Above The Sky
Chapter 353 - 353 335 Prelude to the Return 23

353: Chapter 335: Prelude to the Return (2/3) 353: Chapter 335: Prelude to the Return (2/3) At first, it was just white particles.

The snowflakes were hardly formed, light like rain, and since the vast majority of people didn’t look up at the oh-so-familiar sky, almost everyone in Harrison Port thought it was an ordinary drizzle.

But then came the billowing fluff of heavy snow, startling everyone.

The leaden sky was dark and oppressive, the clouds twisting as if some colossal creature lurked behind them, its indescribable presence spreading, as if heralding some unspeakable omen.

The warm fluff of snow melted upon contact with the body, but what it left behind was not water but a slightly wet and slippery mucus.

Because of the snowstorm, the air was filled with a faint metallic scent, mixed with a hint of nectar-like sweetness – a high-nutrient secretion unique to some kind of metallic fungi, which had now congealed into frosty white snow, descending upon the whole of Harrison Port.

The viscous liquid spread like a carpet, covering the entire land and forests with life’s vibrancy.

The sky was invaded by vast snowfall, and the moist, wild southern wind blew northward.

While everyone was still puzzled, it had already swept past Harrison Port and flowed toward the direction of Sanhe City and even Nauman City.

“Elan, what’s going on, I suddenly sense an extremely terrifying crisis?!”

In the church, an even older elder hurried outside.

The Bishop of White Mist was shrouded in a dense, almost tangible white fog, his Second Energy Level’s “Primitive Externalization” and “Will-Shaping” had reached mastery in his hands.

Without any special abilities, his control of Origin Quality alone was enough to defeat an average person at the Second Energy Level.

But even such a strong man still felt fear.

“This snow…is not normal!”

Raising his head, the old man frowned deeply, reaching out into the air, grasping large clumps of snowfluff that hadn’t melted yet.

Next, a light blue glow lit up in his eyes as he used Spirit Energy to observe the ‘secrets’ within these snowfluffs.

And this observation made him stand rooted to the spot in astonishment.

What emerged in the Bishop of White Mist’s eyes was not snow at all…

but clusters of ‘mycelium’ bunched together, gathering in groups!

Not just mycelium, though.

With his Spirit Energy-enhanced vision, he could see these snowflakes, which appeared to be mold mycelium, still waving their cilia-covered tentacles.

They flapped the air around them, allowing themselves to drift leisurely over the earth rich with life rather than falling on desolate stony forests, beaches, or wilderness.

Once landed, these unknown life forms dissolved in water, appearing like a small clump of mucus…but in reality, within this mucus, countless minuscule transparent ciliated worms were stirring rapidly.

“Ah!”

A sharp scream came from the other side of a nearby street, a palpable agony.

The old man’s head shot up, looking towards the street.

On a different street, a Crimson People woman, shielding herself from the rain with a basket, suddenly had a fierce reaction of Origin Quality flare up within her, like flames igniting.

The blood vessels in her chest and abdomen, red and blue, swelled as if something foreign was spreading under her skin, muscles twitching, grotesque and ferocious.

At first, the woman could scream, but the next second, she stopped making any noise and instead raised her head, looking towards the others, who were watching her fearfully.

Her eyes flickered with a strange crimson glow of Origin Quality, and a web of blood vessels began to spread from her eyes and forehead, soon covering her entire body.

Hum—

An intangible wave of Spirit Energy Fluctuation swept through half the street.

Suddenly, the scalps of the ordinary people around exploded in paralysis, a lightning-like sensation coursing through their bodies.

Despite the hair on their arms and back standing on end with fear, they were unable to take a single step, frozen in place as if lead had been poured into their legs.

Dragon Might—or rather, an Aura of Fear!

The clearly unwell woman disappeared from the spot, her movements becoming incredibly agile as if she had become someone else.

When she reappeared, she was lunging towards a middle-aged man sheltering from the rain with his child.

Her speed was incredibly fast, shooting forward like a cannonball.

Even without any other methods, the impact alone could break the man and his child’s bones, not to mention the faint red glint of blade light appearing at the tips of the woman’s fingers.

She had suddenly become capable of mobilizing Origin Quality for attack.

Although it was just a surcharge of his own life’s fire, it was already terrifying enough.

Time seemed to slow, and a look of horror slowly emerged on the man’s face.

He couldn’t stop the other party, nor could he fathom why the usually gentle woman had suddenly turned into such a monster to attack him.

He simply didn’t have time to think, to ponder the reasons behind all this.

But someone else could.

Bang!

A streak of white light flashed by, and the red-haired woman was sent flying backward, her body twisted as if her spine had been shattered, hitting the wall to the side and making the house tremble slightly.

The White Mist Bishop stood still, helping the frightened man up from the ground, then urged him to hurry home and take shelter from the rain—the old man turned his head, looking in the direction of the red-haired woman.

—The Origin Quality and Spirit Energy auras had completely changed…

The light of life had been replaced with someone else’s.

This person had been parasitized and devoured in just the short span of a dozen seconds of rain!

And under the old man’s gaze, the red-haired woman whose spine had been kicked to pieces struggled to crawl around.

If it were a human, they certainly wouldn’t be able to move, but a monster that feels no pain is a different story.

In the woman’s eyes shone a red fluorescence, the monster using a human body, no matter how it struggled, couldn’t make large movements.

Upon realizing this, it let out another sharp howl.

Then, to the astonishment of the White Mist Bishop, the monster in the form of the red-haired woman…

her body instantaneously collapsed into a semi-transparent mass, faintly tinged with the color of orange-red blood…

Slime.

It was slime, like moss, like a carpet.

Within the slime, a skeleton already devoid of life, and within those melting organs, countless tiny worms moved sluggishly.

“First Level Biohazard!”

Even as a Holder of the Huai Guang Office, the old man felt his heart pumping intensely, a sensation he hadn’t experienced since his ‘death’ and ‘rebirth’.

“Full alert!”

The White Mist Bishop immediately roared, allowing his voice to surge like waves, spreading throughout Harrison Port: “Ailes, quickly get to the Aether Armament!

This is a Level One Biohazard, I will call the Archbishop of the Great Flame to purify Harrison Port immediately!”

“If you don’t want your domain to be scorched by celestial fire, stop this warm snowfall at once!”

Seconds later, Viscount Grant, piloting the Aether Armament’s Blue Swift Shadow, accompanied by a piercing sonic boom, raced towards the iron-gray leaden clouds in the sky; the Third Energy Level power of the Abyssal Whale began to disperse the dense clouds.

Soon, the entire sky cleared, and the densely packed snowflakes had already become much sparser.

“Elan, get inside the church…

Elan?”

Turning his head, the White Mist Bishop intended to have his disciple quickly return to the church to avoid the strange snow, but he found the white-haired youth staring blankly, stretching out his hand to let the snow land in his palm.

The fine snowflakes touched the youth’s snow-like white skin, almost instantly blending together.

They melted, adhered, invaded, and finally penetrated into the center of his palm, merging into his bloodstream…

“Brother…”

The youth whispered softly to himself, clenching his palm, and revealing a gentle smile.

The familiar warmth, the familiar presence…

everything familiar had returned.

—He had come back.

With this great snowfall, with the prologue of an era.

And the end of an era.