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

The mountains are moving.

At first, she thought it was her imagination. Such a long distance, such a large size... it couldn't possibly be moving.

But after staring for three seconds, she was certain. The outline of the mountain range was shifting. Slowly, heavily, but definitely moving.

Yang Wanqing saw it too. She rubbed her eyes.

"Yaoyao...is that mountain range moving?"

The clouds above the mountains were dissipating. They had been pushed aside by some force. Layer upon layer of mist peeled away, revealing the higher parts of the mountains.

Higher still. Even higher.

We've reached the top.

Chen Siyao tilted her head back.

The summit of a mountain range... is not a peak.

There are eight heads.

Eight heads, enormous to an absurd degree. Each one had... Chen Siyao couldn't even estimate. So large that the sun in the sky looked small next to them, human faces.

A human-shaped face identical to the one in the cave. Vertical pupils. A slit-like mouth without lips.

However, this one...

When Chen Siyao saw the young Tianwu underground, she thought that five meters tall was already terrifying.

When she saw her brother perform the Dharma Body, which was nearly 500 meters tall, she thought that was the limit of the world.

The height of this Tianwu...

There is no reference point.

Because its body is the reference point itself. What she previously thought of as mountains were its legs and torso.

The clouds are swirling around its midsection. And where is its head...? It's probably already in the stratosphere.

Ten thousand meters? One hundred thousand meters?

It is immeasurable.

Studio.

There are no bullet comments.

Five hundred million people were watching the screen. In the screen, the colossal object that filled the entire skyline was turning around.

The comments section, like those of Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing, fell silent.

On those eight enormous human faces, there were sixteen vertical pupils...blood red. Not the cold-colored vertical pupils of the young Tianwu. They were congested and scarlet.

It is watching them.

Sixteen blood-red vertical pupils looked down from ten thousand meters above, staring at the tiny point of light on the sea surface.

"Holy crap!!!"

A second roar.

This time, it wasn't just yelling.

Eight mouths split open. What emerged wasn't a beast's roar...

That's human language.

"Human race".

The low-frequency sound waves that reverberated between heaven and earth pressed down, and all the water on the sea surface was shaken up into a layer of mist by the sound.

"You trespassed into my Void Realm and killed my son...!!"

Every word in that voice carried a tangible force. Chen Siyao felt as if something inside her ear had been shattered, and a warm sensation flowed out along her ear canal.

Yang Wanqing covered her ears. Fu Zhaojie knelt directly on the protective shield.

"...I swear to slaughter all humans in the Nine Provinces and offer them as a blood sacrifice for my son."

The comments section only started moving at this point.

"It's speaking human language!!"

"Is Kyushu...is Kyushu the same as China?!"

"This thing knows about the existence of Earth??"

"Slaughtering humans???"

"Can it travel all the way to Earth?"

"If something this big went to Earth..."

"Could Earth withstand a kick from this thing?"

Chen Hao did not look at the Tianwu.

He turned around.

Facing Chen Siyao and Yang Wanqing.

He raised his right hand and stretched it out into the void behind him. His five fingers spread open, then closed, as if he had grasped something unseen in the air... and torn it apart.

The void cracked.

A black, arched portal took shape three meters behind him. It was two meters wide and three meters high. Tiny specks of light flowed along its edges, while the interior was churning darkness... and something flickered within the darkness.

The spatial black hole that had previously appeared in the rift materialized out of thin air, requiring only Chen Hao's hand. Yang Wanqing stared blankly at the black hole.

Fu Zhaojie also stared at the black hole, trembling all over. It was a mixture of shock and the excitement of a dying person seeing a glimmer of hope.

Chen Siyao didn't look at the black hole. She looked at her brother.

On Chen Hao's face... for the first time, she saw an expression on that face. Not nervousness, not fear.

It's solemn. It's an attitude of taking what's to be done very seriously.

She had never seen her brother like this before. Whether facing the formations of Penglai or the Soul-Devouring Abyss Demon of Aozhou, her brother always seemed indifferent.

This time is different.

"Yaoyao, Xiaoqing."

Chen Hao looked at them.

"You guys go back first."

Yang Wanqing snapped out of her daze and grabbed Chen Siyao's arm.

Chen Siyao stood still. The sea breeze ruffled her hair. In the distance, the colossal Tianwu, so large it seemed to pierce the sky, was moving in this direction... With each step it took, a hundred-meter-high wave surged up on the sea.

She wanted to say so much. She wanted to say, "I'll stay and help you," and "I won't leave." But she said nothing.

Because she knew that staying would only hold them back.

"elder brother."

Chen Siyao spoke up.

I'll wait for you outside until you come back.

Her voice was steady. There was no sobbing, no trembling. It was just a very flat sentence. But every word carried weight.

Chen Hao glanced at her.

He nodded.

Chen Siyao grabbed Yang Wanqing's wrist and turned to walk towards the black archway. Yang Wanqing was pulled a couple of steps back, glanced back at Chen Hao... then at the approaching "mountain range" in the distance... bit her lip, and ran after her.

Chen Siyao paused in front of the archway and glanced back at Fu Zhaojie.

Fu Zhaojie was still stunned.

"Let's go!"

He snapped out of his daze and scrambled to catch up.

Xiaoyue was the last to go in. The large, silver-gray wolf paused at the door for a second, glanced back at Chen Hao's retreating figure, whimpered, and then disappeared into the darkness.

The black archway swallowed Chen Siyao the moment she stepped through.

My vision was distorted, flipped... and then the light came on.

Keep your feet on the ground.

She stood at the bottom of a familiar crevice. On either side of the rock face was the sand characteristic of the Bahrain Desert.

She returned to Earth.

A tense shout came from above the crack: "Someone's coming out!"

A row of black gun barrels peered down from the edge of the crack—after recognizing Chen Siyao, the barrels quickly rose. An officer in camouflage peered out from above.

"Miss Chen!"

Yang Wanqing stepped out of the archway and plopped down on the ground. Fu Zhaojie was the third to come out; his legs went weak the moment he emerged, and he immediately knelt down. Xiaoyue was the last to come out.

Fang Zhiyuan walked over. He was wearing combat uniform, with a pistol at his waist, and his face was covered in sweat.

"Ms. Chen, are you alright? Do you need medical assistance?"

Chen Siyao stood there.

She looked back at the spot where the archway had disappeared. There was nothing left on that rock face.

"Director Fang."

"exist."

"I'll wait here for my brother to come out."

Fang Zhiyuan opened his mouth, as if to say something—but after seeing Chen Siyao's expression, he swallowed his words.

"Understood. I'll have the tents set up and supplies arranged."

Chen Siyao did not respond. She sat cross-legged in front of the rock face. The crystal camera was still hanging beside her shoulder, the lens pointing at her profile.

The number of viewers in the live stream was 530 million.