At the summit of Stone Ridge Mountain.
The wind had stopped.
The chaotic gales that had howled year-round, the moment they touched the edge of Stone Ridge Mountain, seemed to slam into an invisible wall of pig iron and slide along the ridge toward both sides.
Chu Qing stood barefoot on a protruding rock at the highest point. His toes dug tightly into the cracks of stone that had completely crystallized. That heavy, rhythmic tremor coming from the depths of the Earth Vein bored all the way through the soles of his feet and into his spine.
He was breathing.
With every rise and fall of his chest, the whole of Stone Ridge Mountain let out a dull bout of "humming."
"Open."
Chu Qing murmured, a short rasp spilling from his throat.
The five fingers of his right hand suddenly clenched, and he pressed down hard at the void beneath his feet.
Boom—!
Stone Ridge Mountain gave a violent shudder, and then that vibration rapidly spread outward. The Mountain Body, which had originally been drifting slowly through the Chaos Sea, came to a complete halt in that second. Not only did it stop, the array runes at the base of the Mountain Body instantly shifted from pale purple to pitch-black, transforming into a gigantic vortex tens of thousands of li across.
At that moment, the attractive force erupted.
In the distance, a battered World Ship that was trying to avoid Stone Ridge Mountain did not even get the chance to turn before it was forcibly dragged over by that unreasonable pulling force.
Crack—crack—
The keel of the World Ship, forged from divine gold, was as brittle as a dried biscuit the instant it struck Stone Ridge Mountain's barrier. The screams in the cabins had only just begun before they were