The towering pillar that had stood at the center shattered without warning, exploding into fragments that rained across the platform as the beasts rushing forward only a moment ago slammed into each other in complete disorder.
Some lost their footing and dropped hard onto the stone while others were pushed straight over the edges, their bodies vanishing into the abyss below before they could even react.
For a single breath, the entire cavern fell into a strange and unnatural silence, as if something far worse had yet to arrive.
Then in the very next instant, the barrier surrounding Ji Wuchen and Yan Feng shattered apart like thin glass, and a presence rose from beneath the broken ground that spread across the entire space without resistance.
The bridges connecting the platform to the outer edges cracked violently before collapsing one after another, yet instead of falling completely, thick black chains surged upward from the darkness and replaced them instantly.
