Zhu cocked her head. "Even the sea god is unwilling to brave the perils of the whirlpool strait. Doesn't that make these creatures stronger than the sea god?"
Zhang Lie: ...
Zhu wasn't wrong, but this wasn't the type of strength Zhang Lie was looking for. He snorted, unfurled his wings, and made to leave, but Zhu called him back.
"Hold on, hold on! The tyrant of the strait hasn't appeared yet!"
Zhang Lie pointed a finger at the whirlpools that lay beneath him. "Aren't these the tyrants you're talking about?"
"No!" Zhu replied. "The tyrant makes a huge commotion when it emerges from the depths. It's incomparable to these smaller whirlpools—you'll see."
Zhang Lie's expression was complicated. He was shocked and somewhat disbelieving of Zhu's claims, but his expectations swelled.
"The tyrant of the whirlpool strait tends to awaken in the evening."
Zhang Lie hovered in the sky until evening, when the scallops closed up and the whirlpool strait became calmer than at any point during the day.
The evening light filtered through the clouds and reflected dazzlingly over the surface of the water. The sparkling blue water and rosy clouds evoked a startling sensation of natural beauty, one which Zhang Lie hadn't expected to see.
Just above the horizon was a luminous, glowing sun, whose rays shone red as they pierced through the clouds, making the sky look as though it were burning up. Beneath the sun was an idyllic patch of crystal-clear sea, one which seemed to turn red from the evening sunlight.
A sea breeze began to blow, and Zhang Lie felt unexpectedly comforted by the scenery. No matter when, no matter where, a sunset by the beach was a wonder to behold.
The scallops each spouted out one final pillar of water, not to attack Zhang Lie, but to expel all the water from their bodies and replace it with air before sinking toward the sea floor for a night's rest.
When the fading sunlight struck these pillars, they glowed golden, only adding to the natural beauty of the scene.
He had visited the beach with his family once before. Back then, his parents were hale and hearty, and he had witnessed the sunset with Zhang Hanxiang. Suddenly, the image of Zhang Hanxiang seemed to become Zhu, still in his hands—they were both orphans who had lost their parents. Unexpectedly, Zhang Lie revealed a gentle smile as he reminisced about his idyllic childhood.
"In a few moments, as the sun sets, we'll see a corona of green light. Do you know why that happens?"
Zhu: ? ? ?
"As we know, when sunlight hits the atmosphere, it begins to refract. Sunlight might look white, but that light is actually a combination of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet light—the seven colors of the rainbow. Each color of light has its own wavelength, red light having the longest and violet the shortest. The angle of refraction is determined by this wavelength—red light is refracted the least, and violet light the most.
"As a result, when the sun sets, the last color we should see should be violet or pale blue, but the wavelength of that light is so short that violet light largely diffuses away in the atmosphere, leaving only green light behind."
At the time, he was still a clueless youth, who had parroted that paragraph from a book he'd found in a library in an attempt to impress his sister. Zhang Hanxiang clapped her hands in amazement at his explanation, and Zhang Lie had become quite pleased with himself for some time afterwards.
Instead of reacting with amazement, however, Zhu frowned. "I've never seen this green light..."
It was Zhang Lie's turn to be surprised. Before he could inquire further, an extraordinary spectacle occurred.
Tremors shook the sea and sky. The surface of the sea reverberated, as did the very air.
An earthquake? No, that was impossible! The tremors were stronger than an earthquake. The surface of the sea began to rise, and choppy waves smashed against each other.
An ancient voice came from deep underwater, as though the owner of that voice had lived for millennia. It echoed lowly from beneath the sea, much like the baying of a whale or the keening of a dragon. The surface of the sea darkened, as though a gigantic cloud had covered the sun. From above the surface of the sea, Zhang Lie looked down and saw a shadow of unbelievable magnitude beneath the water.
Despite being high above the surface, he couldn't see where the shadow ended. Ripples of energy spread about the shadow's body, and a primordial aura emerged from the sea.
The feeling was so intense that Zhang Lie felt as though he weren't able to breath, and an instinctive tremor shook his body. Zhang Lie couldn't help but smile—after all this time, after all this effort, he had finally experienced this aura once again.
The aura of a disaster-grade lifeform.
Even if he couldn't see its full appearance just yet, its aura was proof enough. The incandescent sea seemed to come alive. Water spun more and more rapidly, as though the sea itself were breaking up, as though there were a mysterious force churning through it.
Even the air began to swirl as a gigantic whirlpool formed in the sea and everything was sucked within. The effect extended beyond even the sea—a twister formed in the air as a result of the pressure differential, and the suction force was so intense that the entire sky seemed liable to collapse.
Despite his strength, Zhang Lie was unable to remain steady in the air. The whirlpool seemed like a gigantic maw that consumed everything in its path. Even before Zhang Lie could make out its appearance, the world seemed to turn apocalyptic.
Zhang Lie barely managed to remain in the air, straining against the pull of the whirlpool, when he suddenly felt a blinding light.
The sun was setting. No—the sun was being dragged down by the whirlpool!
"Swallowing the sun and the moon... isn't that merely a legend?"
No, it couldn't be. Zhang Lie could feel the burning, scorching energy of the sun all around him, and his forehead beaded with sweat.
In the blink of an eye, he flashed away. The whirlpool hadn't sucked down the sun, but it had somehow managed to take in some of the sun's boundless energy for itself.contemporary romance
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