The black seawater and sea fog transformed into a stretched line in Lin Xian’s eyes. Lin Xian once again activated the Energy Leap, charging directly out of the train.

This time, his spiritual power was highly concentrated, allowing him to accurately perceive flying several kilometers in the direction of his will in an instant. Swish, in the blink of an eye, Lin Xian appeared above a sea area, surrounded by dense sea fog with almost complete darkness, unable to see Infinity at all.

At the moment the leap ended, Lin Xian only felt the roaring sea wind and humid sea fog rushing toward him, enveloping him. Simultaneously affected by gravity, he immediately began to plummet toward the sea surface. At this moment, his nano-power armor immediately covered his body, with the stabilizing propeller igniting in the last second before plunging into the sea, suspending him above the sea surface.

At this moment, Lin Xian took out the Black Gear from the Black Star Forge, his brows furrowed, mind racing.

"If I’m not mistaken, it can cut off shielding of dark energy, and even cover and obscure contained Taboo Items. This thing is practically a Divine Artifact..."

The question that Lin Xian had never figured out was actually a very small detail, that the countdown appeared first, and the Black Gear was seized from Chen Yanshu using the Gravitational Lens after Lin Xian regained consciousness. Therefore, he never thought there was a connection between the two, nor did he consider that this object might have been purposefully left by Chen Yanshu.

This greatly misled Lin Xian, for Lin Xian always believed that although he had obtained the Black Gear, he still needed a detailed study on how to complete containment without ever considering that the Black Gear had already been contained by him, purposefully by Chen Yanshu.

If this is the case, then everything would make sense—some characteristic brought by the Black Gear affected his control over the Flashing Bullet and South Heavenly Gate. The countdown appeared because of the Black Gear, and because of this, after contacting or accidentally touching something, the countdown suddenly accelerated, or his time flow rate began to accelerate. Although it seemed somewhat incredible, at this moment, combining all clues and excluding all impossible ones, this seemingly incredible conjecture was most likely correct.

Moreover, he now no longer had any other choices.

4, 3, ...

At this point, the countdown only had the last three seconds left. Watching the racing numbers in his sight, Lin Xian felt a heaviness in his heart.

"This countdown is generated by the link between the Black Gear and me. The Descent Faction wants to sever my control over South Heavenly Gate, so I either destroy it or cut off containment!"

At this moment, Lin Xian made up his mind, and suddenly all the propellers behind him lit up and fired, propelling him to break the sound barrier and charge out at high speed toward the distance!

3, 2, 1!

seconds almost came in a flash, and Lin Xian only felt an incomparably chilling and violent aura accumulating crazily toward him. His eyes flashed rapidly, and at the last second of the countdown, he directly activated Energy Leap, flickering two kilometers instantly in the sea fog. Then, he used a drone to grab the Black Gear, and after, he activated another leap toward the opposite direction. Within milliseconds, Lin Xian used the drone for remote positioning, pointed mid-air, aiming at the Black Gear.

Gravitational Lens!

Buzz!

The drone was enveloped by the black sea fog, and being two kilometers apart, Lin Xian couldn’t see it at all. Yet at this time, a spatial fluctuation rose, with black ripples quickly twisting and appearing at the center of the drone suspended above the sea fog, instantly swallowing the drone along with the Black Gear, forming a distorted black bubble in the sky.

Simultaneously, the originally peaceful sea surface began to show agitated waves, with an intense dark aura frantically gathering at the gear’s location. Lin Xian pointed remotely at the void and noticed an unusual tremor coming from the sea area ahead.

Rustle!

The power armor launched multiple flares tearing through the dark night sky over the sea. Thick sea fog fell like a gray curtain on the ocean’s surface. Lin Xian stared hard. At this moment, an absolutely smooth black giant wall suddenly tore through the fog wall with no warning, its edges devouring water vapor and sky light, twisting as it expanded into a sky-covering ring. In an instant, it eclipsed the whole view—a black Star Abyss that seemed like a real entity releasing its tide!

Lin Xian’s pupils contracted sharply. Without any hesitation, regardless of physical exhaustion, he conducted another leap flicker towards the rear. Meanwhile, the sea surface ahead suddenly sank, forming a kilometer-wide vortex. Within the wall of pure darkness, everything was silent; waves crushed into powder-like crystal fragments, unseen before being fully consumed.

Low-frequency hum seeped out from the depths of the Black Hole, as if a star beast in slumber was vibrating an awakening yawn in its cranial cavity, expanding until shadowing half of the sky. All remnants of massive floating debris and ghastly tendrils protruding from the fog sea vanished, accompanied by countless Abnormal Bodies erupting skyward from the Black Hole like sacks of rice bursting, crazily gushing out towards all sides of the sea area.

Watching this scene, Lin Xian’s face drastically changed. It appeared as if a small-scale Star Abyss entity had materialized, surging forth numerous Dark Creatures, accumulated long and explosively.

Boomboom!

Giant vortex and Dark Tide resonated turbulently, lifting massive waves all around as innumerable Abnormal Bodies vanished rapidly into the fog, speedily diving into the water.