Chapter 263 264: Lingyu Earthquake
Murong Qing dragged Chen Dong all the way out of the Li Family Villa, through the Li Family Manor, and far down the road.
Chen Dong couldn't help but ask, "Where are you taking me?"
Murong Qing stopped in her tracks and turned to him. "Shouldn't you be the one explaining things to me?" she asked.
Chen Dong was at a loss for words. He had promised Li Huiran he wouldn't tell a third soul about their fake marriage.
Murong Qing said coldly, "You're married, and you never told me!"
Chen Dong looked seriously into Murong Qing's eyes. "I didn't think it was necessary, so I didn't say anything!"
Hearing this, Murong Qing felt like she was going to lose her mind. She roared, "Something like this isn't necessary? Then what is?! You said you came to Jiangzhou for your adopted daughter, but the moment you get here, someone tells me Li Huiran is your wife! What does that make me? Were we just a fling?"
Chen Dong shook his head and tried to hug Murong Qing, but she sidestepped him.
"I don't mind that you're married! I don't even mind being the other woman! I want you to know, I'm with you not because I'm lusting after your body or trying to use you for dual cultivation. It's because I like you!" Murong Qing roared, her eyes filled with tears.
She lowered her head, her voice softening. "But you refuse to tell me anything. I used to be a proud person... I never thought I'd be so humbled in matters of love. Chen Dong, I need to cool down. I'll come find you when I've thought things through." As she finished speaking, she activated her Body Technique and vanished from the road.
Chen Dong stood rooted to the spot, making no move to follow. He sighed softly. 'Cultivation really is simpler.'
Just then, a fine drizzle began to fall, and the concentration of Spiritual Qi within it was frankly terrifying.
If the Spiritual Qi in a cubic meter of air was once a single wisp, then the amount in a single drop of this rain was equivalent to a thousand wisps!
Chen Dong closed his eyes, sensing the change. 'Has the Spirit Tide already begun?'
Atop a mountain peak, Lord You and Corpse Dove were also experiencing the rain.
Lord You said with surprise, "This is a harbinger of the Spirit Tide. It's been advanced again!"
Corpse Dove asked, confused, "Lord You, how can the Spirit Tide be advanced? Something that cycles once every few hundred thousand years shouldn't be so easily influenced, should it?"
Lord You said, toying with the raindrops, "Previous Spirit Tides could not be influenced, that's true. But the last one was severed by me and Ming. From that point on, its cycle began to change."
Corpse Dove cawed excitedly upon hearing this. "CAW! So you're saying the depletion of Spiritual Qi during this End of the Dharma Era was all your handiwork, Lord You!"
Lord You's gaze seemed to pierce through the entire forest. "No one does something that harms others without benefiting themselves," they said softly. "Severing the Spirit Tide was simply a matter of ensuring continuation."
Corpse Dove sounded a bit deflated. "So your goal isn't to conquer the world and control the universe?"
"It never was."
"CAW! How boring!"
"Heh! Boring, you say? The creature has awoken. You can handle it."
The moment Lord You finished speaking, a terrifying roar—AWOO!—erupted from deep within the earth. The forest floor buckled and surged, and countless boulders tumbled down the mountainsides.
A massive bull horn shattered the ground, and Lord You and Corpse Dove instantly flashed into the air.
"Who are you to disturb my slumber?"
Lord You ignored the question, speaking instead to Corpse Dove. "This Emperor Bull controls the Ten Directions Earth Veins. With the Spirit Tide imminent, its Realm is merely at the Profound Pill Early Stage. Killing it will accelerate the Spirit Tide's arrival."
Corpse Dove flapped its wings in a panic. "Kill it? Me? No way, I can't do it! Even if it were just a Ninth-grade Profound Pill—the absolute weakest—I'd still be no match for it!"
"With my support, what do you have to fear?"
"Fine... Lord You, you must save me!"
Lord You let out a light scoff. "Go."
Half a day later, a golden buffalo, the size of a mountain, knelt before Lord You.
"I will submit! Please, spare my life!"
"Excellent. First, release the Ten Directions Earth Veins you control."
The massive Emperor Bull's eyes filled with horror. It shook its head. "I cannot! If the Earth Veins are released, the surrounding mountain ranges will be reshaped! It will cause untold death and destruction!"
"Then you can die."
"No, no! I'll do it! I'm willing!"
A brown ripple emanated from the bull's head. Instantly, the ground fissured and broke apart, cracking again and again as if an earth dragon were turning over in its sleep. The heavens and the earth shook. A new mountain range, a hundred li long, abruptly jutted out from the original peaks.
This new range, which hadn't existed moments before, was thrust into the middle of the existing mountains, shoving them violently outward.
A butterfly flapping its wings can cause a tsunami far away. One can only imagine the consequences of an entire mountain range being violently extruded from the earth.
The Emperor Bull asked, its voice trembling, "I have released one. I can already feel countless lives being extinguished across the land... Must I release the others?"
Lord You's voice was cold. "My time is short."
The Emperor Bull spoke earnestly. "My lord, you are the one who ordered me to release the Earth Veins. The resulting sin will be yours to bear. Are you not afraid?"
Lord You sneered. "I am no longer within the Six Dao. Why should I fear the weight of sin?"
The Emperor Bull closed its eyes. "My lord, just kill me."
"As you wish."
A moment later, nine 'giant dragons' erupted from the earth!
A world-shocking, magnitude-12 earthquake erupted in the Jiangzhou region, causing innumerable deaths and injuries in an instant.