The Return of Stars to the Jianghu

Chapter 224 Deep Sea Buzzing: Teleportation to Another World

Sun Li (Huang Yuyan) held the cold metal shard between her fingers, her fingertips tracing the four clearly defined simplified Chinese characters "Africa Project." For the first time, her signature playful smile truly froze. Her gaze, sharp as needles, pierced the sea breeze, fixed intently on the shard, as if trying to burn through the words. Her languid tone vanished, replaced by a cold, utterly absurd whisper: "Africa... Project?" She abruptly looked up, her gaze like lightning, sweeping over the slumped, horrified, and bewildered crowd before her, finally settling on Luo Yifei's equally grave face. "This damned place, where does it connect to?!"

Luo Yifei frowned, staring at the fragment and the murky sea behind it, where dark green foam churned. He said in a deep voice, "Judging from the material and craftsmanship, it's very modern... but to appear here..." He didn't finish his sentence, but the unspoken meaning weighed heavily on everyone's hearts like a boulder—this was definitely not from this world!

at this time--

"Woo-hum-hum!"

A deep, resonant hum, like a primordial beast emanating from the deep sea, carrying a strong metallic vibration, pierced through the dark blue waters without warning, originating from the unfathomable abyss below! The sound wasn't sharp, but it carried a heavy, heart-stopping sense of oppression, as if some unimaginably massive metallic structure was slowly starting and operating in the deep sea!

"I want to see clearly what's causing this trouble." Li Wujiu jumped off the boat, as if his strength was still at its peak.

Li Wujiu's massive body crashed into the dark blue sea like a meteorite. The icy water instantly enveloped his entire body, and his exposed skin, now unarmored, felt as if it were being pierced by a thousand needles. The excruciating pain from the cracks in his Dao Foundation resurfaced sharply in the cold. He instinctively took a deep breath, but the salty, foul-smelling seawater forced its way into his throat, triggering a heart-wrenching cough. His thick limbs struggled futilely in the deep water—the illusion of "peak strength" crumbled inch by inch under the heavy pressure of the rules, leaving only a heavy, leaden feeling. His copper bell-like eyes strained to open in the murky water, staring intently at the abyss below. A metallic hum, "whoosh—hum—," came from the depths of darkness, making his eardrums ring and his very bones tremble in resonance. In his vision, the swirling eddies of dark green foam had not yet subsided, and in the deeper shadows, the outline of a colossal figure seemed to flash by, blurry like a ghost on the edge of a nightmare, yet exuding a cold, neither-living-nor-death metallic quality.

"Idiot!" Sun Li's (Huang Yuyan) angry shout pierced the sea breeze and exploded at the bow of the ship. She still clutched the fragment of the "African Project" in her fingers; her playful smile vanished, replaced by a sharp, razor-sharp edge. Luo Yifei had already flashed to the edge of the ship's railing, his senses rapidly probing towards the spot where Li Wujiu had fallen into the water, his face ashen: "Something's approaching him from the seabed! An abnormal magnetic field!" Before he finished speaking, the deep-sea hum suddenly rose, transforming into a muffled "click-clack—boom" sound like gears meshing. A sudden, eerie blue light shone from beneath the surface, the halo twisting and spreading, like a giant beast opening its single eye, instantly illuminating Li Wujiu's struggling, sinking figure and the churning, dark green filth.

Yin Jiuzhu was terrified by the sudden change in light and shadow. His wide cloak trembled violently like a withered leaf in the wind, and he almost shrank into the shadows of the deck. His empty pupils reflected the eerie blue light, and his pale lips moved silently, revealing only his extreme fear of the word "other world." Yue Wuhen collapsed to his knees on the slippery deck, clutching his head and screaming, "It's not my fault! Let it devour him! Don't come any closer!" His obsequious mask shattered completely, leaving only naked, desperate survival. Liu Xuanfeng's gray robe was coated with a layer of deathly aura by the eerie blue light. His unfocused gaze mechanically followed Li Wujiu's descent. The faint groans of the heavily injured cultivator behind him abruptly ceased, and his body went limp, leaving only deathly silence.

Li Wujiu's massive body twisted and deformed under the terrifying suction of the dark blue vortex, his thick limbs flailing in vain, like a puppet gripped by an invisible giant hand, as he plummeted toward the center of the funnel, crackling with electricity. His furious roar was completely swallowed by the churning dark green seawater, with only strings of desperate bubbles rising frantically to the surface, bursting with tiny, rapid "pop" sounds.

"An ancient teleportation altar!" Yin Jiuzhu's exclamation was sharp and piercing, particularly jarring on the deathly silent deck. He almost curled up in the shadow of his cloak, his empty pupils reflecting the all-consuming azure, as if he were seeing an otherworldly abyss more terrifying than the Netherworld Ghost Realm.

"No—let it devour him! Go! Get out of here!" Yue Wuhen cried, tears streaming down his face. His hands gripped the wet, cold deck planks so tightly that his nails scraped against the wood. All his flattery and scheming had vanished, leaving only the most primal, extreme fear of that unknown, devouring power. He desperately wanted to jump off the ship and swim away, but the terrifying sight pinned him to the spot, his whole body trembling like a leaf.

Luo Yifei's face was ashen, his palm crackling with the light of a blade formed from his spiritual energy, aimed at the rapidly collapsing, azure vortex at its center. He sensed not only a violent suction force emanating from below, but also a vast, cold, precise, and unnatural energy field at work, completely different from the crude spiritual energy fluctuations of the "Ancient Altar"! The magnetic field was distorted as if being kneaded by an invisible giant hand, emitting a tooth-grinding metallic hum and a hissing sound of energy overload. It was this chaotic force field that instantly shattered Li Wujiu's remaining struggles.

Sun Li (Huang Yuyan)'s knuckles turned white from gripping the fragments of the "African Project" so tightly; the cold metallic touch from her fingertips felt like a red-hot branding iron. She stared intently at the final image of Li Wujiu being mercilessly swallowed by the vortex, her usual playful expression frozen in ice, replaced by an incredulous, turbulent sea of ​​disbelief. A teleportation altar? A damned altar! This commotion, this light effect, this energy signature… it was clearly some kind of unimaginably massive… mechanical device activating!

"Click—Boom—!" The metallic clanging and turning sound from the deep sea suddenly reached its limit, like a massive gate slamming shut! The azure halo suddenly contracted inward, instantly bursting forth with blinding light, completely engulfing the entire dark green vortex and Li Wujiu's last figure! The intensity of the light caused everyone on the ship to instinctively close their eyes, and even Luo Yifei's condensed spiritual energy blade was affected by this pure, non-spiritual energy, causing it to flicker unpredictably.

The bright light lasted only a moment, then went out abruptly, like a lamp wick being extinguished!

......

Luo Yifei opened his eyes, enveloped in a soft light, the source of which was the soul-summoning bell he always wore.

He looked around and found himself in a vast starry sky.

Not far away, a body wearing a diving suit floated.

Luo Yifei's pupils contracted sharply. The figure hovered in the dark void, tightly wrapped in a black diving suit, limbs hanging limply at his sides, the helmet visor stained with murky dirt, cutting off all signs of life. A strong, chilling deathly aura, not of this world, seeped into his senses through the soft glow of the summoning bell. He instinctively gripped the bell at his waist; its warm light seemed to sense something, pulsating slightly uneasily, a subtle tremor emanating from its core, as if silently resonating with a despair and deathly stillness that transcended time and space.

In the distance, the Abyss submarine was serving as a multi-purpose spacecraft for sea, land, and air, carrying Ye Xuehan and her group toward him.

Luo Yifei hovered in the boundless starry sky, the glow emanating from the summoning bell his only support, isolating him from the bone-chilling silence of the deep space. His gaze was fixed on the floating corpse. The black diving suit clung tightly to the stiff body, outlining deathly lines, and the inside of the helmet visor was covered with some dark, viscous substance, completely obscuring any possible face. The chilling death aura originating from another world pierced through the bell's glow, eroding his senses bit by bit, silently proclaiming the absolute isolation of this place from the world of the living.

He gripped the summoning bell even tighter. The bell's warm glow seemed to sense the cold despair from this foreign land, its pulse quickening. The tremor deep within the bell was clearly audible, no longer a faint hum, but a deep, metallic resonance, as if something was trying to penetrate the barrier of time and space, creating an eerie echo with some kind of... mark... or dissipated deathly silence remaining on the corpse.

Just then, he caught a glimpse of something unusual out of the corner of his eye. The corpse wasn't completely still; rather, it was sliding extremely slowly in a certain direction—beyond the light of the summoning bell—within an imperceptible, almost viscous force field. It was like a piece of rotten wood being carried away by an invisible current, silent yet carrying an irresistible sense of destiny.

Luo Yifei's heart sank. He forcibly suppressed the palpitations brought on by the bell's unusual movement and tried to lock onto the corpse with his divine sense. However, as soon as his senses extended beyond the range of the halo, it was as if he had hit a cold, slippery, invisible wall, instantly rebounding and bringing a needle-like stinging pain. That darkness was not pure nothingness, but rather like a viscous, unapproachable energy field.

He stared intently at the corpse slowly sliding into the darkness, his gaze like a hook, trying to extract any clues from beneath the grime of the dark mask and from its stiff posture. "The Africa Project"... Is this corpse part of the answer? Or yet another victim swallowed by this bizarre vortex of time and space?

As he focused intently on the corpse and the darkness that was engulfing it, an outline quietly emerged in the deep starry sky at the edge of his vision. Initially as small as a distant, dim star, its size expanded at a visible rate. It was a streamlined behemoth, gleaming with a cold, hard metallic sheen, its surface covered with regular and complex geometric structures, several dark blue energy bands flowing silently like veins along its massive body. It tore through the stardust, swiftly and silently heading towards Luo Yifei's location. Directly facing its bow was the diving suit corpse about to be completely swallowed by the darkness, and… him, enveloped in the light of the summoning bell.

The Abyss. Ye Xuehan looked at Luo Yifei's face on the monitor, momentarily surprised, then quickly regained her composure.

“This is Luo Yifei, who disappeared for one year and eight months. Captain Zhang said he went to the Floating Life Continent through the tunnel in Phoenix Forest,” Ye Xuehan said to Jing Yun.

“I know. With my clearance level, I do know some things. I only found out three hours ago that you went to the Floating Life Continent to look for him, but you didn’t find him and returned to Earth before the tunnel closed,” Jing Yun replied.

While the two were talking.

A beam of light streaked towards them from afar, and in the center of the beam was Sun Li, flying on her sword. She quickly arrived in front of Luo Yifei, and the two beams of light instantly merged into one. Sun Li nodded to Luo Yifei, then grabbed him by the back of his collar and flew him towards the Abyss submarine.

Ye Xuehan watched as the two people who were outside the submarine a second ago suddenly appeared inside the submarine and stood in front of her.

Sun Li loosened Luo Yifei's collar, causing Luo Yifei to stumble and nearly fall.

“Xuehan, I am Sun Li. We met during the youth team preliminary selection. As for why I am in this body, it’s a long story. To put it simply, I possessed the body of a cultivator named Huang Yuyan from the Xuantian Sect. We were exploring the abyss of the North Sea of ​​the Floating Life Continent when an accident occurred, which led us here. I have just conducted a preliminary investigation, and there are multiple entrances and exits to space-time tunnels here. It is very likely a place similar to a transit station.” Sun Li finished speaking in one breath before stopping.

The astronauts on the submarine didn't realize what he meant until he finished speaking, and hurriedly sounded the alarm.

"Turn it off," Jing Yun ordered.

The piercing alarm blared abruptly, as if choked, plunging the submarine into an even more suffocating silence. Only the low hum of the instruments and the faint sound of the airflow from the circulation system amplified the weight of the stillness.

Luo Yifei steadied himself, his chest heaving violently from the teleportation and the sudden change in pressure.

"Xuehan, I found Shen Xili, but he and Su An are temporarily staying on the Xuantian Continent. Nantian is also on the Xuantian Continent; he came from the Mars space-time tunnel."

The astronauts standing nearby looked at Luo Yifei in disbelief, a sense of dazed fear rising within them that they shouldn't have access to this information given their security clearance level.

"Yes, I guessed it," Ye Xuehan replied calmly.

"Ding-dong." The summoning bell suddenly rang, interrupting the two's pleasantries.

"Go that way." Sun Li pointed in a direction. Apart from Li Wujiu, she had already sensed the locations of the other three people, with Liu Xuanfeng being the closest to them.

Guided by Sun Li, the Abyss submarine cautiously adjusted its course, its massive metal hull silently gliding into the deep darkness. The searchlight beams sliced ​​through the stagnant void like two pale lightsabers, appearing exceptionally small against the backdrop of boundless stardust. Where the light reached, there was a meteorite floating in the starry sky, and further away, an indescribable, seemingly solidified nebula-like shadow.

Luo Yifei stared intently at the void outside the porthole, plowed open by beams of light. The Soul-Summoning Bell pressed tightly against his palm; its rapid pulsation and deep metallic resonance did not cease, but rather became clearer as the submarine ventured deeper. Each tremor of the bell felt like a cold needle piercing his nerve endings, reminding him of the eeriness lurking in this desolate starry sky.

"Stop!" Sun Li's (Huang Yuyan) voice suddenly rang out, sharp and undeniable. She didn't look at any screens, but simply closed her eyes, her brows slightly furrowed, her powerful divine sense like invisible tentacles, laboriously probing the viscous dark energy field in front of the submarine. "Port side, thirty degrees below, distance... approximately three hundred zhang (about one kilometer)."

Inside the cockpit, the astronauts' fingers flew across the control panel, simultaneously focusing the searchlight beam and scanning sensors on the direction indicated by Sun Li. The beam of light pierced the peculiar darkness, like a brush dipped into thick ink, laboriously outlining a blurry contour.

A figure.