Chapter 603: Skeleton Giant Eagle

The dilapidated hotel.

Liu Qingyan stood in a pool of blood, her gaze passing through the dim small window. She saw two figures in opera robes leave the theater building in the distance and walk down the street in a certain direction.

"Where is Lord Chen Ling going?" A hint of confusion flashed in Liu Qingyan's eyes.

Liu Qingyan had just witnessed the entire process of the Gray Realm's convergence and saw all the theater-goers scatter and flee. She had assumed that Lord Chen Ling would remain in the theater, given how dangerous it was outside. To her surprise, he had actively walked out, and judging by his direction, he was heading straight towards the Gray Realm's convergence point.

Without much hesitation, Liu Qingyan turned and walked out of the hotel, intending to follow Chen Ling from a distance.

But as soon as her foot touched the pool of blood, she paused slightly.

Liu Qingyan looked down at her tattered, blood-stained clothes and her messy, clotted hair. A flicker of hesitation crossed her eyes. While she typically didn't care about her appearance, if she were to meet 'that person' soon, everything would be different.

Even if there was only a one-in-a-thousand chance of meeting, she didn't want their "reunion after a long separation" to happen in this state.

Liu Qingyan glanced back in the direction Chen Ling had departed. A red thread extended from her heart, piercing through nothingness and connecting far into the distance. With this thread of faith, she could find Chen Ling no matter where he went.

Therefore, a slight delay now would be no problem.

Liu Qingyan quickly stepped over the corpses on the floor and arrived at the dilapidated bathroom door of the hotel. She gently removed her muddy cloth shoes, her bare white feet stepping into the pool of blood.

Crimson ripples spread through the dark and cramped bathroom.

Liu Qingyan turned the valve, and the entire showerhead promptly collapsed into countless pieces, clattering to the floor. Only a broken pipe remained, spraying water everywhere, dousing every corner.

Splash! —

Liu Qingyan shed her clothes, letting the icy water wash away the grime and blood. Dark red wastewater spread outwards from her, like a pure white flower being cleansed and reborn, silently blooming amidst the crimson darkness.

Amidst the trickling sound of water, a faint smile played on her vermilion lips.

Buzz! —

Boom! —

A violent roar echoed from a distance, and fine dust drifted down from the ceiling. Inside a cramped underground warehouse, a dozen figures huddled together, trembling.

As a powerful tremor shook the ground, the building above them groaned. A baby wrapped in swaddling clothes let out a cry, but a hand quickly clamped over its mouth.

"My darling, please... you absolutely cannot cry now!" a middle-aged woman said, her face pale. "If you attract those calamities, we'll all be dead!"

In the surrounding dimness, over a dozen dishevelled figures watched the scene in silence.

This was a restaurant within the Mortal Realm. When the Gray Realm's convergence occurred, most of them were still dining, completely unaware of what was happening. However, before they could even step out of the restaurant, they saw a giant skeletal eagle descend from the sky and rip the adjacent casino out of the ground with a single claw.

The sight was like an eagle casually snatching a bamboo rat from the ground. Hard steel rebar under its claw seemed as flimsy as paper. They watched helplessly as hundreds of people tumbled out of the shattered casino like dumplings, falling to their deaths one after another.

After that, everyone was stunned. They could only hide in the restaurant's underground warehouse, praying they wouldn't become the same kind of meat-filled dumplings.

"We...how long do we have to hide here?" a man rasped.

"I don't know... until all these calamities are driven away?"

"Are you crazy? Didn't you see that monster smash the casino with one claw? Who could possibly drive away a monster like that?"

"But aren't there the Lords of the Floating Scroll? They protect the Mortal Realm; they won't just stand by!"

"Yes, yes, the Floating Scroll! We still have a chance!"

"So when will they come?"

"...I don't know."

Silence fell upon the group once more.

The woman in the corner desperately covered the baby's mouth. The child could only let out muffled whimpers, and perhaps because of the woman's excessive force, the baby's face began to turn blue, seemingly struggling to breathe.

Seeing this, the woman felt a stabbing pain in her heart. She instinctively loosened her grip slightly, and the next moment, the child's cries rang out again.

Everyone's expressions changed. They sharply turned to the woman and said in hushed tones:

"What are you doing? He's making too much noise! What if you attract the calamities?"

"I...I know, but..." The woman hastily tried to cover the baby's mouth again, but before she could act, a violent tremor suddenly came from above!

Boom! —

It was like a wall collapsing, or thunder exploding from flat ground. The warehouse ceiling above them was pierced by several sinister white bones, then abruptly ripped away!

The underground warehouse, which had seemed impenetrable and had given them such a strong sense of security, was effortlessly torn open. A pale giant eagle clutched the twisted, broken restaurant remains, along with the turf and the top of the underground warehouse, soaring into the sky.

Its colossal skeletal wings, which blotted out the sky, flapped in the air. The sweeping gale carried all the debris from the surrounding streets skyward. The people who had been hiding in the underground warehouse were now exposed in the open ground below, staring blankly at the sky, like a flock of lambs awaiting slaughter.

With a slight squeeze of the skeletal eagle's talons, the restaurant shattered into countless small pieces, plummeting from high above and leaving the surrounding residential buildings in ruins.

As thick smoke billowed up, the skeletal eagle tilted its head slightly. Its hollow eye sockets seemed to lock onto the people in the underground warehouse, and it began to circle in the air, flapping its wings.

"It's here... it really found us!" A man screamed, clutching his head in terror.

"What do we do?! I don't want to die!"

"Why aren't the Floating Scroll here yet?!"

The group gazed up at the sky-obscuring skeletal eagle. Some were completely paralyzed with fear, while the few who retained any shred of sanity attempted to scramble out of the warehouse's edge and back to the surface. However, the hurricane-force winds pressing down from above forced them back, leaving them sprawled awkwardly on the ground.

Just then, a melodious opera song drifted from the other side of the street, faintly discernible amidst the sighing gale.

"Though the enemy's formations are set with might,Your commanding army shines forth in the fight;Breaking one formation, then another falls,All seventy-two formations leveled, answering battle's calls..."

It was the voice of a young 'sheng' (male lead) opera singer, sonorous and powerful, deep and melodious, seemingly drawing closer and closer.

Hearing this voice, some people in the underground warehouse paused in surprise. They instinctively turned their heads towards the source of the sound, but because they were still trapped underground, they couldn't see who was approaching on the surface, only the dust rolling in mid-air.

"Did... did you hear that opera singing?"