The ancient return was exposed by his sister's live stream.

"The beasts have a collecting habit." Chen Siyao flipped through a few stones. "These are natural spirit crystal ores. The quality is good, but they're not very useful to us."

Yang Wanqing picked up a purple one and examined it against the light. "It's quite pretty."

The comments section was filled with discussions about the value of these crystals. Several verified accounts were analyzing their mineral composition and potential rare metal content.

Chen Siyao circled the area around the groove again. Crystals, bone fragments, some pieces of unknown material... nothing else.

There are no black holes.

Fu Zhaojie followed, his eyes searching everywhere. "It's not here... that black hole where the sun and moon alternate isn't here..."

"You saw it in that cave hall outside last time," Chen Siyao said. "It's no longer on that rock wall."

"But it really was before..."

"I didn't say you were lying," Chen Siyao interrupted him. "It might have dissipated naturally, or it might be..."

She didn't finish speaking.

Because the soles of my feet are shaking.

It was very slight. At first, it was just a subtle tremor that could be felt when leaning against the rock wall. Then it became more and more obvious.

"Buzzing..."

The entire underground cavity began to shake.

It wasn't the transverse and longitudinal waves of an earthquake; it was a resonance coming from all directions simultaneously. The rock walls were shaking. The ceiling was shaking. The floor was shaking.

The purple crystal in Yang Wanqing's hand fell. "What happened..."

"boom!"

The cave ceiling cracked. A two-ton boulder fell from a height of twenty meters, crashing down next to Tianwu's body, sending fragments flying.

Chen Siyao took two steps back. The second stone fell. The third one.

It's not a collapse—it's the entire geological structure disintegrating.

"Rumble, rumble—"

A muffled thud came from the direction of the passage they had come from. Chen Siyao turned her head to look... the area above the passage entrance had collapsed. Several tons of rubble blocked the exit.

The way back is gone.

The chat room went wild at that moment.

"The cave entrance has collapsed!!"

"We can't get out."

"Yaoyao, run!—Where to?"

"God, please think of a solution!"

"It's over, the whole cave is collapsing!"

Yang Wanqing didn't scream, nor did she panic and run around. What she did was... take two steps to Chen Hao's side and grab the hem of his clothes.

left.

Chen Siyao came over from the other side and grabbed her brother's sleeve.

right.

The two people stood close to Chen Hao, one on his left and one on his right.

They were afraid, but not panicked.

Because my brother is here.

Fu Zhaojie wasn't so composed. He covered his head and ran to Chen Hao's side, crouching down behind the three of them and curling up into a ball.

The roof continues to collapse.

Larger rocks fell. The entire rock face cracked. The cracks stretched from the top all the way to the ground, and seawater seeped into them... more and more, turning from thin lines into a waterfall.

Chen Hao raised his right hand.

He pinched two fingers together, forming a hand seal.

A white light emanated from his body. It wasn't the light of a sword... it was a softer, more profound light.

It expanded outwards from Chen Hao, forming a spherical structure with a radius of three meters centered on him.

Aura shield.

The moment the light mask took shape, a rock weighing about 100 kilograms was crashing down.

The stone struck the surface of the protective shield.

There was no sound. No vibration. The stone bounced off the smooth surface the instant it touched it, rolling to the side as if it had been thrown onto cotton.

Another one. Even bigger. Three or four hundred pounds.

The same result. It hits the shield, deflects, and rolls away.

Chen Siyao looked up as the falling pebbles struck the protective shield and slid off silently. She then moved closer to her brother.

The shield—didn't even ripple.

"boom...!!"

The largest landslide to date.

The entire ceiling cracked open. The seawater was no longer seeping in—...it was pouring in.

Dozens of tons of seawater poured down from the crack overhead, carrying with it pebbles and silt.

Within three seconds, the entire cave was submerged.

Water surged in from all directions, swallowing everything. Tianwu's corpse, the pile of crystals, the glowing minerals on the rock wall... all were submerged in the blue-green seawater.

Chen Siyao looked down at her feet... the waterline had risen from the outer wall of the protective shield all the way to her head. They were completely submerged.

But inside the protective shield, it was dry. Quiet. Not a single drop of water had gotten in.

Yang Wanqing released her grip on Chen Hao's clothes and looked up at the sky.

Outside the shield was water. Turbulent, debris-laden, blue-green seawater. Inside the shield was air. Normal, breathable air.

The dividing line is that thin layer of white light.

"Wow..." Yang Wanqing finally uttered two words.

The comments section came back to life.

"What material is this shield made of? Water can't get in at all!"

"Being underwater felt like being under a dome."

"The difference between technology and cultivation lies here."

"The God of War is playing it as solid as a rock this time."

Chen Hao didn't speak. He raised his hand slightly.

The protective shield began to rise.

With the four people and a wolf inside, they rose from the ruins of the collapsed underwater cave, passed through the surging seawater, and traversed rubble and silt, making their way upwards.

The speed is not fast. It's smooth. Like riding an elevator.

The color of the seawater changed from murky to clear, from deep blue-green to light blue-green. The light grew brighter and brighter.

Then... the top of my head lit up.

The protective shield emerged from the sea.

The moment the sunlight hit her face, Yang Wanqing blinked hard.

She looked down at the soles of her feet.

A white light barrier clung to the surface of the sea. They stood on it... or rather, on something suspended above the sea. Beneath their feet was a translucent light barrier, and below that, the azure waters.

They were standing on the sea.

Yang Wanqing tentatively stomped his foot.

thump.

It bounced back. Like stepping on an extremely thick piece of tempered glass. She stomped her foot again, then squatted down and reached out to touch the edge of the shield... Her fingertips touched a warm, slightly flowing film.

"How amazing..."

She was just about to continue her research.

"Holy crap...!!"

A furious roar rolled down from the horizon.

It wasn't the cry of the young Tianwu from before. The volume level was on a completely different scale.

The sound... came from a very distant place, but it still made their eardrums hurt when it reached their location.

Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing started playing the piano at the same time.

The two of them spun around 360 degrees. The sea was calm. The sky was cloudless. They saw nothing.

Only... ahead.

Far, far in the distance, a towering mountain range...?

When they first came up, they had seen that direction from the beach. At the time, they thought it was land on the other side of the sea. Towering black mountains stretched across the horizon, with clouds swirling around their waists.

"What's that roaring?" Yang Wanqing looked around.

Chen Siyao didn't answer. Because she saw what her brother was doing.

Chen Hao was looking at that mountain range.

His gaze was fixed calmly on the distance. Calm. But Chen Siyao had been with her brother for so long... she recognized that calmness was different from his usual calmness. It was the calmness of someone assessing something.

Chen Siyao followed her brother's gaze.

That mountain range…