Then, just as these four had resigned themselves to death and were preparing to burn their last drop of True Essence...
A sudden change has occurred!
The overwhelming, surging army of monsters froze instantly at the same moment.
It felt as if an invisible hand had simultaneously gripped my throat.
The next second--
"Thump."
"Thump."
"Thump."
"Thump thump thump--"
One monster after another, as if all their bones had been removed, plummeted straight down from mid-air, from the sea, and from the edge of the dam!
They weren't dead, they were just asleep.
The scene was so spectacular it was almost eerie.
Like a black rain falling from the sky, countless beast bodies plummeted from the air, crashing into the sea and splashing up countless droplets, striking the dam with a dull thud, and splattering muddy sludge into the already dark red pools of blood.
In just a few breaths, the monster army that had surged in like a tide was reduced to a pile of "sleeping corpses" lying haphazardly on the ground.
However, this is far from over.
"This... this is..."
Wang Anguo's pupils contracted sharply, and he instinctively wanted to say something.
But as soon as the words left his mouth, an irresistible drowsiness surged into his heart like a tide.
The drowsiness came without warning, yet it was extremely forceful.
It wasn't fatigue, nor weakness, but rather as if an invisible hand had gently closed his eyelids.
"Thump."
"Thump."
"Thump."
The four figures collapsed to the ground almost simultaneously, falling into a deep sleep.
It's not just them.
At this moment, the entire East Sea City...
Battlefields by the sea, city streets, office buildings in high-rises, bedrooms in residential buildings, corners of underground shelters... millions of citizens, regardless of age or gender, and whatever they were doing at that moment, were all fast asleep.
Some lay beside pools of blood, some leaned against walls, some slumped over steering wheels, and some huddled in corners with their children in their arms.
The entire city fell into a deathly silence in an instant.
Only the bloodstains, the ruined streets, the collapsed streetlights, and the broken cables still hissing and smoldering silently testified to the brutal battle between humans and beasts that had just taken place.
This scene was so eerie it sent chills down my spine.
In the midst of this deathly silence, a tall, slender figure quietly appeared on the seawall.
Chen Yan.
He stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze sweeping over the monsters lying haphazardly, then over the grandmasters lying beside the pool of blood, and nodded slightly.
All of this was his doing.
[ Nightmare Return to Void ]. Based on one's own sea of consciousness, it can hypnotize beings with lower strength than itself on a large scale, pulling their consciousness into a dream prison.
Its scope is so vast that it covers the entire East Sea City.
Although those monsters were ferocious, they were ultimately just low-level cannon fodder; they didn't even have the right to struggle in front of him.
However—this is only the beginning.
Chen Yan closed his eyes slightly, and in the next instant, his consciousness left his body and entered the [ Dream Void ] that he had personally constructed.
"Buzz--!"
The scene before my eyes suddenly changed.
The world was shrouded in a gray haze, devoid of sun, moon, stars, mountains, and rivers; there was only a vast, boundless cage that seemed to be composed of pure Void.
And at this moment, inside this cage—
Abundant! Covering the sky and blotting out the sun!
Chen Yan was almost instantly engulfed by the endless sea of beasts!
As far as the eye could see, there were only writhing beast bodies, gleaming claws, and scarlet beast eyes, densely packed and layered, stretching from the feet to the edge of the field of vision.
The air was filled with deafening roars, howls, and the screeching sound of claws scraping the ground, all blending into a chilling cacophony.
The air became thick and foul-smelling, a stench emanating from countless monstrous beasts huddled together, breathing, drooling, and tearing at each other.
These monsters initially stagnated briefly because they had lost their external targets.
At this moment, as Chen Yan's consciousness descended, they seemed to smell the scent of their prey and became restless once again!
Countless pairs of scarlet eyes locked onto the suddenly appearing figure at the same instant!
"Roar--!!!"
It's unclear which monster roared first, but the entire sea of beasts erupted in chaos!
"Snort."
Chen Yan snorted coldly.
"You think you can stop me with just some mere Black Tide Creature and cannon fodder?"
His voice wasn't loud, but it resounded like thunder throughout the entire Dream Void.
Faced with this terrifying beast tide, enough to engulf an army and enough to make any grandmaster's scalp tingle, his eyes remained cold and indifferent, without the slightest ripple.
Although there were many of these low-level demonic beasts, they were nothing but chickens and dogs in front of him, a Martial Dao Grandmaster, and they didn't even have the chance to consume his True Essence!
"Boom--!!!"
No need to throw a punch, or even any movement at all.
An overwhelming spiritual force, mixed with blazing Fire Authority powerful enough to burn the soul, erupted from him like a materialized tsunami!
"Buzz--!"
An invisible mental shockwave swept out in a ring, like the sharpest sickle slicing through a ripe wheat field!
"Pfft!" "Pfft!" "Pfft!" "Pfft--!"
Centered on Chen Yan, all the demonic beasts within a radius of tens of meters seemed to have been paused simultaneously... Their scarlet beastly eyes instantly lost their luster, and their ferocious bodies suddenly stiffened!
The next second, their heads exploded like overripe watermelons!
Red blood, white brain matter, and fragments of bone shards splattered everywhere, creating a brief but shocking vacuum of flesh and blood!
Bloodshed and carnage!
However, this is just the beginning.
The number of beasts was simply too enormous.
One after another, fearless and relentless, those who fell were immediately replaced by others who stepped over the corpses of their kind and surged forward, instantly filling the brief gap once more!
Chen Yan's eyes sharpened, but he remained standing still, unmoved.
He simply raised his fists.
Casually, he swung it out.
"Boom--!"
Wherever the fist's energy reached, the beast horde in front was as if struck head-on by an invisible giant hammer, instantly exploding into a cloud of blood mist!
Limbs and severed arms flew everywhere, and the crisp sound of bones shattering echoed throughout the air!
Whether it's a hard shell or a sturdy bone, they are as fragile as paper in the face of Chen Yan's fist energy!
One punch.
Another punch.
Another punch.
Chen Yan stood there, his fists flashing like mountains, each strike clearing out an area.
The corpses of the monsters beneath his feet piled up at a visible speed, and streams of blood flowed around his feet.
The corpses piled up higher and higher, thicker and thicker, gradually forming a bloody mountain that kept rising.
As the last monster in the Dream Void collapsed with a deafening roar, the overwhelming army of monsters on the coastline of the real world also lost all life.
For every head that falls in the Dream Void, another head dies in reality.
Chen Yan's consciousness withdrew from the Dream Void and returned to his physical body.
He opened his eyes, and what greeted him was a scene of true purgatory.
Blood flowed like a river.
The seawater had been dyed a thick, dark red, and layers upon layers of animal carcasses floated near the shore, piling up into dikes forged from blood and flesh.
The streets along the shore were littered with corpses. The monsters that had fallen after being hypnotized were now completely dead, their black bodies mixed with human blood, covering the entire coastline.
Severed arms, mangled limbs, shattered scales, torn internal organs...
The strong stench of blood mingled with the salty smell of the sea breeze, creating a nauseating stench that permeated the entire city.
It was a scene straight out of a living hell.
This disaster came too suddenly and too violently.
Despite Chen Yan's timely intervention and the desperate resistance of several grandmasters, far too many people still perished in this pool of blood.
Those civilians who couldn't evacuate in time, those passersby who were pounced on by the monster, those police officers fighting on the front lines...
Chen Yan's gaze swept over the horrific battlefield, without much pity or extra emotion.
He just watched quietly.
Then, he looked up.
His gaze pierced through the blood mist and the swirling fog, landing directly on the dark Rift that still hung in mid-air.
There, an immense and terrifying Tribulation Power was continuously emanating from the deep darkness.
Despite the long battle, for Chen Yan, who possessed [ Time Stroll ], it all happened in the blink of an eye.
From hypnotizing the entire city to slaughtering in the Dream Void, and then returning to reality, it was all just a breath away.
At this moment, the Rift continues to expand.
The void at the edge continued to crumble, and spiderweb-like cracks were spreading outwards at a visible speed. The deep darkness was like a hungry Beast, opening its jaws, trying to devour the entire sky.
Chen Yan did not hesitate.
He took a deep breath, and his blood and energy suddenly surged!
"Boom--!"
He stomped his foot hard, the concrete pavement beneath his feet shattered, and he shot into the sky like a golden lightning bolt!
At the same time, his right fist had already gathered its strength to the maximum, and golden light exploded from the tip of his fist, like a second sun that suddenly rose!
Golden Flash Instant Burst!
A punch was thrown!
The heavens and earth trembled!
The golden fist energy tore through the sky, carrying a terrifying power capable of shaking mountains, and slammed straight into the depths of that dark Rift!
At the same time, Chen Yan's body underwent an astonishing change.
A layer of golden bone-like shell, as if alive, rapidly spread from beneath his skin, instantly covering his entire body!
The bone shell was crystal clear, yet indestructible, gleaming with a faint golden luster, as if it had draped him in a divine armor!
That's not all!
"Boom--!"
The sea surface suddenly exploded!
A towering, hundred-foot-tall phantom of a giant breaks through the surging waves and slowly rises from the seabed!
The illusory figure was blurry, yet it exuded supreme majesty that suppressed all things— the Indestructible Golden Body Dharma Image!
It rose into the air, and together with Chen Yan's main body, it radiated a dazzling golden light!
The light was so intense and so vast that it seemed to illuminate the dim world completely!
Chen Yan's punch, carrying the combined power of his physical body and his Dharma form, slammed into the depths of the Rift!
"Bang--!!!"
A deafening roar, so muffled it seemed as if the heavens and earth were mourning, exploded from the depths of the Rift!
The next instant, inside the Rift.
Countless Black Tide Creature that were spying and surging forth were struck by the residual force of this punch!
The moment their bodies came into contact with the golden fist energy, they shattered instantly, like snowflakes thrown into a furnace!
Before they could even scream, they turned into wisps of black smoke and vanished into the boundless darkness!
The force of that single punch emptied the Rift completely!
Chen Yan slowly withdrew his fist and stood in mid-air.
Within his body, his Indestructible Internal Breath and Divine Might had been greatly depleted in the previous attack, but in the blink of an eye, they were restored to their original state like a tide—this is the domineering nature of the Indestructible Body; as long as it is not a fatal blow, he can return to his peak in the shortest possible time.
However, his gaze did not relax.
On the system panel in front of me, a dense barrage of notifications was flooding the screen like a waterfall!
The Tribulation Power was astonishing!
Chen Yan had never seen such a massive amount of Tribulation Power surge in at the same time!
"No wonder... no wonder the Heavenly Mystery Book said that facing the Black Tide directly could accelerate my breakthrough."
He roughly estimated that if he absorbed and refined all this Tribulation Power, he would have at least half of the Tribulation Power needed to break through to the fifth Decay Tribulation of the Heavenly Human!
But there was no joy on his face.
"Among these Tribulation Power, many are likely descendants of deceased citizens of East Sea City..."
"Damn the Black Tide!"
He focused his gaze once more on the deep, dark Rift in the distance.
The Rift still hung in mid-air, still slowly expanding, still spewing out that eerie and oppressive mist.
He recalled the Beast that had torn through the void and extended its scales and claws.
What kind of existence is that?
Chen Yan's mood was very solemn.
This Black Tide disaster...
This is probably not a coincidence.
Rather, something far more terrifying was stirring on the other side of that Rift.
but...
A slow, gentle smile curved Chen Yan's lips.
There was not a trace of fear in that smile; instead, it revealed a long-lost excitement.
"I'd like to see how many more cannon fodder you can command!"
He let out a low shout, and golden flames surged around him!
"Open--!"
boom!!!
Before he finished speaking, Chen Yan transformed into an incomparably blazing crimson streak of light, like a meteor falling from the sky, and crashed into the deep Rift!
In an instant, the world turned upside down.
The moment Chen Yan passed through the Rift, he realized that this was not the void passage he had imagined, nor was there any space for passage.
Yes, there was only an endless expanse of hard rock.
Pitch black, cold, and airtight, as if the foundation of the entire continent rested on this place.
And those endless streams of Black Tide Creature actually emerged from... these rock strata?
Chen Yan frowned slightly, unable to see through the true nature of these monsters for a moment.
But the life pulse emanating from the deepest depths, like the heartbeat of an ancient Beast, was incredibly clear.
He stopped thinking about it.
The crimson stream of light continued downwards!
Wherever it passed, the hard rock layers were pierced instantly, like a hot knife cutting into butter!
The remains of those demonic beasts lurking in the cracks of the rock strata, the metal artifacts mixed in, and even some unknown and strange mineral veins were all reduced to dust before his incomparably blazing fist energy!
Rumble--!
A straight, downward-pointing passage, its edges still scorching, rapidly took shape behind him.
The deeper you go underground, the clearer the pulse of life becomes.
Thump... thump... thump...
Like the heartbeat of Beast, or the operation of some ancient machine, each vibration traveled through layers of rock walls, striking Chen Yan's body and even directly impacting his soul!
The air was thick with the pungent smell of sulfur, mixed with the stench of rotting flesh and blood, making one want to vomit.
Even more terrifying, a subtle yet powerful mental pressure is quietly seeping in from all directions!
The oppressive aura was invisible and formless, yet it was like countless fine needles, attempting to pierce his consciousness, disturb his mind, and corrode his will!
If it were an ordinary Heavenly Human expert, they would probably have already lost their composure and gone mad by now.
However--
A golden flame flashed in Chen Yan's eyes!
"Snort!"
He snorted coldly, and his mental energy, like a long-awaited hammer, rebounded with a deafening roar!
"Buzz--!"
An invisible shockwave spread out from him!
Those sinister Divine Might that attempted to infiltrate shattered instantly under this heavy blow, like fragile glass!
It's not just about defense.
Chen Yan's Divine Might, like a divine sword drawn from its sheath, followed the path of that oppressive aura and slashed back fiercely!