Chapter 31: Ferocity Rekindled

He had barely warmed his seat when Chen Chushi received a message from Liu Yinyun: “Mr. Chen, the large spirit stones you stored in the warehouse are showing abnormal activity. We haven’t yet discovered the cause…”

Attached was a video. In it, the piles of large spirit stones filling their quarters were all vibrating at a high frequency, buzzing like they had motors inside them…

How odd.

Chen Chushi sheathed his longsword.

He immediately set out for the coast, heading to the quarters of the Earth-Return Team. Liu Yinyun welcomed him at the door to the spirit stone storage room. “Mr. Chen, at exactly noon, we heard a buzzing from the room. We found the spirit stones vibrating at irregular intervals. After watching for ten minutes without finding the cause, we had no choice but to contact you.”

Chen Chushi acknowledged her with a sound.

He picked up a large spirit stone with one hand, pondering for a moment.

He undid the “Spirit Stone Preservation Spell” he’d placed on it. Unless hidden deep within a mountain, spirit stones would “oxidize” on contact with spiritual energy! Every spirit stone excavated had his personal preservation spell on it…

As the spell was lifted, the stone trembled even more violently—and hidden pictographic seals emerged on its surface.

These original pictographs were specifically designed to restrain the stones’ spiritual energy and repel foreign magic, but for some unknown reason, they were now spontaneously collapsing and disintegrating…

From his experience reading novels, there were only a handful of reasons a spell would dissolve on its own.

First, the caster undid it themselves, or died.

Second, someone else had mastered the spell’s root, and simulated its dissolution.

Third, someone with vastly superior cultivation forcibly broke the spell!

Fourth, the caster became too far removed from the spell, breaking their connection, or some other force interrupted it.

He could speculate these possibilities, but with the scant information available, he couldn’t narrow it down. Regardless, the pictographic seal on the spirit stone was undone—this much was fact! Even without the preservation spell, the stones now showed no obvious signs of “oxidation.”

Rumbling thunder rolled outside.

Outside the room, the sky rumbled with muffled thunder.

Chen Chushi frowned. When he’d come in, it had been bright and sunny—now thunder?

He walked to the balcony.

Where a stretch of cloudless blue had been, the sky was now thick and black with low-hanging clouds, fused into a single mass.

Lightning darted through the gloom, flickering on and off. The thunder sounded as if a giant were rolling enormous boulders overhead, the booming continuous and awe-inspiring! The pressure of the clouds seemed as though they might crush the city beneath…

He glanced at his phone; it was only half past noon.

Yet the sky was as dark as a total eclipse; such an anomaly could only mean trouble…

The Earth-Return Team stood behind him, faces grave as they watched the sky.

Wu Fei held a tablet. “According to the meteorological station’s auto-detection from three hours ago, our area should be clear and sunny right now. But twenty minutes ago, according to the weather map’s historical records—” He showed the group the tablet’s screen. “Here, for reasons unknown, massive amounts of water vapor have evaporated from rivers, lakes, and seas, gathering in the atmosphere to form these clouds…”

Liu Yinyun spoke up. “Evaporating that much water in such a short time and gathering clouds would require an immense amount of heat. The highest temperature at noon was only around 32 degrees—nowhere near enough for this to happen…”

Wu Fei zoomed out on the map, his pupils shrinking. “This… this is happening all over the world! The huge, famous deserts are seeing less of the black cloud phenomenon, but every smaller desert is almost completely covered!”

[Weather Expert Here: “In all my years at the meteorological station, I’ve never seen anything like this on Earth… something is seriously wrong!”]

[My Son Has the Bearing of an Immortal Emperor: “Hell, with all my years not working at a weather station, I can tell with my eyes closed this isn’t normal—can you say something useful?”]

[Weather Expert Here: “Say what, exactly? I’ve never seen this, there’s no historical precedent—it’s useless to speculate!”]

[Dreaming of Qi Training: “Could it be that a big shot is about to face a heavenly tribulation?”]

[Charming Elegies: “Get real, okay? Bootlickers don’t act like this. That guy’s only been cultivating for less than a month—no matter how monstrous, it’s impossible to face tribulation this fast! And this is a global thunder calamity. Cultivation might clash with science, but it doesn’t conflict much with logic…”]

Just then, a dazzling message worth ten thousand yuan flashed across the live stream!

[Battlefield Breaking News: “Enough nonsense—there’s big news, major news! Hurry to the island nation’s local stream and look!”]

The viewers, their curiosity piqued, clicked the link and switched to the island nation’s local stream.

In the island nation’s stream, the chat was a dense barrage of local users.

[Hatsune is My Wife: “No way, no way—can this thing really appear in reality?”]

[Four-Way Lang: “Damn, this thing is right near my house!”]

[Eat My Rasengan: “Luckily, we’re already on the spaceship—doesn’t matter how bad things get on Earth…”]

[Passing Kamen Rider: “But that cultivator and the Xia team are still on Earth.”]

[Eat My Rasengan: “Aren’t you a Kamen Rider? Go save them.”]

[Passing Kamen Rider: “I don’t have my belt, do I? Why don’t you go open your nine horns and Susanoo yourself!”]

The Xia viewers who had just arrived blocked the barrage, and when they saw the content of the stream, their pupils shrank in unison!

The live stream was showing an old house in the island nation, camera pointed directly at the front gate, which was open—presumably the owner, now on the spaceship, wanted to take one last look at their home…

At that moment, in the dimly lit parlor, a television flickered with static.

[I Am the House Owner: “I swear, before I left, I turned off every switch and unplugged everything, including the TV! There’s no way it’s powered!”]

The static on the television slowly cleared.

On the screen was a desolate scene—a well with a broken rim. The black-and-white image radiated a sinister chill.

The Xia viewers were shocked: [Sadako? Are you kidding? Is this a prank?]

Their suspicion was warranted; pranks are a favorite pastime in the island nation, and anyone could stage something like this. The stream could easily be a hoax for the audience…

But in the TV’s black-and-white scene, a woman with long hair obscuring her face, clad in a filthy white gown, began crawling out of the well. Her movements were stiff, jerky, like a rusted machine; she reached out, hands grasping the edge of the TV screen!

The stream’s viewers erupted in chaos!

The woman in the image gripped the TV frame, her ten fingers slowly stretching out—emerging from the screen into reality!