Chapter 406: A Killing Move Against Baichuan, the Doomsday Super Weapon [Sun

"Boom!"

"Ah—"

The moment Baichuan stepped inside, the Glass Door behind him—which had looked magnificent and richly noble—shattered instantly. Countless blue-white beams of light surged down from above, weaving through each other like a net. The lethal beams sliced several well-dressed men and women who had followed closely behind Baichuan into charred heaps of flesh.

Immediately after, a massive door of indeterminate material came crashing down with a thunderous roar, smashing the still-fresh-smelling charred flesh into a paste and sealing the entrance completely tight.

The entire process was so swift that no one could possibly have imagined such a turn of events. The whole venue instantly fell silent, as if everyone had been stunned.

A few breaths later,

"Aaaah—!"

"Wh-what happened?"

"P-people are dead—!!!"

Piercing screams that could hurt the eardrums of ordinary people suddenly rang out, echoing one after another throughout the entire venue.

Among them was especially the Empire's top star, Ning Ya. Having entered before Baichuan, she was already somewhat nervous and unsure of herself compared to the others in the venue. Fortunately, she spotted a fellow colleague who had also been invited not far away, so she walked over and began chatting.

And so she personally witnessed the entire process: the Glass Door—rumored to have cost hundreds of millions of Alliance credits—shattered in an instant, blue-white beams radiating lethal intent rained down, slicing several bigwigs whose wealth could make them the richest in some cities into heaps of flesh and blood, which were then crushed into a paste.

The thick, pungent smell of fresh blood assailed her nostrils, and she and her companion still held glasses of crimson red wine in their hands.

For a moment, the scent of blood mingled with the wine, giving one the nauseating feeling of drinking blood paste instead of wine.

In an instant, her heart was shattered by this terrifying scene. Her legs went weak and she collapsed to the ground, joining her companion in letting out the most piercing scream.

At this moment, the sudden turn of events left everyone dumbfounded, and the entire venue descended into utter chaos.

Baichuan stared at the scene and frowned slightly. He glanced at Rang Na, the Empire's eldest princess, who had drawn closer to him due to the sudden incident, but paid it no mind. He slowly raised his head.

"Bang!"

At the same time, after a muffled chime sounded from above, the room's dreamy, luxurious lights suddenly dimmed. Then a single beam of light came on, shining down on a man in the air above.

The man wore a crisp white suit without a single crease, his hair combed back in a perfect, undisturbed slick-back. On his flawlessly chiseled face, a pair of haughty eyes tinged with deep red gazed down arrogantly at the chaotic crowd below, as if he were the master of everyone's life and death.

"Mo Family Head, what exactly happened?"

"Mo Family Head, what is the meaning of this?"

"We need you to give us an explanation!"

"This isn't what you told us!"

Below, some people recognized who the man was—either people of considerable status, or members of the other families among the Four Great Families. One after another, their faces darkened as they spoke up to question him, yet an ominous premonition was quietly rising in their hearts.

Originally, the matter of the Four Great Families and the Royal Family, although not fully exposed to the public, was known to some degree. Moreover, now that the eldest princess of the Royal Family had returned in triumphant victory from a battlefield of no return, and had even attached herself to the mysterious Banzhu, with the situation changing so drastically, the Mo Family had taken the lead in issuing invitations at such a sensitive time.

It was hard not to suspect something, which was also why so many dignitaries had come today.

Many guessed that perhaps the Mo Family was going to back down.

After all, the Banzhu's fearsome reputation was not empty talk. Facing that overlord of the land, the only option was to submit.

Of course, some also guessed that perhaps the Mo Family, together with the other three families, had some secret trump card.

But no matter which side won, for the sake of future interests, they all needed to pick a side in this struggle.

And most people were inclined toward the current Royal Family. But they had not expected that the banquet had only just begun when this drastic change occurred!

The Mo Family was actually so mad as to kill several nobles of considerable status right in front of the eldest princess.

"Explanation?"

"When this Family Head acts, why would I need to explain to the likes of you?!"

The lofty man seemed to have heard the funniest joke in the world. He let out a snort, tilted his head slightly, looked down his nose at them, and gazed down with his arrogant, reddish eyes. As their faces darkened, his thin lips slowly parted, uttering the coldest words.

Then he directly ignored the few whose faces had flushed with anger at being slapped down, and slowly lowered his head to carefully examine the mysterious Banzhu below—standing head and shoulders above the rest, gazed at curiously by countless people. His eyes burned with unconcealed fervor and contempt.

"How interesting. Knowing full well it was a trap, you still dared to attend the banquet without any preparation. Do you rely on your strength alone?"

"Truly, your head is stuffed full of power, with no room for thought."

"Very well. If you weren't like this, this Family Head wouldn't have known how to lure you here."

The moment these words came out, before Baichuan below could react, the people beside him—especially the man who had sensed something ominous earlier and spoken up first—panicked.

He was from the Jun Family, one of the four. Before this, he had been almost in lockstep with the Mo Family. After hearing about the eldest princess's matter, the Mo Family had told him they were holding a banquet to admit defeat, only asking to be allowed to retire and preserve the family.

This perfectly matched his own growing desire to back out, so he agreed without hesitation.

But now, why was the situation different from what they had told him?

At the same time, the Mo Family Head's confidence gave him a sliver of wild hope.

Or rather, his posturing made him uneasy. In their previous dealings, he had vaguely sensed a streak of madness in the Mo Family man's bones, and now it was showing again.

Knowing full well the opponent was a Banzhu, yet still possessing such confidence—either he was a fool, or he had a trump card.

And he leaned toward the latter, after all, the Mo Family had always been somewhat mysterious.

Regardless, he had to first calm the man down and escape the danger before anything else.

Thinking this, he immediately opened his mouth with a fawning tone:

"Brother Mo, what's going on? Pull me up quickly. From now on, my Jun Family will follow your lead."

"It's time to let you know the truth. After all, you're all about to turn to dust—I can't let you die as confused, clueless ghosts."

Yet facing the Jun Family below—one of the four—the Mo Family Head didn't even spare him a glance. Words that turned everyone's face pale slipped lightly from his mouth. Leisurely, he took a Remote Control from his pocket and pressed it under everyone's gaze.

Then, a flicker appeared on the man's body. Only then did the crowd realize he had been communicating with them through a projection all along.

At the same time, the sounds of mechanisms activating, operating, and opening and closing kept coming from their ears.

Before long, the darkness receded, and a scene that left everyone speechless with dread appeared before them.

"A C-Cage?"

"No, let me out!"

"Mo Family Head, I beg you, let me out! I'll give you anything!"

"Family Head, didn't you say something different before? How could you even imprison your own people?"

Yes, what appeared before everyone was a massive Cage framework!

Deadly streams of energy filled the entire area around the Cage framework, forming something transparent like a Protective Shield — except a Protective Shield protects people, while this one imprisoned people, and even killed them!

More importantly, beneath this glowing cage that imprisoned people, a massive formation array — built at some unknown time, with an eye-shaped pattern at its center — was slowly emitting a faint glow as it operated.

The most famous money-burning den in all of Di Du was, in essence, built upon the framework of a Cage!

In the past, it had merely been its gorgeous exterior that concealed its true nature.

Now, with the man's activation, the massive Cage completely revealed its true face before everyone's eyes.

Only, perhaps everyone would rather not have known this, or even better, not have come to this banquet at all.

Unfortunately, there is no regret medicine to take in this world — or rather, not one that the people here are qualified to know of.

After revealing this scene, perhaps feeling victory was in his grasp, the man who had appeared here as a projection sat down directly atop the Cage, gazing through a layer of glowing shield at what was inside, and shook his head with regret.

As if to show off, or perhaps to shatter the image of an unmatched Banzhu that had always existed in his heart — to see the scene of that invincible being crumble — or perhaps simply to satisfy some desire within, he opened his mouth with a hint of a mocking laugh: "Really don't know where this country bumpkin came from, truly thinking a Banzhu is invincible?"

"Oh?"

Baichuan's gaze shifted slightly, without showing too much as he watched the other's performance, as if he were merely a jumping, chattering monkey. Based on the slightly powerful aura the other had left behind here earlier, he sensed that behind this person there should still be other existences yet to appear.

And this gaze, along with the utterly indifferent attitude, undoubtedly stung the Mo Family Head deeply once more — clearly he already had victory in his grasp, how dare the other look at him like this?

Truly tired of living!

The inner resentment made his desire to pour out his heart even stronger, eager to reveal the truth, to make the other fear him and beg for mercy.

"Indeed, a Banzhu is invincible — on a planet, upon the land, they are an invincible existence — but—"

He raised one index finger and waved it, his thin lips, red as if smeared with blood, curving into an exaggerated arc, and with a pleased smile in his eyes he slowly spoke: "Do you know the function of that Alchemy Array beneath your feet?"

"That's right!" Without waiting for an answer, he loudly answered himself: "It blocks the Banzhu's Spirit sense that draws upon the planet's omnipresent ley lines, cutting off any follow-up energy support! Making them like a turtle in a jar!"

"Secondly, a Banzhu's invincibility is built upon their extraordinary mobility — that extraordinary mobility, combined with a terrifying destructive power comparable to ordinary warship main cannons, these two together are why the Banzhu is invincible!"

"Without that extraordinary mobility, the Star Sea Federation has Planet-Ending Super Weapons capable of killing a Banzhu! As it happens, I just obtained a few from them and installed them here."

"And you — you ignorant fool, nothing but muscles in your head, unable to use power properly — are now firmly trapped in place by me."

"If you had been a little smarter, I might have had a headache figuring out how to lure you in. Who knew you'd be this stupid — this kind of power handed to a country bumpkin like you, truly a waste of heaven's gifts!"

"Now, let me show you what the might of a Super Weapon truly is!"

"Don't worry — so as not to disgrace your identity as a Banzhu, the high officials and nobles summoned today, along with the Empire's most noble eldest princess, will all be buried with you. Surely you won't have any regrets, will you?!"

When the words fell, the Mo Family Head slowly stood up. Ignoring the noisy crying and pleading below — even curses wishing him a terrible death — a dangerous cursor, red like a Star Mark, descended, piercing straight through the glowing shield and pinning itself dead-center in the entire Cage.

"Damn it! This is the Lanxing Empire's 【Corona Storm】!"

"No! Mo Xie, you madman! Madman! How could you possibly obtain the Lanxing Empire's doomsday weapon? You're going to destroy this most prosperous district!"

The moment this Star Mark appeared — which at a glance radiated danger, even a fatal aura — someone instantly recognized it and let out a terrified, voice-breaking scream.

"What? Corona Storm?"

In the crowd, the great star Ning Ya, upon hearing this term, was so frightened her voice changed — the usual melodious, lark-like pleasant voice was gone, replaced only by hoarseness, broken notes, and a piercing tone.

Even beneath her collapsed form, traces of liquid faintly overflowed, spreading across the floor — onto that incomparably luxurious crimson carpet, so extravagant that stepping on it felt like a sin — slowly blooming into a patch of dark red.

The Corona Storm — even within the Star Sea Federation, in the third-ranked super Empire 【Lanxing】, it counted as a forbidden military weapon, a controlled item not sold externally, and was also its most famous Planet-Ending Super Weapon.

True to its name, once activated, it would drop a terrifying "great fireball" like a star upon the locked target to ravage everything. After each strike, it would leave behind a vast, glass-like deep crater at the target site.

It was a terrifying weapon capable of carving out a massive depression on a planet, and it unleashed this through fire, energy, and nuclear fusion — possessing a cruel specialty attack against carbon-based flesh-and-blood beings!

A weapon that could be said to have pushed the utilization of stellar power to its absolute limit!

Its only peer was another Super Weapon within the same Empire — the 【Proton Collider Cannon】.

If not for the fact that its launch was too obvious and its speed extremely slow, making it very difficult to hit a target in front of a Banzhu with exaggerated mobility, this weapon's fearsome reputation might have risen several more notches — because ordinary Banzhu could hardly withstand its terrifying power!

It could be said this was a great might that flesh-and-blood beings found hard to resist.

Yet now, this world-destroying Super Weapon had actually appeared in the Daxuan Empire, which lacked deep foundations.

And as the targets — them — that mysterious alien Banzhu was even so reckless as to be trapped in place!

"It's over, it's over, this time it's really over…"

Countless people stared at this mark, which had begun to faintly flicker and flicker faster and faster, and sat collapsed on the ground with faces ashen, as if they had already given up resistance.

Because before a world-destroying Super Weapon that had locked onto its target, even without the Cage's restriction — even if they could leave freely — they could not escape this region before its Burst!

Even the fastest super hover-vehicles, activating their levitation functions to fly away, could not do it.

The 【Corona Storm】's strike range was far, far too vast!

An atmosphere of despair began to spread, and some even showed resentful expressions as they stared toward the very center — at that alien being whose expression remained unchanged.

They began to think that if not for it, they would still be those great personages with no worries about food and clothing, holding the lives and deaths of countless people in their hands — none of this would have happened.

……

(End of this chapter)