Thunder rumbled.
Beyond the gloomy clouds, lightning raced across the sky.
Though it was broad daylight, the sea lay beneath a blanket of gloom, without a trace of sunlight. Only a deathly still, spine-chilling expanse of water remained.
Invisible radio waves echoed across the Pacific Ocean, carrying warnings from afar.
"...Red rainstorm alert. More than 200 millimeters of rainfall is expected within the next six hours, accompanied by lightning and storms. Waves may reach Force 9... Relevant vessels, please prepare to take shelter..."
Howling gales swept past a swaying weather observation vessel, bringing earth-shaking roars. Within minutes, a muffled boom enveloped the entire Pacific Ocean. After the thunder came a torrential downpour.
Heavy rain fell like curtains, obscuring everything.
Never before had such a shocking celestial phenomenon engulfed more than half the Pacific Ocean—one-sixth of the Present Realm. The winds and turbulent currents it spawned spread across one-third of the world, while an immense volume of rain descended like a heavy blanket over the Present Realm.
Having received the warning and prepared for disaster, people had already returned home, sitting before warm hearths as they waited for the wind and rain, enjoying a long-awaited holiday.
Peaceful and leisurely.
No one thought of peering outside in such dreadful weather, much less setting up telescopes to observe the stars.
At this very moment, the entire Present Realm, under the cognitive manipulation of the silencers, overlooked the changes about to occur.
Yet if one passed through the storm and sailed inward, one would see that the tranquil sea held no rainstorm or gale at all, as quiet as ever.
Only a vast roar echoed.
So piercing.
From above the Sky Dome!
The invisible celestial rails had been laid. Massive pillars extended outward toward the blazing sun... Under the pull of the lunar axis,