A Tier-6 Martial Lord is a walking natural disaster. In the cultivation world, they are the ones who draw the borders on maps. When Admiral Kuang stepped onto the air, the wind stopped blowing. The clouds froze. The very atmospheric pressure around the Twilight Stable multiplied by ten, pressing down on Su Ye's chest like an invisible anvil.
"Kneel," Kuang whispered.
It wasn't a suggestion. It was a command enforced by spiritual pressure.
Behind Su Ye, Lin Fan and Gao Ming collapsed, their knees hitting the obsidian tiles hard. Even Luo Bing, with her royal training, was forced down to one knee, using her sword as a crutch to keep from face-planting.
Only Su Ye remained standing. Not because he was stronger, but because the Ancestral Link System in his head was screaming so loud it drowned out the pressure.
[WARNING: Hostile Intent Detected.]
[Enemy Level: Fatal.]
[Recommended Action: Apologize, Cry, or Activate Heavy Weaponry.]
"I don't kneel," Su Ye gritted out, leaning heavily on his shovel. "I have bad knees. Old zookeeper injury."
Kuang floated closer, his black scale armor glistening. "Defiance. How quaint. You rely on your tricks. Your pig. Your chicken. Your tortoise. But tell me, Warden... what happens when I cut the shell open?
Kuang raised his shadow sword. He didn't swing it fast. He swung it with agonizing slowness, letting the terror build.
SSSSHHH.
A wave of black energy, thin as a piece of paper but miles wide, drifted toward the stable.
"Tortoise! Shell!" Su Ye yelled.
"I'm trying!" the Tortoise Ancestor panicked. "But that energy... it cuts through earth magic! It's Void-infused!"
The Spirit Barrier flickered and died. The shadow wave hit the Star-Iron wall. The indestructible metal, forged with solar fire and phoenix ice, screeched in protest. A clean, glowing slit appeared in the wall. The top half of the guard tower slowly slid off and crashed into the courtyard.
"My renovations!" Su Ye gasped. "That cost me twelve bags of gold!"
"I will dismantle this fortress brick by brick," Kuang said, floating over the broken wall. "And then I will dismantle you."
He landed in the courtyard. The floor spikes tried to trigger, but Kuang simply stomped his foot. A shockwave shattered the mechanism, turning the spikes into twisted scrap.
He walked toward Su Ye. Every step cracked the obsidian floor.
"Plan C," Su Ye whispered.
"What is Plan C?" Luo Bing wheezed, struggling to stand.
"Run to the throat," Su Ye said.
"The throat?"
"The blowhole! Move!"
Su Ye threw a smoke bomb (made from the ashes of the pirate ship sails). POOF.
When the smoke cleared, Su Ye and his disciples were gone. They were sprinting toward the massive tunnel entrance—the blowhole of the Sky-Eater—that led into the mountain's interior.
"Running inside?" Kuang laughed, a cold, metallic sound. "You trap yourself in a tomb. Nowhere to run, rats."
He followed them. He didn't run; he glided, like a wraith, entering the dark tunnel of the mountain.
Inside the mountain, the rhythmic thumping of the Heart was deafening. The blue veins on the walls pulsed rapidly. The beast was awake, and it was agitated.
Su Ye led his team deep into the first cavern—the "Mouth Chamber" where they had first encountered the Stone-Mites. It was a massive, hollow space lined with jagged stalactites and stalagmites that looked suspiciously like teeth.
"Stop here," Su Ye ordered, sliding to a halt on a bridge made of cartilage.
"Master," Gao Ming panted. "We are cornered! This is a dead end!"
"No," Su Ye looked at the jagged rocks above and below. "This isn't a dead end. It's a trap."
Kuang drifted into the chamber. His shadow sword illuminated the damp walls with a sickly purple light.
"End of the line," Kuang echoed. "Did you think the darkness would hide you? I am the darkness."
He raised his sword for the final execution.
Su Ye didn't draw a weapon. He pulled out the rusted iron key—the ignition key of the Sky-Eater.
He jammed it into a small, fleshy slot in the wall of the cavern.
"Admiral," Su Ye said, his voice calm. "Do you know what happens when a fly flies into a mouth?"
Kuang paused. "What?"
Su Ye turned the key.
[Weapon System Activated: Mastication Protocol.]
"The mouth closes."
The entire mountain groaned.
Suddenly, the floor of the cavern lurched upward. The ceiling slammed downward. The stalactites and stalagmites weren't rocks. They were teeth. The entire cavern was a massive, biological jaw mechanism designed to crush meteors and prey.
"What?!" Kuang looked up. The ceiling was falling. "You're collapsing the mountain?!"
"No," Su Ye grabbed his disciples and jumped into a small side-fissure—the gap between the teeth. "We're flossing!"
Kuang tried to fly out, but the gravity in the chamber suddenly spiked to x100. The Sky-Eater's internal gravity well clamped down on the intruder.
Kuang fell from the air, slamming onto the rising tongue-floor.
"NO!" Kuang roared, flaring his Tier-6 aura. He slashed upward, trying to hold the ceiling back with pure energy. "I am a Martial Lord! I cannot be crushed by rock!"
"I AM NOT ROCK," the mountain's voice boomed, vibrating through Kuang's bones. "I. AM. HUNGER."
CRUNCH.
The jaws of the Sky-Eater slammed shut.
The sound was indescribable. It was the sound of a mountain imploding. Dust shot out of the tunnel entrance like a cannon blast.
Su Ye and his team, huddled safely in the "gum-line" crevice, covered their ears.
Silence followed.
Then, a wet, grinding sound.
Gulp.
The floor vibrated as the massive swallowing mechanism engaged.
"Did..." Lin Fan stared at the closed jaw. "Did we just eat him?"
"Not eat," Su Ye corrected, checking the holographic display projecting from his gauntlet. "Imprisoned. The Sky-Eater doesn't digest organic matter quickly. He's currently encased in amber-stasis in the stomach lining. He'll be a nice decoration for the next thousand years."
The jaw slowly opened again.
Where Admiral Kuang had stood, there was nothing. Just a few scraps of black shadow energy dissipating into the air.
And one item.
Lying on the giant tongue of the mountain was a Black Ring. It had fallen off Kuang's finger before he was swallowed.
Su Ye walked over and picked it up.
[Item Identified: Admiral's Spatial Ring.]
[Contents: 50,000 Spirit Stones, 1 Flagship Blueprint, 3 Change of Underwear, and a diary titled "Why Everyone Is Idiot Except Me".]
"Loot," Su Ye grinned, tossing the ring to Lin Fan. "Add it to the treasury."
They walked back out to the surface. The sunlight was blinding after the gloom of the throat.
The remaining Dark Beast airships, seeing their flagship destroyed and their Admiral literally eaten by a mountain, had broken formation. They were fleeing in every direction, terrified of the beast that chewed starships.
"We did it," Luo Bing slumped against the Star-Iron wall. "We survived the fleet."
"We survived round one," Su Ye looked at the horizon. "But look at the dashboard."
He pointed to the holographic display hovering over the helm. A red bar was blinking rapidly.
[ENERGY CRITICAL.]
[Sky-Eater Hunger: 99%.]
[Fuel Reserves: Depleted.]
"The bite took everything," Su Ye said grimly. "Restarting the heart, the ramming speed, the chewing... the beast is running on fumes. If we don't feed it soon, the anti-gravity will fail, and we'll drop out of the sky."
"Feed it?" Gao Ming asked. "Feed it what? It eats mountains!"
"It eats Qi," Su Ye corrected. "Massive amounts of high-density Qi."
He scanned the map.
"There."
He pointed to a swirling mass of white clouds in the distance. It wasn't just a cloud formation. It was a Sky-Reef. Huge, floating islands of coral drifting in the stratosphere, teeming with life.
And swimming through the reef were massive shapes. Whales. But they were translucent, glowing with blue light, trailing fins of lightning.
[Target Identified: Cloud-Sea Leviathans (Tier-4).]
[Edible? Yes.]
[Danger? High.]
"We're going fishing," Su Ye announced.
"Fishing?" Lin Fan looked at the gargantuan whales on the horizon. "Master, we don't have a rod."
Su Ye looked at the God-Killer Harpoon chains still stuck in the side of the Sky-Eater—the ones the pirates had used to try and tow them.
"We have chains," Su Ye smiled. "And we have a chicken."
He looked at Little Sun
.
"How do you feel about being live bait?"
Moooo? (Do I get a percentage?)
Su Ye turned the wheel. The massive, starving mountain slowly turned toward the Sky-Reef.
"Course set," Su Ye said. "Operation: Big Catch is a go. Let's get some lunch before we fall out of the sky."
As the Twilight Stable drifted toward the feeding grounds, Su Ye felt a vibration in his pocket. It wasn't the System. It wasn't a beast.
It was the Black Ring he had looted from Kuang.
It was glowing. And a voice—a projection—spoke from it.
"Kuang? Did you capture the mountain?"
It was a voice that sounded like grinding glass.
Su Ye picked up the ring. "Sorry, Kuang is currently being digested. Who is this?"
There was a pause on the other end.
"I am Patriarch Wraith," the voice hissed. "The Master of the Dark Beast Sect. You have taken my fleet. You have taken my Admiral. And now you hold my ring."
"I'm keeping the ring," Su Ye said. "It fits my pinky."
"Enjoy it," the Patriarch whispered. "Because you are flying into the Dead Zone. The Sky-Reef is not just a feeding ground. It is the hunting ground of the Storm Dragon. Enjoy your fishing trip, Warden. You are the bait."
Su Ye looked at the ring. He looked at the peaceful, glowing whales in the distance.
"Storm Dragon?" Su Ye muttered.
He looked at the Cockroach (Little Dragon) peeking out of his pocket.
"Hey, Little Dragon. Do you want to meet a relative?
"
The cockroach wiggled its antennae. Huzzah! A challenger!
"That's the spirit," Su Ye sighed. "Out of the frying pan, into the dragon's mouth. Just another Tuesday."