Chapter 255 - Chapter 254: The Silent Sky Responds (Part 1)

The sky above the Celestial Academy was unusually quiet in ways that transcended the ordinary absence of noise. No clouds drifted across the heavens in the lazy patterns that usually characterized the academy's atmospheric movement. No wind disturbed the ancient floating islands, the specific wind that usually moved through the spaces between them with the comfortable regularity of something that had been moving through those spaces for centuries. Even the countless spirit beasts that usually filled the skies with cheerful cries and the sounds of their movements had grown strangely subdued. The birds that normally sang at dawn remained silent. The flying creatures that typically hunted in the afternoon had retreated to their roosts.