Volume 1 Chapter 1 The Great Change at Sea

  The sun hung in the azure sky at noon in August, like a fiercely burning fireball, constantly spewing out raging flames. The scorching air filled every corner of the world, making it hard for people to bear. Only occasionally did the gentle sea breeze blow by, allowing people to feel a hint of coolness.

  Zhao Rui stood on the top deck of the luxury cruise ship "Hailing", leaning against the railing, watching the bikini-clad women frolicking in the swimming pool, feeling quite pleased.

  Fortunately, he didn't sell his boat ticket, otherwise this scenery would have been missed. He smiled with some relief.

  Zhao Rui is a sophomore at a university in Dong'an, an ancient city in the west. He has an ordinary appearance and a plain temperament, except for his sharp eyesight which is sharper than that of ordinary people. There are basically no distinctive features on his face that can be remembered.

  His parents died early, and he had no relatives or friends. From a young age to adulthood, his tuition fees and living expenses were completely dependent on himself. If it wasn't for participating in a TV program with prizes and coincidentally winning the first prize, he wouldn't have been able to afford the cost of taking a luxury cruise for five days at sea.

  Zhao Rui originally thought that if this prize could be exchanged for money, it would be more practical. However, until the moment he boarded the ship, he was unable to resell the ticket and had no choice but to bring his regretful mood onto the cruise ship to enjoy the luxurious five-day tour by himself.

  However, after two days of enjoyment on the "Hailing", that regret was thrown away by him.

  "In three more days, I'll be back. Time really flies!" Zhao Rui sighed with a hint of reluctance, his ticket included food and accommodation expenses, on this ship he could eat and drink well, without worrying about anything, where would he get such good treatment after returning?

  Just as he was feeling regretful, a middle-aged couple nearby chatted aimlessly and walked past him.

  "I've heard that there are many ancient sunken ships under this sea area!" said her husband.

  "Ah, aren't there many treasures down here? If we can scoop them up, we'll really be rich!" The somewhat plump woman's eyes shone brightly as she scanned the sea surface back and forth, as if countless treasures were lying at the bottom of the sea, just waiting for her to dive down and pick them up.

  Zhao Rui stood there, hearing this and couldn't help but laugh: "Rumors have it that you actually believed it? I thought about cultivating to become an immortal, how can one distinguish between what's true and what's false?"

  The husband continued: "It's said that two years ago, a famous treasure hunting team came here to search for treasures, but later suddenly disappeared in the vicinity, and it's unknown what happened."

  "What? Is this true?" his wife shrieked, "Doesn't that mean this sea area is extremely dangerous?"

  "The Blue Horizon is a five-star luxury cruise liner, its routes are carefully selected, how could it possibly choose to sail through treacherous waters?" Her husband hastily comforted her, "As for the missing expedition team, that was probably due to encountering a storm or some other reason. Such things won't happen on our ship, don't think too much..."

  The two of them talked and talked until their voices gradually faded away into the distance.

  Zhao Rui gazed at the backs of the two people, shook his head, that woman was really too sensitive, someone casually said a sentence, and she could actually associate so much with it.

  The Hailing continued to sail on the sea, and from some time, the sky turned dark, thick black clouds like galloping wild horses, from afar, covered the sunlight, and the sea breeze also gradually became fierce, with a low whistling sound, howling past.

  "A storm is approaching, all passengers please return to your own rooms! All passengers please return to your own rooms!"

  The broadcast on the ship suddenly came on.

  "Didn't they say the weather would be fine these days?"

  "How did the storm come so suddenly?"

  "The weather on this sea is changing too quickly!"

  Tourists complained and left the deck, and the bikini girls who were playing in the pool also came out of the pool, wiping their bodies with towels as they walked towards their rooms.

  "What a depressing weather."

  Zhao Rui muttered a sentence and followed behind everyone else, also preparing to return to his own room.

  At this moment, a huge lightning bolt tore through the dark clouds and struck the sea surface on the left side of the "Hailing" cruise ship, instantly triggering a massive wave. Then, one after another, thunderbolts exploded in my ears, deafening!

  The "Hailiang" cruise ship was violently rocking back and forth, its massive hull almost capsizing!

  Tourists who were unable to enter the room screamed loudly and rolled onto the deck.

  Zhao Rui had just left the ship's side by two steps, completely unprepared. A huge wave came over, and he couldn't stand his ground. He was immediately flipped over the ship's side, let out a miserable cry, and fell into the sea. The turbulent seawater almost instantly swallowed him up.

  "Damn it! Why am I so unlucky!"

  He couldn't help but curse loudly, and the seawater rushed into his mouth. He gurgled a few times, began to sink, and his consciousness gradually became blurred.

  Just before he completely lost consciousness, a whirlpool suddenly appeared under his feet and sucked him down into the depths of the sea.

  ～～～～～～～～～～～～

  After an unknown period of time, Zhao Rui slowly regained consciousness from his coma. In a state of semi-consciousness, he felt as if something was blocking his airway, making breathing extremely difficult. His stomach felt heavy, as if it were filled with seawater, and his mouth was both salty and dry.

  He coughed violently several times, spitting out some seawater, and only then did he feel his breathing become much smoother, and his mind gradually cleared.

  He felt as if he was lying on a stone slab with his limbs splayed out in all directions, his whole body icy cold.

  Zhao Rui gently shook his head, bewildered and confused, unaware of where he was. He remembered that before he fainted, he seemed to have been sucked into the sea by a whirlpool. However, this little doubt was soon replaced by the great joy of survival.

  "I'm still alive! To have survived in such a terrible situation is truly fortunate!"

  He let out a difficult, low laugh, flipped over, and used his nearly stiff limbs to prop up his body, slowly crawling up from the ground. He prepared to carefully observe his surroundings before deciding what to do next.

  However, the scene before his eyes shocked him into a daze.

  Dark seawater floated thousands of meters above him, as if an invisible wall had blocked it outside. In the seawater, ocean creatures that he had heard of or never heard of swam back and forth in groups.

  Innumerable wrecks of ships are scattered in the mud and sand at the bottom of the sea, with broken keels stretching out at random, a few tattered sails hanging on them, gently swaying with the current.

  "Where am I after all?"

  Zhao Rui took a few deep breaths to calm his wildly racing heart, and slowly turned around. A gigantic hall with an ancient and majestic appearance, as if it had been standing there since the dawn of time, suddenly came into his view.

  This hall is built with huge and astonishing stone blocks, hundreds of meters high, and can only be seen by raising one's head to look up at the top of the hall.

  A golden glow envelops the building, like a temple. The light flows like water, gently and dizzily. Milky white clouds surround the hall, setting it off like a heavenly palace.

  A long, silver-glinting stone staircase stretching for hundreds of meters from the grand hall's entrance to his feet, with ten-meter-tall statues of ferocious beasts standing in a row on both sides, exuding an aura that dares not be gazed upon for long.

  Zhao Rui stood on the wide stone steps, standing in front of this majestic and solemn giant temple, suddenly felt himself extremely small, like a dust particle.

  It was unknown how long it took him to come back to his senses from extreme shock. But his heart still pounded heavily, and everything that appeared before his eyes made him feel mysterious and suspicious.

  He didn't know where he was, who built the building in front of him, and all he could be sure of was that he was at the very bottom of the ocean, so deep that even the most advanced submersible in the world couldn't reach!

  "It's truly a miracle that I can enter this underwater palace alive!"

  Zhao Rui muttered a sentence and felt that there was no other word to describe it except for "lucky".

  But he soon discovered a new problem: how should he leave?

  Zhao Rui wouldn't be foolish enough to want to cross that invisible barrier and swim out from the deep sea. Not to mention the ferocious sea monsters outside, even the enormous pressure generated by the deep sea would be enough to crush him in a second if he were to cross the barrier!

  The only hope now is that there is a passage out of the mysterious temple.

  However, even if there was no passage in the hall, he still wanted to go in and take a look.

  This building standing in the deep sea, rejecting billions of tons of seawater outside, what is placed inside, will there be a treasure that shocks the world?

  His heart suddenly became hot.

  Without much consideration, Zhao Rui walked along the stone steps towards the mysterious temple's gate.

  The stone steps were steep and high, and although Zhao Rui's body was sturdy, he had just woken up from a coma and his strength had not recovered, so this section of the road was particularly difficult to walk.

  After much difficulty, Zhao Rui finally arrived at the grand entrance of the temple and suddenly discovered that this large gate was extremely heavy, if not for his incredible strength, it would be almost impossible to push open!

  With a lucky mentality, he tried to push the big gate with his hands. Unexpectedly, in the thunderous sound of thunder, the giant door slowly opened to both sides.

  Zhao Rui's heart was excited, just about to walk in, a surge of cold air suddenly rushed out from the door, almost freezing him stiff!

  "Damn it, does this lead to the North Pole or something? How can it be so cold!"

  He cursed as he jumped back and forth, not stopping until after a while, when the chill had worn off and his body was hot. Only then did he go inside.

  The space inside this mysterious temple is extremely vast, empty and endless to the eye, like heavenly music that keeps swirling in the great hall, beautiful, low, full of sorrow, making one's mood also heavy.

  Golden light fell from above, dyeing the surroundings in the same color. A jade-paved road led straight to the depths of the grand hall, where rows of semi-circular objects were neatly arranged!

  Zhao Rui opened his eyes wide and tried to get a clear view of the situation in front of him, but unfortunately, they were too far apart, and he couldn't see more clearly.

  Along the Hanbai Jade Avenue to the depths of the main hall, the cold air around gradually became heavier, and the clothes soaked in seawater on my body were frozen stiff, as if I was wearing a piece of ice clothing.

  After running and walking for nearly an hour, Zhao Rui finally arrived at the depths of the main hall and found the source of the cold air.

  What appeared before his eyes was a massive, gigantic tomb group that stretched as far as the eye could see!

  These tombs were constructed from massive semi-circular ice blocks of varying sizes, with some towering tens of meters high and the smallest having a radius of several meters.

  What's even more bizarre is that these gigantic ice coffins are crystal clear, with colorful lights flowing on the surface of the ice, extremely dazzling. Moreover, these ice coffins are extremely hard, and no matter what method is used, it is impossible to leave even a slight mark on the surface of the ice.

  In these icy tombs, some of the frozen creatures have slender waists and flowing robes, looking like immortals; others have ferocious faces and demonic auras, resembling evil spirits. There are also some ice-entombed creatures with beautiful appearances, sacred and majestic countenances, and pure white wings on their backs, just like Western angels!

  In front of each giant fairy tomb, a square monument carved out of ice was erected, with extremely ancient prehistoric characters engraved on it.

  "What does the text engraved on this mean?"

  Zhao Rui furrowed his brow and stopped in front of a tombstone.

  The owner of this tombstone is an old man frozen in the grave, wearing a Taoist robe, with silver hair and beard, kind eyebrows and eyes, holding a fan in his left hand and a golden steel flute in his right hand. The immortal wind and bones reveal a gentle and benevolent aura, making people feel peaceful and friendly at first sight.

  Zhao Rui was about to carefully ponder the meaning of the inscription, when suddenly, the text on the tombstone flashed a silver light that shot straight into his brow.

  Zhao Rui only felt a loud noise in his head, which almost made him faint, but at this moment, he suddenly understood the meaning of these ancient texts as if he had been enlightened!

  The inscription on the tombstone is a summary of the life of the deceased, recording the past events of the master of this fairy tomb.

  Although Zhao Rui had been shocked repeatedly since he came to this deep sea tomb, and was almost numb, this name still made him feel like a thunderstorm in his ears.

  He is actually the supreme god of Taoism, ruling all heavens, leading all saints, practicing the way of heaven, spreading the virtues of heaven, and having everything in the three realms, ten directions, four births, and six paths under his control - the Great Supreme Old Lord!

  Zhao Rui hastily turned his head to look at another tombstone.

  The master of this ice tomb is actually the destructive king Abaddon from Western legend, who blows the horn of doomsday, makes shooting stars fall to the ground and opens the gates of hell!

  "How could Xianmo possibly die and be sealed in this tomb?"

  Zhao Rui let out a low cry of surprise, although he had experienced many storms and was usually calm, but this time his mind was also in a state of confusion.

  He never believed in ghosts and gods, and was unwilling to believe the authenticity of the words recorded on this tombstone. However, this mausoleum located in the deep sea, which could keep out billions of tons of seawater, made him unable to make any explanation with scientific common sense!

  Zhao Rui wandered aimlessly among the vast array of tombs, row upon row of square-based pyramidal tombstones flashing before his eyes, names he had only ever heard in mythological stories leaping into his vision one after another.

  "Grave of the Eastern Great Demon God Xingtian!"

  "The Tomb of the Great Western Heavenly Archangel Michael!"

  "The tomb of Zhang Daoling, the first Celestial Master of the East!"

  "The tomb of Belial, one of the 72 Western Solomon Demon Kings!"

  “……”

  “……”

  “……”

  Zhao Ruiyue's heart was increasingly shocked, if the introduction on the tombstone is true, then... what kind of earth-shaking change had occurred to make these immortals and demons that only existed in ancient Eastern and Western legends all fall asleep in this endless celestial tomb?