Volume 2: Shenzhou Academy & The Battle of Venice
Chapter 120
Sea Beast Tidal Mutation and the Church's Shadow
The acrid stench of scorched mire and the foul metallic tang of giant crocodile blood still lingered heavily over the sunken marsh hollow.
Atop the patch of blackened, smoldering grass, the Abyssal Thunder Wolf—having just completed its breakthrough to the Warrior-class—stood towering like a monumental statue of obsidian jade. Layers of pitch-black thunder-scales overlapping down its spine gleamed with a cold, metallic sheen, while the tapering obsidian horn at the center of its brow occasionally spat sharp crackles of violet thunder. The savage, merciless aura of a bona fide Warrior-class mutated beast surged outward in waves, pinning the surrounding vegetation flat against the earth.
Ye Qingwan lifted a delicate hand to brush back strands of hair plastered against her temples with sweat. Her slender fingers still tightly gripped her sandalwood wand, her chest rising and falling from the lingering tension of combat. A few paces away, Gu Xiaowei’s large eyes widened as she stared at the black wolf—now as massive as an armored combat vehicle—with a mixture of awe and eager fascination. She stealthily tried to edge closer, yearning to touch that sleek, lustrous coat of black fur. But the moment the wolf exhaled a puff of scalding breath laced with violet lightning through its nostrils, she recoiled her foot in a hurry, sticking out her tongue to mask her embarrassment.
At the far perimeter, Bai Wei leaned back against a moss-covered boulder, his complexion as pale as a wilted cabbage leaf. The jade-inlaid magical folding fan in his hand quivered uncontrollably, foul splatters of muck soiling his exorbitant silk robe. He was gnashing his teeth in bitter jealousy, yet whenever the black wolf’s piercing gaze swept over him, an icy chill gripped his spine. Instinctive terror stifled every mocking insult in his throat before it could even form.
“Harvest the spoils quickly and let’s clear out of here,” Lin Feng said, dispelling the residual mana swirling in his palms as he turned toward the others. “The stench of blood from this pack of Scarlet-Armored Crocodile Demons is suffocating. Before long, it will draw other predator packs from deeper within the forest.”
“Lin Feng is right.” Xie Zhaoyuan hastily wiped a smear of mud from his cheek and carefully stowed several Thunder Crystal Ocean Blue Fruits into an enchanted preservation container. “We’re only half a day into the wilderness assessment. Now that we’ve secured enough baseline points, we should find an elevated ridge and fortify a temporary perimeter.”
Yet no sooner had Xie Zhaoyuan’s voice fallen than a sinister, abnormal transformation abruptly descended.
High noon. Twelve o’clock sharp.
The sun hanging at the zenith of the sky suddenly grew faint, like an oil lamp starved of fuel. A frigid, damp chill rolled in from nowhere, causing the ambient temperature across Huanglu Island to plummet precipitously in the span of a few breaths.
Lin Feng furrowed his brow, tilting his head skyward.
Across the distant southeastern horizon over the open sea, ash-gray and pitch-black storm clouds—dense as submerged mountain ranges—surged and tumbled over one another, barrelling toward the landmass. Their speed was unnaturally swift. Billowing black tempests swallowed vast swaths of azure sky, entirely blotting out the radiant midday sun.
The surrounding wilderness dimmed at a pace visible to the naked eye.
Within a mere five minutes, the entirety of Huanglu Island was plunged into an abyssal darkness reminiscent of a moonless winter night. A suffocating, heavy pressure weighed upon every chest, as though the firmament itself were collapsing downward. Coastal gales began to howl, yet this was no brisk, invigorating sea breeze carrying the clean tang of brine.
The shrieking gale tore through ancient canopies, carrying a nauseating, putrid stench that curdled the blood—the reek of tens of thousands of marine carcasses festering in abyssal ocean trenches for centuries, freshly unearthed and churned to the surface.
“Good heavens... Why did it suddenly turn pitch-black?” Gu Xiaowei hugged her trembling arms, staring up at the vault of sky that had turned as dark as spilled ink. “The naval maritime forecast this morning stated that the waters around the Magic Capital would remain clear and sunny for the next three days!”
“This is no natural storm!” Ye Qingwan’s expression shifted drastically. As a Wood Mage, her innate sensitivity to the fluctuations of the natural world far surpassed ordinary people. She crouched down and pressed her open palm firmly against the earth, feeling the tremors vibrating through the forest root networks. “The trees... every plant on this island is terrified! An intensely vile, corrupted surge of evil energy is pressing in from the open ocean!”
Beside them, the Abyssal Thunder Wolf suddenly released a low, rumbling growl from the depths of its throat. Its glossy black mane bristled upright like steel spikes, crimson eyes glaring fiercely toward the southern coastline as its claws dug deep into the stone bedrock, gouging out fractured crevices.
At the precise moment an eerie hush smothered the island, frantic magical sirens suddenly wailed from the military watchtowers and coastal observation outposts ringed around Huanglu Island, tearing violently through the atmosphere!
WOOO... WOOO... WOOO——!!
The sirens screamed in rapid, deafening bursts before shifting into an agonizing, shrill, prolonged wail that echoed through every mountain pass and rocky fissure, sending shivers down their spines.
Xie Zhaoyuan shuddered violently, nearly dropping the enchanted container from his grasp. “Scarlet Alert! Heavens above... That’s the garrison military’s Scarlet Alert siren! Catastrophe level—an extinction-grade calamity!”
Yet the tragedy had only just begun.
The second siren had barely sounded halfway through when it suddenly choked off, the wail warping before severing with a harsh, screeching snap, like a bowstring snapping under excessive tension.
KABOOM——!!
From the northern shore, a dull, resonant explosion rolled across the terrain. The reinforced granite military lighthouse—which housed the arcane radar arrays and coastal artillery bastions—suddenly erupted in spectral flames before collapsing into ruins. A column of oily, suffocating black smoke billowed straight into the overcast sky.
The entire network of military sirens died out within seconds. A deathly silence blanketed the island once more, broken only by the whistling gale slicing through rock crevices like the weeping of condemned souls.
“The military outpost... was wiped out?!” Bai Wei stammered, all color draining from his face. “There was an entire platoon of Intermediate military battle-mages garrisoned there! How could they be wiped out so quickly?!”
No one answered his frantic query.
At that moment, from the coastline more than a kilometer past the swamp, the roar of churning tidal waves began to echo inland, growing more ferocious, more relentless with every passing second.
“Up to that rock ledge, now!” Lin Feng barked in a low, authoritative voice, shooting forward first.
The other four scrambled closely behind him, scaling a soaring granite outcrop that jutted out from the mountainside. From this vantage point, their line of sight looked directly out over the entire southern coastline of Huanglu Island.
And the sight that unfolded before their eyes seized their hearts in an icy grip.
The waters encircling Huanglu Island were no longer the vibrant azure of the open ocean. An immense expanse of sea, stretching outward to the horizon, had transformed into a greasy, curdled crimson—a grotesque, putrid lake of blood!
The tide was surging inward at an inconceivable velocity. Titanic breakers, four to five meters high, did not churn with pristine white foam; instead, they sprayed foul, frothing bubbles of dark crimson scum. Each time a wave crashed against the white sand or submerged reefs, that viscous red fluid released oily plumes of vapor and an overpowering stench of rot that assailed their senses.
“Urrgh...!” The foul stench slammed into Gu Xiaowei’s nostrils, churning her stomach violently. Clutching the rocky crag for support, she dry-heaved repeatedly.
Lin Feng stood rooted at the cliff’s edge, his eyes wide, his pupils contracting into pinpricks.
This scent... The distinct color and curdled effervescence of this fluid...
A nightmarish memory, buried deep within his consciousness, abruptly erupted, resurfacing as vivid and searing as an open, bleeding wound.
Half a year ago. Bo’an City.
That crimson downpour that had drenched the Azure Thunder Ridge, contaminating every subterranean spring with virulent, poisonous blood. The packs of Black-Winged Wolves and Venom-Clawed Apes, driven utterly rabid upon catching that scent, their bloodshot eyes tearing through every defensive barrier, reducing his homeland to an inferno of ash and corpses!
Frenzy Magic Elixir!
This was Frenzy Blood Magic Reagent—the forbidden, diabolical concoction brewed by the heretical cult from fresh living blood and vengeful wraiths!
Impossible... How could this vile poison appear in the coastal waters of the Magic Capital?! Lin Feng clenched his fists until his fingernails dug deep into his palms, piercing the flesh with sharp pain.
Before he could process the thought, the crimson expanse offshore began to churn and boil with madness, resembling a gargantuan cauldron of scalding oil into which a slab of glacier had been cast.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Geysers of foul water erupted in rapid succession. From the murky crimson depths, countless massive, grotesque silhouettes breached the surface, jostling and swarming onto the beaches in a density that choked the breath from their lungs!
These were marine lifeforms whose minds had been utterly corroded by the Frenzy Blood toxins, mutated into slaughter machines of pure, unadulterated savagery.
Thousands of Gluttonous Demon Crabs scrambled onto the shores. Each beast was the size of a heavy-duty armored bulldozer, its rugged carapace bristling with black keratinous spikes. Most terrifying were their monstrous pincers, spanning over two meters in length and lined with jagged, saw-like teeth; every snap sounded like a harsh clanging of steel on steel. Ancient coastal palms caught within those crushing vices snapped clean in two like dry twigs!
Slithering behind the demon crabs were hordes of Venom-Clawed Sirens. Their sinuous, elongated torsos were slick with dark green slime, resembling an unholy hybrid of moray eel and lizard. Four hooked, razor-sharp claws gouged through the sand with harsh scritching sounds. Each step left pools of sizzling, black venom in their wake; any vegetation touched withered on contact, decomposing into putrid sludge.
More harrowing still, from the deeper offshore shelf, hundreds of titanic beasts known as Giant Rhinoceros Croc-Monsters thundered straight onto dry land. Spanning seven to eight meters in length, their massive bodies were encased in hardened horn-scales tougher than tempered steel, and atop their flattened skulls jutted a vicious, lance-like horn resembling a siege ram.
The eyes of every single sea fiend in this abyssal swarm burned with a frenzied, rabid blood-red light! They knew no pain, harbored no fear. The moment their claws struck the sands, they snarled and gnawed at one another in wild frenzy, before swarming into the coastal windbreak forests, tearing straight toward the heart of the island!
Not several hundred.
Nor a mere few thousand.
Tens of thousands!
A crimson tidal wave of monstrous flesh and bone was consuming every inch of the shoreline, bulldozing through every obstacle in its path!
“Help... Save us!!”
“Run! The sea beasts have breached the beaches!”
“Ice Lock! Cast Ice Lock to freeze them... Aaargh!!”
From across the groves, valleys, and rocky crags of Huanglu Island, bloodcurdling screams, panicked weeping, and the thunderous detonations of frantic spells erupted in rapid, chaotic succession.
Currently stationed across Huanglu Island were over three thousand freshmen of the Shenzhou Archmage Academy, dispersed into hundreds of squads to execute their field assessment assignments. The vast majority of these youths were heirs of prominent clans or gifted prodigies recruited from various provincial capitals, accustomed to sheltered cultivation under the protective umbrella of prestigious academies and noble families. Many had never encountered a wild demon beast in the flesh, let alone faced an extinction-level, frenzied oceanic beast tide of this apocalyptic scale!
Squad after squad was severed and surrounded within the woods. Primary-tier earthen walls had barely materialized before being smashed to dust by the battering-ram charges of Gluttonous Demon Crabs. Fireballs hurled against the dense armor plates of Giant Rhinoceros Croc-Monsters did nothing more than tickle their hides, only inflaming their berserk fury further.
Fresh blood began to dye the island’s lush meadows crimson. The feral roars of sea fiends intertwined with the shrieks of desperate youths, orchestrating a hair-raising symphony of slaughter straight from the underworld.
“This is a catastrophe! Contact the academy immediately! Call for the flagship’s rescue!” Ye Qingwan shouted at Xie Zhaoyuan, her face pale as chalk.
Trembling from head to toe, Xie Zhaoyuan thrust his hand inside his collar, dragging out a silver-trimmed communication jade talisman issued by Shenzhou Academy to every team member prior to landing on the island. Gritting his teeth, he channeled all his Light mana into the runes etched onto the jade’s surface.
Bzzzt... Krssshhh...
The jade talisman flickered with a feeble luminescence, vibrating violently. Xie Zhaoyuan pressed the jade close to his mouth, screaming hoarsely until his voice cracked: “Assessee reporting! A colossal, mutated sea beast tide has erupted along the coastal perimeter of Huanglu Island! The coastal defense line has collapsed! Requesting emergency evacuation from the offshore fleet! Requesting immediate activation of the teleportation array!”
Yet all that answered his desperate plea was a harsh, fragmented hiss of static.
No voice of a supervising instructor.
Much less the command horn of the naval flagship.
CLANG!!
Suddenly, from within the jade talisman came a high-pitched, rasping cackle, sinister enough to make their skin crawl. In the next instant, the arcane runes across the talisman’s surface flared with an oily black flame, shattering into pulverized mineral dust that drifted between his fingers!
Simultaneously, the life-saving protective amulets hanging over their chests—enchanted devices guaranteed to automatically deploy a spatial escape barrier and teleport students safely back to the fleet when facing mortal peril—extinguished their magical glow in unison, degenerating into useless scraps of dull metal.
Xie Zhaoyuan stared in utter stupefaction at the crushed debris scattering from his trembling palm. Stumbling back two paces, his knees gave out, and he collapsed onto the stone slab, his eyes vacant with sheer horror.
“The teleportation barrier... has been destroyed...”
“What did you say?!” Bai Wei seized Xie Zhaoyuan by the collar, roaring like a maniac. “What do you mean destroyed?! That was an Advanced-tier spatial warding barrier personally anchored at the central base camp by the vice deans! How could it possibly be destroyed?!”
“Sabotaged from the inside by a traitor!” Xie Zhaoyuan shoved Bai Wei’s hands away, his voice breaking in despair. “The talisman was corroded by a curse hex... The central spatial array was detonated... The warships offshore can’t pick up our distress signal! We’re... we’re completely cut off!”
Those words struck like a thunderbolt from the blue, shattering the resolve of everyone present.
Stranded on an isolated island in the middle of the ocean, besieged by tens of thousands of blood-crazed sea beasts scouring every corner, and their sole avenue of retreat utterly severed!
Bai Wei collapsed backward onto the stone, trembling uncontrollably like a leaf in an autumn storm. His magical fan rolled away into the dirt as he clutched his head, babbling in sheer delirium: “It’s over... We’re dead... I’m the eldest direct scion of the Bai Clan... I can’t die in a place like this... Somebody save me... Please, save me...”
“Shut your mouth, you pathetic coward!” Ye Qingwan snapped through gritted teeth, though even her own lips were drained of all color. She turned toward Lin Feng, only to find the youth standing motionless at the highest precipice, his back straight as a war spear thrust deep into the bedrock.
“Lin Feng... what do we do now?” Gu Xiaowei stepped toward him with trembling steps, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes.
Lin Feng did not answer immediately. His gaze was frightfully detached, like the frozen surface of a glacial lake undisturbed by even a ripple for ten thousand years.
With a subtle wave of his hand, he signaled the Abyssal Thunder Wolf to step back and shield the three behind it. Meanwhile, he kicked off lightly, his body floating like a weightless autumn leaf onto the jagged pinnacle of the granite boulder, casting his vision across the crimson beach toward the open ocean beyond.
Within Lin Feng’s pupils, delicate wisps of Shadow mana coiled and swirled. His vision sharpened to its absolute apex, penetrating through the caustic sea spray and the churning curtains of storm clouds rolling across the waters.
Approximately three kilometers off the southern coastline of Huanglu Island, amidst towering crimson swells, an ominous crescent-shaped reef of jagged black stone broke through the waves.
And at the exact center of that submerged reef, a chilling spectacle struck Lin Feng’s eyes.
A monumental arcane sacrificial altar, constructed from the monstrous skulls of abyssal sea titans, pulsed with sinister crimson radiance—throbbing in rhythmic cadences like a grotesque, living heart. Runes deeply gouged into the black reef channeled churning rivers of fresh blood into a colossal magical vortex spinning beneath the sea.
Towering around the altar were four cloaked figures.
Three of them, positioned at the outer cardinal points, wore sweeping azure robes embroidered with jagged, blood-red serrated hems—the unmistakable insignia of Blue-Robed Deacons!
And at the very center, orchestrating the entire ritual, stood a figure clad in a bizarre ash-gray robe, its features obscured deep beneath an abyssal cowl. In its hands rested an obsidian flask carved from corrupted mana stone, etched with malevolent hexes. A steady stream of phosphorescent crimson fluid poured from the flask’s mouth directly into the swirling vortex of the altar, dispersing into the surging ocean currents that bore down on Huanglu Island!
With every drop of the unholy elixir that dissolved into the depths, the swarms of sea beasts beneath the waves roared with renewed frenzy, their bloodshot eyes burning with unbridled savagery.
The four demonic figures stood defiant amidst the raging gale, looking back toward the island being engulfed in slaughter. Rasping, monstrous laughter echoed from beneath their hoods, treating the lives of thousands of Shenzhou Academy prodigies as nothing more than cattle meant for the slaughter!
“The Nether Church...”
Those three cold words escaped from between Lin Feng’s gritted teeth, hushed yet heavier than a thousand tons!
Scrambling up the rocks behind him with great difficulty, Xie Zhaoyuan gasped sharply upon hearing the name, his entire body shuddering. “What did you say?! The Nether Church?! That heretical cult responsible for the northern border massacre... How dare they infiltrate the very threshold of the Jinghai Magic Capital?! Are they... do they intend to bury the entire freshman class of Shenzhou Academy alive on this island?!”
Xie Zhaoyuan was not mistaken.
Huanglu Island this year gathered the most exceptional seeds of Shenzhou’s rising generation. If all three thousand students were butchered to the last, the magical foundation of the Magic Capital—and indeed the entire nation—would suffer a devastating generational severance that would cripple them for decades!
This was a premeditated death trap of terrifying proportions! Sabotaging the spatial escape array from the inside, inciting the abyssal horrors of the sea with Frenzy Blood Reagent, and transforming the entire island into a gargantuan slaughterhouse!
CRASH——!!
At the base of the rocky ridge, the final stretch of coastal forest was ripped apart entirely.
Thousands of Gluttonous Demon Crabs and Venom-Clawed Sirens leading the vanguard of the tide caught the scent of living flesh on the slope. Thousands of blood-red eyes snapped upward simultaneously, locking onto the granite pinnacle where the students stood. The deafening clatter of crushing steel pincers, the nauseating hiss of slithering scales, and the earth-shattering roars of the Giant Rhinoceros Croc-Monsters coalesced into rolling thunder as the vanguard began surging up the rocky incline!
The suffocating stench of blood washed over them in waves.
Ye Qingwan bit her lip until crimson beaded against the skin. Her trembling wand stubbornly channeled three layered barriers of thorny vines across their front. Tears streamed down Gu Xiaowei’s cheeks as feeble sparks of violet lightning crackled across her fingers. Bai Wei lay slumped against the ground like a puddle of mud, devoid of any will to resist.
The distance between the ravenous vanguard and the base of their outcrop shrank to less than a hundred meters!
In this moment suspended by a single hair, Lin Feng slowly clenched both fists.
His knuckles popped with dry, sharp cracks.
The memories of Bo’an City—the heart-wrenching screams of tens of thousands of innocent souls, the frail, stooped back of his father Lin Hai desperately piloting their battered mana-truck through a sea of monstrous beasts, the crippled legs of his younger sister Lin Xiaomo, and the mocking sneers of those azure-cloaked Blue-Robed Deacons standing atop the ruined parapets—every ounce of agony and sorrow surged through his consciousness like an uncontrollable tsunami.
Back then in Bo’an City, he had merely been an insignificant Primary-tier student, forced to hide in subterranean fissures, watching helplessly as his hometown drowned in a deluge of blood.
Yet today, on this desolate island off the shores of the Magic Capital... he was no longer that powerless youth of the past!
HUMMMM——!!
Pressed against Lin Feng’s chest, the Primordial Dragon Pendant suddenly pulsed with violent tremors! An ancient, boundless heat like an infernal sea of primordial flame detonated within, pouring through his four limbs and all hundred meridians!
Within the boundless expanse of his Sea of Consciousness:
The fiery crimson Fire Nebula—its forty-nine radiant Star Particles roaring in wild synchronization—erupted into towering waves of Dual Scarlet Flame, blazing as though intent on incinerating the very heavens!
The swirling violet-black Lightning Nebula spun like a raging maelstrom. Draconic arcs of Violet-Black Lightning tore through the abyssal night of his spiritual domain, roaring with the fury to pulverize all creation!
Both elemental nebulae detonated in tandem, elevating the mana surging through Lin Feng’s veins to an unprecedented, terrifying zenith!
Billowing sheets of dark crimson fire erupted from Lin Feng’s shoulders, casting a blood-red sheen across the sheer granite cliff. Across the tips of his ten fingers, arcs of violet-black lightning as thick as fingers danced and crackled violently, their crisp detonations tearing through the saturated maritime air!
The berserk, bone-chilling killing intent radiating from the youth’s figure forced Ye Qingwan and Gu Xiaowei behind him to hold their breath in sheer terror. Never had they witnessed such a terrifying Lin Feng—a Lin Feng resembling a wrathful Asura demon lord walking straight out of the depths of purgatory!
AWOOOO——!!
The Abyssal Thunder Wolf threw back its proud, massive head toward the pitch-black heavens, unleashing a thunderous howl that shredded the putrid crimson miasma! A howl laced with the absolute, crushing sovereignty of a true Warrior-class beast sent a shockwave of dread through the climbing Gluttonous Demon Crabs, arresting their frenzied advance for a heartbeat!
Amidst the howling tempest of crashing breakers and the rolling thunder rumbling overhead, Lin Feng slowly raised his head.
His gaze pierced through the sea of thousands of mutated monsters swarming the mountain base, locking directly onto that distant black reef offshore where the four cloaked silhouettes of the Nether Church stood. The corner of his lips curved into a chilling, bone-deep sneer, his voice grinding out each syllable like a descending executioner’s blade:
“Nether Church rats... It’s you bastards again!”