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Chapter 124 The Calamity of Erosion
……

No one knows how the erosion happened, and most people don't even know that it is an erosion. Half an hour ago, the sky suddenly became overcast, with the clouds hanging very low, as if they were almost touching the top of the Moon Gazing Tower.

"Why did it suddenly get dark?" Xu Xuanling looked up. "It looks like it's going to rain. How much longer will we have to wait?"

The area below the steps of the Moon Gazing Tower was crowded with monks.

Everyone came here just to sign up.

To highlight their respective sects, many people wore clothing of the same color, and because they were gathered together, the crowd looked like a large palette, colorful and vibrant.

"Once the blue, green, and black lines have finished registering, it should be our turn," Ahua said crisply.

"So you've been keeping an eye on things all along. Well done," Xu Xuanling praised. Although she joined the sect later, because of her older student ID and age, she always referred to herself as the senior sister in front of the brother and sister. "Why doesn't the sect leader prepare a set of matching clothes for us? Everyone is wearing their own, making us look like independent cultivators."

“Because the sect leader is an immortal, and immortals don’t care about this,” Ajiu replied earnestly.

“Sigh… Even if you trust him a lot, there has to be a limit.” Xu Xuanling muttered, “The sect leader is very powerful, but he has nothing to do with immortals. True immortals can go to heaven and earth and summon wind and rain. He is far from that level.”

"You've never seen a true immortal, how do you know he isn't?" Ajiu said dismissively.

"Even if you haven't seen it, you know it's what everyone says!"

"Since there's no standard, I think he is, unless you can find a true immortal for me to see."

Xu Xuanling was speechless for a moment.

“You can’t find it, so you lost,” Ajiu said seriously.

"I didn't lose!"

"you lose."

"I don't!"

"Pfft." Xue Xiaojin couldn't help but laugh out loud. "You guys are so powerful when you're cultivating, how come you're arguing like children?"

“Aren’t you a child? You’re not even as old as me!” Xu Xuanling glared at him.

“Yes, but I can cook and do housework. Can you?” Xue Xiaojin retorted. “Anyone who can’t is a child.”

"I—" Xu Xuanling was so choked up that she couldn't utter a single word. In the end, she decided to ask Liu Shuyue for help.

If she had to name the person she admired most in this sect, it would undoubtedly be Master Liu, who had personally taught them. Although the sect didn't bestow upon them Daoist titles or require them to perform disciple rituals, she already considered him her master in her heart. Over the course of a month, Xu Xuanling gradually realized that Sect Master Chen Xuan probably didn't understand cultivation at all, and the sect was barely managing to function because Master Liu was holding it together!

She knew that Liu Shuyue would never lie against her conscience.

Xu Xuanling walked to the front of the group and tugged at Liu Shuyue's sleeve, "Master..."

Before she could even ask the question, she was taken aback.

Liu Shuyue tilted her chin slightly, staring motionlessly at the sky, her expression unexpectedly cold.

That was definitely not an expression of worry about whether it would rain later.

The sky seemed even darker than before.

Just then, a commotion broke out in the rear ranks.

Some people gasped, while others screamed.

Xu Xuanling looked back and saw something falling from the sky and landing in the crowd. Everyone quickly moved away, as if the thing was extremely dirty.

Wait, that looks like a rope?
Was it thrown from the Moon Gazing Tower?

She looked up and realized something was wrong. The group of people were standing about 40 or 50 meters away from the tower, with nothing overhead. There shouldn't be any place where ropes should be hanging.

“Strange…” Ahua also noticed the rope floating in the sky. “It looks like it fell from the clouds.”

Wow!

Suddenly another rope fell down. This time it was very close to them, no more than ten steps away.

The monks closest to the rope reacted exactly like those behind them: they screamed, retreated, and even cursed.

Attracted by the voice, Liu Shuyue turned her head and glanced over, her expression instantly changing! She shouted directly to the ten disciples, "Let's go, we won't be reporting today!"

"Hey, it's almost our turn!" Xu Xuanling exclaimed in surprise. The blue and green teams at the front of the line had already entered the area below the tower; it would be their turn soon.

"Senior sister! No, look at the rope!" Ah Xuan shouted, his voice trembling slightly.

Xu Xuanling paused for a moment, then looked at it carefully again.

Immediately, countless goosebumps appeared on her back and crawled all the way up to her forearms.

That wasn't a rope at all; it was clearly a fresh, wet, and slippery intestine!

"Stay close to me, don't fall behind!" Liu Shuyue's tone was unusually tense.

Everyone quickly followed and began moving out of the crowd.

Xu Xuanling's gaze remained fixed on the severed intestine. She saw the crowd disperse, but some cultivators approached, seemingly wanting to see what kind of trick this was.

The man then drew his sword and slashed at the intestines, cutting them into several pieces.

Blood immediately began to flow.

Even so, the intestines slid down a bit more, as if trying to maintain their previous length. Just as the man was poking at the severed pieces of intestine with the tip of his sword, the intestines suddenly swayed, and the swinging tail end touched him. In an instant, the man was struck dumb, standing upright on the spot, his whole body trembling uncontrollably, and even his sword fell to the ground.

Then Xu Xuanling witnessed a scene that could only be described as a nightmare.

That person was actually sucked away by the intestines!

Instead of being swallowed into the intestines or turning into blood, his various parts were inexplicably peeled off, merged with the intestines, and then flew upwards! It first hit his back, so the spine was the first to pierce the skin and emerge, followed by his lungs, stomach, ribs, and other organs that he couldn't name.

Bones and flesh were all mixed together with the intestines, rising ever higher into the sky. The person lost all ability to resist the moment the spine was pulled out, and could only helplessly watch as their body was gradually hollowed out!
Such a horrific scene turned the gasps of the surrounding cultivators into screams of agony!

Xu Xuanling couldn't help but cry out!
What the hell is this?!
Even in her most terrifying nightmares, she would never dream of such a disgusting thing.

Because everyone walked quickly, they left the most crowded area and entered Chang'an Avenue before the cultivators' group was completely thrown into chaos.

However, the situation here has not improved at all.

Intestines also fall from the sky, some hanging on the side of the street, some coiled on the roof, and without exception, their other ends are hidden in the clouds.

The common people's reaction was far less than that of the cultivators. Several people had already fallen victim to the attack, having their intestines ripped out and skin peeled off in full view of everyone, and then being sucked into the sky.

Liu Shuyue summoned two rebuilt Thousand Thoughts Swords, one in front and one behind, to protect the team. If any intestines got close, the swords would fly up and cut them off. However, this was only a temporary solution; no matter how much was cut off, it would fall back down and make up for the lost parts.

Now, wails and screams are heard everywhere. People are either running back into their houses and sealing all the doors and windows, or fleeing in panic to the outskirts of the city, wanting to get as far away from this terrifying place as possible.

"What on earth is going on?!" Xu Xuanling felt like she was about to collapse. This was Chang'an City, an area ruled by the Immortal Alliance! All the experts in the world gathered here, how could they allow the inexplicable intestines to slaughter the people of the city?

“It’s probably erosion,” Liu Shuyue suddenly said in a deep voice.

"what is that?"

“I’m not entirely sure either, but roughly speaking, different worlds are merging.” She hadn’t witnessed the erosion event firsthand, but after talking to Lin Qing a lot, she had gained some understanding of the theory of intrusion points and world overlap. “We may seem to still be in Chang’an City, but we have actually entered another world.”

“Another…world?” Xu Xuanling repeated blankly. She looked around. Weren’t these all familiar streets and buildings? She had lived in Chang’an for more than ten years. She knew the trees along Zhuque Street very well. How could she accept that this was another world all of a sudden?

She did know that some top sects controlled the resources of their grotto-heavens, and those grotto-heavens were comparable to small worlds. However, small worlds and large worlds were clearly separated, and they did not interfere with each other, which was completely different from the situation that Master Liu had described.

"I just felt the flow of energy become inexplicably chaotic, even somewhat unfamiliar. That must be where the erosion occurred," Liu Shuyue said as she walked. As for why the city hadn't changed drastically, Lin Qing explained that it was because the overlapping of spaces needed time to manifest. And now, a part of it had already appeared—the sky.

The sky above them was no longer the sky of Chang'an.

(End of this chapter)