MC Bookstore Chapter 195: The Rifts
Chapter 195: The Rifts
Ye Jun couldn’t believe the coincidence. The Heaven Opening Chasm had begun showing signs of instability just as he approached. At the same time, the Snake Tattoo on his arm flared, further confirming his suspicion.
The Heaven Opening Chasm held more information about the Convergence, which was why the Snake Tattoo had led him here. Now the chasm itself seemed to respond to the tattoo, as though beckoning him toward whatever the Ancient Ones had left behind.
’Did I make a mistake coming here so early?’ he wondered. ’If my presence is what’s causing this reaction, then the Heaven Opening Chasm might have remained unchanged until I was powerful enough to explore it safely.’
Still, he showed no sign of what he was thinking and simply listened to the commander.
The gray-haired commander slammed both hands onto the table, leaning over the mapping array with a look of pure grimness. "The irregular rifts inside the chasm aren’t normal spatial tears, Young Miss Song. They are the most dangerous ones because they connect directly to a foreign, chaotic dimension. A place containing bizarre creatures... mindless, corrupted existences, but terrifyingly powerful."
He ran a hand over his face, his voice carrying a slight tremor. "Worse, some of these things possess a bizarre ability that directly attacks a cultivator’s soul. In normal times, the outbursts are brief, and the rifts are heavily contained by the ancestral arrays, so the people stationed here can handle them without issues. But now? More and more rifts are fracturing open across the valley floor. If this exponential spike continues, the sheer volume of those bizarre creatures will overwhelm our defenses completely."
Song Liangxue’s cold, noble expression shifted slightly as she stared at the flashing crimson runes on the mapping scroll. "Commander, what exactly do these irregular signs mean? Space doesn’t just decay into a localized dimensional sieve without a catalyst."
The commander looked up, his face hollowed out by the dim yellow lantern light of the central pavilion. "It means, Young Miss... that the Heaven Opening Chasm is opening. The increasing number of rifts is the definitive sign of a full-scale dimensional unlocking."
’This just confirms everything,’ Ye Jun thought. ’The Heaven Opening Chasm knows I’m here. It’s practically opening its gates for me, as though it can’t wait to deliver the inheritance left behind by the Ancient Ones.’
Ye Jun crossed his arms and frowned. "Commander, if this secret realm has opened multiple times in history, don’t you guys have some countermeasures and tactical protocols prepared for this specific transition?"
The commander let out a heavy, ragged sigh. "Young man, the Heaven Opening Chasm opens randomly, but over the centuries of recording its behavior, our scholars have managed to map out a clear macro-pattern. It typically happens once every one hundred years or so. It gives the sects an entire generation to groom their geniuses, assemble defensive resources, and coordinate with the neutral alliance."
The burly man gripped the edge of the map scroll until his knuckles turned pale. "But this time... it has only been fifty years since the last cycle. The chasm’s core is fracturing half a century ahead of schedule. It is completely unusual, highly volatile, and fills me with an immense sense of unease. Nobody was prepared for it to open so quickly, which means we are critically short on people to guard the sector."
Ye Jun tilted his head slightly, a smile threatening to form on his face. He knew the truth with absolute certainty now. The chasm wasn’t acting up because of a natural structural defect. It was opening right now specifically to let him in.
Song Liangxue and Meihui exchanged a swift, meaningful glance between themselves. Having listened to Ye Jun’s detailed explanation of his horrific, world-shattering Convergence dream, they had both arrived at the exact same chilling conclusion.
The flaring snake tattoo, the advanced timeline, and the chaotic spatial tears were all tying themselves into a singular knot. For a moment, neither of the women knew how to react, the sheer weight of the impending apocalyptic reality settling heavily into their hearts.
Breaking the heavy silence, Song Liangxue stepped forward, her voice reverting to that chilling, authoritative tone that belonged strictly to the hegemon of the Northern States. "I will immediately relay this structural emergency to my clan via our highest-grade encrypted communication array. The Song Clan will actively participate in this opening cycle with our main forces."
The commander looked up in genuine, undisguised surprise. Historically, the behemoth Song Clan rarely bothered to involve themselves directly in the competitive rifts of the Heaven Opening Chasm.
They possessed ancestral secrets, high-tier cultivation cauldrons, and resource reserves of their own that dwarfed anything found in common secret realms. But neither the Orthodox nor the Unorthodox factions stationed at the fort were going to utter a single word of protest to stop them.
Frankly, they couldn’t even if they wanted to. Offending a direct descendant of the Saint of Endless Frost inside the Northern Domain was a direct ticket to a swift, frozen death.
"Since you are critically short on defensive personnel to maintain the outer boundaries, we might as well help you contain the immediate perimeter," Ye Jun spoke up casually, stepping beside his fiancée with an easy, lazy grin.
Meihui gave him a sharp side glance, her hand fan twitching slightly.
’Since when did this cold-blooded man develop a public service bone?’ she thought to herself, knowing his pragmatic, self-serving nature through and through.
But Ye Jun’s rational mind was operating on pure, soundless calculation. He wasn’t doing this out of the goodness of his heart. He was deeply curious about these mindless, corrupted aberrations. If they were connected to the dimension beyond the spatial tears, it meant they might be directly tied to the Convergence. And more importantly...
’Mindless monsters with high physical power and soul-attacking abilities?’ Ye Jun rubbed his chin, his grin dripping with pure, unadulterated greed. ’That sounds like an absolute goldmine for high-tier attribute bubbles. If I can farm soul-perception and spatial attributes from these corrupted bums before entering the secret realm... hehehe.’
The commander looked at Ye Jun, then at the elite clan soldiers standing rigidly behind Song Liangxue outside the fort, and heaved a massive sigh of relief. "If the young heroes of the Song Clan’s entourage are willing to step up, it would be an immense favor to the fort. We don’t need you to purge the entire sector. We just need a capable vanguard to hold back the corrupted creatures for a short time."
He pointed back toward the glowing crimson array layout on the wall. "In that window, the higher-ups of the Heaven Opening Fort can safely activate and synchronize the dormant, large-scale defensive array formations already constructed to seal the Heaven Opening Fort and stabilize the rifts."
Ye Jun nodded, understanding immediately.
’No wonder there were hundreds of cultivators running around like headless chickens outside.’
They were either containing the abominations released by the rifts or trying to make the array formations activate. Ye Jun knew that a rune formation of that level couldn’t be activated so easily and certainly not without manpower.
"Consider it done, Commander," Ye Jun said, his hand casually drifting to his waist where his Black Ember rested. "All this talking was starting to make my muscles stiff anyway. Let’s go see what these bums are made of."
With a collective nod of agreement, Ye Jun, Song Liangxue, and Meihui turned toward the exit, their strides steady as they prepared to march directly into the volatile, churning heart of the fracturing chasm.
Ye Jun knew his group would prove to be a great help considering they had a Sky Realm powerhouse, Song Ying, and Meihui, whose cultivation base was unknown to him even now.
He decided to split up from them. If they needed help, they could also contact each other quickly. Meihui had taught them a Short-Distance Mental Communication Technique. It allowed them to connect their souls in such a way that they could communicate freely without any interference over a short distance.
It used the Spiritual Realm as the medium of transfer, so they didn’t need any device or anything similar. That was why Meihui hadn’t taught them this before, as Ye Jun couldn’t access the Spiritual Realm previously.
Now, though, they could communicate with each other through a thought.
As they separated, Ye Jun chose the eastern front. The Heaven Opening Fort was built to contain the mountain valleys where the Heaven Opening Chasm usually opened, so most of its center was empty.
As he neared the Eastern Wall, he sensed the Qi fluctuations more clearly and finally saw a rift opening not far from him. He stopped, seeing the scene with bated breath.
It was as if some higher-dimensional being was treating physical reality as paper, casually making a tear in it as though it were nothing more than a sheet.
Seeing that, Ye Jun’s eyes widened as he remembered the dream of the Convergence again.
He remembered seeing something similar in it.
’It is the same...’