The changes in the ghost domain barrier left Abe Daishi utterly bewildered.
Ling Tian had been thrown into that marsh for several hours. By all rights, he should have been dead by now.
After all, fighting in water would inevitably affect one's abilities. Moreover, the marsh teemed with various aquatic yokai.
Neither the astonishingly numerous Kappa army nor the attacks of the powerful Umibōzu were something an ordinary person could resist.
However, the most crucial point, as Abe Daishi knew very well, was that within that marsh, his ancestor Abe no Seimei had sealed a great demon of the yokai level, the Master of Arakawa!
While Abe Daishi had never personally witnessed the strength of this great demon, his ancestors had clearly explained it: even if everyone in the White Fox Palace were bound together, they would not be its match.
Therefore, not releasing this great demon had always been a principle followed by the Abe family.
If Ling Tian had been killed, the entire formation disk would have calmed down, and the entire ghost domain barrier would have fallen silent. But the problem was, things had not unfolded as he had envisioned.
The formation disk continued to provide feedback, indicating extremely intense energy fluctuations within the ghost domain barrier!
Suddenly, the ghost domain barrier experienced a significant energy depletion. Abe Daishi racked his brain but couldn't fathom what had happened.
Then, abruptly, Abe Daishi sensed that the situation had taken a turn for the worse. The feedback from the formation disk indicated that a crucial component of the ghost domain barrier, that vast marsh, had encountered a problem!
The obsidian pillars beneath the marsh served as the formation's eyes, acting as both the source of power sustaining that world and the cage sealing the Master of Arakawa.
As long as those pillars remained, the formation would continue to operate, preventing the Master of Arakawa and other water spirits from approaching that area.
Without destroying these pillars, unless one possessed the formation disk, the water spirits within the marsh, including the Master of Arakawa, would be unable to emerge from that marsh space!
But now, he deeply felt that those pillars had been destroyed, the formation's eyes in the marsh world were ruined. This meant that the Master of Arakawa might very well break free!
Upon this thought, Abe Daishi felt his scalp tingle. This was truly a monumental disaster!
However, this fellow had no idea that the Master of Arakawa had already been severely wounded by Ling Tian. Its physical body had been destroyed by heavenly lightning, and its soul had been collected into the Soul Refining Furnace. If all went as expected, its soul would be refined into a large amount of pure soul energy, which Ling Tian would then use to nourish himself!
In reality, the greatest disaster was not the Master of Arakawa, but the marsh itself!
The entire White Fox Palace and the area behind the mountain were dwarfed by the size of that water body. The reason for such a large marsh was primarily due to the formation.
The formation set up by Abe no Seimei back then incorporated many highly advanced techniques, including the Sumeru Mustard Seed Space.
That marsh was actually located within another space opened up by the formation.
Now, with the formation's eyes destroyed, this space ceased to exist. But the problem was, although the space was gone, the water within it remained!
One reason for the immense volume of water in that marsh was that over the centuries, almost all the rainfall from the upper half of the White Fox Palace mountain had converged into this marsh.
Additionally, there was a water vein on the mountaintop, a small stream that continuously fed water into this space, flowing for nearly a thousand years.
The accumulated rainwater and stream water over a millennium had ultimately formed this vast marsh!
But now, without that space, the water in this marsh had lost its containment. As the saying goes, water flows downwards. Consequently, the water from the marsh began to pour down from all directions, from the mid-levels of the mountain where the White Fox Palace was located!
The first to bear the brunt was the Seimei Shrine at the foot of the mountain. The road leading up the mountain was built according to the mountain's terrain, forming a small canyon. The water directly rushed down this canyon.
The sky-high floodwaters, with waves three to four meters high, cascaded down from the mountainside. The power of this flood was comparable to a tsunami!
The entire Seimei Shrine was directly washed away by the flood!
Following that, temples, buildings, and even residential areas surrounding the Seimei Shrine were swept away by this flood. Countless houses were destroyed, and an unknown number of people and cars were carried away by the deluge.
The floodwaters spread along the roads to the surrounding areas. Finally, after destroying nearly a quarter of Kyoto, they flowed into a river channel and eventually into the sea!
Afterward, according to statistics, this sudden catastrophe resulted in hundreds of deaths, hundreds of disappearances, the destruction of over a thousand houses, and tens of thousands of people left homeless.
Especially in the vicinity of the Seimei Shrine, many ancient temples, historical sites, and cultural relics were ruined by this great flood. It was estimated that the direct and indirect losses caused by this flood amounted to hundreds of billions of US dollars!
The Japanese authorities immediately dispatched investigators to the back of the Seimei Shrine to uncover the truth. After a long period, they released their investigation report, stating that there was a barrier lake on the mountaintop that had accumulated a large amount of water. Possibly due to an earthquake, the barrier lake's dam had burst, causing this flood.
However, this explanation was immediately met with skepticism because the area of the mountain behind the Seimei Shrine was not large. Even if the entire mountain were excavated to create a reservoir, it would not have such a massive storage capacity!
Furthermore, according to measurements by Japan's seismic department, there were no earthquakes in the vicinity of Kyoto at the time of the incident!
Although the Japanese public did not believe this explanation, those who raised doubts were quickly silenced. A mysterious force intervened, forcing them to remain quiet, lest they disappear from this world!
Ling Tian was also bewildered at this moment. He had just collected those obsidian pillars into his Spiritual Realm space when the marsh's space collapsed.
Immediately afterward, water began to surge in all directions, and the water surface of the entire lake became shallower and shallower.
Ling Tian's face turned green. He didn't want to be swept away by this rampant flood. So, Ling Tian immediately set the coordinates of his Spiritual Realm space to a large rock at the bottom of the marsh and then hid himself within the Spiritual Realm space.
At this moment, Abe Daishi felt the vibrations from outside. After all, a tsunami-like flood would create a tremendous commotion.
Abe Daishi quickly rushed out of the courtyard. The scene before him startled him so much that his eyeballs almost popped out!