Chen Wuya stood at the edge of the trench, the red mark in his palm still burning hot. The bronze gate lay sunken at the bottom of the abyss, its patterns flickering on and off like some kind of breath. Wind blew up through the fissures, carrying the briny stench of the sea and a faint tang of rust.
He did not move.
The rock beneath his feet suddenly jolted.
Then came a second tremor, then a third. A deep rumble began to rise from the ground, as though something in the depths of the seabed were being forcibly torn apart. The seawater churned, and huge bubbles swelled across the once-calm surface before bursting one after another.
A system notification popped up:
[Large-scale lifeform movement patterns detected. Energy level approaching a grandmaster-class swarm!]
Chen Wuya abruptly raised his head. The distant sea split apart, and a killer whale burst from the water, its body as tall as a three-story building, bloodlight glowing in its eyes. It did not fall back into the sea, but crashed sideways into the shoreline reefs with a boom, sending shattered stones flying.
A second, a third... dozens of sea beasts broke through the waves from every direction. The dorsal fins of giant sharks sliced through the water, while an octopus wrapped its tentacles around an enormous boulder and hurled it straight toward the island's interior. Their movements were too orderly for wild beasts—more like puppets being pulled by invisible strings.
A black figure slowly rose and came to a halt on the sea five hundred paces from shore.
It was a man draped in a blood-red robe, standing atop a small boat pieced together from white bones. He held a crooked bone staff, its tip set with a dark crimson bead. The bead