novelraw Chapter 128 : The Prison Abyss
Chapter 128 : The Prison Abyss
128: The Prison Abyss
At this moment, Liu Xing and Wang Xuezhang also came in and took their seats in the front row.
Yuyin felt that all the students who had fought their way into the Source Martial Tournament finals from the Academy, as well as other exceptionally outstanding top students and special-talent students, seemed to be here.
Except for... Senior Sister Lian.
Yuyin couldn't help but feel a little worried.
At this moment, Chen Qian'ning, dressed in a black teacher's skirt suit, walked in.
She closed the cabin door of the conference hall, walked to the naval podium, and looked at everyone sternly. "Very good, it seems everyone is here. I won't take roll call, because those who want to come will naturally come. Please remember that the true decision is always in your own hands, no matter when."
"This is also my first time teaching a class in such a special place. Starting today, I and a few other teachers will spend a week with you all on this logistics ship, conducting a top-secret, closed special course."
"This course should have been taught by Dean Tong himself, but he is shouldering important responsibilities right now and cannot make it back, so I will be teaching it to you."
Even an experienced, queen-like female teacher like Chen Qian'ning took a deep breath at this moment, her chest rising and falling obviously. She seemed a little nervous, under some kind of indescribable pressure.
"I don't have Dean Tong's composure to be able to say such heavy things so calmly. I won't beat around the bush. I'll just tell you directly." Chen Qian'ning's expression was grave, her pink lips seeming to tremble slightly as if under some invisible pressure.
She said, "The class I'm going to teach today is about 'Over There'."
"What we usually call 'Over There', according to the confidential regulations and implementation measures of Huaxia, ordinary people are not qualified to know. But you, you are all Source Martial Practitioners. Moreover, you are the outstanding talents among the Source Martial Practitioners of our Huaxia, perhaps you can even be called geniuses. You are qualified to know, and you must know."
"'Over There'..." Chen Qian'ning seemed to pause for a moment, slightly adjusting her glasses. "I'm sorry. As you can see, even for a battle-hardened teacher like me, to say that name out loud makes my heart tremble. It's not that I value my own safety so much, but what I fear... is the responsibility, is the future. That place is so terrifying to me. That place is called... the Prison Abyss."
Chen Qian'ning's hands involuntarily rested on the podium, and her high heels made an unsettling, soft 'tap-tap' sound on the floor.
"In the legends of various human civilizations, there is hell, the place where people go after they die. But the Prison Abyss exists to eliminate all living beings in our world from existence."
The Prison Abyss.
Most of the hundred or so Source Martial Practitioners present already knew of its existence.
Including Yuyin, but what exactly the Prison Abyss was, where it was, and what kind of threat it posed to humanity, Yuyin did not know.
The students also looked at each other. Most of them, like Yuyin, only knew that the Prison Abyss was an extremely dangerous place and a great threat to humanity, but they did not know the specifics.
Everyone listened with bated breath.
Chen Qian'ning adjusted her emotions and continued, "The Prison Abyss, in fact, even now, with the combined strength of the entire world, our understanding of it is extremely limited. To generalize, it can be understood as the Other Shore."
"The Prison Abyss is one, or perhaps many, Other Shore worlds that cannot be located in a three-dimensional space as explained by science." Chen Qian'ning said gravely.
"Between the Prison Abyss and our world, there is a connection through the Two Realms Gate. I cannot show you a picture of the Two Realms Gate here, because it cannot be photographed. But a Source Martial Practitioner with spiritual sight can see it when they get close enough. This is just like the demon spirits you see wandering around Lingdu."
"There are a total of twenty-seven Two Realms Gates in the world. The Other Shore of each Two Realms Gate is a very different foreign world. We cannot determine whether these worlds are independent of each other or are part of a whole, because none of us can travel that far."
"As we all know, our Huaxia is the country with the most cultivation sects in the world, with the most ancient cultivation secret arts, and with the largest number and overall strength of Source Martial Practitioners. But very unfortunately, our country also has the most Two Realms Gates of any country in the world, with a total of seven."
"The reason the Prison Abyss poses a fatal threat to our world is because, through these Two Realms Gates, the ethereal demon spirits we usually see, which have no great impact on the outside world, their true bodies can come out. The number of demon spirits is immense, and many of them are very powerful. Their true bodies can easily devour and slaughter humans and all kinds of living beings on Earth."
"And among them, the most terrifying are the humanoid demon spirits and the ferocious, strange beasts they command. They are intelligent, or rather, their intelligence is not inferior to ours. We cannot communicate with them in language, but communication is not entirely impossible. However, they refuse to communicate with us in any form. They are different from other demon spirits. They do not act out of a hunting or ferocious nature, but for the simple, pure purpose of massacre."
"Once these humanoid demon spirits pass through the Two Realms Gate, their only goal is to kill humans, to kill all kinds of living beings on Earth, and even to destroy the vegetation, water sources, and other ecosystems on Earth. After many years of war with them, we have confirmed that they want to exterminate all of Earth's living beings, especially humans!"
Chen Qian'ning took a deep breath. To say such a cruel fact to these students she had watched grow up was much more difficult and cruel than harshly reprimanding or even whipping them. But it had to be said. The Source Martial Practitioners who could be used were becoming fewer and fewer. This year, it was estimated that not just the third-years, but also some second-years and even first-years would have to go to the Prison Abyss to provide support. Even if it was just preliminary training, if they didn't get trained soon, it would be too late.
Chen Qian'ning continued, "Of course, it's not just the humanoid demon spirits. Even ordinary ferocious beast demon spirits, if released into areas where ordinary people live, would be a terrible disaster. A ferocious beast at the Purple Domain Realm could easily slaughter hundreds or thousands of mortals. And if it were a higher-level ferocious beast at the Void Truth Realm, it would be enough to destroy a small town! If they were allowed to enter a large city like Lingdu, the consequences would be devastating, both for life, the human economic form, and human confidence."
"For this reason, whenever a Two Realms Gate is discovered, countries around the world will mobilize their national strength to gather a large number of troops and Source Martial Practitioners to surround it, building a defensive circle, and stop at all costs anything from coming out and intruding into the areas where civilians live."
"Our Huaxia, in accordance with the five Two Realms Gates, has divided the entire country into five great garrison war zones. Each garrison war zone is jointly guarded by a Garrison Commander and a military marshal. These two are both true super-strong beings of Huaxia." Chen Qian'ning said, her chest rising and falling.
"Five?" Yuyin was confused. Didn't she just say there were seven Two Realms Gates?
Chen Qian'ning continued, "However, within the last ten years, two new Two Realms Gates have appeared consecutively in our Huaxia. This has brought unprecedented and immense pressure on our defenses. Even Dean Tong has been temporarily transferred to defend one of the newly appeared Two Realms Gates. Although our Huaxia has many sects, the deepest foundation of cultivators, and is full of strong beings, facing seven Two Realms Gates, our defensive forces are extremely, extremely tense... sigh..."
"Teacher Chen." Qin Feizhen raised his hand. "C-Can I ask a question?"
"Go ahead."
"Can't our modern weapons, especially the high-tech weapons of our army and the North American armies, deal with the invaders from the Two Realms Gates?"
"For those below the Mid-Stage of Purple Domain Realm, conventional armies can handle them. But for those at the Late-Stage of Purple Domain Realm and above, general weapons are very difficult to deal with. To kill a Late-Stage of Purple Domain Realm expert would require missiles or bombs of extremely large power. Ordinary tank cannons would be of limited use, let alone machine guns. But these things are not designed to attack small targets like humanoid creatures. Late-Stage of Purple Domain Realm experts are extremely fast and very difficult to hit directly. We have used biological and chemical weapons, but the effect is not obvious. Purple Domain Realm experts are also extremely resistant to poison gas and biochemical weapons. And we also have to prevent the spread of these weapons, making it difficult to use them effectively. As for the Void Truth Realm, except for the most powerful super bombs, general conventional weapons are almost completely ineffective, especially for those who possess good defensive treasures." Chen Qian'ning said somewhat helplessly.
"What about nuclear weapons? Can we destroy the Two Realms Gates with hydrogen bombs?"
"We have done this more than once, but it is limited to those that appear in extremely remote areas like deserts. We cannot repeatedly bomb our own homeland with nuclear weapons. Many Two Realms Gates are very close to densely populated human areas. For example, less than a hundred kilometers west of Lingdu, there is a Two Realms Gate. How could we possibly deploy a nuclear weapon right next to Lingdu? And even if we disregard the losses, we would only be hurting ourselves. We can only kill the demon spirits that have broken into our world, but the Two Realms Gate cannot be seen by mortals and is not a physical entity. We do not know what form of existence it actually is. The Two Realms Gate itself, no matter what, we cannot destroy..."
Once Chen Qian'ning said this, Qin Feizhen was also speechless. If the gate could not be destroyed, repeatedly bombing oneself with nuclear weapons would be no different from suicide.
"Teacher Chen, can nuclear weapons and high-tech weapons directly attack the Prison Abyss?" Wang Tieshu asked.
Hearing this, Wang Xuezhang shook his head helplessly. "That should be impossible, otherwise, why would we need to defend for so many years?"
Chen Qian'ning nodded. "This is the biggest problem. We don't know how big the Prison Abyss is. Those demon spirits seem endless, and their attacks are growing stronger. The gates are still increasing, one every few years. We certainly cannot remain on the defensive forever! But, no technological weapon can pass through the Two Realms Gate. If a missile flies toward the Two Realms Gate, just as the gate does not exist on radar, it truly does not exist. The missile will fly directly through the gate and continue to fly on our Earth. The same is true for other things like fighter jets, bullets, and artillery shells."
"Only living beings can enter the Two Realms Gate to reach the Other Shore. Let alone high-tech equipment, even a piece of steel, an ordinary tool, or a stone from Earth cannot enter. Scientists once tried to disassemble special materials and attempt to bring them through to assemble on the other side, but not even a piece of material as small as a sesame seed could be brought in." Chen Qian'ning shook her head.