Chapter 354 - 353: Capturing the Great Sea Realm (2) [Bonus]

For ten thousand years, the mortals and cultivators of the Nine Provinces had gazed toward the eastern horizon, where the boundless waters of the Great Sea Realm stretched beyond sight.

It was the First Wonder of the world, an endless reservoir of orthodox Water Dao that reached toward the distant heavens. It gave birth to storms, purified corrupted ambient Qi, and nourished the five continents with rain.

Yet on this day, the mother of the world was violently torn from her ancient resting place.

When Gu Cangming’s colossal, pitch-black demonic hand pierced the fractured Nine Heavens Ward, the resulting atmospheric displacement unleashed a deafening sonic boom that reverberated across the coastal regions. Forged from the pure demonic essence of a Quasi Demon Emperor, the hand was so enormous that its fingers stretched across entire mountain ranges, casting a shadow that swallowed the sun.

Along side the Coast of the Eastern Continent, Haiyan City, a prosperous mortal settlement home to four million people, witnessed the end of its world.

The elderly fishermen who had spent their entire lives reading the tides collapsed to their knees upon the docks. Their eyes widened with unbearable terror as they watched the boundless ocean defy gravity and rise into the heavens like a waterfall flowing backward.

The water withdrew from the coastline, exposing ancient abysses covered in slime that had remained hidden since the world’s creation. Enormous leviathans, beasts that had slept in the crushing depths for millennia, were dragged into the open air. Their colossal bodies thrashed in confusion before the shifting gravitational forces of the demonic hand crushed them.

Then the earth itself began to collapse.

As the Great Sea Realm was uprooted, the continental shelf connecting it to the Eastern Continent snapped apart with tremendous violence. A jagged fissure hundreds of miles wide tore open along the coastline, plunging straight toward the planet’s mantle.

Haiyan City had no time to react. The bedrock beneath the sprawling metropolis collapsed completely, sending its towering walls, crowded marketplaces, imperial palaces, and millions of terrified mortals tumbling into the glowing abyss. The ocean that had once surrounded the city was gone, leaving nothing beneath them but the burning magma of the earth’s depths.

Chaos and despair consumed the surrounding coastal settlements. Mothers clutched their children and wept as the heavens turned a bruised purple. Cultivators in the Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment realms attempted to escape on their flying swords, only to be swept from the sky by the hurricanes surrounding the rising ocean.

Millions perished within moments, crushed by collapsing earth, boiled by superheated steam, or overcome by terror as their minds failed to comprehend the impossible catastrophe.

The Great Sea Realm, containing billions upon billions of gallons of water infused with the concentrated Water Origin of the Nine Provinces, continued its ascent toward the firmament, drawn relentlessly toward the bleeding crack in the Nine Heavens Ward.

High above, at the highest reaches of the Hollow Beyond, Gu Cangming watched the world tremble.

The Eternal Calamity Demon Lord hovered within the corrosive void, his right arm extended toward the lower world. Dark markings pulsed across his flesh, radiating the boundless might of a Quasi Demon Emperor.

He could feel the immense weight of the Great Sea Realm pressing against his demonic projection. The orthodox laws of the lower world resisted desperately, drawing upon the remaining will of the Nine Provinces. The Water Dao struggled to return the ocean to its rightful place.

Gu Cangming’s golden eyes narrowed with disdain. He merely flexed his fingers.

In the mortal world, the pitch-black hand mirrored his movement, tightening around the floating ocean as it crushed the resistance of the supreme laws.

"Struggle all you wish," Gu Cangming declared. His voice rolled across the Hollow Beyond, a deep, terrifying baritone that seemed to command the heavens themselves. "Your foundations rest upon sand, and your era is nothing more than a forgotten dream. I, Gu Cangming, am the arbiter of this reality! I stand at the absolute pinnacle of flesh and soul!"

His gaze settled upon the enormous sphere of water being dragged toward the spatial rift.

"The Grand Ascendants who made this seal believed they could imprison the Demon Race in the abyss forever," he mocked. His laughter echoed through the void, causing the nearby acidic oceans of the Demon Realm to freeze solid. "They believed their Nine Wonders could sustain this pathetic mud pit until the end of time. But what are Nine Wonders before a god? What is an ocean to the one who commands the abyss?"

He lifted his chin, his silver hair flowing in the winds.

"For ten thousand years, I have waited for this exact moment. I watched the cowards of my own race hide within their palaces, and I watched the cultivators of the Imperial Domain hoard the true heavens for themselves.

But now, my ascension is inevitable! I do not conquer merely to rule the weak. I conquer to rewrite the Great Dao itself! This lower world is only the first stepping stone on my path to the golden gates of the Imperial Domain!"

Across the vast Hollow Beyond, billions of demonic beings prostrated themselves upon the jagged earth, weeping tears of black blood in religious ecstasy.

They raised their heads toward the heavens, witnessing their sovereign casually lift an entire sea realm from another dimension. The incomprehensible scale of his power shattered the final traces of doubt that might have remained in the hearts of the Demon Lords.

"He is the End of Days!" a towering Demon Lord from the northern plateaus screamed, tearing open his chest in fanatical worship. "He pulls the oceans from the earth! He strips the humans of their life!"

"Who in this era can stand against him?!" a million shadow demons chanted together, their overlapping voices forming a maddening chorus. "Our Lord! The Devourer of Wonders! The Eternal Calamity!"

"Who can claim to be undefeated if not you, Lord Gu?!" Sha Wujue, Clan Head of the Spatial Calamities, roared from his palace. The grief and fury he had felt over the deaths of his children were utterly overshadowed by the apocalyptic majesty of his sovereign. "You are the pinnacle of the heaven and earth! Shatter their world! Drown them in their own despair!"

"I, Gu Cangming, am the beginning and the end," the Quasi Demon Emperor murmured, savoring the absolute supremacy of his existence. "I shall strip this world of its crutches one by one, until nothing remains."