BOOM!
At this moment, the entire White Nation was engulfed by a cataclysmic roar of unprecedented magnitude. Even before that soul-shaking, consciousness-shattering rumble could fully register, a blazing flare had already surged straight into the sky, climbing upward inch by inch like a keen blade.
In the span of an instant, it burst into the abyssal darkness of space, tearing through every scrap of insignificant phantom light to resonate with that pitch-black celestial body.
"That's—"
As if struck by lightning, Fan Yun retreated without a second thought.
He watched the raging shockwave press closer inch by inch. The Law of Tianyuan around him groaned like a tin shack trapped in a violent storm, fractures reopening across its surface, nearly ripping the roof away entirely.
His vision went dark.
His reaction had already been considered swift. Others, caught completely off guard, had had no warning at all. Right above the Kingdom of the Woods, a blistering halo of light abruptly expanded!
A terrifying might comparable to the self-detonation of an Entropy-path Celestial-Human erupted at this very second.
Even in his final moments, Passarella probably never imagined that his death wouldn't even be as loud as a single fusion bomb. The chaotic free-for-all suddenly dissolved into incessant screams of agony as dark silhouettes shot outward in every direction.
After all, those capable of taking everything to the face like Ellis were a rare few; even the Desolate Ruins had to avoid the brunt of it right now.
What a joke—living creatures in their right minds didn't test their luck against a bomb just for fun.
Before the rain of blood and severed limbs could even fall, it had already completely vaporized.
Absolute silence fell.
In less than the blink of an eye, a bubble seemed to conjure out of thin air above the earth. It expanded violently, releasing a radiant, vast, and majestic brilliance.
Fissures tore across the Kingdom of the Woods. Cracks appeared all over Shangri-La, the medium supporting it. The colossal tree wailed as it fractured and flickered continuously. An incorporeal flame blazed along its trunk, setting the entire ancient tree ablaze...
It continued to swell, swell, and swell further...
Until, without any warning, it reached the limit. The massive sphere seemed to be clamped down tight, and the destructive blaze was shackled within a radius of dozens of kilometers. Instead of dissipating, it turned all the more violent, reverberating back and forth.
From the void came a series of sharp, hair-raising friction noises.
A sudden heaviness pressed down upon everyone, as if they had plunged deep into an ocean...
The Lock!
The Lock had been triggered by this unheralded, horrific destruction. Amid alarms blaring from both the Federation and the Empire, preset emergency protocols engaged, suppressing the unauthorized detonation of the fusion bomb within a sixteen-kilometer radius and preventing it from spreading or wreaking further devastation.
Beyond sixteen kilometers, scorching gusts howled, but within that perimeter, the world had been turned into sheer hell by the repeated reverberations!
As everyone came to their senses, their faces turned ashen.
A fusion bomb?!
At this moment, nearly everyone cast icy glares toward the Empire and the Federation. Fine, so this was the trap waiting for them, was it? Wiping everyone out in one fell swoop?!
Weren't they jumping the gun a bit?!
Fan Yun's expression stiffened as he glared furiously at Doledonville. Doledonville's face twitched, utterly speechless under the countless enraged gazes.
Fuck! What could he even say?!
Wasn't the fusion bomb yours, Empire?!
Even if the Empire had repeatedly announced in secret that a fusion bomb was lost—lost, really lost, everyone be careful—who would actually believe them?
Besides, at this critical juncture, a fusion bomb suddenly appeared, detonated practically right in their faces, and indiscriminately struck everyone... Oh, except the Empire, because Passarella had died early, and you, Doledonville, you treacherous old bastard, never stepped onto the field at all!
Don't you think something smells fishy?!
Could it be that Shehri was tired of living and decided to blow himself up?!
For what?!
In the face of such abrupt upheaval, there was no time for deep reflection. Everyone could only react instinctively. With the fusion bomb exploding right in their faces, almost everyone suffered injuries from being caught unprepared.
The Frenzied Slaughter vile fiend of the Blood Eye was almost entirely vaporized, leaving only a severed head suspended in midair, cursing non-stop.
Wulou Temple's Jile Dharma King was scorched nearly to charcoal, his Golden Body ruined.
If the Mountain Wolf hadn't made a split-second decision to take a hit to the face at the crucial moment, buying a fraction of an instant for everyone to react, then...
*Snap!*
Following a crisp crack, everyone saw a white rainbow pierce the sun!
Jile Dharma King froze for a moment. The world spun as he plummeted, catching sight of his half-charred remains falling apart, reduced to ash and dust.
Dead!
Hunting Finger Flying Light!
Seizing the combat opportunity, the contemporary Hunting Finger, An Ding, resolutely flicked his fingers. Since the outbreak of today's battle, the first vile fiend had perished, tumbling toward the earth.
Toward that fractured Kingdom of the Woods...
Before anyone could recover from their shock, while their attention was instinctively drawn away, the light of a blazing sun erupted out of nowhere. A hundred li away, an old woman with white hair and emerald eyes gripped an unstrung, primitive bow, striking ruthlessly:
"—Strike!"
Without communication, let alone words, in the unspoken tacit understanding of that split second, the hunters joined hands. Under the cover of the Hunting Finger, the contemporary Dongjiao unleashed the Sun-Reflecting Arrow, which had been charged for so long, locking onto the Bell-Hanging Wolf of Corpse and Bone.
There was no passage of time, only a brilliance like an exploding sun.
Having endured the blast of the fusion bomb, the charred and mangled Wolf of Corpse and Bone, battered by successive heavy blows, no longer had the strength to resist. It watched helplessly as the blazing light closed in inch by inch.
Beneath this fatal arrow, everything was already too late.
Fan Yun's expression shifted slightly. He subconsciously moved to raise his hand, but forced himself to hold back for an instant.
A single instant.
Death hung on this very breath.
Yet that instant never arrived.
At the exact moment of impact, time around the Wolf of Corpse and Bone seemed to stall, freezing.
In the void, the Shadow Sun Worm · Aperture Eye!
The giant insect's layered, coiled phantom limbs abruptly reversed at that split second, dragging time near the Wolf of Corpse and Bone backward by less than a second.
That one crucial second.
Fan Yun remained motionless.
Before everyone's eyes, the Sun-Reflecting Arrow burst in midair. A grayish-black figure materialized before the Priest-King, reaching out to forcefully seize the wolf-hunting arrow that the Dongjiao lineage had consecrated for countless generations!
The Mountain Wolf!
BOOM!!!
Amid another thunderous explosion, the wolf-hunting arrow detonated. Half of the incarnation summoned by the Mountain Wolf was mangled, flesh torn to the bone, with most of its skull missing.
Even if it hadn't died, Restoration was completely out of the question.
A grievous wound!
Even though the third, yet-unborn wolf hadn't been slain, this strike should not have been considered a loss. Yet the faces of all the White Stag darkened instantly.
The opportunity had existed only in that single breath, and once it passed, the third, unfinished Wolf of the Forest had completely weathered its vulnerable phase...
It had even received a bountiful feast in return!!!
Don't forget where this was, or what had just transpired...
All the death and conflict wrought in this place served as an offering to the Wolf of the Forest, fuel to catalyze and nurture the third wolf.
At this moment, countless beams of bloody light soared into the sky.
Among them were innumerable transformed wolves burned to ash within the Kingdom of the Woods, plus the massive bundle of experience that was Jile Dharma King...
The situation had spun completely out of control!
Back at the frontline base, the decrepit Master of Soldiers remained silent, his eyelids drooping.
Meanwhile, Fan Yun could no longer suppress the corners of his mouth.
Boundless bloody light converged. The Wolf of Corpse and Bone howled and roared into the heavens, lunging forward in madness. Its bone-deep hatred was not merely directed at Tianyuan and the White Stag—it included the wolves as well!
To the Priest-King, there were no friends...
Everything here was an enemy!
The Mountain Wolf threw his head back and laughed uproariously with immense satisfaction. He made no move to dodge, letting the deformed Priest-King rip out the heart of his incarnation with a claw and gorge upon it greedily.
Adding more fuel to the birth of this third wolf...
Eat! Eat! Eat!
The more the better, the faster the better!
*Rumble—*
Amid the darkness of the firmament, an uncanny pupil slowly manifested, gazing down upon the earth, looking toward the weeping, howling Bell-Hanging Wolf of Corpse and Bone...
The manifestation of a Great Sin!
Summoned, the unborn Wolf Sin had finally descended into the mortal realm to witness the birth of its third offspring.
There was no warmth, nor joy or triumph.
Within that eye lay only pure ferocity and hunger.
Yet immediately afterward, the pupil suddenly froze.
As if... something was amiss?
As if in answer to its doubt—
—a riot erupted in the Kingdom of the Woods!!!
The instant the explosion occurred—no, right before the detonation—
Ni Lin, waiting for death in his daze, widened his eyes to see a silhouette appear out of thin air before him, wearing a ferocious guise he had never seen before.
Yet it felt so familiar.
He watched the figure casually reach out and grab him. In the next instant, his vision blurred, and he found himself outside the Kingdom of the Woods.
Ji Jue flicked his fingers, sending a spark of black flame from his fingertip into Ni Lin's body. Instantly, like a flame cast into solid phlogiston, the viscous fire flared up violently.
Burning from the outside in.
Amid agonizing pain, Ni Lin screamed, only to discover that the pollution from the Kingdom of the Woods was being stripped from him in a crude, brutal manner.
By the time he came to his senses, the terrifying, incandescent light had already risen from within the Kingdom of the Woods.
What on earth was that...
—A fusion bomb?!
His hair standing on end, he stared wide-eyed at the flaming silhouette before him, stammering incoherently, "What in the world... You..."
"Wait here."
Ji Jue waved his hand, disinclined to offer a long-winded lecture.
What else was there to say anyway?
*Sorry, buddy, I always leave a backup plan. When I treated you back then, I planted a beacon on you just in case?*
There was really nothing to be embarrassed about.
What kind of artisan didn't tinker with their work or leave a backdoor?
The only thing Ji Jue hadn't expected was that Ni Lin would take him straight to Shehri in one step, saving him endless trouble.
Through the beacon, he had witnessed the entire process clearly.
No further words were needed.
Ji Jue took another step forward.
The Myriad Manifestations Engine of the Doomsday Express roared to life, delivering him straight back toward ground zero of the explosion...
Chapter 646