91: Chapter 91 The Weight of Despair

That illusory city began to sink.

No.

It wasn't sinking.

It was changing from false to real.

The Mirage of the Sea Kingdom had originally been like a phantom reflected on the sky, the edges of its high-rises still carrying a water-like blur.

In the glass curtain walls of those high-rises, one could even see the inverted reflection of Linhai City.

Streets.

Vehicles.

Pedestrians.

Ports.

Schools.

Airports.

Everything seemed to have been secretly copied by another world, and then hung above the East Sea in a colder, more massive stance.

And at this moment.

That city was falling.

The originally blurry silhouettes on the streets of the Mirage also began to solidify inch by inch.

There were silhouettes standing on the edges of rooftops, looking down at the Linhai in reality.

There were silhouettes walking slowly through the illusory streets.

There were also silhouettes pressed behind glass, like a group of people who had drowned on the seabed for many years, silently watching the Mortal world through the city's shell.

The entire city seemed to be dragged out of a dream by some invisible giant hand and smashed hard against reality.

Boom!!!

An unimaginably massive weight crashed onto the surface of the East Sea.

The sea level first sank eerily.

It was as if the entire ocean had its spine bent by something.

Immediately after.

The sea level rose.

It wasn't a wave.

It wasn't a tide.

It was the entire East Sea, as if lifted from the seabed by an unseen hand, slowly standing up into a black wall that blotted out the sky.

That wall was too high.

It was so high that the cranes at the port looked like a row of toothpicks stuck in the sand before it.

It was so high that when the staff in the airport control tower looked up, the first thing they saw wasn't the sky, but seawater.

It was so high that the hearts of everyone in Linhai City were gripped tightly in this instant by a weight called "Death".

The sirens of Linhai City tore through the sky at the same time.

Woo—

Woo—

Woo—

Piercing disaster prevention alarms resounded through every street.

Inside the airport.

Queen of Great Britain, Queen Elizabeth, who had just stepped off her private plane, looked up, her usual composure freezing for the first time.

Her silver-white hair was blown by the sea breeze.

The guards behind her subconsciously formed a formation, and spiritual energy shields were raised layer by layer.

But everyone knew.

It was meaningless.

They could block bullets.

They could block the first wave of an S-rank assassin's raid.

They could even use their lives to buy the Queen three seconds of evacuation time.

But they couldn't block an ocean.

That wasn't an assassination.

That was a natural disaster.

It was a cataclysm brought down by a Half-step King Level Strange Tales with a city as its target.

Princess Evelyn stood behind her mother, her face as pale as paper.

She had originally thought that coming to the Great Xia this time would at most mean watching her mother's Empire-level love-struck scene, and by the way, seeing that man who was rumored to have rejected her mother to the point that she couldn't forget him.

As a result, they had just gotten off the plane.

No welcome ceremony.

No red carpet.

No reporter cameras.

What greeted them was a wall of seawater crashing toward the city.

Princess Evelyn's lips moved.

She really wanted to curse.

But at this moment, even a retort seemed to be blocked back into her throat by the sea breeze.

On the streets.

Vehicles crashed into each other out of control.

Piercing sounds of braking, horns, and crying mixed together.

Some abandoned their cars and ran wildly.

Some knelt on the ground, frantically dialing phone numbers.

Some held their children and rushed into underground passages, only to freeze in place the next second, terrified by the broadcast saying, "Please do not enter underground spaces."

The large screen in the mall was still playing news about the Queen's visit to Linhai.

The screen suddenly cut to an emergency evacuation notice.

The professional smile on the host's face had long since disappeared, and his voice was trembling uncontrollably.

"All citizens... all citizens, please move to higher ground immediately..."

"Please do not enter low-lying areas such as underground parking garages, underground malls, or subway stations..."

"Please maintain order..."

"Please..."

His voice suddenly choked up.

Because he himself knew.

Linhai didn't have that many high places.

And there wasn't enough time.

The sea wave was too high.

It was so high that people on the rooftops could see the illusory city looming behind that black wall of water.

That Mirage of the Sea Kingdom was like a deity looking down on the Mortal world.

It didn't need to roar.

It didn't need to pass judgment.

It just moved forward.

And Linhai had already begun to die.

...

Linhai No. 2 High School.

Senior Year Class 2.

The classroom became completely quiet.

The students, who had just been joking around, discussing the Queen's visit, and secretly speculating whether Su Yun was a hidden young master, were now all standing by the windows, watching the darkness constantly approaching on the distant horizon.

Li Hao opened his mouth.

He, who was usually the best at bantering, couldn't manage a single joke this time.

Chu Youwei's face turned pale, her fingers gripping the edge of the desk tightly.

Her knuckles were slightly blue from the exertion.

The Homeroom Teacher stood on the podium.

She looked at the wall of seawater outside the window and was silent for a long time.

Chalk was still held between her fingers.

On the blackboard, there was even the English grammar lesson she had just been halfway through.

Past tense.

Future tense.

But now, it seemed there was no future anymore.

A few seconds later, she said in a low voice:

"Students."

"Call your families."

As these words fell, someone in the classroom burst into tears instantly.

The mobile signal was congested.

Calls couldn't get through.

Messages couldn't be sent.

Some pressed the dial button over and over, tears hitting the screen.

Some whispered to the unanswered phone: "Mom, please pick up."

There were also those who lowered their heads, editing last words for their families, but after typing a few words, they deleted them all.

They didn't know what to say.

Nor did they know if it could still be seen.

Outside the window.

Su Qing hovered in mid-air, her black shadow wings unfurled in the curtain of rain.

She should have continued to disguise herself.

She should have maintained the cold posture of "Dark Blade" in front of outsiders.

But at this moment, looking at that ocean, she forgot to disguise herself for the first time.

She was one of The Watchers.

She had killed Strange Tales.

She had seen dead people.

She had even personally cut open the core of Strange Tales in the shadows of the city, watching the source of pollution dissipate at her feet.

But she had never seen an entire city sentenced to death within a few minutes.

Not one person.

Not one residential complex.

Not a casualty report after a failed mission.

But the lives of millions of people, all simultaneously written into the death list by that wall of seawater.

Li Hao held his phone, his voice trembling.

"It won't go through..."

"My mom's phone won't go through."

A girl in the front row cried and asked: "Teacher, are we going to die?"

The Homeroom Teacher opened her mouth.

She wanted to say no.

She wanted to be like all adults, using a clumsy lie to soothe the child first.

But she looked out the window.

She looked at the darkness getting closer and closer.

Finally, she only said:

"Don't run around."

"Stay in the classroom first."

Someone cursed in a low voice: "Stay here and wait for the sea to wash us away?"

No one refuted.

Because everyone knew.

He was right.

Chu Youwei subconsciously looked at Su Yun's seat.

She wanted to ask Su Yun if he had any ideas.

Even though her reason told her, what could a high school student do at a time like this?

But for some reason, ever since the Pseudo-Human Examination Room, she always felt that there was a strange sense of stability about Su Yun.

It seemed that as long as he was still sitting there, even if the sky fell, he could still make a snarky comment first like "This question is out of the syllabus."

But when she looked over.

Her throat suddenly tightened.

Gu Lang's expression was terrifyingly dark.

In his mind, task priorities were blinking coldly line by line.

First task: Lure the mysterious existence of the reservoir to the East Sea.

Failed.

Second task: Protect Su Yun.

Still in progress.

The Mirage of the Sea Kingdom had already arrived.

A Half-step King Level Strange Tales was not a disaster that students could escape from.

It wasn't even a disaster that an ordinary S-rank could solve.

But he was very clear.

The true bottom line of the High Command was never Linhai.

It was Su Yun.

Anyone could die.

The Queen could die.

He himself could die.

The entire Linhai could become an abandoned pawn.

But the current Su Yun must absolutely not die.

At least before the higher-ups confirmed whether he had any connection to the reservoir monster, he absolutely must not die.

Gu Lang turned around abruptly and reached out toward Su Yun's seat.

"Su Yun, come with me."

At the same time.

Su Qing outside the window also reacted.

She gritted her teeth, her shadow wings unfurled abruptly behind her, and a large area of black shadows reached into the classroom like a tide.

She couldn't save the whole city.

She couldn't save the whole school.

She couldn't even save the whole class.

She could fly.

At least she could take this bastard brother away first.

Even if she were mocked by him for a lifetime after bringing him home, saying that she, this "shorty," could only hug her brother to escape, she would accept it.

"Su Yun!"

"Come out!"

Su Qing pushed the window open, the black shadows reached into the classroom, preparing to forcibly snatch the person away.

But the next second.

Gu Lang's hand froze in mid-air.

Su Qing's shadows also stopped.

On the seat by the window.

An English book was spread open.

A pen was still pressing on the vocabulary list.

On that page, a word was just written.

Abandon.

The chair was slightly pushed back.

The workbook on the table was still in the same position as before.

Even the water in the cup was still gently vibrating because of the alarm.

But Su Yun was gone.

No sound of the door opening.

No sound of climbing through the window.

No spiritual energy fluctuation.

No one had noticed his departure.

It was as if he had never been sitting there from the very beginning.

Li Hao stared blankly at the empty seat.

"Where is Brother Yun?"

Chu Youwei's expression changed abruptly.

She rushed to Su Yun's seat in one step and pressed her palm onto the desk.

The desk still had a little warmth.

He had just left.

But how did he leave?

Gu Lang's pupils contracted, his voice low and hoarse.

"When did he leave?"

Su Qing hovered outside the window, her whole body frozen.

She had clearly been staring here the whole time.

Since the paper crane appeared, her peripheral vision had almost never left Su Yun.

But Su Yun, just like that, had disappeared right under everyone's noses.

...

Inside the Investigation Bureau's Linhai branch.

Chen Jianguo slumped in his chair, his whole person looking as if his spine had been pulled out.

On the big screen, the Mirage of the Sea Kingdom blotted out the sky.

Linhai City's life signals were turning red piece by piece.

Port area, red.

Airport perimeter, red.

Coastal residential area, red.

Low-lying commercial area, red.

Those red dots were not data.

They were people.

People who hadn't managed to evacuate in time.

People who were just buying groceries, working, attending class, or waiting for traffic lights just a moment ago.

Chen Jianguo only had one thought left in his head.

Damn it.

What kind of divine retribution had Linhai City committed?

S-rank armed forces out of control at the South City chemical plant.

Reservoir abyss rift.

Night Owl defected.

Bai Cang appeared.

Queen's visit.

Neon remnants.

Now another Half-step King Level Mirage of the Sea Kingdom.

Did this city poke the abyss's lair, or was its ancestral grave buried on the spawn point of Strange Tales?

Why is it so unlucky?

The command hall was deathly silent.

Everyone looked at the black wall of seawater approaching the city, even their breathing was terrifyingly light.

The technician's voice trembled.

"The main height of the tsunami is still rising..."

"The first wave of impact is expected to reach the port area in three minutes and forty seconds."

"The low-lying areas of Linhai's East District, South District, and Central District are all within the submergence range."

"The current spiritual energy barrier coverage is less than twelve percent."

"Flood gates have failed."

"Coastal defense lines No. 3, No. 4, and No. 7 are collapsing."

Every number was like a knife.

Su Yao stood in front of the screen, her face pale, but she didn't break down.

Her fingers clenched bit by bit.

Memories of her past life cut through her mind like a knife.

She had seen cities fall.

She had seen waves of Strange Tales swallow human defense lines.

She had seen "too late" countless times.

But this time, it was still too late.

Linhai couldn't be saved.

Too late to evacuate.

And no one could stop a Half-step King Level.

Since that was the case—

"Connect to High Command."

Su Yao's voice was frighteningly cold.

Chen Jianguo looked up abruptly.

"Specialist Su?"

Su Yao stared at the Mirage of the Sea Kingdom on the screen, enunciating every word.

"Requesting saturated nuclear fusion strike."

"Target, the projection area of the main body of the Mirage of the Sea Kingdom in the East Sea."

"We are already powerless to stop the destruction of Linhai."

Her eyes were red, but she didn't back down.

"But at least make this culprit pay the price."

Everyone in the hall's expression changed drastically.

Nuclear fusion strike.

Once those four words were spoken, the meaning would be completely different.

It would mean that the Great Xia would abandon Linhai.

It would mean that a city of millions would be directly designated as a sacrifice zone.

The communicator's finger hovered over the button, trembling so violently that he could barely press it.

Just then, Ye Zhiwei spoke up.

"No."

Standing in the corner, her blind eyes fixed on the big screen, her voice was raspy.

"A nuclear bomb won't solve the problem."

Su Yao looked at her sharply.

"Then tell me, what else can we do now?"

Ye Zhiwei was silent for a second.

Then she said in a low voice, "Wait."

Su Yao almost laughed.

"Wait for death?"

Ye Zhiwei shook her head.

"Wait for The Rancher."

The hall fell silent instantly.

These four words were more chilling than the tsunami itself.

The Rancher.

This was the name Ye Zhiwei had given to that mysterious forbidden entity after the reservoir incident.

Because it was never a savior.

It sealed the rifts, not to protect humanity.

It devoured Strange Tales, not to uphold order.

It simply treated humanity as a farm capable of continuously producing negative emotions.

Strange Tales were the livestock.

Humans were the feed.

And it was the master standing at the top of the food chain.

Ye Zhiwei's voice was very soft, yet it made everyone's back turn cold.

"He definitely won't let anything happen to his feed."

Su Yao frowned.

She looked at Ye Zhiwei, her voice icy.

"Do you know what you're saying?"

No one in the hall dared to respond.

Su Yao pointed at the screen.

That wall of seawater had already crossed the outer edge of the port, looming darkly as it advanced toward the city.

The coastal defense line was like a paper toy in front of it.

The so-called spiritual energy barrier hadn't even fully deployed before it was twisted and deformed by the shadow cast by that Mirage of the Sea Kingdom.

"Destroying a city is easy."

Su Yao said word by word.

"Raising a tsunami, tearing open a rift, polluting a Spiritual Vein—any Half-step King Level Strange Tales can do that."

"But wanting to save this city isn't as simple as killing the source."

Her eyes were slightly red, but she forced herself to stay rational.

"The tsunami has already formed."

"Even if someone were to shatter the Mirage of the Sea Kingdom right now, that seawater wouldn't just disappear into thin air."

"It would continue to rush into Linhai, flooding streets, collapsing buildings, and sweeping millions of ordinary people into the sea."

Chen Jianguo swallowed hard, his face pale.

Su Yao looked at Ye Zhiwei.

"Unless he can suppress the entire sea area in the same instant."

"Unless he can tamper with the outcome of this natural disaster."

"Unless..."

She paused for half a second, her voice squeezed out from between her teeth.

"He already possesses King Level power."

The hall was deathly silent.

King Level.

That was an existence that humanity had only marked with red forbidden characters in disaster archives to this day.

Su Yao slowly shook her head.

"Impossible."

"It's true that he devoured a Half-step King Level."

"He is terrifying, and he is smart."

"But there is still a fundamental gap to a true King Level."

She stared at the black sea wall approaching on the screen, her nails digging deep into her palms.

"If we pin our hopes on him."

"What we might get in return is likely not salvation."

"But rather Linhai and the last bit of humanity's autonomy being swallowed up by him together."

Ye Zhiwei did not refute.

She just turned her head slightly.

In the depths of her blind eyes, a shadow that did not exist in reality seemed to be reflected.

A moment later, she said in a low voice, "Su Yao."

"Things like autonomy."

"Since he appeared, have we truly ever possessed it?"

Su Yao's body stiffened.

The hall became even quieter.

...

Abandoned freight station.

Everyone's movements stopped.

The black sea wall pressed in from the distance, like the entire sky collapsing.

The shadow engulfed the port, airport, and city blocks first, and also swallowed the breath of everyone on the battlefield.

Executive Jiang Xu stood in the rain, his dark gold spear supporting him on the ground.

His hand was trembling.

It wasn't fear.

It was because his body had reached its limit.

The collision with Tsukuyomi's Domain earlier, the Void Realm gnawing Law had almost torn apart the balance within his body.

Black spots on half of his body were still writhing.

The lingering phantom of the World-Swallowing Prison Wolf roared in his bones and blood.

Spiritual energy, gravity, and Abyss rules collided with each other; every breath felt like crushing his lungs and stuffing them back into his chest cavity.

Yet, he still raised his head.

Mirage of the Sea Kingdom.

Half-step King Level.

And it wasn't like the World-Swallowing Prison Wolf from earlier that had descended hastily from the rift and hadn't fully adapted to reality.

It had already unleashed its calamity.

The tsunami had already formed.

Even if he killed it now, Linhai would still be swallowed by that wall of seawater.

Executive Jiang Xu gripped his spear, his knuckles turning white.

He was calculating.

If he unleashed his maximum gravity field with himself as the center, how many kilometers of sea area could he suppress at most?

If he burned his life and compressed the gravity collapse into a line, could he tear open the main body of the sea wall?

If he borrowed the Void Realm gnawing Law left by the World-Swallowing Prison Wolf in his body, could he eat a section of the tsunami?

The answers appeared one after another.

Not enough.

Not enough.

Still not enough.

What could he stop?

Stopping Tsukuyomi had already exhausted all his strength.

Stopping five S-Rankers still required the help of Bai Cang and Night Owl.

But what about that sea?

That wasn't an enemy charging.

That was the sky pressing down.

He could change local gravity.

He could tear apart rules.

He could thrust his spear into the core of the Strange Tales.

But he could not suppress the entire East Sea.

He could not suppress the weight that the Mirage of the Sea Kingdom cast into reality.

And he could not suppress the death of millions.

Yomi Boy looked up and laughed, his laughter shrill and piercing.

"Do you see?"

"This is the stage dedicated to my King!"

"Fear! Despair! Crying! Death!"

"The entire Linhai will become the sacrifice before the King ascends the throne!"

Bai Cang's face was grim, water lines constantly shattering around him.

Black Flames surged under Night Owl's feet, yet they couldn't even burn through the cold, damp shadow cast by that sea wall.

Tsukuyomi knelt in the black rain, his face covered in black blood, his voice devout and insane.

"Mortals cannot stop the Sea Kingdom."

Executive Jiang Xu did not refute.

Because what he said was the truth.

The dark gold spear slowly rose.

And slowly fell.

For the first time.

The strongest Executive of Great Xia realized clearly.

He could not stop it.

He could die in battle.

But he could not save Linhai.

...

Just then.

From the direction of the airport, a silver-white spiritual energy shield tore through the rain curtain.

Queen of Great Britain, Queen Elizabeth, with Princess Evelyn, appeared at the edge of the freight station.

The guard team behind her followed closely.

Everyone's face was very ugly.

Because they knew clearly that this was not a rational evacuation route.

This was walking voluntarily into the center of the disaster.

Princess Evelyn looked at the sea wall blocking the sky in the distance, and she was completely numb.

"Mother."

Her voice trembled, but she still couldn't help but complain.

"Is there any mother like you?"

"For the sake of a wanted criminal, bringing your own daughter thousands of miles to die?"

The Queen did not look at her, but calmly adjusted her gloves.

"Correction."

"It's not for a wanted criminal."

"It's for a man who once rejected me."

Princess Evelyn: "..."

She took a deep breath.

"That's even worse, okay?!"

The Queen said indifferently, "So you must remember."

"A woman can be lovesick."

"But she cannot lack class."

Princess Evelyn almost fainted on the spot.

What time is it now!

The tsunami is almost in our faces!

And you are still here talking about Empire love aesthetics?

Bai Cang also saw her.

At that moment, the smile on his face disappeared completely.

From the appearance of the six S-Rankers from Neon to the arrival of the Mirage of the Sea Kingdom, he had always been able to smile.

Even when injured, even when besieged, even when the situation was out of control.

But now, he couldn't smile.

The Queen stepped over the stagnant water, her skirt hem not getting a single drop of mud on it.

She stopped not far from Bai Cang and said softly, "I'm here."

Bai Cang was silent for a moment.

"You shouldn't have come."

The Queen looked at him, her tone calm.

"If I hadn't come, were you planning to carry everything on your own?"

Bai Cang opened his mouth but didn't speak.

He wanted to say no.

Wanted to say that he wasn't that great.

Wanted to say that the Salvation Society was never a clean organization, and that he, Bai Cang, was not a hero worth running towards.

But the words reached his lips, only to be pressed back by that sea wall in the distance.

Night Owl Su Jianguo next to him finally couldn't hold it in.

"Big Brother."

He looked at the Queen, then at Bai Cang, his voice strained.

"What exactly... is your relationship with her?"

Bai Cang: "..."

This moment was harder than facing the Mirage of the Sea Kingdom.

Su Jianguo's mind had already begun to frantically fill in the blanks.

Big Brother had drifted overseas back then.

The Queen had been in unrequited love for many years.

Now, in order to save him, his long-lost "little brother", Big Brother had to go to Great Britain to beg for medicine.

The Queen was on a diplomatic visit on the surface, but actually chasing her husband across thousands of miles.

Now she even brought her daughter to the battlefield to die with him.

What is this?

This is fucking cross-border wealthy family angst romance combined with wanted criminal literature!

The more Su Jianguo thought about it, the more outrageous it seemed.

And the more he thought about it, the more reasonable it felt.

No wonder the Queen wanted to support Night Owl.

No wonder Bai Cang told him to be careful of that woman.

It turned out this woman was no ordinary person.

She was Big Brother's emotional debt!

Bai Cang looked at Su Jianguo's increasingly complex expression, his temple twitching slightly.

He had an ominous premonition.

This "little brother" he had just accepted might have imagined something incredible again.

The Queen, however, smiled.

She did not explain.

She just took out a crystal-clear vial of medicine from her bosom and tossed it to Bai Cang.

holy rose essence.

Bai Cang caught the medicine, his pupils shrinking slightly.

"You..."

The Queen looked up at the black tsunami about to engulf Linhai.

"You are an S-Rank water-type Awakened."

"In this kind of situation, you will definitely make a move."

She looked back at Bai Cang, her voice not loud, but incomparably firm.

"So, do whatever you want to do."

"This time, I won't let you leave me behind."

Bai Cang gripped the medicine, his knuckles tightening slightly.

Rain fell on their shoulders, only to be separated by an invisible flow of water.

He looked at the Queen.

Then he took another look at the sea wall in the distance.

Finally, he gave a soft laugh.

There was no frivolity in that smile.

No calculation.

Only a trace of indescribable exhaustion remained.

"Queen Elizabeth."

"Do you know?"

"What I hate most in my life is others pinning their hopes on me."

The Queen said calmly, "Then you can hate me."

Bai Cang was silent.

The next second.

He pulled out the stopper of the holy rose essence and drank it in one gulp.

A terrifying vitality instantly erupted within his body.

The injuries left by the siege of the five S-Rankers healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In the curtain of rain.

He slowly raised his hand.

In the entire freight station, all the rainwater simultaneously froze in mid-air.

The stagnant water in the port stopped flowing.

The water flowing back from the distant drainage ditch solidified in place.

Even the mist splashing from the very front of the sea wall seemed to be gently pressed by some invisible hand, appearing for a fleeting, imperceptible pause.

Bai Cang's face turned pale instantly.

Just this moment.

He had already begun to overdraw his strength.

Executive Jiang Xu looked at him.

"What do you want to do?"

Bai Cang did not look back.

"A water-type Awakened facing a tsunami."

"What else can I do?"

He smiled.

"Of course, it's overtime."

Su Jianguo's expression changed.

"Big Brother, are you crazy?"

Bai Cang looked up at the sea wall that blocked the sky.

"I cannot stop the entire East Sea."

"But I can make it slower."

"...Even if it's just for one second."