Sunset clouds burned in the distant sky behind Daie, hues of fiery red and bright yellow stretching across the heavens. It was as though someone had swept a blazing log thousands of meters long across the firmament.
Yet a fault line broke the expanse. Right through the center of the sea of clouds ran a deep fissure piercing straight to the zenith.
To any onlooker, it seemed as if that single strike had sliced the sky wide open.
High above, swarms of Great Spike craft began strangely massing toward the distant horizon, while the molten flames cloaking the iron armor gradually receded. Han Qingyu remained standing.
The tremendous surge of source energy released by that collision had formed a field, solidifying the surrounding air and holding him aloft. It turned out Daie's ability to stand in the air was no divine miracle. Once source energy craft were mastered, the peak martial power of humanity could achieve the same with the right technique.
Only a brief moment had passed, so Daie still stood there as well.
Below, the silent gathering on the ground slowly stirred. The entire muted world was gradually waking.
"It looks like he cleaved the zenith open."
"So Daie... is it dead? It must be dead, right?"
Daie was not dead yet—at least, not completely. No one knew this better than Han Qingyu. Separated by only a short distance, Daie even attempted to turn its tilted head and torso back around to get a clear look at the human standing before it.
It began to move...
*Clack, clack clack.* The severed iron armor ground together with an abrasive sound.
Daie's colossal, ponderous body slowly turned...
*Pfft.* A thread of blood burst outward. Then, its upper body slid away along the diagonal wound running from its left shoulder to its right flank. Half of Daie's torso slid free of the body and plunged straight toward the earth.
Then the remaining half collapsed, tumbling down after it...
In Kamakura, the mother still covered her daughter's eyes, but the father gently moved her hand away, his gesture saying: let her look, this is something she ought to witness.
"*Sugoi!*" The little girl's eyes widened, her youthful voice crying out with excitement: "He beat the strongest monster!"
The voices of children were perhaps the first to ring out...
Then,
Tick,
Tock.
"*Roar!*" A thundering roar suddenly erupted. On the northeast coast of Oceania, millions standing upon the ground beheld the sight.
"*Roar!*" Across the entire world, people leaped to their feet.
Slain! In truth, their clash had been settled in a single blow, and that strike had slain Daie.
Once invincible and unyielding, standing like a god at the world's zenith, slaughtering at will to warn humanity to learn fear—the very fountainhead of all dread and despair...
It had been cleaved and slain with a single strike by a human.
With that strike, that man had gathered humanity up from the dying embers, casting dread and despair into the abyss. Through the vast chasm carved across the zenith, light poured down... and hope returned to this world.
With that strike, that man had told the invading civilization: fear humanity.
"Incredible, that fire robot... but why is it still standing up in the sky instead of coming down to get repaired?" Zhang Jiexia murmured, flustered and anxious.
"There's probably someone inside," Han Youshan said, staring at the television screen, his voice trembling slightly.
"What? Then him... with all that fire, why is he being so foolish..." Zhang Jiexia grew frantic at once.
"Stop talking nonsense!" Han Youshan turned sharply, his expression stern, even harsh. "Do you have any idea what kind of figure is in there? You... that mouth of yours..."
Beyond rebuking his wife for speaking carelessly, Han Youshan harbored his own worry: *Qingzi's mother, how could you call the person who just saved the world foolish? And right in front of so many people, including an Azure admiral! If word got out...*
He rarely addressed Zhang Jiexia with such an expression, gaze, and tone.
Zhang Jiexia understood at once and felt a twinge of fear. Weakly admitting fault with her eyes, she whispered, "I was just overly worried," and promptly closed her mouth.
At roughly the same time, on the battlefield along the northeast coast of Oceania, Pegmont stumbled blood-drenched into the encampment of the Xiongzhanli Front, coming to a halt among the troops.
The soldiers of Xiongzhanli looked at him in bewilderment.
"Salute." For once devoid of his restless antics, Pegmont lifted his head, raised his hand in salute, and said, "Let us give Admiral Ivan a proper farewell."
Thousands of bewildered arms rose slowly into the air.
"Remember how he and I left together back then..." Pegmont began recounting what had followed.
Meanwhile, high above, a set of Azure Refusers high-altitude reconnaissance equipment was recklessly closing in across the vast distance... On the television screens and before the eyes of everyone present, the flames cloaking the iron armor shrank to a single inch of fire, slowly dimming until it was extinguished over his heart.
Then, with a sharp *clack*, half of Han Qingyu's visor fell away.
*Crack!* Half of the shoulder armor shattered into fragments and rained downward.
If he had a choice, Han Qingyu would have preferred to keep the iron armor intact. In truth, it was largely thanks to the final burning of Admiral Ivan that he had succeeded in slaying Daie with that strike.
That was perhaps the strongest offensive trait in the human world.
Furthermore, considering things beforehand, Han Qingyu had feared that if his parents saw, they would worry or beat him; he feared that if the world believed he truly possessed such strength, they would constantly rely on him and seek him out... and he feared that once Chen Buer recovered, the old man would insist on a serious duel with him...
Yet now, he had no way to control it. His body had been hollowed out by that single strike, and his consciousness was slowly fading into a haze.
On the broadcast, the iron armor finally collapsed. Looking somewhat limp, the figure began falling from the sky as half of the iron armor continued to shatter and break away.
"Major... The Qing!" someone finally cried out that name at the top of their lungs—the answer that so many at the scene had already held in their hearts!
Just as whenever humanity had faced crisis before, Major The Qing had arrived. He had gone to the zenith and slain Daie.
Location: Oceania, Northeast Coast.
Event: The Zenith War.
Date: October 18, 1994. The most harrowing juncture in humanity's century-long history of resisting the Great Spike civilization.
Former Azure, current Stream Blade leader, recipient of the Star of Azure medal, human peak combat power, The King, Major The Qing.
Former Azure Admiral and Commander of the Xiongzhanli Front Combat Corps, human peak combat power, Butcher, Ivan Andreyevich.
Joined forces at the zenith, one sky-cleaving strike, slaying the Great Spike Daie.
***
On the Oceania battlefield, the ten thousand soldiers of the Xiongzhanli Front kept their arms raised in salute, seeing off their Admiral Ivan while paying homage to Major The Qing.
Every Azure craft in the air, including Juesha piloted by Stuart, hurtled madly toward the falling figure, circling to escort him down.
Countless people on the ground sprinted toward the area where he was about to fall, stretching out their arms and leaping into the air.
Spurred by the loud warnings of Wen Jifei and Little Prince, over a hundred members of Stream Blade arrived at top speed, swiftly securing the central zone before turning outward with drawn blades, standing vigil against the surrounding crowd.
Every one of them was sick with worry, desperately wanting to look back, yet every one kept their eyes fixed ahead.
Only at the very center did Wen Jifei, Rusty Sister, Wu Xu, He Tangtang, and the others gaze upward, prepared to catch him, though their weapons remained gripped in their hands.
"Highest Azure battlefield order: all personnel are forbidden to approach! The entire battlefield must keep back! Maintain your distance..." The urgent broadcast from the Refusers sounded through the communication devices of every squad leader.
The battlefield finally fell still.
The brief commotion subsided just as quickly...
The entire world watched that youthful Eastern face, his wound-covered shoulders, neck, and arms, the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, and his half-closed eyes... which slowly fluttered open.
"He's alive."
"He's still alive!"
Amidst this boiling world, in a remote Huaxia mountain village far away, in Fenglong'ao, within the home of the Han family...
The house was packed with villagers gathered before the television set...
Zhang Jiexia, the lady of the Han household, stood dazed, glancing left and right before looking back at the screen.
"Qingzi's dad..." Her voice caught in her throat as tears streamed down her face. "Did I see wrong? Or does he just look too similar... *sob*..."
"..." No matter how resilient Han Youshan was, he could offer his wife no answer at that moment. He could only repeat the question in his heart, over and over: *Qingzi? My son?*
"It's Qingzi."
"Yes, it's Qingzi!"
"It's your family's Qingzi!"
The villagers behind them murmured softly, echoing one another.
Fenglong'ao, the Han family's son, Han Qingyu, had joined the military nearly five years ago. The villagers had heard he earned merits in the army and seemed to have joined some special forces unit...
Later, the world was thrown into turmoil, and news of him had ceased for a long time, leaving the Han couple frantic with worry.
And now it was him. He had just appeared on the television screen, standing in the heavens, cleaving and slaying that terrifying Daie with a single strike—the one everyone said was the most formidable Great Spike.
Now, millions upon millions on the ground were saluting and cheering for him, and perhaps the entire world was doing the same.
...A figure clad in Azure military uniform entered, followed by an entire squad. Squad Leader Zhao Heshan had personally kept watch outside with his men all day without requesting instructions from his superiors.
"Reporting!" Involuntarily calling out the report, the Azure lieutenant colonel, bearing a war saber on his back, strode briskly before the Han couple alongside his soldiers. All of them snapped to a crisp salute:
"Reporting: Your son, Han Qingyu. Formerly of the Azure Huaxia Front, major of the Sole Witness Legion, current leader of Stream Blade, the youngest recipient of the Star of Azure medal in human history, human peak combat power..."
"Currently one of the ten, the five, perhaps even the three strongest people in all of humanity." Zhao Heshan paused, glancing at the television screen. "He is the very man on the television right now. Foreigners address him by many titles, but we usually call him... Major Qing."
Chapter 701