silence.

A long silence.

The clan chief stared blankly at the stargazer in front of him, and suddenly felt a strong sense of impending death.

Its smooth skin contracted rapidly, and as its round body shrank, layers of wrinkles appeared.

Why...?

Since the last cataclysmic punishment, for countless standard days and nights, we have never ceased our prayers!

Why, why must the gods unleash the punishment of world-destroying destruction again?!

Faced with the clan chief's repeated questions, the stargazer remained silent for a moment before speaking again to explain.

I don't know the reason.

【but……】

Three hundred standard days ago, the celestial phenomena once again exhibited a strange change.

In the night sky, the stars began to disappear without warning.

Initially, only one or two stars showed abnormalities.

But as time goes on, the stars disappear at an increasingly faster rate.

To this day, thousands of stars have disappeared from the night sky.

At this point, the astrologer pondered for a moment, seemingly recalling something: "Similar anomalies have occurred before in the history of civilization."

[After that, the second cataclysmic punishment occurred.]

The clan chieftain trembled slightly and asked the astrologer in a low voice, "You mean... the Great Dissolution?"

Massive ablation.

It occurred 35,000 standard days ago.

When an astrologer was observing the night sky, he suddenly noticed that the number of stars in a certain area of ​​the sky had decreased dramatically.

What followed was the inexplicable deaths within the community.

When an individual dies, their body will spontaneously dissolve into the seawater.

Only those individuals who hid in the deepest parts of the inland sea managed to escape the calamity.

【Yes.】

The astrologer gave an affirmative answer.

[Abnormal celestial phenomena, a gradually shrinking area of ​​the outer sea...]

All of this foreshadows the imminent arrival of the third cataclysmic punishment.

The chieftain writhed restlessly, swimming back and forth in the icy seawater.

Finally, it stopped in front of the stargazer.

Tell me, what should we do?

Faced with the clan chief's "gaze," the stargazer did not hesitate at all and gave a straightforward answer.

[Let us resume our deep prayer service and ask for divine forgiveness.]

After praying, proceed to the deepest part of the inland sea and patiently await the divine response.

The Great Prayer Ceremony.

It is very different from the standard day and night routine prayer service.

A routine prayer ceremony requires only one person to pray, while a grand prayer ceremony requires the participation of all members of the tribe.

The routine prayer ceremony can be conducted simply by surfacing.

And the Great Prayer Ceremony...

You need to go to the ruins of the gods to do this!

The relics of the gods are the remains left behind by the gods after the first cataclysmic punishment.

Legend has it that it was a mount left here by the gods to awaken the world.

Originally, the relics of the gods were located by the sea.

However, as the area of ​​the open sea continues to shrink, the distance between the divine relics and the ocean gradually increases.

Even today, visiting the ruins of the gods is a formidable challenge for jellyfish.

In addition, the temperature is getting higher and higher...

It is foreseeable that this grand prayer ceremony will lead to the deaths of a large number of people in the tribe!

Therefore, the clan leader subconsciously wanted to refuse the stargazer's request.

But considering the two world-ending punishments recorded in history...

It was still afraid.

...

In order to minimize casualties among the tribe, the Great Prayer Ceremony was scheduled to begin at the start of the next Standard Night.

Night falls.

Led by the chieftain and the stargazer, all the jellyfish left the inner sea and landed on land.

They laboriously twisted their limp bodies, slowly moving forward on the flat, gravelly land.

According to the plan.

They will arrive at the divine ruins when the standard night is halfway through.

After completing the Great Prayer Ceremony, they will rush back to the ocean at the very beginning of Standard Day.

The temperature wasn't too high yet, so the tribespeople could still hold on.

...

Time slips away, bit by bit.

The night grew deeper.

The temple, high in the corner of the sky, was very bright, illuminating the surrounding area.

The thick atmosphere and the light of the temple obscured the light of most of the stars.

Therefore, even under normal circumstances, stargazers can only observe a small number of stars.

But now...

The clan chief raised his head, gazed at the night sky, and sighed deeply.

In the vast night sky, apart from the light of the temple, there were almost no stars.

All the stars have disappeared—this seems to foreshadow the severity of the impending cataclysmic punishment.

It gazed sadly at the shadow of the divine ruins in the distance, its mind filled with countless distracting thoughts.

Gods... what have we done wrong?

It asked from the bottom of its heart.

Clearly, no one responded to its question.

...

finally.

Thus, the "expedition" came to a brief end.

Gazing upon the divine ruins before them, the weary jellyfish, guided by their chieftain, began a grand prayer ceremony.

They stood close together, arranged in concentric circles around the relics of the gods.

then……

They swayed their bodies slowly, and their vocal organs began to vibrate, producing a series of low "gurgling" sounds.

The clan chief offered a devout prayer to the ruins of the gods and begged for their forgiveness.

The Great Prayer takes a very long time; in UN time, it would take a full 20 hours.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!