The two men continued gazing at what once used to be the sea, neither speaking a word.[1]
Silence reigned at the edge of the abyss.
Not long after, it was broken by a rumbling sound from nearby.
They turned to look and saw it was Su Xiaomei and Su Changyu sparring again.
"Brother, watch out!"
Su Xiaomei flashed Su Changyu an odd smile.
An instant later, dozens of figures appeared in a circle around Su Changyu, each clad in different attire.
They wielded a variety of weapons, yet none of them had faces. In place of features, blood-red symbols churned and writhed across their blank visages.
“Let’s see you block this!”
The faceless figures burst into laughter in unison, each voice twisted in a different, unsettling tone.
The weapons in their hands began to glow faintly, and threads of bloody light seeped out.
In the next moment, countless crimson beams erupted, shrieking through the air as they converged on Su Changyu.
Su Changyu showed no sign of panic. Instead, he calmly closed his eyes.
As the beams of blood-red light drew close, his outstretched right hand flared with a soft, milky-white radiance, then moved with blinding speed.
In an instant, it seemed as though a thousand hands had manifested at once.
With great precision, each phantom hand caught a single incoming beam.
Then, all of them clenched simultaneously.
In an instant, the bloody radiance reversed direction, surging back toward the dozens of faceless figures marked with crimson symbols.
Boom!
The tide of battle reversed in an instant.
Caught off guard, the figures were struck by their own attacks.
Many of them vanished on the spot. However, one of them, after being hit by a crimson beam, remained completely unscathed.
Using the cover of the explosion's glare, it stealthily closed in on Su Changyu.
Its form erupted violently, and a giant net of flames sought to envelop Su Changyu.
Su Changyu's expression remained unchanged, but his eyes snapped wide open.
Within each eyeball were two pupils.
The four black pupils now contracted to the fineness of needle points.
The flames that once burned fiercely were instantly frozen in place. Su Changyu then thrust a palm out. His target, however, was not the flames before him, but Su Xiaomei, who was hiding in the shadows.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
One illusory phantom palm after another materialized, and the sounds of explosions rang out all around.
"You can't hit me!" Su Xiaomei's voice came from all directions, elusive and ghostly.
"Oh?" A faint smile appeared at the corners of Su Changyu's mouth.
High in the sky, a transparent, colossal hand had formed at some unknown point in time, completely encompassing the battlefield where the two stood.
It pressed down from above.
Boom!
The earth sank deeply, throwing up clouds of dust.
A massive handprint was left upon the ground. And Su Xiaomei, who had been hiding within, could no longer conceal herself. She was plucked out by the phantom fingers and restrained in mid-air.
"Break!" Su Xiaomei roared angrily as her eyes turned crimson.
The tightly clenched fingers loosened slightly, and for a moment, it seemed she might break free.
Su Changyu extended his right hand and made a grasping motion from afar.
Another giant phantom hand appeared, superimposed upon the previous one.
Su Xiaomei was thus suppressed once more.
"Ahhhh! So annoying!" Su Xiaomei activated her innate divine ability again and again. Her hair gradually turned fiery red, and the surrounding air warped from the intense heat.
But no matter how she struggled, she could not break free from the giant hand.
"I yield!"
Alongside Su Xiaomei's furious shout, a crimson sun inexplicably appeared in the sky.
The giant phantom hand was burned into nothingness under the scorching heat of the crimson sun.
Su Xiaomei, now free, showed no joy. She withdrew her Crimson Sun Grotto-Heaven domain, scratched her head, and flew to Su Changyu's side.
"Brother, how did you become so powerful? After suppressing my cultivation to the Golden Core realm, I'm no longer a match for you now," she asked curiously.
"When we left the Congyun Sea, the Yin sisters discovered ancient artifacts containing traces of Dao resonance from an ancient era. After years of restoration, it's now possible to contemplate a wisp of the complete Dao resonance. The Heaven-Suppressing Palm I just used is what I comprehended from that resonance. Xiaomei, your comprehension far surpasses mine. I believe you can glean an even more powerful divine ability from it..."
"When we left the Congyun Sea, the Yin sisters discovered ancient artifacts containing traces of Dao resonance from an ancient era..." As Su Changyu spoke, an identical voice echoed simultaneously, creating a strange duet.
But as he slowly closed his eyes, the other echo grew fainter and fainter, eventually becoming almost inaudible.
Su Changyu had said this was a side effect of his special cultivation technique. So Su Xiaomei and the others had grown accustomed to it over time and thought nothing of it.
"Great! I want to comprehend this divine ability too!"
Hearing Su Changyu's words, she clapped her hands in delight.
Even without opening his eyes, Su Changyu could clearly see the face of his sister, whom he hadn't met in so long.
Though she had already reached the Nascent Soul realm, she still acted like a child who refused to grow up.
Su Changyu patted Su Xiaomei's head affectionately. "After more than a decade apart, we are all finally reunited."
Watching from the side, Xiao Heng couldn't help but feel a swell of warmth at the scene.
Suddenly, he sensed a faint, familiar tremor from the left-hand bone within his storage ring, an item he hadn't used in ages.
His expression immediately brightened. Ever since Senior Skull had issued that warning, saving all their lives, he had fallen back into a deep slumber. Was he finally waking up now?
Without a moment's hesitation, Xiao Heng’s consciousness plunged into the Bone Vanguard Realm.
1. So in the raws, they apparently look at each other in silence. But that sounds waaaay too awkward so I made them look at the abyss instead. ☜