C1002 Lucky
Deep within the Sky Rift Valley, Yu Yuan sat upright on the ground, his back framed by a network of bright spatial cracks that intertwined like an immense spider web.
At the center of this colossal web, a grayish-white stone was ensnared, appearing to be steeped in the enigmatic Space-time Extraordinary Talent. Like a sponge thirsting for water, it voraciously drew in some peculiar force.
Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!
Accompanied by these strange noises, new spatial cracks formed as if cleaved by a blade of light, continuously emerging.
The valley was bathed in the light of the spatial cracks, its surging spatial waves awakening Benin of the Void Spirit Succubus Clan. Her long hair whipped about wildly as the activation of her bloodline lifted her feet off the ground.
The bloodline lines within her, resembling chains intricately carved from precious crystals, shone with a blinding divine light. The many natural bloodline imprints within her were unveiled, layer by layer, revealing their mystical and intricate nature.
"Space Lock, World Wall Repair, Instant Flash..."
Several new bloodline abilities suddenly came to life, embedding themselves as the deepest marks and becoming an integral part of Benin.
She was overcome with excitement and quickly concentrated, eager to grasp the newly emerged bloodline wonders.
"What?"
Simultaneously, Hart, the tall youth from the Silver Scale Clan, regained his composure. "What's happened?! Why have there been so many more spatial cracks in the Sky Rift Valley since we've been gone?"
Grace from the Mondnacht Clan, her slender eyes shimmering with lunar essence, snapped out of her daze first. "It was the human's stone that did this!"
Upon her declaration, the Crypt Clan brothers, Baruch and Singh, turned their gaze to the grayish-white stone.
Tears sprang to their eyes as they let out cries of anguish.
Involuntarily closing their eyes, they were overwhelmed by a terrifying sensation as if ancient dragons loomed over them, ready to crush them at any moment.
Merely gazing upon the stone felt like a grave disrespect, a transgression.
"It's that stone!"
The Crypt Clan brothers exclaimed in unison.
Their reaction caused Hart and Grace to avert their eyes from the stone, instead focusing on the sprawling spider web behind Yu Yuan and Yu Yuan himself.
In their eyes, Yu Yuan, who was meditating in silence, exuded an aura as vast as the ocean, giving off the impression of a towering mountain.
A true powerhouse!
They quickly formed an opinion, remaining discreetly cautious as they contemplated how to explain themselves once Yu Yuan opened his eyes.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The mountains flanking the valley began to split, revealing caves of various sizes.
Hart glanced around, recalling ancient tales that spoke of a time when the Nirvana Realm flourished, and many caves were carved into the mountains surrounding the Sky Rift Valley to serve as places of rest and discussion for travelers.
Prompted by his words, Grace and the two brothers from the Crypt Clan began to survey their surroundings.
They, too, noticed that for some unknown reason, many of the valley's peaks were fracturing, exposing a series of caves.
"Let's check out those caves. Keep an eye on Benin!"
Baruch, curious about the possibility of discovering relics from ancient masters within the split caves, gave Hart a heads-up before he and Singh split up to explore different caverns.
Hart and Grace, heeding their words, focused on Benin from the Void Spirit Succubus Clan, detecting the peculiarities in her bloodline.
"Benin has reaped tremendous benefits from the oddities of this place!" Grace from the Mondnacht Clan quietly sensed for a moment before her eyes sparkled with a mix of envy and admiration. "Her bloodline abilities seem to have been awakened. She's incredibly fortunate."
"I have this premonition that the Nirvana Realm will experience numerous changes because of the human man before us!"
Hart inhaled deeply, reflecting for a moment before shaking his head in dismissal, then murmured, "Odd, I can actually sense the distinct scent of blood from my Silver Scale Clan on him. It's as if the essence of one of our powerful ancestors has been left behind to fortify his physique."
"Don't spout nonsense," Grace chided.
"I'm just speaking off the cuff," Hart replied with a nonchalant shrug.
For some reason, as they witnessed the Sky Rift Valley fissuring, anticipation grew within them.
They eagerly awaited the unfolding of more extraordinary events, hopeful for a glimpse of an opportunity to leave this contentious land at the earliest.
After a short while.
Whoosh!
Singh from the Crypt Clan burst out of a cave, standing before Hart and Grace, his diminutive and unsightly form shaking violently. "There, there's something in there..."
He pointed at the cave he had just bolted from, stuttering, unable to complete his sentence.
"What's the matter?" Hart's own anxiety began to rise.
"Deep inside the cave, there's a stalactite hanging from the ceiling. It's breaking off, and inside, inside... there's someone waking up!" Singh seemed to muster all his strength to finally get the words out.
"I, I explored more caves!"
Baruch emerged from another cave, equally panicked and nervous as Singh. "It's like someone who was meditating in a nearby cave long ago suddenly got encased in rock and lava. And now, the rock that entombed them is cracking and they're..."
Roar!
A deep, bloodthirsty roar erupted from the cave Singh had fled.
At the sound of the roar, Hart felt a chill run down his spine, his heart dropping as if into a frozen abyss. He managed to say, with a sense of despair, "Great, just our luck."
"This is no time for jokes!" Grace snapped.
"Remember what I told you earlier?" Hart said, his face etched with bitterness. "It looks like some have survived in the Nirvana Realm and turned into those kinds of monsters. They were sealed away before, their blood and souls cut off. But now, they've broken free."
Upon hearing this, not only Grace and the two brothers from the Crypt Clan, but even Benin, who had been reveling in the joy of her bloodline talent awakening, was jolted back to reality. "You can't be serious?!"
Boom!
A massive figure burst through the narrow cave entrance, the monster Hart had mentioned now standing at the mouth of the cave, gasping for air with eyes as large as their fists.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The murky air of the Nirvana Realm, laden with dozens of different and mostly harmful abilities, rushed into him as he breathed heavily.
As he shook and flailed his arms in irritation, more tiny stones were dislodged from the crevices of his flesh.
Pah! Pah! Pah!
The pebbles struck the adjacent cave walls and the hard ground, leaving holes as wide as fingers.
Hart and Baruch exchanged glances, each recognizing the other's inner turmoil.
If the mere shaking of his body could dislodge stones with such force, how fearsome must the combat power of this frenzied monster be?
"He was turned into a monster by a Rock Clan warrior," Grace of the Mondnacht Clan had barely finished her sentence when the nearly three-meter-tall Rock Clan behemoth, like a cannonball, shot out and thunderously landed between Baruch and Singh.
Singh of the Crypt Clan, being the closest, panicked and attempted to burrow into the earth for safety. But he had forgotten that his people were naturally at a disadvantage on this rocky mountain terrain when facing the pure tactics of the Rock Clan. His bloodline power surged, urging him to merge with the ground, yet he found the earth, which should have softened at his command, was unyielding as forged steel. The ground remained unchanged.
In stark contrast, the Rock Clan monster, with a ferocious grin, stomped its foot, unleashing a terrifying and violent surge of blood energy from beneath the earth that sent Singh rocketing into the air. Dazed and disoriented, he found himself plummeting back down toward the very monster he had tried to escape.
Suddenly, the Rock Clan monster shot upwards, colliding with him with a devastating impact. Crack! Singh's bones shattered, and he was dead before his body even hit the ground.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Meanwhile, the cave entrance on the other side of Baruch's exploration burst open, revealing three more monstrous figures, their features indistinct but clearly not of the Rock Clan, standing at the mouth of the cave.
As Grace, Benin, and Hart gazed in horror at Singh's lifeless body, the three creatures licked their dusty lips, their eyes filled with a hungry longing.
In that moment, Yu Yuan, who had been sitting in silent meditation, quietly opened his eyes to survey the scene before him, then calmly closed them once more.
