do not give up, noble warriors.”
The wolf-woman, like a valkyrie, glanced back with a smile. Her lupine eyes, blazing with battle fury, seared themselves deep into the souls of every soldier.
“Such despicable tactics—how dare they try to crush your noble, unyielding will!”
Every one of them had their pride. These vile creatures had toyed with them—and men who had already steeled themselves to die could only burn with fury.
She reached out her hand toward the rain-soaked troops—an invitation from a sovereign to her heroes.
“Turn your rage into fangs. Stand with me, and fight until the break of dawn!”
The warriors’ hearts ignited. Their eyes were no longer lost.
A roar of defiance surged toward the valkyrie like a tidal wave. Shaya raised her sword high, descending like a sovereign.
Their undying fighting spirit echoed across the heavens.
