Chapter 1700: A Greeting Straight from Hell

<=Milord, you need to open a gate right beneath Lythero right now. =>

’Huh? Why?’

<=Because if you don’t, then the entire library is about to get a giant hole attached directly to hell in a couple of moments. =>

’Oh fuck!’

...Oh my!...

"Sorry about this, bro, but I’ll open a portal back here after you get it out of your system, yeet!"

Sensing the impending danger and heeding the words of the curators as fact, Zhen Liu proceeded to activate the [Key to Everywhere] to open a portal directly beneath Lythero’s feet.

Not that Lythero actually noticed.

The swordsman was a bit lost in the sauce as the power of the [Sword of Naraka] began to flow into him and fill a hole in his soul that he wasn’t aware of even being there until after he had gotten a hold of it.

As such, when he fell through the portal and somehow ended up back on the Dozing Salamander continent, in a jungle he didn’t recognize, he didn’t even really notice.

He did, however, notice the big bright blue sky above him and how empty it was. In other words, the perfect place to swing his sword at full power.

"Ha!"

With a roar as loud as thunder, he swung his sword upward and released a crescent of energy that was fast enough and strong enough to cause a sonic boom.

Needless to say, such an act didn’t go unnoticed.

...Local watchers...

BOOM!

"What the fuck was that?!"

For the past two weeks, Loban had been on the hunt for the rare Purple-Scaled Basilisk Binturong.

However, every time he had gotten close, the damn thing would escape through increasingly impossible methods.

He had just managed to corner the beast until a sonic boom rang out that immediately stole his attention and fucked up his shot.

Loban was about to go and find the source of this sonic boom to give the originator a piece of his mind...until he noticed two things that made him realize he valued his life more.

First, the sky had gone from a bright blue morning to somehow being a starry night sky.

Second, and more importantly, he saw that there was a tear in reality above his head.

In the tear, Loban could make out movements and scenes that looked like something he had seen painted on the walls of a chamber of a temple he had visited in the past.

If memory served him right, that chamber was known as the Hell Chamber.

"What the fuck..."

Staring at the scene made Loban feel ill at ease, but nothing further.

...Now let’s go further out...

"What in the name of the ancestors is that?"

On the coasts of the Dozing Salamander continent was a place known as the Observatory of Kandara.

This observatory was maintained by the Burning Gaze sect, a group whose cultivation method involved them recording the ongoings of the world and using what they saw as inspiration for their development.

At this time, a young disciple by the name of Maldanna was using a rented scrying stone to look towards the main land to see if he could find an erupting volcano or something else that was interesting.

He found something that fitted the latter.

While scanning the horizon, Maldanna saw that an area above the jungle had suddenly darkened before a literal tear in space opened up and he saw...well...he wasn’t entirely sure what he saw.

"It looks like...a massacre? No...a torture palace?"

Maldanna had never witnessed the atrocities of war in person, but he did read up on what people did during those times.

As such, he couldn’t help but notice the parallels of those records and this strange scene he was seeing...but taken to an extreme level.

Once he had gotten over the shock of the sight, though, Maldanna began to write down everything he could in both a scholastic and artistic manner.

This was the most inspiration he’s had in years.

"I wonder if there’s anyone else out there who knows that the fuck I’m seeing right now...wait, why did I just curse?"

...Now what do the people who actually know what this rift represents think?...

"That’s one hell of a display...I can’t help but feel a little jealous."

Aether Saints and Demigods rarely ever involve themselves in the lives of their lessers.

Partially out of a desire to not meddle in their lives, partially out of extreme disinterest in things that didn’t concern their personal paths of ascension.

That said, these old powerhouses did make it a point to build up bases of powers that would slowly morph into sects that would watch over large swaths of the world in an overseer-like manner.

In other words, they became organizations that even the most powerful of emperors

had no choice but to bend a knee as a sign of loyalty.

Now, the reason for these organizations was so that they could keep an eye on the continents for either possible resources of power that could help them cultivate further, possible disciples that they could take under their wing, or possible threats that needed to be nipped in the bud.

A sudden rift connected to the Eight Narakas would definitely be something that fell under all three of these options.

At least, it fell to all three in the eyes of Saint Igvaldo of the Nirvana Flame, who was the leader of the Ember Samsara Sect.

As the penultimate master of the [Nirvana Flame Scripture] formula, Igvaldo was more than familiar with karma, the Narakas, and the power that could be wielded by understanding such things in tandem with the greater universe.

However, his understanding had only gotten him to the peak of the Aether Saint stage. If he wanted to go further than that, he wasn’t sure what he needed, but he had a feeling that accessing the Narakas was a good start.

Lo and behold, he just saw someone or something rip open a hole to the blasted place.

"That’s either the sign of someone or something invading from that realm into ours and needs to be dealt with accordingly, or there’s someone here who has just tapped into a power they have no idea how to handle...either way, I’m going to have to investigate. Otherwise, I may have to fight for that right..."

Channeling the tiniest bit of aether into his feet, Igvaldo launched himself into the air and began to fly towards the rift in the sky, aiming to meet or intercept whomever or whatever caused it.

Off to the distance on his left and right, he could make out rival Aether Saints making the same move.

He could already tell that by the time he got there, there was going to be a fight.

"Let’s see...it appears the Astrologer of Woe and the Icy Sky General are going to try and—wait a minute, what the what?"

About halfway to reaching the rift, Igvaldo could sense that the source of this rift was still lingering around. However, as he got closer, this detected source suddenly disappeared like seafoam.

Seconds later, the rift itself disappeared as well, causing Igvaldo to frown and pause.

A rift like that, at least from his senses, should’ve lasted long enough for him and his rivals to arrive and stabilize it for future exploration.

But the fact that it closed so suddenly meant that someone or something intervened; he just didn’t know what that something or someone was.

And he wasn’t the only one to come to this conclusion.

As he floated there in the air, the Icy Sky General and the Astrologer of Woe flew over to where he was in the air with a look that was a mix of confusion and annoyance in equal measure.

"I was about to ask if you knew what happened to that rift, but judging from the stupefied look on your face, you don’t know either. Right?" The Icy Sky General asked first.

"I do not. I just noticed it the same as you two."

"When the rift closed I sensed something...weird," the Astrologer of Woe stated as he kept an eye on the space where the rift was just moments ago. "I sensed this tiny pinprick of something, and I tried to knock it away with my own projectile of aether. But for some reason, it got erased."

"Erased?!"

"How?"

"I don’t know..."

The three Aether Saints continued to float and stare in the direction of where the rift to the Narakas once was for a couple of moments before disbanding and returning to their domains.

They had a feeling something big was bubbling under the surface...they just didn’t know what.

"How... refreshingly frustrating."

...Wait, what happened?...

"I really hope I didn’t accidentally send him into the middle of a crowded city..." Zhen Liu muttered to himself as he hovered over the door he had just made. "Okay, I think it’s been long enough...time to open it up."