The three teachers from the academy arrived, riding on clouds. Behind them, dark clouds hung stagnant, like the watchful eye of a grandfather.
This cinematic scene abruptly reminded Huang Xiu of a line from one of Stephen Chow’s films.
‘My destined one is a peerless hero. One day, he will arrive on a seven-colored auspicious cloud to marry me.’
“Too bad it’s just white clouds,” she mused with a touch of regret. Yet, she quickly caught herself.
The fact that the academy had decided to intervene meant the situation at the Touchpoint was beyond what students could handle.
“So, it’s time for us to retreat?”
A flicker of understanding passed through Huang Xiu’s eyes as she continued to gaze skyward.
Her left eye reflected the pristine white clouds on the horizon, while her right, through Senluo, observed the distant battlefield.
There, a colossal claw, the size of a house, gripped the ground with immense force, having already torn most of an arm free from the air.
Each scale on that arm was as large as a person. The visible portion of the arm, which was more than halfway out, measured at least thirty meters long by Huang Xiu’s estimation.
Such a monstrous creature… perhaps only by boiling its bones into a soup and summoning Dio Ultraman could they hope to deal with it!
****
The heavens shifted, and the commotion was so evident that it could be seen from any point within the Touchpoint.
All the students looked up at the sky, their expressions a mix of awe and apprehension.
Even Huang Xiu and her companions slowed their pace, their eyes fixed on the sky as they continued to move.
The three teachers, riding their clouds, reached the exact center of the urban village Touchpoint, directly above the area, and then abruptly halted.
Immediately, the white cloud transformed into a colossal pump. Through an “umbilical cord” connecting its tail to the dark clouds above, it began to forcefully draw all the thick, ominous clouds into its very core.
As the white cloud devoured the dark ones, its pristine body took on a faint grey hue. It swelled visibly, as if it had consumed some miraculous fertilizer.
In a flash, the white cloud replaced the original dark canopy, once again obscuring the sunlight that had struggled to break through.
“What are they doing?”
Huang Xiu wasn’t the only one pondering this.
Yun Yu, Wen Erya, and indeed all the new students, found the same question surfacing in their minds.
What was Xu Gaoxuan planning?
He didn’t make the students wait long; in the very next moment, the answer was fully revealed.
Dozens of spiraling cloud pillars shot down from all sides of the dark cloud, striking the ground of the urban village with immense power.
The cloud pillars were terrifying in their grandeur, yet they didn’t seem to be an offensive maneuver.
Indeed, one such pillar descended right into the area where Huang Xiu and her group stood, landing beside them.
The cloud pillar, connecting heaven and earth, resembled a massive transport station, continuously drawing air from above and delivering it to the ground.
In moments, the ground was suddenly covered by a layer of ethereal clouds, thick enough to reach their calves.
Ignoring the surrounding environment, it felt as though they had stepped into the Celestial Palace itself.
Huang Xiu and her companions curiously prodded the clouds, scooping them up and letting the misty vapor slip through their fingers, returning to the ground.
“I think I know what Teacher Xu is doing!” Huai Nannan suddenly announced, looking up.
Huang Xiu cast a curious glance her way.
However, before Huai Nannan could elaborate, a dark shadow streaked across the vision of Huang Xiu’s Mutated Plant, a connection she had never severed.
The shadow was incredibly fast; even with the enhanced sight of the Mutated Plant, she couldn’t discern what it was.
Yet, as Huang Xiu used the Mutated Plant’s perspective to look beneath the colossal claw, she instantly recognized the shadow’s identity.
It was the exceptionally lean Dragon Abomination—the King-rank Dragon Abomination, the one aligned with the Turbid World Rank!
Huang Xiu’s vision leaped across the Mutated Plants scattered along the street, finally catching a glimpse of the shadow’s tail.
It ignored the numerous forks in the road, sprinting along the very path Huang Xiu and her group had taken for their tactical retreat.
Even the most self-deceiving person wouldn’t imagine, at this moment, that the King-rank Dragon Abomination was merely passing by.
Without a doubt!
This Dragon Abomination’s target… was them!
The King-rank Dragon Abomination’s figure vanished around the street corner, disappearing from the sight of all the Mutated Plants.
Seeing this, and to conserve her dwindling Void Energy, Huang Xiu withdrew from the Mutated Plant’s perspective, then shouted,
“It’s here!”
Upon hearing her words, everyone’s hearts filled not with doubt, but with certainty.
Huang Xiu understood the slightly wild look Wen Erya cast her way, and immediately shook her head.
As a Mercury Rank herself, while her running speed couldn’t match Wen Erya’s or Yun Ning’s, she wouldn’t fall behind.
“We’ve reached C1,” they said as they turned into a narrow alley.
Yun Ning offered encouragement:
“A1 isn’t far now.”
It wasn’t E1, but C1.
No one questioned this location.
Indeed, from the very beginning, their chosen direction of retreat wasn’t the Present World outside the Touchpoint.
Instead, it was deeper into the Touchpoint, specifically towards the A1 area.
At first glance, this might seem counterintuitive, but it was, in fact, the best decision they could have made.
Outside the Touchpoint, ordinary people would be utterly defenseless against a King-rank Dragon Abomination.
While the deeper parts of the Touchpoint teemed with monsters, the strongest Senior Male Students were also gathered there.
The Dragon Abominations of this chaotic world were an insurmountable mountain for first and second-year students like them.
However, for the higher-ups of the student associations, it was a different story.
Furthermore, Teacher Xu Gaoxuan and his colleagues had also flown directly above the A1 area.
Only there could the problem at their heels be resolved!
Boom!
A ground-shaking tremor suddenly erupted in the distance.
Before she could even switch to the Mutated Plant’s perspective, Huang Xiu suddenly felt it.
The mental connections in her mind shattered one after another, until only the one to Xiao Xian remained.
‘The Mutated Plants near the colossal claw have been destroyed!’
A chilling premonition coiled in Huang Xiu’s heart like a venomous snake. Her gaze shifted, and only then did she notice.
In just a brief moment, the clouds on the ground had grown incredibly dense, already reaching their waists.
It seemed as if, with each inhalation and exhalation of the cloud pillars, all the dark clouds over Xidu City had been transported to the ground.
And indeed, this was the truth.
The cloud beneath Xu Gaoxuan’s feet had reverted to its original appearance.
“Let’s get the students out first!” he said, forming hand seals.
“Alright, but what about that Emperor-rank Dragon Abomination?”
The bald, burly man, Teacher Yuan, gazed at the Emperor-rank Dragon Abomination in the distance, its arm now fully liberated from the Void Realm and present within the Touchpoint.
His eyes gleamed with sharp intensity, and the veins at his temples suddenly bulged.
“Let Teacher Song handle it!” the unassuming middle-aged man stated, crossing his arms.
Song was the Vice Principal’s surname.
‘Teacher’ was his respectful address for him.
He had always considered himself the Vice Principal’s student, even though the latter had never acknowledged it.
As they spoke, Xu Gaoxuan’s intricate hand seals finally reached their culmination.
He abruptly opened his mouth and inhaled deeply, visibly drawing in a massive current of air that filled his lungs like a whale.
His chest rapidly expanded like a toad’s, continuing until the two nearby individuals felt a slight lack of oxygen before he finally stopped.
“The great winds rise, the clouds soar!” Xu Gaoxuan murmured softly, then opened his mouth and blew directly at the white clouds beneath his feet.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The solidified white clouds seemed on the verge of disintegrating from the force of his breath.
Yet, the exhalation continued unabated.
That prolonged sigh pierced through the white clouds, descended to the ground, and ultimately manifested as a powerful Level 8 gale.
Instantly, a whirlwind of clouds erupted within the urban village!
The white clouds on the ground rolled up with overwhelming force, engulfing everything in their path.
****
If, before, Huang Xiu had thought the urban village resembled paradise,
at this moment, she knew it was not.
Everywhere she looked, the sky was clouds, the ground was clouds, she breathed clouds, and even what her hands touched was clouds!
“This is a world of clouds!” Huang Xiu murmured.
‘Perhaps one day, I too can create—a world belonging to Mutated Plants!’
Her face betrayed an uncontainable shock, her mind filled with that vividly illusory image.
****
“It’s Senior Male Student Xu Gaoxuan’s doing!”
Huai Nannan finished speaking, then realized she had stated the obvious, a blush spreading across her mud-splattered face.
The group had long since left the alley, now sprinting down the main street.
Even with Xu Gaoxuan’s intervention, the King-rank Dragon Abomination was still hot on their heels.
No one dared to stop.
Suddenly, however, at the far end of the street, ahead of the six, a massive commotion arose.
Accompanying the disturbance, enormous clouds of mist rolled towards them.
The mist was incredibly wide, tall, and thick, resembling a towering wall, interspersed with numerous miscellaneous objects.
No, those weren’t miscellaneous objects!
Those were…
“Students?”
Huang Xiu noticed the commotion and, upon closer inspection, saw many students mixed within the rolling clouds of mist.
She recognized several familiar faces among them.
“What the hell?” Huang Xiu barely managed to utter before the towering white cloud wall swept over them, engulfing them completely.
Far behind them, the dark shadow hurtling down the road suddenly screeched to a halt.
The King-rank Dragon Abomination crouched atop an electric scooter, a flicker of human-like confusion passing through its crimson eyes.
‘What exactly happened?’
‘My already faint senses, why did they suddenly vanish?!’
‘And what is this white stuff anyway?’
It tried to scoop up the mist with its claws, but how could something as formless as water be caught?
****
Below the area, Zhuang Bu was looking up at the sky.
This prodigy, who had once held immense renown in the academy and eventually secured a faculty position, had always been his goal.
Or rather, the goal of most students.
Tiandu University had no concept of postgraduate studies.
Therefore, staying on as faculty was the only way for students to continue their advanced studies at Tiandu University.
The number of faculty positions was extremely limited each year; sometimes, there wouldn’t even be one in an entire graduation season.
Better to have none than to have one of poor quality!
Securing a position at Tiandu University was incredibly difficult, a challenge beyond imagination.
“Senior Male Student Xu Gaoxuan is making such a grand display,”
Zhuang Bu slowly remarked. “It seems something extraordinary has appeared within the Touchpoint!”
His voice was muffled and indistinct, swallowed by the fierce wind.
The new student beside him hadn’t heard clearly and cast a confused glance.
“You all should leave together!” Zhuang Bu turned to them.
“Leave? Leave for where?” the new student questioned, but another high-ranking member of the student association understood.
“No way, you want me to leave now?” he squinted, trying to keep the sand out of his eyes.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Rolling stones were sent scattering, trees bent and snapped, and even the corpses on the ground shifted slightly.
This monstrous gale descended from the sky.
Starting from the central area, it surged outwards in all directions, stirring the ground-level clouds into a frenzy.
Like a tsunami, it formed concentric rings, rolling outwards circle after circle.
As the clouds rolled outwards,
both the senior and new students suddenly felt a tremendous, irresistible force emanating from the cloud rings.
The first cloud ring surged forward, and the senior student managed to resist it, but the new student couldn’t.
He stumbled, then fell onto the clouds, caught by the soft, rolling ring.
The cloud ring then carried him along the main road towards the periphery.
This was not an exception.
As the cloud rings expanded further outwards, they grew denser, sweeping up more and more students.
The cloud rings transformed into enormous buses.
The students found themselves seated within the center of these cloud rings.
They looked at each other, a hint of helplessness on their faces.
At this moment, everyone knew that these cloud rings were Teacher Xu Gaoxuan’s method of forcing them out of the Touchpoint.
Only by enduring wave after wave of the cloud rings’ pushing force could one prove they possessed sufficient strength to remain within the Touchpoint.
Thus, as five cloud rings expanded, the number of people remaining in the Touchpoint instantly dwindled to a mere handful.
Only a few remained, all outstanding third-year students and high-ranking members of various student organizations.
Even if they weren’t yet Turbid World Rank, they were rapidly approaching that level of power.
****
Outside the Touchpoint, logistics personnel were racing against time, preparing for the upcoming clean-up operation.
“Are all 100 instrument modifiers ready? No adjustments! After the Touchpoint is cleared, we only have two hours to process everything!”
The logistics manager spoke at a rapid-fire pace, like a machine gun.
Not far behind him, Mo Xuan and Fang Miaoging crouched beside a detection device.
Fang Miaoging looked up at the Touchpoint, her voice a little uncertain. “Senior Male Student, you don’t think… anything bad will happen, do you?”
Mo Xuan desperately wanted to reply with an unequivocal “No.”
But after opening his mouth for a long moment, he could only offer a less-than-certain answer.
“Probably… not!”
Ever since they discovered the Turbid World monster, they had immediately reported it to the academy’s higher-ups via phone.
After receiving a reply, there had been no further communication.
“If only the detection device were still working! At least then, we could see the latest situation inside!”
Mo Xuan looked at the unresponsive detection device, which now seemed nothing more than an iron cube, a regretful expression on his face.
Once the detection device truly began operating, its Void Energy consumption far exceeded the values he had calculated in the lab.
Even two of Tiangong Group’s latest Type 3 Void Energy batteries had lasted less than two minutes.
“What a disaster!”
Thinking of this, Mo Xuan’s expression grew unusually mournful.
He hadn’t built a Void Energy instrument; he had built a beast that devoured gold!
“If this doesn’t pass approval and secure a budget this time, I’ll reconsider my grand claims!”
Mo Xuan sighed, then turned to look at the Touchpoint.
Viewing the Touchpoint from the outside was like looking through a layer of water; their vision was refracted.
Everything inside appeared somewhat illusory.
‘What exactly is it like inside the Touchpoint?’ he mused, turning his head slowly and stroking his chin.
Even though they were students from Tiandu University’s Research Department, they were, ultimately, ordinary people.
To enter the Touchpoint, they required an Awakened individual as an escort and had to obtain approval.
Approval was always difficult to get; unless there was a necessary experiment to be conducted within the Touchpoint or the Void Realm, it usually wouldn’t be granted.
“Perhaps next time, I’ll find an opportunity to ‘accidentally’ get swept into the Touchpoint.”
Mo Xuan concocted a rather audacious idea.
However, before he could analyze whether this thought violated Tiandu University’s rules or carried a risk of expulsion,
he suddenly heard Fang Miaoging’s panicked shout from his right.
“Senior Male Student, look inside the Touchpoint! What is that thing?”