Chapter 343: The Calamity of Tianjing City
At the same time, in Tianjing City of the Central Province, ten thousand miles away from the Immortal Spirit Valley.
Although this once-glorious imperial city is no longer the center of the Xuanying Continent, the foundation left by the Great Zhou Dynasty still maintains its prosperous appearance.
As night fell, the lights of ten thousand homes in the city were gradually extinguished. Only the torches in the hands of the night patrol guards moved through the streets and alleys.
"Clack, clack, clack..."
The sound of iron boots stepping on the bluestone slabs was exceptionally clear on the silent street. This patrol squad composed of twelve people was currently conducting a routine inspection along Zhuque Avenue.
Suddenly, a yin cold strange wind swept through the alleyway without any warning.
The squad leader at the front shivered violently. The flame of the torch in his hand stretched eerily, and the firelight actually turned into a strange ghostly green!
"This..."
The captain discovered in terror that under the illumination of the firelight, the shadows of his companions were all twisted and deformed. Some had necks stretched extremely long, and some had arms turned into the shape of sharp claws.
"Boss, why is it so cold tonight?"
A young guard complained while rubbing his arms. He lowered his head to look and was immediately scared out of his wits—fine, dense ice crystals had actually formed on his own palms!
Everyone subconsciously looked up, and an even more terrifying scene appeared. In the pitch-black night sky, pale purple snowflakes were actually drifting down!
As these snowflakes landed on the skin, a piercing pain immediately spread.
...
At the same time, in the most luxurious Zuixian Tower in the west of the city, a few young masters from wealthy families were gambling heavily in a private room on the third floor.
Gold ingots were piled on the table, and a brocade-clad youth was about to lift the dice cup.
"Big! It must be big!"
He shouted excitedly. Just at that moment, the wine cups on the table suddenly shook violently, and the wine rippled with circles of strange waves.
The glazed palace lantern hanging from the ceiling swung crazily and suddenly exploded with a "pop" sound!
"What is happening?"
Before everyone could react, a violent vibration suddenly came from under their feet. It felt as if some giant beast deep underground was awakening, letting out a dull roar.
"The earth dragon is turning over! Run!"
Someone screamed in terror. The entire tower began to tilt. The beams and pillars supporting the building issued a teeth-aching "creaking" sound.
The floor on the second floor suddenly collapsed. The rosewood railings worth thousands of gold snapped crisply like biscuits.
The gamblers screamed and fled toward the stairway, but after running only halfway, the ground suddenly cracked open a huge fissure.
Boiling blood-red spring water gushed out! Several people running at the front were directly washed onto the roof beams, issuing shrill screams.
...
On the star observation platform of the Tianji Pavilion, the elder on duty was recording the astrological phenomena.
Suddenly, the calligraphy brush in his hand fell to the ground with a "snap".
The old man looked up in terror, only to see the Big Dipper in the night sky rotating madly. The speed was so fast that it was almost leaving afterimages.
Even more terrifying was that a black crack spanning the entire night sky actually split open in the center of the Purple Forbidden Enclosure!
"This is impossible... the sky is leaking..."
The elder trembled all over, and his voice changed its tune.
As soon as his words fell, countless pale arms suddenly stretched out from that crack!
Each finger was as thick as a palace pillar, and star fragments shining with light were stuck in the nail gaps. These terrifying arms grabbed the edge of the crack and tore the night sky apart like tearing cloth, forcibly ripping open a gap a hundred feet wide!
Immediately following, a pitch-black giant mountain slowly descended from the gap. This mountain was too big; one simply could not see where the summit was.
The surface of the mountain was covered with honeycomb-shaped holes. In every hole curled a blurry human figure, and one could vaguely hear shrill crying and shouting.
The wind pressure brought by the falling giant mountain pressed the ground into a huge depression.
The water of the moat was swept into the sky, forming silver water dragons one after another.
In this instant, all the people in Tianjing City who had not yet fallen asleep witnessed a terrifying scene that made one's hair stand on end and was unforgettable for a lifetime.
The entire city was actually lifted three feet off the ground by an invisible giant force, just like a sandpile played with by a child!
Whether houses, streets, or that towering city wall, everything at this moment seemed to have lost the restraints of gravity, Suspended eerily in mid-air.
Immediately after, that divine mountain resembling a giant black beast descended with the momentum of a thunderbolt!
At the moment of impact, the entire world seemed to have been pressed on a mute button, and all sounds were silent.
People widened their eyes in terror, watching helplessly as the corners of their clothes turned into flying ash and drifted away little by little under the action of this terrifying force.
Someone tried to open their mouth to let out a scream, but heard with terror the crisp sound of their own teeth shattering inside their skull.
That sound appeared exceptionally clear and horrifying amidst this deathly silence.
The remnants of the Hall of Golden Chariots in the Great Zhou Imperial Palace were now like a fragile sugar figurine, twisted and deformed arbitrarily by this force, finally becoming unrecognizable.
And that nine-zhang-high gilded coiled dragon pillar was even harder pressed into a sheet of paper as thin as a cicada's wing under this terrifying pressure.
In the entire city, the screams of millions of people were compressed into a piercing wave of sound in this instant.
However, under the ruthless crushing of the mountain body, this wave of sound suddenly stopped abruptly, as if its throat had been choked.
...
Tianjing City was gone.
In the location where Tianjing City originally stood, there now stood a giant mountain that could not be described in words.
This mountain was too high—so high that one simply could not see where the mountain top was.
Looking up from the ground, the mountain body went straight up, piercing into the cloud layer, and continued extending above the sea of clouds until it merged with the firmament.
Thick black fog coiled around the mountainside. That fog wriggled like a living creature, sometimes condensing into twisted human shapes, and sometimes scattering into flying ash all over the sky.
The original city walls, streets, and palaces of Tianjing City were now all pressed under the bottom of the mountain.
Occasionally, one could only see a few sections of broken palace walls or half a broken flagpole among the cracks in the mountain body.
At the foot of the mountain, blood-colored patterns gradually emerged on the surface of the black mountain body—that was clearly the complete street map of Tianjing City!
At every intersection, a faint green ghost fire lit up. In the firelight, one could vaguely see countless transparent human figures repeating the last action of their lives.
Some maintained the posture of running, some squatted on the ground holding their heads, and others stretched out their hands as if wanting to grab something...
The night wind swept ash-like snowflakes across the wilderness, and that demon mountain that had swallowed the entire city actually let out a sigh of satisfaction.
In the largest hole at the summit of the mountain, a pair of scarlet eyes comparable to the sun and the moon slowly opened.
If one looked carefully, within its pupils were reflected even more arms tearing open the night sky...
Even more terrifying was that the buried imperial city was still burning deep underground. Melted glazed tiles flowed like blood in the earth veins.
And behind the distant clouds, one could vaguely see more black mountain shadows gathering...
Dear Readers,
I have an important favor to ask of you today. If you've been enjoying the story, please consider switching to Patreon to support me directly.
By joining, you will instantly unlock 20 chapters and gain access to a total of 50 to 55 chapters every month.
To be honest with you, I am currently in deep financial trouble, and your support would mean the world to me during this difficult time. Furthermore, if I can get more members, I plan to add even more new fanfics by the end of this week!
Please consider supporting me on Patreon so I can continue creating content for you.
Thank you for your help
patreon.com/Alex_Cruise