The entire surface of the sea suddenly grew turbulent, and violent winds began to rage.

The closer they got to the Exotic Beast, the stronger the wind became.

"Fall back, fall back!"

The army began to retreat. This sudden, unnatural storm was clearly caused by the Exotic Beast before them.

After the Ghost Yong Beast crawled out of the portal, it didn’t fall into the water. Instead, like a leaf carried by the wind, it floated above the surface.

Things that defied the laws of physics were no longer a rare sight, but for such a massive Exotic Beast to be able to stand on thin air truly stunned all the Martial Artists.

"Is this... an Innate Divine Technique?"

The well-informed Master Qingyang and the other visitors from Gui Xu cried out in shock.

To be able to command the wind for its own use was something only a Domain Powerhouse could achieve among Martial Artists.

For an Exotic Beast, however, it was a type of Innate Divine Technique.

This beast before them possessed the ability to command the wind. If that wasn’t Divine Power, what was?

"This is a vanguard for the Mangcang Race," Zhao Rui said in a low voice. ’An Exotic Beast with an Innate Divine Technique, and it’s just an advance party for the Mangcang Race...’

’What kind of power will the beasts that follow possess?’

"Should we make a move?"

While everyone was hesitating, the winds surrounding the Exotic Beast grew stronger and stronger, gradually surpassing the level of a typical typhoon.

The ships had no way of entering the central zone.

Even the outer region of the gale had already expanded to a distance of dozens of nautical miles.

As the wind and waves intensified, the people from the Central Plains had no choice but to retreat to the vicinity of the Dongqi Peninsula.

Meanwhile, those from East Japan had long since withdrawn to their own territory.

The entire sea was blanketed by the fierce winds, and all human maritime activity was instantly driven away.

It wasn’t just humans who were driven off, but also the Exotic Beasts that had once rampaged through the ocean.

They either dove deep into the water, fled inland, or flew high into the sky.

All were evading the might of this new Exotic Beast.

Apparently, there was no direct chain of command among the Exotic Beasts; they too feared this creature.

As Zhao Rui and the others retreated, the entire ocean became the Ghost Yong Beast’s territory.

Not long after Zhao Rui and his group fell back to the peninsula, spatial portals began to appear in many places around the world.

Even in Central Asia, which was occupied by people from the Great Zhou, a spatial portal appeared.

There was no pattern to the appearance of these portals, nor did Exotic Beasts emerge from all of them.

As for beasts like the Ghost Yong Beast, only one other appeared, on the European Continent.

The people of Europe were the first to attack, launching countless missiles at the beast.

But that Exotic Beast was also proficient in Talent Divine Techniques—specifically, Ice Divine Techniques.

Many of the missiles were still in mid-flight when their hulls became coated in thick, solid ice, causing them to change course and plummet to the ground.

They crashed and exploded on impact.

Not only did the missiles fail to harm the Exotic Beast, but they also enraged it, causing it to go on a rampage across the lands of Europe.

Aside from the ones in Europe and the Pacific Ocean, the spatial portals that appeared elsewhere did not release any powerful Exotic Beasts.

’When is the tipping point?’

Zhao Rui gazed at the raging gales in the distance, his expression grim and his brow furrowed.

Just then, his cell phone rang.

It was Elder Ge.

"Academician Zhang and the others have performed detailed calculations. Based on the current rate at which the spatial portals are appearing, the fusion of Gui Xu and Blue Star will occur in one month."

"One month?"

Zhao Rui was stunned. "So soon."

"It’s indeed much faster than we anticipated. Be prepared to abandon the coasts. The Court has already begun constructing lines of defense."

"Elder Ge!"

"Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. None of us are saviors!"

"Yes! I understand."

Zhao Rui nodded solemnly. ’That’s right, I just have a system panel. I’m not some chosen one of the plane.’

’How could a major event that’s sweeping the globe, and even affecting two worlds, be something a mere mortal like me can control?’

Elder Ge’s words, while making Zhao Rui tense, also allowed his mind to relax somewhat.

Lately, as the frequency of Exotic Beast appearances increased, Zhao Rui’s mental state had begun to suffer.

Because of his memories from a past life, combined with his system panel, he always felt compelled to do something, to change something.

But in the face of this overwhelming tide of events, there was so little he could do.

This had given rise to a feeling of being lost and helpless, leaving him unable to find his place.

He hadn’t realized this himself. Fortunately, with Elder Ge’s reminder, Zhao Rui became aware of the problem.

Otherwise, if he allowed this emotion to fester, he could easily fall prey to his inner demons should he encounter a powerful enemy.

The so-called Heart Demon is everywhere. Even Zhao Rui, who practiced a Demonic Technique, had nearly fallen into its trap.

"Blessed Infinite Celestial Venerable!"

Zhao Rui sat cross-legged on a rock by the sea, letting the fierce wind batter against him.

The ocean waves, whipped up by the sea breeze, crashed against the rocks on the shore with a BOOMING sound.

’Come what may, I will be at peace!’

’Let everything take its natural course.’

「...」

News of the ocean blockade and the appearance of spatial portals across the world wasn’t suppressed for long before it was leaked to the public.

The whole of society was in an uproar.

At the same time, news arrived from the European Continent and America.

One was being ravaged by an Exotic Beast, while the other saw the appearance of powerful Mangcang Race People.

Both sides had already deployed all means short of nuclear weapons.

In comparison, the Central Plains were relatively stable, aside from sporadic Exotic Beast raids on the East Shore.

But even so, there were still many people with ulterior motives secretly creating panic and painting a picture of doomsday.

Fortunately, the Court was long prepared for this.

They quickly quelled the chaos.

Zhao Rui neither knew nor cared about the tangled messes happening behind the scenes.

He was currently devoting all his heart and soul to familiarizing himself with and cultivating his Domain Power.

He raced against time, not daring to slack off for even a moment.

Although his inner conflict was resolved, the need to increase his strength was more pressing than ever.

Once the Exotic Beast in the middle of the sea received orders from the Mangcang Alien Race of Gui Xu and launched an attack...

He wasn’t completely confident that he could hold it back.

「Tides rose and fell, and days turned into nights.」

All across the Huaxia Land, people were busy with tense preparations.

Defensive bases were being constructed along the coast and in the Northwest.

Countless Martial Artists rushed to the front lines to face the impending assault of the Alien Race.

Time passed, second by second.

In what felt like a daze, a month flew by in the blink of an eye.

On this day, the sky suddenly flickered, and countless spatial portals began to tremble.

Then, space itself shattered with a roar, and a spatial wave that swept the entire globe instantly spread out.

The shockwave came as quickly as it went.

In the blink of an eye, everyone felt as if a heavy stone had been slammed into their chest.

They suddenly started gasping for breath.

Fortunately, this breathlessness didn’t last long.

Everyone soon returned to breathing normally.

When people gathered their wits again, it was as if the entire world had been washed clean.

Even the air had become crisp and clear.

"What was that?"

"I don’t know."

"Why does the whole world feel different?"

People were bewildered but couldn’t put their finger on it. After a moment’s hesitation, they returned to their normal work and lives.

What ordinary people couldn’t perceive, scientists and top-tier Martial Artists had already observed.

In a certain base, some scientists were watching a real-time image feed from a satellite.

"So that’s how it is!"

"We were all wrong."

"Is this spatial folding? It’s nothing short of a miracle."

On the screen, the entire space of the originally spherical Blue Star underwent a massive expansion in an instant.

Blue Star’s original space hadn’t changed; it had just been abruptly augmented with a vast new area, a land and sea space far exceeding what existed before.

It was like a folded piece of paper. People could only see the surface, but not the part that was folded and hidden underneath.

Now that the paper was unfolded, it had naturally become much larger.

But the previous space hadn’t changed at all.

"The South Pole and the North Pole are still the two poles of Blue Star, but from now on, the distance between them will be five times greater than before."

"So the Dark Matter that the scientific community could never explain was because this matter was folded and hidden. And Dark Energy is the recently revived Spiritual Qi."

"No wonder there was such a huge discrepancy between the total mass and the mass of observable matter."

"Perhaps this is what Blue Star was originally meant to be!"

「...」