December 27, 1:41 PM. Yacheng outskirts, the Haian Auto Works production plant.
In the cafeteria, the workshops, and the dormitories, everyone heard a distant, dull boom, like a tire blowing out. A minute later, the fire alarms blared to life without warning.
The siren echoed across the entire compound!
As an immense, pale column of gas steadily rose into the sky in the distance, everyone saw an eerie, expanding mushroom cloud.
Shrill alarms competed with one another. While workers stared blankly at each other, an unfamiliar, cold female voice came over the PA system: "Major safety hazard detected. Pursuant to the plant safety management regulations, all department foremen are instructed to cease all production activities immediately and orderly guide all workers to assemble at the central building plaza. Repeat, major safety hazard detected..."
In under a minute, every piece of machinery was shut down. After every open flame was thoroughly extinguished, water, power, and natural gas were cut off at the mains.
Urged and shouted at by their team leaders, the bewildered workers crowded densely into the plaza.
Faced with such an event for the first time, flustered department heads conducted roll calls again and again. Once everyone was accounted for, the workers were herded like cattle and sheep onto the large transport carriers originally meant to ship Huanggua microcars, row upon row speeding away into the distance.
On the terrible roads, everyone in the trucks clung tightly to the railings, swaying from side to side. Just as someone made a dark joke about whether they were being carted off to some black-market sweatshop, screams erupted from the rear of the vehicles.
Looking down from the winding mountain road, billows of white mist spread like a tidal wave, steadily rolling toward the Haian plant.
In just a matter of minutes, it swallowed the entire sprawling factory complex.
Before the creeping fog could close in, Ji Jue stepped out of his workshop wearing a hazmat suit and gas mask. "Isis, report status."
"Ten minutes ago, peripheral drones detected an explosion at the Nandu Chemical liquid storage depot eleven kilometers away. Over one hundred metric tons of highly hazardous chemical substances have leaked. Wind direction is southeast. The contamination radius for carcinogenic pollutants is projected at eighty kilometers, completely blanketing the plant site. Based on the types and quantities of the chemicals involved, the minimum natural settling time is estimated at five to seven years, with harmful effects on human health lasting over twenty years."
Isis added, "It appears the extent to which you are loathed is even more extreme than I anticipated."
*Boom!*
In footage sent from a drone farther out, a burst of explosive fire shot skyward.
Ji Jue said nothing. He only stared at the screen, watching that foul, grotesque white mist creep across the terrain. Everywhere it passed, countless birds dropped dead from the sky, a fine white frost coated the fertile soil, and beasts, insects, and snakes collapsed lifelessly in silence.
What had been verdant hills and clear waters turned into a desolate wasteland in an instant.
After a long pause, he let out a self-deprecating laugh.
"And here I thought my own moral baseline was already low enough," he murmured softly. "Turns out there are true masters out there."
A phone rang.
"Hello, it's me," Ji Jue said as he answered. "Don't worry, the workers have already been evacuated. It's relatively safe inside the plant for now, just smells pretty foul."
"Good. Stay safe, then," the voice on the other end said. "And have an umbrella ready."
At that exact instant, the wind shifted violently.
The pale mist rolling toward the southeast ground to a sudden halt. Right after, a thunderous roar erupted across the dome of heaven like an act of god, and a tiny black speck materialized out of nowhere high in the air.
Teleporting across the void.
An instant later, Huihao slid from its sheath.
Tong Shan!
His Regeneration rank manifestation emerged and transformed. Countless characters swirled across his pale skin, converging onto the blade and bleeding into boundless, surging ink.
The ink meandered across the firmament, tracing the outline of a colossal vortex in the blink of an eye.
—Cataclysm Phantasm!
In a distant mountain fold, a prostrate figure raised his head to look at Tong Shan and instinctively moved to raise a hand, only to be shoved down by the man beside him.
"Don't move!" The stubbled Celestial Chosen went rigid, warning him in a harsh whisper. "Don't fucking move!"
Cold sweat soaked through his clothes.
It was as though he had sensed a cold, indifferent gaze sweeping over him from the depths of Yacheng.
A phone began to ring without warning.
Without anyone pressing a button, the call connected on its own, and the speaker turned on.
"Since you came all this way, come into the city and have a seat, drink some tea and chat," Tong Ting's voice said. "Or you can test your luck and see if you can make it out of Yacheng's backyard."
"The Tong family is reasonable."
Before hanging up, he offered one final reminder: "Whether you live or die is your own choice."
Dead silence.
In the protracted stillness, the two men froze on the spot, petrified.
A long moment later, a deafening detonation sounded from the heavens.
The clear sky across thousands of miles suddenly darkened. The wind veered sharply. From a rift torn in the sky, a tempest surged like an ocean tide, billowing outward across the earth. It was like countless invisible hands grasping the spreading wave of contamination out of thin air, hauling it inward.
In an instant, amid flashing lightning and crashing thunder, a ghastly white tornado ripped upward from the ground!
The earth shuddered as torrential rain poured down. A dense curtain of rain engulfed everything in a heartbeat, and the howling gale swung south. Like a voracious beast, the ferocious tornado swallowed up every trace of leaking chemical waste along its path, hurling it directly into the aerial rift.
Then the raging whirlwind roared slowly toward the distant ocean.
Until it vanished without a trace.
Such was Tianyuan. In an instant, that terrifying degree of absolute control completely reversed the situation, minimizing a disaster that could have ravaged over a hundred kilometers to negligible levels.
From beginning to end, not a single ambush had occurred, nor had there been any unexpected accidents.
The entire process went so absurdly smoothly that even Ji Jue found it hard to believe.
Yet at the same time, a dark shadow settled over his heart.
Until the phone rang again.
The screen flashed crimson.
—Emergency Hotline!
***
Outside the Quancheng Ruins, inside a crude shantytown settlement, flames erupted skyward.
The explosion happened far too abruptly for anyone to react.
It was the peak of the midday rush, and the streets were bustling with people. Chen Yubo had just hopped into his iconic pink little tricycle, cheerfully preparing to head out for a bite to eat, when a truck barreling down the road outside the perimeter wall veered sharply with zero warning. It smashed through the flimsy corrugated metal partition, barged into the street, and slammed head-on into the tricycle.
Under the terrifying impact, the entire tricycle was sent flying like a kicked football, crashing straight into another crude building.
Immediately after, carrying unstoppable momentum, the truck flipped onto its side. Its cargo bed, packed with trash, swept across the narrow street, crushing who knew how many pedestrians and structures before bursting into flames.
Scorching heat and shockwaves blasted outward. In a flash, countless bricks, stones, and severed limbs were hurled into the air, raining down all around.
Dozens of shacks along with more than half the compound of Yulou Trading were wiped completely flat!
Amid the blazing fire and thick smoke, wails and shrieks rose one after another.
"Holy fucking shit—!"
Lu Feng launched himself out of the portable toilet in a desperate tiger pounce, narrowly escaping a tragic shower of human waste. The moment he looked up and saw the spreading inferno, he hit the dirt in a donkey roll, diving behind cover while pulling up his pants mid-air.
By a hair's breadth, he dodged the shockwave of the exploding vehicle. Covered in soot and grime, he held his breath.
"A fucking car bomb?! Who the hell can tell Mid-Continent apart from the Federation now...? You bastards... Heipi! Goutou! Xieyan! Anyone alive? Speak to me!"
He shouted down into his walkie-talkie, "Where's the boss?!"
A panicked voice came over the radio: "Brother Feng! Heipi left with the boss, he's in the trike—they're gone!"
"If you don't know how to talk, shut the fuck up!"
Covering his face, Lu Feng charged headlong into the smoke-choked ruin, clutching the briefcase he never let out of his hands. From a distance, he spotted half of the vehicle frame exposed among the rubble.
It was warped beyond recognition.
Yet beneath the mangled frame, the interior of the vehicle was gleaming with a brilliant, dazzling silver light!
After all, they were friends. Knowing Chen Yubo had a massive list of enemies, Ji Jue had provided him with a special custom model. Not only was the body reinforced with bulletproof plating and shock-resistant structural framing, but the interior had also been infused with purified quicksilver treated with Fluid Alchemy.
The system would trigger automatically whenever two out of several conditions were met: shock-absorption alarm, frame distortion, shattered windows, or loss of balance.
Once activated, the expanding quicksilver and foaming hardener would instantly flood the cabin, solidifying rapidly while creating countless dense air pockets.
Even with a chainsaw, hacking through it would take at least half an hour.
Literally a steel coffin.
Breaking it open, however, was simple.
Sprinting forward, Lu Feng reached down and unclipped a custom window breaker Ji Jue had given him from his wristband. Holding his breath and pulling up his shirt to shield his face, he gave the casing a light tap.
The solidified quicksilver disintegrated instantly into vapor. Scalding steam billowed outward, forming a thick fog that obscured all vision.
Two bodies slipped out of the liquid, tumbling onto the ground.
Without even looking, Lu Feng grabbed them both by the collar and sprinted with his head down, dragging them behind a pile of rubble. Only then did he see Chen Yubo—bruised blue and purple, barely breathing.
Heipi was still conscious, though his arm was broken. Gritting his teeth in silence, he gave an "OK" hand gesture.
"Hey?! Hey! Boss, you alive? Make a squeak—"
Lu Feng slapped him across the face twice with resounding claps. The unconscious Chen Yubo convulsed and coughed violently, tears and snot streaming down his face. Yet his hand shot up instantly, clutching Lu Feng in a death grip. "Old Lu... *cough, cough*... Old Lu, save me, save..."
"Hang in there!"
Lu Feng ripped open the thigh of Chen Yubo's pants, pulled out an epinephrine auto-injector, and jammed it straight in. Instantly, the dying boss flushed bright red, his eyes bulging and bloodshot.
He screamed in agony.
"Shut up and move! Fast, fast, fast!"
Lu Feng tossed a gun to Heipi, motioning for him to scout ahead, then grabbed Chen Yubo by the collar and sprinted forward.
Generally speaking, going by how folks in Mid-Continent liked to conduct terrorist attacks, a car bomb was merely an appetizer. Someone was bound to check the kill.
And if the target was still alive...
*Beep—!*
A shrill warning screamed through the walkie-talkie. Over the comms, the veteran nicknamed Goutou shrieked:
"Da Lu, look out! It's fire—"
A streak of fire tore through the air!
RPG!
Chapter 332