Chapter 374: Humanity Loses the Ocean

As a cloud of despair settled over their hearts, Su Mu figured it was about enough. Releasing hundreds of millions of Nightmare Creatures had relieved the pressure on the Seven Kings Barrier in one fell swoop, buying it at least another month.

If he released any more, humanity would utterly collapse in the face of absolute despair.

When he said he wanted to usher in a new era, it hadn't been empty talk. Humanity had grown too comfortable; without foreign invasions, they spent their days locked in internal strife, severely squandering their strength.

Within the major empires, nobles and the wealthy monopolized the Transcendent Paths and Transcendent Potions, choking off all avenues of advancement and leaving the empires filled with impoverished citizens.

Today, he would completely reshape the world order, break the noble monopoly, and personally forge an era of universal transcendence!

And the first step was... making humanity lose the ocean!

Dropping the Nightmare Creatures into the sea had been a deliberate choice. The ocean was sparsely populated, and it would take time for the Nightmare Creatures to invade the land from the sea, giving humanity a massive buffer to adequately prepare.

If this wave of the Nightmare Invasion had been dropped into any given empire, the consequences would be obvious—it would have fallen apart in an instant.

Furthermore, deliberately dropping them from high in the sky was actually his way of helping humanity. Falling freely from a thousand meters, weaker Nightmare Creatures like zombies would essentially die on impact.

Their fragile bodies would smash against the surface of the sea, shattering to pieces.

Through this maneuver alone, at least several million Low Tier Nightmare Creatures found their graves in the ocean—a far greater toll than what the Seven Kings had just managed to kill by joining forces.

Unfortunately, these good intentions went entirely unnoticed. The world only knew Pride as a god of destruction; little did they know he was their true savior.

Of course, Su Mu had never needed the world's understanding. It was more interesting this way, wasn't it?

He had never planned on revealing the truth of the world to the masses, as it would be utterly pointless and only incite mass panic. Once humanity learned that their world was fake—and that they themselves were fake—they would be capable of anything.

Back in the day, the seven first-generation Kings had kept the truth hidden out of this exact consideration.

Su Mu then closed the massive Abyss rift. The ceaseless torrent of invading nightmares came to a sudden halt, and the sun returned to the sky.

But as the warm sunlight washed over them, it brought nothing but the chilling cold of despair.

The ocean... no, it should be called the Black Sea now.

As far as the eye could see, the water was choked with a dense mass of Nightmare Creatures in all shapes and sizes. They stretched endlessly toward the horizon, seemingly turning the entire ocean black.

Faceless men, green-faced generals, ghost dolls, ten-thousand-meter-long serpents, tentacled abominations, Shadow men, scarecrows... and many other monsters that defied description.

Every nightmare humanity had dreamed of since ancient times had now taken the stage.

The only saving grace was that there were no Saint Grade entities like the Faceless Angel among them. That was perhaps the only good news in this desperate situation.

Driven by the waves, the endless Nightmare Creatures formed black tides that relentlessly swept toward the Seven Kings and their entourage. These high and mighty Kings and nobles fled in a panic to the massive ship they had arrived on, frantically attacking the incoming Nightmare Creatures.

Meanwhile, Pride—the protagonist who had pushed open the doors to a new era—had completely vanished.

"Pride... has left." King Chi stared at the sky with a complex expression, sensing the departure of Supreme Heaven.

The colossal ship she was aboard was fleeing at top speed. Having been injured in the earlier battle against the Faceless Angel, neither she nor the other six Kings had the strength left to fight this endless horde of Nightmare Creatures. They could only retreat for now.

"He may be gone, but the Nightmare Creatures remain," Gongsun Quan said, his face pale. Having just been whisked onto the ship in a flash by a Gold powerhouse, he felt as if two of his ribs had been snapped.

"The era has truly changed. The sheer scale of this Nightmare Invasion surpasses everything we have seen over the past few decades combined. If Pride hadn't chosen to open the nightmare channel over the ocean, then the people on land would probably..." Dongfang Yuan said in horror.

This veteran powerhouse of the Empire had weathered countless brutal wars. He could face storms of blood without batting an eye, yet today, he had completely lost his composure.

"That is exactly what I don't understand either," Gongsun Quan said, his brows furrowed tightly. "Pride clearly possesses overwhelming power. If he had opened the nightmare channel in the Chiyan Empire, the nation would have faced annihilation. Yet he deliberately chose to do it at the Seven Kings Council, out on the ocean, and even let his pet be slain by the Seven Kings."

"Have you ever kept a cat?" King Chi asked in a low voice, standing at the edge of the ship and gazing out at the endless tide of nightmares.

"I kept a cat when I was a child. It was adorable, acting fierce but looking completely unthreatening. But one day, I saw it catch a mouse. I thought it would just eat it, but instead, it let the mouse go time and time again, only to snatch it right back, constantly toying with the mouse with its claws."

King Chi's words made Gongsun Quan's face darken.

"Your Majesty is absolutely right. I was overthinking it. Now, Pride is the cat, and we are the mice. Trying to fathom a cat with a mouse's logic will only make the cat laugh. I can now understand what Pride said earlier—that when humans think, gods laugh. I have always prided myself on my unparalleled intellect, but at the end of the day, it is nothing more than mortal wisdom. I simply cannot fathom a god."

Gongsun Quan took a deep breath, his expression turning solemn. "Setting aside the affairs of gods for now, as a human and as a minister of the Chiyan Empire, all we can do is actively confront every disaster under Your Majesty's leadership.

"Your Majesty, according to my predictions, humanity will permanently lose the ocean after today. The sea will become a nest for Nightmare Creatures, and they will use it to slowly encroach upon the land. We must take precautions against this.

"I have three proposals!"

"Speak." King Chi's voice betrayed no emotion; no one knew what she was thinking.

"Yes, Your Majesty. First, the disaster of the Seven Deadly Sins threatens the entire world. The Seven Kings must set aside their past grievances and form the Seven Kings Alliance to combat the Nightmare Invasion together.

"Second, we must lift the restrictions on the Transcendent Paths and Transcendent Potions, allowing more Transcendents to emerge from the common populace.

"Third, we must mobilize national resources to fortify our coastal cities. They will bear the brunt of the Nightmare Invasion. I suggest we utilize the nation's Mithril reserves to forge Mithril Alloy and construct towering walls along the coast, and station our Transcendent forces there. We absolutely cannot let the nightmares reach the interior!"

Gongsun Quan truly lived up to his reputation as an Empire strategist. Even after witnessing such a despairing gap in power, he was still able to rationally formulate a counter-strategy.

After all, even some Gold powerhouses were still suffering from emotional breakdowns, completely consumed by fear.

"Do as you see fit. I am tired." King Chi turned and headed toward her room, but after only two steps, she suddenly paused.

"Oh, and Su Mu shouldn't be Pride. I have already contacted my clone. During the Seven Kings Council, he was inside a nightmare with Su Qing, and he should be back before long."