Chapter 679 - Earthquake

In the deep ocean floor, not far from Freedom Sect, a thunderous rumbling sound filled the entire region. It alarmed every water monster in the area and made them panic. 

This was something that rarely happened before because the ground started to shake and created a huge crack that spread around the ocean floor. Slowly but surely, the ground began to rise as if a mountain began to form in the depth of the ocean.

It also created a huge shock wave around the area… And Freedom Sect was one of the places that got hit by this powerful shock wave.

…

Inside the Freedom Sect, specifically the new area that had been recently developed. More than two hundred disciples and some elders were working in the building and solidifying this massive landscape to make a reliable and strong ground to expand their area. However, the ground started shaking and kept getting harder.

"What is this shaking?" The disciples were startled as they felt to the ground because they couldn't maintain their balance.

"This!" One of the elders in charge of the area realized this phenomenon as he had lived long enough to encounter something like this in the past. "Not… Good! Everyone flies to—"

Before he could order the disciple to escape to the air, a huge crater appeared from the edge of the barrier, spreading toward their position. Anyone would be able to notice this crack, albeit couldn't do anything. They tried to escape to the air as the elder said, but nature attacked first. 

*Rumble Rumble!* 

"Not good!"

The rumbling noises followed by the destruction of the landmass. The ground around the edge had yet to be strengthened, and this shaking shattered those lands. Not only that, but the barrier also received a powerful shock wave. It should be able to easily withstand a shock wave like this, but those destroyed lands still contained some arrays to create this giant barrier. And when the ground was destroyed, the barrier started weakening as the shock wave sped up the process by shattering them into pieces. 

*Clang!*

This breaking glass sound was followed by a deadly catastrophe as the water burst inside the place due to the difference of pressure between the Deep Ocean Floor and the inside of Freedom Sect. That high-pressure water quickly shredded the weak disciples, mostly those Martial Lord or below, while heavily injuring the Martial King. 

Martial Emperor and Martial Monarch disciples somehow managed to react and created a huge barrier with their Spiritual Energy. They were happy when they saw the barrier could hold on, but that happiness disappeared the moment they realized they were being pushed back by the water. 

"Fly to the air! Freedom Sect is huge, so it will take a while before the water fills the entire area. One Elder should go to inform all Temples about this! Those who stay here will try to search for the survivor and help me to fight the monsters that will come next!" One of the elders shouted and woke up the shocked disciple.

The disciples nodded while trying to see the powerful wave that flowed inside the barrier. All they could see was water and couldn't find a single disciple around as if they were swallowed by a dark hole. However, they stopped searching for the disciples after hearing the loud sound coming from the outside.

Within the dark seawater, many monsters, such as sharks and many sea creatures emerged. The disciples and elders began to unsheathe their sword as they released their Spiritual Energy. 

"Prepare for combat!" 

One of the elders knew his job and quickly went to the Teleportation Array that was protected by a solid barrier and disappeared. 

…

Meanwhile, Alex and the others also felt the ground shaking uncontrollably. He quickly looked around the area while floating in the air.

"This is an earthquake!" Alex gasped, finally experienced a real earthquake in the real world. He had once seen this when he wanted to cross the sea heading to the Nilis Continent, but it was so weak. 

"Earthquake?" Ryuu, who was beside him, looked at him in confusion.

"I have experienced this twice, and it's called the Anger of Earth God." Aileen shook her head before creating a gate, not waiting for the ground to stop shaking. 

"We need to go to Temple first. If something bad happens, they will inform us first to utilize our Spatial Gate." Aileen entered the Spatial Gate.

Alex and Ryuu exchanged looks and nodded, following her inside while Maya was the last to enter the gate.

"!!!" Alex furrowed his eyebrows as he could see the tall temple swaying left and right as if it was going to crumble in a bit. However, Aileen didn't care and flew inside the temple while she kept floating, so she didn't get influenced by this. 

Alex also entered the Great Elder's room and saw many papers scattered around on the floor as shelves also fell on the floor. 'This is… the real Earthquake in another world. However, I don't feel the Earthquakes that often on Earth, so I don't know the scale of this Earthquake… But I know this is a big Earthquake, especially when the epicenter is on the seafloor…' 

Aileen looked down at the messy Temple and shouted. "All elders hear my words. Don't care about those scattered doc.u.ments and messy situations. Just calm down first and stand by until further order. The building has withstood this phenomenon many times in the past and never collapsed, so don't worry."

"Yes, Great Elder!" The elders floated in the air as they bowed to Aileen.

Suddenly, a middle-aged man flew inside the temple and shouted. "Emergency! I am Tura, an elder in charge of the expansion. We have a big problem. The ground has sunk, and the barrier has collapsed. The seawater is filling the area right now. I request for the Great Elder to take action."

Aileen narrowed her eyes, pondering for a few seconds before giving her command. "Second to Nine Elder will quickly go to inform the other Great Elders—!!!" 

Before finishing her words, Aileen gasped upon the sight of water entering the temple, starting to flood it. "How big exactly is the hole?!"

"It breaks half of the barrier!"

"!!!" Aileen gritted her teeth. "We only have a few minutes left before this place is filled with water and monsters. Those eight elders quickly go and bring the Great Elders to that place! On the other hand, five Martial Saints from 1-Star to 5-Star will come with me while the rest of you go to quell the unrest of our people with First Elder as the leader!" 

"Yes, Great Elder!" They quickly disappeared with their Spatial Gates.

Aileen also created another Spatial Gates to go to the dangerous place before Alex and Ryuu shouted. "I will follow you!" 

Alex and Ryuu were startled and looked at each other before nodding their head with solemn expressions.

"Kids should stay away!"

"You must be planning to create a Spatial Gate to redirect the water first, but there is no way you can cover the area. We can help you… like the fifty people you want to bring." Alex nodded and decided to help since his life was also in danger here. He could easily escape by using the array, but he might not be able to continue his study here, so he decided to stay by their side this time. Ryuu nodded in agreement. 

"Do whatever you like! But Maya should help the others to calm the rest in my stead." Aileen entered the Spatial Gate as Alex and Ryuu followed her while Mia could only pout, watching them leave.

"!!!" Alex was amazed by the sight of this catastrophe. He noticed that the ground stopped shaking after a whole minute and quickly went toward the streaming torrent of water.

"Spatial Gate!" Aileen, along with the rest, created the gate as big as possible, trying to patch the hole and successfully control the water influx as some areas might still have water flowing around there, but it's not at the alarming rate like before. However, Alex noticed that there were many monsters that had entered the barrier. He was worried that they might notice and struck them at a time like this. After all, the monsters were filled with Martial Monarch and Martial Saint monsters, considering they were from the ocean floor.

"Alex! You said this was an Earthquake, do you know something we don't know?"

Alex almost forgot that this place was relatively weak in science and natural disaster knowledge. They might have a good foundation and stronger materials that could withstand such an Earthquake, but they still didn't know the reason for an Earthquake itself.

"Do you know that the ground is actually moving?"

"The ground is moving?"

"Yes." Alex thought for a bit, recalling his knowledge about Earthquakes. "Let me explain it in a simple way. Take the example of the Heavenly Continent. They might not stem from the same ground as the one from the other continent. And imagine that if two continents collide, what will happen?" 

Aileen narrowed her eyes as she never thought about it while Ryuu listened to him attentively. "I don't know, but something big must happen."

"It's simple. One will go up, and one will go down. The friction and impact that the collision produced were like the force as if two 10-Star Martial Saints clashed. However, we are talking about Earthquake here, so it won't only be two Saints alone… It will be thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of Saints! That's how big the mass and volume that produced this kind of Natural Disaster." Alex tried hard to send his message in a very simple way.

Aileen widened her eyes as she was stunned. She never thought there was this kind of phenomenon going under the sea.

"This is actually not only happening in the sea, but also in the land. It's just the one we are experiencing right now has an epicenter in the seafloor close to our place and quite a huge one… There might be some aftershocks later, so we need to stay sharp!" Alex warned her. 

"Fine." Aileen nodded and bit her lips as she knew what Alex said was correct. She had experienced it twice in her life and noticed the aftershocks he was talking about, so it was enough to convince her. On the other hand, Ryuu admired Alex even more. Not only he had unparalleled talent and strength, but his wisdom was also deep. 

However, they forgot that many monsters had entered their sanctuary. And they realized their presence due to the sharp decrease in water and turned around. 

"Scree—!"

Many monsters noticed them and attacked them from behind. The elders started protecting themselves, but suddenly another sound appeared around them. 

From slashing sounds to explosions sounds echoed through the entire place as fourteen people emerged behind them and killed all the monsters that tried to hurt the Space Temple Elders. 

"We are sorry for being late! The other elders will also come in a minute or so." One of them said.

Aileen glanced at them and snarled. "Hmph. All of you are too long! We have been waiting for you here for a few minutes… Anyway, I will talk later because we are facing a serious issue. Licht! Use your brain now, old man! And where is that Viola?"

"Viola is handling her volcano that erupts because of this incident." Licht, the Light Element Temple's Great Elder, informed while thinking about their current situation. "Anyway, I am going to—!"

"Wait!"

A shout suddenly stopped Licht from talking as everyone's eyes locked into a young man with golden hair. It was from Alex. 

"Alex! What are you doing?" Aileen couldn't help but snarl. They were facing a threatening situation here, and Alex stopped Licht from issuing orders.

"Did you say the volcano erupts? Are there any other volcanoes here, and what are their sizes?" Alex interjected while sweating profusely. 

Licht didn't know what he was talking about but ignored him nonetheless. "Anyway, I need to proceed with my order first! Firstly, the Space Temple will—!" 

He was once again stopped by another sound. However, this sound was very different from the sound of humans and so loud as if it wanted to tear Heaven with its noise. 

*Rumble Rumble!* 

*Boom!*