A figure emerged from within.
He was an ordinary-looking man clad in a blue robe.
After appearing, he looked down below.
The once-prosperous port city was gone.
In its place was a vast, boundless ocean.
Only a few Gothic spires and factory smokestacks, situated on higher ground, remained visible above the water’s surface.
The man’s gaze seemed to effortlessly pierce the water’s surface,
seeing a massive, dark shadow moving at extreme speed deep beneath the waves.
As if sensing the man’s stare,
the dark shadow abruptly stopped in its tracks.
Then, it suddenly opened three blue eyes filled with madness.
At that same instant,
the sea below exploded violently.
ROAR!
A furious roar, as deep and explosive as Celestial Thunder, reverberated between heaven and earth.
The sound contained a special kind of vibration.
If an ordinary person were to hear it, their head might explode outright. At the very least, they would suffer from hallucinations and a mental collapse.
However, due to the previous attack, the people and living creatures here had already been almost completely wiped out.
So, naturally, that wasn’t a possibility.
The next second,
in an instant, more than a dozen gigantic tentacles covered in suckers and serrated edges burst from the sea like sky-high pillars, sweeping toward the blue-robed man with a salty, fetid wave.
SHIIING—!
Just as the tentacles were about to touch the man, time seemed to freeze.
SQUELCH!
Suddenly,
the hideous tentacles were all severed at their bases.
Thick Black Blood rained down, dyeing the surrounding seawater the color of ink.
The severed tentacles crashed heavily onto the surface of the sea, kicking up monstrous waves.
The sea wind howled, swirling wisps of damp, bloody mist into the air.
"—Aaaargh!"
A pained shriek erupted from the Octopus Sea Demon, also known as Kira.
His mountain-sized body erupted from the sea. As his severed tentacles thrashed about, the wounds actually began to heal rapidly.
In the blink of an eye, they were as good as new.
Then,
the ghastly white light on his forehead suddenly bloomed.
"Hmph. Courting death!"
Seeing this, the blue-robed man snorted coldly.
His blue robe billowed,
and a bubble-like membrane appeared around him.
It directly blocked the beam of light that could cause living beings to de-evolve.
The next second,
he spread his fingers and raised his hand high above his head.
In an instant,
dark clouds converged.
Like an overturned inkwell, they instantly blotted out the entire Celestial Vault, plunging this part of the world into pitch-black darkness.
CRACKLE!
The next second,
a thick, twisting bolt of lightning, forked like a tree branch, suddenly flashed through the clouds.
Immediately after,
countless dazzling, blinding bolts of lightning flashed and leaped.
RUMBLE... The sound of thunder shook heaven and earth, as if tens of thousands of Fierce Beasts were roaring and stampeding within the clouds.
The man’s indifferent voice rang out at the same moment.
"Ignorant God Desecrator, I shall grant you death in the name of the great Sea God!"
The words that followed were indistinct.
Because as the first word left his lips, he swung his raised right hand down violently!
BOOM!
In that instant,
countless dazzling, blinding bolts of lightning crashed down from the clouds in the Celestial Vault.
As far as the eye could see,
this part of the world had seemingly transformed into a Thunder Purgatory.
A blood-curdling scream echoed amidst the lightning.
Slowly, the commotion died down.
The lightning also receded.
The blue-robed man’s face had grown a little pale. Clearly, this attack had taken a significant toll on him.
He glanced down.
Most of the seawater below had been vaporized by the intense heat of the lightning.
The water level had dropped considerably.
After finding nothing,
the man’s figure slowly faded, vanishing from the spot.
...
An unknown amount of time passed.
A wooden plank floating on the water twitched.
Then, a palm-sized black octopus crawled out from underneath it.
Compared to their previous madness, its three blue eyes now held a hint of clarity.
Earlier, after advancing, he had encountered some problems that drove his will into madness.
Otherwise, he never would have stayed put and tried to attack that man.
Although he was now gravely wounded and near death, it was, in a way, a stroke of luck that had allowed him to regain his senses. All things considered, it was a good thing.
After glancing around, he moved, diving back into the nearby seawater with a small splash and disappearing from sight.
...
At the same moment that Hu Qi killed Su Ta, seized his authority, and received the notification from the Book Spirit,
inside a magnificent palace,
a young man dressed in white with a Jade Token hanging from his waist abruptly opened his eyes.
A line of black text had appeared before his eyes.
[Ding! A Manager has been detected as deceased.
Their authority has been seized.
Supreme Hidden Mission Triggered: The Only One.
Mission Description: Kill the other Managers to acquire their permissions...]
Seeing this,
the young man’s handsome face creased into a slight frown.
’Hm? The one who died must be the newcomer. To be killed so quickly... what a waste.
’I just wonder who did it—the Deceit Puppet Master or Su Ta! How lucky for them!’
The young man was none other than Han Yun.
Arriving in this manner had rendered all his previous preparations useless.
He could only take things one step at a time.
However, as a True God, even starting over, he was not someone an ordinary person could compare to.
He had already stepped into the Extraordinary realm.
Among the other Managers, only the newcomer was the weakest. According to his observations, that person had not reached the True God Level at all.
Therefore, the one who had died was most likely that person.
As for the possibility of the newcomer killing the other two...
...that was simply impossible.
...
「At the same time.」
In another dark space,
a pale-skinned figure holding a scythe stood tall.