The faint light from the crystal clusters began to flash in a regular rhythm. The crystals spread across the seabed resonated as if they were an orchestra beginning a concerto. It was a voiceless resonance; beneath the deep sea, there was not the slightest sound. Only the lights moving across the crystals reflected against one another in some marvelous rhythm, as though playing a silent melody. Soon, the diamond-shaped crystal fragments floating among the clusters joined the flashing as well. Arcs of light sprang from one crystal, then leaped through the diamond-shaped fragments to two other crystals. Countless such leaps split from one into two, then two into four, spreading across the entire seabed in the blink of an eye. In the depths of the Sea of Red Moons, light surged like a tide!
The Data Terminal immediately began shouting through its mental connection with Hao Ren when it saw this scene. "Partner! Why did these crystals suddenly start flashing? What did you do? Partner... Partner?"
Hao Ren did not respond to the Data Terminal's cries at all. He continued standing there without moving, his palm pressed against the crystal. In fact, the instant the heat reached his palm, he had briefly lost all perception of the real world.
Because he had been pulled into an illusion—an entirely new illusion.
Heavy clouds hung low on the horizon. The sky was shrouded in chaotic clouds, its entire expanse carrying an iron-gray hue. Countless enormous bolts of lightning leaped through the clouds, illuminating the cloud-covered world as brightly as day. Every so often, one or two bolts tore free of the clouds, lashing the ground like golden pythons falling from the sky and erupting in deafening explosions. Across the dark, heavy earth stood countless blue-white crystals hundreds of meters tall. The crystals