The light of self-detonation instantly permeated a radius of hundreds of miles.
Within the core area of the self-detonation, the merman demigod was killed almost instantaneously.
His demigod body was not damaged, but his soul had dissipated.
He fell from the sky, crashing to the ground with a roar, forming a deep pit.
The explosion ended, and the merman demigod was dead.
The aftermath of the explosion leveled Donghai City.
Dozens of small mountains within tens of miles also collapsed with a rumble.
Within a hundred-mile radius, the residual shockwaves of the self-detonation caused varying degrees of destruction.
Peaks collapsed, cities were destroyed, the earth caved in, and the entire area became a wasteland.
Meanwhile, the people who had taken refuge on mountains tens of miles away now awoke.
They were fortunate to be far from the detonation area; however, the aftermath was too powerful, causing them to suffer internal injuries of varying degrees.
The merman demigod was dead, and the light of the Merman's Tear had also dissipated.
They were awakened by pain, their internal organs aching as if every part of their body was in agony.
"Ah, what happened? It hurts so much!" someone clutched their chest, waking from a nightmare.
As soon as they woke, the nightmare still swirled in their minds, and the physical pain made them cry out.
Not only him, but everyone else was in immense pain, feeling as if their waists had been broken.
"My whole body aches. What was that nightmare? It scared me to death!"
"Brother, you had a nightmare too?"
"Huh? You all had nightmares? What kind of nightmares did you have?"
"Look, did we travel through time?"
The crowd staggered to their feet and their eyes widened in disbelief.
Where were they?
Where was their Donghai City?
Why had it become a vast lake in front of them?
Yes, by the time they woke up, the original area of Donghai City had gradually transformed into a lake.
Countless seawater rushed in, quickly filling the enormous pit.
Around them were broken walls, fractured mountain peaks, and cracked earth, a desolate scene that bore no resemblance to the landscape around Donghai City they remembered.
No, that corpse floating in the lake, doesn't it look like the merman demigod?
"You guys, look quickly, is that thing in the lake the merman demigod?"
"Holy cow, it really is him! What exactly happened after we fell into that nightmare?"
"Did we not time travel?"
"Could Donghai City have been buried beneath the lake?"
"Lin Yu won, he killed the merman demigod?"
"I get it, it was another self-detonation. I've seen its power before; the situation it caused is no different from this."
"Now that you mention it, it really does seem that way."
Many of them were adventurers who had experienced the Battle of the Ruins and had personally witnessed Lin Yu's self-detonation.
Although the power of the self-detonation then wasn't as great, the destruction caused was merely a difference in scale.
This scene of devastation was strikingly similar to the devastation in the Ruins!
They finally understood. They hadn't time traveled; it was the Lin Yu clone's self-detonation during the great battle that had altered the terrain.
Looking at the desolate scene, they fell silent for a long time.
The scope of destruction was too vast; as far as they could see, everything had been ruined.
Mountains had collapsed, the land had sunk, and there wasn't a single intact spot.
On the other side.
Fuyao Zi and the others also woke up.
They were powerful and had not suffered internal injuries, but looking at the scene before them, they too fell into silence.
Envy and jealousy!
Lin Yu was only eighteen years old, yet he had just entered the transcendent realm and had already reached the pinnacle.
Damn it, it felt like they had all lived their lives for nothing.
The Charioteer sighed, "I feel like a complete waste."
The Divine Monk chanted a Buddhist phrase: "Amitabha, you don't need to feel it; I also feel you are a waste."
Fuyao Zi shook his head and sighed, "This Daoist feels you are all wastes, and naturally, this Daoist is also a waste."
Yan Jun chuckled, "We are all wastes, not even a single hair of Lin Yu's."
The Charioteer forced a bitter smile, "It can't be that bad, right? To be so self-deprecating."
Fuyao Zi chuckled bitterly, "Heh heh~"
Everyone nodded in agreement, and the Charioteer also sighed, unable to refute them.
Compared to Lin Yu, they were not much better than wastes.
As they mocked each other, their hearts grew increasingly bitter.
At this moment, the Charioteer suddenly pointed ahead and exclaimed, "Look, Lin Yu has reappeared."
In the distance, Lin Yu's two thousand clones reappeared in the sky.
They descended to the spot where the merman demigod's body lay. One clone was taking away the merman demigod's corpse, while the others dove into the water, searching for any dropped crystals.
Watching this scene, the crowd's hearts grew even more bitter.
After just a self-detonation that killed a demigod, how could he still have clones!
Was he really that monstrous!
Their hearts ached. The stronger Lin Yu became, the more useless they felt.
Fuyao Zi sighed, "Perhaps we should head back first."
"Back where?" the Charioteer asked.
Fuyao Zi sighed, "To my Sanxian City."
"Good idea, let's go. I can't stay here any longer; I'm too discouraged," the Charioteer grumbled.
In truth, their discouragement wasn't that great. More of it was relief, but they genuinely felt a sense of loss, wondering if they were getting old and unable to adjust to the situation.
The Charioteer and the others departed.
For the subsequent matters, their high-level combat power was no longer needed; the logistics personnel would handle everything.
Next, it would likely be the reconstruction of Donghai City, which could be left to Fang Jin, the City Lord of Donghai.
They had fought for so long, were injured, and were tired, desiring a rest.
They left, while Lin Yu's clones were still searching for crystals.
He wasn't certain if the merman demigod had dropped any crystals, but it was always worth a try.
What if one had indeed dropped?
On the other side.
Lin Yu also emerged from behind the scenes. Several clones placed the merman demigod's body before him.
Although the merman demigod was dead, his physical body was perfectly preserved. It was indeed the body of a demigod, whose soul had been annihilated in the self-detonation, but the body remained intact.
Perhaps it was also related to their deep-sea origins; their physical bodies were stronger than other species.
"Life Siphon!" Lin Yu used his innate ability, Life Siphon.
However, to his surprise, he found he couldn't siphon anything.
"Never mind!"
Lin Yu gave up on siphoning.
Suddenly, a ring on the merman demigod's tail caught his attention.
He quickly took off the ring. The moment it entered his hand, he felt a mental resistance.
He concentrated his attention. The opponent was already dead, allowing him to instantly break through this mental barrier.
Suddenly, a hazy space appeared in his mind.
"This is a spatial equipment!" Lin Yu exclaimed in delight.
He quickly checked the spatial volume of the spatial equipment and found it to be a thousand cubic meters in total, a standard 10x10x10 cubic space.
"Haha, I finally have a spatial treasure!"