Chapter 136 – Tensions (III)

Chapter 136

Tensions (III)

I have to be honest–for a little while, everyone stared at the sky… and there was nothing there. Yet, I’m pretty sure only I felt awkward about it; others seemed tense and even… scared.

It was about fifteen seconds later that it happened.

The first thing was a hum–a low vibrato that churned straight through me, rattling my organs. All our robes fluttered under the pressure, and Wan Lan even yelped slightly in pain.

The second thing was a shake–not of the ground, but of the sky. It was as though rumbling thunder exploded directly overhead, and all that excess energy fell on top of us.

Tables and benches and even some tents cracked, and some outright exploded. I quickly glanced toward where the kids were, sighing in relief when I saw it was just slightly shaken.

Some of the weaker kids even toppled backwards and fell, and it wasn’t even just the objects that cracked, but the ground itself.

Then I saw it–a massive, beyond massive, gash in the heavens.

It was like a vertical eye opened, except there was only a black void therein. The spacetime shattered–no, shattered is the wrong word. There was no sound or shards falling; no, rather than shatter, it just… dissolved.

And through the enormous rip the size of six mountains stacked together, wardrums erupted into a battle cry, loud and obnoxious, and not a moment later, a spear-shaped tip aglint with gold pierced through, soon followed by the rest.

It was a ship–a warship, I imagine–the size of a city. No, seriously, it spanned at least eight miles across, its hull at least four hundred yards tall, gilded with things that were impossible to discern this far out.

As it passed through the void, bolts of lightning and sounds of thunder continued to erupt in a cacophony that seemed to never end, and since it was massive, it took it a while to leave the void completely.

Seven minutes, to be precise.

And with each passing second, the pressure upon us increased–at first, it was like that dull toothache that you don’t even notice (though the kind that does foreshadow a near dentist visit), but by the end, it was like an agonizing root infection that no number of ibuprofens in the world will dull.

Shockingly, though, I endured it better than most; even Old Zemin seemed shaken and on the verge of throwing up blood. Wan Lan had passed out about two minutes in, and the ones that endured the longest besides the Elders were Ye Bao and that Yahui woman, who lasted a whole four and a half minutes.

By the end, it was really only Old Zemin and me who were conscious, though he was struggling so much that he didn’t even notice me.

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Do I think, even for a second, I’m somehow more mentally resilient than these other people? No. It was likely a combination of Heart-Stitching Art and Art of Survival working in concert to shield me from most of the impact.

Wan Lan had only learned the Art of Survival partly, and I haven’t yet taught her Heart-Stitching Art, which is why she didn’t endure for long.

Considering that the kids weren’t coming out of the tent, I imagine it was Long Tao’s bidding since he probably sensed that the newcomers weren’t any random throwaway thralls.

Precisely seven minutes and four seconds later, the entire warship emerged from the gash, and the latter closed, with the world settling down almost immediately. I mean, the dull pressure was still there, though it was mostly just coming from the fact that there was a massive freakin’ city levitating directly above us. It was so big that it would have likely turned a day into a night had it not been a night already.

One by one, everyone started waking up–and I pretended to do the same. Was I going to divulge that I somehow managed to endure what some of these guys, who were at least a couple of major realms above me, were unable to?