Chapter 284: Bluewave city 16.

A huge shadow passed beneath them.

Mo Yuxin grabbed Su Yubing and jumped back.

The pier collapsed.

A massive black ship rose from the sea.

The same ship they had seen before.

But now it looked different.

Its sails were open.

Its deck was empty.

And a line of lanterns burned along its side.

At the front of the ship was a single word carved into the wood.

Yubing.

Su Yubing stared.

Mo Yuxin’s eyes became cold enough to freeze the air.

"We are leaving."

Su Yubing nodded.

They turned.

Behind them stood the City Lord.

He looked exhausted.

"You cannot leave."

Mo Yuxin stared at him.

"Why?"

He pointed toward the city.

Every bell in Bluewave City began ringing.

Not seven times.

Once.

Then once again.

Then once more.

Hundreds of bells.

All at the same time.

People poured into the streets.

The sea started glowing.

The city lord whispered,

"The gate is opening somewhere else."

Mo Yuxin turned toward the horizon.

Far beyond the harbor, a black line appeared across the ocean.

It stretched from the sea to the clouds.

A door.

Not the ancient door beneath the city.

A second one.

Much larger.

Su Yubing looked at Mo Yuxin.

"It followed us."

Mo Yuxin took her hand.

"Then we finish this before we leave."

The black ship sounded one deep horn.

The sound rolled across the Southern Continent.

Every cultivator in Bluewave City looked toward the sea.

The woman in black stood at the ship’s bow.

Her eyes remained fixed on Su Yubing.

Then she raised a hand.

A figure appeared behind her.

Mo Yuxin’s expression changed.

Because the figure was wearing her face.

Not similar.

Not close.

Exactly her face.

The other Mo Yuxin looked across the water and smiled.

Then she spoke.

"You took too long."

Su Yubing’s grip tightened painfully around the real Mo Yuxin’s hand.

Mo Yuxin stared at her other self.

For the first time since arriving in Bluewave City, she felt something she had not expected.

Fear.

Not fear for herself.

Fear that the thing on that ship knew something about them that even they did not know.

The woman in black smiled.

"Now that both halves have returned, the Abyssal Court can finally open."

The giant door in the sea began to swing inward.

Something enormous breathed on the other side.

Mo Yuxin stepped in front of Su Yubing.

Su Yubing stepped beside her.

They faced the sea together.

The city behind them.

The black ship ahead.

The impossible second version of Mo Yuxin standing on its deck.

And somewhere beyond the opening door, countless ancient voices began chanting the same name.

"Empress."

Su Yubing whispered,

"Yuxin."

"I’m here."

"Whatever that thing is..."

"I know."

"Don’t leave me."

Mo Yuxin turned toward her.

Her expression softened completely.

She raised their joined hands and kissed Su Yubing’s knuckles.

"Never."

The sea exploded.

The giant door opened completely.

And from the darkness beyond it, an enormous white palace began crossing into their world.

At its highest tower stood a throne.

Two figures were waiting beside it.

One looked like Su Yubing.

The other looked like Mo Yuxin.

Both were smiling.

And the voice of the ancient sea echoed across the entire Southern Continent.

"Welcome back, Your Majesties."

Mo Yuxin’s eyes narrowed.

Su Yubing’s expression turned serious.

Neither woman moved.

Then the black ship began sailing toward them.

The second Mo Yuxin lifted her sword.

The second Su Yubing raised her hand.

And the real Mo Yuxin finally understood what the ancient beast had meant.

The seal had never been waiting for them to return.

It had been waiting for them to remember.

The moment they did, the war would begin.

For a moment, neither woman could speak.

Then Su Yubing whispered, "There are two of them."

"Yes."

"And they look exactly like us."

"Yes."

"I really hate this city now."

Mo Yuxin almost laughed.

"I know."

The white palace continued to emerge from the sea.

It was not physically large in the normal sense. It was large in the way an ancient mountain was large. Its edges seemed to exist at several distances at once. From the shore, it looked several hundred zhang away. Then, when Mo Yuxin focused, it seemed close enough to touch. Then it became distant again.

Space was folding around it.

The city lord stood behind them, looking like a man who had just realized that all the warning signs he had ignored for half his life had finally arrived together.

"What do we do?" he asked.

Mo Yuxin looked at the city.

People were still standing in the streets.

They had seen the palace.

They had seen the ship.

They had seen the impossible door in the sea.

Panic was spreading.

But Bluewave City was still standing.

And that mattered.

Mo Yuxin took a breath.

"First, keep everyone inside the city walls."

The city lord blinked.

"Why?"

"Because the thing beyond that door is not interested in the city. It is interested in Yubing. If everyone runs toward the harbor, more people will get caught in the middle."

The old man nodded.

"And then?"

"Then you wake every defensive formation you have."

"They were all damaged tonight."

"The city itself is the formation."

Su Yubing looked at him.

"And your ancestors built it so that the people could protect it without knowing they were doing it."

The city lord slowly understood.

"You mean the ordinary residents."

"Yes."

"But most of them have no cultivation."

Mo Yuxin answered, "That is exactly why the formation works. Nobody can corrupt what they don’t understand."

The city lord stared at her for a long moment.

Then he turned and ran.

He shouted orders as he went.

Within minutes, bells began ringing in every district.

Doors opened.

City guards rushed through the streets.

Shopkeepers pulled people indoors.

Formation masters gathered at the old watchtowers.

Bluewave City had faced pirates, sea beasts, storms and sect conflicts for generations.

It had never faced anything like this.

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TO BE CONTINUED.