Chapter 154: Disaster

A stone whizzed past Quinlin’s head, piercing straight through a tree trunk ahead. He could even feel a light breeze brushing past his ear.

Turning his head, he saw Zuo Zhichen walking unhurriedly behind him, about fifty meters away.

Quinlin scowled darkly and said, “I admit we had some conflicts before, but wasn’t it mostly Yilezi who was against you? Besides, so many of us have already died. Why are you still chasing after me?”

Zuo Zhicheng said coldly, “There are some things I need to understand clearly.” He was now in an absolutely dominant position, so naturally, he had no reason to let Quinlin go.

Quinlin sighed, glared fiercely at Zuo Zhicheng, and finally admitted defeat. “I don’t know much, either.”

Zuo Zhicheng only took a few more steps forward. After confirming that the distance was close enough, he suddenly accelerated like a cannonball, rushing toward Quinlin’s location. The air emitted continuous, sharp whistles, as if it were being torn apart. In a flash, Zuo Zhicheng reached out to grab Quinlin’s body.

Where he had initially stood, a large patch of soil caved in, and dust flew up as if it had been struck by a huge hammer. That was the result of Zuo Zhicheng forcefully pushing off the ground.

On the other hand, Quinlin, having no confidence to face Zuo Zhicheng head-on, saw this and immediately scrambled backward frantically.

But despite Zuo Zhicheng’s hand seeming slow, it felt as if it carried a strange, demonic power. That unnaturally pale hand emitted a faint, cold glow under the moonlight.

As Zuo Zhicheng struck out, an intense, murderous aura pressed in. In Quinlin’s eyes, Zuo Zhicheng transformed into a demon king emerging from the gates of the Underworld, striking toward him with a wave of chilling cold capable of freezing a person solid.

He was like an iceberg, radiating endless cold from head to toe. It seemed that even the grass and trees nearby were turning into shards of ice.

Although there was no actual change in temperature and Zuo Zhicheng’s hand hadn’t yet made contact, with that single move, Quinlin felt as if an icy wind swept over his body. His limbs stiffened as if frozen, his face turned blue, and his lips became purplish from the chill.

The next moment, Zuo Zhicheng tapped Quinlin’s forehead lightly with the palm of his hand. Quinlin collapsed to the ground, shivering uncontrollably.

This was the Human Phase Realm—directly using a Martial Artist’s Power of Mind and Spirit to influence and attack the opponent. At this level, a Martial Artist’s every movement contained unpredictable, almost god-like force.

To prevent the other party from escaping or killing themselves, Zuo Zhicheng went all out from the start. After that palm strike, he felt an indescribable weariness, a kind of mental exhaustion.

He calculated silently, ‘When I fully unleash the Power of Mind and Spirit, I can probably use such a move three or four times, depending on my mental state.’

Though weary, Zuo Zhicheng still pulled himself together and asked, “Tell me, what is really going on with the ancient Ruins here? And what exactly is Source Blood?”

Quinlin’s frozen face merely cracked a faint smile. He opened his mouth slightly and said, “You know nothing at all.”

Those were the same words Zuo Zhicheng remembered Yilezi saying just before taking his own life.

“What do you mean? Aren’t there ancient Ruins underground here? Didn’t all of you come to the Ruins in search of Source Blood?”

Quinlin shifted his gaze and looked at Zuo Zhicheng. “You don’t understand. There’s not enough time now. Didn’t you feel the earthquake just now? It must have been caused by Yilezi before he died. I never imagined he had been deceiving us all along.”

A sudden flash of insight appeared in Quinlin’s eyes. “Yes… it all makes sense now… I get it, hahahaha, we’ve long been ghosts of the Underworld.”

“What did you say? The earlier earthquake was related to Yilezi? But how could he possibly cause an earthquake?”

Quinlin’s eyes filled with despair. “Why should I tell you? Just wait to die along with me. Soon, no one on this Island will survive. No one will ever uncover the secrets of this divine wonder.”

Just as Zuo Zhicheng was about to interrogate Quinlin thoroughly, the ground began to shake violently once more. This time, the tremors were even stronger than before. Large swaths of land churned and rolled as grass, rocks, and trees were overturned and buried in the soil.

All around them, various-sized crevices opened up. Particularly beneath Zuo Zhicheng’s feet, a massive fissure abruptly tore open, as if someone had slashed the earth with a knife.

Zuo Zhicheng swiftly dodged aside. But Quinlin on the other side wasn’t so lucky. Unable to resist, still frozen stiff from Zuo Zhicheng’s killing intent, he slid directly into the crevice opening beneath him.

Seeing this, Zuo Zhicheng frowned. Stepping onto the edge of the fissure, he moved in a flash, reaching down to grab Quinlin’s head—there were still so many unanswered questions for him.

Just as his hand stretched in, the crack shook violently again and began to close. All Zuo Zhicheng saw at last was Quinlin’s desperate, dazed, disbelieving gaze. With a resounding crash, he pulled his hand out. The entire fissure sealed once more, like a giant mouth, completely swallowing Quinlin whole.

Zuo Zhicheng let out a breath. ‘Such frequent shaking really isn’t a good sign. All the Ghoul leaders are dead now. The only way is to investigate with the materials from the study myself.’

Thinking this, he immediately set off running toward the Pirate Base.

Along the way, the Island beneath his feet shook with increasing intensity. Trees, animals, and Ghouls kept plunging downward as the ground collapsed. Even with Zuo Zhicheng’s combat prowess, he felt somewhat disoriented and had to slow his pace.

“This feeling… could it be an undersea volcanic eruption?” Zuo Zhicheng thought to himself. Together with Quinlin and Yilezi’s final words, it all struck him as very wrong.

“Get the diary and the documents quickly, then take Jiang Qing and get off this Island.”

“Maybe a natural disaster really is about to strike.”

But when Zuo Zhicheng reached the Pirate Base, he discovered that many buildings had already collapsed into piles of rubble. He dashed toward where the study tower had once stood. Although a lot of the structures had fallen and the ground was littered with debris and corpses, Zuo Zhicheng used his sharp memory to quickly identify the former location of the tower.

“Thank goodness,” Zuo Zhicheng murmured. The left half of the tower had completely crumbled, revealing the wooden beams and the interior of the rooms. Fortunately, the study was on the opposite side. Though it looked unstable and on the verge of falling, it hadn’t yet collapsed.

Zuo Zhicheng sped into the study as fast as possible. He slapped the desk open with a single palm strike and retrieved the diary. It seemed the whole building had been maintaining a precarious balance before he entered. His added weight and the force of his blow upset that balance. Sand, mud, and small stones began to fall from above.

Zuo Zhicheng only had time to snatch two extra books. The entire tower almost buried him.

With a roaring crash, the tower came down entirely. Not until the very end did Zuo Zhicheng punch his way through countless wooden beams and rocks, bursting out from the wreckage. By the time he emerged, the entire slope was sliding away in a massive collapse. From the easternmost cliff, huge boulders groaned, then with a loud bang, tumbled noisily into the sea.

An even more terrifying earthquake had arrived.