"Then come."
Morax turned and flew toward the horizon.
Not long after, the dragon-beast circled back, staring at Xuekui in confusion. "What else do you need to do?"
Xuekui's expression was flat. "I can't fly."
"…You haven't even learned such a basic technique as levitation?" Xuekui's face went dark.
So what if you can fly? "Tch. Get on."
Morax did not mean, however, for Xuekui to stand on his back.
With a thought, a stone pillar carved in squared patterns rose from the roof and tipped horizontally in front of Xuekui.
Xuekui stepped onto the pillar, his eyelids twitching. He remembered these pillars very well. Morax twisted his body and slipped into the air.
The pillar beneath Xuekui followed—shooting forward at frightening speed.
Morax lifted the flight path higher. Xuekui's view widened, the world below shrinking until it felt like a toy set, a reminder of how vast heaven and earth truly were. Clouds streamed backward around him.
Riding wind and cloud—so this was what it meant.
Yet Xuekui felt no biting cold. After a quick look around, he noticed a faint golden membrane—a barrier—isolating him from the effects of high-speed flight.
Looking down at all living things from such height carried a strange intoxication—like standing above the world and glancing at it with detached superiority.
And yet… Xuekui didn't like flying this way.
He couldn't explain why. Something about it felt wrong.
The sensation of hovering felt strangely familiar—almost like he had been born to float above the mortal world.
But this method of flight still felt… stiff.
Flying should be freer than this. Looser. More carefree.
Guizhong's slow, drifting way of moving through the air suited his taste far better.
Soon, Morax lowered their altitude and slowed. Xuekui finally had time to study the landscape. This was…
The sea?
A vast stretch of blackened water spread beneath them. Xuekui frowned. Why bring him here? To fish and roast sea fish?
Then he felt it—faint, intermittent pressure rising from the water. Xuekui snapped his head up toward the sky behind them.
The sky that had been blue on the way here abruptly changed past a distinct boundary. Dark clouds swallowed the heavens, turning clear day into gloom.
He looked down again at several "rocks" jutting above the surface—only to realize, on closer inspection, they were the tops of hills.
This had once been forested land. It had been drowned.
Sensing the lingering resonance in the seawater, Xuekui formed a guess as to why the terrain had changed.
Morax stopped. He didn't turn to look at Xuekui as he spoke. "This used to be a human village."
"But one day, they angered a god beneath the sea. This small domain, covered by 'principle,' was their final end."
Principle—
That must be the strange resonance Xuekui sensed from beings like Morax and Guizhong. Xuekui stared at the transformed landscape, speechless.
Gods could alter heaven and earth to this extent?
"Humans are not all virtuous. This was the foolish reaping what they sowed." Morax shook his head as if lamenting, then his gaze sharpened.
"But their destruction should have ended that fury. Leaving your power in my territory even now is provocation."
His tone shifted. Xuekui could hear it—Morax had changed who he was speaking to.
"In a land corroded by your 'principle,' you should have sensed my arrival. What? Still hiding beneath the sea, pretending it doesn't concern you?"
No reply came.
Watching Morax speak to empty air, Xuekui ignored the pressure radiating off him and let out a laugh.
Morax's aura faltered. He turned, draconic eyes full of weary resignation. "No one's answering you."
Xuekui quickly averted his gaze, spreading his hands in a show of innocence. Morax felt a faint echo of that first meeting—of an ice spear to the face.
He shook his head, forcing his thoughts back into order. His expression turned serious again. Xuekui instinctively took a step back on the pillar.
The rising pressure rolling off the dragon-beast was genuinely terrifying. Then—
The sky brightened.
Xuekui squinted, then belatedly looked up. His eyes widened.
The thick storm clouds churned into a vortex. A beam of gold split the gloom, and something massive—neither jade nor stone—pushed its way out from within the black.
Not even remotely comparable to the rocks Morax had once used to smash him.
Xuekui watched as the colossal Geo construct revealed itself fully, tearing an enormous hole in the clouds. It seemed to break through an invisible resistance—then slammed down toward the sea.
The towering wave he expected never came.
The sea's surface yielded like a sponge, catching the golden mass and refusing to let it sink. Two "principles" collided, grinding against one another.
Xuekui's head throbbed just from witnessing it… yet he felt, faintly, that he'd gained something. A moment of distraction—he wiped beneath his nose and lips and saw blood on his fingers.
Stunned.
He couldn't even endure the aftershock?
Morax frowned. The patterns on Xuekui's pillar lit up. Golden, seal-like script flashed around him, and a denser barrier formed.
Only then did Morax's eyes blaze with gold.
The golden mass slowly sank. Watching closely, Xuekui realized the seawater it touched was being eroded into gray stone—allowing the Geo construct to force its way down.
Once submerged, the black water swallowed its light. But Xuekui could still tell—
Morax had the upper hand.
And then, from beneath the dark sea, golden radiance flared. The sea's "principle" was completely suppressed.
Xuekui's pupils trembled.
He'd heard the sea god had changed this land into its present shape.
But seeing the act of reshaping the world unfold before his eyes… the impact was still overwhelming.
Turning sea into land. Rex Lapis.
Terrifying.