Chapter 158: The Giant Eye

"How do we leave Thunder City?"

Hearing about a way out of Thunder City, Su Ye immediately asked with great haste.

Entering Thunder City had been entirely involuntary; after plummeting into the Gu River, they had found themselves cast into this vast ocean, and ever since, no one had ever mentioned any method to escape Thunder City.

Jiang Liuying seemed equally anxious, chiming in rapidly, "Right! You blockhead, how do we leave? I haven't taken a bath in days, I want to go home so badly, and I want a proper meal!"

The sturdy martial artist failed to react for a moment and replied, "Miss Liuying, are you hungry? I still have some compressed biscuits on me."

"Are you really made of steel? How are you even denser than Su Ye? I'm talking about wanting to go home! Hurry up and tell me, how do we get out of Thunder City?" Jiang Liuying blurted out anxiously. Why couldn't this blockhead's brain process a simple thought?

The sturdy man said in a deep voice, "I don't know the way out, but since we heard the legends of Thunder City back in Guangzhou, along with the map of this place, it means someone must have left here before."

Su Ye nodded in agreement, though for some reason, his heart grew a heavier burden.

After walking for a long while, they finally left Thunder City behind. Emerging through the city gates, they discovered that the outside was actually a vast potter's field—a graveyard for the unclaimed.

For people living in modern metropolises, such a desolate graveyard was a rare sight indeed. Even the urban cemeteries had long been manicured into picturesque landscapes by businessmen.

Therefore, when Su Ye and the others saw earthen mounds dotting the small hill before them, some even with exposed coffins, a slight chill ran through everyone.

In front of many earthen graves stood tombstones with names carved upon them, though ages had passed, leaving most of them too blurred to decipher.

Many of the grave mounds were overgrown with wild weeds, littered with fallen leaves, presenting a scene of utter desolation.

"How do we get out from here?" Deep confusion filled Su Ye's eyes. This was a graveyard; could the so-called way out of Thunder City mean leaving only after dying?

His arm suddenly tightened as Jiang Liuying gripped him fiercely, digging her fingers into his flesh with both hands while trembling slightly.

"Scared?" Su Ye looked at her, pulling her neck inward like a little kitten, and realized this young miss was terrified.

Jiang Liuying glared at him, slowly straightened her posture, forced a look of composure, and said, "Ridiculous! What kind of person do you think I am? Would I be afraid of this? When I was six, I casually wandered through every haunted house in Guangzhou. At eleven, I watched horror movies alone in the middle of the night! Didn't I tag along when Uncle Zhong went to exorcise demons and catch ghosts last time? How could I possibly be scared?"

Su Ye smiled without refuting her. Indeed, those born into the Jiang family could not live ordinary lives. Especially someone like Jiang Liuying, who bore the hopes of the entire Jiang family; she had certainly experienced plenty.

Even in the past, when he went out at midnight to listen to the thunder, Jiang Liuying had once followed him out alone to witness it.

Suddenly, Jiang Liuying faced the desolate graveyard ahead and shouted loudly, "Yu Zhisha, stop hiding! Since we've already spotted you, come out obediently!"

Hearing this, everyone's expressions tightened. Had Jiang Liuying found Yu Zhisha?

Su Ye immediately followed Jiang Liuying's gaze, looking straight ahead. Yet, apart from scattered grave mounds and numerous stone coffins, there was no trace of Yu Zhisha anywhere.

"Where is she?" Su Ye asked in a low voice.

Jiang Liuying rolled her eyes and whispered, "How should I know? I was just trying my luck. What if she heard me and decided to show up?"

"Are you... out of your mind?" Su Ye was speechless. What kind of time was this, and this young miss was actually relying on luck like that?

"You're the one out of your mind! Su Ye, you've got some nerve scolding me. Do you have a death wish?"

Before Jiang Liuying could say more, she suddenly looked behind Su Ye, jumped back, and pointed at him, crying out, "You're leaking gas! Oh no! Did you end up roasting yourself with your own fire?"

The sturdy man also yelled, "Su Ye, what on earth are you carrying on your back?"

Su Ye looked down at himself and discovered that a wisp of blue smoke was indeed rising from his body. He knew that although he could summon thunder-fire, it was fused with true Qi—a powerful manifestation of true Qi whose only distinction was that its color resembled flame.

In reality, it would not truly burn, let alone scorch his own body and clothes. But why was it smoking now?

"Damn it, it's my treasure."

Su Ye immediately unstrapped the treasure pouch. Although the scroll inside contained only four characters—"The Tide is Coming"—it was undoubtedly a precious artifact. Why was it suddenly smoking?

He took it out, and sure enough, the scroll was the source of the smoke.

"The Tide is Coming?" The martial artists nearby saw Su Ye unfurl the scroll and murmured the words in unison.

From within the unrolled scroll, blue smoke slowly emanated. Right after the four characters "The Tide is Coming," a bolt of lightning slowly materialized.

As the blue smoke billowed, the giant "lightning" pattern seemed to pierce straight through the four characters.

"Something is fishy!"

Holding the scroll, Su Ye walked slowly forward, as if something in the graveyard ahead was summoning him.

The sturdy man's expression shifted, and he told the two martial artists nearby, "Go quickly and inform the Patriarch and the Young Alliance Master. There's a special situation here; tell them to come over at once."

The two martial artists acknowledged the order and departed immediately.

Holding the scroll aloft, Su Ye walked forward step by step. With every stretch of ground he covered, the lightning inside the scroll grew increasingly distinct.

Feeling rather frightened, Jiang Liuying whispered, "Stop walking. It's so eerie here. Who knows what kind of ferocious beast this thing might release? Don't go any further!"

The sensation blooming in Su Ye's heart defied description. He shook his head and stubbornly continued forward.

Seeing this, Jiang Liuying grew even more anxious. As they walked, she suddenly noticed that the grave mounds all around were trembling slightly.

"Don't you see them moving? You stinky Su Ye, do you want to die? There are so many tombs here—who knows, maybe you'll end up like one of these suicidal fools. Stop walking!"

"There must be something ahead."

Sensing the heavenly thunder within his body trembling gradually, Su Ye pressed on.

As they penetrated deeper, the barren trees around them grew more numerous. The grave mounds began to lose their tombstones, replaced by an increasing number of stone coffins.

At that exact moment, a terrifying roar of a ferocious beast echoed from ahead, resembling the lament of an ancient eagle dormant for ten thousand years.

*Awooo—*

With that piercing cry, the entire earth began to quake.

Pale with fright and barely able to stand, Jiang Liuying screamed, "Look! I told you not to court death! Run!"

*Hum!*

Right at that moment, two dazzling beams of white light appeared in the sky ahead, casting down from above.

Su Ye and the others instinctively looked up and instantly saw two gigantic spheres of light materializing out of thin air. These luminous spheres were unmistakably the eyes of a ferocious beast, yet they were grotesquely massive, measuring seven or eight meters across.

Within those gigantic pupils, crystalline depths seemed to reflect the figures of Su Ye and his companions standing on the ground below.

"What on earth is that?" Su Ye's mind buzzed. He felt as though those giant pupils would transform into a colossal hawk soaring across the Nine Provinces.

"They're looking at us! Let's run!" Jiang Liuying shrieked, spun around abruptly, and bolted.

Sensing the gravity of the situation, Su Ye shouted, "Don't move!"

*Awooo—*

Another furious roar of the savage hawk pierced through the clouds, resounding across the entirety of Thunder City.

*Rumble!*

In that very instant, the tombs all around began to heave violently, and countless fissures tore across the earth.

"Is there an earthquake?" the sturdy man yelled. Suddenly, a withered tree nearby seemed to spring to life, shooting out vines that whipped around his ankles and dragged him away.

"Careful!" Su Ye leaped into the air, but before his feet could clear two meters from the ground, two vines burst upward from the soil, instantly entangling his legs.

*Rip!*

Su Ye immediately summoned his blade of thunder arcs and slashed backward at the vines beneath him. To his surprise, the vines proved astonishingly tough; under the sweep of the thunder blade, only the two outer layers severed, while the thickest core remained entirely undamaged.

*Bang!*

Su Ye was slammed back down onto the earth.

All around, cries of alarm erupted as Jiang Liuying and the remaining martial artists were likewise ensnared by the vines and dragged in various directions.

Panic gripped Su Ye's heart. He never expected such a terrifying trap to exist here.

Could all of this have been premeditated by Ye Lingyun? Had he deliberately lured him into this perilous dead-end? But that was utterly impossible; at the time, not even Ye Lingyun—let alone himself—could have anticipated that he would wield the sovereign might of the Dark Tribulation to turn the tide.

"Ah! Help! Help—"

After a dizzying spin, as Su Ye stabilized his body, he was shocked to discover that half of his torso had been dragged into a grave. Only his upper half remained exposed.

It was a horrifying predicament. He could clearly feel the lower half of his body trapped inside the burial mound, wrapped in vines that seemed to be slowly devouring his legs.

Yet, the quaking earth finally began to subside.

"Ah... Ah..." Not far away, Jiang Liuying had been dragged toward the roots of a giant tree, half of her body buried as well.

"Liuying! Liuying! Stop screaming!" Su Ye shouted at the top of his lungs.

Hearing his voice, Jiang Liuying finally quieted down. Glancing around, she grasped the situation and instantly flew into a furious tirade: "Damn Su Ye, look at the fine mess you've caused! Pull me out of here! I told you not to walk forward, but you just had to keep going!"

"You were the one running around and alarming these trees, yet you're blaming me?" Su Ye's mood was abysmal. His true Qi was completely blocked; he prayed he wouldn't perish in this wretched place.

Hearing this, Jiang Liuying gnashed her teeth in fury. Her breathtaking face twisted with rage as she scolded, "It's all your fault! All your fault! Once I get out of this, see if I don't bite you to death. Following you is pure bad luck!"

Su Ye gritted his teeth in irritation, but as a man, he couldn't afford to bicker with her endlessly. The priority was figuring out how to escape. The sturdy man and the other martial artists had been dragged off elsewhere and were completely out of sight.

"Is anyone there? Help! Help—" Jiang Liuying screamed at the top of her lungs.

Su Ye tried to stop her. "What are you shouting for? Shut up! What if you attract something else? People have already gone back to report; we just need to wait!"

But Jiang Liuying refused to listen. The more Su Ye tried to stop her, the more stubbornly she rebelled.

Before long, the sound of footsteps echoed from the distance.

Overjoyed, Jiang Liuying cried out, "See? Someone's coming! Help! I'm over here!"

However, the moment Jiang Liuying laid eyes on the approaching figures, the color drained completely from her face.

The newcomers were none other than a few Gu sorcerers from the Buddha Field Summit. There were three of them, seemingly fleeing while carrying the corpse of the Miao Clan Chieftain.

"It's them..."