The Rift Between Planes

Abidaqi immediately tried to leave, but while Su Ming blocked the exit, he also blocked the entrance.

His escape route was also cut off!

Su Ming clearly wouldn't stop there; he rapidly permeated the entire passage with his power and then twisted it forcefully.

The magical structure maintaining the passage broke one after another, and the shattered spatial ripples began to collapse inward, threatening to crush Abidaji, who was trapped inside.

Abidaqi felt like he was playing a game of chess, charging the enemy's front line with his commander, only to run into a landmine.

Don't you even know the rules?!

Seeing the constipated look on the old elf mage's face after seeing him, Su Ming sighed inwardly: I didn't want to be here either.

However, he didn't show it on his face; he simply waved to Abidal.

Bye-bye!

Su Ming's power solidified, and the remaining spatial passage suddenly tightened and exploded in distortion.

The spatial rift dissipated, the local interference between the planes ended, and the underwater environment returned to calm.

"Did you kill Abidal?" Zijin asked nervously.

Su Ming shook his head.

[That old guy slipped through the gap.]

He intended to strangle the other person.

However, before the spatial passage could completely collapse, dozens of silver runes suddenly lit up around Abidal, forcibly creating a brief gap and squeezing out from the edge of disintegration.

One can only say that he truly deserves to be called a great mage of a thousand years; his foundation is incredibly profound.

[I had no choice but to settle for second best, giving Abidal a hard push, causing him to sink even deeper into the spatial flow.]

Su Ming told Zijin.

[He's probably trapped right now and won't be back for a while.]

"That's pretty good too," said Zijin. "You guys hurry up and get out of here, I'll come get you!"

[Um!]

****

Taiya Frontline Base, Sanjian Island.

Currently, the allied forces have assembled Saint Rank combat power, including Zijin and Executioner.

Purple Leather, accompanied by the Executioner, Rishuri, Powers, and five other master-level combatants from the allied forces, rode several dragons and began to approach the coast.

Night fell over the sea, and the giant dragon flew at high speed, emitting a series of roars.

Before long, the enormous silhouette of the Pansy appeared below.

All the lights on the steel-framed hull were turned on, casting a shimmering white glow on the surrounding seawater.

More dragons were perched on the deck, with barrels of fuel and bombs secured to their backs. Thick straps crisscrossed, wrapping each dragon like a shelf.

"Takeoff clearance!" the commander announced.

The dragon begins its run-up.

A stream of azure currents spread along the deck, supporting the wings of the heavy dragon. The lead dragon leaped into the night sky against the sea breeze, followed closely by the others, which rose in formation like geese.

"Aerial refueling team, takeoff complete," the observer reported.

After the small team flew for a distance, a triangular arrangement of red, green, and white lights appeared in the night sky ahead, and the roar of engines could be heard from afar.

It was a Y-20 transport aircraft that had completed its bombing mission at Yunya City and was returning from Yunya City.

"Turn left!" ordered the observer leading the Dragon Squad.

The dragons, following their sequence, turned left at intervals of a few seconds, maintaining a neat single file.

The Y-20 also received the order.

"QNH (corrected sea level pressure) 1020, descend to 500 meters, decelerate."

The co-pilot set the target altitude to 500 meters, and the captain reduced the throttle to idle.

"Release the speed brakes."

"Passing through an altitude of two thousand meters, at a speed of three hundred knots," the co-pilot reported.

This speed is still too fast.

"Lower the landing gear, extend the flaps, and check," the captain ordered.

The Y-20's massive landing gear unfolded against the airflow, causing the fuselage to vibrate. The flaps gradually lowered, the wing's lift structure fully deployed, and the transport aircraft began to decelerate over the sea in a near-landing posture.

"Passing through 800 meters, the speed is 180 knots."

"Flap 25."

After continuously decelerating and descending, the Y-20 leveled off and turned.

Its round body drew an arc in the night sky, adjusting to the same flight path as the dragon squadron.

The Y-20's speed was brought close to stall, reaching around 100 knots.

"Retract landing gear, maintain altitude, and maintain minimum controllable speed."

Inside the cockpit, the stall alarm sounded repeatedly. The control stick vibrated slightly, and the aircraft began to become sluggish in the low-speed airflow.

As the planes overtook the dragon formation, the dragons flapped their wings. Blue light spread along the wing membranes, ionizing the surrounding air into large, hazy halos that left aurora-like contrails.

Ionized fluid propulsion!

As the dragon accelerated, the distance that had initially widened began to shrink.

"Supply operations commence!"

The tail hatch of the Y-20 opens.

A violent gust of air immediately rushed into the cargo hold, and the crew started the winch against the wind.

The steel cable slid out of the stern compartment, swinging violently in the airflow. The hook at the end, trailing a strip of guidance flag, whistled through the air.

A giant dragon approached.

The observer on the dragon's back reached out and grabbed the oncoming guide flag, hooking the hook into the hanging ring in the center of the shelf.

The observer then loosened the bindings on the dragon.

The heavy fuel tank lurched downwards from behind the dragon, instantly tautning the steel cable. The winch roared, slowly pulling the swaying cargo toward the stern.

The completed dragon quickly rolled over to slow down and make way. The remaining dragons approached in order and attached supplies to the Y-20.

The twelve giant dragons completed the handover in turn, and Zi Ge and his group also entered the plane through the tail compartment.

The hatch then closed, and the tremendous wind noise immediately subsided.

"Resupply operation complete!" the crew announced.

The cargo hold crew opened the crates. The majority contained aviation kerosene, with a smaller portion consisting of bombs and combat supplies.

The fuel tank was pushed into its fixed position, and the fuel hose was connected. Kerosene was then injected into the Y-20's wing fuel tanks through the pipeline inside the compartment.

The continuously decreasing fuel level on the aircraft finally stopped and then slowly began to rise.

Zijin entered the cockpit.

"Turn to Cloudfang City!" she ordered.

"Learn!"

The Y-20 increased its throttle again, and the roar of its four engines intensified. The stall warning disappeared, the transport plane pitched up, returned to high altitude, and turned towards Water Chestnut Island.

****

Kum Underground Caves.

Su Ming and his group traversed the winding path and returned to the lava pipe waterway where they had started.

The equipment in the air chamber was destroyed on the spot, and Su Ming only collected the hard-to-obtain elemental materials.

Afterwards, everyone left along the lava pipe that had stretched for 7.8 kilometers.

This time, the unmanned underwater vehicle maintained maximum thrust as much as possible, towing the four people through the pipe at high speed, and arrived at the cave entrance in just over thirty minutes.

After continuous diving and fighting, everyone's movements upon emerging from the water were somewhat stiff.

A hand reached down from above, and Vioas pulled everyone out of the water to help unload the equipment.

"Don't delay, let's go," Su Ming said decisively.

Vioas dismantled all the equipment at the entrance. A few items that needed to be taken were packed up, while the rest were completely destroyed.

As usual, Su Ming recovered important elements from the wreckage.

The carriage had already been brought to the road ahead of time, and the four of them, without having time to change their clothes, immediately left the cave with their bags on their backs.

As they were walking, Simina suddenly tripped and fell to the ground.

Yise reacted quickly and caught her.

"What's wrong with you?"

Su Ming turned around and saw that Simina was clutching her chest, her lips were almost bloodless, and her breathing was more rapid than usual.

"Get in the car first," he said.

Vioias immediately picked her up. The four of them boarded the carriage, and Vioias flicked the reins, quickly setting off.

Pulled by horses, the wheels rolled over the uneven mountain road, and the carriage swayed constantly.

Yise laid Simina flat on the chair and began to check on her condition.

Su Ming then contacted various parties.

"The Y-20 is already en route," Zijin said. "We'll fly directly to Yunya City first, then turn outwards to the rendezvous point."

The two agreed to meet at a location 15 kilometers south of Yunya City.

Su Ming switched channels.

"Wolf Wildflower, what's the situation in Cloud Fang City?"

"The enemy is making large-scale mobilizations; martial law has been declared at the Blackstone Mine," Wolf Lady replied.

"The main members of the Bell of Calamity haven't left the city; they're all holed up in the palace like hens, I wonder what they're busy with."

Su Ming breathed a sigh of relief.

The fact that the Bell of Calamity's key personnel haven't left the city means that Abidal, who has been exiled to the spatial turbulence, hasn't been able to inform them of the situation yet.

Those guys who stayed in the main plane haven't figured out what's going on yet.

Su Ming finally had time to unbutton his wetsuit to get some fresh air. He took several deep breaths of the cold night air and felt the tightness in his chest ease slightly.

"What's wrong with Simina?" he asked Yise.

Yise picked up a packet of syrup and a few biscuits and handed them to Simina.

With her help, the latter got up and sat against the side of the carriage. He was weak, but his complexion was better than before.

"It's low blood sugar," Yise replied.

"That's alright then."

Although Simina was the most well-trained in the water, she was still recovering from a serious illness.

The continuous work over the past few days has depleted the little physical strength she had managed to build up.

"We rushed through the last fifty meters of decompression," Simina said. "That also has something to do with it."

She tore open the sugar water bag, took small sips, her fingers still trembling slightly.

"Take a break while you can, we have to catch our flight soon," Su Ming said.

Simina nodded slowly.

****

Yunya City.

The members of the Bell of Calamity, whom Wolf Wildf described as a mother hen, were almost all concentrated in an underground area of the royal palace.

This is a relatively independent mine pit, not as deep as the underground palace where the "Fire and Fire Array" is located, but it still covers an area of nearly 10,000 square meters.

"The Dimensional Gate" is the location in Eden's invasion plan where the army is summoned.

The reason it was placed underground was not to imitate the Fire-Burning Array, but simply because the powerful air attack capabilities demonstrated by the Bone-Beast Mad Machine in past wars made the Calamity Bell dare not place such a huge target on the ground.

At the same time, Cloud Fang City is the most defensively strong place on Water Chestnut Island.

Despite the barriers at the bottom, the Bell of Calamity still felt uneasy.

The walls of the mine pit had been reinforced with alchemy, and massive load-bearing pillars supported the dome from the ground. Countless dark gold array patterns spread outwards from the central area.

Due to a major leak in the adjacent "Spark Formation," members of the Calamity Bell were busy working around it.

"Lord Mourning Bell, all the passages connecting to the Firestone Array mine have been blocked!"

Someone reported to the leader, panting heavily.

"The water won't flood over again."

"Not bad!" Sorrowful Bell nodded.

If this area is also flooded, the amount of repair work will double.

"Have you seen Lord Abidal?" Sorrow asked.

The subordinate shook his head.

The funeral bell tried to contact them using wind magic, but to no avail.

Abidal has been gone for so long, and he still hasn't come out.

Logically speaking, no matter how powerful Teya's enemies are, they could not possibly be a match for this Heavenly Mage.

The value of the first sequence of the clock hand is genuine; even she, an Arcane Dancer whose domain is specifically designed to counter spellcasters, is helpless against Abidal.

Using time stop right from the start, that's so unfair!

****

Sangling frowned, her fingers unconsciously resting on the hilt of her knife.

Abidaci might be held back for a while, but he shouldn't have disappeared for so long.

Suddenly, a panel in the "Dimensional Gap" lit up, and a bell-ringing priest rushed forward to check the situation.

As if sensing something, Sangling raised his hand to signal everyone present to stop what they were doing.

The noisy mine quickly fell silent.

Soon, the bell-ringing priest identified the source of the signal, and his expression changed drastically.

"Lord Suzumiya, it's a signal from Lord Abidaji from the void!"

Sang Ling was shocked and rushed forward.

"Lord Abidaqi requests the activation of the 'Dimensional Gate' to pull him back to Teya," the bell-ringing priest hurriedly reported.

This is actually a plea for help.

Su Ming's kick before parting sent Abidaqi flying to a distance from which he could not return by his own strength.

To make matters worse, he ran into a bunch of turbulent waters and got thrown around in a terrible mess.

"Activate the magic array immediately!" Sangling said decisively.

As a super-large spatial gate prepared for the arrival of a large army, even the most basic activation of "Dimensional Gate" requires a minimum of ten tons of rock cores.

But now is not the time to worry about that.

Abidaqi must be saved, and they must also find out as soon as possible what exactly happened in the underground palace of the "Torchfire Array".

Soon, a dozen priests formed a circle, activating the "Dimensional Gate" to a minimum.

Boxes of rock cores were thrown into the array's core. The hard ore quickly dissolved in the Magic Power, turning into a viscous, dark golden stream of light that flowed outwards along the array's patterns.

The beam of light swept across the massive magic circle, but ultimately only a small portion of the central area remained highlighted.

A small portal appeared in the center of the magic circle. Inside, there was no scene, only a distorted and churning grayness. Silver arcs of electricity crackled from the edges, tearing the surrounding air with a piercing shriek.

A few seconds later, Abidaji emerged from it.

He knelt on one knee, one hand supporting his staff, the other pressed tightly against his chest, his pupils filled with chaotic, colorful light spots, and large patches of his robe were dull.

Abidaji's mouth was wide open.

This two-thousand-year-old elven archmage was now like a drowning person just pulled from the water, each breath he took filled with an almost violent greed, his chest heaving violently.

Oxygen can be drawn from water, but not from space rifts.

A few more minutes into the night, and Abidal will suffocate to death!

"Bone King ----"

He gritted his teeth and cursed.

Abidaji took more than a dozen breaths before he could muster enough energy to utter a complete sentence.

"That bastard Bone King has come to Water Chestnut Island!"

"Immediately conduct a full search!"

The expressions of everyone at the Bell of Calamity changed drastically.

"Yes!"