Qian Renxue looked in the direction he was pointing. On the distant horizon, there was an irregular rift. The rift wasn't wide, only about half a meter across, yet it seemed to have no end, stretching from the ground all the way up into the clouds. There was no light or sound within the rift, only a faint grayish-white mist slowly drifting outward. Wherever the mist landed on the ground, the grayish-white shrubs withered just a little bit more.
She walked over, gripped the railing of the observation platform, and leaned forward slightly. Without the boost of her divine power, her vision was roughly the same as an ordinary mortal's; she could only make out the general outline of the rift. She rubbed her eyes and looked again, realizing that the edges of the rift seemed to be writhing slightly. It wasn't a violent trembling, but a slow, rhythmic contraction and expansion, almost as if it were alive.
"Don't stare at it for too long," Lin Mo walked over, holding a black device. A string of green numbers flickered across its screen. "The grayish-white mist from the rift has a mild corrosive effect. Ordinary people will get dizzy if they look at it for too long, and even Soul Masters have to expend soul power to resist it."
Qian Renxue pulled her gaze back and turned to look at Lin Mo. She noticed his fingers swiping rapidly across the device's screen, his fingertips pale—clearly a mark left from gripping the equipment for long hours. His brows were slightly furrowed, his expression entirely focused, a stark contrast to the mild demeanor he had shown back in Northwind Town.
"How long has this rift been here?" Qian Renxue asked. Her voice was calm, not deliberately raised, yet it sounded exceptionally clear in the absolute silence.
Lin Mo pressed a button on the device; the numbers on the screen froze, and a simple interface popped up. "Exactly three months," he replied, his tone flat. "At first, it was just a tiny slit, barely the width of a finger. Nobody paid it any mind, assuming it was just a result of tectonic shifts. It wasn't until a month ago, when the rift started expanding, the surrounding vegetation began to wither, and nearby villagers began showing symptoms of Void erosion, that it was finally taken seriously."
Qian Renxue nodded, then looked back toward the rift. She tried to circulate the faint trace of divine power left within her body—not for attack or defense, but simply to perceive the true nature of the rift. But the moment her divine power drew near, it was repelled by an icy force. The force wasn't aggressive, but it carried a hollow sense of nothingness that made her heart clench slightly.
"Are you alright?" Lin Mo noticed the change in her expression and asked. He set down his device, pulled two face masks from his backpack, and handed her one. "Put this on. It can filter out some of the mist. It might not do much for you, but it's better than nothing."
Qian Renxue took the mask. It was a simple cloth mask with a thin layer of filter cotton stitched into it. She didn't put it on right away, instead running her fingers over the filter cotton. The texture was coarse; it had clearly been hastily manufactured. "The power inside this rift is the same as the Void erosion I sensed before," she said. "But it's purer, and far more stable."
Lin Mo put on his own mask and adjusted the straps. "We've been monitoring it for a month, and the rift's expansion rate is accelerating." He pointed to the device's screen. "Look, this is the data from a week ago. The rift was only thirty centimeters wide then; now it's fifty. At this rate, in another six months, the entire Northwind Town will be shrouded in mist."
Qian Renxue picked up the telescope Lin Mo had set aside and aimed it at the rift. The magnification wasn't very high, but it was enough to make out the details along the rift's edges. She saw that the inner walls of the rift were a dark gray, completely devoid of texture, like a patch of space that had been violently torn open. The mist seeped slowly from within these walls, landing on the ground and leaving behind tiny grayish-white spots that quickly merged into the earth and vanished.
"Has anyone tried to close the rift?" Qian Renxue set down the telescope and asked.
Lin Mo's expression darkened. He crouched down to check the energy detector, which emitted a soft series of beeps. "We tried," he replied, his voice heavy. "Half a month ago, the Spirit Hall sent three Soul Douluo to try and seal the rift with their soul power. Not only did they fail, but they were eroded by the Void energy inside the rift. They're still undergoing treatment."
Qian Renxue's fingertips twitched slightly. Soul Douluo from the Spirit Hall were no weaklings, yet they had been eroded by the Void energy to the point of requiring long-term medical care. It was clear that the power of this rift was far greater than she had imagined. "The Void energy erodes soul power?" she asked.
"It doesn't erode soul power; it devours it," Lin Mo corrected her. "It doesn't destroy the soul power, but rather converts it into Void energy just like itself. Once a Soul Master's power is devoured, their body gradually turns transparent until they vanish completely, as if they never existed in the first place." He paused before adding, "That's how Xiaoyu's father disappeared."
Qian Renxue fell silent. She thought of Xiaoyu crying while clutching her teddy bear, and of that ordinary yet warm memory. If even Soul Douluo couldn't resist it, then ordinary mortals truly had no means to fight back against the Void. Her earlier reinforcement of Xiaoyu's memory had only temporarily delayed the erosion; it couldn't solve the root of the problem.
Right at that moment, the device suddenly blared a piercing alarm. The green numbers on the screen instantly flashed red, flickering wildly. Lin Mo's face drastically changed. He lunged at the device, operating it frantically. "No good, abnormal energy fluctuations from the rift!" he yelled, a hint of panic slipping into his voice.
Qian Renxue immediately snapped her head back toward the rift. She watched as the rift suddenly widened; the half-meter gap instantly expanded to over a meter across. Grayish-white mist surged out, gushing forth at several times its previous speed. The surrounding air turned freezing. That hollow, scentless void grew so dense that she could even feel a faint stinging sensation across her skin.
"Get back!" Lin Mo grabbed Qian Renxue's arm and yanked her to the corner of the observation platform. He pulled a silver short blade from his backpack and gripped it tightly, his eyes warily locked on the rift. "The mist concentration has exceeded safe levels! It's too dangerous to stay here!"
Stumbling from the sudden pull, Qian Renxue could feel how forcefully Lin Mo was gripping her, his fingertips icy cold—he was genuinely terrified. She didn't struggle, merely steadied her footing while keeping her eyes glued to the rift. She could sense the Void energy surging from the rift growing stronger by the second. It permeated the air like countless invisible tendrils, reaching out to grasp everything around them.
"We have to retreat right now!" Lin Mo slammed the emergency button on his device, triggering a burst of rapid signal beeps. "The sentry post will receive the signal and send reinforcements, but we can't wait for them. We need to move, now!"
Qian Renxue nodded and turned to grab her backpack. But just as she bent down, she caught something moving within the rift out of the corner of her eye. It wasn't the flowing of the mist, but a rhythmic shifting, as if some sort of creature was moving around inside the rift.
"Wait," Qian Renxue grabbed Lin Mo's arm. "There's something inside the rift."
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