met free Chapter 320 - 313: Fujing Mountain Exploded
Chapter 320 - 313: Fujing Mountain Exploded
BOOM!
It was as if the sky had fallen and the earth had shattered.
But unlike a certain time recorded in history, this destructive force did not come from the sky. It came from the bottom of the sea!
Fujing Mountain, which had lain dormant on the seabed for countless years since the Land Era, suddenly erupted like a bursting dam. But that wasn’t all. Its entire mountainous body, like a piece of porcelain unable to withstand the pressure, fractured into a dense web of golden cracks! Then, with a deafening RUMBLE!
It exploded!
The massive volcano disintegrated, blowing apart from within!
Countless basalt fragments shot out in all directions like high-speed cannonballs. With the kinetic and potential energy of falling asteroids, they defied the immense deep-sea pressure, boiling the water wherever they went!
Lava gushed out like a torrential flood.
The Admiral-class Ship, the *Renhuang*, was the first to suffer a devastating blow. The high temperature melted a massive hole straight through its sturdy hull. The hundreds-of-meters-long wandering ship immediately lost all navigational capability, but that wasn’t even the deadliest part. The seawater, vaporized by the extreme heat, created a superheated steam that rose up, instantly turning the area into a high-temperature furnace!
The nobles, crew, and residents aboard were all jolted from their sleep!
Renhuang’s old eyes were blurry with sleep, and for a moment, he couldn’t process what was happening.
’What’s going on?’
’A nuclear bomb?’
"Your Majesty! Fujing Mountain... Fujing Mountain... it exploded!"
"What???"
Renhuang thought he had misheard. But in the next instant, the floor of his lavish royal cabin tilted at a forty- or fifty-degree angle. Renhuang, along with his disheveled robes, tumbled to the ground. Then, the reinforced cabin glass shattered, and a wave of heat comparable to the Sea of Silence washed over him!
’This is—!’
"Damn it! What has that detestable Trellin, that damn Lighthouse, done now!?"
"Your Majesty, we must evacuate..."
Having been in a position of power for over fifty years, Renhuang naturally understood this was no time for curses or investigations. He stumbled after his personal guard, the A-rank Awakened Xinyi, toward the Royal Family’s exclusive escape route, boarding a Silver-level Wandering Ship designed for speed and evasion.
This Silver-level ship was embedded in the stern of the *Renhuang*, an escape vessel to be used only in the direst emergencies.
It was fully equipped and had never been used.
But its supplies were replaced every three months.
"Cough, cough."
The acrid smell of sulfur and magma had already spread, stinging the nostrils.
Only now could Renhuang get a clear view of the scene outside.
It was still the middle of the night. The erupting lava spread through the seawater like the roots of a giant golden tree, sinking as it advanced. Thick fog and steam had turned the sea region into a vision of doomsday. The shockwaves from the explosion turned the once-azure waters a chaotic, muddy color.
Not even the beginning of the Wandering Era had been this disastrous!
Sediment that had settled on the seabed for who knows how many years was churned up, forming murky, terrifying waves.
Occasionally, Renhuang could even see familiar underwater wreckage.
They were buildings from the Land Era, somehow thrown to the surface!
’Bastards!’
’What in the world is happening?!’
In this moment of crisis, Renhuang didn’t even have the presence of mind to worry about his family’s safety. He urged his subordinate to start the escape vessel. In a situation like this, time was life; there was no room to care about anything else! With a WHOOSH, the less-than-twenty-meter-long escape craft detached from the Admiral-class Ship, shooting into the distance like an arrow loosed from a bow.
"Go! To the Sea of Soaring Dragons!"
"Yes, sir!"
Just as Renhuang settled in and breathed a sigh of relief,
A colossal figure loomed in the chaotic waters. Immediately after, a monstrous wave surged up, obscuring most of their vision. When the wave subsided and the view cleared, a pair of indifferent draconic eyes, along with a lowered dragon’s head, appeared before Renhuang.
Its eyes were black, flecked with gold.
They were brutal, yet cold.
Like the eyes of death itself, gazing down upon the world of mortals.
"!!!"
Fortunately, the Great Black Heaven Dragon had only just awakened, and all its attention was drawn to the enormous *Renhuang* and the more distant *Lighthouse*.
The aura that had desecrated its slumber also came from that large ship.
Xinyi, piloting the escape vessel, let out a breath of relief. He immediately executed a sharp turn, dodging the molten lava that dripped from the dragon’s mouth. In an instant, they had fled the danger zone, speeding away to the northwest.
They had cheated death.
"Your Majesty! We’ve escaped!"
There was no response.
Xinyi turned his head and looked inside the cabin.
The aged Renhuang, overcome with terror, had already stopped breathing.
...
...
...
For the *Renhuang*, this night was an unimaginable, and now very real, apocalypse.
The Great Black Heaven Dragon’s wrath was unleashed upon the wandering ship.
Streams of fiery lava!
The end of days had come!
The enraged dragon didn’t even have to use its "Nine-Headed Sanctuary." The Admiral-class Wandering Ship, a mighty vessel in the eyes of ordinary people, was already being utterly disintegrated by the storm, tsunami, and earthquake. Torn apart by the destructive aura, it was reduced to fragments too small for the naked eye to discern.
The debris scattered with the waves, drifting north, south, east, and west!
The wandering ship that had repeatedly disturbed its slumber was now completely gone. Even its navigational core had crumbled into dust, impossible to reassemble.
The common people of Vortex Country were not qualified to live on an Admiral-class Ship. Instead, they were scattered across numerous bronze and silver-class ships, and thus were fortunate enough to escape the calamity.
By shattering, the *Renhuang* had absorbed the first wave of the attack.
This bought the *Lighthouse* a little time to prepare.
Shrill alarms blared across the entire King-level Wandering Ship. Countless civilians and Awakened watched in disbelief as a kilometer-long sea beast surfaced less than ten nautical miles from the King-level Wanderer Ship Lighthouse and instantly destroyed the *Renhuang*!
Now, it floated coldly on the sea’s surface. Its nine heads stood proud, facing the ten-plus-kilometer-long *Lighthouse* from a distance.
Its oppressive presence was even more overwhelming!
’Is that an S-rank sea beast?’
’No!’
’It looks far more terrifying than any S-rank!’
It had nine branching heads and was covered in enormous black scales. The edge of each scale looked as sharp as a razor’s edge, sending shivers down one’s spine. And then there were those nine pairs of black-and-gold eyes that regarded everything with destructive indifference!
Savage, cold, tyrannical!
SWOOSH!
Without waiting for orders from above, the *Lighthouse*’s War Department urgently unleashed its strongest attack! The ship’s most powerful laser cannon cut through the night, firing at the Great Black Heaven Dragon’s main head.
"Die! Just die!"
The ordinary Awakened and civilians had no idea what they were facing!
Therefore, they were doomed to be disappointed!
"You idiots!"
Trellin, sitting in the Twin White Towers, was furious, anxious, and enraged!
’How did it wake up?!’
’How dare those fools attack it!’
The first laser cannon had barely been fired before he urgently seized control of the weapon systems from the War Department to personally manage the crisis!
"Evacuate the Fujing Mountain Sea Region immediately!"
"Set course for the Sea of Soaring Dragons!"
Unlike Renhuang, who sought refuge, Trellin intended to redirect the disaster, leading the trouble eastward to strike at his enemies.
He knew full well that with the *Lighthouse*’s current strength, defeating an awakened Holy Hall-level Sea Beast was nothing but a fool’s dream. It would be a blessing just to escape its wrath with minimal losses! And once they reached the Sea of Soaring Dragons, Da Yu would certainly not sit idly by!
Even if he did, he would still suffer the collateral damage!
’Two against one, we might not lose.’
But he had still underestimated the power of a Holy Hall-level Sea Beast... When a sovereign of destruction wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, would it ever let things go before venting its full fury?
...
The sea began to burn.