Swish!
A brilliant streak of blood-red light tore through the void, trailing a massive conflagration in its wake. The scenery outside warped and twisted beyond recognition, and for a brief moment a barrier of isolation even appeared — a clear sign that the speed had reached an extraordinary level.
The light faded, and the figure decelerated from extreme velocity to a dead stop with uncanny smoothness. A black silhouette revealed itself, and beneath it hung an enormous iron-chain sphere, its countless links inscribed with dense arrays of runes, sealed tight.
"From here… it's at least a thousand nautical miles from the scene. That should be far enough?"
The silhouette was, of course, Lei Lin. After seizing Belcrack, he had immediately fled the area, afraid of drawing attention, and had layered himself with a large number of concealment and misdirection spells.
He had no idea how effective they actually were, but anything was better than nothing.
Now, having covered such a vast distance without being detected, Lei Lin could finally let out a small sigh of relief.
"Still, to be safe, I'd better deal with this as quickly as possible!"
His figure descended gradually, landing on a solitary island.
The island was minuscule — barely more than a massive coral reef protruding from the sea surface. There were no plants, no freshwater sources; the whole place looked utterly desolate.
But Lei Lin nodded with satisfaction, especially after sweeping it with his spiritual sense.
"A decent location — and it even has a mobile effect!"
With a soft chuckle, Lei Lin tapped his right foot lightly against the ground. Buzz! A subtle tremor rippled outward from beneath his sole, growing stronger and stronger, until it ultimately triggered a minor earthquake and a small tsunami.
Rumble! Loose rocks tumbled across the coral reef, and fine cracks began to spread across its surface.
Once the earthquake Lei Lin had caused subsided, everything fell quiet. But then, at that precise moment, an even more violent tremor erupted from below.
A deep, resonant animal roar — reminiscent of a dragon's cry or a tiger's roar — rose from the dark ocean floor.
Crash! Crumble! The isolated island where Lei Lin stood began to rise rapidly, its black rock encrusted with kelp and shells breaking through the sea level, climbing higher and higher.
Before long, the tiny island had transformed into a massive, irregularly shaped landmass.
Crash! Crash! On one side of the rising island, enormous volumes of rock cascaded into the ocean, revealing a vast, pitch-black cavern. A serpentine head extended from the gaping maw of the opening.
"Wooooh! Wooooh!" The roar from moments ago had clearly emanated from this creature's throat.
The monster was enormous, and patches of algae, green moss, and similar growths clung to its eyelids.
**【Ding! High-energy biological signature detected. Scan complete.】** Accompanying the Chip's notification, a complete projection of the creature materialized before Lei Lin's eyes.
The monster turned out to be a colossal turtle with a diameter exceeding tens of thousands of meters. The coral island where Lei Lin stood was nothing more than its shell — and because the creature had drifted motionless for so impossibly long, life had even taken root on the reef atop its back.
"The miracle of life! Or the splendor of worlds! Truly intoxicating!"
Lei Lin murmured in admiration. A giant turtle of this magnitude could easily spend several millennia in a single hibernation. If it were ever discovered by some unknown human civilization, it was even possible that an entire city could be built directly upon its shell.
"Good day, Your Excellency! My sincerest apologies for disturbing your slumber! But for now, I would appreciate it if you could carry me for a short while — I will provide compensation afterward!"
Although the Chip's scans indicated that this colossal turtle already possessed the strength of a fourth-tier Morning Star, it still trembled and submitted before Lei Lin's Half-Moon true soul power.
Soon, the massive island began drifting aimlessly through the deep sea, appearing slow on the surface but actually moving with considerable speed.
"Excellent!" Lei Lin nodded, and his body automatically sank into the coral island's layers as if the ground had melted away before him.
"A moving target is obviously much harder to discover. But the most important thing is to deal with this fellow as quickly as possible — otherwise, it'll remain a hidden danger!"
A faint earthy-yellow glow flickered and then spread outward in all directions, immediately forming a spacious underground chamber.
The walls fused together automatically, taking on a material resembling marble that appeared incredibly sturdy.
Lei Lin sat cross-legged on the dry ground, his expression solemn beyond measure.
"Chip! Pull up the contents of the Infernal World's Path of Sacrifice!"
【Ding! Task established, beginning retrieval...】 With the Chip's feedback, a massive amount of data was quickly retrieved and stored into the memory regions of Lei Lin's mind.