Chapter 1252 Tide
The invading forces spread out across the entire Earth, their spiritual senses sweeping over every inch of land like an invisible tide.
Mountains were scanned in an instant, oceans churned under unseen pressure, and even the deepest, most hidden corners of the world were not spared from their probing awareness.
They searched ruthlessly.
Nothing escaped their detection... cities, ruins, underground caverns, even the faintest fluctuations of spiritual energy were dragged into the light.
To them, this world was nothing more than a newly discovered resource, ripe for the taking. Yet... despite their confidence, none of them dared to remain in one place for too long.
A subtle unease lingered in their hearts. It was as if the very air carried a warning. As if this world... had something very wrong inside it.
Then, without warning...
"Who dares invade a realm already marked by me?!" The voice descended like heavenly judgment. It did not merely echo... it crushed.
The sky fractured with sound, the clouds scattered violently, and the very laws of the world seemed to tremble under the weight of that single roar.
Countless cultivators felt their chests tighten, their blood stagnating as an overwhelming pressure descended upon them. Some weaker ones nearly fell from the sky on the spot.
Then a figure appeared.
High above the heavens, beyond the clouds, a massive silhouette slowly took form.
At first, it was nothing more than a distortion in space, but within moments, it solidified into a towering presence that eclipsed everything beneath it.
He stood like a god overlooking mortals.
His long white hair flowed endlessly behind him, each strand seeming to carry a life of its own.
His crimson robes billowed like flames, radiating a terrifying aura that dyed the sky in faint shades of red.
His face was incomparably handsome, yet there was no warmth in it... only cold authority, the kind that came from absolute power.
His eyes opened. And in that instant, it felt as though the entire world had been locked in place. No one dared to move. No one dared to breathe.
It was as if a single thought from him could decide life or death for everything beneath the heavens. Then the whispers began.
"This... this can’t be..."
"That aura... it’s him..."
"The Emperor of the Ghost Wood Forest!" Shock turned to terror in an instant. Some cultivators trembled uncontrollably, their faces drained of all color as recognition struck them.
Others instinctively began retreating, their bodies moving before their minds could even process what was happening.
"He’s captured the World Heart!"
That single sentence shattered whatever courage remained.
The World Heart—the core of the planet, the very source of its existence. Whoever controlled it... controlled everything.
"Everyone, escape now!"
Panic erupted.
There was no longer any thought of exploration, no thought of profit or opportunity. Survival became the only thing that mattered.
Streams of light burst across the sky as cultivators activated their escape techniques one after another. Space tore open, revealing cracks and gateways as they fled in all directions.
Some burned their essence to move faster, others discarded treasures just to gain a moment’s advantage. No one dared to stay.
Because they all knew that facing the Emperor of the Ghost Wood Forest, especially one who held the World Heart, was no different from courting death.
Even the boldest among them did not hesitate. Within seconds, the once-crowded skies became a chaotic storm of fleeing figures. Within tens of seconds, that storm thinned.
Within a minute...
There was nothing left. The heavens fell silent.
The pressure that once blanketed the world slowly receded, like a tide pulling back into the abyss.
The crimson hue faded from the sky, and the clouds gradually returned to their natural state. High above, the colossal figure remained for a brief moment longer.
His gaze swept across the now-empty world, indifferent... as if everything that had just occurred was nothing more than a trivial interruption.
Then, without a word, his figure began to fade.
His massive form dissolved into nothingness, leaving behind no trace... no fluctuation, no residue, as though he had never appeared at all. But the damage had already been done.
Silence blanketed the Earth once more. Yet it was no longer the same silence as before. It was heavier. Oppressive. Filled with an unspoken truth...This world... now had an owner.
And anyone who dared to challenge that fact would face consequences far beyond their imagination.
What could be seen not long after was something far more shocking and difficult to comprehend even for seasoned cultivators... Earth itself... vanished.
From the vast, endless expanse of the Milky Way, the once-visible planet simply disappeared without warning.
There was no catastrophic explosion, no collapsing spatial storm, no remnants of broken astral matter. It was as if a hand had reached into the heavens and casually plucked it out of existence.
One moment it was there. The next, it was gone. Leaving behind only a hollow void in its place. It was not destruction. It was removal. Someone had taken the entire world.
Scooped it up as though it were no more significant than a stone on the roadside... and carried it away without the slightest hesitation or permission.
The cultivators who had only just managed to escape the Earth’s atmosphere and retreat to a safe distance were the first to witness this horrifying scene.
At first, they thought their senses were mistaken. Some even tried to re-scan the region repeatedly, refusing to believe what they were seeing.
But reality remained unchanged. The starfield where Earth had once existed was empty. Utterly empty. The realization struck them like a hammer to the soul.
Their worst fears were no longer speculation. They were truth. A cold silence fell among the survivors before panic erupted.
"Quickly! Send word back to the clan immediately!" one cultivator shouted, his voice trembling despite his attempts to remain composed.
"The Emperor of the Ghost Wood Forest... he possesses a World Heart now!"
"Repeat it clearly! Do not misreport even a single detail!"