Chapter 355: Top Secret File

Boundless tree sea, clouds of vapor filling the sky, a crushing darkness as if Tiandu itself had collapsed.

Like wind-driven blades sweeping up a skyful of flying leaves, dancing and whirling, they were ultimately swallowed by a heaven-reaching waterspout that linked heaven and earth, transforming into blades that could slice through all things with ease; a heavy-water spear resembling a thunderclap from the heavens tore across the long sky and descended.

"Boom—!"

Heaven and earth abruptly turned white; a lightning serpent flickered ceaselessly through layer upon layer of clouds, illuminating the tiny figure on the ground below rising to meet the divine spear—a Bai! And behind the Bai, shielded by it, an even smaller, frailer figure.

A Bai that looked so small! It seemed to be contending against the most powerful force between heaven and earth.

Even just looking on like this—even though most of the pressure had already been blocked by Bai standing in front of her—Jin Yun'er could still feel a profound despair welling up from her heart.

Even though she had already prepared herself for death, she could not help thinking: is this truly a power that any living being can contend against? It had nothing to do with willpower; this was the instinctive reaction of any life facing an unimaginable force before it.

Is this the legendary power of an immortal?

A might sufficient to change a world!

Is this the power she herself sought to pursue?

What a pity—she seemed about to disappoint Grandmother…but that meant dragging Bai down with her…

Thinking this, Jin Yun'er closed her eyes bitterly, quietly awaiting death's arrival.

One breath… two breaths… three breaths…

She did not know how long passed—perhaps an instant, perhaps a long while.

Still sensing no death arriving, Jin Yun'er opened her eyes again, and then she seemed to see the most beautiful thing in all the world!

Bai, still standing before her, seemed to have changed…no, that wasn't quite right, because Bai still wore the same posture, but his aura had changed—no longer the gentle manner he had when getting along with her, like a knowledgeable, mild elder brother—he had grown sharp!

Edge fully revealed, as if the entire beast were shining, like that warm star in the heavens that grants all things life finally showing its destructive side!

Simply standing there, he made it impossible for anyone nearby to look away—he was the center of the world!

A sun about to manifest its might!

Invisible force and edge seemed to gather toward him ceaselessly from every direction, cloaking his claws and fangs with the sharpest light in all the world!

Trees began to shatter, turning to dust too fine to hear; the earth began to crack, revealing the dark abyss below; the vast ocean realm too showed signs of collapse, and boundless, endless sharpness radiated outward from his body in every direction—at this moment Jin Yun'er saw a transparent "field," somewhere between form and formlessness, spreading outward without stop…

And so, that heavy-water spear resembling a thunderclap from the heavens halted, its piercing advance arrested by an invisible domain; that mysterious, formless field utterly transformed this place into the legendary "Dustless Land"!

As if even if the world were destroyed now, this "field" could still protect this small patch of land and let it alone endure!

The next instant, boundless sharpness swept out from his claws!

In a flash, every image vanished—neither the seemingly world-destroying scene, nor the "field" that seemed capable of turning this patch of land into a world-destroyed-yet-still-enduring "Dustless Land."

From Jin Yun'er's perspective, the moment that edge appeared, it was extremely faint; it had neither the grand momentum of that heavy-water spear, nor did it match the terrifying aura it itself stirred up.

Yet it was so clear and conspicuous, so eye-catching; it flew out at what seemed an extremely slow speed, as if anyone, so long as they had a mind to, could casually dodge it—or shatter it.

But at this moment Jin Yun'er did not know the pressure Lan Yu, who truly faced this attack, was under.

In an instant, Lan Yu watched with his own eyes as the heavy-water spear into which he had poured all his power was sliced through down the middle by that edge in the blink of an eye—the entire process without the slightest collision, pierced as easily as an illusion, a bubble, without a trace of fire or force.

The attack formed by his most proud, most relied-upon Earth Immortal power—gone, just like that?!

Not only that—just as he wanted to move again, he discovered he could not move his whole body; if his heavy-water spear was a great ocean, then the feeling the attack before him gave him was the weight of an entire planet crushing down on him, and on the void he stood in!

Vast mass, and gravity, just like that, held his body in thrall, unable to move any longer.

But—what a joke, just because of that slow, leisurely attack? That slow, leisurely speed—an attack he could dodge with the greatest of ease?

Lan Yu did not understand, but the next instant he seemed to see a familiar scene—in boundless, profound darkness, a massive body falling from the clouds, bearing countless steel-hard tentacles, like a deep-sea deity! That was—

His own body!

Lan Yu—dead!

Not only that, on a distant stretch of Xingkong, on a thriving life-planet radiating countless powerful auras, in a bustling, prosperous coastal city with roads leading everywhere, in a mansion at the very lively heart of the city—

"No! Ah——" an utterly wretched scream rang out, then cut off short.

At once a black-as-ink cloud was born in an instant above it, and in the blink of an eye rapidly spread, utterly occupying the sky above the great city.

Thunder roared, lightning serpents flashed, gales gradually rose—a world-ending scene descended upon the city in an instant.

A powerful, destructive aura gushed forth like a volcanic eruption from a mansion within the city, striking countless people with terror; they were a people not much different from humans, but with two slender, blue, hair-like tentacles growing from the backs of their heads.

"A god! A god! It's a god's aura!"

"An out, outsider god is attacking!"

"Quick, quick, call for help from the lords of the City Lord Mansion!"

……

These people collapsed to the ground one by one in terror, some crying out for help, some staring blankly at the powerful aura in the sky above, some fleeing in all directions, or…everywhere was a chaotic uproar.

"What petty thief dares to invade Tianhai City!"

Before long, an angry shout rang out; within the city, one凝聚 after another of solid auras rose like beacon smoke, and several streaks of流光 rose from the ground, sweeping横向 toward where the aura was erupting.

Racing along the way, the appearance of those powerful experts radiating beacon-smoke-like auras finally calmed the panicked people somewhat, who cried out in delight.

"That's wonderful! The lords of the City Lord Mansion have finally made their move!"

"That's Lord Hulan! I recall Lord Hulan advanced to the Sea God Realm the year before last, and is already counted alongside those old predecessors as one of the Empire's Ten National Pillars. I never expected Lord Hulan to come this time—now that outsider god who dared to invade will surely suffer for it!"

"Pillar of the Nation, Lord Hulan!"

……

Along the way, such cries rose without end; the prime-aged man in the sky addressed as Lord Hulan, hearing them, was quite pleased.

But he also knew the priorities of the matter; with his power surging, he arrived at the source of that world-destroying aura in just a few breaths, where several experts radiating equally powerful auras were already waiting.

Sensing his arrival, those experts merely bowed their heads slightly with grave expressions and nodded, saying nothing. Hulan paid it no mind, and asked the eldest among them, "Old man, what's the situation?"

"Hulan, you've come just in time!"

That rather aged elder raised his head with a look of relief, a relieved smile appearing on his face, and waved him over to look.

"Look, this is the source of everything that has come about this time."

The elder spoke as he walked over.

"This," Hulan looked over and at once saw a young man's corpse. The youth's features were youthful, right at the age when vigor and vitality were bursting forth, yet now he was dead. A jet-black crack was deeply imprinted on his brow, and his eyes were wide and rigid, as if before dying he had witnessed something unbelievable!

And the source of all this was precisely what was emanating from within that terrifying crack on the youth's brow!

Hulan thought for a moment, always feeling this youth looked very familiar, as if seen somewhere… wait, isn't this Lan Yu, the most celebrated genius of Di Hai High School in Tianhai City these past few years?!

The illegitimate son born of the Lan family head—one of Tianhai's three great families—and a woman of the streets?

He vaguely recalled that this youth's life was a very inspirational story. It was said that when he was studying at Tianhai Middle School a few years ago, he was still nothing but an untalented废物, bullied at every turn. But for some unknown reason, in his final year of high school he suddenly awakened and rose up. Within the span of a single year he rose rapidly, not only crushing the classmates who had bullied him, but also entering Di Hai High School with outstanding results, becoming one of the most dazzling geniuses.

Now, how did it come to this?

Somewhat puzzled, Hulan glanced at the old man. The elder, seeing this, also stroked his beard and nodded, knowing that he had finally understood. "It seems there is some hidden circumstance behind our little genius, or perhaps his talent is so exceptional that even the Outer Gods are consumed by jealousy."

"However, now is not the time to discuss this. This child suffered something unknown that actually drew down the power of such an Outer God. We must now obliterate the mark left behind by the Outer God!"

While the few were speaking, the aura within the crack on the youth's brow finally revealed a clue—a sliver of edge, thin as a hair, yet dazzlingly brilliant!

The sharpness of that edge, the instant it touched the outside world, carved countless transparent slash-marks through the void, crisscrossing like a spider's web. Watching closely, Hulan could even faintly hear a mysterious beast standing amidst a sea of thunder, roaring toward the heavens!

In just a few breaths, the apocalyptic scene grew even more terrifying. Hulan glanced at the old man beside him; the other wore a solemn expression, completely unaware that a section of his beloved beard had been severed without his noticing.

"Good heavens, terrifying power!"

"Seems to be a Beast God?"

"No matter what, let's first obliterate this Beast God's traces, or else if those lunatics get hold of it, it might become a descent beacon for those Gods!"

"Indeed!"

"Very well!"

……

Half a month later, this incomparably prosperous Tianhai City had regained its calm; the apocalyptic scenery that had shrouded it for half a month had finally dissipated.

The people of Tianhai City, long accustomed to their home city occasionally bursting forth with disasters, paid it no mind. At most, this incident's duration was a bit longer, but since it involved the Outer Gods, it was hardly surprising.

Only the people of Tianhai failed to notice that during that half month, a full seven of the Empire's ten Pillars had actually come, and when they departed, each and every one had an ashen face and a noticeably withered aura.

And in the Empire's highest classified files, one more top-secret incident was added—a prophecy extracted only after gathering all the Empire's seer-type experts, finally drawn from that sliver of edge and the youth's corpse—

"Seawater floods the land, storms bring down deluges, from the Dustless Land within the ancient Forbidden Forest comes a thunderous roar. Beneath the awesome might of Heaven, a mysterious beast-shadow bathed in lightning, wielding the world's blades and arms, delivers a strike of annihilation…"

"SSS-level Confidential Document 'The Mysterious Beast-Shadow of the Otherworld'"

Perhaps only those in the upper echelons understand.

This world, so full of life, seems to have once again drawn the covetous gaze of an unprecedentedly powerful Outer God!

One whose mere leakage of a sliver of power required seven of their Empire's Pillars to suffer grave wounds of vital essence before it could be obliterated—a terrifying existence!

Fortunately the traces of its power had already been obliterated; otherwise, if those madmen got hold of them and engaged in frantic worship and blood sacrifice, this world might have been destroyed in an instant!

……

Still unaware of what impression the strike he delivered had created, Baichuan was at this moment also shocked by this power called Characteristic.

He had assumed his Characteristic power was only about the strength of a Tiger-form Desolate God, at most a sliver stronger, but he had never imagined that the intensity of their Characteristics would be so vastly different as heaven and earth.

Perhaps this was because he had fully absorbed a single drop of Star Beast Source Blood, while those seven Desolate Gods had shared one drop among them.

At that moment, though his attack seemed to carry not a shred of power and was bizarrely slow, in truth it was not so.

That was merely an illusion on the part of the onlookers.

There is a saying: the greater the gravity, the slower Time becomes.

In that instant, the power he unleashed had nearly touched the boundary of LV6—the realm belonging to planets and True Immortals. Even if it was only a sliver, it was enough to cause perceptual distortion in those weaklings.

After all, they were merely a group of weaklings who had just touched upon Earth Immortal.

Clearly, to the senses it seemed very slow, as if one could easily dodge it, yet one's body could not move at all.

This was not their illusion; in that instant, Time truly had developed a slight discrepancy.

Their consciousness, separated within the distorted Time, could react, but their bodies simply could not respond.

This was what they experienced in that instant.

However, that applied only to the onlookers. For him, possessing an extraordinarily high bodily reflex nervous system, and being the one who had driven the power himself, he could see perfectly clearly what had actually happened in that instant.

A sliver of edge bearing nearly the weight of an illusory planet thus easily sliced open the void, along with everything that stood in its path—simple as that.

So Jin little sis, would you stop staring at me with those sparkling eyes, please?!

……

(End of this chapter)