The Land of the Dead Abyss
The instant Lola opened Flower Umbrella.
Gu Qingshan, Oldest, Zhang Yinghao, and Ye Feili grabbed the umbrella's rim in perfect unison.
All five vanished at once.
King spread his arms, facing the huge gray mouth as he shouted, "Come on, come and serve me—"
He didn't get to finish. Something gave him a shove.
He vanished from where he stood, too.
The next second.
Dozens of long tongues plunged down like streaks of shadow.
Boom!
The stone slab floating in midair flared with light, shielding itself.
But the light couldn't withstand the tongues. It was quickly smashed apart.
The slab shattered with it, plunging into the endless darkness below.
The darkness stretched without end, deep and heavy. As the echoes of the shattered slab gradually faded, it swallowed every sound.
Dead silence.
Aside from the rows of open Corpse Pillars, there was nothing around them.
All the corpses hung their heads, motionless.
They were nothing like before, when they had screamed without restraint.
A soft rustling.
The sound of countless things crawling rang out.
One,
then two,
then countless long tongues descended from above, spreading like tentacles as they searched in every direction for traces of the force that had been there.
Hundreds upon hundreds of tongues licked every Corpse Pillar, missing not a single inch.
After searching the pillars, the tongues spread through the dark void like feelers, trying to touch something.
They found nothing.
Only after a long time did the hundreds of tongues retract into the huge gray mouth.
The rustling started again.
The mouth withdrew into the darkness, its faint rustling gradually fading into the distance.
The Forest of Corpse Pillars fell silent once more.
Time passed.
Several figures suddenly appeared on the cliff leading to the Forest of Corpse