259: It wasn't a natural disaster! The truth behind the massive flood is actually this?

As soon as his soles touched the warm white jade floor, a thick, inseparable Spiritual Qi surged into his nostrils.

Daozi Peak.

This place indeed had something going for it.

The white mist wasn't water vapor; it was entirely liquefied spirit source, flowing around his ankles.

The nearby palace, carved entirely from a single piece of Thousand-Year Spiritual Jade, felt out of place in this Apocalypse, exuding a nouveau riche-like extravagance.

The flowerbeds didn't grow flowers, but spiritual plants that people outside would kill for; the water flowing from the rockery wasn't water, but high-purity spiritual liquid.

If it were an inexperienced survivor, they'd probably be kneeling and licking the floor tiles by now.

But Lu Sheng only gave it a glance.

Then he walked to the Spiritual Spring, bent down, scooped up some water with his hand, and took a sip.

"Sweet, it's alright."

Lu Sheng shook the water droplets off his hand, giving a fair yet perfunctory evaluation.

It was like he was reviewing a bowl of soy milk from a street stall.

Li Xiaoyao stood to the side, his hand behind his back stiffening for a moment.

The old man's prepared speech—about how amazing Daozi Peak was, how strong the Formations were, and how much past Daoists cherished it—was all choked back by that "it's alright."

This reaction wasn't right.

According to the script, shouldn't this kid be moved to tears, or at least show a "country bumpkin" look of shock?

"That's it?"

Li Xiaoyao couldn't help but point around: "This is the intersection of the Nine Main Ley Lines; one day here is worth a hundred days outside. That's all the reaction you have?"

Lu Sheng turned around, hands back in his pockets, his dark-gold vertical pupils showing no ripples at all.

"Elder Li."

Lu Sheng didn't take the bait but instead pulled the conversation into another dimension.

"The house is nice, and the water is nice. But I didn't come up here to find a nice place to sleep."

He took a step forward. Even without intentionally releasing it, the pressure of a True Dragon caused the flowing spiritual mist around them to stagnate for a moment.

"Let's speak plainly."

Lu Sheng stared at Li Xiaoyao's wrinkled old face, his voice steady yet like a sharp knife, piercing through the polite facade between them.

"I want to know, how exactly did this global flood come about?"

The smile on Li Xiaoyao's face slowly faded.

The wind blew across the mountain peak, and the wind chimes on the palace eaves made a crisp clinking sound, which only made the atmosphere feel even more deathly still.

Lu Sheng didn't give him time to think; his questions came one after another like a barrage, or a judgment.

"Global sea levels soared, and billions died without knowing why."

"Where was Dengxian Island back then?"

"Since the so-called Grotto-Heavens have the power to overturn seas and rivers, why did they watch as civilization was cut off?"

"And..."

Lu Sheng raised a finger toward the sky, which looked azure but actually held a weird Death Qi.

"Those dead people crawling out of the water, the mutated monsters in the sea, and the so-called Abyss—what on earth are they?"

Lu Sheng had been holding these questions in for a long time.

From the first day he transmigrated, this world had felt absurd.

If it was a natural disaster, why was there spirit source?

If it was an evolutionary surge, why were there those malicious Floating Corpses?

Li Xiaoyao fell silent.

He looked at the young man before him.

No awe, no greed, only a desire for knowledge and... anger, as if wanting to strip the world down to its barest truth.

Yes, anger.

It was the most instinctive questioning of a survivor toward those high-and-mighty onlookers.

"Good question."

Li Xiaoyao finally spoke, his voice hoarse, losing the playful tone he had earlier.

He waved his wide sleeve.

Buzz!

A green light screen instantly enveloped the entire Daozi Peak. The sound of wind and birds outside vanished, and the world became so quiet that only their heartbeats could be heard.

Soundproofing barrier.

It seemed that what he was about to say was a taboo that couldn't be overheard, even on Dengxian Island.

"You think we didn't want to save them?"

Li Xiaoyao turned around, no longer looking at Lu Sheng, and walked to the cliff edge, gazing at the boundless ocean below.

His figure looked somewhat hunched at this moment.

"Lu Sheng, do you think this Great Flood is just water?"

Lu Sheng frowned. Recalling the System mentioning the Waters of Calamity when he first activated it, he walked to his side: "Contaminated seawater, or perhaps the Waters of Calamity?"

"Calamity..."

Li Xiaoyao gave a tragic laugh and reached into the Void Realm as if trying to grab something invisible.

"That wasn't a calamity; it was an invasion."

"This water isn't from Blue Star at all."

"A few months ago, the spatial barriers shattered."

The old man's voice grew low, carrying a scent of blood: "You can think of our world as an egg, and outside is endless darkness."

"Someone, or something, cracked a hole in the shell."

"And so, the 'things' from outside flooded in."

"We call it—the Abyssal Tide."

Lu Sheng's pupils dilated slightly.

Although he had suspicions, hearing the truth personally still sent a chill up his spine.

It wasn't a natural disaster.

It was an invasion.

A dimensional strike launched against Blue Star by a civilization from another dimension or some indescribable existence.

"That water is the manifestation of energy from the Abyssal Plane."

Li Xiaoyao pointed at the True Sea below: "They carry high-dimensional Law toxins. Any creature on Blue Star dies upon contact. After death, their corpses are eroded by the energy, turning into Floating Corpses that know only slaughter."

"As for the sea beasts..."

"They are mutated species that adapted to this toxin."

At this point, Li Xiaoyao suddenly turned and stared intently at Lu Sheng, his eyes filled with extremely complex emotions.

Guilt, helplessness, and even more so, a deep sense of powerlessness.

"You ask where we were?"

"The moment the tide erupted, every Spirit King in the world, every Grotto-Heaven Master, and even those old monsters who had been in secluded cultivation for centuries, all went to the same place."

Lu Sheng asked instinctively, "Where?"

Li Xiaoyao raised his finger to the sky.

No, he wasn't pointing at the sky.

He was pointing beyond the atmosphere, toward the void cracks invisible to the naked eye.

"We are on the 'Wall'."

"If it weren't for us old bones using our lives to fill that hole, using our Physical Bodies to plug that crack..."

Li Xiaoyao's voice suddenly rose, trembling slightly: "What flooded in wouldn't have just been this 'water'!"

"But actual Abyssal Demon Gods!"

"If that happened, forget survivors, not even a bacterium would have survived! Blue Star would have become a dead star in an instant!"

Lu Sheng was stunned.

A picture formed in his mind.

While ordinary people were killing each other over a few packs of instant noodles and struggling to survive in the flood,

high above in the invisible sky,

a group of the Human Race's top experts were facing a terrifying torrent capable of destroying the world, throwing themselves into death one after another.

"In that battle, thirty percent of the Human Race's Spirit Kings fell."

Li Xiaoyao's tone returned to being flat, but beneath that flatness lay a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

"We blocked the Demon Gods, but we couldn't stop the energy seepage."

"That is the truth of the Great Flood."

"We couldn't save everyone; we could only protect the final sparks."

PS: Almost 600,000 words now, brothers. Aiming for a million words soon. The story has just begun. I guarantee extreme satisfaction later on, crushing all Prodigies. Please keep reading and support with tips..."}],