Super Han Qingyu

A Jing of the Azure Dragon Gang no longer had that scar on his face. At this moment, on the sand slope running parallel to the beach, the silhouette standing there dragging the large blue starlight column sword—including his profile—faithfully recreated that photograph from the icy cliff... It was confirmed: The King. Though logically speaking, they really should have been certain long ago. Rumors had been swirling for a long time, to the point where many in this city had learned to say "Major Qing," with even the foreigners pronouncing it quite accurately. "Remember back then, when he was wiping cars outside Bar No. 15, someone actually made him an offer." Someone within the 300-man formation suddenly spoke up. Jenna snapped out of her daze, remembering her own glorious feat... She turned her head and gave Lynne a deep look. The look conveyed immense regret—wishing she had emptied her entire fortune back then—and added: "I only missed out on sleeping with him once, but as for you..." Lynne looked to have missed out on something far greater. But was it truly a missed opportunity? In her mind, Lynne swiftly replayed every moment of their interactions and realized it wasn't. Thus, the girl felt an initial surge of embarrassed irritation and sorrow, before breaking into an involuntary smile. "What a terrifying, money-grubbing The King he is—nothing like I imagined. And to think I almost forced him to like me... I really am something." "In any case, my family has already made a massive fortune! Be proud of my ignorance and naivety, Father. And of my shattered first love..." she thought with a rueful, bitter smile. When murmurs began rising from the crowd off to the side, the two girls turned to look. The dozens of seconds from just before until now had been like a giant wave quietly gathering force on the ocean floor... The women's gasps and cries finally erupted, ringing through the watching crowd. The legend and the legendary figure had finally merged into one, and a new story was unfolding right before their eyes. The women were thrilled, even though his black suit was in tatters, covered in sand, its buttons undone to reveal patches of blood staining his white shirt. "Right, he said that suit was expensive and demanded compensation," voices in the chatter laughed. "But maybe he genuinely cared about it..." Lynne and Jenna heard this and exchanged a glance. "God... You women, shouldn't you be paying attention to that earthen wall first? It was dozens of meters high, and Theodore was forced back!" someone said. "So what does that actually mean?" someone beside him asked. "I... I don't know either." The man who asked had no answer himself. At this moment, what the spectators didn't understand, Theodore knew all too well. He was a super combat power, and he had just personally faced that wall of sand that had suddenly surged up. The wall of sand, dozens of meters high, had erupted without warning, and the core of the energy fluctuations contained within it had fundamentally transformed... Theodore knew full well what that signified; otherwise, his strike just now would have sliced straight through. His split-second decision to retreat had been due to shock and surprise, but even more so because he didn't know what was waiting for him on the other side. The man across from him had become a super. Breakthroughs in the midst of battle were not unheard of, but for one to actually happen—to his opponent, and at the super level no less... Theodore couldn't help feeling nervous and uneasy. Han Qingyu naturally knew he had become a super as well. No one had ever told him the criteria for reaching super or described what the breakthrough felt like, but when it all washed over his body, he instinctively realized what had occurred. Just a moment ago, the four Bones of Eternal Life—excluding the horn bone—had finally melted away into his body all at once... Strictly speaking, this was the first time a breakthrough had taken place mid-battle for him. In reality, however, Han Qingyu had stood beyond the top-tier for over a year. He had spent very little time progressing from ordinary to top-tier, yet at this threshold, he had experienced a period of weakness and remained shackled for a long time. During this time, he possessed five Bones of Eternal Life that he couldn't break through or absorb. He devoured source energy blocks in vast quantities, and for nearly half a year, he had consumed at least one metal block a day like candy, yet it felt much like taking vitamins—perhaps doing something, but impossible to pinpoint clearly. In helplessness and dread, he had repeatedly sought severe characteristic injuries through deliberate battle to catalyze his body's reactions. Countless nights, he had curled up in bed clutching a Bone of Eternal Life, weeping softly for his mother and enduring the agony of bone remolding until dawn... During this ordeal, the fiery characteristic, death energy characteristic, viral characteristic, and stripping characteristic of different individuals' life source energy... he had endured them one after another. Of course, those characteristics themselves had not been fully mature. It was only tonight, against Theodore—a bona fide super combat power whose life source energy carried a lightning attribute—that he was subjected to repeated trials on the brink of death. He had survived them, and quantitative change had finally achieved qualitative transformation. This shedding of skin was almost imperceptible. Yet the surging of his base source energy—both the apparatus portion and the liquid portion—had transformed into a silent, deep, and immensely powerful undercurrent of the ocean. It required no active manipulation; at the mere stirring of a thought, source energy answered. Then came the expansion of his life source energy. It had grown vast, felt clearly and distinctly, and he knew beyond doubt that he could control it freely, no longer needing to forcibly pressure it to spill out as he had in the past. There were other changes as well, potentially even more significant, but because time was so tight, Han Qingyu had not yet had the chance to carefully feel and explore them. For example, he still didn't know what his characteristic actually was. *Don't tell me I don't have one? It seemed like those two from the Qu clan didn't have one either,* he thought with slight concern. However, there was one thing he could be sure of: bone source could now radiate outward through the air without contact or force. Within the radius of this radiating bone source, when he lightly crooked a finger, the dead iron weapons scattered on the ground shifted as well, tracing lines across the sand. The range was not yet large, diminishing with distance. *Oho, the Little Prince looks quite pleased. Wait, no, he's frowning again... It's not time for you to cry yet, Little Prince,* Han Qingyu thought with an inward chuckle upon noticing. The suit on him was truly in shreds. He planted the column sword into the ground before him and took the jacket off. ... "The Black Hand has no path back tonight!" Astride the abandoned lighthouse, Theodore suddenly shouted to his men in the distance. He glanced toward the City of Iniquity, then turned to face the sea. "But over there, there are ships to take us away!" As he spoke, he raised an arm, spun his black blade, and sliced a circle around his own forearm, letting blood spill. This was the Black Hand's induction rite—the rite of fighting to the death. With the battle reaching this point, Theodore knew he had to rely on them. When four top-tiers had become one super plus three top-tiers—with one of them possibly still capable of fighting beyond the top-tier—Theodore's remaining ace was that he still had over a thousand men. As long as they could charge forward and tie down the others, Theodore was still confident he could win a one-on-one duel against a newly ascended super. "That gun shouldn't be able to stop all of you! Those people should have long been groaning beneath your blades, shouldn't they?! At the very least, kill them all. Then we set sail..." "Come! You fight your way forward, and I'll fight my way through!" Theodore raised his blade. The khaki-clad mob stirred violently at his rallying cry. Wen Jifei had intended to tease Han Qingqing with a remark or two, but his body pivoted back, thrusting the long rifle forward as the pitch-black muzzle leveled out... Right at that moment, *vroom—* Suddenly, the dense rumble of rolling tires echoed from not far behind them. It was the Azure Dragon Gang's fleet, mobilized in full force! The Storm Bloodbattle Gang rode on the lead heavy truck. Before the vehicle even rolled to a halt, Gang Leader Storm took the lead by activating his source energy apparatus, leaping from the truck amid an explosive boom. *Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!* Resounding booms pierced the night sky as dozens of fighters on the truck leapt off alongside him, hurtling toward the battlefield. The truck's tires blew under the massive reaction force, and the vehicle collapsed straight down. Dozens of figures in midair flew toward the battlefield, drawing their blades in unison: "The Azure Dragon Gang has arrived!" ...Damn it, that was definitely a slogan cooked up by Plague Chicken and the Little Prince again. The trucks behind didn't hit the brakes at all. The journey had been far too long, and they had had to track their way purely by tire ruts, but they had finally arrived. They drove their trucks at top speed straight into the collapsed heavy truck ahead. *Crash!* Amid the deafening collisions, men in the truck beds were flung forward, and those in the cabs vaulted out... They triggered their apparatuses mid-air. *Clang-buzz!* Blades cleared their sheaths. Beside them appeared brothers disembarking from another truck... drawing their blades all the same. "The Azure Dragon Gang has arrived..." Dozens of trucks, lined up in several columns, smashed successively across the wide front and came to a stop. Three thousand fighters of the Azure Dragon Gang, leaving no one behind to guard headquarters, had finally all arrived on the scene. The battlefield situation was clear at a glance; a reverse encirclement formed in an instant. The scene finally quieted down for a moment. Amid the quiet tableau, the sudden sound of wheels rolling broke through. A garbage truck appeared in view, slowing down until it came to a halt right between the two opposing forces... The driver uttered a soft cry, visibly bewildered and lost. The doors swung open. Ao Yong and Qian Daofeng stepped down, clutching their blades, nervously looking left and looking right. "Brother Chicken!" Finally spotting Wen Jifei, Ao Yong called out, his voice thick with excitement and anxiety. "Hey," Wen Jifei turned and smiled. ... "They're still alive. As long as they're alive, that's what matters." Boss Dao's gaze swept over the scene, and he raised his blade: "Prepare!" The Azure Dragon Gang had superior numbers, but their overall combat strength was comparatively weak. Three thousand against one thousand—preparing for a bloodbath. The crowd of spectators retreated, huddling together in terror. Even in the City of Iniquity, a life-and-death gang war of this scale had been exceedingly rare over the past twenty-odd years. At the same time, Boss Dao held his blade aloft without bringing it down immediately. Instead, he stepped forward on his own; he wanted to head over first to face Theodore. Boss Dao had long known that he was actually still very weak, but he had to go—boss against boss, after all! Otherwise, wouldn't it be an utter disgrace?! *Maybe I can intimidate him for a bit...* he thought. *After all, with my bluffing and reality all mixed up, even I was bewildered for a long time.* *Eh? Who's that guy by the beach? What's going on with him?* *Whatever, he's not A Jing anyway.* Finally, he caught sight of A Jing. "A Jing!" Boss Dao called out, his voice shaking with emotion. In truth, before setting out, he had already confirmed that A Jing was The King. But when speaking now, he still called him A Jing. Major Qing was someone he had to look up to, but A Jing was not; A Jing was his subordinate, his brother... Besides, even if he was The King, he wasn't a super! Boss Dao thought. "Hey, Boss," Han Qingyu turned back and shouted with a smile. "Yeah, don't worry. Your boss is here," Boss Dao said, doing his best to keep his body from shaking and his stride steady. "Leave it to me." Behind him, Storm, Weize, and several gang bosses who considered themselves close to top-tier were all heading over, and even Slog was among them... *Altogether, that makes about eight top-tiers, right? There's a chance. Let's gamble on it,* he thought. Yet A Jing—no, Major The Qing—said, "Thanks, Boss, but no need. I can handle it myself." "What? He said he can handle it?" Boss Dao and the others were dumbfounded. "And brothers, thank you, but just keep the encirclement like this. No need to fight," Major Qing continued, keeping his emotions well hidden. "The same goes for everyone in the Black Hand across from us. There's no point. Once your boss and I fight to the death, the outcome will be clear." Having said that, he turned back. "Rusty Sister, take a break. Wu Xu... Little Prince, help support Wu Xu," he said. He looked up. Their gazes met. Theodore had been somewhat dazed just a moment ago, but now a cold sneer slowly curled on his lips. *A duel? In this situation, he's actually choosing a one-on-one duel?!* Theodore had been certain that all the high-end combatants on the other side would swarm him together. He had expected a desperate, bitter struggle, but surprisingly, that wasn't to be. And just as Han Qingyu said, once the two of them fought to the death, the outcome would naturally be decided. *Is he asking to die?!* Logically speaking, he shouldn't offer any reminder or deterrence at a time like this, but the pride inherent to a super combat power still compelled Theodore to sneer: "Major Qing, having just stepped into super, isn't your confidence a bit excessive?" Han Qingyu tilted his head back and laughed softly. "When I was top-tier, I slaughtered top-tiers like chickens. Today I am super. Having seen Chen Buer, I know how vast the world is... but at the very least, killing you is like butchering a dog." He wasn't being modest, nor was he arrogant. He remembered that before leaving Azure, the legion commander had once said to him: *Go. When the day comes that you reach super, your journey will have only just begun.* This world lumped together the few at the peak, throwing an entire echelon of people into one category and calling them all "super." The old chief of staff had remarked with a laugh that this was merely because, with humanity's current metrics and understanding, it was impossible to use tiered criteria to accurately delineate the disparities in combat strength at the super stage—let alone define what kind of existence lay beyond super. Having finished speaking, Han Qingyu reached out one hand and gripped the heavy sword. *Boom!* Astride the roofless abandoned lighthouse, Theodore was utterly enraged by those words. Mixed within that fury was an inexplicable dread... making him all the more frantic. His life source energy erupted at full blast, causing the entire scene to flash brightly before dimming into shadow. On the darkened ground below, whispers broke out in the crowd: "What were they just talking about?" What Han Qingyu and Theodore, and even Wen Jifei and Rusty Sister, already knew—the people present were only just hearing explicit words about it from their mouths. "They said... super." "What super?!" "He advanced. The Azure Dragon Gang's A Jing—no, Huaxia's Major The Qing—has officially advanced to super combat power." "On New Year's Eve." Amid the murmurs, *whoosh!* A figure launched from the top of the tower, and the abandoned lighthouse collapsed straight down as if imploded. Theodore struck first. Immediately, from the ground below came an explosive roar no less thunderous—*boom!* Centered on a single figure, the earth shook, sending sand and dust billowing into the air. Major Qing held the column sword in his left hand, and his right hand was poised to draw... wait, his right hand was still clutching the crumpled, ruined black suit. Major Qing hurled the suit straight toward Theodore. *Whoosh!* Between the two men on the verge of collision, the black suit snapped open in midair...